A/N: Okay, this next instalment will be among the last of this set. I had never intended to do more than one, so having nine out was surprising. But this series must come to an end, so there will be this one (both parts), and one or two more to wrap it up. Hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as I have.
Your continued support and encouragement keep me going and totally cheer me. I particularly appreciate your kind words in light of how serious I took this light-hearted, fluffy series in the last piece. My thanks go out to Wtiger5, greengirl82, Hazmatt, bhernandez02897, HGRHfan35, melodic2686, megameighteen, MeGkAtHeRiNe (for Fulfilling a Little Boy's Wish) and HPforever-after. You are ALL wonderful and this author is truly grateful to have you all onboard.
I totally couldn't do this without my amazing beta, medical guru and sister Wtiger5. Love you honey; thanks just doesn't cover it, especially knowing how crazy your schedule and computer have been lately.
This is Life's Wishes 10 and has some mild adult themes.
The Joy of Life – chapter 1
Thirty-four weeks.
"Get some rest. Get lots of rest now, while you still can."
Easy for you to say, you aren't the size of a beached blue whale.
"I'll be back to check on you a bit later."
Yeah you will; you'll wait until I've just drifted off to sleep and then you'll bound in with your perky energetic smile and start making things beep and contract and essentially doing everything you can to wake me up. And then you'll tell me to get more rest which I won't be able to do because by then I will be wide awake again.
"Right then, I'll see you later Emily."
Impertinent child.
Emily watched the pretty red-head that was her nurse, Julia, bounce out of the room and seriously thought about poking her tongue out at the back of that silky head of hair. But the act itself would take energy that she seriously didn't have, so she shifted her attention to her abdomen and went back to her contemplation of her situation that had been so rudely interrupted not five minutes before.
Everyone told me that I'd never make it to thirty-four weeks. They all said that I'd be pushing it to get to thirty. But we're proving them wrong, aren't we little ones? You're still in there, growing and healthy and generally making mummy daily more uncomfortable and the doctors more excited. But it won't be long now. They all keep saying that I could make it to full-term, but we know better, don't we? And how do we know? We just do.
"Hey gorgeous."
Always with the interruptions. Well, at least these two are worth it right?
She smiled warmly at her husband and made a sound of delight as she caught sight of the object in Jack's hands as Aaron lifted him to sit on the edge of the bed. She hugged him, careful not to crush that carefully folded object, and reveled in the eager hug he gave her in return. Then he shifted his hands and held them out to her.
"I made this for you Mummy," he said shyly.
She took the carefully constructed flower made of red tissue paper. "Jack, this is beautiful. Did you do it all by yourself?"
"Almost. I needed Daddy to help a little bit. He said you can't have real flowers cause they were making you sick, so I thought a paper flower could brighten up the room without the smell. Do you like it?"
She reached out and pulled him in tight to her, ignoring the persistent pain in her lower back as she leant forward. "Jack, I love it. It's absolutely perfect and its clear that you spent a lot of time on it."
After going in to premature labour at twenty-four weeks, Emily had been living at the hospital. They'd stopped her labour, much to everyone's relief but three hours short of being discharged and the pains had started up again. The third time it happened, the doctor had ordered that a private room be made ready and she had been admitted into full-time care on the maternity ward. Family and friends had helped her settle into the room and had filled it with familiar things and bright flowers. Unfortunately for her, the continuous exposure to the smell of the flowers in the closed in room; something that was unavoidable as she became less mobile; had caused a reaction. It wasn't hay-fever, just a persistent nausea that had eased one day as all her old flowers had been binned. The doctor had thought the nausea was just a side-effect of the late pregnancy, but after eight days of the constant sensation, to have it suddenly end as her room became flower free, the doctor had been immediately suspicious. It had been almost a day later before Aaron turned up after a case with a huge bunch of gorgeous roses of all colours and it had been absolute horror as the nausea came back so strong that she'd ended up being violently ill. The roses were removed and the illness eased. And that was the end of pretty flowers in her room.
Just goes to show what I know, huh?
"Well this is very exciting. It means I can have flowers in my room again. You, Jack Hotchner, are a genius."
Jack wiggled a little in happiness and she exchanged a smile with Aaron as he leaned over his sons head and gently kissed her.
"I checked with the doctor and he agreed that you had been very good. So to reward that goodness, Jack and I thought we'd take you down to the pool and let you float in the water for a while. How does that sound?"
Orgasmic!
"That sounds like the perfect way to spend the next hour."
Julia bounced in a minute later with a wheelchair and shooed the males out of the room. She then helped Emily ease in a t-shirt and shorts that she could swim in. Then they were on their way and she listened attentively to all that Jack had been up to since the weekend three days ago.
They arrived at the pool to find the room was empty and with a happy shout, Jack wriggled out of his clothes, into his swimmers and ran for the pool. Emily shook her head and sighed.
"That kid has way too much energy for his own good, and mine right now."
Aaron chuckled softly as he helped her to stand and make her slow way to the ramp leading into the water at a gentle angle. It was rare to find the water therapy room empty like this, but except for Jack's energetic fish-imitation, she was going to thoroughly enjoy this quiet time. Aaron steadied her, handed her a noodle to float on and stepped back just slightly to let her find her balance on her own. She had no doubt whatsoever though, that if she needed him, he'd be there in a flash.
She sank down into the water as she tucked the noodle up into her armpits and just like that, the heavy pressure and pain she felt constantly disappeared as the water buoyed her exhausted body. She closed her eyes and let the water work its magic as she listened to Aaron swim with Jack while he answered the child's many baby questions.
