By: Jamie
Sommers
Email: jamiesommers23@hotmail.com
Rated: PG –13
Synopsis: The
continuing AU saga of Dinner and a Movie.
Landon and Jamie are having a baby!
Lets see how they handle the ups and downs of pregnancy.
For Moi with
love.
“Blech,” she
stuck her tongue out of her mouth as though she had a bad taste in it. Leaning over the side of the porcelain rim
she finally did what she had been dying to do since 5:30 that morning.
“Oh baby,”
Landon held her hair back as she continued to let the morning sickness reek
havoc with her system. “I don’t
understand why they call it morning sickness,” he took a cold compress and
pressed it against the base of her neck as their dinner made it’s second
appearance “…if it happens at night why don’t they call it evening sickness, or
all day sickness.” He rubbed her back
in gentle circles saying a silent prayer that this side effect of the pregnancy
didn’t last too long.
Weeks earlier
they had been lying in their hammock when Jamie told Landon about the
baby. At first he was in shock but
after a moment or two they began giggling and getting used to the idea that
soon they wouldn’t just be a couple, they’d be a family. They began planning the baby’s room, the one
closest to theirs. Dreaming of yellows
and greens in soft pastel colors.
Discussing whether or not they’d want to know the sex before hand. They didn’t. Wondering what it would be like to see Jamie with a belly. And silently Landon worried about his wife’s
health. Could she survive this
pregnancy? What if being pregnant
brought back the cancer? He knew that
was a silly thought, but when you almost lose the love of your life to such a
reckless disease, crazy thoughts go through your mind.
“You’re
worried aren’t you?” Jamie asked while sitting upright. She felt woozy, but she knew it would
pass. Since she began having the
‘morning’ sickness, wooziness just seemed to go hand in hand with it. She collapsed against Landon’s chest,
tucking her head under his chin.
He rubbed her
back and said, “I know that this is all part of pregnancy, it’s just… I can’t
help but worry about you. When I see
you like that it just reminds me of…”
He didn’t
have to say it. She knew it reminded
him of the chemotherapy and radiation treatments she received after her
transplant. It was those very same
treatments that caused them to believe that they’d never be able to conceive a
child.
“Landon,
please don’t worry. Its just part of
the plan.”
“What
plan? Preparing us for when he’s a
teenager?”
Jamie
chuckled into Landon’s chest and asked silently, “How do you know it’s a boy?”
“Don’t say
that. Please don’t say that.”
“Why?” she
pulled back with a look of concern upon her brow, “Don’t you want a girl
Landon?”
“Oh it’s not
that. I’d be happy either way. I’m just thinking about being the father of
a teenage girl. I don’t know if I could
handle any Landon Carters coming to the door to pick her up for a date,” he
cringed while she giggled. “The more I
think about it, the more I realize what a leap of faith it took on your
father’s part to say yes to me when I told him I wanted to take you out. If I were in his shoes I don’t think I
would’ve said yes to me.” He looked
down at her smiling face and said, “Ready to get cleaned up?”
“Mmmm hmmmm,”
she nodded, but the moment she moved she had to lean over and get sick
again. She sat upon her knees as they
began their nightly ritual. Her losing
her dinner and Landon rubbing her back, telling her it will be all right. That things would be better soon and when
they were all done with this they’d have a beautiful baby to show for it.
It was that
thought that kept her strong. The
thought of having yet another one of life’s miracles, she never thought she’d
experience, bestowed upon her.
Ironically, having a baby never made it on her list of things to do
because she didn’t believe it possible.
Her list was made up of realistic goals and living long enough to
survive a pregnancy wasn’t realistic.
Even if she could’ve had a child before, she wouldn’t have done it. She could never have had a baby knowing that
she would have to leave it motherless.
That was a pain she knew all too well and she didn’t wish it on anyone.
After another
thirty minutes in the bathroom Landon cleaned Jamie up and tucked her into
bed. He went down to the kitchen and
began making a sandwich and poured a glass of milk. He sliced some fruit and made a tray to bring up to her.
The first
time she experience morning sickness Landon thought she’d never look at food
again, but within minutes she seemed to get over it and asked him to make her
something to eat. He had made her some
tea and dry toast thinking that she’d appreciate the gesture. He figured it would settle her stomach, but
after she devoured the toast and tea she turned to him and said, “Food
Landon. I need FOOD.”
He giggled to
himself as he walked up the stairs with the tray of “FOOD” in hand.
~ ~ ~
She lied on
the examination table, squeezing Landon’s hand as the doctor tried endlessly to
pick up a fetal heartbeat. “Is
something wrong,” she said with a faint whisper.
“No, Jamie.”
Dr. Basso explained to her that sometimes it’s difficult to hear a heartbeat so
early on in the pregnancy, “but that’s completely normal Jamie.” She saw the look of concern on Jamie’s face
and knew about her troubled past.
Wanting to put her mind at ease she said, “Tell ya what. Why don’t we do an ultrasound, just to be on
the safe side?”
Jamie and
Landon looked at each other and then nodded.
Landon spoke for both of them.
“Thank you Dr. Basso. I think
we’ll both feel a lot better if we could see him…her…”
The three of
them chuckled as Landon said, “it?”
With the
tension in the room at an acceptable level, the doctor prepared Jamie for her
next exam. The ultra sound machine was
brought in from another room.
Landon
thought the giant contraption resembled an elaborate computer set up on
wheels. There was a large monitor to
view the picture on and below that was the keyboard. Along sides were the speakers.
It had a cup holder and everything.
The doctor
laid a sheet over the lower part of Jamie’s body, leaving her abdomen and hips
exposed. Raising the examination gown
up to her breast, the doctor took a tube that resembled a plastic bottle of
mustard out of the ‘cup holder’ and squeezed out a blob of warm goo onto
Jamie’s stomach.
Picking up
what Landon presumed was the computer’s mouse; she began to run it somewhat
forcefully over Jamie’s slightly bulging stomach.
“I’m sorry
for pressing down so hard but we’ve got a lot of layers of flesh and muscle to
go through.”
Jamie cringed
slightly. The pressure was causing a
desperate need to use the restroom, but it was necessary for her bladder to
remain full so the doctor could get the best picture of the baby.
Dr. Basso
turned on the speakers and a loud woooosh noise filled the room. She swirled and pushed the examining tool
around Jamie’s belly until she found and heard what she was looking for. “Here we go.” She lifted her other hand to the computer monitor and pointed at
a white blob with a small thing pulsing in the middle of it.
“What is
that?” Landon asked, squinting at the computer screen, trying to make out the
kidney bean shaped object.
“Is that…”
Jamie trailed off.
“That, Mr.
and Mrs. Carter, is your baby.” The
doctor smiled brightly as she watched the darkened room light up from Jamie and
Landon’s response at the first glimpse of their unborn child.
Landon and
Jamie reached out to grab onto the other’s hand immediately.
“What’s that
little thing right there,” Landon pointed at the screen to the little blob that
was pulsating.
“That is your
baby’s heart.”
Their smiles
grew even brighter and Jamie breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“And listen…”
They both
listened to the noises that were coming from the machine.
“That steady
whoosh, whoosh, whooshing noise is the sound of your baby’s heart beating.”
“So fast,”
Jamie said quietly. “It’s so fast.”
“Yes it
is.”
The doctor
went into the explanation of why infant’s heart rates are so much faster than
adults, but Landon and Jamie were oblivious to her words. The sound of their child’s heartbeat was the
only sound in the world.