AN: I hope you all enjoy! I have to work through the holidays, so I won't get much of a break to write anything and hopefully this holds you guys over for a while. :)
Chapter Fourteen
End of the Road
Abby had spent the past year devouring pregnancy books. She expected every strange scenario her mind could come up with. But, she somehow missed the scenario that actually played out. Though, in her defense, she really hadn't thought far outside of the lab. She was sure that's where it would all go down. She was very wrong.
She had left the Navy Yard for lunch. Evy couldn't go with her because there was a lot of work that needed to be done and Abby and her baby were not giving up lunch for work. All of the team was out in the field and Ducky was up to his elbows in entrails. So, Abby went to lunch alone. She didn't go far, just the little Japanese place a few blocks down. She even managed to walk the way. She got half way through her noodles when she felt the common over whelming urge to use the bathroom. With a roughly eight-pound baby resting solely on her bladder, it was something she was used to.
She let her waiter know she was just using the bathroom and left her table to the two rooms tucked in the back next to the kitchen. She was three feet away from the bathroom when she felt the gush of warm water trickle down her legs with a quiet splash onto the floor. At first, she thought she had lost all control of her bladder, but looking at how much liquid was on the floor, she knew what had happened.
"My water broke!" She yelled happily to the packed restaurant.
Almost everyone stopped with their meal to look at her strangely. A few waiters rushed up to her and the mess at her feet with a disgusted look.
"Don't worry, its nothing gross, sorry about that though." She said looking at the mess as she stepped around it. She looked up and addressed the waiter that had taken her order. "Can I get my food to go?" She asked, still beaming.
Abby walked back to the Navy Yard very carefully with her doggy bag in one hand and holding her parasol in her other hand. When she got into the building she glided through security and went straight to the director's office. His secretary tried to stop her, but Abby was determined.
"Director Vance," She sang happily as she walked into his office.
There were two men dressed in uniform at the table while Director Vance paced. "Ms. Sciuto, I'm in a meeting." He said trying not to show his frustration to his guests.
"I just wanted to let you know, my water broke but I'm staying." She said with a smile.
The two other men stood at attention and Vance looked worried quickly. "Shouldn't you go to the hospital?" He asked concerned.
"Not until I'm in active labor. My doctor told me I only had to go into the hospital when the contractions were at least five minutes apart." She explained surely. She had already discussed all of it with him because she knew how long it could take before she absolutely had to go to the hospital. She really didn't like the thought of being stuck the hospital and wanted to stay away from him as long as possible. "I should probably call him too." She said thoughtfully as she turned and left the befuddled men in her wake.
She made her way down to the lab, munching on the food she had brought with her while she did and didn't pass anyone in the halls. She was a little upset that she didn't have another person to tell until she got down to her lab where Evy was working on the evidence.
"Guess what?" She cheered as she waddled in, sitting in her new computer chair at the analysis computer.
"What?" Evy asked unconcerned as she looked into a microscope.
"My water broke!" Abby answered happily.
Evy stopped and turned to look at Abby strangely. "Should we go?" Evy asked confused.
"No, I'm fine. Besides, they need you and me here right now." Abby answered as she rubbed her belly.
"So what are we going to do when you need to go to the hospital?" Evy asked with a raised brow.
"A Probie can drive me if we have to." Abby answered simply.
"Alright," Evy said unsure.
They continued to work on the evidence that had been brought to them in the case. It was a triple homicide, with triple the evidence. Abby stayed off her feet for the most part just like she always did. It didn't take long for her to start feeling contractions, even if they only started out as slight discomforts. She counted them and timed them just to make sure she knew when it was time to go to the hospital. She hadn't felt anything for almost ten minutes when she felt her entire lower half twist and clench painfully.
"Holy crap!" Abby yelled, grabbing her stomach and keeling over.
"Abby!" Evy said rushing over to her.
"Contraction." Abby breathed, trying to gather herself.
"I guessed," Evy muttered as she crouched in front of her.
"I'm good," Abby said surely, taking in a few deep breaths as she straightened herself.
Abby tried to keep working but her contractions were getting closer and more painful. Within half an hour she couldn't focus on anything. It had come to point where she couldn't speak any more.
"You need to get to the hospital." Evy said seriously.
"I don't want to." Abby mumbled. It had only been a few hours, she wanted to spend a little more time away from the sterilized rooms.
"Come on." Evy pressed, offering her hand to help Abby stand.
Abby couldn't really argue with her and they walked out of the lab and out toward the elevator and was met with Ducky.
"Abigail?" He asked confused.
"She's in labor." Evy answered.
"I'm in labor." Abby confirmed with a pout.
