This follows my story, "Fragile Weight', which if you haven't, this won't make too much sense to you.
Garcia spotted the guys as she was power-walking and trying to affix the security label the hospital insisted she wear. She'd been in hospitals enough to know they meant that, and so tried to find a place on her colorful outfit for it. She caught the guys heading into an elevator, and immediately let out a sequel. "Oh! Oh! Wait for me!"
Hotch turned and saw her, the last to board, and immediately slammed a hand over the edge of the closing door. Garcia hurried over, and immediately latched on to Morgan. "How's Emily? Is the baby alright? Where's JJ?"
"Whoa, babygirl, put on the brakes. One question at a time," Morgan told her.
"Sorry, I'm just..." Rather than pick an adjective she rang her hands.
"Yeah, we know. JJ rode in the ambulance with Emily, as far as we know everyone's alright. We just got here."
She took Morgan's hand in hers, and squeezed it anxiously. When the doors opened, Hotch took the lead, Rossi beside him, and Garcia rushing Morgan after them, with a rather whipped-looking Reid taking up the rear.
They found JJ pacing slowly outside Emily's room, phone in her hand, likely explaining things to Will. She hastily ended the conversation as she saw a nurse coming, stowing the phone in her pocket. Then she saw the quintet coming toward her.
"The doctor is in there examining her, and they have the baby in neonatal. We're waiting." JJ didn't wait for them to ask.
"No problems on the way over?" Rossi asked.
"Not that I could tell."
They were interrupted as a woman in a white coat and scrubs came out of the room, stopping suddenly as she saw the small congregation. Shorter, with dark curls, brown eyes, and deep golden skin, she stared briefly at the group before gathering her bearings back. "I'm Dr. Cordes, are you all here for Emily?"
"Yes, they are doctor. Agent Reid delivered the baby," JJ explained, gesturing toward the young genius.
Cordes brightened and held a hand out to him. "Well, you may have missed your calling, Agent Reid. Aside from her blood pressure being a little high, Emily is doing just fine."
Reid shook her hand, and nodded, still too shaken from the whole thing to really appreciate what she was saying. All he kept seeing was what could have happened if he messed up.
"We're going to monitor her for a couple of days, which we usually do with traumatic deliveries, but I'm not worried. You can go in and see her, now." She nodded to the group, and disappeared down the hallway.
Without another word, they began piling into the room, where one nurse was leaving, a test tube of blood in her hands, and a second nurse was focused on the monitoring equiptment. Emily was somewhere in between sitting up and laying down, but more so on the former, and she looked better than she had on the plane. Though the hospital gown just made her ivory skin look paler, and she looked almost relieved to see them.
Garica wasted not a moment, and swooped in, bestowing a tight hug on the profiler. "How are you feeling, sweetie?"
Emily looked at them, dubious expression on her face. "Honestly?" Garcia nodded, and she sighed. "Scared, anxious, and unbelievably stupid."
They amassed around the room, Garcia plopping one chair beside the bed, JJ in the other, and the guys perching around the room: Hotch by the door, Rossi leaned against a stack of drawers, Reid by the window, and Morgan leaning against Garica's chair.
"Did the doctor explain anything?" JJ asked.
"Not really. She said that sometimes this just happens, there's no symptoms, or they're so mild you don't recognize them...at least now I know why my pants don't fit anymore."
"What do you know, Jayje, she wasn't just being paranoid, she did gain a little weight." Garcia shot the Liaison a look.
"I told you," Emily sniped. A recent shopping trip had found Emily struggling to fit in her usual size pants, and Garcia and JJ telling her it was just cut small and she was getting upset over nothing.
JJ held up hands in surrender. "It wasn't very noticeable."
Hotch cleared his throat, and interrupted them. "I've spoke to human resources on the way here, and they've already put you on maternity leave. I just need to sign the papers."
Emily nodded. "Thanks."
"Is there anyone you'd like us to call? Your mother? Uh, boyfriend?" That was incredibly awkward, more for him than her; Hotch preferred to stay as far from his agent's personal lives as possible. Even if they were family, he was still the boss, and conversations like this were just...uncomfortable.
"No, I don't have the energy to argue with my mother right now, or explain this to anyone." It hadn't occurred to her until they were in the ambulance-the baby had a father that she obviously needed to have a conversation with. She knew who it was, but needed confirmation on how long she'd been pregnant.
"Ooh! No one told me, is it a boy or girl?" Garica suddenly cried, hands clasped together excitedly.
"Girl," Emily replied quietly.
Garica's face suddenly lit up with excitement. "Oh, I'm going to have so much fun dressing her, I can't wait to start shopping!"
JJ shot Emily a knowing look, as the guys all chuckled...well, Hotch at least smiled. They waited almost an hour until a different doctor showed up, and they were all a little concerned to see him empty handed.
"Hi Emily, I'm Troy Weaver, I'm the neonate specialist overseeing your daughter's care." He held a hand out to her.
