And Again

Chapter twenty-three

The first Monday in June, after two weeks of hormone injections, Allie and Nicky were back in the doctor's office.

"Allie, I can give you the laughing gas if you want" Dr Chase said. "It'll help you relax"

Allie shook her head. "I'm ok"

"Alright, then I need you to try and slow your breathing" she said. "Deep breaths in..." she waited for Allie to take a deep breath. "And out. Good...good. Keep breathing just like that, and I'm gonna start"

"Ok" Allie said.

"You're doing great, Al" Nicky said and stood up to kiss Allie's forehead.

"Talk to me about Jenna" Dr Chase said in hopes of taking Allie's mind off what was happening. "How's she doing?"

"Um...Jenna's great. She's uh...starting kindergarten in the fall, she's really- ow"

"I know, I'm sorry" Dr Chase said.

"You're almost there" Nicky said and wiped away the tear that was falling down Allie's face. "Deep breaths"

"You were saying that Jenna's starting kindergarten soon" Dr Chase said.

"Um...yeah. Yeah, she's really excited" Allie said. "She wants to take dance class too and- ow ow ow"

"I'm so sorry" Dr Chase said. "I'm almost done"

Allie moved her head to the side to be closer to Nicky and he put his arm around her.

"30 seconds and I'm done, I promise" the doctor said.

"You're amazing" Nicky whispered and kissed Allie forehead.

"I'm done" the doctor said.

Allie sat up and buried her face in Nicky's shoulder.

"Ok" he whispered as he rubbed her back.

Once Allie had a few minutes to calm down and relax after the procedure, the doctor came back into the room. "You'll come back here for a pregnancy test in 10 days, that's next Thursday. In the meantime, take it easy. No running, no heavy lifting, no sex. Take the prenatal vitamins and try to eat generally healthy. Nothing crazy, but eat the way you would if you were already pregnant. Try to limit caffeine and don't drink alcohol or smoke"

The next day Nicky woke up with Allie's head on his chest. He could hear Jenna outside, probably in the playroom. She was on summer vacation but Nicky wanted Allie to be able to rest so he got up, being careful not to wake her, and brushed his teeth before leaving the room to find Jenna.

"Good morning, princess" he said as he walked into Jenna's playroom where she was playing with Buddy. "How'd you sleep?"

"Good" Jenna said.

"Do you wanna go have some breakfast?"

"Can we make banana muffins?" Jenna asked. One of her favorite foods was banana bread, but she especially loved when Nicky would put the batter into muffin pans so they looked like cupcakes. It was usually a breakfast they had on weekends since weekday mornings were busy but since it was summer vacation they had time.

"Sure" Nicky said.

They went downstairs and on the way to the kitchen, Nick opened the back door so Buddy could go out.

"Alright" Nicky said and lifted Jenna up to sit on the kitchen counter. He got out all of the ingredients set them down by Jenna. "Do you remember what goes first?"

"Flour"

"That's right" Nicky said. "You wanna put two cups of flour in the bigger bowl?"

"Yeah"