It was to be a simple, pleasant day - lunch in the cafeteria with Bruce, Molly, Christian, and the accompanying babies, and then a routine checkup for Selina, who was 34 weeks along today. The sweltering heat of summer had given way to the slightly less sweltering heat of September, and all had been going exceptionally well on nearly all fronts - Selina felt great, Bruce was still elated from her acceptance of his proposal one month prior and that in turn kept Selina elated, and Helena had become a talking machine in recent weeks. It didn't mean that working while being hugely pregnant and taking care of a one and half year old was easy, but she was thriving and happy, and so was her family.

Selina's diamond ring sparkled prominently on her finger as she talked and chuckled her way through lunch, watching Molly try to get seven-month-old Aidan to eat some puréed carrots she'd brought in a little container in her bag. Molly had embraced the Internet in her son's early months, and had scared herself into an organic, all-natural diet and lifestyle that Selina thought she took to the extreme and beyond, but Molly swore by her new identity as a "crunchy mom" - whatever the hell that was. To Selina, it appeared to mean mostly that Molly carried containers of home-puréed vegetables in her purse, used nothing but plant-based cleaning products, and fed her family nothing that was artificial or genetically modified. She would listen to Molly's rants on the subject and would nod and consider her words as she handed Helena a handful of greasy fries, because sometimes Helena wanted fries, and well, that was that.

"Come on, Aidan," Molly half-whined, a spoonful of orange goo in her hand, but the green-eyed, blonde boy clamped his lips shut and turned his head away vehemently. Next to him, in her own high chair, was Helena, who was happily munching on some fried chicken nuggets that poor Aidan would probably never get to taste himself, gloating as she punctuated her chomps with a chorus of "nugget nugget nugget".

"He's not going to eat it, love," Christian said gently, eating a Molly-approved salad. "He's made it quite clear."

Molly sighed and shoved the spoon back into the container as Selina shifted just slightly in her seat next to Bruce. He noticed this and asked quietly, "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Selina said dismissively, though it wasn't entirely true. It was nothing to be alarmed about, but she'd been having annoying "practice contractions", also called Braxton-Hicks contractions, since late last night. She'd had them with Helena too, so she didn't think anything of them, even as they continued to bug the crap out of her as the day went on.

"So," Molly said, recovering from her carrot-induced despair, "have you guys thought any more about a date?"

"No," Selina replied. "Not since you asked me yesterday."

Molly grinned and shrugged as she said, "Hey, as the wedding planner and MOH, it's my job to make sure this stuff gets figured out in a timely manner."

Selina smiled. "Well, like I said, we're just going to plan for next spring for right now. But I'm not the one who needs to get their crap together - Bruce hasn't even asked his best man to be in the wedding yet."

Molly turned wide, pointed blue eyes at Bruce, who quickly raised his hands innocently and said after swallowing a mouthful of sandwich, "I've called and left messages. He's busy. It's not my fault."

Selina gave him a subtle look, and he understood - it wasn't like Blake to not return his calls. The last time Bruce had spoken to him, Blake had told him about some problems he was having with some sort of copycat vigilante who was opting to leave criminals dead in alleyways rather than leaving them tied up for the police to arrest, and Bruce had been following the news in Gotham closely enough to understand why Blake wouldn't have time to chat on the phone. Still, it was a bit disconcerting.

"Well, keep bugging him, then!" Molly demanded. "These are things you have to get out of the way early."

Bruce smiled amicably at the blonde, while Selina sighed and took a drink of her water bottle as another contraction began. It was a painless sensation of tightening and then slowly relaxing, and normally they'd go away after she drank a good amount of liquid, but it hadn't helped today.

She glanced at Helena, who was eyeing Aidan as she drank a juice box, and the beauty of her distracted Selina from her momentary discomfort. Bruce had dressed her today, so she was in all pink, and he'd also attempted to fix her hair as well, which wasn't bad for how rarely he had done so before. Her shiny brown hair was up in a ponytail secured by a black bow, letting the cheeks she'd inherited from her father display fully. Her eyes were narrowed but still big and gorgeous as she kept one of them on Aidan, who she still had yet to warm up to completely. Mostly she stared at the baby boy as if to say and who are you?, even after all of these months, which left Selina hoping that she'd warm up to Thomas a bit quicker.

"Oh," Bruce said, giving Selina nudge and shaking her from her thoughts, "we better get upstairs. Your appointment's in four minutes."

His words coincided with the start of another contraction, and this time, it hurt just a little bit. She shrugged it off, grabbed her bag, waited for Bruce to grab Helena, and then headed to her doctor's office upstairs.

