Bound (The Grandor Descendant Series Book 3) (9 page)

Ari felt her heart rush in her chest at this statement. Did Riley really believe that Ari couldn’t understand her predicament? Ari was an orphan; she had spent her whole life not trusting people, afraid to connect with them for fear of abandonment. If anyone could understand what Riley had been through, it was Ari. She thought about trying to phrase this into a sentence but decided against it. Riley was looking fatigued and drawn out, as if the act of trying to shift and realising that she couldn’t, had cost her greatly. 

Instead of reprimanding her further, Ari helped Riley with her jacket and directed her back towards the hospital entrance.

“Come on, let’s go back inside. I think the bug you have is affecting you more than you think,” said Ari.

“I don’t know. I mean, I know I am sick but, I haven’t ever heard of the flu stopping waeres from shifting. It doesn’t make any sense.”

The moment they were back inside, the door to the nearest consult room swung open.

“Riley,” said a crisp female voice, and both Ari and Riley looked up to see a short woman with elbow length grey hair, waiting for them in the frame of a consult room.

“Want me to come with you?” asked Ari, helping Riley manoeuvre towards the consult room.

Riley nodded, apparently still too in shock after discovering that she couldn’t shift, to speak.

“So my dear, what seems to be the problem?” the doctor asked, her kind and wrinkled face reminding Ari of what she thought a grandmother should look like.  

Riley didn’t speak at first and Dr Fishman leaned in, apparently confused.

“Riley has the flu,” Ari said finally.

“I see,” said the doctor, still looking at Riley in concern. “Sore throat? Have you lost your voice dear?”

“N… no,” Riley stammered.

“Ok then my dear, can you tell me what symptoms you are experiencing?” the doctor asked.

“Well,” said Riley, still struggling to speak coherently, “it started as a cold and stomach cramps. But it hasn’t really settled down. Now I just feel really fatigued and run down.”

“And vomiting,” added Ari.

“Hmm,” said the plump woman, looking at Riley with a touch of concern, “it’s been going around. I’ve seen a dozen students with the flu over the last few weeks. The hospital has even started a free flu vaccine campaign.”

“So just bed rest then?” asked Riley.

“That’s a good start,” said the doctor. “How long has it been going on for?”

“About two weeks,” Riley replied.

“Well,” said the doctor, “I can write you a script for some peptosil; it helps with the bile build up. Are you sexually active?”

This question seemed to snap Riley from her reverie.

“What’s that got to do with peptosil?” asked Riley, supress a small chuckle, until her hands flew to her mouth, as if this action might cause her to be sick.

The doctor smiled indulgently at Riley, before explaining, “You’re a young girl vomiting; do I really need to connect the dots for you?”

“Apparently so,” said Riley, still looking confused.

Ari couldn’t help it; she laughed. She knew exactly what the doctor was getting at; she thought that Riley might be pregnant. Fortunately for Riley, vampires couldn’t have children; unfortunately this meant that she most defiantly did have a stomach bug. 

“Don’t worry that’s not an option,” said Ari.

The doctor’s eyebrows rose at this comment and she said, “It never is.”

“What’s not an option?” asked Riley, still oblivious to doctor’s meaning.

“You being pregnant,” Ari responded, another small laugh escaping her mouth.

At this Ari had turned to smile at Riley, expecting the girl to be grinning also. What she had not expected was for Riley to look horrified, her eyes wide in deep consideration.  

 “Shit,” Riley said, looking from Ari and then to the doctor, as her face continued to become more and more ashen.

“I think we should do a pregnancy test,” said the doctor, standing to leave. “I won’t be long.”

The moment the door closed, Ari rounded on Riley.

“What the hell?” she said. “You can’t be pregnant; didn’t Clyde tell you? Vamps can’t have children… it is impossible!”

“Don’t you think I know that,” hissed Riley, her head in her hands.

“But then why would you think that-”

“-I’m late Ari,” Riley said quickly, drawing her hands away from her face so as to stare wide eyed at Ari.

“Late for what? Oh, you mean, late… late!”

“I just thought it was because I have been sick… but, oh Jesus, I think I’m going to be sick,” Riley mumbled, racing from her chair and reaching for the sink, which she promptly began throwing up into.

“Riley,” said Ari, reaching over to rub her back and comfort her as best she could, “let’s just think about this logically. You and Clyde have been together for what… four months, at least?”

Riley nodded, her face still bent low towards the sink.

“And you haven’t um… cheated on him at all?” asked Ari, trying to keep her voice casual.

Riley looked up at Ari in disbelief, before quickly returning her attention to the sink and vomiting loudly into it.

“I’ll take that as a no. S you can’t be pregnant. Vampires can’t have children and if you had gotten pregnant before Clyde, then you would be showing well and truly by now.”

“I didn’t have sex with anyone before Clyde,” said Riley, reaching for some paper towel, so as to wipe her face.

“You mean right before you met Clyde, you weren’t seeing anyone?” 

“No,” said Riley, shaking her head, “I mean, Clyde was the first guy I slept with.”

Ari’s mouth fell open in surprise, just as the door to the doctor’s suite opened and Dr Fishman walked in, carrying a small plastic box in her hand.

