Thinking Out Loud

Chapter 10

"How you feeling?" Joe asked as he sat next to Dianne in the waiting room at the hospital.
"Like I'm gonna wet myself if they don't hurry up," she moaned, "they're already running ten minutes late!" Dianne groaned and leaned into Joe's side. "At least we get to see our baby today though."
"I'm so excited," Joe said quietly, "but I'm also terrified. It just makes it more real."
Dianne smiled. "I know what you mean, but we'll be fine. Like always."
"Dianne Buswell?" A males voice called from the other end of the room. Dianne sat up slightly and turned in her chair to look, grabbing Joe's hand as she stood up and walked towards the male nurse waiting outside of a door for them. "Sorry about your wait," he apologised, "we'll be as quick as we can. I imagine you're quite uncomfortable."
"I am, but that's alright." The nurse led them through the door and beckoned to the bed in the middle of the room.
"If you just want to lay on the bed Dianne, pull your top up a bit and roll the waistband of your leggings over please," he said kindly before busying himself with preparing the machine. Dianne laid on the bed and did as he asked, before leaving her hand to the side for Joe to hold. The nurse grabbed a tube of gel and turned back to the redhead laid on the bed. "This'll be cold," he warned before squeezing an ample amount onto the middle of her stomach. Using the scanner, he spread the blue gel across her skin and began to look for the baby. "There they are," he smiled. He turned the screen so that Dianne and Joe could see it. Joe tightened his grip on Dianne's hand momentarily as he saw the little shadowed baby on the screen in front of him, swallowing down the lump in his throat hastily.
"Oh wow," Dianne breathed, "that's our baby Joe." She turned to meet his gaze, her dimple deepening by the second.
"I'll take some pictures for you," the nurse said before he carried on doing what he was doing. Tears were beginning to pool in Joe's eyes as he blinked desperately to keep them from deploying.
"Are you crying?" She asked softly. "You can cry if you want to." Joe smiled and wiped the corners of his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
"No, I'm not. We're all good."

Joe closed the door behind him and reached out for Dianne's wrist, pulling her so close their bodies were touching. Caught by surprise, Dianne giggled but soon silenced herself as she got lost in Joe's piercing gaze.
"What?" She whispered. Joe didn't speak but tilted his head until their lips met, his index finger supporting her chin. His hands found their usual place- the bottom of her back- as hers came to rest around his neck. Their kiss was slow and gentle, filled with love. Dianne pulled back first, blushing deeply. "Can't say I was expecting that."
"I've wanted to do it all day, but I didn't think it would be appropriate in the hospital, well in public in general to be honest.
"Well, Sugg, make the most of it because this," she pointed at her abdomen, "isn't going to stay nice and flat for much longer." Joe lifted Dianne's top, pinching it between two fingers, just enough to reveal her stomach. He kissed it softly before straightening up and kissing Dianne once more, with a little more force than before. Running her tongue over his bottom lip, Dianne deepened their kiss as Joe's hands pushed under her top at the back so his hands could stroke over bare skin. Soon enough, she was against the wall, both of them topless.
"Uh Joe," Dianne said as he began to kiss her shoulder, "you locked the door didn't you? Only, I'm not sure I want one of your mates or someone to walk in on us." Joe thought for a moment and reversed through the hall to the door, locking it quickly and testing the handle.
"It's locked now." He went back over to the half-naked Australian and resumed his position, lips attached to her. Moving his head, Joe sucked on Dianne's neck as he nipped the sensitive skin between his teeth.
"Joe," Dianne gasped softly. She sighed deeply as he repeated the steps on other areas of her skin, leaving her with small purple bruises in his place.

"We can tell people now," Dianne said as she sat down next to Joe, leaning into his side immediately. "We know everything is good and the baby is fine, so we can start telling people."
"How do you want to tell them?" He asked. Joe kissed Dianne's cheek and cuddled her closer to him.
"I'm not sure, obviously mum and dad will have to find out over facetime, same with your family unless we go down for a weekend maybe? Or go and see Zoe?"
"Yes, we'll do that. And then FaceTime Mark and Rina when we find a time we are all awake." Dianne smiled and began to play with the rings on Joe's fingers as he ran his hands through her red hair.
"Why did you dye your hair red?" He asked after a moment of silence. "Like, why red? Why not blue, or purple?"
"I don't really know, I just quite fancied it. I had 'flame' coloured hair as I like to call it before I went fully red."
"It suits you, and you pull it off really well," Joe smiled. "You look like some cool rocker chick." Dianne moved so her head rested on Joe's thighs, staring up at him as he hands continued to play with her hair. "Are you getting hungry yet Di?"
"Nope," Dianne shook her head, "I'm thinking of a way we can reveal this." She pointed to her stomach before laying her hand over it. "I don't think we should tell the internet just yet, we'll wait until I'm showing a bit more."
"Okay, how do you want to tell the internet then?" Dianne laid in silence for a moment. "We'll take a Polaroid of me and lay it next to one of the pictures of the baby we got given today."
"Good plan."

•••

"Ugh!" Dianne shouted in frustration before sliding down the wall, tears threatening to spill from her eyes and roll down her face. Her bump was gradually getting more and more noticeable and Dianne was finding it hard to look nice in her clothes which were fast becoming too small. Having heard her shout from upstairs, Joe rushed downstairs and into the spare bedroom, shocked to find his fiancé curled into a corner with clothes scattered around her. Her forehead was resting against her arms as she hugged her knees into her chest so Joe couldn't see her face. As he walked closer he heard a muffled sob from the ball in front of him. Joe covered the ground to her quickly and crouched down next to her. As soon as Dianne felt Joe's presence, she leaned into him and started to uncurl from the ball she was sat in.
"What's up?" He asked softly as he moved his arm to wrap around her shoulders, stroking over her arm with his hand.
"Nothing fits, and I look like crap!" Joe, sensing she needed more than a side hug, crossed his legs and beckoned her to sit in his lap. She crawled into it and leaned the side of her makeupless face against his chest. Joe cradled her in his arms and began to rock slightly in an effort to keep her calm.
"Do you want to borrow one of my t-shirts for today and then tomorrow we can go out and buy you some more clothes, or we can do some online shopping tonight in bed? He suggested, still rocking, still stroking her arm.
"Please," she sniffed, "I love you so much."
"I love you too," Joe smiled. He couldn't help the little grin that spread onto his face. Dianne when she was sad was adorable, as much as it pained him to see her upset, he loved the way she became needy and cuddly. "Which top do you want?"
"Let's go look," Dianne said. She turned her head and kissed Joe's lips gently, "thank you."
"Just ask if you need anything else again yeh, instead of getting yourself all worked up."
Dianne nodded. "I will, thank you." She climbed off Joe's knee and stood up, holding her hand out for Joe.

"Here you go!" Joe threw Dianne one of his slouchy t-shirts and came back out of his wardrobe. Dianne pulled it on and looked over herself in the mirror, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome gorgeous. Oh, and by the way, I've put an offer in for the house."

Half an hour later, they were packed up to go to Zoe's for the weekend. They were going to reveal baby Sugg to them and Tracey, Joe's mum, who just happened to be staying at the same time as them. Dianne was back to her happy and light self as she danced around in her seat to the music Joe had put on.
"Let's goooo," he said as he started to pull out of his space.
"I still want to move to Brighton."
"Oh for gods sake, another one?!"