Jurassic Baby

4

Needless to say, Maria was over the moon.

"Oh my god!! I have waited so long for this day!" she cried, running over to me and flinging her arms around me. My shirt was still pulled up so she moved away and peered cautiously at my tanned stomach.

"How far along?" she asked, coming back up to eye level now.

"Around twelve weeks, we've actually got the first proper scan in a few hours and we were wondering if you wanted to come?" we asked her and her eyes actually filled with tears.

"You would want me to be there?" she asked.

"Of course we would Mom!" Owen stood up now and put an arm around her shoulder, "hey it's okay, why are you crying?"

"I'm just so happy! Congratulations, both of you! I'm going to be a grandma!" she cheered, gesturing for me to come and join the hug.

"When you said you had been busy you sure weren't lying!" She said, causing the moment to be over as we fell apart with giggles.
Without having a proper family of my own, it felt so good to feel like I finally belonged.

"I've never been to anybody's baby scan apart from my own for Owen." Maria said when we were riding in the car on the way here. Owen was leaning between the front seats and we had the top of the car down, loving the Costa Rican mid-morning breeze.

"I've been to my own." Owen joked, smirking and Maria sighed exasperatedly. I rolled my eyes at him and he chuckled away to himself in the back.

"The health clinic is amazing here." Maria said, "so professional, it's going to have everything you need."

"I hope so, but the health centre on Isla Nublar is quite good." I explained, "But, it's going to be annoying coming over here every time I need a milestone scan." I sighed.

"Well you know you can always stay here, we're family now." Maria smiled at me warmly and I reciprocated. Owen leant forward and squeezed my shoulder, obviously thrilled that me and his Mom were getting on so well.

"Will you continue to live on Isla Nublar when the baby is born?" Maria asked and I bit my lip. Owen warned me that this would be a sore point.

"We haven't made any final decisions yet, but that is our home, Mom." Owen tactfully said and Maria nodded.

"That's fine, but you better not forget about Grandma Maria!" she said, the grin on her face whenever she talked about the baby was so infectious, I felt she was just as happy as us, if not more.

We pulled up outside the large clinic and made our way inside, registering that we had arrived for our appointment and then after a brief wait, we were greeted by a small dark-skinned female doctor.

"Hi, I'm doctor Gomez, pleased to meet you all." she said, leading us into the room, "if you just want to get straight onto the bed, we'll start your examination." I smiled and followed her instructions and Maria and Owen took a seat beside it.

"I'm assuming you're the father?" she said to Owen and he nodded.

"Well, I'd like to start off by saying congratulations on your pregnancy! It is important that you keep having regular scans so we can check everything is going to plan." she explained, putting on some gloves.

"I think we have scheduled all of our appointments until 40 weeks." Owen explained and I nodded.

"That's perfect then! I am in contact with your doctor over on Isla Nublar so we can share information depending on where you have your scan. Now, shall we take a look at baby?" she asked and grabbed the ultrasound gel.