Love Always Wins

10

"Feel free to breathe, I don't want you to pass out on me." Gabriel chuckled as he continued his work, taking measurements and checking that everything was as it should be. He'd felt Chloe's abdomen tensing so knew she was holding her breath.

"Sorry." She breathed the word out. Next to her, she heard Seb do exactly the same thing. "I'll be better once you switch that screen on."

"I'm nearly done."

"When will we be able to hear the heartbeat?" She asked, she wriggled her hand that was currently trapped between both of Seb's, his strong, tight hold was beginning to hurt a little. When he failed to get the hint she turned her head to look at him and he went from watching Gabriel to looking at her. He looked extremely anxious, his confident demeanour that he'd had so far all morning had gone. It made her worry even more. "Seb, hand." She wriggled her hand again.

"Sorry." He released her hand and then took a much gentler hold, interlocking their fingers. Seeing her worried expression, he gave her, what he hoped was, a smile. "It'll be fine."

"Tell your face that." She smirked, his smile having the desired effect on her. The screen facing them suddenly lit up and the dull, grainy image of what looked like a bean appeared before them. A bean that kind of resembled a baby. She was instantly stunned, not only by what she was seeing but how she was feeling. Love collided and mixed with an overwhelming feeling of wanting to nurture and protect this tiny little thing, to do anything that meant she gave it the best start in life possible and that it would never have to fight to survive ever again. "Oh wow." She breathed, totally and utterly blown away.

"He's measuring up at one point two-seven centimetres, around where he should be for an eight week old embryo. You can probably just about make out where his arms and legs are forming....." Gabriel pointed on the screen. "See the little buds here?"

"Yeah." She nodded, not totally sure she could see what he meant.

"Right here...." He used his mouse and glided the arrow exactly where he meant. "Two little buds for the legs and two further up for the arms."

"Oh my god....yeah I can see it." She exclaimed, glancing at Seb to see if he could see it too. He looked back at her, grinning broadly, eyes brimming with tears. "Don't Seb, you'll start me off." She swallowed, she'd hadn't expected to feel like this at all. This baby really did feel like a miracle. She squeezed his hand as she looked back to the screen.

"See this little flicker just here?" Gabriel moved the mouse, the white arrow hovered once more, drawing her eyes to the faint flickering movement. "That's the heart, beating around one-fifty a minute."

"One hundred and fifty?" She asked, just to be sure.

"That's correct."

"God. Should he be moving?"

"It's a little too early for that. If you were around nine weeks then I'd expect to see movement for sure, but at eight weeks, he's not quite ready for that just yet." Gabriel tapped on the keyboard and the room suddenly filled with what sounded like radio interference until a quick, steady heartbeat struck up instead. "While he can't move, there's the answer to your earlier question, there's his heartbeat for you. You're very lucky, it's rare that we can pick it up at this stage via an external scan, it's usually most detectable via an internal ultrasound." Next to her she heard Seb take in ragged, deep breath and a small sob escape, he was crying. This was the first scan he'd been able to be present for, the first time he'd seen his baby on screen and it hit home once more how lucky he was to have them both here.

"Oh Seb." She quickly felt choked up herself as she looked to see him with tears running down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry." He croaked, bringing her hand to his lips. "You're amazing, I'm just so proud of you, I love you so much, both of you." He couldn't stop the words from falling from his lips as he kissed her hand repeatedly. He'd missed the feel of her skin against his lips so badly that to even be able to do such a small thing felt like something far, far bigger. He didn't know how else to describe how he felt, there would never be any words that were fitting enough to tell her just how deeply he loved her, how in love he was with their baby already, how he never wanted to be apart from them and how fiercely protective he felt over them both. Chloe fanned her face with her free hand, trying hard not to cry. She was sure that poor Gabriel wouldn't want two crying, expectant parents on his hands but fanning her face did little to stop the tears from escaping.