Julia tells Dan she's pregnant
Julia and Dan haven’t been together that long. 6 months. A little less.
Long enough to fall in love. Long enough to hit some hardships. They’ve had some arguments and come out the other side knowing and trusting each other more. Love.
Not quite long enough to have talked about the future. For now there are unspoken hopes they’ve kept to themselves. No one wants to be a burden when you’re trying to be the most lovable versions of themselves. They only know they want to be together. For now, this is everything.
Julia is late. This is normal but also also deeply concerning giving everything her and Dan have been up to. She takes a pregnancy test just in case. Not her first time.
She’s waited the long ten minutes before. She hasn’t had the test be positive before.
Her life is squeezed into to this single moment. Panic. Loss. Hope. The universe collapsing and rebounding into all of existence. An explosion of possibility, of life.
Seemingly disparate thoughts over the last few years come together. Thoughts of holding her cousin’s baby. Thoughts of seeing the bond between people at work and their children. Everything is clear now. She wants to have this baby with Dan.
She scared Dan doesn’t feel the same way. She’s never seen Dan show any interest in having children. He’s still so young that children aren’t a consideration. They’re something other people do. They are prams taking up room on the footpath. Noise in restaurants.
Julia worries about how Dan will take the news. She plays out the scene where she tells him. Dan will say he’s not ready. She’ll remain composed and ask, “what does that mean?” Dan doesn’t won’t have a response, at least not in this version of the script.
Julia doesn’t want to lose Dan. Will she have to give up the baby to keep him? She’ll find out soon. She’ll talk to Dan and see what happens. That’s what her mum told her to do.
She doesn’t know that Dan does want to have children. The thought was planted by the curiosity of young eyes staring at him on the train. Planted by the joy of playful laughter at the park. Planted by a mistaken boy’s little hand holding his in a crowded museum. The boy’s mother laughed and apologised to Dan. Dan smiled at the boy and his mother. He smiled more thinking about it later.
Julia tells Dan and it doesn’t go like she thought. He was shocked and excited and now more in love with Julia. Their future has more certainty. More than what they have now. There’s time to work out the details. They don’t know what those are but that doesn’t matter yet.