Beloved Predator (Beloved Series #2)

Fifteen

Patrick

"You haven't called Mom, right?" Ari asked from the bed in the exam room of the ER.

Ever the stubborn one, she refused to lay in the bed until the nurse told her she wouldn't be released until a thorough exam was completed.  After a roll of her eyes and some choice words muttered under her breath, she'd let me help her lay down.  Nearly forty-five minutes later, the anxiety reached a fever pitch for both of us.

"Are you kidding?  No way in hell I can deal with her million and a half questions and try to remain calm."

There was a knock on the door and the doctor, a blond woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties entered the room.  "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds.  I'm Dr. Roberts with the OB service.  Ari, I heard you aren't feeling well.  Can you please describe your symptoms?"

"I stood up and felt dizzy, and my husband thought that warranted a trip here.  I feel perfectly fine now."

Dr. Roberts was typing rapidly into the computer by the bed.  "Had you eaten breakfast this morning?'

"I had an omelet around six."

She nodded.  "I notice you have a smaller stature.  Did you find that you were always hungry or had to eat more often before you were pregnant?"

I pursed my lips but couldn't silence the laugh that escaped.  "Sorry," I coughed in response to Ari's glare.  "It's just there are two things my wife is known for.  She's always cold and she's always hungry."

"So that confirms it," Dr. Roberts replied with a smile.  "Ari, it sounds like your body has a faster metabolism than most, so you already have to eat more to keep your energy.  Now that you have a baby growing inside you, that means you're going to need to eat even more to keep up with the demands for both your body and the baby."

"Lucky for me my husband likes to cook."  She placed her hand over mine as it rubbed her stomach.

The doctor wheeled away from the computer and faced us both.  "So, my most educated guess is that your blood sugar was already low because you needed more food, and then when you stood up too quickly it made your blood pressure drop.  In the future, you'll want to make sure you don't stand up too quickly.  Slow and steady.  I know you're still early in your pregnancy, but as the baby gets bigger, you'll better appreciate that mantra.  I'm going to grab the monitor so I can listen to the baby's heartbeat and then you two are free to go."

I stood next to the bed and wrapped my arm around Ari's shoulder as the doctor left the room and came back a few minutes later, carrying the heart monitor.  Loud static was all we heard when she first placed the sensor on Ari's stomach.  She adjusted one of the knobs on the monitor and tried again.  After moving the sensor to various places on the small bump, her brows furrowed, and she turned off the monitor.

"So, I can hear a heartbeat, but I want to do an ultrasound real quick and look at something.  There's nothing to be concerned about, but I just want to be sure."  She turned and left the room.

"How are you feeling?"  I asked when she disappeared behind the curtain.

"What else?  I'm hungry.  And your giant Sasquatch baby is starving."

I held her hand and kissed it.  "I'll take you and the tadpole to get something to eat as soon as we're done here."

A large machine on wheels pushed through the curtain, followed by Dr. Roberts.  After positioning the screen in front of us, she powered on the machine and squirted blue gel onto Ari's stomach, causing her to wince.  She apologized and placed the sensor on her stomach to show us...a bunch of black and grey splotches.  A few seconds later, small specks of white appeared.  She paused a moment and zoomed in on the image.