Disclaimer: I own nothing because I'm not cool (or rich) enough!
A.N: Love how many of you have seen the programme! It's a worth watch! Totally bizarre!
Thanks for the awesome review! I ran out of time to respond, so you're getting a collective THANK YOU here! You guys are absolute stars!
I know absolutely nothing about pregnancies personally, apart from friend and family. So I'm out of my depth with all the ins and outs and this story needs to push it =P
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Love To Surprise-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When Penelope came too, Derek was more or less on the sidelines, out of her ability to grip his hand and now she was terrified.
She, Penelope Garcia, was in labour.
The woman that hadn't had sex for over 6 months, was well and truly baby making. Well, baby giving now.
"Miss Garcia, we're going to take you up in a moment, but the baby's heartbeat is all okay. How far gone are you?" Dr. Fitzpatrick told her calmly and almost suavely.
Penelope looked at the doctor completely emotionless. "I- I didn't know I was even pregnant." She told him and she felt herself faltering. She wasn't living a life, a baby would fit into. "I can't be pregnant."
Derek was scared in that moment. He knew Penelope hadn't had sex with Kevin in the time it takes to be pregnant. He knew she wasn't exactly sexually active right now either.
"Do we want us to call the father?" The doctor asked and Penelope felt as though her heart was breaking. This couldn't end well.
"Doctor they're ready and waiting." A nurse said from doorway interrupting them.
"Right, were going to get you up stairs. There you'll have a proper obstetrician team, who will get you comfortable." He took Penelope's hand comfortingly as, now what they knew was, another contraction hit her.
Penelope gritted her teeth, felt the need to scream, and felt the need to give up her body came along again.
"They can give you drugs, and make sure everything's going okay." He then left as the room began to clear and Penelope was prepped to be moved.
When Derek followed, he had to stop, he had to tell the others, he now found the entire team in the waiting room, he looked at his watch and saw that they'd been there nearly 5 hours. After the waiting, and the prodding that Penelope had happen to her, the time had really lapsed.
"You need to get up to the maternity ward." He watched their faces gain shock. "Pen's 4 centimetres dilated, she passed out, but now they need to get her comfortable."
"She's pregnant?" Emily asked shocked at what Derek had just spoke.
"But... How? I mean who's the dad" JJ broke in.
"No idea." Derek said and they could tell Derek's shock hadn't yet elevated.
"Derek if you want me to be in there with her, I can be." JJ volunteered as she stepped forward. "This is not something she should be on her own for. It's terrifying to be in that room with a bunch of strangers when you're prepared. Penelope is completely in the dark for this."
"I think that'll be a good idea JJ." Derek told her, he needed air after all he'd heard. He left the group as they went for the elevator and he went for the main entrance.
When JJ made it to the room, she saw one of her best friends hooked up to multiple machines that she had when she had Henry and ones she wasn't, if anyone knew the drill, it was JJ, she'd been there, done that and had the son to prove it.
JJ rushed to Penelope's side and grabbed her hand, just in time as Pen was captured by another contraction. The pain threshold being broken, before she could settle down.
"I don't know how this happened." Penelope then sobbed and JJ felt heartbroken at the despair in her friend's voice. "He's going to hate me."
"Shh, you just concentrate on the baby and you, Pen. Nothing else matters." She reacted, not wanting to press Pen for details.
Penelope lucidly looked up at her. "Where's Derek? I need him here." It was as she said that that JJ realised just how dependent Penelope had come to be on Derek. "JJ, I can't do this." She said as another pain ricocheted through her, JJ knew how the nurses ignored it until they checked. They didn't want the woman overwhelmed and continually poked and prodded.
She knew the routine, and she knew how slow and tiring it could really be. "It's too intense." Penelope told her after sucking on ice for the hydration, almost another hour in; JJ sporadically lay a wet flannel on her forehead to cool her down and soothed her as went. She knew Penelope was exhausted and she wasn't anywhere near the end, a nurse had just told them that.
She, also, knew that watching the baby's heart rate was a must. They didn't know how far gone Penelope was, so they had to take every precaution they could to ensure a safe delivery. It was just a waiting game, and all to do with nature.
JJ slipped out of the room to get more ice, she went into the waiting room and saw the team all sitting around, Derek was back, and pacing.
"I want you to just hear in on something." JJ told him, her tone telling him to not even begin messing with her. "She's scared, and she wants you, but you've not even made a go at being in there."
"She's having a baby JJ! What else can I possibly do?"
"Step up and be her hero. Be her best friend. For once, Penelope needs us more than ever. That means you, out of all of us, have to swallow your fear and prejudices and put Pen first. Like she does all the time for you. She's a mess right now, and I think she has more of a right than you do." Derek nodded and followed JJ.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting ice."
"Why?" Derek asked as she filled a cup with crushed ice.
"She's breathing her way through contractions, she's getting tired, she's getting dehydrated, you work out the maths." JJ told him politely with a smile. "Why won't you go in there?" Derek didn't answer as they made it to the open the door. "Fine, you stay in here."
JJ walked in to see Penelope laying half on her back, half on her front. An arm on her forehead, the other on her stomach holding a tube supplying her with gas and air. Nothing but exhaustion hanging around.
