Waiting Four You

Chapter Thirty-Roth (Beatrice)

When the two masked men throw Tobias over the rail, I panic and go after the closest one without thinking. Thankfully, my surprise attack knocks him out without any damage to me, but the other flees as fast as possible. I decide that it's not worth the risk to follow him and head to the railing above the Chasm. I hold out my hand to Tobias, but he ignores it deciding to climb his own way up. Part of me feels hurt that he didn't want my help, but I know it's because he doesn't want to risk hurting the baby.

As we head to the infirmary after he picks up the one I knocked out, who just so happens to be Eric, I start to notice the feeling of nausea that I started noticing periodically since yesterday. The nausea always seems to be accompanied by a strong urge to eat as much Dauntless Cake as I can find.

Once we are in the room with Mia, the nausea seems to reach a peak as I end up emptying my already empty stomach into the nearest garbage receptacle. Thankfully, I thought to put my hair in a bun before we left Tobias's apartment, so I don't have to worry about it getting in the vomit.

"Have you been taking the medication as I told you?" Mia asks me when I stand back up.

"Yes," I reply with a slightly raspy voice. "It helps, but the past two days, it's been more than just after the simulation."

She nods before grabbing an envelope off of the counter behind her.

"I haven't read this yet," she tells us. "I figured it would be best to see it for the first time at the same time as you two."

She opens the envelope, and I am getting more and more nervous about the results. Every ounce of my being is hoping that this will read positive so that my child's introduction to the world isn't having blood drawn to find out who their father is.

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife as she unfolds the paper and reads it. Mia lets out a huge sigh of relief before handing it over to Tobias for us to see.

There on the paper is the word I have been hoping to see for the past five days. Positive.

As I read further, I get confused as the paper reads four weeks pregnant, which adding the past week would make five. I've only been in Dauntless for almost three weeks.

"Mia," I say while still trying to make sense of what's in front of me. "Is this off on the time frame?"

She reaches for the paper and reads it carefully. Suddenly, she starts laughing.

"What's so funny?" Tobias asks confused.

"I forgot to explain how the time frame is determined," she says still laughing a little. "When we determine how far along someone is, it starts with the first day of the last period. Basically, you're considered two weeks pregnant before you even conceive."

Adding the time between my last period, as I now know that it's called, and Choosing Day it does make sense for the number of weeks to be five.

"Why is it counted like that?" Tobias asks.

It's amazing how patient Mia is with us. "The conception date isn't always known, but the last period is usually pretty easy to remember, so it's more accurate if it's counted starting from there.

We nod in understanding before Mia starts talking about appointments to keep track of the baby's progress and something called an ultrasound. Apparently the ultrasound is a machine that uses sound waves to get us an image of the size and shape of the baby while they're still inside me. While I am curious about everything, I'm still anxious about the pregnancy in general. I'm not exactly ready for this, but ready or not, here it is.

We set an appointment with Mia for three weeks from now so that I can have my first ultrasound at eight weeks pregnant.

"When do we tell our friends?" I ask as soon as we're back in his apartment. "I don't think it's fair to keep this from them."