16
Rafael
Something shifted withinmi reinain the week since she'd seen her mother's memorial. She visited often, laying flowers on the ground for both the mothers who had been taken from us too soon.
But having a place to go where she could feel connected and grieve seemed to help her pull out of the all-consuming grief she'd been overwhelmed by following her mother's death. I knew without a doubt the fate her sister faced continued to plague her, the reality that Odina had spent more than two weeks in the hands of men like Pavel and Dima.
It would be in her best interest if she was simply no longer living, because I knew better than most the kind of suffering she endured if she still lived.
In the time since, I'd had one of the spare bedrooms converted to an exam room and delivery room. The doctor would be brought in for regular check-ups, and when Isa's due date approached, she'd come to live with us temporarily. I wouldn't leave anything to chance when it came to my wife and child.
Not when money could easily buy the safety precautions necessary.
"Everything looks good," Dr. Perez said, smiling at Isa as she lay back on the sonography chair. With a sheet draped over her bare thighs, Isa rested as the doctor poked and prodded at her stomach gently. "You're starting to show. When did your last period start?" she asked with a smile, gently pushing on the little swell on Isa's lower abdomen.
"June 8th, I think," Isa said, and I nodded my head. Isa glared at me, clearly disgruntled by my insider knowledge of when her last period had come. Hugo had been a very useful spy in all ways, conveying all the information I needed to help with my plans for her at the official start of our relationship.
"So you're…" the doctor trailed off, doing the math in her head. "Just over nine weeks pregnant if I had to guess. Plenty far along for an ultrasound if you're ready to see your baby."
"Yes," I answered, not even bothering to wait for Isa's response.
She didn't pretend to be upset by my enthusiasm as the doctor woke up the computer and monitor at the side of the room and grabbed the wand for the ultrasound. The thought of somethinginside my wife didn't fill me with pleasant thoughts, and I could only hope that I'd be able to chase away the memory of it by stuffing her full of my cock soon enough.
Having her mouth on me at every turn had been incredible in its own way, but after two weeks of it, I was desperate to feel her pussy contract as she came.
Isa winced as the doctor slid it inside her, her pretty face grimacing in a way that wasn't pained so much as uncomfortable. Her cheeks flushed as our eyes met, and I had the horrible realization that another woman touchingmi reinawas only marginally better than a man doing it. There was static noise as the wand shifted around and the doctor's other hand pressed on Isa's stomach softly. Eventually, she froze when she found the positioning she wanted. She clicked away on the screen, measuring the bean-shaped white spot on the screen. "This is the baby's head," she said, pointing out the larger part of the body as I watched in rapt attention. "And you can see the beginning of arms and legs."
“It’s so small,” I murmured, grasping Isa’s hand within mine and feeling overcome with the sudden emotion at the sight of our baby on the screen.
Peeling my gaze away from the image reluctantly, I turned my attention to Isa and the intense way she watched the screen. Tears pooled in her eyes, lingering there and never falling free as she refused to take her attention away from the image of our baby. Even with me squeezing her hand in mine, she still couldn't seem to take her eyes away.
If her face hadn't been filled with the same absolute joy I felt, I might have wondered if she regretted the baby.
"And this is the heartbeat," the doctor said, and the steady drum of the baby's heart filled the room. The tears that Isa had restrained herself from crying flowed down her cheeks, and we sat and listened to the confirmation of what we'd been hesitant to hope for. The baby was alive and well, and the attack hadn't cost us that on top of everything else Isa had lost.
The doctor cleared her throat, finishing with her measurements and then removing the wand to clean. "Measurement is consistent with nine weeks. I see nothing that's any cause for concern at this point. The placenta is firmly attached to the uterine wall despite what happened, so I think it is safe to say that negative ramifications are unlikely at this stage. I'm taking you off limitations, and you're free to resume normal activity," she said as Isa shifted to sit up. She smiled as I reached forward and wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of my suit.
"All activities?" I asked, earning a sharp slap on the arm from Isa.
The doctor chuckled as if used to the desperation that came after a period of abstinence. "Yes. There are no real limitations in terms of sex at this phase. Do whatever is comfortable, but if there's any pain then ease off. Let your body tell you what limits it has," she said, turning to Isa.
"Is there anything I can't do outside of sex?" she asked. "Like simulating a fight?"
"You mean like sparring in a training exercise?" The doctor shrugged. "Under very controlled circumstances, I don't see anything wrong with that. Nothing that would risk a blow to the stomach, but outside of that, I think it would be fine as long as you're careful until you're showing more."
Isa nodded, bidding the doctor farewell. A single glance at my wife's face and I knew without a doubt we hadverydifferent ideas of what our first activity should be.
Fucking shit.
* * *
"Remind me how I got roped into this?" Joaquin asked, stripping the shirt off his head. I tossed mine to the side, kicking off my shoes and standing in the clearing where he'd taken Isa what felt like ages ago to teach her the very thing I'd forbidden.
The same thing that I'd been forced to concede after the attacks in Chicago. I hated the knowledge that my wife may find herself in a situation where she needed to protect herself, and I wouldn't be able to do it.
But I liked the thought of her stabbing our enemies enough to outweigh that.
"Just lucky, I guess," I grunted. "Gabriel is busy. Hugo is too small."