The Fight For Four

Chapter Twenty

The first three hours of Mallory Carter's surgery were incredibly long and intense. Derek had yelled words that Meredith didn't know he even had in his vocabulary. He'd thrown a couple of things, a sign to her that he was in over his head. But at some point he'd pulled himself back together, and around the halfway point she felt like they were easing into some peace.

Derek was exhausted, mentally, by the time his patient was wheeled to the ICU after eight hours in surgery. There had been several times he'd thought they were going to have to close without finishing, but he'd managed. Now they waited. In what was probably one of his most challenging tumor removals ever, he admitted he had no idea what outcome to expect. He sat just outside that ICU room for two hours while they waited on her to wake up. Despite how exhausted he was, he wasn't leaving until he saw for himself whether or not she was alright.

Mallory Carter took a lot longer to come out of anesthesia than anyone expected. By that evening, Meredith had started to assume that they were in for a bad outcome. Still, she hadn't argued with Derek when he'd insisted on staying there. Normally she would have stayed with him, but she was too tired to stay on her feet any longer, and she didn't want Susie to have to stay overnight when it was avoidable. "I'll see you at home." She'd given him a quick kiss before leaving.

Derek didn't climb into bed next to her until three that morning. He had only a few hours of sleep before he had to be back at work, but their bed was always ten times better than trying to get comfortable in an on-call room.

"How is she?"

He frowned, surprised when he heard his wife mumbled. "I'm sorry." He whispered. "Didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep."

"Derek," Meredith opened one eye, barely. "How is Mallory?"

"She was moving all extremities and complaining about being in pain when I left. Oriented to place and time, and able to identify her parents."

"Derek Shepherd," Meredith forced both eyes open, tears falling onto her cheeks. "You saved a life today."

"I just removed a tumor. It's what surgeons do." Despite the downplaying of his words, his smile told of his pride.

"You are an incredibly gifted surgeon." She smiled, allowing her eyes to close again. "Get some sleep."

"Goodnight, Mer. So sorry I woke you." He gave her a quick kiss before letting his head hit the pillow. Within a matter of minutes, he was asleep.

Meredith let Derek sleep that morning rather than waking him when the alarm went off. She could count on one hand the number of times that he'd ever been late for a shift, but seeing as how he'd literally slept three hours, she couldn't bring herself to tell him to get up. His job was more than secure, late or not, and she figured he would end up waking up on his own in a couple of hours. She scribbled him a note, leaving it on the kitchen counter under his keys before she left. She hated that he was likely going to miss her appointment with Addison, but she figured it wasn't really a big deal in the scheme of things.

She spent the morning doing rounds on her patients and walking her interns through a few things in the emergency room, all the while bugged by what seemed like near constant Braxton Hicks contractions. They'd become a little more than just a nuisance, and she found herself actually having to stop what she was doing in the middle of a few of them. Dr. Bailey had noticed her in the hallway a couple of times and had comment about having them while she was pregnant, and it had only annoyed Meredith to hear they usually only got worse the further into the third trimester you got. She thought back, but she didn't really remember having many at all when she was pregnant with Landon.

"What can you do to make Braxton Hicks go away?" She practically blurted out the question when she saw Addison later in the morning.

"Have your baby?" Addison teased with a smile, closing the door behind her. "No Derek today?" She was surprised when she didn't see her ex-husband there.

"We had a crazy shift yesterday. He didn't get home until three in the morning. He texted me a few minutes ago and was just getting ready to leave the house. So, just me. And seriously, these things are driving me nuts. There has to be something. Derek says google told him drinking water would help, but it didn't. Google told me sitting down would help. Another stupid crap lie."

Addison's teasing expression shifted. "Usually those things do help. How many of them are you having?" She helped Meredith lie back on the table so she could measure her belly. "Measuring right on track." She grabbed the doppler to check the baby's heartbeat.

"Tons." Meredith couldn't hide her annoyance. "Seriously. I can't even do my job. I feel like I'm having to stop all the time."

"Meredith," Addison set aside the doppler after a moment of listening. "How many is tons? You're having to pause when they come?"

Sudden realization washed over her, and Meredith could feel her heart pounding against her chest. "It's a lot. I don't know how many. I don't count. I've had them for a few days, but they only really started to get frequent yesterday. You think they're real contractions?"

She could tell Meredith was panicking, and it was the absolute last thing she wanted. "I don't know. But we're going to find out. Do they seem to have a consistent pattern?"

"No, no pattern. I don't think. But they have gotten stronger. I need to call Derek."

