OO-RAH!

Chapter 17

***TWO WEEKS LATER***

"I'm scared. What if they find something wrong?" Daisy asks, holding onto my hand with an iron hold. If she squeezed any harder, we wouldn't be here just for her pregnancy appointment.

"It's going to be find, Daisy. I'm sure everything is going to be just fine." I reassure her, tapping her hand to loosen her grip on mine. Today was Daisy's appointment with her doctor to check up on her pregnancy. Since she's now a little over two months into her pregnancy, Dr. Paula will be doing an ultrasound to see how the fetus is looking. Daisy had been a nervous wreck all morning. We were sitting in the waiting room of the hospital when a nurse walked out and called Daisy and I in. We followed her to a small room with a bed and a chair right next to it, and a screen that had all kinds of buttons, lights and words on it. The nurse had Daisy lie on the bed while she took the chair and filled out her personal information on a laptop.

"How are you feeling today, Ms. Alistair?" the nurse asks sweetly.

"Nervous as hell." Daisy responds, honestly. The nurse chuckles a little while she pulls on a pair of purple latex gloves.

"Don't worry, you're not the only one. Now, I'm going to put some of this jelly on your stomach, okay? It's going to help us look inside the womb to observe the fetus. Fair warning, it's cold." she jokes a little. Daisy lifts her t-shirt up to reveal her small little bump. You couldn't even tell she was pregnant unless she showed you, so really it looked more like she had just finished eating more than anything. The nurse squeezed some of the clear, blue-ish looking jelly on to my sister's stomach and turned on the screen and wand like device before moving it around Daisy's belly, smearing it all over. Daisy reached over and grabbed my hand, squeezing it as she kept her eyes on the screen.

The nurse moves the wands around, searching for a fetus. "Sorry, it takes a second to warm up." she says. Then within a few seconds, a tiny little figure appears in the darkness. It doesn't look anything like a human, more like a little dot. "I know it's hard to tell, but that is the baby's head." the nurse says, pointing to the white dot on the screen. Daisy's hand relaxes in mine, and she's staring in awe at the screen. The nurse pulls the wand away from Daisy's belly and wipes it clean with a towel then turns the wand off. "Dr. Paula will be in shortly." She says with a smile.

"I hate to be that mom, but that didn't look anything like a baby." Daisy says, making the both of us laugh a little bit before Dr. Paula came in with a clipboard and smile.

"Hello, Ladies." She greets us. "Ms. Daisy, how are you feeling, Sweetpea?" she asks, kindly. Dr. Paula was one of the nicest women in Hitchitaw, and called everyone 'Sweetpea', even if you didn't like it.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous." Daisy admits, shifting a little on the bed.

"Oh, that's alright. Trust me, if I had a dime for every woman that's come in here and tell me that, I'd be sitting pretty on a private island." Dr. Paula jokes. "Now, Ms. Daisy, says here that you're just a little over eight weeks, yours and the baby's vitals seem to be good. Now, are you ready for the fun part?" she asks. Daisy shakes her head and Dr. Paula has me turn out the lights. She spreads more jelly on my sister's belly and turns the wands back on, giving it a second to warm up before pressing it to Daisy's bump.

Dr. Paula moves her stethoscope around the bump along with the wand, watching screen as the picture moves. Daisy and I watch the screen as well, but I look back and forth between it and the doctor's face to watch for negative facial expressions. Instead, however, there's only a good one. "Ah, there it is." Dr. Paula says. The screen shows the little white dot again. "Ms. Daisy, may I present to you, your baby's heartbeat." Dr. Paula keeps the wand stationary on Daisy's belly and presses a button on the screen. Suddenly, the sound of a steady, little heartbeat fills the room on a set of computer speakers.