“Alrighty my dear,” she said merrily, handing over the box to Riley, “if I could get you to just go to one of the toilets in the waiting area and follow the instruction inside, we should get a result in about a couple of minutes.”

Unable to explain to doctor Fishman that it was physiologically impossible for Riley to be pregnant, Ari and Riley left the doctors room and made their way to the large disable bathroom outside, Riley holding the pregnancy test as if it were some sort of contagious entity.  

Riley stared up at the image of a wheelchair and then turned back to look at Ari, her face the colour of sour milk.

“Can you come with me?” she asked, not making eye contact.

Ari nodded dumbly and pushed the door open, uncertain why Riley seemed so nervous; hadn’t they just come to the conclusion that Riley could not be pregnant?

Once they were inside, Ari slide the lock so that it said ‘occupied’ and Riley fumbled with the package, opening it and retrieving a small plastic strip.

“Ok,” said Ari, spinning around to face the tiled wall, just as Riley moved for the toilet.

Ari hummed tunelessly to herself, hoping to distract Riley from any embarrassment she might be feeling and trying to force away her own awkwardness.

After a moment Riley flushed the toilet and said, “Ok, it’s safe to turn around… I hope.”

Riley moved to the sink and gently placed the pregnancy test onto the vanity before washing her hands. Intrigued, Ari moved closer. She had never seen a pregnancy test before. It was a long thin plastic strip with a dark blue coloured section and then a light area where the test result would show up. Two strips told you that you were pregnant, one strip meant you weren’t.

“So,” said Ari, trying to break the tension as the pair sat waiting, their eyes glued to the results section of the test, “there’s no need to be worried. You can’t possibly be-”

But Ari’s words died in her throat when two pink strips shone back at her, and her mouth fell open in disbelief.

“Oh Jesus,” said Riley, reaching tentatively for her stomach.

“It must be a mistake,” said Ari, reaching for the packet instructions and reading them slowly. “It says here that there is a 1% chance that it could be a false positive. Only 1%... but it has to be a false positive. I don’t understand. What the hell is going on?”

Riley didn’t answer her. Rather gripped the pregnancy test and made for the door. Slowly the pair made their way back to the doctor’s office. The smell of vomit had been replaced with a sickly sweet pine fresh cleaner, which made Riley wrinkle her nose when she walked inside.

“The test?” asked the doctor, looking expectantly at Riley, who handed over the pregnancy test, still without speaking.

“It could be a false positive though, right?” said Ari, trying to gauge the doctors reaction.

Dr Fishman looked up at Ari, smiling indulgently as she said, “Not very likely. Though I think we should do an ultrasound, just to make sure. I’ll hold my congratulations until after we get those results back.”

Ari wanted to argue with the doctor, but knew she couldn’t. Still, there was no way that Riley could be pregnant. The test had to be wrong. The ultrasound would have to show that Riley wasn’t pregnant.

“We should do a blood test as well, but the ultrasound will be the fastest way to make sure that you are pregnant, and we can do it today. Depending on the conception date, it may be too early to see if you are pregnant though, so if that comes back as negative, we will do a blood test. How does that sound?”

Riley nodded, still too dumbstruck to speak.

After that Riley and Ari were directed to a small dark room, halfway down the back of the medical centre. When they got there, the doctor knocked on the door once and waited for a reply.

“Hello Lynda,” said a woman, seated on a funny looking chair, in front of which was an ultrasound machine. “I was just packing up for the day. What have you got for me?”

Ari felt her face flush and her heart race. How was this happening? Surely they were about to find out that this was all just a mistake, and Riley would be sent home on a strong course of antibiotics. 

“Oh Sybil,” said the doctor, leading Riley into the room, “I am glad I caught you. Would you mind doing an ultrasound for young Riley here? We just need to confirm pregnancy.”

Sybil looked up at Riley and gestured for her to take a seat on the bench.

“Ok, if you could just pull up your shirt so I can see your belly,” said the ultrasonographer.

Slowly Riley reached down and pulled up her top. Ari squinted down at her stomach. It was very dark in the room, almost pitch black, but Ari thought, though she wasn’t certain, that it looked almost as if there were a small bump in Riley’s belly. Quickly Ari shook herself. No… that was impossible.

“I’m just going to put some gel on you,” the ultrasonographer added, squirting a large amount of thick blue liquid on Riley’s exposed stomach.

“Ahh!” screamed Riley, and Ari whipped her head around furiously, but not before throwing her hands up into the air, stopping time.

Ari stared wide eyed around the room. Everyone was frozen, at least she thought everyone was; a small voice proved this not to be the case.     
 

“Sorry, it’s just cold,” said Riley, looking sheepishly at Ari.

“Wait… what?” said Ari, looking at the ultrasonographer and then Dr Fishman, who were both completely motionless.

“What’s going on?” asked Riley, her eyes darting backwards and forwards between the two frozen women. “Did you just stop time?”

“That,” said Ari, standing dramatically and examining the two stationary women, wanting to make quite certain they were indeed frozen, “is a very good question. Why the hell haven’t you frozen?”