Ducky looked at the both of them in concern. "Can you cover the lab for me while I get her to the hospital?" Evy asked nodding over her shoulder to the lab.
"I can take her." Ducky offered.
"Are you sure?" Evy asked worryingly.
"Yes, Mr. Palmer can handle everything for me, they'll need you to analyze evidence." Ducky said surely.
Evy wasn't entirely convinced with the new plan. "He's a doctor Evy, I think I'll be fine with him." Abby told her reassuringly.
"I'll come as soon as I can." Evy promised, begrudgingly.
Ducky held Abby's arms and walked her to her car. She had everything packed and ready, including the car seat in the back and all of her bags in the trunk. Abby needed help getting into the passenger's seat but once she was secure, Ducky got in and started for the hospital.
"Have you let Gibbs know?" Ducky asked as he turned out of the Navy Yard.
"I was hoping to tell him and the team in person." Abby said with a frown.
"You should let them know." Ducky said seriously.
"Okay," She said with a sigh, taking out her phone.
She dialed Gibbs and he answered quickly, like he always did for her.
"Gibbs," She said calmly.
"Yeah Abby," Gibbs asked distracted. She knew he was more than likely in the middle of something and almost took it as an excuse not to tell him, but Ducky's stern look told her otherwise.
"Ducky is taking me to the hospital, I'm in labor." She said simply.
There was a long, drawn out silence, almost to a point where Abby was going to check her phone to see if the call had dropped.
"I'll send someone over there." He said gruffly before hanging up.
"Okay then," Abby said to herself as she pocketed her phone.
Ducky gave her an apologetic look and continued on to the hospital. They had to go to a civilian hospital, because that was where her doctor had privileges and Abby knew she was less likely to come across people she knew there.
At the hospital, Ducky offered to drive her straight to the entrance, but she wanted to walk. She knew walking would help progress the labor and it helped her keep her mind off the contractions. They had to park a little ways away from the door and Ducky had to carry her two bags, but he took it in stride. At the entrance, he made her sit in a wheel chair and rolled her up to the front desk.
"How can I help you?" A blonde nurse asked looking between Abby and Ducky.
"I need to have my baby," Abby said tiringly.
It didn't take long to get a room for Abby. Ducky brought all of the things she had from her car to her to help her relax. The nurses had called her doctor for her and everything was well in motion. Ducky managed to talk the hospital staff into waiting to hook her up to all of the monitors after the initial check of the baby.
She had been resting in her bed with Ducky going on about the first baby he delivered when Tony came rushing in.
Sliding through the door, he looked frantically between Ducky and Abby. "Did I miss the kid?" He asked rushed.
Was Abby disappointed that it was Tony instead of Gibbs? Yes. But she was still glad to see a friendly face. "No Tony," She said shaking her head.
Tony relaxed and tried to play cool. "Oh, good." He said with a grin and walked up to Abby's bed said and started asking questions about how she was doing.
Ducky and Tony were with her for three hours with nothing but contractions and random nurses coming to check on her. Tony would need to take a call once and a while, as did Ducky, but other than that, they gave her their full attention.
Evy had called to check on her between test results. McGee had squeezed a short conversation in while Gibbs was driving to a suspect's house, with Ziva giving her well wishes as well. Gibbs had been deathly silent.
It was nearing midnight when her doctor finally came. Ducky had left to get some food and Tony was taking a cat nap on the couch, drooling and snoring.
"Hello Abby," The old man said with a smile. He looked worse for wear, but he still retained his kind disposition toward the pregnant woman before him.
"Hello Dr. Granger," Abby said trying to smile, but only managing a grimace.
"So, your little one is ready to join us I hear." He said as he walked up to her bed.
She nodded tensely, waiting for her contraction to pass and then breathed. "Yup," She said a little more relaxed.
Dr. Granger studied her chart for a moment before looking back at her. "Well, seeing as your due date is tomorrow, I think everything is going great. You're almost five centimeters dilated and the contractions are coming in with good timing. Everything is going smooth." He said surely.
"Great." She said relieved.
He reached out and held her shoulder comfortingly. "I'll be on call, alright?" He told her soothingly.
She nodded, smiling a little. "Okay,"
Dr. Granger gave her a sympathetic look and left the room. Abby sighed and looked down at her stomach. It had various monitors attached to it now, checking her baby's vitals and her contractions. She didn't mind it so much now, her mind was bogged down with the pain of it all to notice much else.
While she was studying her severely expanded belly, Ducky had come back into the room, without the food because she couldn't eat anything. She wanted to thank him for being considerate when a contraction grabbed her again.
