Chapter Three
“Jen?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you ready to get up now?” Rolling onto her side, Jen gazed up at her husband, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“What time is it?” She asked, her voice thick with sleep.
“It’s almost 9:30.” Earlier that morning, his wife had attempted to crawl out of bed to play ‘house’ and get him and his daughter fed. However, just the smell of the bacon that she’d been cooking had sent her running to the bathroom. It had not been a pretty sight. Luckily for JC, Julie had been so engrossed in her cartoons that she’d not noticed her step-mother’s illness.
Having gone to check on Jen, he’d ordered her back to bed until her stomach settled down some. That had been almost two hours ago.
“I didn’t mean to fall back asleep,” she told him.
“Hey, don’t worry about it hon. Julie and I were just fine.” That was a lie. In an attempt to finish the breakfast that Jen had started, he’d burnt it beyond recognition. He just could not get the hang of this cooking thing. So he’d done the next best thing: Taken his daughter to McDonalds!
Leaning over to her, he pressed a soft kiss to her cheek as he rested his palm against her flat belly.
“Are you feeling any better?” He asked.
“A little,” she responded, giving him a small smile. Sitting up, she put her palm against her forehead and took a few deep breaths before attempting to push herself up off the bed. With his help, she managed to steady herself. “I’m gonna get in the shower. I think that will help me to feel better. I’ll see you downstairs in a few minutes,” she said, giving him a smile.
Watching as he exited the room, she dropped the charade and leaned back against the wall, tears filling her eyes. She couldn’t go on like this. She’d found out less than three weeks ago that she was pregnant with her first child and ever since then, she’d felt so under the weather. She just prayed that this passed.
~*~
When Jen came down the stairs, she found JC and Julie sitting on the couch together. Giving her husband a week smile, she came down the stairs to join him on the couch. He noticed the pained look on her face almost immediately.
“Are you okay?” He asked, looking over top of Julie’s head. As much as she wanted to lie and insist to him that things were fine, she knew that it wouldn’t do her a bit of good.
“Can we… go and talk in the kitchen?” She asked, looking to Julie. She didn’t want to discuss this in front of the four year old. With a nod, JC stood up and held his hand out for his wife, helping her off the couch.
“What’s the matter?” He asked, his mouth turned downwards in a frown. If it was something that she wanted to hide from his daughter, he knew it couldn’t be good.
With the two of them in the privacy of the kitchen, Jen allowed the tears to fall freely down her cheeks. She’d been so adamant on keeping her pain from her husband, and now she realized that had been a big mistake.
“I’m worried that something’s wrong,” she cried, unable to even look him in the eye.
“Something as in… the baby?” Instead of answering verbally, Jen simply nodded. JC felt his heart begin to pound. Was their baby okay? “Do you… We need to go see a doctor,” he told her. He went to the phone and dialed Jen’s doctor, praying that they would be able to fit her in. Otherwise, to the emergency room she’d go.
~*~
With Chris agreeing to watch Julie, JC had rushed his ailing wife to the doctor’s office. She had agreed to see Jen to give her an examination and hopefully determine the cause of her discomfort. Jen could only pray that her stubbornness and unwillingness to admit a problem had not caused any damage to the child she was carrying.
Stepping into the examination room, Doctor Monroe tried to keep the mood light. She spoke gently to Jen, explaining all the procedures being done. It definitely put the expectant mother’s mind to rest to know exactly what the doctor was doing to her body, but it didn’t help to ease her fears.
The entire examination lasted only about ten minutes before Dr. Monroe had come to the root of the problem. This was the worst part of her job.
“Jen… I’m sorry but it… it looks like you’ve had a miscarriage,” she said sadly.
Jen’s eyes filled with the tears, but she was not the only one emotionally distraught by this news. Although JC was doing his best to keep his composure, to remain strong for his heartbroken wife, the sound of her heart-wrenching sobs had made that impossible to do.
The doctor had explained that because Jen was so early into the pregnancy, a lot of the typical symptoms of a miscarriage had not been evident. The only thing that could have clued her in was the cramping that she felt, which many women had simply associated with morning sickness. She had also explained, in an attempt to ease the heartache of the young couple, that there was nothing that could have been done to prevent it.
It was with an empty heart that the newlyweds had returned to their car. Instead of driving straight to Chris’ house to pick up Julie, JC had decided to spend some alone time with his wife as she grieved for the child that had never had a chance.
Number of reviews: 18
Print:
Chapter or Story