Tale as Old as Time

Chapter 25

Chris became really overprotective and slightly overbearing in the early stages of my pregnancy. I was a stressed out mess so having him like that was sometimes exactly what I needed and sometimes the worst possible thing for me. If he was in 'dad mode' it was fine. It helped when I was stressing out and he just sat and held me or made me tea and reassured me that this time would be different and if it wasn't different we could get through this. We were strong.

It didn't help when he did that thing where he worried about me going running or if he thought I was overexerting myself. It drove me crazy when he freaked out because I was carrying something heavy or if I ran down the stairs. I tried to be patient with him. I understood. It's something I felt myself. I worried constantly. But his worry just fed mine. I broke down in tears more than once before we'd even had our first doctor's appointment.

We had the first appointment really early on. A few weeks after that positive test. They took about eight vials of blood among other things. I also had an internal ultrasound just to double check how far along I was. That tiny flutter of life in the vague blob shape that was our fetus was such a relief that Chris and I both started crying. It was confirmed that I was five weeks along. We were booked in to return for the eight week check up. That was when Chris was due to be doing his Age of Ultron press tour. It was a big one and then he had to go off to film Captain America: Civil War. We were both really anxious about it, given what happened with the first pregnancy and him having to leave town. I was putting things into place where it meant that I could do most of my work from out of town. Luckily I was the boss. I had Gaby and Jullien working for me. As much as I loved going into the forest and collecting data I actually didn't need to be that person. That is exactly why academics have postdocs under them. As long as I was putting together the data and writing papers, then I was doing my job.

Chris kept his promise for a while. As much as he wanted to tell everyone that we were expecting again he kept it to himself.

For a while.

As much as I could I followed along with him on his press tour. It was a little hard with trying to be as efficient as I could with work and the fact that my morning sickness was getting to be ridiculous. I was throwing up so much. I don't know how I was even getting any nutrients. The ginger pills helped a little, thank god.

My nausea never abated fully though, not at all throughout the day and Chris was so stressed by it even though the doctor assured him that morning sickness was actually a good sign.

I did go to the Jimmy Kimmel interview. It was in LA and just before the premier. So we headed back to LA with time for me to recover while he did other press. The plane trip was physically exhausting for me. I'm glad we planned it well.

Chris actually brought quite a few of us along. All the girls in his family. So I also had to pretend I wasn't sick when I really, really was. So that was fun.

Chris' mum and sisters were so excited to be there. Shanna nearly exploded with glee when she got to meet Jimmy. I think everyone though my anxiety was playing up because I was so quiet. Mostly I was just willing myself to stop throwing up. It was really nice to be around them though. Chris family and the Avenger's cast. They were all such great, funny people. I could tell Chris was just bursting to tell everyone the news.

I sat in the green room with Lisa, Carly, Shanna and the family that had been dragged along by the rest of the Avenger's cast. The interview was hilarious. Everyone was really relaxed and on the ball. Then it happened.

Jimmy was asking about the cast partying and fingers were pointed at Renner, along with much laughing.

"And who goes out with him? Does everybody go? Or do you guys... are there people that are more inclined to go out than others?" Jimmy asked.