"Ducky," She ground out.
The older man walked to her side and quickly took her hand. "Yes, my dear?" He asked sweetly.
"List off the risks for the baby associated with taking pain medication." She begged.
"Alphabetically this time?" He asked, sounding a little excited. He had taken a strange joy to answering her demands of the medical reasons why the baby would be better born without drugs of any kind.
"Sure," Abby gasped as she nodded.
Ducky and Tony spent the next six hours trying to keep Abby calm. It was six in the morning and they had gotten calls from everyone from Director Vance to Evy asking about how she was doing, but they were all still tied up in the case and so it was only Ducky and Tony with her.
They were about as proficient as they could be the new and strange situation. They took turns holding her hands, getting her ice and trying to keep her mind off the pain. Tony had been asking incessant questions about where the baby was going to go to college, what the initials could and couldn't be and trying to get her to name the baby after himself.
"How are we doing?" A nurse asked kindly as she walked into the room.
"Can someone take the kid out already?" Abby yelled as her answer.
"No, you don't want the caesarian-section, remember?" Ducky pointed out sweetly.
"Yes, I do!" Abby yelled.
"Ma'am?" the nurse asked confused.
"I don't, I don't. It just hurts a lot." Abby cried.
The nurse started the exam, Tony and Ducky were standing next to Abby for privacy and were used to it by now. The nurse covered Abby's legs and looked at the expectant mother with a smile. "Well, it looks like you're at ten centimeters we can call the doctor." She said surely.
"Please yes!" Abby cried.
It was half an hour later before Dr. Granger was able to get to the hospital. He looked a little more rested now, but it was still six-thirty in the morning. Ducky and Tony had been through worse nights and were holding up well. Abby ordered them to go get breakfast when her doctor arrived and they listened willingly, making calls to the team as they left.
"Alright, so, it looks like your baby is being stubborn." Dr. Granger said after he looked at her chart and the readings from the machines she was attached to.
"Just like the father." She muttered to herself.
Dr. Granger smiled a little. "We can give you medicine to push the labor along, but the baby's vitals are fine, so it's your choice." He explained to her.
"No, its okay, I'll be fine." She said shaking her head, not wanting to force any drugs she wouldn't need.
"I think the baby might get that stubbornness from you." He told her knowingly.
Abby chuckled for the first time in eight hours.
"I'll be making rounds, a nurse will get me when you're ready for the hard part." He told her patting her knee before he left.
The news that she was going to be giving birth in the immediate future didn't dawn on her until she had been alone for a few minutes. It was something that hit her like a truck, the thought of birthing another human being. It was the end result she had been hoping for since she started all of it, but she never had thought so far into it as she did after the doctor confirmed her progress.
Tony and Ducky walked into the room with Abby out of her bed and pacing like an anxious dog.
"You okay Abbs?" Tony asked worryingly as they rushed up to her.
"No!" She yelled.
"Yeah, stupid question." Tony said sheepishly.
"I'm giving birth! To a person!" She said frantically. "I thought I had wrapped my mind around the concept, but I haven't and I'm freaking out!" She said honestly as she held the only bare spot on her stomach.
Ducky walked to her and touched her shoulder. "Abigail, you must relax, everything will be fine." He tried to tell her calmly.
Abby didn't take the advice well. She was still panicking. But before her mind could dwell much longer she was taken by a contraction and for once, she was happy to have the mind-splitting pain to distract her from her thoughts.
Tony and Ducky got her back in bed and soothed her strange musing as much as they could while the labor progressed. But they didn't have long to work at it because, within twenty minutes, she yelled a sobering sentence.
"The baby is coming!" Abby cried as she clenched Ducky and Tony's hands with all of her power and felt the instinctual need to bear down and push her child out.
"What? Now?" Tony asked panicking.
"Now!" She confirmed.
"I'll get a nurse." Ducky said calmly and Abby forced herself to let go of him so he could.
"I'll get – I don't know, what should I get?" Tony asked dumbly.
"Nothing," She hissed, clutching his hand tight enough to make his face twist in pain.
Tony was alone with Abby for three, painful, minutes before Ducky returned with a mass of nurses and Dr. Granger. Ducky quickly resumed the spot he had left but Abby didn't let up on Tony's hand.
"Someone ready to join us?" He asked.
"Yes!" Abby yelled, nodding quickly.
"Alright then," He said coolly and a flurry of movement started.
Nurses started flooding in to set up the room. Dr. Granger sterilized himself with two other nurses and covered himself with paper gowns and gloves. The room was complete in minutes and all but the two nurses left with Tony and Ducky standing at Abby's side while Dr. Granger rolled to the end of her bed with her legs propped up in stirrups and looked at her between her knees.
