Tested | Double Dee
Dorothy was restless. She’d seen patients like this plenty of times by now but being one was a different story. All the symptoms were there but she believed them to be there the last time and it was all manifested stress. While she waited for her dear friend to show up in the room with the results, Dorothy defaulted to pacing, turning her phone over and over in her head. If she wasn’t pregnant, there was the very real possibility she might scream over this happening yet a second time. If she was pregnant….well, she was doing everything she could not to let herself think too strongly on that yet. She needed to know first. “Please, hurry, D,” she whispered worriedly to herself--fingers itching to call Will but sticking to her plans to wait until she knew for certain.
Daina took a breath as she avoided looking over the results in her hands feeling strangely anxious to find out the news with her friend. It felt different, obviously, than finding out if a normal patient was pregnant, especially with Dorothy’s recent scare. She still wasn’t quite to sure how her friend would react to the news either way, but going through that more than once would be sure to feel devastating, and it was the last thing Daina wanted Dorothy to experience again.When she knocked on her friends room door she felt a tiny ache in the pit of her stomach. She glanced at her friend pensively as she walked in, showing her she was holding the results in her hand. “I was too nervous to read them without you” she admitted with a smirk. “Do you want to read,or should I?”
Immediately after the few knocks on the door, Dorothy’s head whipped in the direction of it. She stopped pacing and gripped her phone tightly in her hand as Daina joined her inside the room. Dorothy hadn’t even bothered masking her feelings; she was nervous and until she knew one way or the other, she wasn’t going to be able to shake that. It would likely linger long after since nausea was flaring up, making her her stomach churn again. Her eyes were anxious and hopeful for some peace of mind from her dear friend even though she felt like she might throw up, but her shoulders fell while a slight smile came to her lips at the revelation that Daina hadn’t looked at the results yet. “Okay…” In only a few seconds, she went back and forth in her mind before deciding out loud, “You read them. I don’t want my eyes playing tricks on me if I look at first.” She bit down on her bottom lip and tried to keep her nausea under control, eyeing the papers and keeping her fingers clenched in anticipation.
Daina watched Dorothy carefully for a response, nodding carefully when her friend finally decided on the blonde reading the results to her. “Okay” she nodded again, quicker this time. She needed to get this over with, mostly to put poor Dorothy out of her misery. She held her breath as she brought the results within eyesight to read, making sure to read every word with explicit detail so she didn’t mess anything up. It because obvious rather quickly that the results were clear as day, Dorothy was indeed and without a doubt pregnant. “Positive…” she whispered as she read. After only a few moments, she let her arm fall, making eye contact with her friend, and pressing her lips together. “It’s positive, Dee. You’re going to be a mother.”
When Daina agreed to reading the results first, Dorothy lifted her phone to her chest and clutched it tightly. She couldn’t make out what Daina was reading one way or another and was rapidly trying to mentally prepare herself for another negative result. If that was the case, she would likely want to arrange for them to look into why her stress has manifested into pregnancy symptoms lately. Perhaps it was all psychological with the law and many of her dearest friends either expecting already or were making plans to start their families. Dorothy was already venturing down that state of mind that Daina’s whispered response almost didn’t register in her brain. Quickly snapping out of it, Dorothy’s eyes suddenly became very focused on her friend. “What?” she asked after some silence passed between them. When Daina reaffirmed the results, Dorothy parted her lips and almost let herself smile over them but she quickly sidled up to Daina’s side to look at the printed results herself, to be absolutely sure her ears weren’t tricking her. Sure enough, in black and white, her blood test proved quantitative and qualitative results that she was, indeed pregnant. The smile she tamed in before was finally let go as she moved her free hand to her forehead. “I’m pregnant…” she whispered as well. Looking just slightly down next to herself, she met Daina’s eyes but the smile soon froze on her face from the shock. The symptoms were real and in less than a year’s time, she and Will would be parents. Dorothy lowered her hand from her forehead and hugged Daina, nearly ready to cry over the news. She hadn’t done so but the feeling now mixed with her nausea nearly pushed her towards it. When she slipped her arms away from her good friend, Dorothy’s next thought was, “I can’t believe it…” followed by, “I wonder when…” but that wondering wandered away as she stared up at the ceiling and thought backwards. Their most recent romp was too recent to know this; before that, she had been too distraught over Alby’s accident to be in any kind of mood for sex. Soon her mind honed in on when it most likely occurred--Kentucky. Out loud, she said, “That would put me at around eight weeks then...oh my god, Daina!” Her smile was back even though she sounded anxious, “I have to tell Will. But…” Again, she clamped down on her bottom lip while wheels continued to turn in her mind.
Daina let herself be pulled into the hug, squeezing her friend back almost immediately with extreme enthusiasm. She let out a happy breath, thrilled that her friend was reacting positively to the news. “It’s real this time, Dee!” she confirmed with a wide smile as they broke the hug. She watched as Dorothy seemed to process everything, raising her eyebrows when Dorothy confirmed how far along she already was. “8 weeks! That’s amazing!” she said, doing a little jump in celebration. A million things were already racing through her head: finding out the gender, buying gifts for Dorothy, being there when she delivered, of course, and even throwing a baby shower! This was just as about as exciting as when her nephew was born, and if Dorothy was happy, so was Daina. She grabbed Dorothy’s hands and squeezed them, letting out a breath. “Do you think he’ll be happy?” She raised her eyebrows, stepping back a bit. “Are you gonna do a big reveal like all those youtube videos? Oh my gosh, are you gonna film it?!”
