Chasing My Luna

2

REBECCA

I ran out of my bedroom with my heart thundering in my chest and the pregnancy test stuffed deep inside my purse and wrapped in basically an entire roll of toilet paper: I couldn't risk anyone smelling it and realizing what was going on.

Until I didn't know whether it was true or not, I couldn't risk giving the pack a false hope. It wouldn't have been right.

Isabelle. She'll know what to do.

Isabelle was Reiner's sister, and one of my dearest friends: we'd known each other our whole life, and had been close since elementary school. She was the pack's OBGYN - and therefore, my own too: she was the only one I could trust in that moment.

I took a breath as I headed towards the door, smiling and greeting my packmates and trying to act as normal as possible: seeing the Luna running out of the house flustered and in a hurry would certainly spread gossip. And if word of that got to Reiner ... he'd worry like crazy.

My heart clenched.

There was no reason to make him worry for something that was likely just a false positive.

"Rebecca!"

I stopped in my tracks: my mother-in-law, Sheila, had suddenly appeared in front of me, with a smile on her face that definitely startled me. We'd never been close - mainly because she'd never liked me and the fact that I was now Luna in her place. Seeing her smile at me on a random Sunday, when she struggled to do that even at Christmas, was definitely strange.

"H-hi, Sheila" I greeted her. "Something wrong?"

She shook her head. "Well, not with me ... but you definitely look flustered. Everything alright?"

I nodded. "Sure. I was just heading out for some errands".

"Well, in that case, take this," she said, putting a brown paper bag in my hand. "It's a sandwich. I was just coming upstairs to bring it to you, since you skipped breakfast ... you shouldn't go around with an empty stomach".

Oh.

Sheila being kind to me ... and offering me food?

That was something new entirely.

Yeah, looks like 'something new' is the mood for this morning, I thought.

"Thank you" I smiled. "Well ... see you later then".

Sheila smiled. "Oh, for sure".

Far more than one startled face was on me as I ran into my sister-in-law’s luminous waiting area: considering that everyone was well aware of my and Reiner’s difficulties in conceiving, it was clear that they thought my presence there, if not suspicious, at least strange.

I plastered a smile on my face, suddenly extremely grateful for the sandwich Sheila had given me.

“I’m just here for a delivery,” I smiled, slightly lifting the bag. “Isabelle forgot her lunch.”

For all I knew, that test could have been wrong: and even if it had been right, the outcome of a pregnancy was never certain. I didn’t want to give the pack false hope of an heir.

Fortunately, Isabelle came out of her office just then, walking out a radiant-looking patient with a prominent baby bump.

“Drop by the nurse at the counter to pick up your prescription, and call me for anything, anytime, Rhoda” she recommended herself, smiling. Her expression changed from professional to surprised when she noticed me. “Becky! What are you doing here?”

“Your mom asked me to bring you your lunch,” I smiled, lying through my teeth.

I need to talk to you, I told her instead through the mind link. It’s urgent, Izzy. Please.

Isabelle nodded quickly. “In fact, those exams you asked me to look at just came in a few minutes ago. Come inside. It'll only take a minute, ladies,” she then smiled at the other patients - a smile so genuine and disarming that no one would have dreamed of complaining.

I followed her into her office and abandoned her - well, actually my - lunch on her table, then pulled the positive test out of my purse.

“That’s ... this is what happened,” I said, unable to stop the anxiety from dripping into my voice.

Izzy glanced at the test, and a big smile rose on her face.

“No way!” she whispered. “When was this?”

“Not even half an hour ago,” I swallowed. “I ... need to know if ... if it can be true. If it really ...”

Izzy nodded, squeezing my hand. “Let's take a breath first,” he advised, guiding me for a couple of seconds in taking a deep breath. “Okay. This is a good brand of test, there are rarely any false positives ... so I’d say we can be pretty sure there’s a bun in the oven,” she smiled. “Anyway, we’ll make sure of that right away. Normally I’d give you blood tests - but I know what kind of relationship you have with needles, and considering the kind of news, I think both you and Reiner want results as soon as possible. So, hop on the bed - let’s do an ultrasound and see what’s going on in here.”

I nodded, doing as she told me and pulling my shirt up to expose my belly. Izzy sat down next to me, turned on the ultrasound machine and got right to work.

“Take it easy ...” she said again, with a half smile. “You look like you have a race car for a heart.”

I sighed, nodded and took another breath. “It's just ... I’ve never seen that before,” I murmured. “A positive test, I mean. I think I spent a good five minutes on the bathroom floor staring at it - thinking I was hallucinating. So I set out to take pictures of it, because I thought if I saw it not in person but on the screen, I’d realize whether it was just my eyes tricking me or not ...”

“And it was positive in the pictures too, I bet,” she smiled.

I nodded. “It just seems ... totally unbelievable,” I confessed. “I ... didn’t think it would ever happen to me. We'd almost given up all hope.”

“Yeah, my brother told me,” Izzy nodded, her tone just slightly less cheerful. “He was really down in the dumps the other day - mostly because he knew how bad you felt about it.”

I swallowed, feeling my eyes sting with tears. I knew Reiner felt that way - he had told me the night before, too, when we'd talked our fight out. He hated seeing me sad about our infertility, but most of all he hated the fact that he couldn’t do anything about it: we had gone through countless tests, and it had always turned out that none of us had the slightest problem - in fact, according to those tests, we should have had a nice litter by now. For some strange reason, however, those pups were not coming.

Well, maybe now things are about to change, I thought.

A few moments later, Isabelle flinched: the change in her look, from focused to surprised and excited, was so sudden that my heart missed a beat.

“Well?” I asked, excited. “What do you see?”

Izzy swallowed, her eyes suddenly shining with emotion and tears. “If anything, who do I see,” she whispered. “See for yourself, Mommy.”

And she turned the monitor toward me.

The world stopped.

I can’t believe it.

“Here is baby A” Izzy smiled excitedly, pointing to a small dot to the right. “And here is baby B. Becky, do you ... do you know what that means?”

I nodded, my heart pounding in my chest as I looked at the monitor through tear-glossed eyes.

“It’s two,” I whispered. “They're ... they're twins. We're having twins”.

For two, endless years, Reiner and I had prayed to the Goddess to grant us even just one child ... and finally, she had answered our prayers.

Two babies. Two pups. Two little ones to love, cuddle and spoil ... two little lives to admire.

Two gifts. That they were: two immense, beautiful gifts.

“I’ll call Reiner, so you can tell him!” Izzy exclaimed, flying to the desk to pick up the phone.

“No!” I stopped her, smiling like a fool. “No, it has to be special, I don’t ... I can’t tell him on the phone, Izzy!”

At lunch - during our date. I was going to tell him at lunch - it was the perfect opportunity.

“Yeah - right. It’s definitely not the kind of news to tell on the phone” Isabelle nodded: she was so happy and excited that she seemed to want to start jumping and dancing - not that I felt any less happy! By now, I wasn’t even trying to hold back the tears, and I couldn’t stop looking at the monitor, at my babies.

You're so beautiful ...

“I never thought I'd see it,” I whispered. An ultrasound of my belly, finally not empty: it felt like a dream - a dream from which I had not the slightest desire to wake up.

“I know,” Isabelle murmured, hugging me and gently wrapping her arms around me. “But it’s all true. Those two are there. You did it, Becks - and I am so, so happy for you. No one deserves it more than you guys.”

I squeezed her hand, surrendering to her grip and thoroughly enjoying that moment.

It was true.

I was pregnant.

Reiner and I were going to be parents at last.

We had made it.

I was going to be a mother.