Wedding Bells

Chapter 15

*A Month Later*

I sat over the toilet once again releasing everything from my stomach. This had become common that last month, especially the last few weeks. I was throwing up almost all day, finding it hard to make it through a work shift. I'd started wearing flats to work to make it safer on my random runs to the bathroom.

Carter had worried about me the last month, but I seemed like I was just coming down with something. I thought I had the common flu, or something and I just couldn't kick it but the more time went on the more worried I was growing.

What if I myself had Cancer as well, and it just hit me faster.

I knew Evelyn wasn't my birth mother, but there was always a possibility that I would have been a carrier of it. I didn't know the history of my family. Especially on my mother's side. I never got to hear the stories from before she died.

I shook my head, trying to get those thoughts out of my mind. It was easy as I hunched forward feeling that feeling once again. I was thankful for having my hair pulled up to today. This was growing pretty common as I was getting used to throwing up so often.

"Are you okay in there?" My mother asks, her fingers rasping on the door as she waits patiently outside. I nod my head for a moment before realizing she couldn't see me.

"Yes, I'm fine, I will be out in a minute." I spit into the toilet before flushing it. Jumping up to rinse my mouth out with water before we left. I was taking my mother to her first follow up appointment. She had her first Chemo treatment about a week ago and now we were going in to see how well it was working.

She had been throwing up a little too, causing jokes to be made by Clara and Carter. My heart ached for the pain she was going through but it was ironic that we both were spending our mornings like this. I shook my head finally looking at my reflection in the mirror.

"Sorry about that," I muttered leaving the bathroom. My mother was smiling, beaming as she holds my head, giving me some comfort in her.

"Don't apologize, I think you should really talk to the doctor about what's going on, but If I had to guess I think I know," She was being sneaky and I wasn't sure why.

"What do you think it is?" I question? Waiting for her answer. I thought I had thought of everything!

"I'm not going to tell you, but let's get to the hospital so we can make sure my bits are all good," My mother said, waving her hands around her chest area. I shook my head at her, but I couldn't help but laugh at how insane she was acting.

"Your bits, seriously mother," I laughed even harder repeating it.

"Yes, now let's go, the Uber is waiting downstairs."

~*~

Even though it's been a week since we've last been here the hospital felt like a second home now. I felt like too much time was wasted inside these walls. I was living my life following my mother through these hallways to make sure she was okay and she made it to her appointments on time.

I had driven her home from chemo, driven her to and from every appointment. My mother and I were side by side in this entire journey. I knew her doctor all to well. I knew these hallways all too much.

The doctor said her treatment would take a little under a year. Probably around ten or so month for us to fully kick the cancer out of her system. After that she would be in remission and would only have to come in once a month.

"Are you nervous about this," My mother leaned in to whisper to me. If you didn't know who it was that had cancer you would think it was me. By the way I was freaking out about it and my mother was acting, I could see how people could be easily confused.

"Kind of," I muttered. "But I know I shouldn't be considering it's not actually me who is ill,"

"But you are on this journey with me so It makes sense for you to have the same emotions I have," She wrapped her arms around me holding me close to her as she kisses my forehead. "It also gives me comfort to worry about how you are feeling better than if I were to focus on my very own thoughts,"

"Well good to know that my silly overreaction is helping you cope," I chuckled as I knocked on the doctor's door. We opened the door before heading in and taking a seat on the chairs we usually sat in.

The doctor was supposed to be in here soon. My heart was pounding in my chest as I realized I was growing nauseous again. I started searching the room, searching for a garbage can or something I could throw up in if I needed to. I jumped from my seat turning to my mother.

"Sorry, I will be right back," I muttered, holding my hand over my mouth as I rushed into the hallway, walking as fast as I could to find the nearest bathroom possible. I could feel my heart rate rising as the bile continued to flow through my body.

I burst through the bathroom door, rushing to the toilet as I collapse in front of it once more. Puking into the liquid as I tried my best to keep it quiet. I didn't want to startle the other patients in the hospital.

I puked a few times more sitting on the floor for a few moments before I finally flushed the toilet. Standing from the floor I washed my hands before heading back to the room my mother was in. As soon as I entered the room, the whispering between her and the doctor stopped. I froze in the doorway waiting for an explanation or the conversation to keep going.

"What were you talking about?" I muttered after a few seconds of them not speaking. My mother winked at the doctor, before turning to the doctor.

"Our little secret," He whispered back to her before looking at me. "How are you feeling?" He searched my face as if he was looking for an issue with it.

"Fine," I stumbled over my thoughts as I took my seat next to my mother.

"Are you feeling warm or anything? Do your ankles hurt? How are you sleeping or eating?" He was leaning forward to look at me as he spoke. My mother doing the same. I shook my head realizing what this was about.

"What does she think is wrong with me?" I wasn't in the mood for all of these games. I wanted to get straight to the point especially when it came to peoples health.

"Well, your mother said you recently got married, and there is a certain something that you do on your wedding night, and you seem to have certain symptoms since that night," The doctor nodded his head raising his eyebrows as if I was a child that didn't know what the topic was about.

"Oh dear lord, she thinks I'm pregnant?" I shook my head looking at her as if she had killed someone. She smiled at me as she patted my leg.

"Oh don't be shy, if you are that is a good thing, I need a little grandbaby." I rolled my eyes.

"Carter and I will have a baby when we are ready," I moaned, leaning my head against the wall behind the chair.

"Here pee in this and we will find out," The doctor wrote some things down on his clipboard as he handed me a cup. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine if this will get you two to shut up I'll do it," I grabbed the cup before heading in the hallway back towards the bathroom. I couldn't believe they thought I was pregnant.

