Two Lines Chapter Three
The OB wing of the hospital was different from the rest of the hospital. It was painted in a soft pink unlike the rest of the hospital's stark white walls. Nurses wore scrubs with cartoon ducklings and rabbits printed on them. There were piles and piles of magazines and pamphlets on side tables all over the waiting room. Someone had obviously done their best to make that wing feel detached from all the gloom that surrounded the rest of the hospital. Still, Jo didn’t like it.
It felt like someone had taken all the corners of Grey-Sloan and worn them down into a family friendly, bite-sized, hazy version of itself. Normally, Jo didn’t have to spend any time in the OB wing. She rarely left her office that she shared with Bailey. But now she was sitting in an uncomfortable, upholstered chair leaning her head against the wall of the waiting room.
“Are you nervous?” Alex asked giving her hand a squeeze. He smiled at her sensing his wife's unease. It seemed like Alex hadn’t stopped smiling since Jo had told him she was pregnant a week ago.
Jo shook her head. “Not nervous, I just want to see this little guy.”. At six weeks along she wasn’t showing yet so it looked a little awkward when Jo rested her hand on her stomach. Honestly, she was a little nervous. What if it was an ectopic or chemical pregnancy? The chances of that were slim to none but still, Jo liked to plan for the worst.
“Little guy? It’s more likely that we’re having a girl. Most chil-…” Alex began
“No we’re having a boy, I can tell,” Jo said. “It’s a motherly instinct.” She said decidedly. Her eyes tracked a surgical nurse who walked through the waiting room on her way to the fetal surgery ward. “We should have gone somewhere else, everyone’s going to know we’re pregnant before this appointment is even over.”
Secrets didn’t stay secret very long at the hospital. When she was an intern, Jo didn’t understand why Meredith called Grey-Sloan the “rumor mill” but after her ordeal with Alex and DeLuca, she understood. “We can’t go somewhere else. It would look like I didn’t trust my own doctors.” He said. “Plus, no one ever listens to nurse Ruth anyways.” He stuck his nose up in a very accurate impression of the nurse.
Jo tapped her foot against the tile keeping with the beat of the off-brand pop music playing through the intercom. She just wanted to get it over with. She hated the waiting, the unease of it all. A woman in baby pink scrubs stepped into the waiting room. “Doctor Karev, we’re ready for you.” She said.
Jo gratefully rose from her seat, Alex's hand still in her own. She drug him through the aisles of chairs toward the door that lead back to the exam rooms. “Right this way,” The woman said. Jackie her name tag read. As they walked to the exam room Jo felt a wave of nausea wash over her and she couldn’t tell if it was from her nerves or from her morning sickness. She stopped dead in her tracks and clambered for the trashcan that sat next to the door.
She collapsed to the floor and emptied the contents of her stomach into a trash can that was normally reserved for gloves and tongue depressors. Alex crouched beside her and pulled her hair back. She melted against the pressure of his hand that rested against her back. When she felt slightly better she stood up and faced the nurse. “Sorry about that.” She apologized.
The nurse shrugged obviously unfazed by pregnant women and morning sickness. “I’ll get you something to settle your stomach before your exam.” Jo smiled gratefully. They continued following her to their exam room.
Alex took her hand again and kissed the top of her head. “You okay?” he asked his wife. Jo nodded.
Jackie opened the door to exam room 7 and ushered them in. She pulled open the doors of a cabinet that hung on a pale yellow wall, fished out a small, oval-shaped tablet, and gave it to Jo. “This should help with the morning sickness for today.” She said. “Doctor Morgan should be in any minute.” She smiled.
“Thank you!” Jo said as the door latched shut. Her entire body was full of excited energy. She was about to see her child for the first time, hear its heartbeat. That was an insane concept that she still hadn’t really wrapped her mind around. When she turned around to face her husband he was simply standing there, smiling at her.
“What?” Jo asked raising an eyebrow. She sat on the exam table with her legs kicking in the air above the tiled floor.
Alex shook his head, “Nothing.” He said. “I just… It feels weird being here, doesn’t it?” Alex looked around at the room, a giant poster of storks carrying baby animals was on the wall across from him. “I still think that it’s a girl.” He said.
“No way!” Jo protested. “Fifty bucks says that we’re having a boy.”
Alex stared at her wide-eyed. “You are not putting money on the sex of our child.” He laughed.
Jo grinned. “We totally are!” The idea of betting on the sex of your child made Jo smile. It made the giant, slightly terrifying journey in front of them seem a little more approachable. They were definitely having a boy.
