They'd wanted her to have someone accompany her to Healing Hands, but Romy was embarrassed more than anything else so she'd told them she could manage it on her own. Gingerly she touched her fingers to the tender swelling blooming around her eye. She was out of practice, having taken so much time off to care for Joscelin, but it was still a bit of a shock that a trainee had been able to get one over on her so easily. It was as if one moment she was locked in, ready to strike, then things went fuzzy and Abercrombie's hand was connecting with her face.

It startled them both. The poor kid was staring down at her on the mat as if he'd just broken his mum's favorite vase.

The bell chimed as she stepped inside the reconstructed clinic, but no one was in the lobby just then. "Hello?" she called, venturing tentatively down the hall.

"Be right there," Ginny answered, a foot holding the door to the bathroom open as she finished drying her hands. Making her way into the hall, she smiled at Romy, wincing as she got closer. "Oh, that doesn't look like it feels pleasant." The skin around Romy's eye was swollen and red, though it looked like it was starting its journey towards a nice, deep bruise.

"Not the best time of my life, no," Romy admitted, lips curling into a wry grin. "How well can you make these things disappear? I'd rather not have the whole of the trainee crowd getting cocky while I'm getting back up to speed."

"I'll definitely be able to stop the progression of the bruise, since it looks like it just happened, and I can get rid of the swelling. You might have a red mark, but nothing that a cosmetic charm couldn't cover up," Ginny answered, motioning towards an open exam room with an arm. "Why don't we see if we can keep the trainees cowering in fear?"

Chuckling, Romy stepped into the small room and hopped up on the table. "I always feel like I'm five when I get on these things. I don't suppose you need me to swing my legs and recite nursery rhymes? I could probably remember one or two."

It was the first she'd seen Ginny since they'd taken Joscelin home to recover under the care of the family healer and the joviality slipped from Romy's face for a moment. "I don't think I got a chance to thank you for everything you did for my husband after... on Halloween. He's much improved now, though still working on his physical therapy. I doubt he'd have made it through that night at all if it weren't for you. I'm more appreciative that I can say, really. Joscelin's everything to me."

Ginny turned towards Romy from the cabinets, whiskey gaze intent. "I'm glad he's doing well, Romy. He's very strong. He doesn't seem like the type who'd let something keep him down. I'd call him 'virile' but I wouldn't want to offend."

Halloween night had been panic and chaos wrapped in tragedy. Ginny knew there were others who hadn't fared as well Joscelin, but that someone had managed to come back made her feel... better. "Is he taking the physical therapy well?"

Romy considered the question, debating what the correct response was as she recounted all the times she'd caught Joscelin pushing himself to stand and walk when he thought no one was around. "He would like to be progressing more quickly, but when you consider the damage that was done and the fact that he was unconscious for three weeks, I think he's done tremendously well."

"Frustrated? Stubbornly pushing himself?" Ginny smiled, taking a step closer to Romy, wand in hand.

"All of the above." Romy tried to sit still as Ginny's wand rose to eye level. "He knows I'll scold him, so he waits until I'm busy with other things and tries to get out of his wheelchair on his own. Has no concept of the damage he could do if he were to fall wrong. Stubborn arse."

Nodding, Ginny rose her wand, deep throated words falling from her lips as she began to stop the progression of the bruising around Romy's eye. "It's hard to watch someone you love go through something that's obviously hard. Being there to make sure he doesn't push himself too hard is the best thing you can do."

"I'm trying," the brunette said, nose twitching as the magic sent a tingling sensation across her skin. "He's sneaky. Not as sneaky as he thinks he is, but sneaky." An ache began to throb in her head and Romy was reminded of her instructions when she left the MLE for the healer's office. "Oh, and I'm to have you check for a concussion. I'm sure I don't have one, but my boss was insistent."

"Sure, of course." Finished with the bruise progression, Ginny grabbed Romy's chart, grabbing a pen from her pocket. "Do you know the last time you were taken to a healer?"

A crease knit across Romy's forehead as she tried to recall the last time she'd seen a healer. It had been some time. "Not for a year or two, I'm sure. I'm generally pretty healthy. Abercrombie just caught me off-guard today. I guess my mind wandered."

"Current weight and height?"

"Five foot three and just over eight stone, generally," Romy replied. "I haven't weighed myself in awhile, though."

Marking the numbers down on the woman's chart, Ginny nodded. "I'm never jumping up and down to weigh myself either," she said, looking up at Romy with a small smile. "Are you currently taking any potions or using any tonics?"

"Just a birth control potion..." Romy's voice trailed off. She couldn't remember when she'd last taken her potion. In all the craziness that had gone on the last few months, it was hard to keep track of even the littlest things. It was a good thing she and Joscelin hadn't been able to 'celebrate' his recovery just yet. "Well, I usually take a birth control potion, but I haven't been very good about it lately."

Ginny looked up, having caught the moment of hesitation in Romy's voice. "Do you know what the first day of your last period was?"

Romy went still. She couldn't seem to remember that bit of information either. It couldn't have been that long ago, though. "Why? Joscelin's not up for that sort of activity yet." It seemed very important all of a sudden that Ginny understand there was no sex going on. No sex meant no sex-related issues. Even if she couldn't remember her last period and even if, now that she thought about it, her clothes had been getting a little tight lately. "I don't remember exactly, but I've been stressed. Stress can make you skip periods, right?"

