Chapter Text
Klaus knew something was wrong when Annie slept through their alarm.
The shrill ringing roused Klaus from his sleep and he reached across his sleeping wife with a groan to swat at it. His hand succeeded only in knocking it off the nightstand upon which it rolled under the bed, still ringing merrily away. He let out a huff of annoyance at himself and reluctantly crawled out of the warmth of the covers to fish the wretched thing out from the dust-bunny riddled darkness of their bed.
Finally, his hand closed around the bright red casing and he withdrew it, smacking the button at the top and silencing the cacophony. Klaus sat back against the edge of the bed and sighed. A bit of an awkward start to his day, but nothing too unusual. He pushed himself onto his feet, his (only somewhat) aged joints creaking in protest, and made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
When he came back out a few minutes later, Annie was still asleep.
Klaus couldn’t help the little thrum of worry in his chest as he crossed over to Annie’s side of the bed. He crouched in front of her so he could be eye-level with her sleeping form. She didn’t look to be in any pain or distress. Her face was slack in sleep, her lips parted around a bit of drool. Klaus smiled, a bit reassured, and gently kissed her forehead.
“Wake up, my little Moondrop. You overslept,” he whispered.
Annie jolted awake with a snort. Klaus huffed out a laugh as she gazed blearily around the dim morning light of their bedroom.
“Klaus, wha- I overslept?!”
“Only for a few minutes - don’t worry,” Klaus replied with a chuckle and another kiss, this time to her lips.
“Ohhhh the hens are going to be furious with me!” Annie said, leaping out of bed. “You know how persnickety they get when they don’t get fed! I’ll be lucky if I still have all my toes at the end of the day!”
She went to run to the closet to get dressed, but swayed a little on the spot. Klaus surged upwards and gripped her shoulders to keep her steady.
“Whoa, whoa! Are you alright? You went pale just now.”
“I’m fine,” Annie replied, pulling away from him with a wave of her hand. “Just stood up too fast. Probably hungry.”
“I’ll get started on breakfast, then,” Klaus volunteered, hoping his voice didn’t betray just how much his worry was worsening.
Annie gave a pleased hum in response, one quick peck to his cheek, then hurried to start her day before the poultry revolted.
Breakfast, unfortunately, did nothing to assuage Klaus’s concerns that something was dreadfully wrong with his darling wife.
He’d prepared a nice omelet for her, loaded with fresh veggies from the farm, but she’d taken one look at it, turned green, and sprinted to the bathroom as though demons were on her heels. When she’d re-emerged ten minutes later after ineffectively dry-heaving into the toilet, Klaus put his metaphorical foot down.
He didn’t bother hiding his worry anymore when he said, “Annie, you’re in no condition to work today. I think something is wrong.”
Annie, stubborn as she was, simply tried to play it off as a bit of food poisoning or just “one of those mornings, ya know”. Klaus, however, would have none of it.
“Klaus, I’m fine!”
“Please, Annie! If not for yourself, then do it for me? I’m… I’m scared, alright?”
Annie stared up at him. His brows were creased in the middle with visible concern and his mouth was drawn down at the corners. His eyes were alarmed with an expression dangerously close to a pleading pout. It made him look so much older than he truly was.
Annie hated seeing her husband looking so frightened and sad, so she quickly relented.
“You’re right,” she admitted, a bit shamefaced. “I’m sorry for upsetting you.”
Klaus sighed, shoulders slumping in visible relief.
“It’s okay. I understand how much the farm means to you. Perhaps we can ask Fritz if he would be so kind as to look after the animals while we go to the clinic?”
“I’m sure he’d love that,” Annie tittered.
Klaus returned her smile.
A short jaunt to the clinic (and a quick stop by Fritz’s farm) later, Klaus and Annie found themselves sitting in the soft, amber light of Marian’s clinic. Annie sat on a stool by the examination table and Klaus would have been sitting beside her had he not been practically thrumming with nervous energy. As it was, he stood beside her with one hand on her shoulder; more to emotionally ground himself, really, though he refused to admit it.
Annie didn’t seem worried in the least. She simply sat there politely, idly flipping through one of the miscellaneous books Marian kept around for patients to read while they waited.
Speak of the devil…
The room door creaked open and Marian stepped inside.
“Ah, Annie! Klaus! Thank you both for waiting. What are we here for today?” he asked, taking a seat across from them. “Is everything alright?”
“I haven’t been feeling very well this morning,” Annie explained.
Marian tilted his head slightly, his syringe earrings clinking faintly. “Really? How so? Can you describe your symptoms?”
“Just… really tired, I guess. And nauseated.”
“You almost fainted when you stood up too,” Klaus added.
Marian nodded his head slowly.
“Mhm. Mhm.” He made a note of something on the clipboard in his hand. “Any other symptoms?”
“Just that.”
“And how long has this been going on?”
“Just this morning.”
Marian hummed again. Then, he pointed his pen at Annie.
“Can you tell me when your last period was?”
Annie flushed pink. While there was nothing inherently embarrassing about discussing such things with one’s medical provider, she still couldn’t help blushing a little.
“Er… just over a month ago,” she mumbled. “I don’t really keep track, but I can tell when they’re coming.”
“Just over a month ago…” Marian mumbled to himself as he made another note on her chart.
He stood up abruptly and reached into a cabinet beneath his desk. He withdrew a small, plastic cup with a screw-on lid, handing it to Annie who stared at it in bafflement. “I’ll need a urine sample from you,” he said.
“W-what?! Why?!” Annie sputtered.
“Well, part of routine medical procedure for patients with uteri is doing a urine pregnancy test to rule out one potential cause for your symptoms. You’ll get the results back before you leave the appointment today, don’t worry.”
Marian went on to explain to Annie about how she could gather the sample, but Klaus didn’t hear any of it. At the words “pregnancy test”, his mind went blank and the ringing in his ears started.
Pregnant.
Annie might be pregnant ?!
We might be having a baby?!
How did this happen?!
Klaus mentally slapped himself. He knew how it happened – he’d obviously been there – but he was getting ahead of himself. Like Marian had said, it was just standard clinic procedure. It didn’t mean anything. It was just as likely that Annie just had a bit of a stomach virus, or was coming down with a cold. No need to get worked up just yet. Maybe.
Still, as he watched her get up from the stool and be led to the clinic bathroom by Marian, Klaus couldn’t help but wonder.