Page 97 of Ronen
“Where is Matty?” Ronen cried, looking around the room with panicked eyes.
“He’s being taken care of,” Bash kept his voice low and calm, while I watched the doctor fiddle with the machine to get it ready. “Your dad is with him. Let’s worry about you first, shall we? Then I’ll go look in on your brother.”
Ronen grabbed at his papa’s hand, green eyes wild. “And everyone else! No one got hurt, right? No one got bit? I heard the wolves, and uncle Quinn’s cat. They were there, weren’t they?”
Bash nodded, perching on the edge of the bed by Ronen’s hip. “They were. Ryan and Charlie stayed behind. Uncle Brendan didn’t want their foxes anywhere near the snakes. But they waited with clothes for everyone and called for the ambulances when they saw–” he glanced at me, then turned his head to look at the hospital personnel. “That the threat had been neutralized.”
I stared at Bash with narrowed eyes. That was not a typical word choice. Yep, I was definitely starting to think those rumors about Ronen’s parents were true.
“Okay, Ronen,” Lily said, her voice pleasant and most importantly, calm, “Are you ready to see your baby?”
Ronen took a shaky breath, his eyes glistening with tears. “Do you think I hurt the baby by shifting? I haven’t felt them move.”
His hand splayed across his stomach, and I covered it lightly with mine. He turned watery eyes to Bash. “I’m sorry we didn’t tellyou before now.”
“I wanted to tell you,” I said, totally throwing Ronen under the bus. Sorry, but his parents were scary and I didn’t need to be on their bad side.
Bash gave me a long look, his face unsmiling. “Did you honestly think we didn’t know?” he gave a small snort, his accent sounding even more clipped and pronounced than before. “Please. We’ve known for months. We’ve just been waiting on you to tell us,” He gently cupped Ronen’s face. “You always told us things in your own time.”
Wait. They knew? How did they know? Never mind. I probably didn’t want to know.
“Ronen,” Lily broke in, giving us a smile, “do you honestly think you are the first patient of mine who has shifted after the twelve week mark? You aren’t. I’m sure everything is fine.” She patted his hand. “Until we know we have something to worry about, we aren’t going to worry.”
It was something she had told us at our first appointment, and I hoped the faith I was putting in the doctor wasn’t misplaced.
Once Ronen had his gown pulled up, and the blanket covering his lower half, Lily wasted no time starting the procedure. She ran the hard wand over his stomach for what felt like forever, before she smiled broadly, and turned the screen so that we could all see the figure on it. It looked so much different than the first time we had seen our baby on the screen. This time it actually looked like a baby.
“Your baby is fine.” She pointed to the screen. “There’s the head and ah, I think I see why you haven’t felt them move. Look,” she pointed again, and we all leaned in closer, “they appear to be sleeping. Slept right through all the action.”
“Is that…are they…” Ronen leaned towards the screen. “Are they sucking their thumb?”
Lily nodded, “They sure are. Here’s the heartbeat.”
There was a rapid fluttering on the screen, and then she turned the volume up and the whoosh whoosh of the baby’s heartbeat filled the room.
Emotion washed over me, relief and so much love for this tiny person Ronen and I had created.
“It’s so fast,” I said, my voice choked and raspy, and Ronen squeezed my hand.
“That’s a good sign,” Lily told us, taking some measurements on the screen. “Everything looks good, and your baby is healthy. We’ll keep monitoring you, but I don’t think you did any damage, so stop feeling guilty, okay?”
Ronen sniffled, nodded, but said nothing.
Bash’s eyes were suspiciously glistening, as he stared at the screen in awe.
“Might we have a few pictures?” he asked, “I’m sure Jamie would love to see this.”
Honestly, I was a little surprised the man hadn’t appeared in the room by now, but he had been loathe to leave Matty’s side. I just hoped the fact that he hadn’t shown up yet didn’t mean Matty wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Would you like to know the sex?” Lily asked us quietly, and I spun my head to look at Ronen.
He gave a little shrug, and a smile that said ‘do we?’ Then we both nodded at the same time.
“Yes, yes we would,” I told her.
“Congratulations, it’s a boy!”
“A boy,” Ronen whispered, looking down at his tiny baby bump. “You’re a boy.”
