“Do you realize just how much raising a child costs?” she chided.
“Yes, ma’am, I’m aware,” I said. “I’m also aware of what the projections for college are,” I added for good measure, punctuating it with a smile.
Her frown eased and she gave me a nod just as the door opened and Naomi stepped inside, handing her a cup of urine.
“The doctor will be with you in a moment,” the nurse said and stepped out with the offering.
Naomi took a seat and I stepped to her side, taking her hand in mine.
“I think those things Valerie gave us make normal people hostile,” I whispered. “Either that, or the nurse needs lessons in bedside manners.”
Naomi giggled and squeezed my hand. “Or she’s just reacting to your projected paranoia.”
The shock of her words went through me like a sound wave vibrating up my spine and into my teeth. I raised my brow. “It’s that obvious?”
“Um...yeah,” she answered. Her lips twitched into a smile. “It would be highly amusing if I wasn’t just as nervous as you are.”
“I think once the baby is born, we should start looking for somewhere else to live,” I said and her smile faded.
Before she could answer, the door opened and a tall, bespectacled man wearing a white lab coat stepped into the room. He looked from the laptop in his hands to Naomi and me, breaking into a broad grin.
“I guess you two are expecting,” he said and placed the computer on the counter before offering Naomi his hand. “I’m Dr. Wolk.”
“Na... Anna,” Naomi said, catching herself before she revealed her real name. “And this is my husband, Damian.”
Dr. Wolk extended his hand to me and I shook it, meeting his open gaze. His grip was firm but not overbearing.
“Congratulations,” he said and adjusted his glasses before bringing his gaze back to Naomi. “When was your last period?”
Naomi bit her lip and glanced at me. She couldn’t very well say five years ago and I’m not sure she had one between being shot with the cure and when I woke from my coma. I just shrugged. She hadn’t had one since I came out of it.
“Do you have a calendar?” she asked and the doctor pointed to the wall behind her. Naomi hopped off the table and ran her fingers over the dates, silently moving her mouth in thought. She tapped the date that she woke from her delirium in Colorado and ran her finger over the calendar from that point, hesitating over the day we almost died.
A couple of weeks out from that, she tapped the date.
“February third,” she said.
I woke up a week later.
“And I’m pretty sure we conceived on the tenth or soon thereafter.”
The tenth was that first day in the shower and the memory stirred my soul. I had mustered up enough energy to make love to her in the shower and then all strength left me. She dried me off and helped me pull on a clean pair of shorts while I sat on the bathroom floor dizzy and exhausted. Naomi had to enlist Valerie’s help to get me back to the bedroom. I remember feeling helpless as they changed the bed and once I was tucked into the clean sheets, Valerie hooked me back up to the IV. It took me a few days of eating and sleeping to get up the energy to make love to her again, but after those celibate days in the beginning, we haven’t missed a daily romp.
She smiled at me and climbed back on the table.
The doctor nodded and typed the information on the computer. “Well, based on that, it looks like you’re due around October 20th. He scanned the screen and a frown formed before he moved his gaze to Naomi.
“I’d like you to have some blood drawn and do a couple of tests before you leave today to make sure we have your glucose levels under control.”
“What’s wrong with my glucose level?” Naomi asked.
“It’s high enough to pass into your urine, which isn’t necessarily cause for alarm, but I’d just like to make sure we aren’t looking at a potential complication. Did you have anything to eat this morning?”
Naomi shook her head and the flash of concern in Dr. Wolk’s eyes before he moved his gaze to the numbers on the screen lit my stomach on fire.
“Is there a history of diabetes in your family?” he asked, scanning the information from one of the sheets she filled out in the waiting room.
“Not to my knowledge.”
She reached out and took my hand in a grip that I had encountered before. The one that announced her nerves jumping into overtime.
The doctor glanced up at her and offered a smile. “I’ll send Leticia back in to take some blood,” he said and stood. “It will take a few minutes to run the tests and then I’ll be back in and see if we can detect a heartbeat, okay?”
We both nodded and the moment the door closed, she turned her dark gaze in my direction. The worry there made me swallow and try on a smile.