She definitely knew the routine by now - at every appointment, the first thing she did was go to the bathroom in the office and provide a urine sample that she'd then leave in a little window-drawer thing for one of the nurses to grab, and then she would enter the triage room and have her heart rate and blood pressure taken, along with being weighed. Then, she would see the doctor.

Bruce walked around with Helena in his arms as Selina sat down and watched the nurse pump up the blood pressure cuff on her upper right arm.

"How are we feeling today?" the nurse, a younger girl who was probably around Selina's age, asked before placing the round end of her stethoscope to Selina's forearm.

"Fine, besides some Braxton-Hicks contractions," Selina shrugged as the girl counted silently.

A moment later, the nurse furrowed her brows and then said, "Sorry, I must have counted wrong. Let me try again..."

Selina nodded and waited as the cuff tightened around her arm again, glancing up at Bruce as he kept kissing Helena's cheek and making her giggle each time. Selina smiled absently, then heard the nurse's voice say quietly, "I'm getting 160 over 103."

Selina snapped her head towards the nurse, furrowing her brows as she repeated, "160 over 103?"

"Yeah," the nurse confirmed, concern now etched on her face. "Let me try one more time on the other arm and see what I get."

Selina looked up again as the nurse went to work, and saw that Bruce was now staring at her with instant worry evident in his eyes. She took a breath and hoped it was a fluke, only to have the opposite confirmed as the nurse finished up for the third time. "161 over 105 that time."

The nurse then scribbled down the reading on Selina's chart, and Selina watched her do this for a moment before asking, "That's pretty bad."

"It's not uncommon," the girl replied, looking up and giving Selina a comforting look. "You said you were having contractions?"

"Yeah, but, not real ones, just the... Braxton-Hicks ones." Selina watched the nurse scribble some more on the chart, feeling anxiety bloom within her gut.

"Any nausea or vomiting?"

"No."

"Headaches?"

"No."

"Baby moving plenty?"

"Yes."

More scribbling, then the nurse smiled and got to her feet and motioned for Selina to do the same. "All right, I'll take you back now and the doctor will be in with you in just a moment."

Selina followed the nurse wordlessly, wondering how and why her blood pressure could be that high when it had been perfect at every other check. It was almost distracting enough for her not to notice the increasingly painful contractions that were still coming and going.

Selina settled down on the exam chair as Bruce sat in a chair to the side, placing Helena on his lap and staring at Selina in that concerned way of his that did nothing to help her suddenly fraying nerves.

Selina went though the motions of undressing from the waist down and draping a papery cover over herself, finally glancing back at Bruce when she was done. Helena had his cell phone in her hands, which was something he normally never let her touch, and Selina pursed her lips before muttering, "I -"

The door opened then, and Dr. Jones entered, ending the conversation before it could begin. "Hello, Miss Kyle," she said in her usual friendly tone, betraying no concern as she went to wash her hands in the sink. "I see your blood pressure's a bit high today."

"Yeah," Selina muttered, her belly tightening under another contraction. They were coming alarmingly fast now. "Kind of having some contractions, too."

"Braxton-Hicks?"

"I thought so," Selina said, feeling Bruce's worried eyes on her. "But they're starting to hurt."

"Okay," the doctor said calmly, approaching her. "Let's have a look."

She went about her usual examination, noting things as she went - Selina's feet were slightly swollen, and Selina didn't know what that meant, or if it meant anything. Then the doctor checked her blood pressure again herself, and it was the same as it had been before.

"Okay," Dr. Jones said after listening to her heart and lungs, "normally I wouldn't do a pelvic exam until you hit 36 weeks, but considering what you've told me about the contractions and such, I'm going to go ahead and do one now."

Selina nodded and swallowed as the doctor laid the chair back and pulled out the stirrups at the foot of it. "Baby moving around?"

Selina was getting asked that question enough to make her start worrying even more. "Yeah."

Selina drew in a breath as she waited for the exam to begin, folding her hands over the top of her belly and staring at her ring and deliberately not looking at Bruce. She knew exactly what kind of look he'd have on his face - the one where he would appear perfectly calm and fine to anyone else, but she knew him like the back of her hand by now and she'd be able to see the worry and anxiety behind his mask.

After a few uncomfortable, wince-inducing moments, the doctor straightened up and said softly, "You're completely effaced and a good three to four centimeters dilated."

Selina's eyes got huge at those words - what the hell? "What? How?"

"I'm going to hook you up to a monitor for awhile and see what kind of contractions you're having. I also need to check your urinalysis."

"But - I'm only 34 weeks!" Selina said, exasperated and not caring. "Am I in labor?"

