10. SURPRISES

After their meeting on the pier, Kyle and Phoebe spent the rest of the afternoon together, talking things through until he walked her home that evening.

When Kyle finally returns to the Braxton residence, Ricky is doing some tidying and making the most of Casey being down for the night.

As soon as he walks inside, Ricky is instantly suspicious of Kyle's grin from ear-to-ear.

"What have you done? You've gone from giving up smiling cold-turkey to looking like the Cheshire cat."

"I'm gonna be a dad, Rick" Kyle says, finally proclaiming the announcement that he has been bursting at the seams and erupting with excitement to tell someone. "Phoebe's agreed to keeping the baby."

Ricky instantly reciprocates and shares his grin with him, walking over to and wrapping her brother-in-law in a congratulatory hug.

"Oh, Kyle... Congratulations! I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks Rick" Kyle says as he holds Ricky in the hug, while smiling at her delight for him, which only increases his radiant joy. "She's got an appointment in a couple of days. It's the first time both of us will see the baby."

Ricky smiles at the man in front of him as his radiating delight only widens her smile. She knows the excitement and joy she felt whenever she had the chance to see her own son, Casey, with ultrasounds before he was born, but she can remember exactly how much more incredible the first time was.

"You're gonna love it, Kyle" the young mum says with a warm smile.

Neither she nor Kyle know exactly how much he will love the ultrasound, and the surprises that come with it.

#

Days later, the time had finally arrived for Phoebe's first ultrasound. By now, this should be her second ultrasound, but with all of the indecision over her pregnancy, as well as her avoidance of it in general, she was only just now going in with Kyle for her first prenatal appointment.

Before the doctor's appointment with Nate, Kyle and Phoebe had planned to stop past The Diner to pick up some breakfast together.

Kyle and Phoebe had arranged in advance to meet up at The Diner before going on to the appointment together.

He has already been sitting there ready and waiting for the last twenty minutes when Phoebe comes rushing into The Diner.

"I'm late! Ah! I'm sorry! Morning sickness was really bad this morning. It was just like a waterfall – wouldn't stop. Anyway, here now" Phoebe says apologetically as she races into the establishment and over to Kyle, putting strangers that are seated nearby off their food.

Kyle just chuckles at her and her melodramatic nature.

"Hey. I've already ordered you a breakfast wrap."

"Oh you're incredible! I've trained you well."

Kyle just smiles before asking Phoebe what drink she'd like while he pulls out his wallet, preparing to be served.

"Good morning!" Chris greets just seconds later, only just emerging from the cool room, completely missing Phoebe's morning sickness spiel just seconds earlier. "Ah, Kyle can I speak to you for a moment?"

Kyle glances at Phoebe to quickly confirm that all was forgiven after the hard feelings when she had discovered that Chris and Kyle had teamed up to plot ways to convince Phoebe to keep she and Kyle's baby.

After having seen the two standing there waiting for their order, Chris grabs Kyle by the arm and drags him onto the balcony outside, out of earshot from Phoebe.

"Yes?" Kyle questions after being pulled outside by the other man.

"Nice one. Breakfast out? Try and spend time with her to convince her that there's still a little something-something between you two while gently encouraging her that having a baby isn't such a bad idea... This is an emotional approach, yeah?"

It takes Kyle a moment of confusion to get up to speed with what Chris is saying before the dots finally connect. Finally Kyle remembers that in the time between Phoebe finding out about Kyle and Chris teaming up to convince her to have the baby, the boys subsequently putting the brakes on plotting and Phoebe agreeing to keep the baby, he hadn't actually relayed the last fact back to Chris.

"Oh, no... It's not like that... I forgot to tell you that a couple of days ago Phoebe agreed to having the baby. Because it's still early on, we're trying not to tell too many people about the pregnancy, though. That's actually what we're doing now; we're stopping past here for breakfast on the way to the doctors."

Instantly, Chris bounds closer to Kyle and wraps him in a hug.

"Congrats man! That's awesome news! We did it!"

After releasing him from the hug before ushering Kyle into a high five the two boys walk back over to Phoebe who's now holding the takeaway bags with their breakfasts.

"Great news, Phoebs!" Chris exclaims as he nears the mother-to-be, wrapping her too in a hug while Kyle just stands back, smiling gratefully.

A week ago, he had no idea that he'd be standing here, the stress of whether or not Phoebe would keep the baby, gone. Now, he can just enjoy the prospect of being a father while sharing that news with his friends.

After Nate calls the duo into the room, the appointment begins with poking and prodding movements and questions as he checks on her general health, blood pressure and such like.

Then, after seating her on the reclined examination chair, Nate finally begins the next stage of the appointment as Phoebe and Kyle talk to and try to preoccupy each other; anxiously anticipating the impending ultrasound, while the doctor records numbers and adds information to Phoebe's medical record.

It is only after several minutes when Nate speaks up, checking one fact with Phoebe when the alarm bells begin to ring.

"Phoebe? I believe you mentioned something about it earlier, but this is definitely your first prenatal appointment, right?"

"Yeah... Why?" Phoebe asks curiously in response to the odd question coming from her doctor and friend.

Meanwhile, Kyle's eyebrows furrow as he notices that the doctor's English accent has become suddenly stronger with his last question. Additionally, he takes a note of the serious expression on his face, instantly panicking the father-to-be.

"Nate? What's going on? Is there something wrong with the baby?"

"There's nothing wrong with the babies."

At first, relief floods both Kyle and Phoebe... until Nate's wording slowly begins to compute and register that he had used the plural of the word that they had been expecting.

"Congratulations guys... You're having twins."

As he stands there processing the news, a slow beam begins to flood Kyle's face, proving anyone wrong who thought Kyle's smile couldn't get any bigger when Phoebe agreed to keeping their baby.

Meanwhile, it's a good thing that Phoebe is sitting on the examination table as her eyes dilate massively, just as slowly as Kyle's smile takes to form.

Just like that, the one little thing slowly bringing Kyle and Phoebe together again has turned out to be two little things...

Hey guys. Thanks to everyone who has been following this story. I really, really appreciate the support, feedback and time that you spend reading and reviewing it.

If you have any ideas or anything you'd like to see me incorporate into the story, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

P.S. This will probably be the last update for 2016.