Stricken Unveiled (Stricken Rock #2) (2 page)

Overall the past six weeks has kicked my ass
in ways I didn’t think possible. But at the same time I’ve loved
it. Kicking ass and taking names gives you a real buzz, of the
legal variety. Being Johnathan’s power of attorney for his short
stint in rehab has taken up hours upon hours of my time because not
only do I get to receive his thirty minute phone call once a week
which consists me mainly doing a business run down with him and two
medical updates from his docs. They say he’s right on track and
that by the time his six weeks is up he’ll be good to go.

I also have to manage his personal assets.
James has helped out a lot with those and so has Stacy. But since
Johnathan decided it was his job to pay his bills personally and
not have bitch head Jasmine or Stacy do it. I’ve taken over and
learned a lot along the way. For instance he has a dog. Who knew
that? Not me. And when he’s on tour Molly his blue pit bull spends
her time in an upscale doggy hotel. Which he pays two thousand
dollars a week to board her in. For two grand a week that dog
better be getting massages and fed caviar by the spoonful. I’ve
also had to pay his maid that comes to his house once a week when
he’s gone and three times a week when he’s home. And his gardener,
his pool cleaning crew and James. Who by the way gets paid six
times more than I do a year, plus a car and a house to live in for
free. I’m seriously working in the wrong profession.

“You ready?” Stace asks, lovingly squeezing
my thigh.

We’ve finally arrived at the Clairemount
women’s center. It’s about thirty miles from Stacy’s house. I’m
about to see a new Obgyn for the first time since I started going
to a lady parts doctor eight years ago. I’m kind of nervous but I
know I’ll be okay mainly because I have Stacy by my side. The last
time I went to the docs I found out I was pregnant with the twins
and I’m excited to see them again today. They might have legs and I
might be able to hear a heartbeat. I can only hope. Fingers
crossed.

“Yeah I guess I need to get this over with.”
I sigh.

We get out of the car and Stacy grabs my hand
folding his fingers into mine. He’s so sweet!

An elevator and two glass doors later we are
sitting in my new doctor’s office. This one is so much nicer than
the one back home. A receptionist handed us both glasses of fresh
spring water with a mint leaf when we signed in. Now this is what I
call living the high life. I know lots of celebrities go to this
center. I can now see why.

“Miss Bronwyn. The doctor will see you now.”
A nurse in all white scrubs says, both Stacy and I get up and make
our way back to an examine room.

Holy cow! This place is nice. Mable floors
are in this damn examining room. Not plastic or linoleum. Real
marble. The walls are a soothing pale mint green. Gender neutral, I
wonder if that’s on purpose. Stacy is sitting across from me on a
leather arm chair and I’ve got my butt fully clothed propped up on
this table. The nurse who introduced herself as Shelby just took my
vitals and weighed me on the in room scale before she left. How
cool is that?

A knock. “Can I come in?” I hear an elegant
voice inquire from outside the door.

“Yes.”

In strolls a delicate woman with high cheek
bones, tall lean frame almost like a stick figure, long slender
fingers perfectly manicured, her hair is a pale blonde and up in a
chignon off her neck. She’s beautiful and classy in a Victorian
kind of way.

“Hello Miss Bronwyn I’m Doctor Gold. But
please call me Trisha.” She says sweetly extending her bony hand. I
can’t imagine those fingers delivering babies, they look like
they’d break if she lifted anything over ten pounds.

“Hello doctor and please call me Emily.” I
reply eloquently, taking her hand into mine and providing her with
a quick shake. She respectfully turns to Stacy and repeats the
gesture.

Peering down at the tablet in her hand she
says, “It looks like a Dr. Shells out of Indiana has sent all of
your records already so I won’t need to do much updating to your
patient file.”

“I guess that means I don’t have to do a long
run down with you on my condition or the fact that I am nearly
twelve weeks pregnant with twins.”

“No, but how has that been going for you? Are
you experiencing any discomfort other than normal pregnancy
woes?”

“I’m been feeling good. Not much vomiting and
little nausea. I’m hungry all the time and I pee about twelve times
a day.” I say it all with a motherly smile. It’s better than a
frown I suppose.