Emily started at the reference to 'her daughter', but took his hand. Every cell in her body was tense on alert, and the knot in her stomach coiled tighter. "Is she okay?"
"She is." He turned to the men scattered in the room. "Which one of you gentlemen is tha proud papa?"
None of the guys seemed to know what to say, but fortunately, Prentiss saved them. "None of them. Their friends, uh family actually...all of them."
Weaver appeared momentarily confused before, his cautious smile came back on. "Well, I'll just press on then. I'm putting her gestation period at about 35 weeks, which is considered preterm, but definitely on the healthy side. She's 5 pounds, 4 ounces, and about 18 and 3/4 inches. From what I've been told about your pregnancy and delivery, that's nothing short of miraculous. She is in the low birth-weight category, which in this case means the fatty deposits under her skin haven't had time to grow properly. But, I am happy to say that her lungs sound very good, and she's breathing without any problems. Preliminary blood tests were clean, and we've got some more invovled ones running, but I'm not really concerned. She's well developed and strong," he paused, watching her. "You can breathe now, Emily."
She hadn't realized she was holding her breath until it came whooshing out of her mouth. He smiled, and continued.
"Since she's on the small side, we're keeping her in an incubator. It will keep her in a womb-like setting while she continues to develop. I don't foresee needing to keep her more than a week. The other good news, is that she's healthy enough for you to hold and try to feed." He paused again to study her. "Would you like to go see her?"
Emily nodded slowly, running her tongue over her lips, and swallowing the giant lump in her throat, still trying to remember to breathe.
"And, I take it, you'll all be joining?" He asked the rest of them.
They all turned to Emily to confirm she wanted them, but she seemed a bit dazed, so Hotch took the lead as always. "Yes, we'd like to."
"I'll send a nurse in with a wheelchair then." He disappeared back into the hallway leaving them alone again. All the attention in the room returned to Emily, who was staring rather intently, though blankly in front of her. A look that suggested she was trying very hard to work something out in her head.
As were they all.
The room fell into a not entirely uncomfortable silence as they each contemplated the day's events, trying to get their heads around everything. This morning they'd been parked at a dinner five minutes from their hotel, having breakfast and much needed coffee, all happy and relaxed after another case closed. JJ had been teasing Morgan about the amount of syrup he used on his pancakes, until Reid pointed out that it wasn't even real syrup, just gelatinous sugar goop. Prentiss had been pretty quiet, which was a little unusual, but nothing they worried about. It was strange to think she'd probably been having contractions at the time.
"Hello, hello," a young nurse greeted, breathy, high-pitched voice and a smile stretched across her face from ear to ear as she directed a wheel chair to the bed. "You ready to go see your baby, mom?"
Emily stared at the girl like she was a peculiar and distasteful new species, one she'd rather not interact with. Morgan quickly pulled out one of his most useful skills, and turned the charm on full-blast.
He smiled, and rested a hand on her shoulder, the young woman becoming suddenly flustered. "Derek Morgan, how about you come with me and point out the way to the NICU. These ladies can assist Emily into the chair, and we'll be happy to take her ourselves."
"Oh, alright, sure." Her voice had become even more breathy as she allowed Morgan to lead her out of the room.
"That man could charm the habit off a nun," Emily commented, already shimming toward the edge of the bed.
Garcia chuckled, as she helped Emily into the chair. "With that smile? He could charm the whole convent."
Emily's smile was cut-off as she winced her way into the wheel chair, her whole body aching as she moved. JJ had looked so composed and happy after she had Henry, and it made her wonder how the younger woman had pulled it off.
Morgan poked his head back in. "We all ready?"
Once they got to the NICU, after confirming once again that none of the four men were the baby's father, a nurse took hold of the wheelchair, and brought Emily into the room. The team stood outside the large glass window, until a second nurse came out, and directed them toward an incubator on the far end.
Rather than the simple plastic bassinets of the regular neonatal unit, the babies in the NICU each had their own area with an army of machines at their disposal. The team could see tiny red bodies practically covered by wires and tubes, machines monitoring their every movement. Emily's baby was much luckier. She was bigger and healthier looking than many of the babies they could see, and she was only being monitored. She wore only a little pink hat, a diaper, and a hospital band on her tiny wrist.
"Oh, she so small," Garica cooed. Emily appeared on the other side of the glass, eyes immediately finding her child, though filled with trepidation. She reached a hand into one of the wholes of the incubator and caressed the baby's arm. As Garcia watched her friend, she couldn't stop herself from blurting, "My god, she looks absolutely terrified."
"Wouldn't you?" JJ glanced at her.
"Yeah, that is an awful lot to lay on a person in a few hours," Rossi commented.
"Has it really only been a few hours?" Hotch sighed, looking as his watch. Four hours since the plane took off. That's it. More than a few, less than several.
"The idea that time moves quicker when you're busy is a physical impossibility. Time is a universal invariant. It's really just a trick of the mind," Reid commented, barely paying attention as he watched through the glass.
