Letting Go [complete - expanding chapters during rewrite]

Chapter Twenty Three

The next morning Mason and I returned to the pack house hand in hand, he traced circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.  There was a spring in his step, and a smile on his face.  It put a smile on my face.  I looked at his profile with the sunrise glowing behind him.  I tried to imagine our future children. I put my other hand on my belly.  I'm late, and today while Mason trains to be the future Alpha with his father, I will be going to the clinic for one little test. 
We split ways.  Mason walks to the wing the offices are in, and I go to the clinic.  After peeing in a cup, and having blood taken I wait for the results in the chairs by the front desk, not needing to take up a room.  After waiting what feels like forever I'm called back to Dr. Graham's office.
    "Come in Chloe, and shut the door. I have your test results."
    "Yes, thank you Dr. Graham."
    "Your HCG test is positive. You are pregnant. It looks like your hormones are high so either you're very far along, or you're carrying multiples. You still look thin to me, so I'm going to guess multiples. We'll find out when I do the scan. Tigers can carry up to 7 babies at once, but 3 is the most common, and tiger gestation last about three and a half months. Becky, our sonographer is in the office today to scan a couple females, so we can do it now if you want."
    "That sounds good. If Becky has time."
    "Let me take you to the ultrasound room."
    She stands up from behind the desk and walks me to a room just down the hall. I enter, and she tells me to, "remove all your clothing from the waist down, even your underwear. This will be transvaginal. Here is a gown, leave the opening in the front. Becky will just be a minute."
    I panic and hurry to change, not wanting to be caught halfway. I tuck my underwear under my pants so they can't be seen, and then I sit on the paper covered bed. Becky comes in quickly. She has me lay back, and puts my feet up in stirrups. The wand goes into my baby maker, and she flips on the screen.
    "Alright," she says, "First it will just look like snow. Let me move this around." She adjusts the angle. "There we are, I see three, no four babies. It looks like you have one set of identical twins, and the rest are fraternal. You're a tiger so they're going to grow fast. You look to me to be about ten days along, so you're going to start showing right away. Your due date should be in one hundred days. Let me do some measurements, I see beating hearts, and so far everyone looks healthy. Congratulations Mrs. Davis!"
    She removes the wand, and hands me a tissue to wipe down below, and then leaves the room for me to get dressed.
I practically skip to the Alpha's office. I can't wait to tell Mason.
    When I get there I barge in, too excited to knock. The Alpha and Mason's faces are bleak.
    "What? What happened?" I ask as my emotional high crashes to the ground.
    "The surveillance video is being thrown out, and Mark's trial has been cancelled due to lack of evidence. He argued, successfully, that because the surveillance was not 'official' it was unreliable."
    "What?" I ask feeling a bit blank and like he just spoke another language.
    "Mark's been released."
    "They can do that?"
    "It's the law."

A/N:  Not getting a confession, and having key evidence thrown out happens a lot.  In this case, a video in night vision, shot from above is questioned, especially when there's no corroborating evidence.  This is not a failure of the court system. The court system only works if everyone's rights are taken into account, the victim's, and the defendant's.  This is to prevent innocent people from spending time in jail.