Not Alone This Time

What a month.

Mia had accidentally gotten pregnant, gotten the March Virus at the same damn time, wound up in quarantine which nearly got bombed, and then…her boyfriends left her. Both of them. Dorian was gone, flew back to Europe. Logan ran off, who knows where and supposedly with a drug addict. A huge slap in the face for Mia, who had worked so damn hard to be off of drugs herself. Neither of them were ready for fatherhood, so they left.

But Mia was not afraid. She had been through too much to be scared just because her boyfriends ran off. She was still going to have her baby, and she was going to keep it, too. If that meant being a single mom, then she had accepted that. Besides, even without those two, she still had an amazing amount of support on Manta Carlos.

Now she was in the hospital with two of her dearest friends—Malara and Shay—who both agreed to come with her to her second ultrasound. Her first was during the quarantine, alone. She managed, but…Gods, she really did not want to do it again all alone. She wanted to talk to someone during it, about what they were seeing. She wanted to share the experience with someone.

Now here she was, around a month later—showing just a small hint of a baby bump, and so curious to see just how much that little ‘bean’ she had seen in her first ultrasound had grown. And this time, she wasn’t alone.

Taking a breath, Mia approached the front desk and explained that she had an ultrasound appointment.

“Ah, that is...Mia Crawford-Delacroix?”

Mia cringed a bit. She had made the appointment when she was still using those last names.

“It’s, um, just Mia now. But yes, that’s me.”

The receptionist nodded and told her she could have a seat. Mia went back over to Malara and Shay then, and gave each of them a tight hug.

“I’m so glad you two could come with me…”

Mia smiled at Mal, trying to ease her own nerves and assure Mal that she was alright. Of course, Mal could sense what was going on with Mia regardless of how Mia tried to act. Mia sat down beside Shay and glossed over a couple of pamphlets set up on a table by them.

“What, you don’t want to learn all about STDs?” she snickered a bit.

The hospital environment was…weird for Mia. She didn’t come to hospitals very often, but when she did it was never for illness, as other than the March Virus she never got sick. Usually, it was because someone found her passed out in an alleyway somewhere after a drug binge. There were a lot of bad memories there.

But now, she was in this place for something entirely different. Something positive, for once. And she had her friends with her too, despite their own busy lives. She reached over and rubbed Shay’s back, knowing that her life had been turned so upside down with the disappearance of her fathers. And now Mal had Theía, where Mia herself was now progressively focusing less on modeling and more on her jewelry work.

Her boyfriends may have left her but Mia still had a strong support group--for once in her life.

“So I think it’s mostly just to make sure the baby is forming normally. But then again, this is Manta Carlos—so they might be able to tell us more than that.”

Mia reached down and rubbed at her baby bump.

“I’d love to know if I’m having a boy or girl, but I’m not sure if it’s too early for that…”

Her nerves melted away in that moment, considering what kind of person her baby would turn out to be. But it didn’t last long.

“Mia?”

A nurse soon came and announced her name, causing Mia to jump a little. Time to go, already?

“Alright ladies, let's go,” Mia said as she stood up. She gave them both one of those toothy ‘I’m excited but also my nerves are through the roof’ smiles, before heading toward the nurse with her friends.

The three were led into one of the many sterile hospital rooms, with the ultrasound machine already set up. The nurse soon left, letting them know the doctor would be in soon. Mia sat down on the exam table where she would soon be lying down to see her baby for the second time, and took a deep breath.

“Well, here we are…” she said with a laugh, rubbing her stomach once more.

“I’ve got butterflies in my stomach along with the baby…”

The nurse blinked when Malara, who was clearly not her patient, had been the first to start asking questions. But she was composed, and patiently answered:

"So, normally at this stage, an ultrasound can only tell us whether the baby is developing normally or not, and if there is more than one."

The nurse than tilted her head with a smile.

"But of course, this being Manta Carlos, we have special benefits. I have the ability to determine the gender, as well."

With that, she asked Shay and Malara to take a seat as she started prepping Mia for the ultrasound.

"You're really only one month along?" The nurse commented as she looked over her chart, then glanced at Mia's stomach.

"Around that, yeah..." she replied, which prompted a 'hmm' from the nurse.

"You just seem a bit bigger than usual for one month. We'll see with the ultrasound..."

Now Mia was nervous. What did that mean? Could it be a problem? She glanced over to Mal and Shay with a look of 'It'll be okay, right?'

And it would be okay, although it would also be a surprise for them.

"Mm, I had a feeling. You are having twins, Mia."

Mia stared at the nurse in disbelief. Twins. Two. She was having two babies. Her first pregnancy and she was already having two babies.

The nurse then pressed a hand against Mia's exposed stomach, which caused a warm sensation against her skin.

"You're having a boy and a girl," the nurse said. And Mia just continued to stare as the nurse went back to her routine, shifting the ultrasound over Mia's belly to capture images to put in Mia's records.

—

Once the ultrasound was done, Shay and Malara were asked to go back to the waiting room. While they were welcome to stay for the ultrasound, they were not allowed to stay for the examination. Mia wasn't thrilled to be alone in a hospital room once more--especially for this. It was kind of funny, really: she was a Lust Goddess, she had sex regularly. But when it came to clinical examinations in the same damn area, Mia just wanted to scream.

Twins. A boy and a girl. She was having twins. She couldn't believe it. She was torn between excitement--oh my gods, two beautiful babies to love! And a boy and a girl right off the bat!

But also fear--oh gods, she was a new and single mother and she was having two babies. She had to buy double the supplies. She had to learn to be a mother with two at once.

Once the examination was done and she was free to go, Mia stepped back to the waiting room and returned to Shay and Malara.

"Twins," she said, before letting out a nervous laugh. "Can you believe it? A boy and a girl. Both at once."

Mia, not being one who could really hide her emotions at all, was clearly waffling between the excitement and the nerves.