Chapter 12: Pregnancy

Over the next days, Ashley and Danny were out hunting for an apartment. Marsha had involved a real estate agent to help them, but it still was not easy to find a fitting place. For one, Ashley wanted at least three bedrooms, hoping for Lynn to spend her free weekends with them. She had also set her eyes on a nice Victorian townhouse setting. In the end, they had to compromise. The apartment was in a 1990s five story building, but it had three and a half bedrooms. Danny figured that the smallest room could serve as a nursery if he had to have the baby over. The rent was stiff, but Ashley insisted on a 2:1 split to allow for Lynn’s frequent stays. With utilities, Danny’s budget plans were mostly matched.

Marsha asked around among the women in her offices and came up with two recommended Ob/Gyns. Only one of them was accepting new patients, and so Helen and Danny sat in Dr. Corday’s waiting room one afternoon waiting to be called.

Rita Corday was perhaps 35 years old, a tallish woman with an unruly mop of dark hair and a ready smile. Danny let Helen relate the situation only adding a few snippets that she missed. Corday gave them a wry smile.

“Well, it is as it is, right? Let’s just deal with it. First of all, I’ll have a look at things. Mr. Westbrook, perhaps you could wait outside?”

Danny left the examination room and settled in the waiting room again. There were three patients waiting, and two of them regarded Danny as if he’d come straight from Evil Male Central. With a sigh, he bent over the textbook he’d brought along until Dr. Corday called him back into the exam room.

“Everything appears to be fine apart from the morning sickness Miss Gunderson is experiencing,” Corday announced. “Miss Gunderson said that you will take part in the birth preparations?”

Danny nodded. “As much as I can help.”

“Good. I gave Miss Gunderson information about the birth preparation classes held at Landauer Hospital. I have rights there, and we plan for Miss Gunderson to deliver there.”

Danny nodded. The place had a good reputation.

“I’ll accompany her,” he said.

Corday nodded. “That’s good. Miss Gunderson indicated that you volunteered to partner with her in the preparations and in raising this child?”

Danny nodded again. “My mom was alone when she had me. I’ll be a dad for the ... our child.”

“Fine. You two are not a couple as I understand, so I can save myself the usual speech I give to husbands. Just make certain that you’ll still be a partner when things get tough.”

“He will,” Helen said with conviction. Then with a sad smile, “We may not be a couple, but I trust Danny.”

From then on, Danny and Helen had lunch together twice a week. They talked about their issues and even a little bit about other things. They mostly got along with each other, except when their personal relationship came up. They learned from that to focus on the less sensitive topics.

Helen had loaded her first semester with whatever she could manage to fit into her schedule. She reasoned that her second semester would be a bust, and she wanted to get ahead a little. There were few distractions to begin with. At the start of the semester, Helen was not lacking for male attention being the gorgeous blonde that she was. By mid-October however, the baby bulge began to show and the male interest waned considerably. This did not improve Helen’s opinion of men in general and even of Danny. He did not feel like buttering her up either, and this made for a few tense moments between them.

When her belly was expanding however, Danny’s protective instincts began to kick in and he became more patient with her mood swings. In turn, the happy hormones that Helen produced in quantities now made her more agreeable.

Danny scored more brownie points when he conveyed Marsha and Tyler’s offer for Trudy and Helen to join the Westbrooks in their Kitty Hawk house over Christmas. Irina was invited too, and to Danny’s surprise Helen bonded a little with her. Danny and Helen even exchanged small gifts and strolled the beach together. New Year’s Eve was harmonious too with the parents-to-be even sharing an awkward kiss at the stroke of midnight.

After that it was back to the grindstone for them. As Helen found it increasingly difficult to get around, Danny often had to help her out, either as her driver to get her to the doctor’s office or to other appointments. Still, by the end of January their relationship was deteriorating again.

Helen had made two – female – friends at Penn, fellow freshmen Lauren Holloway and Clarise Damiani. Unfortunately, neither of them liked or even tolerated Danny for some reason. Danny suspected that both young women argued against him with Helen and she drew away from him. This meant that he had no lunch with Helen when she was with her friends, which was pretty much every day. She also called him less often, and if she did it was to ask him for help, or rather to demand some service.

Danny did his best not to get too riled over this. He had been careful not to invest too much into his relationship with Helen and he was able to maintain an equanimity around her. Luckily for him, Lucy visited in mid-February to shoot the next series of commercials for the Two Bucks. She was also doing a shoot for a local mobile carrier. Danny drove her around and kept her company during the breaks. They had dinner together with Ashley – Lynn was at a gymnastics meet in upstate New York – after which Lucy spent the night with Danny.

Lucy had taken Danny’s impending fatherhood in stride. She had taken a few pot shots at him, but otherwise she maintained their friendship with benefits. She was sitting at the breakfast table on the morning after, sipping coffee while Danny was showering, when the land line phone rang. Without hesitation, she picked up the receiver.

