Ch 4 – One Fine Day

Emily looked around frantically from her place crouched down, studying the small selection of grocery store pregnancy tests. She was in a hurry and found she couldn't concentrate. She jumped every time someone passed by and stopped her search to comb the aisle for familiar, prying eyes.

"Oh why, oh why did I come here?" She whispered to herself.

In her haste to get ahold of a test, Emily had conveniently forgotten that Mrs. Bakerman, one of Bob's oldest, and nosiest patients, worked at the store. Emily found herself absolutely desperate to stay out of sight at the realization, and most of all, to hide the reason for her trip.

But how was she to do that?

Surely, Mrs. Bakerman would make a big deal about the whole thing if she found out, and the last thing Emily wanted was for anyone to find out about this. It was why she'd not gone straight to the doctor: she was taking this test on a whim and a prayer… Worst of all, if Mrs. Bakerman knew, the whole thing would get straight back to Bob. And above all else, she couldn't have that. If it turned out to be false, he'd grow overly concerned and try to get her to seek mental help, and if positive… Well, that'd be a whole different hurdle.

Emily sighed a deep breath of relief when a couple of shoppers passed her by, Mrs. Bakerman still not anywhere in sight. She turned her gaze back to the selection at hand. It wasn't like there were that many to choose from, but she wanted the most accurate result possible if she was even going to give this a try.

"Oh that! It's on aisle five! I'll show you!"

Emily looked up, her eyes bulging like a deer caught in headlights when she heard Mrs. Bakerman speak, she looked up, the sign above her head reading aisle five.

"Damn it!'

Emily turned back to the tests quickly, with just two kinds to choose from, and no time to lose, she made a bold decision, her heart racing as she stuffed two of each into her bag. She stood quickly, turning on a dime to face the dental section behind her.

"Oh hello Mrs. Hartley!" Mrs. Bakerman cried cheerily, pointing a disheveled looking man to a display of Kleenex a few feet away. "What brings you in to-"

"Not much Mrs. Bakerman." Emily covered nervously. "You know what?" She said, putting down the mouthwash she'd grabbed and not needed. "I'll take this too." Emily hurried over to the Kleenex and grabbed a box before scurrying off without a word.

Mrs. Bakerman, ever the friendly soul simply waived as Emily fled. "I wonder what's gotten into her?" She asked aloud.

….

Twenty Minutes Later

"Maaaybe I should've gone to the doctor." Emily considered, nervously tapping the box she held with her long, French tipped nails. "If positive," she read to herself, "Two double lines will turn blue."

She looked down and frowned, picking up one of the tests and noting it was still blank.

She'd never done this before. Not once. And the nervousness was eating her alive. Emily shuddered, her suppressed excitement and raw anxiousness permeated her psyche so deeply she could barely breathe. She gulped, eyeing the timer. Five more minutes.

'There it is.' She thought. 'All your hope, on four little sticks. Blank sticks.'

Emily left the bathroom, trying her best to distract herself from her impending fate. Either way it would be life changing. She sat on the edge of the bed, wanting to jump out of her skin; feeling the need to run anywhere else, and finding that she waited, not just on a test result, but on a miracle or the moratorium of what could've been.

Emily let out a deep breath and shut her eyes tight, allowing herself to fall back onto the bed. She stared up at the ceiling, noting her hands rested atop her flat middle protectively. It was down to the wire. These were the very last seconds she'd be able to hold onto a thread of hope that someday, someday soon, she might be a mother.

'It has to be.' A voice inside reassured.

'It can't be, you just saw the tests.' Another nagged.

But Emily didn't engage her waring thoughts, instead she lay there: trying to remain as calm as possible as two sides of her psyche waged war for dominance over her fragile emotional state.

'Ding!'

The alarm rung through the air, sounding less like a melodic chime and more like a boom being lowered. Emily sat up nervously, not wanting to go in. It's why she'd chosen drug store tests over going straight to her doctor…. She couldn't stand to be told this wasn't possible, that her hope had run out.

Emily eased herself off the bed, her heart sinking just a little more with every passing second. She closed her eyes, a tear sliding down her cheek as she made her way slowly to the bathroom, knowing she was about to have her heart cruelly broken.

'It's best to get it over with.' She thought. 'Like ripping off a band aid….'

Emily approached the sink and took a deep breath, finally looking down. At once, her heart skipped a beat and her mind began to race not with fury, but with shock.

The miracle had come: in the form of four sets of blue stripes.

"Oh my god." She cried, unable to keep from beaming. She burst out crying. "I'm having a baby!"