Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 51: Thank You Sentiment

The next few months went by exceedingly slowly. What began as a light and painless couple of weeks, quickly morphed into nothing but pain, agony, throwing up and a shit ton of craves. As painful as it was, there were some elements of pregnancy that were positive. For example, about five months in, Astrid and Jim were lying on the bed watching the news- there was something on about some famous guy called Calverton Smith falling out with Sherlock.

Astrid was listening to the news intently, her hand stroking her bloated belly, when she was snapped out of her interested trance by feeling something kick against her skin. She breathed in and sat up from the shock, causing Jim to take her by the shoulders.

"Are you okay?" he asked after she had calmed down.

"Yeah," she laughed, "I-I felt it... I felt it move."

Jim let out a laugh and moved his hand to cup Astrid's hand over the bump. He felt it kick again and chuckled again before shaking his head, "sentiment is a weird thing."

He adjusted his body so that his head was leaning over the bump. Astrid lifted her hands up to place them on either side of his face as he kissed her belly before lifting his face to hers and pressing his lips to hers, smirking lightly as Astrid giggled. He continued to kiss her deeply, his hand making it's way up to her cheek.

"Jim," she giggled, noticing that Jim was getting too invested, she pushed his face away from hers and he just sighed and flopped down onto the bed in defeat, "you're so pathetic."

"You can't blame me."

Astrid grimaced, scrunching up her nose, "I can though," she moved onto her back and then onto her side to lie opposite Jim. There was a pause as she lifted a hand to under his ear, rubbing it gently, smiling softly.

"We could get an ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or a girl?" Jim nodded at her question, "you won't be able to come, though, sorry."

"We could just bring the ultrasound here?"

"We can do that?"

Jim frowned, "honey, we can do anything we like."

Astrid giggled and kissed him again, "Go on then," she said, "make the call."

Jim hesitated, before sitting off the edge of the bed and taking his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through his contacts. As he raised his phone to his ear he turned stood up and look out of the window. Astrid watched him mutter a few words down the line before hanging up.

"They'll be five minutes."

Ten minutes later they had everything they needed set up in the front room. A, presumably, doctor and a nurse had shown up with everything they needed and had swiftly gotten set up, with Astrid leaning on the doorway, Seb behind her, watching the event unfold. They told her they were ready and she pushed herself off the wall

"I'll just go and fetch my fiancée," she smiled falsely and made her way into the kitchen where Jim was waiting. He immediately walked up to her and took her hand in his. She lead them back into the room, the two medics who were finishing up the preparations looked up upon Astrid's re-entrance.

The younger nurse was holding the transducer, however she was so shocked upon seeing the dead consulting criminal, that her fingers loosened and she dropped it. She was luckily able to catch it before it hit the floor, causing Jim to tut and shake his head.

"You wanna be more careful with that equipment, dear," he raised his eyebrows and she muttered a quick sorry. The couple looked at the older doctor who had completely frozen. Astrid raised her eyebrows, waiting for a response.

"You-" she partly managed to choke off. Jim just shook his head, disappointedly.

"Is that all you can think to say?" He sighed.

"You nearly killed my son."

"Nearly?" Jim pressed his lips, "that doesn't sound like me at all."

"His name was-"

Jim raised his hand, "no, please don't try to make me feel guilty, it won't work."

"You sick fuck." She cursed, and Astrid raised her eyebrows in shock.

"Woah," she laughed, "that's brave," she walked up to the woman threateningly, glaring at her, before looking over her shoulder to the nurse who was now frozen, holding the transducer tightly against her chest, "do you think you could do this on your own," after a second the nurse nodded, "good," Astrid nodded and looked back at the lady in front of her, "I don't like this one's attitude."

She smiled snuggly before turning to Jim, "what shall we do with her?"

"I'm not sure, what did u have in mind?"

Astrid frowned and turned back to the woman, "what happened to your son?"

"He was ambushed," she began her tale surprisingly confidently, "then decked in enough bombs to take down an entire house, then made to stand in the centre of London with snipers aimed at him, ready to fire."

Astrid's eyes widened, realising who she was taking about, "ahh, the great game. Yes, I remember." She smiled at the woman who smiled back, thinking Astrid was sympathising with her. This was suddenly changed when Astrid's lips reduced to a thin line, "I didn't like your son, he cried too much."

The woman's lips parted and she let out a breath of fear. Astrid smiled again, and stepped to the side, "you can go," she said, surprisingly, "I can see you are not comfortable here, and, I want a comfortable, happy environment when I find out whether I'm having a boy or a girl."

She smiled again and gestured for her to leave. She didn't need to be asked twice and she walked out the door, quickly. As she left, Astrid looked over to where Seb had moved to watch the show and nodded. He seemed to understand her and left the room.

Astrid looked at Jim and smiled, "how was that for a scary pregnant lady?"

"Ask her," he nodded towards the woman.

Astrid turned around and looked at her, smiling brightly, "I'm sorry you had to be a part of that, I hope we haven't scared you," a loud scream rang out, coming from the front porch and Astrid smiled, "we don't want to hurt you."