Take Me Out (15 page)

Chapter 16

And Baby Makes Three

(Charlotte)

Just when I thought we had seen enough people hitting the ground for the evening, Bentley went and passed out on me. Dr. Borgeo was delivering the unbelievable news when he started mumbling to himself and checked out. Luckily my father was able to catch him.

But what made it worse, my father witnessed the entire thing. He heard the results of my test and you could see how extremely pissed he was. But the results explained everything. I’d been sick, tired and had absolutely no desire to do anything. All along, I thought I was depressed and upset about whoever was after Bentley, and the entire time it was a baby.

Whoa. A baby. A kid. I’d never been a fan of children. I never really thought about having a family, in fact the entire thought of pregnancy in general scared the shit out of me. Apparently, it had the exact same impact on Bentley since he was engaged in a repeat performance of my own dramatics from earlier in the evening.

Nausea washed over me once again and soon I was emptying the contents of my stomach all over my father’s expensive Italian shoes. He pulled my hair back and rubbed my back while the nurses tended to Bentley.

I had no idea how I should have reacted to it all. I just assumed women were supposed to be happy and overjoyed by that kind of news but I was far from it. Instead, I felt a panic attack coming on-- something I hadn’t experienced since I was in high school.

Realizing my father was still watching this all unfold, my worst fear played in my mind. My mother was going to find out. She would disown me completely. We already had such a rocky relationship because I was everything she thought a woman
shouldn’t
be. Independent, brash and a free-thinker. She wanted me to be June Cleaver and I wanted to be Gloria Steinem.

“Please, don’t tell Mom,” I begged my father. “I don’t... I mean, this wasn’t supposed to happen. I just don’t want to tell her, yet.”

“I don’t plan on telling her. Because I know nothing is truly wrong, I am going home, now. I will make up an excuse for your mother, like you didn’t eat enough or something. But remember, you need to come clean with her eventually, kiddo.”

“I know, I just need to figure things out in my own life before involving anyone else.”

He nodded, gave me a big hug, then left. His hug made me feel like everything was going to be okay. I guess it’s what fathers are supposed to do for their little girl.

Bentley was fine, though just as shocked, confused and famished as I was.

“What are we going to do?” I asked him with tears in my eyes. He stood over my hospital bed holding my hand. The thought of abortion sat firmly in my mind, but the idea made me sick to my stomach once again.

“We’re going to be parents, babe. Nothing is going to change. We’ll be a family. Nothing will change Charlie. Nothing at all. I’m not going anywhere.” When he finished speaking he touched his lips to my hand to reassure me. All I could think of was brushing my teeth since the recent vomit episode. Poor Bentley.

“Do you want this baby?” His question hit me hard. I had no idea what I wanted. A baby was a big deal. It wasn’t like a puppy or a goldfish. It was a person-- a person we would be responsible for not hurting. My face must have given me away.

“You don’t,” he stated with a look of sadness on his face. I had hurt him, I knew it.

“I never planned on having children so young. I never thought I would ever find someone to settle down with until you came along. This is all just so unexpected. Everything has happened so fast. It’s a lot to take in.” I placed my hand on my stomach, almost like I hoped to feel something moving around in there, although ninth-grade biology class had taught me it was too early.

Dr. Borgeo knocked gently on the door and came back in pushing a large computer looking machine. “One last test and I will let you bust out of this joint. I’m going to do a quick ultrasound so we can see how far along your pregnancy is.” She started typing something out on the machine’s keyboard. My name appeared on the screen. “Do you know the date of your last period?”

“I have no idea. It’s something I rarely kept track of.”

“That’s okay, we’ll just need you to get naked from the waist down then.”

The waist down? What the hell was she going to do? I thought those fancy ultrasound machines waved right over the belly! Horror set in once again.

“Um, why?”

“Since you aren’t that far along, we won’t be able to get a good look over your stomach, we need to do something called a
trans-vaginal ultrasound.
It’s the closest look we can get of the baby.”

The day just kept getting better and better! I rolled my eyes and shimmied out of my underwear.

Bentley looked like he was about to pass out again. “So this thing will show us the baby?” He asked while he helped me finish taking my panties off. They’d put me in one of those extremely ugly hospital gowns when running all the tests.

“You okay, honey?” He asked me. He could tell I wasn’t, but continued to try and be sweet and supportive as best he could, given the brick wall I’d built in the matter of a few hours. It was sky high!

Dr. Borgeo rolled what looked like a condom down over this long probe and squirted an obscene amount of lube onto the end of it. As if my fear wasn’t bad enough, I had to try not to laugh at this giant medical dildo coming my way.

I think, at this point, I lost a little bit of my sanity and burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, I just... I’m sorry; go ahead.”

