Ginger didn't get pregnant the first month, or the second month at that. She was getting a bit discouraged, although she knew she wasn't going to get pregnant right away. But the third month she missed her period and got excited. Zac was at work so she had Kris take her to the drug store to get a pregnancy test.
"Are you done yet?" Kris asked. They were home from the drug store and Ginger immediately ran into the bathroom to take it.
"Hold on!" Ginger said. A minute later she opened the door. "Okay, now we have to wait."
"How long?"
"Three minutes," Ginger said.
"Three? That's fast!"
"I know!" Ginger sat down. She waited, tapping her fingers on her knees. After a minute or so, she spoke up again. "How long has it been?"
"I don't know. I thought you were timing!" Ginger groaned.
"You're not timing?" Kris shook her head. "Well I'm going to check anyway."
"Don't be disappointed if it's negative because you're checking it early." Ginger didn't say anything as she got up and went into the bathroom. "What does it say?" Ginger came running out of the bathroom.
"I'm pregnant!" she screamed. Kris screamed and they hugged each other, jumping up and down. Jenny, who had been watching television, looked over.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"You're going to have a little brother or sister," Ginger said, giving her a smile. "Mommy's going to have another baby."
"Oh," Jenny said. She turned back to the television. Ginger sighed.
"Well I don't care if you're happy," Ginger said. "I'm happy." She turned to Kris and shook her head. "I hope it's not going to be one of those jealous things where the older kid gets jealous because the baby's getting all the attention." Kris shrugged.
"You never know. They might just get along."
"I hope so," Ginger said. "I'm still excited! I want to call Zac."
"No!" Kris said. "Tell him when he gets home. You don't want to tell him over the phone." Ginger paused.
"Why not?"
"Because this is the kind of thing you say in person," Kris said. "Wait until he gets home from work." Kris looked at her watch. "That's in three hours."
"What are we going to do for three hours?" Ginger asked. Kris shrugged.
"We can watch a movie."
"Jenny's watching TV."
"We'll find something to do." Ginger paused.
"I have to make an appointment with the gyno," Ginger said. "I better do that now before I forget. I don't want to end up like I did with Jenny and not have an exam until I was, like, five months pregnant."
"All right. I'll be in here thinking of something to do." Ginger ran off and called the doctor, making an appointment for the following week. When she returned, Kris still hadn't thought of anything.
They ended up shoving Jenny off to do something else and watched a movie until the garage door opened and Zac came in. As soon as she heard it, Ginger ran into the kitchen and greeted Zac as soon as he entered the house. "Hello to you too," he said, confused. He usually didn't see her until he entered the living room and today he'd barely made it in the house before she ran up to him and threw her arms around him. She kissed him.
"I love you," she said.
"What'd you do?" he immediately asked. She smiled. "What?"
"I'm pregnant," she told him. His eyes grew in surprise and he picked her up, swinging her around.
"Oh my God! When did you find out?"
"A couple of hours ago," she said and kissed him again.
"Why didn't you call me?"
"Kris said I shouldn't call you. She said this is the kind of news you have to say in person."
"My ass."
"That's what I said! Kris! Zac agrees with me! I should have called him," Ginger yelled, holding Zac's hand as they walked into the living room where Kris was still watching the movie. Kris looked over.
"Well, if I was a man, I wouldn't want to hear that over the phone."
"That's why you're not a man, Kris," Ginger said. "You're stupid like that."
"Whatever," Kris said. "I'm going home. You two can celebrate without me." Ginger smiled and said goodbye. Kris went out the front door and started to walk home. Zac sat down on the couch and Ginger rested in his lap.
"I was thinking about doing this whole big surprise thing where I'd plan how I was going to tell you," Ginger explained, "but then I found out and I was like fuck that. I'll just tell him when he gets home."
"And it was so necessary to swear."
"Of course it was."
"What do you want for your birthday?" Zac asked. Ginger almost forgot about her birthday. It was coming up in a few days and she was so anxious about this baby she didn't even begin to think of being another year older.
"I don't know," she said, putting her head on his shoulder. "I haven't really thought about it."
"I'll get you something nice," he said.
"All right." She sat up. "I made an appointment with the gyno for next week. It's basically for her to stick her hand up me and feel around."
"Sounds fun," Zac said, making a face. "I don't have to go with you, do I?" She shook her head.
"No, this one will pretty much just be 'Yeah, you're pregnant. Your due date is this, here's a pamphlet on nutrition, come back and see me.' It's not anything important." He nodded. "You'll want to come to the next one, though. That's when she does an ultrasound and you get to see the baby and everything."
"Okay."
"You don't know how much I kick myself for not telling you about Jenny," Ginger said. "Every single time something happened; when she kicked, when I went and had the ultrasound, when I started showing, when I was in labor�I kept thinking of you and how much I wanted to share it with you."
"I'm here now, babe," he said, putting his hand on her stomach. "I'm going through it this time with you." She put her hand on top of his, looking down at her stomach. "So how bad were you drugged up when you had Jenny?"
"I had her natural," Ginger said.
"You did not."
"I so did!" Ginger said, laughing. "Ask Kris! I had her in, like, four hours and it was completely natural. I didn't even scream like the chicks do on TV. All that's just for drama. It didn't hurt that bad."
"Are you serious?" Ginger nodded. "Wow. So are you going to have this one natural too?"