Dorothy was unable to stop smiling for the longest time, and she laughed with Daina, extremely grateful for her friend’s enthusiasm. Her mind was swimming around the various stages of pregnancy while her body reminded her of the current one, countering her joy with another churn of nausea. With her lips clamped shut, she tried to wait out the worst of it before saying more to Daina. Exhaling, Dorothy looked to her friend again with a softer smile, “I hope he will. Before the last time happened with us, we were both talking about how much we want to be parents. He wants all of the ups and downs of being a parent… but after last time was such a let down, I couldn’t bring myself to put him through that again, so… I just want to make sure that whatever I do to tell him is special.” Her smile grew some more, “I didn’t even think about that! I’ve spent all this time trying not to let myself go there in case it was negative, you know? But now that we know it’s not, maybe I should film his reaction? Like I think I’ll have to tell him at home some way, or else he’ll probably know something’s up before I get to actually tell him.” She tapped the side of her leg with one hand while the other absentmindedly wandered up to rest on her flat stomach. “Hmm… what do you think? Should it be something really fun, more low-key or somewhere in the middle?”
Daina noticed the change in Dorothy’s demeanor, wondering if it was the morning sickness...all day sickness, really, that her friend had been feeling lately. She smiled again when her friend did, back to the excitement she’d been feeling just a moment ago. “You’re both gonna be such amazing parents” she gushed, thinking of all the happiness this would bring her friends. “Yes, for sure, if you want to film it you’ll have to set up a hidden camera. I think really fun is the best way!” She thought on it, thinking youtube videos she’d watched in the past, back when her sister in law announced her pregnancy. “I’ve seen loads of people do it where the spouse opens a gift and are left to guess, those are always fun. Oh!” she exclaimed, getting an idea. “Maybe you could set up a scavenger hunt for him!”
Daina’s comment on her and Will as parents made Dorothy blush and her dimples more pronounced with the smile she couldn’t help donning. “You have to be my doctor,” she blurted out, knowing it didn’t need to be said between them, but wanting to leave zero doubts that Dorothy would even consider anyone else to be by hers and Will’s side while they prepared for this important chapter in their lives. “I think I will film it. I love being able to capture little moments like this and I know his parents would love to see it after we tell them the news!” Mulling over the ideas Daina pitched, Dorothy went from tapping the side of her leg to tapping her chin, “Hmm… Okay I love the scavenger hunt idea especially since we both love games but I have a feeling the timing might not work out well unless I get him to take time away from the bakery on my next day off. And then he’ll be suspicious and I’m a terrible liar…” She did want to remember the scavenger hunt idea though, perhaps for future children but that wouldn’t be for some time. “I can definitely do a gift though! And maybe make a great dinner or something.” It wasn’t often that she got to cook for Will. Her days off were a crap shoot since it usually meant she was going to have to be up early the next day, so she usually kept the meals she made simple, or she would pick up some takeout. This was special though and she would spend the entire day on a meal if need be. Going with the gift idea, Dorothy softly gasped, “What if I found like...a matching onesie and t-shirt or something for him and the baby?”
Dainaraised her eyebrows and bit her lip, nodding almost immediately after Dorothy’s suggestion. “I’d love to be” Daina confirmed with another nod, hugging Dorothy again. “I’d be offended if you asked anyone else, honestly. Revoke your friend card for sure”, she joked, pulling away. “Plus I bet your friends might want to see it too!” she said, gesturing to herself with a grin. She loved seeing these types of reveals, and seeing some of her best friends go through it would be amazing. She nodded matter of factly at that, laughing a bit. “You’re the worst liar, honestly. I feel like I remember a tv show where a wife made her husband specific foods to give him hints… baby carrots, baby corn, baby back ribs...that might be cute!” She gasped at the onesie/t-shirt idea, clearly on board with it. “Now that’s cute! You can get anything custom designed these days...maybe they could say something related to baking?”
Dorothy softly giggled while returning the hug, “There’s no one else on my short list, I promise. My friend card is staying sewn into my lab coat.” She tossed her head back a little, laughing at Daina’s not-so-subtle hint about seeing the announcement surprise. “Well now I really need to think about whether not to film it…” At her bit of teasing, she grinned and admitted, “I will definitely film it. For you, if for no one else.” With a playful roll of her eyes and her grin still firmly on her face, Dorothy stated, “I can’t help it! This is why I have to be careful about surprises, and not have them planned too too far in advance. Like I’m pretty sure if Will had started trying to guess where we were going on our honeymoon, I would have done something that gave away the destination.” Knowing this about herself, she wasn’t going to be able to wait very long before she told Will the news. This wasn’t something she would want to keep from him for long anyway, but whatever idea she would decide on was going to have to be soon. She smiled at all of the ‘baby’ foods Daina mentioned and nodded along, “That might be a good idea. I’ll have to look into more foods like that and see if it’s something I can pull off, or if it’s something I think he would catch onto.” Her face brightened up, “Yeah? Oh gosh, that would be easy!” Right away, Dorothy spouted a cheesy baking-related idea for a onesie, “Bun- out of the oven…” She thought over roughly when she would be due and then finished, “...December 2017! With a little picture of a dinner roll or something. Okay I love this way too much!”
