“Look at the screen, Diego,” I said. My voice didn't break. He was quiet, firm and completely devoid of tears.
Diego let out a short, nasal laugh. He surrounded the cart, leaned his heavy leather boots next to the rolling console and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at the eighteen-inch high-resolution monitor.
“What am I supposed to look at, Laura?” Diego asked with disdain, pointing a gloved finger at the pixelated gray mass in the center. A six-week embryo? An eight-week fetus? Go ahead, Doctor. Tell me the gestational age. Tell me you're seven weeks old, right in the middle of that weekend you spent in Chicago visiting your sister while I was recovering from a bilateral vasectomy with ice packs on the couch.
Dr. Salinas didn't look at him. With the left hand it adjusted the frequency control of the console, increasing the acoustic gain.
“Mr. Diego,” said Dr. Salinas, staring at the field of moving pixels. If his wife were seven weeks pregnant, the gestational sac would measure about twenty-two millimeters, and we would be visualizing an early embryonic pole with rudimentary limb sketches.
The Dr. Salinas pressed the trackball, drawing three digital calibrators on the screen.
*BIP. *
The digital overlap on the right margin recalculated the biometric indices in bright yellow text:
“`
#==================================================================================================================================================
METROPOLITAN OBSTETRIC FORENSIC // CLINICAL REPORT
# PATIENT: LAURA MENDOZA-VAZQUEZ (AGE: 34)
CLINICAL INDICATION: FIRST TRIMESTER OF MANAGEMENT LENGTH
CHRON-HEAD (LCC): NOT APPLICABLE
BIPARIETAL DIAMETER (DBP): 38.4 mm (PERCENTILE: 51%)
FEMUR LENGTH (LF): 24.1 mm (PERCENTILE: 49%)
ABDOMINAL CIRCUMFERENCE (AC): 118.2 mm
ESTIMATED GESTATIONAL AGE: 17 WEEKS, 2 DAYS (+/- 4 DAYS)
ESTIMATED DATE OF CONCEPTION: NOVEMBER 4, 2025
STATUS: SINGLE ACTIVE FETUS // NORMAL MORPHOLOGY
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