Bound by the Don(32)

       
           



       



"Sorry Hannah." Rachael said with a shrug, using her sister's toothbrush to try and get the lingering foul taste out of her mouth. After brushing her teeth for the third time and gargling about a gallon of mouthwash Rachael finally felt back to normal. She splashed a little cold water on her flushed face, patting it dry again before turning on her heel to head back into her old bedroom.



She stopped with one foot in the room. Hannah was sitting there, a patient look on her familiar face. The same tawny complexion. The same emerald green eyes. The same dark auburn colored hair, except that Hannah's was pulled back in a sensible pony tail while Rachael's reached her shoulders in a daring, messy bob.



It always struck her as funny. Though their features were so similar, the two of them couldn't be farther apart from each other in personality.



"What are you doing in here, Hannah?" Rachael finally sighed, avoiding her sister's questioning glance as she finished stuffing wrinkled cloths into the half-full duffel bag on the bed.



"I wanted to make sure you were okay. I heard you throwing up in the bathroom."



"Thanks, but I don't need a play by play. I was there, remember?" Rachael shot back, voice thick with sarcasm. "I feel fine now. It must just be a bug or something. I've been sick off and on for the past few days."



Hannah was by her side in a moment, her hand at her forehead and her brows lowered in concern. Rachael brushed the hand aside as she continued to pack.



"Really, Hannah, I'm fine."



"No fever." Hannah said biting her lip. "Not the flu, then. Food poisoning maybe? Did you eat anything that made you sick recently?"



Rachael just sighed and shook her head, "No. I haven't, Dr. Hannah. Can this examination be over now?"



But her sister didn't seem to hear her, just tilted her head to the side, staring.



Finally, at the edge of her patience, Rachael turned on Hannah. "What? What is it? You're driving me crazy."



"You said it's been happening off and on for a while? Every day?" Hannah finally asked, still giving her an intent look.



Rachael thought back over the last week and a half, before giving her sister a shrug. "Yeah, I guess so. Every day."



"About this time during the day?"



"Yeah. And?" Rachael spit out, shoving the last of her clothes into the bag and zipping it up.



"But you feel fine afterwards?" Hannah was sitting forward on the edge of the bed now, her green gaze intense.



"Yes! I told you, Hannah, I'm fine!" Rachael threw the bag over her shoulder and headed for the door. She really didn't have time for this little Q and A session with her sister but before she'd even left the room, Hannah's voice stopped her cold in her tracks.



"Rae, could you be pregnant?"



The question rocked her back on her heels for a long moment before she could reel herself back in.



When she did, Rachael threw a caustic look over her shoulder. "Of course not! Don't be ridiculous."



"I'm not, Rachael. I'm being logical." Hannah held up her fingers, ticking off her points as she went. "You've been throwing up every morning for the past several days, but you don't have a fever and it's not food poisoning. You're more emotional-"



"I am not emotional!" Rachael interrupted hotly and turned to face her sister head on with her hands on her hips. "This is absurd!"



"So you're saying there is absolutely no way that there's a possibility you might be pregnant? Not even the smallest percentage?"



"No! Of course not!"



"Have you had sex in the last three months?" Hannah asked calmly and an annoyed flush tinted Rachael's cheeks.



"Well, yes, but …  "



"So, there you go. It is a possibility then."



"No, it's not. We've been careful. We always use a condom."



"Things happen, Rae. Condoms break."



"I know, Hannah, but …  no, just no! Not a possibility!" Rachael said adamantly, but now that her sister had put the thought in her head she found herself mentally calculating her last period. Six weeks. It had been six weeks.



"Shit." Rachael said softly, her whole world contracting as the thought settled over her. It was a possibility. It was more than a possibility. But it could also just be a fluke. She was stressed waiting for the call from Houston. She'd been working her ass off. Or maybe this was just new strain of the flu with no fever and periodic bouts of nausea, right?                       
       
           



       



"Why don't I just go down to Doc's Pharmacy and get you a pregnancy test? Then we won't have to argue about this anymore because you will have unequivocal proof one way or the other." Hannah suggested, her voice doing that ‘I'm being completely reasonable and I don't understand why you don't agree with me' thing that always drove Rachael up the god damned wall.



Her sister saw the world in straight lines and if it couldn't be explained logically it didn't exist. On the total opposite end of the spectrum, Rachael lived her life full speed ahead, barely stopping to look where she was going and running on pure gut instinct.



And looks where it's gotten you. A soft inner voice whispered. Rae forced the thought away.



"We can't go to Doc's," Rachael said, shuddering just thinking about all the judgmental looks from the busybodies of Mayville as the resident fuck-up tried to surreptitiously buy a pregnancy test. She still wasn't even sure it was necessary. It was probably just a touch of the flu or something.



But still there was that little kernel of doubt that had panic taking flight like a flock of birds inside her.



"Okay," Hannah said with a simple shrug, not even having the decency to fight back with her, "There's always that drug store the town over. We'll go there."



Rachael didn't move for a long moment before heaving a loud sigh of resignation.



"Damn it. Why do you always have to be right?" Rachael finally said, casting her twin a baleful glare. "Would it be so terrible for you to be wrong? Just once?"



"I'm sure I'm wrong all the time, Rae." Hannah said as she dug the keys to her sensible four door sedan out of her small brown leather purse. "Come on. We're going. I bet it will be nothing and then you can prove me wrong. Doesn't that sound like fun?"



Rachael gave her another petulant look before reluctantly nodding. "As a matter of fact, it does." Rae turned on her heel to head down the stairs, "But I'm driving. You drive like an old lady."



"And you drive like a maniac. Besides, you're sick, right?" Hannah said with that same calm logic.



"Of course you're right, Hannah," Rachael sighed, adding under her breath, "You're always right."



A few moments later and Hannah was pulling out of the long driveway and Rachael was pouting in the passenger's side seat, her arms crossed over her chest as she stared out of the window.



The nausea was nearly gone but every time she thought about what they were about to be doing and the reason for it, the nausea came back up again and Rachael had to swallow hard to keep it suppressed. It didn't help that her heart was trying to hammer its way out of her chest.



The twenty minute drive was nearly more than she could take and after forcing Hannah to go inside and buy the test, Rachael had realized she couldn't wait for the drive all the way back to find out. It was killing her, the doubts, the thoughts, the nervous wondering.



She pointed out a gas station as they drove past. "Stop there."



Hannah gave her a sideways look but didn't say anything as she pulled over. Before Hannah was even out of the car Rachael had grabbed the test and sprinted towards the ladies restroom only to emerge two minutes later with the opened box clenched in her hand.



She collapsed on the curb outside in the empty parking lot, her nerves going mad inside her as she handed the test to her sister.



"Here, Hannah, read the damn thing. I can't fucking do it." Her fingers were shaking so badly she could barely keep a hold of the test but finally Hannah took it. She pulled out the novel length instructions and read them carefully as Rachael sat there biting her nails.



Seconds inched into minutes and finally, Rachael couldn't stand it anymore. She felt like she was going to burst apart.



"Hell, Hannah. Just tell me what the damn thing says!" Rachael spit out the words, her nerves taking a nosedive as her sister finally put away the instruction booklet and drew the tiny, white plastic stick from the box. It looked so innocent, that thing, but Rachael stared at it like a poisonous snake as Hannah stared at it.



Another excruciating moment dragged by and Rachael couldn't keep it in anymore. "Jesus Christ, Hannah, just fucking tell me what the god damned thing-"



"You're pregnant."



The words hit her like a ton of bricks and her vision darkened. For just a brief second, she went all light-headed and she was almost certain that she was about to black out right there in the parking lot of the gas station.