"Meredith," Addison stopped her before she grabbed her phone. "Lets wait and see before you worry him. There are several very easy to fix things that can cause this. They do sound like contractions to me, but it doesn't sound like labor. So let's just do some investigating before we worry."

"What kind of things?" She tried to stay calm.

"Dehydration, UTI, other infections, a need for rest...there's a long list. Why don't you change into a gown. I'll check your cervix just to be sure, and we'll put you on monitoring and see if we can figure this out."

Meredith let out a slow breath, nodding. She fought tears, grateful that Addison was at least acting like she wasn't worried.

"It's going to be fine." Addison assured her. "I'll be right back." She stepped into the hallway so she could change, sighing as she leaned her head against the wall.

With shaky hands, Meredith replaced her scrubs with a hospital gown, laying back on the table as she waited for her to come back. She again resisted the urge to at least text her husband. "I hate this part." She mumbled when her doctor and friend came back, watching as she grabbed gloves from the wall. Reluctantly, she put her feet in the stirrups on the table.

"I'll be quick." Addison assured her. "Just try to relax. I know that's easier said than done."

Meredith winced, shifting a tad when Addison checked her. She closed her eyes, blowing out a slow breath. "That really hurts." She mumbled.

"I'm done." Addison sighed, tossing gloves into the trashcan.

"It's crap news, isn't it?" Meredith watched her expression, taking the hand she offered so she could sit up.

"It's not news to panic over." Addison stressed that part. "Your cervix is about fifty percent effaced and a good one centimeter dilated. But, I have patients that walk around like this for weeks and weeks without anything happening. I don't want you to freak out. We can deal with this. I'm going to put you on the monitors and see what we pick up. You'll get at least three doses of terbutaline before you leave here, and unfortunately this will mean pelvic rest for the remainder of your pregnancy."

"I need to call Derek." Her mind was suddenly fuzzy, and for a moment she thought she was going to pass out. Before that could become a possibility, she laid back on the table, staring at the ceiling.

"Meredith," Addison frowned. "I would tell you if this was bad. This isn't great, but it's not terrible. If the terbutaline kicks these contractions out, I'm confident that with some rest and precautions in place, you're probably going to be fine. Doesn't mean that I won't want Dr. Hayes watching you more closely, but I'm not freaking out yet. And I don't want you to either."

"Everything was going well." Meredith sighed as Addison put in orders to get her a room upstairs.

"This is not labor." Addison reminded her. "Real contractions that are obviously making some cervical changes aren't the best thing at twenty-seven weeks, but these don't have a pattern. I am confident we can fix this."

Meredith was admitted within an hour or so, really against her wishes, but despite not wanting to be there, she was willing to do just about anything to make sure their baby stayed put. She didn't want another baby in the NICU, and she definitely didn't want another crazy birth. She sighed as she laid there after a shot of Terbutaline to try and stop her contractions, listening to the baby's heartbeat on the monitors.

"Meredith," Derek looked frantic when he finally walked into the room. "What happened?"

"I'm guessing this means you haven't talked to Addison yet." She was glad he was there. Even if he couldn't do much, just having him there was calming.

"I did, briefly. But I'm asking you." He sat down, taking her hand. "I thought you said these were Braxton Hicks."

"I thought they were." She frowned. "Obviously I was wrong."

"Mer," Derek sighed.

"What did Addison say to you? Did she say she was worried?"

"Haven't the two of you talked?" He seemed confused.

"We have. I'm just trying to figure out if she told me the truth." She admitted, figuring they had a better chance of Addison being honest with Derek than with her.

"She said she wasn't worried." He admitted honestly, though that obviously hadn't stopped his fear. "She said she was pretty sure the meds would get rid of these and that it wouldn't be a problem. She didn't seem rattled."

"Really?" Meredith felt marginally better. She held onto his hand.

"Really." He smiled a bit, reaching over to run his hand over her hair. "How are you doing?"

"I'm scared." Her voice was soft.

"This is your body's way of telling you to slow down, Mer. You do a lot. Too much. Use this as an opportunity to rest."

"Derek," She didn't try to stop tears. "What if she's wrong? What if this turns into something bad?"

"Addison is a brutally honest person." He insisted. "She would tell us if she thought we should worry. She's always told us." Derek was scared too, but his ex wife's insistence that it would be fine, and seeing that Meredith looked good helped him relax.

"I don't want her to come early."

"She's not going to."

"Derek..."

"Meredith." He rested his hand on her belly, catching her gaze. "This baby is going to stay right here until your scheduled c-section. Okay?"

There was a long hesitation before she nodded, slowly. "Okay." Meredith just hoped that he was right. Because really, she couldn't handle anything less. She needed this birth to be different. She needed her baby to be okay.

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*Revised 2017