Daina giggled shaking her head. “Good. For a second I was worried you’d pick asshole Dr. Jones over me” she joked, shoving her friend lightly. She shook her head playfully as her friend teased her, grinning when she finally agreed to filming it. “You’re the best! And, in a few years, you’ll definitely thank me. I feel like your adrenaline will be so high when you tell him that you might forget little details you want to remember. This way the moment is immortalized!” She laughed, shaking her head once again. “So I assume you’re planning on telling him sooner rather than later, then?” She theorized it wouldn’t be too long before she started showing, and with the recent scare, Will had to have had pregnancy on the brain, at least a little bit. Her eyes brightened up at Dee’s suggestion, and a laugh fell from the blonde’s lips. “That’s perfect!” she exclaimed, still laughing. “And adorable. Do you think he’d wear something like that?” She suddenly realized the date Dorothy had given her, and her grin widened once again. “Ahh! December!! It feels so soon! I know it’s way early, but do you and Will have any ideas for names at all?”
Dorothy scoffed with a playful roll of her eyes, “Never. Ever. Ev-- oh God, you’re going to have me singing that stupid Taylor Swift song. But no way, it’s you and me on this. And Will, of course.” Dorothy giggled a little again--Daina’s excitement for her was absolutely contagious to be around and she was deeply thankful for her good friend. Talking about this now was making her want to tell everyone but with the timing of Daina’s question, she said, “Oh definitely sooner. My next day off is coming up so I’ll have time to figure out a great dinner and actually make it for him. After he knows, I think I’d rather wait until after my first trimester’s over--you know, just to get out of those woods.” They both worked enough in their field by now to know the ins and outs of most risk factors with pregnancy. Dorothy couldn’t help laughing a bit, “Will in a onesie? No, I don’t think that would ever happen. I was thinking about a baby onesie to make it a really obvious hint that he’s going to be a dad. Or! He’s really into Star Wars. Maybe I can find something online to order overnight. Like a t-shirt for him and some kind of matching onesie for the baby?” Ideas were popping up like daisies in her head but her cheeks rose, “I knowww! Time is going to fly by so fast.” At the mention of names, Dorothy shook her head, “Nope. The only time we’ve ever talked about names had very little to do with a baby--it was over Will’s middle name, which he hates. I like it but I wouldn’t want to give our baby any kind of name that he doesn’t like, you know?”
Daina felt especially giggly tonight apparently, and Dorothy’s response was spurring that on even more. “Me and you and Will and the baby” she confirmed with a firm nod, letting out a happy sigh shortly after. “So smart” she said with a nod, knowing how common miscarriages are in the first trimester. “We gotta get you a good way to keep quiet about it until you’re ready to tell people, honestly.” A thought popped into her head suddenly, one she wasn’t to sure Dorothy was ready to think about yet. “Do you think...will you tell Lena right away? Do you want me to say something to her?” She laughed out loud at the thought of the Will in a onesie, shaking her head. “No, I meant would he wear a bun in the oven tee-shirt?” She smiled and nodded at the predicament, wondering, briefly, how she and Riley would ever agree on a baby name. But there was far too much going on between the two of them now to stop and consider it, and she willed the thought out of her mind for the time being. Or, at least she tried to. “Once you tell him, maybe you two could start looking for ideas online? I feel like discussions about a name could go on forever.”
“Yes,” Dorothy agreed, unable to contain her joy as Daina amended her response to include the baby. She grinned through her own defense, “I can keep quiet about it. It just might be harder if anyone asks me point blank if I’m pregnant, which… honestly, if they haven’t asked me yet, I should be okay.” As her stomach rolled with more nausea, however, she felt a little less confident about being able to hold to that. “Or maybe people will have to see a little less of me for a while so I don’t throw up on them out of nowhere…” She couldn’t help grimacing at the thought but at the mention of Lena, Dorothy nodded, “I’ll tell her. I...well I’ve spoken to her. We’re not back to the way we were but it’s progress, so… I can tell her.” Grateful as she was to Daina for the offer, Dorothy knew this was something she could share with her sister directly. Thinking about it, her nose scrunched a little, “He probably would, but I know he would be more excited about something Star Wars related. Whatever I end up getting, you’ll find out in the video!” She then smiled again, “Oh I’m sure it’s going to come up again and again...and again and again until we decide on names that we’re both really in love with.” The giddiness was bubbling up inside her again, “Let’s go make my first appointment and then I can go start looking on the gift to use for telling him.” Feeling far happier than when she entered the room, Dorothy snatched up her purse and linked arms with Daina to head out for them to look over the available appointments together.