"It can," Ginny answered, "as can changes in environment or regular activities, which you've had a lot of. Well, to be sure, we'll just run a quick test, just to make sure."

"But I can't be pregnant if I haven't had sex in over two months," she argued, scooting a little farther away from the ginger-haired healer. It was completely irrational, but Romy did not want this test. "I'd have known. There's morning sickness, and I'd have gained weight or something. I feel fine. I just have a black eye."

"It's not a long test. We'll just run it and get it on the paper so you don't have to worry about it," Ginny offered, stopping her forward motion. She wouldn't force Romy to have the test, but now that the thought was out there, she had a feeling Romy wouldn't let it lie.

"I really don't think it's necessary, but," I can't think of a reasonable excuse not to, "I guess it wouldn't hurt. Just a quick negative result and that's that." Romy leaned back, eying Ginny as if she might attack.

Nodding, Ginny gave Romy a smile. "Just a quick test," she agreed, holding out a hand. "I just need one hair."

Romy's heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest as she reached up and tugged out a single strand of long, black hair. Why she should be so nervous didn't really have a logical answer. Maybe it was just that things were finally starting to settle down again after Joscelin's injury. Perfect timing for fate to screw with them. "What's supposed to happen?"

"I just drop the hair in a liquid. The liquid will change color, reacting if a certain hormone indicating pregnancy is found." Gathering the needed supplies from the cabinet, having run the test hundreds of times since Healing Hands had opened its doors, it only took a few seconds before everything was prepared.

The hair floated on the top of the opaque liquid as it was dropped into the vial. Using a clear pipette, Ginny swirled the contents around, eyes intent.

For the space of two seconds, Romy had the luxury of believing the test was negative. Then she watched in shock as the fluid altered, a bright purple replacing the cloudy white. Her eyes were wide as galleons as she looked from the liquid to Ginny. "But... I can't... There's been no sex!"

"None what so ever?" Ginny asked, setting the colored test aside. The chances of a false positive were almost five billion to one, but if Romy was sure, Ginny would run the test again. "When was the last time?"

"I don't know. The end of October? Not since Halloween for sure. Joscelin's still healing." An awful thought occurred to her and panicked eyes turned to Ginny. "Oh god, what if he thinks I was with someone else?"

Logically, Romy knew Joscelin trusted her completely. Such a thing would never leap into his head without a very compelling reason, but logic wasn't on her side just this moment.

"I'm sure he wouldn't think that, Romy," Ginny said, the panic wafting from Romy almost able to be smelled in the air. "I can find your probable date of conception, gestation and approximately when you're due." She took a step closer to Romy, warm brown eyes comforting. It was obvious this was a shock to the woman, and anything Ginny could do to ease the panic would be done.

Romy just nodded, rocking gently back and forth where she sat. There was a tiny, almost inaudible part of her brain that was telling her being pregnant was far from the worst thing that could happen. After being abandoned by her parents, being raped by Ethan Vaisey, and nearly losing Joscelin, this was nothing.

It wasn't as if she'd be raising a child alone. She was married to a good man who she loved deeply. Money wasn't an issue. It would be okay, the little voice said. Unfortunately, the larger part of her brain was still screaming 'OH MY GOD'.

After helping Romy lay back on the table a quick spell fell from Ginny's lips, her wand flicking in the air. A small gray image appeared, floating in the space just above Romy's stomach. The image was moving, an expanded vision of the small life that was currently growing in the Auror. Measuring the femur length, Ginny nodded, taking a step back.

"It looks like you most likely conceived around the end of October, just before Halloween," she said, hoping that knowledge helped Romy feel slightly better. "You're about twelve weeks along, and your due date is sometime in mid to late July."

"Twelve weeks," Romy repeated, her voice just a whisper. She'd been pregnant for twelve weeks and had no idea. "I'm going to have a baby. I'm going to be someone's mother. Holy crap."

Looking at the red-haired healer, she queried, "Does everything... look okay? It's healthy and normal looking?" Her eyes went wide. "It's just one, right?"

"Just one," Ginny assured Romy, smiling, "and everything looks fine. I can't tell you the sex just yet, but it's the perfect size with two arms and two legs." Were it a brother or someone she knew better, she might have made a joke about there being extra limbs, but she could tell Romy wouldn't appreciate it. "Is there anything I can do? Do you have any questions?"

Very slowly the younger woman shook her head. Questions could come later. Right now she just needed to wrap her head around this idea and tell her husband. The worrying over specifics would take a backseat, though she was sure she'd find plenty to concern herself with when the time came.

What she really wanted just this moment, though, was a drink. That was also the one thing she couldn't have. Crap.

"No. No questions," Romy replied dazedly. "I just need to think. Absorb. It's... We weren't... Kind of a surprise."

Ginny nodded. "More often than not, that's the way it happens. I don't think I really know anyone who planned their first child. Or the second. Or fifth. But, that doesn't mean you're not ready. Your body just knew it a little before your brain did."

Romy rose from the table, nodding automatically at Ginny's words. "Much before. Thank you for seeing me. I guess it will be a regular occurrence for awhile, hmm?"

"I'll be here," Ginny answered, "and if you think of anything, I'm just an owl away."

"Thanks," Romy repeated, starting for the door. "See you soon, then." She gave a little wave and wandered out into the street, lost in her own thoughts.

Summary: Romy asks Ginny to check her for a concussion, but finds she has a very different issue.