IT WASN'T LONG before Kurt was walking out of Lindy's apartment, telling her goodbye and shrugging his arms into his corduroy jacket. He had been babbling about Lollapalooza as he crossed through the front door, talking about how Nirvana was supposed to headline, but how he planned to outright refuse the offer.
Lindy had been barely listening. She was more concentrated on praying that she would see Kurt again, but not as any other version except his living self.
With a shift at work that wasn't due to start until later in the evening, Lindy was left alone while Kurt grudgingly returned to his and Courtney's house where she awaited him. It would not be a day in which Lindy would spend by her lonesome, though. She was going to the hospital for plans that didn't involve donning a pair of scrubs and her new stethoscope.
Beth met her there, smiling ear to ear with her hands clasped in prayer under her chin as Lindy got out of her car and walked over to where she stood.
"I'm so happy you asked me to come!"
Lindy smiled, taking Beth's hand so that she could feel the warmth of human contact, a brief assurance that she indeed was not alone. Today, she would have her first ultrasound and prenatal checkup.
She approached the appointment with a twinge of regret, wishing more than anything that it could have been Kurt alongside her, or even Trae. But Lindy was not quite ready to tell even her brother the news of her future baby. Knowing him, he would have worried so much about it that he'd spontaneously combust.
Jack had done the actual setting up of the appointment and had become a kind of mentor to Lindy as she faced the early beginnings of pregnancy. It had been Jack who had recommended her doctor, even though she'd known all of them already from work. He had also found her prenatal vitamins and a book about babies; Lindy had happily accepted these things, but couldn't help but laugh. She herself was a nurse and could have done the research alone, but Jack was already invested.
It all pointed to the not so hidden secret that he would always carry a soft spot for Lindy.
"I wish you were far along enough so we could find out the gender," Beth sighed longingly as she and Lindy entered the waiting room of their usual ward. It felt funny to be on the opposite side of things for once, playing patient for the day while everyone else bustled around.
"I don't," Lindy said. She hadn't meant to sound so churlish, but it came out that way. "I want Kurt to be there when we find out."
Beth flinched, wounded by the remark, but Lindy grabbed her hand once again as she had done in the parking lot and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"I'm happy that you're here, Beth. It's special to me."
This seemed to placate Beth into smiling again, something Lindy felt relief over. She was already concerned enough with Kurt's downwards spiral of emotions and didn't think she had the energy to tend to anyone else's, no matter how much she adored her friend.
"Lindsey?"
A nurse poked her head out into the waiting room, her brown hair hanging in curly tendrils around her face. Lindy recognized the woman, and apparently, she recognized her too. Her name was Angela.
"Hey Angela," Lindy smiled politely, standing up and taking Angela's sudden appearance to mean that she was ready to go back.
"I saw your name and I had to do a double-take! I had no idea you were pregnant!" Angela exclaimed with a squeal of delight.
"We're not exactly advertising it yet," Beth interjected, swooping in to shield Lindy from the assault of questions Angela would no doubt have for her.