"Stay calm, Selina," Dr. Jones said gently, placing a dark hand on Selina's shoulder. "If you are, we'll stop it. I've got you, all right?"

Selina nodded, but as much as she loved her doctor and trusted her, she wasn't reassured. In fact, she now felt on the verge of some serious panic.

She fiddled with her fingers, staring at the door after the doctor hooked her belly up to a monitor. She still didn't want to look at Bruce, but then there was a hand on her arm and she looked up to find him at her side. Helena was sitting in the chair by herself, still playing on her father's phone.

Surprisingly, Bruce looked at ease as his fingers laced through hers. She knew it was an act, but it was an impressive one, and she did find it just a little bit comforting.

"This sucks," she muttered. "I don't understand."

"It'll be fine," Bruce assured her. "Good news is that we're here and not at home. We know what's going on."

"Yeah," she laughed hollowly. "At least there's that."

Then, sooner than she'd expected, Dr. Jones walked through the door again, clutching a piece of paper in her hand this time. "Got your urinalysis back. Your tests have all been fine up until now, but today it's showing protein in your urine."

Selina furrowed her brows and asked, "What's that mean?"

"Well, that and high blood pressure are the top two factors for preeclampsia."

"And what's that?" Selina asked a little desperately.

Dr. Jones took a seat on a stool next to the exam chair and explained, "It is a condition that can be extremely dangerous to both mother and child. It's nothing to trifle with."

"So how do we treat it?"

"The only treatment for preeclampsia is delivery," the doctor sighed. "However, we can manage it. Your contractions," she said, glancing at the monitor, "are regular and clearly working, judging by your cervix. You're in labor."

"But - it's too early. Could he even breathe on his own if I had him now?" Selina felt Bruce's fingers tighten a little bit around hers - he was still trying to be comforting.

"He would need help," the doctor admitted. "What I'm going to do is get you into a room and get you started on some medicine to stop the labor and also some to bring down your blood pressure. The good news is that we know what we're dealing with, and that makes treatment much easier."

Selina nodded, taken aback by how far out of left field this had come from. This pregnancy, after getting past it's initial, early scare, had been shockingly easy. She'd been able to actually enjoy it this time around, and Bruce's camera was full of pictures of Helena hugging her mama's big belly. It had all seemed like it was going to end in a storybook birth, whatever that was, and now this?

"So I'll send the nurse in to get you moved," the doctor said, "and in the meantime, do your best to stay calm. It's the best thing you can do until we get your pressure under control."

She nodded again, sighing at this series of highly unwelcome developments as the doctor left the room again. It was all great, just great - nothing could ever be simple, could it?

Staying calm is impossible when you're stressing about having to stay calm for you and your unborn's child's sake. Selina lay in the small, uncomfortable hospital bed, staring at the television mounted on the opposite side of the room as Bruce spoke softly on his phone. He was talking to Alfred, and trying to make arrangements to have Helena picked up or at least watched in Bruce's office while they dealt with this latest complication. The child wasn't doing well seeing her mother lying in bed, hooked up to three different monitors and being prodded by nurses every five minutes - she was highly concerned, and would start wailing any time Selina was touched.

Selina's blood pressure was being taken once every ten minutes, and despite the medicine she was now receiving, it was still high. The contractions hadn't stopped or slowed down, either, and they were getting progressively more painful.

She had a bad feeling about it all. She hoped it was just anxiety talking, but she had that bone-deep chill that told her that this wasn't going to end particularly well.

She wondered if she'd done something to cause this, just as she had months ago during the first scare. Maybe she'd been working too much. Maybe she and Bruce shouldn't have given in and started having sex again. She had no clue how either of those things could have caused preeclampsia, but since she still had no real idea of what preeclampsia was, she figured she may as well err on the side of guilt and self-blame. It was nothing if not familiar.

She watched silently as Alfred came and got Helena, then closed her eyes as a whopper of a contraction took hold. She was having to breathe through them now - so much for that labor-stopping medicine.

Bruce was nearly as quiet as she was, sitting at her side as they both pretended to watch the TV. She wondered if he had the same dreadful gut feeling, but before she could ask, the doctor walked into the room.

"How are we feeling?"

Selina wanted to snap at the question, finding it idiotic. "Contractions are getting worse."

"I see that," the doctor said, looking at the roll of paper feeding slowly through the contraction monitor. "And your pressure's still high. Baby looks great, though. Great fetal heart rate. All right, I'm going to check you again."

A grimace and a lot of ceiling-staring from Selina later, the doctor sighed and said, "Five and a half centimeters. I'm going to go ahead and up your dose and be a bit more aggressive in getting this stopped..."

