Bear My Babies

With her resolve in place, she started her car and drove to Bruce’s office. The one good thing about the injections was she would be sleeping it off all day and wouldn’t have to deal with any Thomas turmoil for the moment.

Bruce’s secretary, Glenna, a pudgy, middle-aged woman with no sense of humor, greeted Melissa when she walked in. Melissa felt a pang of resentment that his office was intact while hers was in ruin. She adored Bruce, but she preferred the home-like feel of her office to the modern feel of his.

“He is with a patient. He wants you to wait in his office,” Glenna told her, going back to her computer before the words left her mouth. It had taken Melissa a while to calm down in the parking lot so she’d missed an opportunity where he had a lull.

“Thank you, Glenna.” Melissa plastered on her biggest fake smile and walked toward Bruce’s office.

Inside his office was exactly like his waiting room. Everything was chrome with sharp angles and odd splashes of color. Melissa longed for her office when she sat on what had to be the world’s most uncomfortable couch. Bruce entered a couple of minutes later, and really it wasn’t a minute too soon. Her legs were starting to cramp from the uncomfortable position she was sitting in.

“Was that him?” he asked nonchalantly. He would have pulled it off too if his hand wasn’t pressing a little too hard when he was swabbing her skin for the injections.

“Yes. He will be the father of my child. And honestly Bruce, I don’t want to hear it. My morning has been awful. My office is in shambles. If you could cut me some slack and inject me so I can go home and go to sleep, I would really appreciate it.”

“Melissa, we need to talk about this. You can still pull out of this. You aren’t pregnant yet.” He abandoned his pretense of getting her skin ready for injection.

“Well, that won’t be true on Wednesday. I need to get these injections, Bruce. I’m already running late on when I should’ve taken them. This needs to be put in the data as soon as possible.”

“Wednesday! As in this Wednesday?” he asked shooting off of the couch.

Melissa envied the fact that he was no longer on the torture device he called a couch.

“Yes, this Wednesday. As in two days from now. Can you please just get on with it?”

“Melissa, I’m going to ask you one more time. You aren’t going to need me after this because these treatments won’t be needed once you’re pregnant. Are you really sure about this?” His eyes searched her face.

Melissa placed her hand on his. “Yes, I want this. I already love this baby. Bruce, I appreciate your concern but this is what I want.”

Bruce exhaled and continued getting her ready for the injections. His jaw clenched as he inserted the first shot. Liquid fire coursed through her. As many times as she had done this, she was still surprised how painful it was. She gritted her teeth as he continued to inject her.

Once the injections were over, she ran to his bathroom and heaved until there was nothing left. Because of her office being destroyed, she had forgotten to take the nausea medicine she had been taking, not that it was really helping. It was more reassuring herself that she was trying not to get sick by taking them. Once she was spent, Bruce helped her up.

“I’ll drive you home,” he told her leading her out of his office.

“But what about my car?” she asked leaning heavily on him.

“I’ll take you home in your car, and Uber back to my office.”

“Thank you. I need to enter all my data before I go to sleep,” Melissa said as she tried hard not to fall asleep in her car.

“I’ll enter everything for you. I brought my medical bag. I’ll take your vitals and have it ready for you when you feel better.”

“Thank you so much, Bruce.”

True to his word, he helped her get situated on her couch before taking her vitals and entering everything in. Melissa tried to thank him again, but fell asleep before the words left her mouth.