One-Shot story about Chris and MC as they discover the next step in their growing family and future.
NOTE: This is a fictional story based on Pixelberry’s Choices App. *Books The Freshman, The Sophomore, The Junior. I am not affiliated with Pixelberry nor do I own the rights to their original characters.
MC had always known she was a light sleeper but the past few mornings had been different. It was like she’d never been asleep to begin with. The only comfortable thing about the grueling hours that passed was Chris beside her. She could feel his body heat radiating keeping her warm on the cold Maine evening. She looked at the clock on the wall, 5:17 am. As she turned back she felt her head spinning as if everything in her body was betraying her. She closed her eyes willing them to fall asleep. She wanted to sleep off the nausea and the headache but she knew the sun would be rising in a few hours and she’d have to continue the day regardless of how her body felt. Chris had been looking forward to visiting his family for months, she couldn’t be the one to ruin this trip. After minutes of ignoring and pushing back nausea she finally kicked her blankets off and ran to the hallway bathroom. It couldn’t have been even a minute between leaving the covers and warmth of the bed before she was heaving into the toilet. She pulled her hair back quickly before her next wave hit. She had no idea how long she was in there. There was no way there was anything left in her to rid of. A knock at the door pulled her out of her nauseated trance.
“Hello?” A light voice chimed. “Who’s in there?”
MC knew the voice, it was Lily, Chris’s mother. MC opened her mouth to speak but it only caused gagging and coughing. The sounds completely unpleasant to the ear.
“MC?” Lily questioned her voice softer now
“Uhh, yeah” MC managed to respond between the pulsing of her body. She didn’t hear anything Lily might have said upon entering. MC’s eyes were closed in pain and tears. She only knew Lily was there because she could now feel a soft pair of hands running down her back.
“You’ve been in here every morning since you and Chris arrived hun” Lily said softly alluding to the same thing MC already knew. “Not to mention the back and forth from the bathroom all day long, I can run to the store and get a te-”
“Don’t” MC interrupted. She couldn’t believe Chris’s mother was about to find out MC was pregnant before Chris was. She wasn’t sad or dissapointed but she was scared, petrified really. She’d never thought she’d make a good mother. Getting a test, knowing for certain scared her. Because after that, she’d never be able to deny the signs her body had been sending her the past few weeks. She kept her eyes closed her hurling now turning to sobs. She felt Lily’s arms wrap around her, no longer pressuring her to find out the truth. She was there only to be the mother MC needed. The pair of them sat on the bathroom floor until the sun started peering in the small window above the shower. MC calmed down now and was meer seconds from falling asleep in her mother in laws arms when a low voice stirred in her ears.
Chris had been there for a few minutes taking in what he was looking at. His mother’s eye contact pleading him to remain calm and quiet. He lowered himself on the ground next to them after closing and locking the door behind him, knowing his younger siblings would be getting ready for school soon.
“MC” he says softly watching her closed and tear stained eye lids squint when she recognizes his voice. It only takes a moment before she has moved from Lily’s embrace to Chris’s. Lily takes the que to leave and exits quickly. She knows this is moment for them, not for her. “Are you okay? You haven’t been yourself since we got here. Are you really this sick? We can cancel plans if you need to rest.” His questions spoken so quickly they almost feel jumbled together.
“I don’t think rest will help.” MC speaks into his shoulder. “I think this is going to be a regular thing now”
Chris questions her statement reaching his hand to her cheek and forcing her to look up at him. Her eyes red from both the lack of sleep and the tears. His face full of confusion staring down at her.
“I think I’m pregnant” she can feel her body shiver as she says in out loud of the first time.
Chris’s breath catches and he wraps around her tighter holding her head gently in his shoulder. They hadn’t been trying to get pregnant, and they’d rarely talk about it. He knew it scared her and he didn’t want to pressure that. MC was an only child and she only knew tale of the pain, hormones and miscarriages her own mother went through to even have MC. Chris’s mother however had three kids without a single struggle. The couples knowledge on pregnancy itself were very conflicting.
He tried to give her as much comfort as he could in his embrace. Feeling her anxiety flowing off of her. His guilt taking over because in her moment of weakness he can barely hold back his smile. Though he hadn’t had a strong father, he wanted nothing more than to be what his father wasn’t.
“You can be happy” MC says into his now tear stained shirt. “ I know you want this”
“But you don’t?” Chris questions kissing the top of her head.
She looks up quickly her tears stopping and the look of fear in her eyes is gone. “No, no, of course I want this! I-I-I- Just I don’t know how” her voice begins to break and is shaky but a smiles begins to appear on her face. “I’m scared, but I know that you will be there and that makes everything less terrifying”
Chris doesn’t hesitate to place his smile to hers, his lips soft and comforting. “So what do you want to do now” he asks barely moving his face from hers.
“I need to know, for certain that this is real.” she sighs.
After a few more minutes together on the cold tile MC returns to Chris’s childhood bedroom. The decorations far outdating their age now. For the first time since their arrival in Maine her body finally allows her to fall asleep quickly.
Chris descends the stairs and finds his siblings packing lunches in the kitchen, while his mother sits at the dining room table slowly sipping at a cup of something, coffee most likely from the scent in the air. No one speaks to him as he enters, his mother’s eye again questioning him. He chooses to wait until his siblings have left before he talks to her. He takes a seat a cross from her listening to his siblings bicker over pointless things.
