A few hours later, Tina sat in the waiting room at Dr. Wilson’s office, randomly flipping through a magazine.  She didn’t want to focus on the past anymore, so with a resolve to move on, she contemplated her future with the baby growing inside her.  As she sat there, she was glad that no one had noticed that she was pregnant.  Of course, avoiding most of her friends helped, and spending large chunks of her time at the Center behind a desk concealed the fact from her co-workers.  Tina managed to hide her swelling belly from Alice by spending much of the time huddled on the couch, clutching a pillow for comfort.  Anyway, Alice was often so self-absorbed and seemed to be distracted, particularly whenever there was any mention of Dana during one of the rare conversations they had.  For the most part, Tina just wanted to be left alone.

But was she ready to actually be alone?  Was she jumping the gun?  It had been years since she’d had to take care of everything on her own.  She took a look at the reality of her current situation: she didn’t have her own place; she had a job but it was mostly on a volunteer basis; and to get to this appointment, she was using Alice’s car, because her own was becoming more and more unreliable.  “Who am I kidding?” she thought to herself.  “I am not in a position to take care of myself, much less this baby!   But that is going to have to change, right, little one?” as she patted her stomach.  “Remember, it’s you and me together, and I’m going to make sure you have everything you need.”

A few minutes later, her thoughts were interrupted as she was called to the examining room.  After she got undressed, she sat on the examining table, waiting for the doctor’s entrance.  When Dr. Wilson came in, she looked around the room, expecting to see Bette.  As she greeted Tina, she almost inquired about Bette’s whereabouts, but when she saw the expression on Tina’s face, she thought better of it.