“Hi, this is Ashley and Danny’s apartment.”

“Who’re you?” came the less than polite question.

“I’m staying with Danny and Ash for the weekend. My name is Lucy. May I have your name?”

“I’m Helen. Surely you heard of me?” the voice answered aggressively. Lucy felt the anger rise in her.

“Your name comes up from time to time,” she said coolly. “Anyway, Danny’s in the shower. Can he call you back?”

“I’m sure he’s got a lot of cleaning to do! Tell him the mother of his future child needs a little of his precious time. That is if he can zip it up long enough.”

Lucy laughed outright. “Sure, no problem. I’ll let him know that his Princess on the Pea called. Anything else?”

“No!” came the answer and the line went dead.

Lucy debated briefly with herself whether to tell Danny of the call or not, but she knew that Danny wanted to do what he felt was his duty to the child. She knocked on the bathroom door.

“Danny?”

“I’ll be right out!”

“No, that’s not it. The ‘mother of your unborn child’ just called and wants you to call back.”

“Did she sound urgent?”

“Naah, just bitchy. She sure sounds like a fun kinda girl,” Lucy laughed.

Danny came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his midsection.

“She can be nice. We had a great time down in Kitty Hawk. She’s hanging out too much with those two cows from Bitches’R’Us. Let me call her and find out what’s the problem.”

He picked up the receiver and pressed the speed dial for Helen. She answered in less than a second. Lucy could hear her because Danny put the phone on speaker.

“Time you called! Who is that slut?”

Lucy could tell that Danny was about to end the call and she gave him a sign to continue. She also glided down to her knees in front of him and loosened his towel. With his dick in her mouth, she looked up at him and winked.

“I asked you something!”

“I was ... I was looking around but I didn’t see one. I can only see a very good friend and all-around nice person. By the way, you’re on speaker.”

Lucy chuckled with Danny’s dick still deep in her mouth. It was swelling rapidly under her ministrations. Perhaps slut was not too far off?

“You shit! Are you doing it with her?”

Lucy sucked him in deeply and his hips bucked.

“We are good friends and that’s all you need to know. Now, what do you need?”

“Who says I need anything? Did that ... she say I needed you?”

“Come on! You only call when you need something.”

“That’s not true!”

“Of course. You also call when you feel the need to complain about me-EEEH!”

“What was that?”

“S-stubbed my big toe,” Danny fibbed. In truth, Lucy had bitten him, playfully but still hurting him. He looked down with a WTF look on his face. Lucy winked again, her mouth still sucking, now without teeth. “So, what is it?”

“I’m to meet Clarise and Lauren at the mall. Trudy is in Cleveland and took the Prius. And I will not drive that beastly Volkswagen bus.”

Lucy sucked harder and pointed at herself, nodding as much as possible while keeping up suction.

“When?” Danny asked. Lucy felt that his butt cheeks were clenching a little and she felt the need to slip her left hand between her legs where things were getting a bit heated too.

“Ten-thirty? I mean, pick me up at ten-thirty?”

“Okay,” he sighed. “By the way, don’t your friends have cars too?”

“I didn’t ask them to pick me up. I ... Look, they’re always ... warning me about you. Like, you’ll leave me alone once the child’ll be here and that you only wanted to pick my cherry. Sorry, that’s what they think. I ... I thought I’d show them you’re supportive.”

“God! So this is to appease your two ballbusters?”

“They’re good friends, so be civil! Oops. You said Lucy was a good friend of yours. Okay. I’m sorry for being so bitchy.”

“Okay, I’ll play nice, but I’ll bring Lucy along. She’s only here for the weekend and I won’t leave her behind alone.”

Lucy could hear Helen exhaling. “Okay, that’s only fair. See you then?”

“See you!” He ended the call and looked down at Lucy. “We need to get going in twenty. Any particular position?”

Lucy tilted her head in lieu of a “Huh?”.

“Any particular position in which you want me to fuck your brains out?”

Lucy let his dick plop out of her mouth and gave him a smug smile.

“Doggie, over the breakfast table, with my tits in the butter and the jam. You gotta lick it off me too. At least the jam.”

“English breakfast with a sausage and freshly squeezed juice coming up!”

Lucy squealed when she was lifted up into his arms and carried to the kitchenette. There were only two bowls with jam, but no butter on the table. Not that it mattered.

They were just a few minutes late to pick up Helen and they had hardly got out of the car when Helen stepped out of the door and locked it. She was very pregnant by now but it did not hurt her looks. Lucy whistled softly.

“She is a babe,” she said under her breath.

“Hi, Helen. Let’s get you in the car. Sorry we’re a bit latish, but we made a mess with the fruit jam and I had to clean it off. You two haven’t met yet. Helen, this is Lucy Tanner. Lucy, this is Helen Gunderson.”

Helen stared at Lucy. “You’re that Two Bucks girl from the commercials!”