Just then, Selina's eyes widened and her whole body froze at the sensation of a sudden gush. Then wide eyes gave way to rolling ones as she groaned, "Fucking water just broke."

She covered her face with a hand as the doctor muttered something and started checking to verify, but Selina was already beyond certain. She looked up at Bruce, who continued to look deceptively calm and cool other than a pursed mouth, and in Selina's current slight madness, she halfway wanted to see him start panicking like she was inside. The doctor's poker face was impressive, too, and even if that was expected, why couldn't anyone else look like they were about to lose it, too?

"Full rupture," Dr. Jones sighed after checking her. "All right." She then turned off the labor-hindering medicine and said, "Plan B, then. Looks like your son's coming today, after all."

When Selina opened her mouth and looked like she was about to start screaming, Dr. Jones quickly added, "To be honest, Selina, I was only about an hour away from making this decision anyway. Your pressure isn't coming down, and the risk to you staying pregnant right now is higher than the risk to the baby being delivered today. Any higher with your blood pressure and you could stroke out. Now, as for the baby," she said, noticing how Bruce's eyes flashed at the words "stroke out", "he could need a lot of help to breathe. He could need intubation and ventilation, or if we're lucky he could just need a bit of oxygen. I've delivered babies at 34 weeks who went both ways. I'll have the NICU ready for him when he's delivered, and the team there will take fantastic care of him. Your fiancé's put a great team of people there and paid for the best in equipment. The baby will be in the best hands in the Bahamas."

Selina nodded, wincing as a contraction began. "I want an epidural."

Dr. Jones nodded. "Of course. I'll call anesthesia. I'll also give you the option now of an elective C-section. Longer and harder recovery, but faster delivery."

Selina paused but shook her head. "No. Not yet. Ask me again if he's not here in a few hours."

"Okay. I'll be back."

The doctor hadn't been out of the room for more than a second when Selina asked, "Where's Alfred and Helena?"

"My office," Bruce replied softly.

She stared in front of her, not really looking at anything, then closed her eyes as another contraction started. This one was the worst yet, bringing back sickening flashbacks of the agony of her first labor, and she suddenly felt completely and utterly unready for this. The worst part of it was, in her gut, she knew Thomas wasn't either.

She vaguely heard Bruce uttering soothing words to her and rubbing her arm with his hand, but she was too busy trying to shut down to really notice. It was all she could think to do, the only thing that she thought would keep her from panicking under the pressure of pain, the apparently looming risk of stroke, and the fear of the unknown.

Problem was, she couldn't flip her switch quite as efficiently as she used to.

Things happened quickly after that. She got her epidural, which Dr. Jones hoped would bring down her blood pressure some, and it did. But the relief was short lived - Selina's labor progressed rapidly, which was both a blessing and a curse, but it felt mostly like a curse when she started violently retching with every contraction.

In the midst of it all, Molly had come rushing into the room and taken vigil at Selina's other side, and Selina barely had enough wits about her to bother wondering why she was there. Bruce had texted the blonde when his efforts to help Selina along seemed to be falling flat, and he hoped that a friend who'd gone through labor before would be able to get through to her in ways that he couldn't.

It was the sound of an ominous beep from the machine monitoring both Thomas' heart rate and Selina's contractions that got the attention of all three people in the room, just as Selina was mid-contraction and dry heaving into a pink hospital bucket.

"What's that?" Selina demanded. "Molly, what's that?"

Molly glanced behind her, and Bruce and Selina both saw her face pale. "Oh, it's... it's fine."

"No it's not, I see your face," Selina snapped, trying not to gag as she spoke. "The fuck's going on?"

The doors opened then, and two nurses came rushing towards the monitors. Molly quickly moved out of the way as Selina felt herself begin to truly panic.

"Decel," one nurse muttered before uncoiling an oxygen mask from the wall and placing it over Selina's face. "Take a couple deep breaths for me, Selina."

"Bp 170 over 115," the other nurse said, while Molly pointedly avoided Bruce's wide eyes seeking out her own. There was no way she was telling either of them right now that she saw Thomas' heart rate drop from a healthy 150 to a mere 25.

Selina sucked in deep breaths of the pure oxygen, staring at the nurses as they continued to mutter to each other, and then Bruce spoke up for both of them. "What's going on?"

"Looks like baby's heart rate dropped a little bit with the last contraction," the younger of the two nurses explained kindly. "We put her on oxygen to help him out."

"And her blood pressure?"

Before either nurse could reply, Selina's eyes widened a little bit underneath the clear oxygen mask and she muttered, "I'm... I can't really see."

