Bear My Babies

“Honestly, Thomas. I’m fine. The only discomfort I felt was the needle. I’m not going to let our child down because its daddy doesn’t like shots.”

Thomas sucked in a breath over the phone. He was quiet for a moment. “I can’t believe I’m going to be a daddy. Thank you so much for making this happen, Melissa. I wouldn’t want this to happen with anyone else. I’m going to tell our child, every single day, how brave its mommy was to bring it into this world.” His voice had an air of serenity to it.

“And I will tell our baby what a caring daddy it has.” Both of them were silent as the absorbed their statements to each other. Melissa’s body shivered as her stomach protested the drugs. She knew she needed to get off the phone soon, but she liked talking to Thomas. “Did you talk to your parents about me?” she asked, laying her forehead on the cool wood of her desk.

“I didn’t get a chance to talk to them yet. But I will, I promise. I’m so excited about this Melissa. I will tell them soon.”

“I’m excited, too. I want to remind you, though, there is a chance I won’t conceive or a miscarriage is always something to keep in mind.” She hated to have to be the downer on the conversation, but she was already misleading him on the treatment; she couldn’t, without extreme guilt, not remind him of what could happen.

“Nah, our child is going to be a fighter just like you are,” Thomas said, making Melissa half smile against her desk.

“I have a meeting I need to get to. I’ll call you later. Have a good day.”

“Talk to you later,” Melissa told him, closing her eyes as her body trembled.

She hung up the phone and remained in her position on her desk, willing her body to be the fighter Thomas assumed she was. She felt like she’d pulled that off pretty well; as long as he never saw her after a few shots, she’d be okay.

“I thought I told you not to move,” Bruce said from somewhere inside her office.

Melissa didn’t pick her head from her desk to see where he was.

“I needed to get up,” she said forcing herself off her desk so she could look at him. Bruce stared at her, concern and worry marring his handsome face.

“I don’t like this, Melissa. I don’t like this at all.”

“Bruce, I respect you as a colleague and a friend. I would appreciate you being a part of this, but if you can’t, I will understand. Like I said, I’m doing this. This mild reaction will not deter me. If you want me to find someone else, I will.”

“You call that a mild reaction? I’ve never seen someone vomit with so much force before.”

“Bruce, I don’t want to argue about this. Are you in or are you out? If you can’t do this, there will be no hard feelings.” Melissa’s tone had as much authority as she could infuse into it. She felt kind of bad because he was just being a concerned friend.

“I’m in,” he said after glaring at her.

As mad as he was at Melissa’s decision to continue going through the treatment, Melissa was stunned by the gentleness he used when checking her vitals. He wrote everything down on a chart he had in a file he had brought with them.

“Can I copy those?” she asked, clicking on a file in her computer where she would be storing her data.

Bruce extended the file toward her. When she moved to grab it from his outstretched hand, her body surged. Melissa shot up from her chair and stumbled to the bathroom outside of her office, passing a stunned Tilly on the way. Tilly followed her, stopping Bruce from entering the bathroom.

Tilly held Melissa’s hair back as she purged what little she had taken in after her first vomiting session. When her body was spent of all energy from dry heaving into the toilet, Tilly helped her lean against the wall.

“Are you okay? I mean really okay? None of this fake ‘I’m fine’ stuff.”

“I’m fine, Tilly. I promise. This is a lot for a body to handle. I’m strong though. I’ve got this.”

Tilly kissed her on the forehead before helping her back to her office chair. Bruce was inside her office, pacing the floor. When they walked in, he rushed to help.

“Don’t say anything,” Melissa said, holding up her hand as she tried to suppress the tremors running through it.

Bruce pursed his lips together, but kept quiet. The three of them were all silently staring at each other when Nathaniel walked into Melissa’s office.

“Hey, sweetie. I need to drop by your place when you get home tonight. I have some stuff I need to get,” Nathaniel said.

As always he was in his own little world where he only cared about himself. Any other human being would have noticed the tension in the room, or that Melissa was as pale as a ghost.

“Are you really that oblivious? Can’t you see that she isn’t feeling well?” Bruce said, stepping in front of the desk blocking Nathaniel from looking at Melissa.

Melissa felt awful and she wanted to fall back to sleep more than anything else. She was not in any condition to deal with Nathaniel and his request. She needed to get rid of him as fast as she could, and she knew the only way to do that was to let him have what he wanted.

“Bruce and I will be working late tonight at the office. I’ll call you when I’m on my way home and you can stop by.” Melissa had every intention of sleeping in her office that night. There was no way she could handle Nathaniel. She would just turn her phone off and deal with him in the morning when she felt better.

“You don’t need to cater to his needs,” Tilly said, moving to stand beside Bruce, officially blocking Nathaniel’s view of Melissa.

“This is between me and my wife. You two have nothing to do with this.”

“Ex-wife. And you need to get out of here. I told you to stop coming in Melissa’s office. This is a medical building. We have to keep a professional atmosphere. Remember the success of this business is what keeps you out of any more debt.”

Melissa watched Tilly’s back as she yelled at her ex. Her whole body shook from the anger pouring out of her. Tilly said just the right thing to get his attention. Nathaniel was stupid, but he wasn’t that stupid that he would ruin a place of business that made money he could spend.

“I’ll see you tonight, sweetheart,” Nathaniel said before turning around and walking out of her office.

“You’re not going to your house tonight,” Tilly said. Both she and Bruce turned around to stare at Melissa.

“No. I just said that to get rid of him,” Melissa admitted.

“You can stay the night at my house again.”

“No. I’m going to sleep in the office tonight.” When Tilly and Bruce opened their mouths, most likely to argue, Melissa stopped them. “I’ve slept on that couch almost as much as I’ve slept in my own bed. I need to be near the medical equipment so I can check my vitals. I want to document everything during the treatment. I don’t want to bring any of it home because I’m not feeling well. It makes sense to just stay the night. Now both of you get out of here—I have data to enter.”

Tilly and Bruce turned to walk out the door, but before they disappeared from her view, Melissa’s guilt set in. “Thank you for helping me out. I couldn’t have done it without both of you.”

Tilly turned around and shot her a wink. “Anything for you.”

Bruce didn’t turn around, but Melissa saw him nod his head indicating he heard her.