I laid back in the bed and they put my legs up in the air like the usual OB/GYN visit. If I said it was comfortable or anything compared to sex, I would be a giant liar. It was probably the most uncomfortable thing ever.

She turned the screen to the side, so all of us could view it. She moved the probe around and toyed with the buttons on the ultrasound machine. “You see that right there?” She pointed at a little dark spot on the screen with something flashing.

“Yeah...” we both replied in unison.

“That flicker is your baby’s heartbeat. Going rather strong, too.”

I looked over at Bentley and he had tears forming in the corners of his eyes. That was all I needed for my own water works to start. Tears flowed down my cheeks and dripped onto the ugly hospital gown. There was our baby on the screen. The tiny little gummy bear was our child.

“Our baby...” I said, holding onto his hand and squeezing.

That moment confirmed everything I ever needed to know. This was everything I wanted. It was perfect, our baby was perfect and I was officially in love with this tiny gummy bear looking child residing inside my uterus.

“I shall call it gummy bear-- because tell me it doesn’t look like one!” I blurted out and everyone started laughing.

“It kinda does,” Bentley said while leaning in to give me a kiss on the forehead.

With a few more clicks, pictures printed out and Dr. Borgeo continued, “It looks like you’re about seven weeks pregnant, give or take a day. While these things aren’t very accurate these days, it looks like your due date is going to be around March seventeenth. A St. Patrick’s Day baby.”

“March seventeenth,” I said to myself while letting the reality of it all settle into place.

“Here are a couple sample packets of prenatal vitamins. Don’t take them on an empty stomach. You’ll be doing two per day, every day from now on. I’ll see you in my office in a month. If you have any problems, cramping or start to bleed, call me right away.” She handed me a small bag with her card and tons of vitamin samples. “The nurse will be in shortly with your discharge papers and you’ll be free to go.”

With that, she pushed her little computer cart ultrasound machine out of the room and I tried desperately to relax. This was real and it wasn’t going away. Unlike most guys, Bentley was happy and not bolting out of the room right behind the Doctor.

After I’d been released, Bentley insisted on carrying me into the apartment. He wouldn’t let me walk at all. It was ridiculous. I wasn’t handicapped, just pregnant. There was no way I could deal with this for nine months!

“I’m fine Bentley, let me walk,” I argued as we made our way into the apartment. Shay and Drew were both sitting on the couch waiting for some kind of official report from us. Shay was clearly worried.

“I’m fine, I just didn’t eat enough. With all the Molly and Jake drama, my body kind of just shut down because of my antics,” I lied and headed towards my bedroom. I just wanted to go to sleep. But I knew Bentley wanted to sit down for a long conversation.

“You guys need anything?” Drew asked Bentley as I headed into the bedroom and closed the door. I needed sleep, lots of sleep and to be left alone.

“Can you order some takeout? Whatever is still open this time of night? We still haven’t eaten,” he requested while following me down the hall.

Bentley walked in behind me, quiet and slow. “You okay?”

I was on the bed curled up in a ball. “I’m fine, it’s just a lot to take in. If you want to go, it’s okay.”
Go ahead Bentley, run.

(Bentley)

“Where else would I go, Charlie?” I asked.

“I don’t know; anywhere but here. This is your opportunity to walk away. I’m giving you a free pass to have an uncomplicated life without some bitch trapping you into fatherhood. Take it!” Her words stung. I suffered the pain of remembering what my childhood was like, one where I had no father.

“Trapping me? What are you talking about Charlotte? You didn’t trap me. There is no place on Earth I’d rather be! I’ve dreamed of you pregnant with my baby, more than once. I wanted this more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my entire life. I’m not trapped, I’m exactly where I want to be, Charlotte. You’re my world and now... now we’re going to be a family. Don’t push me away! Please, don’t push me away. I love you
and
our baby!”

(Charlotte)

He wasn’t running. He wanted to be here with me and the baby. And he’d dreamt of it.
What the hell?
A million different emotions flooded through my mind.

“Babe, relax. It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay. Get some rest, Drew is ordering us something to eat. You need to eat before you can go to sleep. I am going to go throw some water on my face and I will join you in bed.” Bentley leaned in and kissed me with all the passion we always had between us. Nothing was missing and it was all the reassurance I needed to know he wasn’t lying.

I pulled the covers up to my chin and was asleep before he got back from the bathroom. I woke up to Bentley walking in with a couple containers of Chinese takeout that smelled delicious. I filled my belly as quick as I could and once I was finally content, I drifted back off to sleep. I woke up a few times during the night to find myself in Bentley’s arms, one time finding his hand spread out on my belly. Knowing he was there, holding me, was all I needed to sleep deeply.

I woke up and was thrown into a panic. Bentley was gone. I looked at the clock and it was almost ten in the morning. I had really overslept, but it had felt so good.