"Yeah," Ginger said. "Unless it takes forever, then I'll want to take something. I'll try and have it natural." She smiled. "We're going to have a baby!"
"Speaking of which, where's our other baby?"
"Hmm�good question." Ginger and Zac got up and found Jenny playing in her room. "Hey Jenny, Daddy's home." Jenny got up and ran over to her father.
"Daddy!"
"Hey darlin'," Zac said, picking her up. "How was your day today?"
"Mommy's gonna have a baby!" she said, excitedly.
"Yes, I know. She told me," Zac said. "Are you hungry?" Jenny nodded. "All right. Let's get you some dinner." Zac went out of the room and down the stairs, Ginger following close behind. Zac put Jenny in a chair and opened the refrigerator. "Let's see what we've got."
"Oh, I should call my mother," Ginger said, heading to the phone. "She'll want to know."
"While you're at it, call my mother too," Zac said.
"Funny." Ginger sat at the kitchen table with Jenny and called her mother. "Hey, Ma! It's your daughter."
"It's about time you called, I was beginning to worry about you," Alina said. "How are you doing, honey?"
"Just great. I have some good news for you."
"What?"
"I'm pregnant," Ginger said, a smile on her face.
"Really?" Alina asked. "Is this planned?"
"Yes it is. Very planned."
"Great! How far along are you?"
"Well, I don't really know. I just took the home pregnancy test today, I won't know specifics until after I meet with the doctor next week."
"It's your birthday next week, isn't it?"
"Yes it is."
"Great. Happy birthday, sweetheart. I'll make sure to call you. How's your sister doing?" Alina asked.
"Oh, she's just fine. She's the same Kristina we've always known."
"Are she and Taylor really living together yet?" Alina asked.
"To tell you the truth," Ginger said, "I don't know. I know they say they have separate bedrooms and everything, but I sincerely doubt it. Um�that's about it. Nothing else has really happened around here. The band Zac is producing has finished recording and they're mixing right now. It's going to be crunch time pretty soon so I'm going to have to try not to poison Jenny when I cook for her when Zac has to stay at work all night."
"Make sure you know how to order pizza," Alina said.
"I know, right? That's going to be about all I'll be able to do. You know, before I came here with Zac I cooked dinner for me and Jenny every day. She just doesn't like my food because now she knows what real food tastes like."
"Let me call my mother," Zac said, putting a pot of water on the stove to boil.
"Well, Mom, we have other people to tell the wonderful news to. I'll talk to you later," Ginger said.
"All right. I love you."
"Love you too, Mom," Ginger said. "Bye." Ginger hung up the phone and handed it to Zac. He called home. Since he'd made up with Taylor, Zac actually was comfortable calling home. He never did it before unless he knew he was going to get Jess (like the time the rest of the family was here in LA with Taylor). It was a good scene to see.
"Zo�! How are you doing, girl?" Ginger smiled. It was definitely a good thing to see.
Ginger's first ob-gyn appointment was on her birthday. She got home around three o'clock and Taylor and Kris were already over by the time she got home. Zac had the day off so he was home as well, which was why she got to take the car and go by herself. It was a nice feeling to be by herself for a while, but by the time she got home she was tired of being alone and seeing a houseful of people was exactly what she needed.
"Happy birthday!" Kris said, running over to her sister and hugging her. "How'd your appointment go?"
"Just fine," Ginger said, a smile on her face. "I am definitely pregnant and my due date is December 1st."
"Really?" Zac asked. "December?"
"Yup."
"That seems so far away."
"Well, Zac, it's about eight months away. You know, I'm a month pregnant�it all adds up to nine months."
"It still seems like it's really far away." She rolled her eyes and went over and sat on his lap. "Happy birthday, though."
"Happy birthday, though? I love how enthusiastic you are. Did you even get me a cake like I asked?"
"Of course I got you a cake!" Zac said, smiling. "I got exactly what you asked for and I even had them write Ginger." She smiled.
"Aw, thank you!" She kissed him. "You're so good to me."
"Why not Rosemary?" Taylor asked. Ginger didn't say anything. Zac was waiting for her to answer and when she didn't, he asked her.
"Ginger? Why didn't you want Rosemary on your cake?"
"I don't like Rosemary," Ginger said. "She's a different person. I'm just Ginger."
"So, what, do you want us all to start calling you Ginger?" Kris asked.
"No," Ginger said. "That's Zac's name for me." She hugged Zac. "Only he gets to call me Ginger. Right, babe?"
"Right."
"You know, I don't think I can wait eight more months to find out what your baby is going to look like," Kris said. "Hopefully this one will have more Zac in it."
"Jenny has plenty of Zac in her," Ginger said. "She's got his nose and his lips�"
"And everything else looks like you," Zac said. "I get the minor details." Ginger shrugged.
"All I know is that every time I looked at her I thought of you," Ginger said, looking at Zac. He raised an eyebrow. "What, do you think I just sat around and didn't think of you at all while we were apart? Ask Kris!"
"It's true," Kris said.
"Imagine that," Zac said, a smile on his face.
"Did you think about me?" she asked, batting her beautiful violet eyes at him.
"Of course I did," he said. "I couldn't stop thinking about you." She smiled.
"Good."
"Let's do cake!" Kris suddenly said, getting up.
"Now? We haven't even had dinner! And it's only three o'clock!"
"Let's still do cake!"
"Okay!" Ginger got up and the four of them ran into the kitchen.