She didn't know how long she'd been in the water when she felt her back pain make a comeback. Having spent countless hours in the water because it was such a great natural painkiller she was taken by surprise at the intensity of the ache. Shifting her body slightly, she reached down with her feet to see if she could touch the ground and had to grit her teeth as the extension of her foot caused her additional pain. Looking around for Aaron, all she could see was his legs as he obviously taught Jack to do handstands underwater.
By the time he came back up, the pain had gone away completely and she had decided to let it go. If she said something now, he'd rush her out of the pool faster than she could tell him it was no big deal and she'd spend the rest of the day feeling like she was in a Petri dish under a microscope as her monitoring increased to all the time as opposed to a lot of the time.
No, I'll wait until I really have something to report. Once is not enough to raise an alarm. Not yet. And besides, I don't want to mess with Jack's fun for no reason.
The second time it happened her small cry of pain was lost in the water fight occurring at the other end of the pool. Again, she let it go as the pain eased, smiling as she watched her family so relaxed as they played. The third time it happened made it unavoidable that something was happening.
Emily shifted the noodle again and sighed. She'd had it in the most perfect position until that last pain had curled her body in on itself. Now she couldn't get it back into the right angle to keep her well balanced. She was tiring herself out as she kept shifting it and was pretty close to just asking Aaron to take her back to her room. She must have been in here for almost an hour now anyway and all she really wanted now was a nap. However, she made one last attempt to get it back in the right position, but because she'd moved it out from her body and let go with one hand to shift her top back straight after it had twisted around her slightly, she was unsupported as the excruciating back pain came back and slid around to the front of her abdomen.
Without the noodle underneath her, her concentration shot by the pain, she sank under the water without realising what was happening and took in water as she cried out. Her panic was instantaneous as she realised there was no air, but the pain made it nearly impossible to move in any way.
I wonder if I'll die here, with no oxygen, because I was so stubborn that I ignored all the signs? My children alive while I die by drowning. How sad.
Her vision was narrowing down to nothing from the lack of air when a hand closed over her arm and pulled her upright.
She came up coughing water and crying, too weak to do anything but pray that whoever held her wouldn't let her go as the pain continued to strengthen and the pressure in her lower abdomen increased beyond anything she'd ever felt before. Then the pressure exploded briefly followed by the pain easing and she realised that Aaron was moving them quickly through the water towards the ramp while he called to Jack to run and get the doctor.
Then he was gently placing her down into the wheelchair and crouching down in front of her.
"Emily, are you alright?" His hands settled anxiously on her face, his eyes worried as he looked at her.
My hero...
"Emily!"
"I'm alright," she whispered. "Thanks to you. I was so scared; I couldn't breathe." Just like that she was crying again and he was holding her tenderly and whispering that everything would be alright. Then Jack was back with doctors and nurses following quickly and everything around her dissolved into controlled chaos.
Aaron called Jess and asked her to come collect Jack. She admitted to being three hours away visiting friends, so he told her not to worry and called Dave. His friend was thankfully just parking the car in preparation for visiting Emily and was there within minutes to take Jack into hand as the midwife arrived to do an ultrasound so that a decision could be made about how they would proceed with the delivery.
Emily clung to Aaron's hand and wished that she wasn't wet as she started to shiver. Then she felt entirely guilty about all her nasty thoughts about Julia over the last few weeks as the young nurse hurried in with a pile of towels and blankets. She used the towels to quickly wipe off a lot of the excess moisture and to wrap her hair up temporarily to keep it from dripping all over everything before wrapping her up in the warm blankets.
"Right then, looks like we've got two babies in breach positions and only one facing in the right direction. Emily, I know you wanted a nice, natural delivery, but I'm afraid you're going to need a c-section. In light of their prematurity, heart rates are dropping and all of them are already showing increasing distress with every one of your contractions. I'm also concerned about your heart rate and blood pressure. Add to that your dunking in the pool and the water you inhaled, and it is just going to be safer for everyone concerned. Alright?"
Emily nodded tiredly. The doctor instructed Julia to help her change in preparation for the surgery and left. Another nurse arrived a minute later with a shot that would relax her for the surgery. Then she was being wheeled out of the room and Aaron was pulled away.
Aaron...
"Aaron! No, I'm not going..."
"Easy Emily, easy. Hey, look at me; there you go. Aaron's just getting all gowned up and then he'll be right back at your side for the delivery. I promise you, he won't be gone for long and the doctor will wait for him to be there before he gets started. I promise. Have I ever lied to you?" She shook her head slowly and took a breath. Julia patted her shoulder gently and gave her an encouraging smile as they entered the theatre. "I'll be right here too, telling you what's happening since you won't be able to see around the sheet they put up. You won't be alone through this, I promise."
Then Aaron was back at her side and Julia was talking soothingly to her as her eyes flicked around the room, taking in everything and finding that she was just a little bit frightened by it all.
"Okay, the Anesthesiologist is Doug and he has just started your epidural and this means that it won't be long now before you are in a happy state of physical numbness; then the doctor can start the surgery. Can you see the three big block-like machines over to the side behind Aaron?" When Emily nodded slowly, she continued, "These are where your children are first going to be placed when they come out of you and they're called incubators. One doctor and two nurses work with each incubator; so that's one team for every baby; so that they'll be able to provide the very best care to your children from the very second they are born. Do you understand all this?"
Emily nodded, her fear melting away as understanding dawned. Then Julia announced that the doctor had started the surgery and another brief moment of fear hit her as she wondered if she could truly do this. Then Julia was telling her the doctor had made it to her womb and was easing out her first child.
I used to think the sweetest sound in the world was hearing 'I love you', but it pales in comparison to hearing your baby's first cry...oh, wow...
"Congratulations Emily and Aaron; your firstborn is a..."
End
A/N: Wicked, I know, but you all know me by now and should have expected something along these lines. Actually, cutting it off there was a last minute decision, but it just seemed so appropriate to the moment. I really hope you don't mind.
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