Bad Blood

36.

Ellie Wood was born at the end of May, two weeks late and with a full head of curly blond hair. Dan and I were the first ones at the hospital to meet her and congratulate her parents. And as if this happy day couldn't have been any better, we had received some news ourselves that morning. I had been bursting to tell Olivia when she had text to tell me that she had been born in the night. As I cuddled the newborn baby who looked just like her Daddy, with her tiny little finger nails, I whispered into her tiny ears, no bigger than jelly beans, just loud enough for Olivia to hear.

'You're going to have a little cousin in about 8 months.'

'What?!' Olivia squealed. She must've been exhausted yet she mustered up enough strength to be excited for us. It was insane and I hadn't even got my head around it yet. We certainly hadn't been trying but had agreed that it would happen when it happened. We just never expected it to be six weeks after getting back together. So much for taking things easy. But we had never been ones for sticking to a plan. And this time I knew for certain that I did want to have a baby with my best friend. He'd cried. I'd cried. And he ran straight home, packed as much as he could fit in his car and moved right in with me.

'Thats fantastic, mate.' Woody hugged Dan and then me. I couldn't believe it would be my turn in a few months. I asked Olivia all about the pain and how it felt. But all she could do was smile down at her new baby like none of it mattered. And I couldn't wait for that to be me. I could not wait to welcome our baby into the world and be a Mummy. Never in my life had I felt such a purpose until then. I was growing another human being. One that was half me and half this amazing man I was choosing to spend my life with. If I had one regret in life, it was wasting the last twelve years of my life without him. I didn't care about work. I didn't care about the past. All that I cared about was Dan and our child.

That night once we were home and snuggled up on the sofa, Dan had his hand on my stomach, slowly tracing circles on my skin. It had been such an odd day. I had only woken up feeling slightly sick.

'Maybe you're pregnant.' He'd teased. I threw a pillow at his face. But it had been as he was cooking breakfast that I'd pulled out the spare test from before and done it in secret. I wasn't even sure what had made me do it. I had no symptoms, no sickness, I'd not even missed a period. There had just been this feeling deep down that I knew I was. Without really thinking about it. The only other thing that had been on my mind was the dream I'd had a few nights before about holding a baby, but I'd put it down to talking to Olivia and demanding she have that baby at some point. I'd never expected the two lines to appear. But when they had, I came running from the bathroom, screaming.

I didn't even say the words to him. His eyes had flicked from the test in my hand to the smile on my face.

'Oh my god, are you serious?' He dropped the pan on the floor, spilling eggs and bacon everywhere and scooped me up in his arms. He smothered me in kisses, spinning me around as I cried happily. I had never seen him so happy. Never had his smile been so wide. And that made me happy too. 'Are you sure? Like, it's not a mistake? Is this actually happening?'

'This is actually happening.' I repeated and handed him the stick which clearly said 'pregnant'.

'You do wanna...you wanna do this right?' He said carefully.

'Of course I do you flipping idiot.' I kissed his lips.

'I should probably put you down.' He stopped turning around.

'Pregnant. Not dying.' I grinned. He span me faster and the whole world was a blur around us, all except for his beautiful face.

'Oh Gracey. I can't believe it. It's not too soon, is it? Like, we should probably think about this, because if you don't want to-'