“Is she okay?” AJ finally speaks breaking away from her middle brothers bickering. “Chris, is MC okay?”
“Yeah she’s caught the stomach flu or maybe some food poisoning.” he knows he can’t tell them the truth, not yet.
“Oh, well I’m gonna keep my distance then” AJ smiles as her and her brother -who’d been tasked with the chore of driving AJ to school ever since acquiring his license- move out the door.
Once they both hear the lock turn Chris and Lily’s eyes meet each others
“Is she okay?” Lily repeats the question her youngest child had asked before.
Chris can no longer hide his smile, he could never hide his emotions from his mother. But to his luck, his smile matches hers. “She’ll be okay, I think what she really needs is sleep” he looks down fidgeting with his hands. “I need your help Mom” he admits “I need a pregnancy test but I don’t know what to get, do they all work the same?” he laughs looking back to his mother with a hint of embarrassment.
“I’m heading to get a few groceries, I was just waiting for your brother and sister to leave. I’ll get one for you” she reassures her son. “But you’re right Chris, she needs to sleep. Leave her alone for a while. Would you want to come with me?”
“Yeah actually, let me get dressed” he nods as his mother finishes nursing her cup of coffee.
“I’ll be here when you’re ready” she smiles.
Chris runs upstairs changing as quietly as possible, he writes a note on a post it from his old High School desk.
‘Went to the store with Mom
After running his hand softly and lovingly over her arms and distinct jaw, he places the note next to his wife. At this point they’d been married for two years. Their college years, the places they’d met all apart of the past. But after all that time somehow her beauty still left him stunned. He gently moves her hair from her face to get a better glance before leaving.
“I’m sorry” a stranger’s voice whispers “You lost the baby”
MC’s eyes open fast as tears fill them. Her body had allowed her to sleep peacefully but her mind would not, her hours of sleep had been a trap. Dreams twisting to nightmares; scenarios over and over of loosing the child she didn’t even know she had for certain. As she wakes up she turns onto her knees burying her face into them. She breathes deep knowing that it was all a dream but barely being able to get a grip on reality. She notices the note next to her, reading it quickly she holds on to it hoping it was written hours before and that Chris was somewhere in the house.
“Chris” she says softly then turning to a yell “Chris!” she’d never thought what was a happy moment for him would become this much of a burden for her. She’d always been independent she helped others but never needed help of her own. In this moment that was different. She needed him. “CHRIS!” she yells one more time begging him to come to her.
Chris opens the front door his mother just behind him arms full of groceries when he hears the yelling. Tears thick in the voice coming from upstairs he looks at his mother and drops the bags knowing that she’d be able to manage them on her own. Skipping steps as he runs up to the room he sees her, she’s not in any physical pain. But he knows well how dark her mental pain could take her. One of the sad perks of marrying a writer, she was always in touch with her darkest of emotions.
“MC” he speaks as he runs around to kneeling on the bed crossed from her. Wiping her tears away.
“I can’t do it, I’m gonna kill this child” she quietly and weakly says “I’m gonna do something wrong. I had dreams of miscarriage, what if I can’t give you this. This is all you’ve ever wanted and I’m going to mess it all up, and you won’t forgive me. How could you forgive me.” she begins to ramble and speak her darkest thoughts.
Chris silences her by holding her tight in his arms. They’d seen a lot together, his father returning and leaving, losing grandparents, the change of leaving their college friends behind. He thought he’d seen every version of her tears and her his, but they were never like this. Because this wasn’t just sadness this was a mix of every emotion pouring out of her. “I would never blame you” he whispers quickly trying not to dwell on her terrors from before.
She allowed his embrace to calm her but her thoughts ran wild.
“Let’s find out what we are facing” he says loosening his grip and looking into her eyes. “I know all signs point to this but let’s find out for certain, you shouldn’t face these fears now if there is no real reason too” she nods in response as he quickly leaves to retrieve the test his mother had selected for them.
“Alone or together?” he asks her respecting whatever choice she makes.
“Alone” she whispers he walks her all the way to the door of the bathroom as he hears it lock he sits against the door. Fidgeting with his fingernails trying to think of anything but the pain coming from his always strong wife. The minutes pass and the sounds from the bathroom are silent. He falls back slightly as she opens the door behind him.
“You look first” she says, her tears gone. “I’m to worked up, I’m to emotional” she laughs at herself, reassuring her sandy blonde lover that her fears form the nightmares were fading. She hands the test face down to him. He grabs it never breaking eye contact with her.
“Ready?” he asks “Positive or negative are you ready?”
She nods quickly in response.
His eyes look away from hers as he turns the test around. He can feel her eyes staring at him, not letting them wander down to see for herself. He looks up at her and smiles big unable to the hide the same excitement he’d been harboring all morning.
“You’re pregnant” he laughs and for the first time she doesn’t show fear, she smiles and soon her chiming laughter comes out. A laughter he rarely heard, one she only showed when she was truly happy.
“I’m pregnant” she smiles, knowing it will take time to really come to terms with what it all meant she decides to let at least one good emotion shine. She jumps wrapping her thighs around his waist Chris catches her locking her in place his arms around her back. They spend a few moments in laughter sharing quick kisses before the emotions calm.
Chris lowers her down and she immediately places his hands on her stomach.
“I’m terrified” she says ironically through her smile “But this child is half yours and if that means I get one and half of you all to myself” she blushes looking down at his hands. “How could I turn that down”
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