Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 176

Bob POV

Pam was a champ, helping Hank best and cuddling when needed. Although he initially resisted, Hank gave up and accepted what she was trying to do. She made sure he ate and drank, listened to his woes, and gave him some answers that I did not know about because I had to step back from the investigation, which tore me apart. I was desperate to know more but could not jeopardize the operation, and I got regular reports as a top cop, but that did not always give me all of what I wanted to hear. When Cindy was taken away, he broke down, and it took all I had in me not to break down, too. I did not have a reaction as bad as Hank's, but then I had a different experience, and I had more hatred than hurt; I was over all the hurt years ago. I was never close to Cynthia, where Hank loved and hoped Cindy was his. This was like a final nail in the coffin, and he got all his frustration and hurt out; he yelled and screamed and bellowed out all sorts of emotions and, in the end, was drained. He ended up falling asleep on the lounge room floor. I covered him up, and Pam put a pillow under his head.

'Are you okay, Pam? You look a bit peaked?' Pam looked pale now that Bethany mentioned it.

'Yeah, just a bit of morning sickness. I have been using ginger to reduce it, but I have not brought any here with me.' 'Go home. Theo and I are living here until our house is ready. We will look after Hank. Bethany urged. 'Thanks, I need to get some ginger. They walked us out to our car, and I drove Pam home. I was deeply concerned now that I had become aware of how she looked.

'When is your next antenatal check-up?' I asked as we pulled up in our driveway.

'Tomorrow, want to come with me?'

'Sure, I want to share all of this with you!' Pam went to lie down, and she slept till morning. She must have been more wiped out than we thought.

Morning came with me, having slept in the lounge and not wanting to disturb Pam. She looked so peaceful asleep, and I knew she had not been sleeping all that well lately, so I left her to rest up as long as possible. 'Bob, why did you not go to bed?' Pam sounded shocked to find me in the lounge.

'You looked like you could use the rest, I said, getting up to start breakfast.

'What time is the appointment?' I remember where we were headed today. I had done some work on my laptop in an attempt to take some time off work.

'Ten o'clock, plenty of time.' She shouted as she headed back to the bedroom to take a shower.

By the time she walked into the kitchen, a towel in her hands drying her hair, I had made a quick breakfast; I had avoided eggs as she had not been able to tolerate the smell lately, and in the end, I had cooked bacon and mushrooms on toast, and a sweet tea. She was not into coffee much, either. I hope she does not get a weird craving. I'm not sure if I could cope with this odd thing a pregnant woman can become.

The appointment was on time, and for some reason, the woman wanted to do an ultrasound, saying something seemed a little off and Pam was larger than she expected for the sixteen weeks she was.

'Look at that!' I looked at the screen and could not distinguish what had her so excited; all black-and-gray imaging made no sense to me.

'How many?' Pam asked, and I looked harder at the screen to see what they were discussing.

Then, the woman pointed to the screen and counted.

'One, two, three. You have triplets. Congratulations. I am so glad I was sitting on a stool at the time, or I think I would have fallen to the ground, three babies.

'I think we need to reconsider our refurbishment,' I said numbly, and the woman and Pam laughed at me. It was not funny. I am a grandfather. The last thing I expected was to have three more children, the same age as the grandchildren.

'We will make it work. Don't panic. You have already been there and done that, so you know what to expect. Me? This is my first and most likely last dance. Pam had a point; it was not like I had not gone through all this before, but for some reason, this felt so much more special.

We thanked the doctor after we talked about more frequent visits than we had planned. Pam and I left the doctor's office, and I had a few changes to be made, like a more extensive nursery and two more sets of everything. My mind was going into overdrive, and Pam found it all amusing. But then she is the one who is going to have to do all the hard work; I am just the hand holder.

'How do you think Bethany and Thomas will take the news?' I had not even thought of them. How selfish of me.

'I think they will be laughing like you are. I said honestly, and I could picture them both laughing.

'Better see if we can get Thomas over for the next sports night and announce it then. Do you think you can keep it quiet until then?' Pam asked, thinking I would be the one who would have trouble keeping it to myself.

'I am sure I can manage. But you are going to have to sort out what changes you want to the house. I feel that we need professionals to expand the nursery. I am not up to pulling down walls. The whole idea of knocking down a wall makes

me nervous.

'Why don't we get those guys that are going to Bethany's place to come and take a look and give an idea of what they can do? I have an idea of what I want, but I have to know whether it can be done.

'Sounds like an excellent idea. They are part of Scott's team. I will give him a call, let him know what we need and why, and ask him not to say anything to others yet. He is trustworthy! 'See, the secret will already be out.' Pam teased me, and I blanched at the thought.

'You can talk to him then, then you can't blame me. Or we can wait till after we have told the crew, then call Scott.' I said, trying to avoid being teased any further. This girl is relentless.

'No, I do not want to wait until the weekend. It would be better to get work started straight away. It may take a while, and these babies will arrive earlier than planned. I will get in contact with Scott, and then it will be on me if it gets out. I am sorry for teasing you; you're grouchy when you get cornered. She still ended up teasing me but for a different reason. I can see I will rarely win a fight with Pam.

I could hear Pam chatting with Scott, inviting him over for dinner. He will come alone, poor Scott, we need to find him a good woman or man. I cannot be sure at times; he likes to mix it up a bit. I think he would enjoy the lifestyle that Thomas has but won't admit it. He arrived at five thirty and was still dressed in his work clothes. He left work and came straight to us.

'Hi Scott. Pam sang out. After greeting us both, he followed us to the kitchen.

'Smells good; I'd appreciate it if you could tell me why I am really here, and don't try to tell me it is because I am such great company!

'It is for two reasons. One is because we need you to help with some extensions to the house, and the other is because I would like to know if you would like to be the godparent to these, Pam pointed to her tummy.

'These as in more than one?'

'Yep, Pam hit the jackpot; she has triplets on the way. We need a bigger nursery and a person to be the godparent, if not to all, at least one. I am not sure how to choose which one, so it might be better for you to be godfather to all three,' I said with a big smile. 'Yes to both. I can take a look at what you want changed and give some suggestions of my own, and I would be honored to be the godfather to the little ones.