"Hey Garcie." She said as she approached her friend, she took one last glance over her shoulder at Derek as he watched and then put her attention fully on Penelope. "How you doing?"
"I can't do this." Penelope admitted immediately.
"Of course you can. What makes you think you can't?"
"I'm not cut out to be a mom JJ, that's you, that's not me." Penelope told her in a painful whisper. "How do I do this on my own?"
"You're not on your own." JJ soothed as she put the cup of ice down and grabbed a flannel from the bowl of icy water and draped it over Pen's forehead again. "You're going to be great."
"It wasn't meant to happen like this." Penelope said as the sobs gripped her and she just wanted to give up. "I don't have a husband, heck I'm nowhere near a boyfriend and now I'm lying in a hospital bed in labour, and I can't see the happiness about to happen JJ."
"Oh it will."JJ told her calmly. "Life will work out fine."
"JJ, Derek's the dad. That doesn't make this easier." Penelope told her and her lip quivered. "He's the only one it can be and he thinks I don't love him."
"Derek?" JJ asked shocked at the revelation, she thought it might be likely, but now Penelope had said it, it was all too real.
"It just happened, JJ. I could never tell him I was in love with him and that the only reason my dates fail, is because I'm living in comparison. When he finds out about this baby, he's never going to talk to me again." Penelope went to cry more but the urges to push became more and more.
JJ remembered her labour and how easy it had been, but this was nothing like that. Penelope was scared because she knew the moment she gave birth, life was going to change, and to her there wasn't going to be a happily ever after.
"JJ, go back to the others." Derek spoke as he entered the room. "I'm taking over." JJ smiled with a satisfaction, she took the flannel off Pen's forehead, then bent down and kissed Pen's cheek.
"This is the beginning." JJ said almost as a promise and sauntered off towards the door, patted Derek's shoulder as she went. "She's fragile. You break her, I'll break you." JJ smiled as Derek nodded at her. "Good Luck, Daddy."
Derek gulped at that. He then proceeded to go to Penelope's side. He took her heard in his and held his; he put his arm over her head on the pillow and kissed her forehead and then put his forehead to hers gently. "We're gonna have a baby." Penelope nodded at him tiredly. "We gonna have a talk about this, when you're both home." He finished as he straightened up.
Penelope watched as the midwife that had helped the most walked in, she smiled at Penelope and looked at Derek before proceeding to the monitor checking the baby. "How you doing Penelope?"
Penelope groaned as she felt the contraction that had been building up finally exploded.
"That says it all." She smiled easily and went to Penelope's side to check her over. "Right, the baby's definitely lower, so let's see how far you are now." Derek helped Penelope shift and then kept Penelope calm as possible. "Right, you're nearing the end of the first stage. You still feeling okay?"
"Is there anything to feel okay about?" Penelope asked, she wanted this to be over. She wanted to meet her surprise baby.
"You wait, once that baby comes out, you'll fall in love." She told her and went over to the sink. "You thought anymore about an epidural?" She watched Penelope's face change, a bit more fear instilled. "It'll help make your more comfortable."
"Want me to get JJ?" Derek offered.
"Penelope, I'll go talk to the doctor, you might be just a little too far gone, but you just keep going with the gas and air."
Derek looked around the room; he never imagined this happening like this. He always imagined the classes that would lead up to this, the appointments and the scans, the build up. He didn't think this would be happening now, if at all.
Penelope sat up a little and pushed herself onto her side, groaning as she went. Derek looked down at her. He'd never seen her more beautiful in her exhaustion. "I'm sorry for putting this on you." She spoke quietly, her eyes closed, her breathing now getting regular with the strengths of the contractions. "I don't want to pressurise you into this life."
Derek crouched down some; Penelope's hand was wrapped around the gas and air tube, the other on the railings on the side of the bed. "You, Baby Girl, are giving me a gift here. This baby's going to be a gift. That night we had sex, we created something beautiful."
"I want this to be over. I want to be at work." She admitted and her face scrunched up in pain.
Derek, helplessly, looked at the ice and picked up some as Penelope relaxed. "Open up Baby."
"That's something you haven't said in a while Handsome." Penelope joked and her big brown eyes looked at him emotionally. "Last time I got some proper good honey." She teased him as he slipped some of the ice chips in.
Derek laughed. "Somehow I thought you'd be like this during childbirth." Penelope looked at him; Derek felt heat flush his cheeks. That was basically admittance that he'd imagined her in this predicament.
Teasing commenced after that. Derek became calmer and more natural to how Penelope's changed quickly. As more time passed, he began to learn the routine of what was happening.
Soon there was an influx of nurses and the main doctor, now Derek was getting nervous. Penelope was too far gone for anything but gas and air, and now she was crowning. That word scared him. That meant their baby was well and truly on its way to being delivered.
He looked at Penelope; her expression was of sheer expectant terror.
This was really it.
After a long, drawn out battle. It was about to end.
The moment their lives were about to change was about to happen.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Love To Surprise-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A/N: The programme was 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant' – imaginatively named – but it's a worth watch. A mother of 3 even didn't know she was pregnant; she ended up giving birth at work... when I read about one in the toilet, I did laugh, even though it would scare me senseless! It's just like some urban myth or something!
Anyway, chapter done, love it or hate it?