The Fire Station

Chapter 13

A month had gone by since the fire. So much had happened since then. Sidney was able to take his resignation back. However, he was forced to take some time off because of his injuries and because the fire chief felt as if he needed an extended time away if he was considering resignation. It worked out in our favor though. Sidney was able to attend my next doctor appointment with me and hear the heartbeat for himself. I wasn't surprised when he broke down crying at the sound of his child's heartbeat. I'd never seen a man so excited about becoming a father. I shouldn't have been surprised when a week later a package arrived with his own personal doppler. Listening to the baby's heartbeat became our nightly routine.

Things had definitely changed for me too. Thankfully the morning sickness had subsided, but now I was finding new changes. I was hungry all the time, I was extra tired, I had to pee constantly, and my stomach was slowly growing larger. I had grown closer with Sidney's mother and sister-in-law who had gone through pregnancies of their own and were able to give me great advice and peace of mind. They were also very supportive with helping me deal with my fears of Sidney getting hurt. Sidney's mother was a wealth of knowledge given that her husband was once a fireman and now all four of her children had followed in his footsteps. She helped me understand that my fears were valid, but I couldn't go through life living in fear of the what ifs. If I did, I'd slowly go mad. Her advice was to simply make every day count; never leave things unsaid, never go to sleep angry, and live life to the fullest. I had every intention of living my life that way with Sidney.

We were days away from closing on the new house. Our move in date was approaching and we had been all over town buying new furniture and décor for the house. Sidney was eager to get in to start painting and setting up the most important room of all; the baby's room.

We had also dived deep into planning a wedding. Sidney's family was heavily involved with all the details. I appreciated their help as I didn't know the first thing about planning a wedding. I was perfectly fine with anything they planned. As long as I got to stand next to Sidney and become his wife, I wasn't concerned about all the other details. And knowing Sidney's family, they knew how to plan an event.

Alison and Crowe had become entirely too close for my liking. She spent almost all her time with him and had even confessed to me that she was in love with him. Although, he still seemed to see their relationship as a fun fling. I worried about her getting hurt and encouraged Sidney to talk to Crowe so he was aware of Alison's growing feelings. He assured me he would once he went back to work. Clara and James Stringer had gotten close at first, but then stopped seeing each other. She didn't talk about it much, but I could tell it bothered her.

Eliza had not disturbed us since the fire, but we did hear she was in a lot of trouble. Police questioned her about setting the fire where she claimed she didn't do it. She even tried to blame it on her ex and his new girlfriend. She was a mess. Sidney didn't seem to care what happened to her. After the fire incident, she had lost all respect and he wished to pretend she never existed in his life. I decided to leave it alone and let him deal with his anger towards her himself. She had definitely earned it.

"The wedding date is set, the mystery honeymoon you planned is set, our twenty-week ultrasound is set, and we are days away from moving. Nearly everything is packed and ready to go. Everything is falling into place," I said, lying in bed next to Sidney. He moved the doppler across my abdomen listening for the baby's heartbeat while I spoke.

"I hope everything falling into place isn't a sign of bad things to come," he said.

"Don't say things like that!" I said with a hurtful tone. "Haven't we already been through enough?"

He sighed and grinned before giving me a kiss. "You're right. Nothing more is going to go wrong. We've had enough bad things happen. Now we just need to focus on the positives."