Chapter Text
The two pink lines staring back at her shouldn’t have been a surprise, yet her mind reeled at the sight of them.
One percent.
That was her likelihood of conception when using birth control, which she practiced great care in taking responsibly. Yet the handful of white sticks in her hand all proved that sometimes, the seemingly impossible happened.
Well, shit.
It wasn’t that Olivia didn’t want kids. She did want them, but she had planned on waiting until she was a rich attending instead of a resident six figures in debt with a distinct inability to prepare edible meals.
Her heart thudded as she looked from one test to the other, each one confirming a pregnancy. Inhaling sharply, she disposed of them, burying them in the bottom of the trash can. She tried to steady her heartbeat, not entirely sure if it was panic, excitement, or some strange combination of the two.
Olivia washed her face and brushed her teeth, then tugged a sweater over her head and put on her makeup. Her stomach started to gurgle even though she’d bypassed breakfast.
Ignoring it, she hurried out the door, already at the risk of not being at work as early as she liked.
A short train ride did nothing to ease the storm of confusion and shock. Only when she stepped into the hospital was she able to divert her attention away from the fact that there was a person (almost person, she thought?) inside of her.
This early, Edenbrook was near silent as she made her way down the hallways, checking in on her patients’ vitals. She had some time before she had to report to the diagnostics office, so she grabbed a quick breakfast in the cafeteria.
As she ate her muffin, she just hoped that today would be busy enough to keep her distracted. She couldn’t keep a pregnancy secret for long, but a few more days of shock wouldn’t hurt.
Would it?
She made her way upstairs to Ethan’s diagnostics office. To her relief, there was a stack of new charts on the table. She joined her colleagues at the table. “Is that a new case?”
Ethan handed Olivia a chart and tried not to frown when her eyes darted, looking anywhere but his direction. “Yes. 51 year old male passed out behind the wheel of his car. He sustained minor injuries, but wants to know what caused the blackout.”
Olivia nodded, staring intently at the patient’s file. “Do we have a family history?”
June shook her head. “Not yet. I’ll take one from him.”
“We should do an MRI and CT,” Baz suggested.
“I agree. Maybe a tox screen, too.” Olivia stood up, and the simple action must have been a wrong move, because her stomach lurch uncomfortably. She waited until Baz and June left the room and were out of earshot before she turned her attention to Ethan.
Ethan glanced up from his file and arched a brow, a small smile pulling at his lips. “Yes?”
Olivia hesitated, her mouth twisting in thought. “I… uh, nothing. It can wait until later. I’ll go get started on the patient’s tox screen.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed. “You’re acting strange.”
“I’m not strange. I’m me,” she huffed, feigning offense. Suddenly, the nausea worsened, threatening to send up the blueberry muffin she’d eaten in the cafeteria. Cringing, she pressed her lips into a thin line, but the rise of bile in her throat sent her rushing to the small bathroom in the office.
Ethan blinked a few times, recovering from his surprise. He followed her to the bathroom and knelt behind her, holding her hair back. Olivia sighed and winced as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet.
“If you’re sick, you need to rest and not be around patients.”
“I’m not contagious.” Olivia shook her head, gagging. She flushed the toilet and fished a stick of minty gum from her pocket.
“How do you-”
Ethan stopped, his features etched with concentration. After several moments, their eyes met. His eyes widened as his mind put two and two together. The nausea, her sudden awkwardness…
“You’re…. are you… we…”
“Now is not the time for you to forget your ridiculously huge vocabulary, Ethan!”
“Are you pregnant?” he finally managed, steadying his voice.
“Yeah.”
Bewildered, Ethan stared, reminding her of a deer caught in headlights. “Have you taken a test?”
“Yeah.” Olivia nodded. “I know we always use protection, but I think the puked-up muffin I just flushed down the toilet is more proof that protection fails sometimes.”
Ethan ran a hand over his stubble, trying to bring his mind back down to earth. “How long have you known?”
“Three hours, maybe. I took the test right before I left my apartment.” Olivia let out a shaky sigh, a hard lump forming in her throat. “How… how do you feel about this?”
“How do you feel?”
“I asked first.”