Lucy smiled wryly and nodded. “Ashley and Danny talked me into rehearsing for the clips. I talk too much when I’m excited, so they thought I was a natural.” She added her beaming smile as a bonus and she got a smile in return.

Helen even smiled at Danny. “You could have told me that you have a girlfriend.”

“Umh, we’re not going steady, you know,” Lucy butted in. “I’m a junior at Ohio State and Danny’s here in Philly. I’m only flying in for the shootings once every two months. We thought it best not to commit ourselves. Who knows where we’ll end up. It’s just great to have him and Ashley and Lynn as friends.”

Helen nodded sadly. “I can imagine. So, how do we do this?”

“Your call,” Danny said. “We’ll get you there and when you’re done with whatever you’re doing with your friends, call me for the return trip. Lucy and I will just hang out at the mall.”

“Let me get in the back first,” Lucy said and folded herself into what passed for rear seats.

Danny helped Helen into the passenger seat. Helen slid her seat forward for Lucy.

“Thanks. This car is not really suitable for more than two. Danny, you really need to think about a bigger car once the baby is there.”

Danny plopped into the driver’s seat. “Got one already, a used Volkswagen station wagon. Great mileage and quite roomy on the inside. It’s at the dealership now. My father insists on a complete check. He’s even springing the money for the maintenance, so why complain?”

“You got another car for when the kid will be there?” Helen asked incredulously. “When did you plan to tell me that?”

“I kind of forgot. Really, it’s no big deal. It was my father’s idea to begin with. I’m keeping the Mini, so you can always borrow the Volkswagen if Trudy needs the Prius. It’s even an automatic, not that you’d need it.”

Helen was shaking her head. “Anything else you didn’t tell me?”

“We didn’t do much talking lately,” Danny answered neutrally. “I get the feeling that your friends hate my guts, so that made it a bit difficult.”

“They think you’ll abandon me and the child inside a year,” Helen said. “Lauren says it happened to her sister when she had a baby.”

“Maybe Lauren visited too often,” David quipped without thinking, but then bit his lips. “Sorry. Not liking me doesn’t make her a bad person.”

Helen shook her head again. “Danny, Danny, you and your mouth!”

“Nothing wrong with his mouth,” Lucy mumbled from the rear seat.

To everybody’s surprise, probably even her own, Helen giggled.

“Yeah, there is that. It’s just that his foot gets stuck in there all the time.”

When they arrived at the mall, Danny dropped both girls at the main entrance and drove into the parking structure by himself. At the designated meeting point he found, much to his displeasure, Helen and Lucy together with the man-hating duo. Lucy smiled and winked at him.

“There you are! Those two were getting worried.”

“Hi, Lauren, hi, Clarise,” Danny said listlessly.

“Hrmpf!” was Lauren’s reply; Clarise just looked elsewhere.

“Danny, let’s split,” Lucy said easily. “I don’t like those two. Helen, we’ll see you later. Give us a call!”

With that, Lucy took his arm and was leading him away. When they were out of hearing, Lucy shook her head.

“God, what a pair of bitches! What did you do to them? Step on their brooms?”

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know. They just don’t like me I guess.”

“Oh, well. Let’s make the best out of this. Any ideas what to do while we’re here?”

“Rats! I forgot to ask how long they plan to stay.”

“Nope. Helen forgot to tell you. Let’s do stuff and if we’re in the middle of something, she’ll just have to wait,” Lucy decided. “Supporting her is okay, but you don’t have to take any crap from her or her friends. She wants your help, she can make her friends behave.”

“So you’re telling me... ?”

“Be a father, not her doormat!” Lucy answered decisively. “Look, I really care for you, Danny. I don’t want that girl to exploit your hang-ups.”

“What hang-ups?”

“You try to atone for your dad’s big fuck-up. He left your mom high and dry and now you try to prove that you’re better. That’s okay, but it doesn’t mean you have to kiss Helen’s ass all the time.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re reading me right. You think Helen is milking that?”

“Could be. At least unconsciously. The way I see her, she’s been using her looks to get what she wanted all her life. She’s got to learn that the world is not revolving around her cute butt.”

“So I’m to say ‘no’ the next time she needs a ride?”

Lucy shrugged. “Judge it yourself. Like today, she didn’t even say ‘thank you’ when we picked her up. It’s understood for her that guys do her favors. She didn’t say ‘please’ either when you called her, did she?”

“Nope,” Danny admitted. “That’s how we got into our first fight. She demanded I help her with her math problems and got pissed when I told her to take a hike.”

Lucy nodded. “And what happened then? She became friendly, right? Until you caved that is. Then it was back to being her serf.”

Lucy had a point Danny had to admit. Helen had a way to put guys under her thumb and if memory served him, there were no benefits to helping her.

“Okay, I get it,” he sighed. “It’s not going to be pretty.”

They did not hear from Helen for more than two hours, but when she called, Danny and Lucy were having an ice cream.