The toast and coffee that she had for breakfast earlier seemed to be gurgling in her stomach. She made several nervous swallows, feeling as if there was bile in her throat, making her want to throw up.

Luckily, her quick action managed to quell the sensation, but her mouth felt rather sour, as if she had vomited a bit and swallowed it back.

It was not a nice feeling or taste.

Beatrice rubbed her temples and Zack immediately hovered over her, "What's wrong?"

He noted with worry her rather pale face and that there was a slight sheen of sweat on her forehead.

"Nothing," Beatrice said with a slight smile, "Come on, we're seeing the doctor anyway for a check-up, right? So don't worry so."

Zack placed his arm around her waist and she leaned on him a bit although not enough to give the impression that she needed his help to walk. She just wanted the comfort that the warmth of his body gave.

Zack's heart ached at this and he held her tighter.

It was a good thing that they decided to have her to go to see the doctor today. Otherwise, how long would their wife ignore her own health while working? If they hadn't been married, what would have happened to her then?

It didn't take long before it was Beatrice's turn, and Zack resolutely entered the doctor's room with Beatrice. Although Beatrice insisted that she was fine, Zack couldn't bear to wait outside in the waiting room.

With a sigh, Beatrice had to allow Zack to accompany her inside.

Although the doctor did raise his eyebrow slightly upon seeing Zack following behind Beatrice, he didn't say a word. It wasn't normal for a grown woman to have someone accompany her into the doctor's room, but it wasn't unusual either.

Beatrice embarrassingly told the doctor, "There's nothing really wrong with me, actually, but my husbands insisted that I come and have a check-up."

The doctor heard her mentioning 'husbands' but thought she had just misspoke, "Well, let's see what's up then.

The doctor did the basics ie blood pressure, heart rate, temperature.

"What made your husband feel like you needed a check-up?" the doctor asked, noting that things were generally fine.

"I've just been rather tired lately, but that's basically because I've a lot of work," Beatrice explained.

"Are your sleep patterns different?"

Beatrice thought about it, "No, not really. I've been busy like this before."

The doctor asked a few more questions and then decided to take some blood for some testing.

"We would want to eliminate a few factors, like thyroid disorder and your kidney function," the doctor explained as he handed the blood samples to the nurse.

"Do the normal tests, like sugar level and the likes, and include thyroid," the doctor instructed the nurse, "Tell me the results for the first one first." She nodded and took the blood samples away.

After that, the doctor turned to Beatrice and asked her about her diet and of anything that she may have done differently the past few weeks that may have been the reason for the change.

A few minutes had passed when the nurse came back in and handed the doctor a slip of paper. He looked at it and then at Beatrice, then Zack.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked hurriedly, leaning forward on the desk.

The doctor put down the slip of paper and looked at them seriously, "Congratulations. You're pregnant."

Beatrice blinked.

Zack froze.

"No, I can't be," Beatrice denied, "I just had my period last month …"

Zack turned to her, realisation slowly dawning on him, "No … no you didn't …"

"I didn't?"

Beatrice thought back. No, Zack was wrong.

She remembered it distinctively, "I did, Zack. It was during the visit to my parents' house, remember?"

"That was two months ago, Beatrice," Zack said.

Beatrice's head whirled.

She had lost track of time.

It really had been two months ago.

He gulped and excitedly touched her stomach, "We're going to have a baby. OMG. I have to tell Yuri. He'll be so excited!"

"Wait, but you never took any urine sample," Beatrice said to the doctor, perplexed, "How did you know?"

"I did a quantitative blood test, which can measure the exact amount of hCG in your blood," the doctor explained.

HCG, or human chorionic gonadotropin, aka the pregnancy hormone, is produced by cells that are surrounding a growing embryo. The 'take-home' test kits would detect this in the urine but it may not be so accurate in the early stages.

A blood test, however, would be as it would even find tiny amounts of hCG, making it very accurate.

Zack was too excited to listen to the doctor as he hurriedly called Yuri.

Yuri, who was in an important meeting, immediately grabbed the phone upon seeing that it was Zack calling. Everyone in the room kept silent, not daring to speak nor move, lest it disturbed Yuri.

They saw Yuri's concerned face turn into shock, and he stood up, shouting, "WHAT?!"

Everyone shuddered.

Was that a good what? Or a bad what?

They couldn't tell!

All they knew was that the normally calm and collected Yuri had exploded.

Suddenly, a huge grin emerged from Yuri's face, making everyone stare dumbfoundedly at him.

This was the first time, EVER, that they have seen Yuri smile.

Just then, Yuri put down the phone, looked at everyone, and declared, "I'm going to be a father."

People were shocked but they knew he had gotten married. Words of congratulations went about the room and Yuri's smile lasted for another 30 seconds before he then stared at them.

"On account of that, I will be giving you ONE more chance to get this right," Yuri said, his eyes cold and sharp, "Get it done by tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll be taking action personally."

They gulped.

If Yuri took action personally, it meant heads would roll.

Literally.

They quickly got up and practically ran out of the room to get things done.

Once the room was emptied, Yuri leaned back and smiled again.

✿ Author only posts on w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l. ✿

Lianne's face was scrunched up as she bit the bottom of her pencil.

A bad habit, she knew, but this was something she subconsciously did whenever she was concentrating hard on something.

Right now, she was looking at the latest sketch she had and she was not happy about it. There was just something about it that was rather off. She just couldn't seem to pinpoint what it was exactly.

All she knew, was that she didn't like it.

With a sigh, she closed her sketchbook and leaned back on the chair, stretching. Perhaps another round of the game would unblock this mental block of hers and give her a fresh perspective when she looks at it again.

Or maybe she just needed to see the person in the flesh again, just for inspiration.

One can only get so much from a picture, after all.

The only problem was, how was she going to get around her father for this?

Only one person could solve this for her. Lianne reached for her phone.

"Mama?" Lianne called out the moment Kyle picked up the phone.

"Yes, sweetheart, what is it?" Kyle asked, putting the phone on his shoulder as he signed the documents in front of him.

"Am I disturbing you?" she asked hesitatingly.

"No," Kyle answered, "Don't worry."

He grabbed another pile of documents on the table, flipping through it and focusing on the edits he had pointed out before. Sam had marked each edit clearly by placing an arrow sticky note beside it.

Lianne could hear the paper being flipped through the phone and she knew her mother was busy even though she didn't admit it. Suddenly, she felt that what she wanted was rather silly.

It wasn't as if she had some earth-shattering problem, or that she was working on a school project or something. This was just something she enjoyed doing and both her mother and Zero would be busy.

"It's nothing, really," Lianne said, quickly thinking up of an excuse, "But I was wondering if I could have a credit card of my own so that I can buy something online. I just need the card. I can pay for the purchases."

Kyle understood. It wasn't that Stephan wouldn't give Lianne a supplementary card if she asked for it. However, Kyle also knew that Stephan often viewed Lianne's art purchases as a 'waste' and she would get the third degree for it.

"Sure. Sam will get it done," Kyle said, "I'll sponsor you one art supply item each month. Anything more, you'll have to pay."

"Thank you Mama!" Lianne said happily. Though this was not the reason she called, the request had been genuine. She really needed the card.

"I'll get Zero to send it over to you during lunch break tomorrow," Kyle said.

What an unexpected harvest.