But what I really want to say is: Why in the
hell do women get pregnant? If all they are is a walking hormone
that cries all the damn time, eats a horse a day, pees gallons and
wants to hump every man that walks by. But I’m sure I’d freak her
out and that’s not what I’m going for. I do want to keep her as my
baby doctor. Subtlety isn’t always my strong suit.

She gives me a throaty laugh as her grey
steel eyes crinkle at the edges. “That’s normal. I’m glad this
pregnancy is going so smoothly. Most women would love to be as
lucky as you in that department, especially women with your
condition. You’ve been blessed to have conceived so quickly. I’ve
spent years with some patients who have Endometriosis like you,
doing IVF treatment one after the other and only thirty percent of
the time they conceive. And according to the scans and documents in
your charts your body is even worse off than theirs are. It a
miracle you’re even pregnant to begin with.” She smiles warmly, her
voice soft and soothing, very Zen like.

“I realize that, that’s why I’m doing as much
as I can to take care of these two.” I rub my hand over my tiny
bump. “I’ve been taking my vitamins and fish oil and I’ve cut out
all caffeine except the occasional chocolate bar. I want to give
them the best chance to grow and be healthy.”

“That’s good. I’m pleased to hear that. So
why don’t I bring in the ultrasound machine? And we get a look at
those two little babies and see if we can’t get lucky enough to
pick up some heartbeats.”

“Sounds great.” I smile and she ducks out
leaving us to wait.

I’m so excited. I get to see my babies and
Stacy is here with me! I could almost do a little dance. But I
won’t.

“She seems really nice Stace I’m so glad you
picked her to be my new doctor.”

I so want to hug him right now!

“Yeah, she came highly recommended to work
with multiple births and celebrities. And I thought the fact that
they are you know whose babies, it might be good to stick to a
place this discrete.”

How have I gotten so lucky in life to have
such an amazing best friend? He might be a little mixed up in the
relationship department because even after reading all those
letters from Kyle he’s still holding back calling him. Well, it’s
not like we’ve had a lot of time on our hands. But I sure hope he
does it soon because he needs to get it out of the way. Plus I’m
kind of excited to see what comes of it. If I can’t have romance
someone sure as hell better.

She wheels in a state-of-the-art machine.

“You’re twelve weeks now so I should be able
to get a good view without having to do an internal ultrasound. If
you could please lie back and lift your shirt. Leaving it rest just
below your bra.” She instructs with finesse only a doctor could
possess.

“Okay.” I do what she asks, rolling my shirt
up neatly and tucking it underneath my bra line.

Hovering her hand over me she squirts a
little bit of warmed jelly on my bump. Stacy gets off his
comfortable chair and comes to stand by me. I hold my out my hand
and he wraps both of his around it. His face is bright with a
lovely smile that only Stacy could have. This must be just as
exciting for him as it is for me. My heart is pounding hard in my
chest. This is so much fun!

She places a white probe on my stomach and
swirls it in the jelly. It’s warm and it kind of feels good. On the
screen my uterus pops up with two little sacs and two little beings
in those sacs with both of their hearts beating fast. I can see it
all clearly this time. And it’s all in 3D, which is so much better
than the 2D before. I can see little hands and legs and they’re so
beautiful. Those are my babies on that screen!

“Wow that looks different than the last
time.”

Dr. Golds smirks. “Yes they grow rather fast
at this stage. Looks like we have two little healthy babies.” She
says clicking around on the machine and dragging lines over the
screen. I assume for measurements.

She doesn’t explain things as well as Dr.
Shells always had, but, it’s fun watching the little babies move in
my belly on the monitor. It’s almost surreal. Stacy has a death
grip on my hand and I turn to look at him and his blue eyes are
glowing and he has the biggest smile I think I’ve ever seen on his
face.

“You okay Stace?”

He shakes his head like he’s clearing water
out of his ears. “Oh yeah, I’m perfect. This is so awesome!” he
nearly screams.

I can’t help but laugh and the doctor joins
in. And here I thought I was excited to see the babies. This
appointment was more for him than it was for me in some ways.