Ethan nodded softly. “Fair enough. I’m… shocked. And… that’s quite honestly the only word I can think of right now.”
Olivia fell silent for a moment. “It is yours. I haven’t been with-“
“No, no, I know. I believe you.” Ethan gently settled his hand on her shoulder. “I just never expected this. It may take some time for the reality of it to set in.”
Relieved, she relaxed a little. Still, the surprise of it was enough to make her feel like pinching herself to see if she was dreaming or somehow stuck in a game of The Sims. But she knew by the butterflies in her stomach that this was very real.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward and slipped her arms around Ethan’s waist.
Ethan wrapped his arms around her, hoping she couldn’t hear his heart race. The shock of it all clouded his mind, splitting him between panic and surprise.
For several long moments, neither of them spoke. Finally, she spoke up, mumbling softly against his shoulder.
“Now what?”
Olivia nervously drummed her fingers against the upholstery of the exam table as she waited for her OB/GYN to begin her appointment. They had scheduled her appointment with an OB/GYN outside of the hospital for now.
They’d only recently made their relationship public, and Olivia wasn’t ready for her news of her pregnancy to spread like wildfire.
She watched as Ethan paced, his hand rubbing his jaw in concentration. After several moments, Olivia sighed. “You’re going to have walked a mile just by pacing back and forth. It’s making me nervous.”
“Sorry.” Ethan stopped pacing, his expression unreadable. He stood next to the exam table and took her hand into his. “I’m nervous, too. I shouldn’t be, but…”
“It’s okay.” She squeezed his hand and looked up when the door opened.
“Hello. I’m Dr. Williams.”
Olivia leaned back against the exam bench. “I’m Olivia Winchester and this is Ethan Ramsey. We work at Edenbrook. We, uh… just wanted to do an initial consult. I took four tests three days ago and they all came out positive.”
“Of course. Can you lift up your shirt?”
She nodded, rolling up her shirt to expose her stomach. As the doctor spread the gel on her abdomen, she tightened her grip on Ethan’s hand. After a moment, he reacted, lacing his fingers through hers and squeezing.
Reassured, she relaxed and gazed up at the ceiling. Dr. Williams moved the wand around, and a minute later she glanced up.
“Judging by your scans, you’re around eight weeks along.”
“That sounds accurate. I missed my period a few weeks ago, but that’s happened before as a birth control side effect. I didn’t even suspect pregnancy until I started having morning sickness.”
“Well, you’re right to be surprised. The odds of conceiving while using birth control are tiny. And I think you’ve just defied the odds even more.”
Olivia frowned. “What do you mean?”
Her doctor adjusted the monitor so they could see it. Olivia stared at it, her mouth slowly dropping as she made out not one, but two tiny shapes on the screen. They were tiny, closely resembling beans, but distinct enough that Olivia could make out their shapes.
“I’m having twins?”
“It appears so. Ultrasounds have become far more effective at detecting multiples earlier in a pregnancy. Everything looks good now, but we’ll schedule an appointment for next month.”
“I… yeah. My brain stopped understanding words after I saw two beans on that screen.” Olivia took a wipe and cleaned the gel off her stomach. Her head spun, trying to remind her that she was a doctor who had no reason to be astonished at an incredibly rare, but possible occurrence.
Dr. Williams left the room, giving them some privacy. Olivia glanced over at Ethan, whose expression mirrored that of a terrified ghost. “You look as freaked out as I feel.”
Ethan shook his head, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. “I’m fine. Just… a little stunned.”
“You mean terrified?”
“Maybe that, too,” he admitted.
Olivia absently rubbed her stomach, still struggling to grasp the fact that in a matter of months, two tiny humans would enter her world. Understanding dawned on her as she did the math. “Nine weeks… that’s the night we spent in the ski lodge! I mean, we’ve been active since then, but…”
“The timing makes sense.”
“Are you… are you okay with this? I know it’s unexpected and we haven’t been a thing very long, but… I need to know if you’ll be okay with this.”
Quiet fell between them for several moments. Ethan nodded. “I am. It’s… it’s a lot to process. I won’t try to lie about that. But I’ll be okay. I would never leave.”
She sighed in relief and leaned against him, resting her chin on his shoulder. “Good.”
Maybe they could do this.