winter wonderland

chapter 17

Aria grabbed the bag in her hand and went to the bathroom, smiling at Ezra as she went.

A few moments later, Aria opened the door and grabbed Ezra's hand and dragged him toward the sink where the pregnancy test was. He looked at the blank test then looked at her.

She smiled sweetly and swung their enclosed hands, "We have to wait a few more minutes."

He sighed, "Of course, okay," he said as they waited a few more minutes.

Aria then brought the test before her eyes, with the instruction manual to check.

Byron came to Ella's door. He was going to check on Aria; he didn't agree with Ella's decision to leave her by herself. Knowing Aria wouldn't let him in if she was with someone she didn't want him to know about, he let himself in with Ella's keys he got from the hospital while she was asleep. Byron took a quick look around and observed no one was home. He decided to wash his hands after his travels, and went to the bathroom. As he reached for the soap, a pregnancy test caught his attention to the right of the sink.

Aria held the test in her hand, and compared it with the manual. Her eyes raised slowly to meet Ezra's as her smile grew widely across her face. Her heels lifted off at the floor slightly as she began biting her lower lip in the smile. Ezra's face grew a wide smile; his eye's sparkled and grew a little red and teary. Aria let out a soft laugh of happiness as the pregnancy test and manual fell onto the floor and she fell into Ezra's waiting arms as they both began to laugh and wrap their arms tightly around each other. Ezra pulled her face softly back from his neck and stroked both of her cheeks as her hands wrapped around his waist. Aria giggled as Ezra's hands stayed on her cheeks, before Aria brought her face forward Ezra's. She softly kissed his lips. A few moments later his hand travelled down to her stomach before he kissed her again, tenderly. They broke apart smoothly and just stared into each other's eyes while his hand rested on her stomach, his thumb softly stroking just under her belly button.

"Congratulations mummy," Ezra told Aria as his hands ran through her hair, before resting behind her ears.

"Congratulations daddy," Aria replied, now being overcome with her feelings of happiness. Aria chocked a little and lowered her head as her eyes watered, before sharply lifting her head back to Ezra's with a smile; his hands still resting on the sides of her head.

"So, do you think this is a good Christmas present for Ella?" Ezra asked staring deep into Aria's eyes. Her eyes sparkled and then looked to the top corner as her face smiled; her thoughts solely regarding how much Ella will love this.

"Yeah, I think she'll be in love with this little one already," she said briefly patting her stomach.

They arrived at the hospital in Ezra's car not 10 minutes later.

"Wait, hang on," Aria said as she pulled out her phone and dialled Mike.

"Mike, hey it's Aria. Do you know where Byron is right now?"

"Yeah," Mike said, "He's with me, at his place."

"Great, thanks Mike. Can you let me know if he leaves? Great, thanks, bye."

Aria pushed cancel on her phone and returned it to her bag. She then turned to face Ezra.

"Ready to go, handsome?" she asked with her eyebrows high, her smile beaming.

"Of course I am, beautiful. Let's go," Ezra replied as they got out of the car. They clasped their hands as they walked through a fine layer of snow towards the hospital.

A few minutes afterwards, Ezra and Aria were knocking on Ella's hospital door.

"Come in," Ella replied as Aria pushed open the door, Ezra just behind her.