“I’m glad you like to see the babies.” I
giggle with a huge smile.

“Would you like to hear your baby’s
heartbeats?” Trisha my doctor asks.

Stacy bobs his head like a fool without
saying a word.

“Yes please.” I say with another giggle. He’s
cracking me up over here. I can’t believe my best friend is this
thrilled to see the twins. It’s fun for me because I’m the mom.
He’s just the uncle.

She clicks a button the cart and fast
thudding sounds fill the room.

“This is baby A’s heartbeat.” She says
positioning the probe over my first baby. It’s fast and strong.

“And this is baby B’s” she moves the probe
over and it’s a little slower than baby A’s but it’s almost the
same.

I’m so happy I could almost cry. Two
beautiful babies in my belly growing like they should and I’ve yet
to have any real complications. Thank god!

She pulls the probe off my belly, and wipes
my skin with a soft cloth.

“What? Where’d they go?” Stacy mopes, sadness
swelling in his voice.

“She took the ultrasound probe off my belly
honey.” I pat his hand. He looks lost and sad. He was too focused
on the screen that nothing else in the room was even registering.
My sweet-sweet best friend.

“Here are some pictures of your babies.” She
hands me a long strip of twelve pictures all in 3D. “Now I’d like
to have you back here in four weeks and we can find out the sex of
the babies then. If you’d like. Being pregnant with twins means
after that visit I will have you back every two weeks and once you
hit twenty eight weeks we will have weekly appointments. I don’t
want to scare you but I want you to be prepared because a lot of
times with twins once you move into your third trimester you might
be in here a lot to do stress tests and examinations. I’ve had to
bring some women in upwards of four times a week to make sure we
are moving right along. But we will talk about that more once we
get you closer.” She offers me a friendly smile and pats me firmly
on the leg. She’s stronger than she looks.

“Okay thanks. So can we go now?”

“Yep. Just check out in the front to schedule
your next appointment.” She instructs and ducks out of the
room.

I hand Stacy over the pictures of the babies
because I can see him eyeing them.

“So….” I say hopping down off the table. My
feet landing on the marble creating an echo in the examine
room.

He nearly dashes over and swoops me up in his
arms. His body crushing into mine. I let out a barking laugh as I
pat his back.

“It’s okay big guy.” I pat again.

“That was like the coolest thing ever!” he
shrieks excitedly.

“Yeah, well, I’m glad they are growing
steadily and I’m going to get fat pretty fast.” I try to push him
off of me but he won’t let go. “Stace we need to leave. Can you let
go so we can.” I pat his shoulders and he releases me.

“Sorry. I’m just so happy! You have to let me
come to all the doctor appointments.” He exclaims nearly jumping up
and down like a two-year-old hopped up on sugar.

“I won’t be having an ultrasound each time
silly. But I will make sure I have you here for all the ones I do.
Okay?” I giggle.

He’s being such a dork. Who would have
thought my best friend might enjoy this whole pregnancy thing more
than I do. That is how I wish all dads were. From what I hear
they’re usually excited. But I’m certain Stacy’s blows them all out
of the water. God love him!

What a great day it has been so far. Baby
appointment and now Stacy and I are lounging on his suede beige
sectional curled up with a giant king-sized blanket together, paper
plates in our laps full of pizza and hot wings. I’ve always loved
pizza but ever since I’ve gotten pregnant I crave its deliciousness
even more so now. I ordered it with mushrooms, banana peppers; okay
in Cali they have pepperoncini’s which are almost the same thing,
and black olives. I used to hate black olives but for some reason
now I love them and the saltiness is what draws me in like a moth
to a flame. The hot wings with ranch are fabulous. I hear some
woman crave sweets; well I’m a salty kind of gal. Potato chips,
black olives, mozzarella cheese and these Vero mango Mexican
suckers Stacy introduced me to. They are mango flavored but they
have salt and chili on them too and they’re a delicious mix of
salty, spicy and fruit. I can’t go a day without eating a few.

“What do you think of the pizza?” Stace asks,
his mouth stuffed.

“Didn’t my mother ever teach you to not talk
with your mouth full?” I tease.