I looked down at the cup. I wasn't sure how he got the label for the cup so quickly, as it said my name on the label. I couldn't believe I was doing this. My mother had somehow tricked me into peeing in a cup at her very own appointment.

Once I was in the bathroom I did my best to fill the cup. Closing the lid and dropping it where I was supposed to. Washing my hands before heading back to the room with my mother and the doctor. They weren't whispering this time when I walked in, but simply he was checking some of her vitals.

"There guys, I dropped it off, so you guys can test it and then I guess let me know if I a with child," I took my seat once more on the chair.

"Good deal now we can work on making sure your mother is doing alright," He looked around the room, before stopping on the clock checking the time.

After a few minutes of him checking my moms blood pressure and other general things, he left the room for a few moments leaving us alone to chat.

"Are you out of your freaking mind?" I askes, waiting to make sure the doctor was out of the room. "If you thought I was pregnant then I could have just taken an at home test, we didn't have to do this here." There was some anger in my words and the more I showed it the more annoyed I got.

"Yes, but this is the most accurate way to find out and don't you want to know for sure, either way you have to come here," she placed her hands under her chin as if she was an angel. I rolled my eyes.

"You could have at least warned me before you set me to the bathroom with a cup. He had a label printed and everything."

"Of course he did, I called him while you were puking this morning." I've never been so confused in my entire life. How was my mother even able to do that.

"You did what?" I said.

"Yeah, I called him and told him my concerns and after giving him the information he suggested that you take a test, so now here we are, waiting for the results." I rolled my eyes looking at her.

"I'm telling you it's going to come back negative,"

"Why are you so certain," She looked at me holding my hand as if she knew I was scared.

"I don't know,"

A few minutes of silence passed before the doctor came back into the room with a few tests to run on my mother. I looked up at him, hoping he didn't have the results to my test yet. I hadn't thought about it, but Carter and I really hadn't been careful. It's been a month since we got married. It wouldn't really be that shocking if I was.

"Well doc, what are the results, am I going to be happy or what?" He looked up at my mother, shooting her a look trying to read her expression.

"I think you are going to be happy," He mumbled. She nearly jumped from her chair just at the sound of that, but I grabbed her arm pulling her back down. My heart was in my throat, pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to break right out.

"So what do we have the answer," I mentally prayed it wasn't there. I hadn't talked to anyone about this. I hadn't planned any of this. If I was pregnant how would I take care of the child. I was so unprepared for this.

"Well, you should get prepared, because you test came back positive. Erin, you are pregnant." He looked at the clipboard setting it on the table as he grabbed a few things out of the cupboard.

"What do you mean it came back positive?" The doctor seemed serious, as he held the clipboard in his hand. I couldn't help but panic a little bit as I held the handles of the chairs.

"The pregnancy test, this isn't a joke you are pregnant and you should start planning for your future," His words were so serious. I shook my head looking at my mother.

"I think this means you are going to be a grandmother," The smile grew on her face but I wasn't sure if I was as excited about it as she was. Sure I always wanted to be a mother, but I wasn't ready for that right now.

I always has dreams of showing my very own child of my own, to show them around the shop. To allow them to see the world I grew up in. I wanted to teach them everything they needed to know about the bridal shop. Maybe one day when I retired they would take over the shop for me.

"How am I supposed to tell Carter," I paused for a moment, the panic growing in my chest. "We hadn't talked about this at all and I"m not sure he even wanted to have kids. He used to talk about it all the time but now that we were older, I wasn't sure he would be happy, or ready.

"You are supposed to just tell him, and he will be happy for the two of you," My mother smiled rubbing my leg. I shook my head looking at her.

"Thank you, but what... I... I don't even know how to handle this," I didn't know the first thing about being a mother. How would I tell Carter? Was I supposed to surprise him? Should I make a big deal about it? What will Clara think about this.

"How far along is she doctor," My mother was beaming the excitement filling her voice as she leaned forward to look at the results.

"Well she is about a month in herself. So you have about eight more to go." The doctor looked at his clipboard one more time before he handed it to me. I would be showing soon if I was already a month in. We were far enough in that we would soon be able to announce it to our family and feel safe about it. I felt horrible. You hear all of these stories about woman who knew the second they were pregnant and here I was a month in not sure what is going on with my body, other than the constant throwing up, that I guess we could now call morning sickness.

"I guess if I am pregnant, than how can I take care of this morning sickness that I've been dealing with for a month," I waited for the doctor to answer, hoping that he would have a way to fix this. So that I could better take care of my job.

"Here, take these once a day and they should help with the morning sickness, I'd like to see you in here once a month, but I could just lump your appointments in with your mothers if you would like," I shook my head realizing I was going to be here even more if I didn't have him lump the in.

"Yeah that would be great," I muttered.

"Okay, we will do that and we will see you two next week for the next set of chemo," The doctor muttered as my mother and I jumped up from our seats to leave the hospital. I was ready to get out of here. My mind racing with so many thoughts and fears.

Especially with how Carter was going to react.

As my mother and I walked out of the hospital I could feel the mental drain of being pregnant wear on me already. Just the thought of the nights not getting enough sleep. Not being able to go out whenever, and never knowing how to take care of it.

Would I have a little boy? Would he be a terror, and ruin my life up until the day he moves out? Or would I have a daughter that was so obsessed with princesses that she wouldn't ever grow up and live with me forever?

I shook my head trying to get the thoughts out of my head, I was having such horrible thoughts, that obviously weren't going to happen.

"Honey, it will be okay," My mother whispers as we hop into the back of the car.

"No I will not be, mother, I'm pregnant,"