Damian held true to his word, apart from seeing each other at church. There were no random phone calls or texts or drop-in visits. He gave space when she needed it most. Heaven knows Flora wasn’t going to be the one to contact him first. Even when two weeks turned to four and her pregnancy was rounding the most stressful week for Kiran and Flora: week thirteen.

The couple sat in the waiting room at the radiology clinic impatiently, wanting to know more. Thirteen exhausting weeks with no heartbeat. Why?

“Flora…will you promise me something?” Kiran asked to fill the sterile silence.

“What is it?”

“If there’s a heartbeat will you promise me you’ll work hard to come out of this depression?”

“Kiran—”

“I know everything has been hard on you, but…Flora, I’m struggling to tread water right now. I just need to know you’ll start to heal…start to be better…”

Flora opened her mouth, but the door opened.

“Flora Thompson,” the nurse called into the waiting room. “Right this way.” The nurse led the way through the halls until they came to a room with two large monitors and another set of machinery that Flora came to know more intimately than she was comfortable with. “You’ll want to remove your shirt and bra and put the gown on. The doctor will be just a moment.” The nurse left them alone.

Kiran held her hand as they waited.

“Kiran, I’m scared,” Flora said softly, turning her head towards him.

“I know, love. Me, too. But no matter what, I’m right here. We’re in this together, right?”

“Right.”

Kiran tried to give a reassuring smile, he just looked fragile. Almost as if this was going to drown him entirely in sorrow.

Within short order the doctor arrived. “How are you guys doing today? I’m Doctor Murphy.” She said. Doctor Murphy was a woman with plump features and decades of experience under her belt.

“We’ve been better,” Flora admitted with a small smile.

“I’m aware. But I’m sure you’ll hear from your doctor about the results sooner rather than later. Especially given your history.”

“I hope so.” Kiran muttered.

Doctor Murphy tucked small towels over the hem of Flora’s pants to protect them from the gel. The front of the gown was raised just under her bust, exposing her belly to the warm gel.

“This is going to be uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t hurt.” Doctor Murphy touched the wand to her skin, using it to spread the gel around before digging deeper to look at the organs. Kiran held Flora’s hand; Flora only looked at Kiran.

Doctor Murphy dug the wand in and moved it around before holding it still. She pressed some keys on the keyboard before resuming her work. It went that way for so long Flora was sure her womb was just empty and this was all some cruel cosmic joke. Flora wouldn’t be able to handle that.

“Normally I would just send these off to your doctor and she’d call you, but…” Her voice trailed off as she pushed a button.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

Kiran was trying to see the monitor; Flora was trying to understand the expression on his face. “Oh my god,” Kiran muttered. “Flora look.”

Flora gathered the courage to look at the monitor now facing them. There on the screen, as clear as daylight itself, was the image of the small fetus growing inside her. She could see most of the face even though the eyes were blackened in right now. They wouldn’t see anything more definitive until the baby was born, but this was it. The first picture. They only saw a picture of Rebecca, but Flora couldn’t remember her features now if she tried.

“This will be sent to your doctor to look over, but I’m not seeing anything abnormal at all. If your doctor sees something, she’ll call you, but I think for now you can take a deep breath. When you two are ready, the exit is just to the left of the door.”

“Thank you,” Kiran said. Doctor Murphy nodded leaving them gawking at their child.

“We’re really going to have a baby,” Flora said.

Kiran stood as a broad smile came to his lips. “We’re going to be parents.” Kiran leaned down cupping Flora’s face with his hands as he pressed his forehead to hers.

“We’re going to be parents,” Flora repeated. “The baby is fine…!”

Tears fell from both their eyes. Kiran pulled away just enough to look deep into her eyes. The worry, the fear, the depression was transforming into something far more manageable.

Flora sat up a little, trying to push her lips to Kiran’s; he pulled away.

“We’ve got a lot of planning ahead of us,” he said.

“Y-Yeah,” Flora muttered. “Um…It won’t happen quickly, but I think…I promise I will try hard to be better.”

“Thank you. I’ll meet you out there.”

Dirty towels were discarded into the hamper, but Flora didn’t leave immediately. How was she supposed to “be better” when she was still full of so much doubt? And why did she need to do it right now?

Flora sighed as she searched her phone for Susan’s number. “Hey Susan, it’s Flora. Just got done at the doctor’s.”

“Really!? And!?”

Every available ounce of strength kept Flora’s voice from wavering. “We have a heartbeat. A very strong heartbeat and a picture. So…I guess we’ll be needing that baby shower.”