Angel Standing By
Chapter 24
After that night Nick, Claire, AJ and Howie never spoke of the incident. Nick and Claire were basically disgusted with his attitude, AJ was feeling pathetic, and Howie felt completely helpless as he watched two friendships disintegrate. Nick and AJ's friendship was practically down the tubes. Howie was surprised that they were able to still work together. They were obviously more mature than he thought. Well, at least to a certain extent they were.
Wednesday came quickly. Nick left practice a little early so he and Claire could head off to the doctor's appointment. He noticed she was extremely nervous during their drive there. "Hon, is anything wrong?"
"Wrong? What could possibly be wrong? What would make you think anything's wrong?" she answered a mile a minute. He gave her a doubting look. "Okay, fine. If you must know, I don't like going to see the doctor."
"But, the hard part is over. Well, the first hard part. I mean, you already know you're pregnant."
"Yea, I know, but I still get nervous. What if we find out something's wrong?"
"Darlin', everything's gonna be just fine. Jeez, how on earth did you hide that first doctor's appointment from me?"
"Believe me, it wasn't easy. I was so nervous."
"Why didn't you tell me?" The look on his face was a cross between concerned and hurt. "I wanted to, but I figured if the symptoms were all in my mind that there was no reason to worry you. I wanted to make sure that I really was pregnant."
"I can understand that, but for the future, let's not keep anything from each other. I mean, if something is bothering one of us, even if we think it's all in our head, I want us to be able to tell each other," he said as he grabbed her hand tightly.
Once again, his smile blew her away. "Okay, I agree," she said in her usual happy tone. Before they knew it, they had arrived at the doctor's office. "You know, I was thinking," said Nick thoughtfully. "We're gonna be home soon. Are you sure you don't wanna wait until you can go and see your regular doctor?"
"I don't have a regular doctor. He retired about two years ago."
"What?!?! Young lady, you don't have a doctor? We're gonna take care of that as soon as we get back. I don't want you seeing ten million different doctors. How about I have my mom set you up with the guy that she went to when she was pregnant with Aaron and Angel?" he asked as he guided her towards the door to the office.
"That would be great! I don't know too much about the medical aspects of this."
"Oh, just leave that to my mother," he said while rolling his eyes. "Once she hears you don't have a doctor, she'll call up the best one she knows of. This being her first grandchild and all, she's gonna want only the best!" He lightly kissed her lips and opened the door for her.
~ Back at the Hotel ~
Brian and Aaron sat in Kevin's room playing an important game of Mario Cart.
"This one's for the gold!" shouted Aaron.
"Yea, just remember that after I kick you butt," retorted Brian.
"Bri, I expect Aaron to act this way, but you? How old are you again?"
"Hey, you get beat by this little guy twelve times in a row and see how competitive you get!"
"Twelve times?!?!" asked Kevin in amazement. "Bri, you better watch it. Before you know it, Nick'll be beatin' you!"
"Very funny, Train." Brian was obviously not amused. He and Aaron had been playing all morning ever since rehearsals ended and his patience was wearing thin.
"Speaking of Nick, I wonder how the appointment's going. I know Claire was really nervous, and so was Nick."
"I'm sure everything is fine. Claire's a healthy girl."
"Well, she looks to be healthy, but with all that crap that Bone's been puttin' her through, I'm sure she could use a nice shrink right about now."
"Brian, what are you talking about?" Brian had forgotten for a split second that Aaron was in their presence.
"Oh, nothin' buddy. Hey, better watch out, Kong is gonna cream ya!" Aaron quickly turned back to the game in an effort to regain his number one spot. Kevin lightly slapped Brian on the back of the head once Aaron wasn't looking. Brian looked up and mouthed, "I'm sorry."
"YES!!!!!! I WON!!!!" shouted Aaron.
"Well....well...." Brian stammered. "That's only because I was thinking about your bro and Claire."
"So was I, but it didn't seem to affect my game!"
"You've been worried about them too?"
"Mmmm, not so much worried as excited! There's gonna be another little kid in the family. I'm finally gonna have someone to play with that doesn't tower over me! For once, I'm gonna be able to tell someone what to do, not the other way around!"
Kevin and Brian laughed as AJ entered the room. "What's so funny?"
Brian looked a bit unhappy as AJ came to sit down. Nick was his best friend after all, and AJ seemed to be doing everything in his power to hurt him. Why, he didn't know, but Nick was being surprisingly mature about it when it came to the professional side of BSB, so Brian figured he could at least be civil to AJ.
"Oh, I was just sayin' how I'm so happy that there's finally gonna be someone younger than me in the family!" chirped Aaron.
AJ looked a little confused, but then it hit him. "Oh, yea. I'm sure you're gonna be a great uncle," he said, trying to sound happy about everything.
"Wow, I never thought about that. I'm gonna be an uncle! Jeez, I'm gettin' so old!" he squealed.
