Emily Forbes - Falling For His Best Friend - Falling for His Best Friend / Reunited with Her Parisian Surgeon

* * *

Kitty fidgeted in her seat as she forced herself to eat her lunch as she sat across from Cam and Jess. She was on tenterhooks and had been for the past few days, ever since she’d taken the home pregnancy test. She’d thought that by sharing her news with Joe it would settle her excitement to a point where it would be bearable but she still couldn’t wait for Jess and Cam to hear the results. It was all anyone wanted.

She was positive the procedure had worked but she hadn’t said anything as she really didn’t want to get Jess’s hopes up. Now, after having to wait for the official test, she started having doubts. What if it hadn’t worked? What if the home pregnancy test she’d done had given her a false positive? What if all the symptoms she’d been experiencing were just the result of her over-active imagination or wishful thinking? Surely life wouldn’t be so cruel?

She placed her elbows on the table as the waitress cleared the remains of their lunch away. She leant forward and her breasts squashed against her forearms. Her boobs were definitely still tender, that had to mean something. She knew false positives were unlikely in those home testing kits. False negatives were far more common—and, besides, she’d also gone off coffee. She’d cut down on her caffeine before the embryonic transfer at the same time as she’d started taking folic acid tablets—she’d wanted to do everything she could to ensure that this worked—but now she couldn’t even stand the taste of coffee. Something that had been one of her favourite drinks now tasted bitter, making it easy to stay off it.

Her fingers fidgeted and played with the gauze bandage that was wrapped around her left elbow, a constant reminder of what she was waiting for. She’d had the official blood test and she and Jess and Cam were just killing time until they could return to the IVF clinic to hear the results. Kitty was desperate to get back there.

Finally, with ten minutes before they were due back, Cam paid for their meals and they headed for the door.

‘All right,’ the doctor said as they were ushered into the consulting room and took their seats. ‘We were testing for hCG in the blood. Any increase in hCG levels in a surrogate indicates a positive pregnancy but the levels are significant. The higher the better. Higher levels suggest a viable pregnancy. At this point in time, two weeks post-implantation, we expect to see levels above fifty milli-international units per millilitre.’ Kitty wished she’d just get on with it. The wait was agonising. ‘But we’re hoping for numbers closer to five hundred.’ There was a sheet of paper sitting on the desk. The doctor glanced down at it and when she looked up she was smiling. ‘Your numbers are four hundred and fifty. Congratulations, you are pregnant.’

‘Oh, my God, you did it.’ Jess jumped up from her chair and hugged Kitty. ‘Thank you so much. I can’t believe it.’ Tears were running down her cheeks as she turned to Cam. ‘We’re going to have a baby!’ she said as she threw her arms around him.

Cam was grinning from ear to ear as he hugged and then kissed his wife before hugging Kitty. Jess was bawling and Kitty could feel her own tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She’d been positive that the embryo transfer had been successful but she hadn’t dared to believe it and the relief was almost as great as the excitement.

The doctor let them celebrate the news and when they all managed to get their emotions under control she continued the consult. ‘Before I let you go I’ll just run through the next steps with you.’

The three of them pulled themselves together long enough to listen to the procedure from here on.

‘If everything goes according to plan,’ she said, looking at Kitty, ‘your hCG levels should double every forty-eight hours. Fast increases in levels are what we are hoping for as that appears to indicate a good pregnancy outcome. I would like to do a follow-up blood test in two days to check those levels. Depending on the results we might then schedule more blood tests but I will also book you in for an ultrasound scan in a fortnight.’

‘We’ll be able to see our baby that early?’ Jess asked.

‘Your baby will look like a jelly bean still at that stage but we should be able to see and hear a foetal heartbeat then,’ the doctor explained.

Kitty didn’t remember much after that, and neither did Jess, she suspected. They were both too excited with the news. They left it to Cam to pay attention to the next round of appointments as they let their minds run wild with the thought of creating a new life. A baby.

* * *

‘Kitty, incoming ambulance.’

Kitty was tidying an exam room when Davina stuck her head in and called for her attention. ‘We’ve got a twenty-nine-year-old woman with abdominal pain and the doctors are all busy. Can you meet them in the bay?’

Kitty tucked a clean sheet onto the exam bed and carried the dirty linen out with her, tossing it into a linen bag on her way outside. She exited the doors as the ambulance pulled into the bay and Joe climbed out, pulling the stretcher with him.

‘Hey,’ he greeted Kitty with his megawatt smile. ‘Kitty, this is Talia. Acute abdominal pain. BP one-forty over ninety. Heart rate one hundred and ten. Temp thirty-nine degrees. No significant medical history but she’s had a positive home pregnancy test. Nausea but no vomiting.’

Talia’s eyes were open. She was perspiring and looked a little grey.

‘Husband is on his way, following behind,’ Joe’s partner added.

‘Doctors?’ Joe mouthed the word silently as they wheeled Talia into the hospital.

Kitty shook her head. ‘Busy,’ she replied, knowing that Joe was thinking they’d need a consult.

Kitty spied Anna coming out of an exam room as they negotiated the corridor. ‘Anna! I need a consult if you’re free,’ Kitty said before Anna could disappear. She let Joe repeat his summary as they transferred Talia to a bed before Kitty and Anna were able to start their assessment.

Kitty started a file and handed it to Anna while she hooked Talia up to the various monitors. Anna recorded Talia’s symptoms, the onset and severity, as well as her activities over the previous twenty-four hours and her menstrual history. By Talia’s account, she figured she was eight weeks pregnant.

‘We’ll need a urine sample if that’s possible, Talia, just to test and confirm the pregnancy. Kitty, can you organise that? I’ll duck out and arrange a pelvic ultrasound.’

Kitty nodded and fetched a bed pan but Anna had gone no further than six steps when Talia cried out in pain. She curled into a ball, clutching her stomach and her heart rate escalated rapidly. She was sweating more profusely and her face was now completely white.

‘Anna!’ Kitty called out.

Talia wasn’t the right demographic for gall stones, which left a burst appendix or a ruptured Fallopian tube as the most likely cause of her pain. That or extremely bad gastro.

Anna came back into the room and took one look at their patient. ‘Get me a gynae consult and prep a theatre,’ she instructed.

Kitty stripped off her gloves and threw them into the bin as Talia was wheeled off to Theatre. She tidied up the exam room again, and after checking in with Davina and finding that the waiting area was empty she took the opportunity to grab a drink and something to eat. Her shift had been busy and she was finding that if she didn’t eat something small on a regular basis the morning sickness would rear its head. It wasn’t so much morning sickness as nausea whenever she got hungry and she was quickly learning not to pass up the chance to refuel when she was able to.

Joe was in the kitchen, grabbing a coffee.

‘Can I make you one?’ he asked.