Unplanned

Chapter 4: Too Much

  Ian knew something wasn't right but he just put it down to the baby and the fact that he was mourning Mickey's departure. It didn't really match up though because all that he had read on pregnancies said that he would be tired and grumpy but this was the opposite. He barely needed sleep and he always had so much energy. The redhead would often go for runs early in the morning when the sun was just rising pressed by the urge to keep in shape for just a little while longer.

  He always felt happy, full of ideas and everything was funny. Everything. Mandy would look at him strangely as he talked her ear off and all of his family just kept asking if he was okay. In the end it became too much, the constant questions and the knowledge that he was going to be a dad with only two people in the world aware of that fact. Then there was the fact that Mickey wasn't there. The teen missed the other boy so much, even on the days that he didn't see him, knowing that he was in the area had been enough for Ian. Now he didn't have a clue where the other was.

  All of it amounted to too much and one night when everyone was asleep he slipped out of Mandy's arms and out of the house. He had a pack of clothes and wages that he had saved, that was all and that was all he would need.

***

  It was a struggle but he was making it. He'd met back up with his mother about a week after he had left the Gallagher house and was now sleeping in a crack den. Not that he actually did the drugs that his mother tried to push on him, he wasn't stupid and he wouldn't risk his baby no matter how badly he wanted to join her high. It was a baby that he hadn't told her about because again he wasn't stupid and he didn't trust her, was afraid to part with a secret so precious.

  For a while, he had been dancing in a gay club in north side in skimpy shorts under flashing lights with blaring music. He had loved it full of boundless energy and the fact that he still could with a flat stomach at this point- might as well make the most of it. The sex was good as well, since he had found out he was pregnant he hadn't slept with anyone so now it was good especially as he seemed to always be horny. And the thing that made it better than just lots of sex was that he was getting paid to do it.

  Then he crashed. He hadn't seen it coming but suddenly he found he had no energy. The day before he had been on top of the world and now he couldn't even bring himself to crawl out of his sleeping bag. Ian just felt worthless and empty, he'd never make it as anything and he would ruin the baby he was carrying. Then as he was lying there crying silently alone, he realised what was wrong. He'd seen it with Monica too often.

***

  As soon as could, he got up and left the crack house to head straight to the hospital. There he told them what he suspected and got himself admitted into the ward. He shuddered as the doors closed behind him knowing that he wouldn't see the outside world for another three days. Three more days before he would go back to his family for the first time in nearly a month. By the time he left he would be around thirteen weeks pregnant and would probably have to tell his siblings that he had the same disease as their mother. It was going to be fun.

  They lead him into a room with a consultant, a middle aged man sitting smartly but had that air around him that made Ian more comfortable in the fact that he most probably hadn't been raised in too much money.

  "So Ian Gallagher, I am Doctor James Hampton but in this facility I would like you to just call me James. I have hear that you admitted yourself thinking you may have bipolar. That you think this because you have shown signs of mania and then a depressive episode. Do you have anyone in your family with bipolar?" he asked, straight to the point.

  "Yes my mom. It's why I think this is the case," Ian told him, just hearing it out loud heard and made his heart hammer in his chest.

"Okay, right well we're going to try you on medication as it is most likely looking at this that you're correct. Before that is there anything that we should know which might impede the effects of any drugs?"

  "Yes I'm pregnant, about thirteen weeks," Ian confessed quietly. Saying that to a stranger made him feel ashamed as a pregnant teenager.

  "Right, okay well I will say congratulations on that if that's you're intention. Well when was your last scan?" the doctor said without missing a beat. 

  "Um yes, thank you I yeah, I'm keeping it and I haven't had one, a scan, just went to the clinic at around two weeks to get it confirmed," Ian told him.

  "Right well follow me," Doctor Hampton gave him a smile, getting up and gesturing for Ian to follow as he left the room.

  Before he knew it Ian was lying out on a bed with jelly on his stomach with Doctor Hampton- he had asked Ian if he minded being there- and a young technician in the room setting up the scan. Ian was nervous about seeing the life inside him for the first time.

  "I must say Ian I've had a few pregnant women come in here before and I know there's been one or two men but I've never had the pleasure of being assigned one myself," James smiled and Ian found himself warming to the man already.

  "Okay Ian are you ready?" the technician asked, a smile of his own on his face.

  "Um yeah, as ready as I'll ever be," Ian nodded, taking a deep breath.

  Then the man was rubbing the machine bit across his stomach and watching the screen carefully. Ian couldn't really make out much and then there it was, or so he thought, the baby on the screen. That couldn't be right though because what was that? The technician was frowning then and Ian felt his stomach knot up. No, no everything had to be fine.

  "Well Mr Gallagher looks like there's twins in here," the man turned to him.

  Ian stared at him for a moment and then back at the screen. So he had been looking at the baby... and the other baby.

  "Fuck," he breathed. Twins. Shit maybe this was a mistake, he couldn't have twins. Would he be able to afford twins? Fiona was going to kill him for sure.