"How about we head out to get some food?" AJ was looking to get out of the stuffy room, in hopes that he would miss Claire and Nick's arrival back to the hotel after their appointment. He wasn't in the mood to hear about it all. They all agreed on getting some food and headed to the nearest McDonald's.
~ At the Doctor's Office ~
"Miss Claire Beckenthaw!" called the nurse. They both got up from their chairs and headed towards the door. "Is this the father?" she questioned while pointing to Nick.
"Yea. He can come back with me, right?"
"Oh yes, that will be fine." As soon as she closed the door behind them, Nick removed his baseball cap. "You can come into this office right....." her voice trailed as she turned back around to direct the two. "Ohmygosh, I know who you are!" Nick motioned to her to be a little quieter.
"I just wanna be here with my fiancé without having tons of girls running after us," he said, grinning.
"Oh, I completely understand. My daughter listens to Backstreet Boys all the time. She likes you the best," she said while nudging him in the side.
"Well, thank you very much. Tell her that I appreciate the compliment" he said while following Claire into the room.
The nurse wanted badly to ask for his autograph, but figured it would be rude. "The doctor will be in to see you in a moment."
Nick decided to sit up on the bed table with Claire until the doctor came in. She quickly pulled a pen and piece of paper out of her purse. "Here, you should give an autograph to that woman for her daughter."
"You're right." he quickly signed it and gave the pen back to her. He looked into her eyes, still seeing a flicker of nervousness. "Hey," he said while touching her cheek. "There's nothing to be nervous about. Just calm down. Let me do the worrying in this relationship. I want you to be as healthy as possible, physically and mentally."
She took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay, I'll try." He was about to kiss her when they heard the door open.
"Miss Beckenthaw?"
"Hello there."
"Miss Beckenthaw, I'm Dr. Myers. I take it this is the lucky guy? he asked while extending his hand out to Nick.
"Yes sir!" Nick said, practically glowing.
"Well, today we're gonna take a look at that baby for you. I'll need you to go behind that curtain and put this on. I'll be back in a moment then." He handed Claire a gown and exited the room.
Claire frowned as she stared at the gown. "I hate these things."
"Well, you'd better get use to it. If I remember correctly, that's what my mom had to wear when she gave birth."
"These things are so......ugh!"
"Claire Bear, just put it on. I'll help ya if ya want!" he said, his grin getting devilishly evil."
"Not here," she grinned. She went behind the curtain and put on the gown as requested. She came back around and scooted herself back on the bed table. She looked over at the monitor. It looked just like a regular television set. "Wow," she whispered. That's what we're gonna see our baby on." She turned back to Nick and saw him smiling.
He stood up and walked over to her. "I love you," he said, and then kissed her.
The nurse peeked her head in the room. "Are you ready, Claire?"
"Yea, ready as I'll ever be."
"Okay, I'll let the doctor know."
"Wait, said Nick. He walked over to the door and handed her the piece of paper that contained the autograph. "For your daughter. Please though, if she asks what I was doing in here, could you tell her I was just sick or something?" He looked back at Claire, then to the nurse. "We're not exactly ready for this to become too public if you know what I mean."
She smiled at his kindness. "You're a sweet boy. I can see why my daughter idolizes you so much. Thank you, I know she's gonna love this."
"It's not a problem. Thank you." He flashed her the famous Carter smile and walked back over to Claire.
The doctor soon came back in and started up the machines. "Now, I'm going to put this gel on your stomach. It will seem cold at first, but that will go away. Then, I'm going to rub this device on your stomach. This will enable us to see that little baby inside of you. he smiled. This doctor seemed nice. Claire was kinda disappointed that they would have to leave New York soon and that she wouldn't be able to keep him as her regular physician.
"Whoa, that is cold," she commented as he rubbed the gel on her. He turned on the little device and began rubbing it back and forth on her tummy. They soon noticed a picture appear on the screen.
"Ohmygosh," gasped Nick "That's our baby?" he asked in wonderment.
"Why yes it......" Dr. Myers began, looking at Claire's stomach and then at the monitor. He just stared, not continuing his sentence."
"Doctor Myers, is something wrong?" Claire started to get worried. She grasped Nick's hand a little tighter.
"No, no! There's nothing wrong, but a new situation has arisen. This is your first sonogram, so your doctor before this had no way of knowing this"
"Knowing what?" Nick pleaded. He didn't know what kind of information these kinds of tests provided. All he knew is that he saw a tiny life. Then his eyes did a double-take at the sight on the monitor. "Ohmygosh," he whispered, a slight smile starting to form on his face.
"Does someone care to inform me of what's happening?" Claire felt totally left out. Nick seemed to have picked up on what was going on. Claire was too busy looking at Nick and then at Doctor Myers to even notice what was on the screen.
Doctor Myers laughed slightly as he saw the two completely different expressions on Nick and Claire's faces. "It's okay Claire, I just have a new development to tell you about."