They watched then as a nurse had a brief conversation with Emily, and drew the curtain around the little cubicle that held mother and child. The team was slightly alarmed, concerned that something might be wrong, but none made to move. They didn't have much of a chance to wonder what was going on before a nurse popped outside, and introduced herself.
"I'm Mallory. We have Emily doing something called Kangaroo care now, skin to skin contact with the baby, so it requires a little privacy. She asked to me tell you all to go home and relax before you get called in again, that she would be fine." She noted their hesitation. "Honestly folks, she's going to be in there awhile, and then we'll get her back to her room to sleep until the baby's hungry, and she'll be back here again. There's not much you can do, and we'll take good care of both of them."
Whether it was her words of reassurance or her warm smile, they either nodded, or released a pent up breath, comfortable more or less that the crisis was at an end. Emily was fine, and the baby was healthy enough. With a last encouraging smile, the nurse turned and headed back inside.
"What a day," Rossi mumbled, earning agreeing nod from Hotch.
"You guys go ahead, I'm going to hang around," Morgan informed them. At their questioning looks, he explained. "She shouldn't be alone right now, no matter how fine she says she is."
The truth was he wanted to continue their brief conversation in the jet bathroom, he wanted to make sure she was okay, and he wanted to give her someone to confide in, to unload on, if she needed it.
Hotch nodded. "You'll let us know if anything changes? If she needs anything?"
"Yeah, I'll make sure," he promised. They began to head out then, JJ and Garcia simultaneously stopping beside him.
"You want company, hotstuff?"
"No, you go on home, babygirl, I got this covered." Garcia smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek, and started to head off.
"Tell her we'll come by tomorrow," JJ asked him.
"With baby gifts!" Garcia called.
"Will do," he said loud enough for both of them to hear. To JJ he added. "Make sure she doesn't go too crazy yet."
The media liaison smirked. "As if I have any control over her?"
Emily obediently switched hospital gowns to one that opened in front, and then sat back down in the wheelchair. Her whole body was hot with the nervous energy that combined with fear, and manifested in her trembling hands. The nurse gently lifted the baby from the incubator, and helped settle her against Emily's bare chest. The infant's head rested between her breasts, hands curled up against her ribs, legs bent and resting on her belly. she pulled the sides of the gown over the baby, and the nurse added a small blanket since the fabric was so thin.
With a smile and a gentle squeeze on her shoulder, the nurse went to tend with other other babies and mothers, leaving Emily alone with the baby. Not entirely alone, but more than she'd been all day. With her shaky hands gently holding the baby to her chest, and her stomach still churning painfully with uncertainty, Emily wasn't convinced that was a good idea. The baby squirmed, adjusting herself and her positioned, and Emily's heartbeat jumped, afraid she'd already done something wrong. Then the baby settled, using her left breast as a pillow, and falling asleep quickly.
For the second time in a day, Emily released a breath she hadn't consciously held. She ran a hand gently over the baby's back, feeling the infant relax even more completely against her. She looked down then at the baby's peaceful face, and her thin, fragile little body, and felt so instantly overwhelmed, tears gathered in her eyes. She held the baby tighter as the tears slid down her cheeks, as if cuddling her close could protect her from how unprepared her mother was, unprepared in every way possible.
When she got her tears under control she began to sing to baby, as the nurse had suggested, so she would know her mother's voice. It was a french song her grandfather had taught her when she was young. In the middle of nowhere, he had to find some way to entertain a little girl, and she loved the song about a crocodile going to war. Maybe not entirely appropriate to comfort a newborn, but then the only other thing she could think of was the Lizzie Borden rhyme she'd learned in a college criminology course, which was far more inappropriate.
Eventually her hands stopped shaking, and it got easier to breathe. She wasn't exactly comfortable with the situation, but it was at least manageable. Until the baby started to wiggle again, slow, delicate movements, her soft skin brushing against Emily's. Then she began to panic again. Waking up now, the baby began to move her head around, face turning into her mother's skin. Emily called for the nurse.
"What do you need, honey?" The woman then noted the baby's movements and recognition dawned on her. "Oh, someone's hungry."
There ensued a conversation about breastfeeding, which essentially determined that Emily had never done it before, and knew virtually nothing about it. Besides that teeth hurt, courtesy of JJ. So, the nurse very patiently explained the process, and how to go about it. Fortunately, the baby seemed to know what she was doing, and made Emily's part of it fairly easily. She jumped slightly when the baby latched on, startled at the unfamiliar sensation, but soon relaxed into the process. When she finished, Emily burped her without any help. That she knew how to do from babysitting Henry.
So, maybe she wasn't so horrible at this.
This is not the end. I started writing this, and my head was reluctant to quit, so while I'm not done, I know that will be two or three more chapters. Also, if you all like this, I'll continue writing this plot-line as a series, though I predict them being the length more of the first story. Thank you for reading, and reviews tell me you want me to keep writing. :)