Another contraction hit, the blood pressure cuff on her arm tightened, Bruce and Molly both opened their mouths to ask Selina what the hell she meant, and one of the nurses asked, "Are you seeing spots?"

"Yeah," Selina muttered. "The hell's going on?"

"Bp 179 over 120," one nurse said in dismay.

"Another decel," the other nurse said.

Bruce got a look at the heart monitor this time, and felt his heart drop at the dismal number there. Selina saw the blood drain from his face and started smacking his arm, her frantic questions of what was happening falling on deaf ears until he saw the number slowly climb back up into the 140's with the end of the contraction.

"It's fine," he lied when he finally found his voice.

Then Dr. Jones burst into the room, eyes fixed on the monitors as she gave the nurses instructions that nobody else in the room understood. Then she moved to Selina's side and said, "Selina, the baby's in distress, and your blood pressure just hit 190 over 120. I'm taking you back for an emergency C-section now. Everything's going to be all right, okay?"

Instead of nodding, Selina then went into a full, deteriorating panic. Bruce watched in horror as she fell apart and caused her blood pressure to shoot up even higher, at which point the doctor grabbed another mask from a newly arrived nurse and placed it over Selina's face. A few seconds later, she was unconscious, and the room swarmed with a flood of more people.

He stood frozen in place as another doctor appeared and jammed a tube down Selina's throat, hooking her up to a ventilator, and then they were dragging her bed towards the door. This all happened in less than a minute, and he only found his feet again when he started automatically trailing the team of medical professionals out of the room and towards the operating room. The last thing he saw on the monitor before Selina was disconnected from it was Thomas' heart rate dropping down to a zero.

But before he'd followed them even halfway down the hall, one of the nurses stopped and turned to face him, stopping him in his tracks. "I'm sorry, Mr. Wayne, you'll have to wait out here."

"I'm not waiting out here," he half-growled, towering over the short, middle-aged nurse.

"You don't have a choice," she snapped back as the OR door swung shut with Selina inside of it. "I'm very sorry, but -"

"I own this whole fucking hospital," Bruce shouted, his voice and it's slightly crazed tone sounding foreign to his own ears, "get the fuck out of my way -"

"I'll call security, Mr. Wayne, I don't give a damn who you are," the steely nurse replied, sidestepping his efforts to get around her.

He opened his mouth to unleash a new string of curses on the nurse and probably fire her as well, but then there were hands on his shoulders, and when he roughly shook them off, they grabbed him again, firmer this time. He jerked against the hands and cursed some more as he turned around to find Christian as his restrainer.

"Bruce, mate, calm down," the shorter man said, keeping his hands where they were despite Bruce's continuing but half-hearted attempts to shake him off. "Calm down."

"Get the hell off me," Bruce muttered, looking past Christian to Molly, who was farther down the hall, holding her own son and crying. The sight of tears on the blonde's face seemed to snap him out of his momentary rage, at least enough for Christian to grab Bruce's face and force him to look himself in the eye.

"Bruce. She's in good hands. They both are. Keep it together, mate."

Bruce nodded, and the other man dropped his hands after a couple more seconds. His eyes found Molly's again, and it was a mistake, because as soon as he saw the girl's tears again he felt the rage fall away and turn into something much, much worse.

He was powerless and helpless, like he had been at the turn of every tragedy he'd ever experienced in his life. This was the absolute worst feeling in the world, the most agonizing sense of fear that one could feel - knowing that who you loved most was a breath away from being ripped away from you, and that there wasn't a single thing in the world that you could do about it.

Fresh memories of numbers danced before his eyes, those of Selina's stroke-level blood pressure, and his son's heart rate as he'd watched it fall to zero, and his feet stumbled backwards until his back hit the wall. His chest was heaving with breaths that felt like fire being forced into his lungs, and a wild gleam lit his eyes as they filled with tears he didn't want to let fall.

His knees gave out slowly, and he slid down the wall until he was half-sitting, half-crouching, his face falling into his hands as Christian wordlessly sat beside him. Molly muttered something about finding Alfred and walked off, leaving the two men alone in silence.

Eventually Bruce half-raised his head and pressed a white-knuckled fist to his mouth, his eyes shut painfully tightly as he silently prayed harder than he perhaps ever had before in his life.

A/N: yeah, so I'm just gonna start sticking these notes down here at the bottom from now on. I'm also now going to duck down and avoid the rotten tomatoes that I deserve for leaving everyone on a cliffhanger like this, but, what can I say. I'm evil. :p thanks to everyone as usual for your feedback and loyalty! And thank you to midnightwings96 for always being the bomb diggity! (Yup, I just said bomb diggity) *braces for tomatoes*