"We're ready whenever you are." He told her confidently.
Abby only had to wait until her next contraction to start pushing. She took in a deep breath and bore down with all of her strength, forcing Ducky and Tony to her level as she gripped their hands.
"Good Abby!" Dr. Granger coached.
With the next contraction, Abby did the same and did so for the next five minutes. She was already dead tired but she couldn't stop seeing the preverbal 'light at the end of the tunnel', her baby. That was her goal, and nothing mortal was stopping her from reaching it.
"Alright, you've got one more push and you're officially a mother." Dr. Granger told her happily.
If Abby had needed any help, it would have been that statement, but she was powered as it was. With a long, guttural yell, Abby pushed again and felt her child leave her body, only to be held up by her doctor. With a pale, slimy body, two long arms and two long legs, ten fingers, ten toes, a full head of black hair and a healthy set of lungs, and a little 'johnson' swinging in the breeze, Abby could only cry happily.
"It's a boy." She cried, reaching out for him. Dr. Granger laid her son on her chest and the nurses started covering him in blankets.
With her tired, heavy arms, she held her son close to her. He was still wailing at the top of his lungs, but Abby was crying as well. He was perfect to her. He had her lips, cheekbones and ears. He had stopped wriggling in her arms while his cries died down.
Ducky kissed the side of her head. "Good job Abigail." He murmured.
Tony was floored, he couldn't open his mouth to say one word, and all he could do was stare at Abby's newborn baby.
"Who wants to cut the cord?" Dr. Granger asked as he looked between Tony and Ducky. Abby looked at the two men that probably had some fractures in their hands and had been with her through the whole process. She was sure they earned the right to do so.
"It's all you Duck," Tony said quickly.
"I've already had the honor," Ducky said smiling.
"You can't mess up Tony." Abby said laughingly.
"You say that now." Tony muttered as he took the scissors from Dr. Granger.
With all care, Tony gently snipped between the clamps and waited for something horrible to happen afterward. The baby didn't even move. Tony let out a sigh of relief as he gave the scissors to the doctor. Abby smiled at him and patted his arm with her spare hand.
"Alright, one last push from you Abby." Dr. Granger said.
Abby took in a deep breath and gave the last push she had in her and expelled the placenta from her body. She sighed, feeling like she had just lost thirty pounds instantly.
"What is that?" Tony asked horrified.
"The placenta," Ducky answered for everyone in the room.
"Gross." Tony gagged.
"It's being frozen," Abby said weakly, feeling more and more tired.
"They know." Dr. Granger assured her.
"Good," Abby said smiling.
"Why?" Tony asked utterly confused.
"Because, it's full of his cells that could be used to help him if he ever gets sick." Abby answered simply as she ran her finger across her son's forehead.
"What's his name anyway?" Tony asked leaning over to get a better look at him.
"I'm not sure yet." She said with knitted brows. She had thought of dozens of names, but looking at her baby, she couldn't decide which one fit him best.
"Ms. Sciuto," A nurse said sweetly. Abby looked up at her. "We need to measure and weigh him."
Abby nodded and slowly passed her son to the nurse. Ducky followed the young woman as she took the baby to the weigh station.
"Eight pounds even." The nurse told them before she stretched his legs out and measured his length. "And twenty-two inches long." She said as she wrapped him back in his delivery blanket.
"He's gonna be tall like his Mamma," Tony said surely.
The nurse took the baby back to Abby as soon as she had wrapped the blanket around him.
"When do you need to do the tests?" Abby asked almost sadly.
"Soon," The nurse answered.
"Okay," Abby sighed with a nod. She didn't like the thought of it but she accepted that it needed to be done.
"I'll give you a moment." The nurse said with a kind smile as she walked out of the room.
Laying with her son, Abby felt like she still needed to do something.
"Can I get a phone?" Abby asked looking between Tony and Ducky.
"Here," Tony said handing his phone over quickly.
Abby smiled her thanks and dialed Gibbs first. "Gibbs," She heard him answer gruffly.
She only had one thing her mind could come up with. "It's a boy,"
Abby guessed she had to have been on speakerphone because she heard several voice erupt. Ziva and McGee started congratulating her and she even hear Evy start laughing about the luck of them both having boys first. But Gibbs was silent until they all stopped talking.
"We'll be there soon Abbs, you did good." Gibbs said simply.
To most people, they would be pretty insulted at his simple statement. But that was just Gibbs, and that was almost the highest praise he could give, the only other had to be done in person and she didn't mind much. She handed the phone back to Tony and closed her eyes.
AN: Review!