Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Panda Eyes and Playful Scars
The narrator experiences a pregnancy scare with spotting, leading to a tense hospital visit. The partner's fear of abandonment resurfaces, but they support each other through the ordeal. The scare turns out to be benign, deepening their bond and commitment to the growing family.
The weeks after our late-night confession were filled with a gentle closeness. He started leaving little notes again—on the bathroom mirror, tucked into my lunch bag, slipped under my pillow. One read, "You and this baby are my whole world." I kept them all in a shoebox under the bed, next to the tiny elephant. But the shadow of his fear had not fully lifted. I saw it flicker in his eyes when he watched me rub my growing belly, or when he placed his hand on my stomach before sleep, as if waiting for something to go wrong.
I tried not to let it worry me. Morning sickness came and went with its own rhythm, leaving me pale and exhausted some days, ravenous on others. I took my prenatal vitamins religiously, drank water until my bladder felt like a balloon, and read every pregnancy book I could find. Still, a low hum of anxiety accompanied me everywhere—the quiet fear that something could go wrong, that we were not prepared for the enormity of what we had started.
Then one Tuesday afternoon, I noticed it. A small spot of blood on my underwear, the color of rust. My heart stopped. I stood in the bathroom, staring at the thin line of pink against white cotton, and felt the world tilt. I called his number, my fingers trembling. "Can you come home?" I said, my voice thin. "Something happened."
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