Alright, here's where we left off! Enjoy!
Chapter 25:
As they walked the halls Spencer get a firm hand on Emily's back half in support and half in worry that she might double over in pain.
"Stop, stop!" she ordered as the next contraction came. "Don't touch me!"
His hand dropped to his sighed as she fisted his sweater and winced in pain.
"How long was that one?" she asked once the contraction was over.
"60 seconds. Let's walk for a couple more minutes and then we'll get you checked out by a nurse. Does that sound okay?"
She nodded and continued her walk.
"Spencer can you promise me something?"
"Anything."
"If I say anything clichéd during my labor, smack me or yell at me."
"What do you mean?"
"Like if I say 'this is all your fault' or 'you did this to me', smack me or yell at me."
"But I'll understand if you do say those things."
"Why must you be such a good husband? I'm serious; if say anything hurtful will you at least nudge me."
"Fine, I'll nudge you."
She leaned against him and said thank you.
20 minutes into the walk Emily was now hoping to get checked again. Back in the hospital room Emily lay in the bed once again hooked to the monitors and tried to keep from screaming out. They never told you that getting checked for dilation hurt. And why wouldn't it, she currently had a strangers hand up to her cervix plus she was free of any painkillers.
"It looks like you're still only four centimeters dilated; also I've noticed your waters haven't broken yet, would you like us to break your waters?"
"No. I'd rather just have them break on their own."
"That's quite alright. I'll check with the doctor to see if we can get you some fentanyl for those contractions alright."
"That would be great."
The nurse smiled and walked out of the room.
"I swear dilation checks should be illegal. No ones hands should be that far up any woman's vagina!" she immediately said. "Thanks for holding my hand while she checked me."
"I know how much you hate those."
"Thanks. I wonder what the team is doing."
"They had a case in Baltimore. They're closing it tonight and coming here immediately after. I tried to tell them that they should go home first, but Garcia insisted that they had to be here."
"Good old PG. How about Elle?"
"She got her sister in law to watch Charlie, and she said she's stopping by as soon as she can."
"I'm so glad she came ba..." she winced and then a few seconds later sighed heavily. "That one was really bad."
"I can see that. The readings were high on the chart."
"Thank goodness I'm getting something soon!"
Fentanyl was crap. Her contractions still hurt, and she still wasn't dilated enough for an epidural. She decided to sit on the yoga ball hearing that it made contractions pass by less painfully and it did slightly.
"Spencer, can you put some pressure on my lower back please?" she asked from the big green ball.
He came up behind her and placed his hands on the small of her back and pressed into it.
"How is that?"
"So much better!" she sighed. "Can you help me up, I need to pee."
"Sure." he aided her to the bathroom.
Three hours later at 3:50 am she was finally five centimeters dilated. The Anesthesiologist was on her way to give her an epidural and she couldn't have been more excited.
The team had arrived to the hospital fifteen minutes prior and had witnessed Emily in labor. Elle and JJ were the first to arrive as they were both in town, showed no surprise having already gone through the same experience a year ago. Garcia and Morgan were the next to arrive, Garcia trying to coddle Emily only to be yelled at and then apologizing post contraction. Hotch and Rossi were the last to arrive, but decided to wait until she was nice and drugged up before coming into the room.
"Emily Prentiss-Reid?"
"That would be me." she replied tiredly.
"My name is Dr. Clifton, I'm your Anesthesiologist. These are my colleagues Dr. Evans and Dr. Patel; they'll be assisting me with your epidural." She introduced. "Now, we'll need you to sit up with your back towards us."
She slowly sat up and did as told.
"Good. Now Dr. Evans is going to swab your back to disinfect your back and sterilize the area around..."
She felt the coolness of the alcohol swab on her lower back. Spencer sat in front of her keeping her arms on his shoulders.
"Now we're going to ask you to keep your arms where they are because this is a sterile area." she continued. "Now, you're going to feel a slight pinch..."
She waited for it anticipating the pinch, but only felt a tiny pin prick. She heard some rustling behind her and assumed the doctors were finishing up.
"Good job. The epidural we gave you is a continuous flow so we won't need to re-administer it later. "
She instantly felt better and less pain.
"Better?" Spencer asked.
"Oh yeah! I can see why women use epidurals a lot more."
"Modern medicine is remarkable."
20 minutes later she was being checked again and was 5 centimeters dilated. An hour later she was 7 centimeters.
"How you feelin?" Morgan asked.
"A lot better, thank goodness for drugs!"
"I hear ya!" Elle laughed.
"PG I'm sorry again for yelling..."
"Oh sweetie, you don't need to apologize at all. If I were in the same place as you I'd probably be doing the same thing."
"Look, it's grandma and grandpa." JJ nodded towards the door.
"Once again, I'm grandpa." Rossi said. "Sorry Aaron, but you'll be grandma."
A smile appeared on the agents face.
"As long as she doesn't call me grandma I'll be fine." he replied. "How are you doing?"
"A lot better. And don't worry, we'll stick with Uncle Hotch instead."
"Have you guys slept at all?" Spencer asked.
"We've been taking turns catching naps here and there." Rossi replied.
"You should've gone home." Emily scolded.
"And miss Baby Genius? No way!"
"We would have called when I was close to giving birth."
"Not good enough!" Garcia insisted.
Hopefully this would be her last check. Her Doctor had been called in an hour ago and was already scrubbed up.
"Are we ready to have this baby?" he asked.
"You have no idea!"
"Okay, so you're about nine centimeters with a lip. You have a bulging bag of waters and we've reached a point where it's too late for it to break on its own." he informed. "We're going to have to break your waters for you."
"That's fine."
He prepped her for the breaking before finally using the tool to finish the job.
"Clear with no blood, that's very good!"
"I need to push, I need to push now!" Emily suddenly said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, she's coming I can feel it!"
The nurse held one of her legs while Spencer held her other.
"Alright Emily, give us one big push."
She held her breath and pushed with all of her strength.
"Good job, I can already see the head. Daddy, do you want to see?"
Spencer nodded and looked as he saw a peek of his daughters head.
"Okay time for another push."
She pushed once more.
"Keep pushing, her shoulders are almost out."
"Come on Emily, you're doing great. She's so beautiful; her little face is a pretty as her mommy's is."
She kept pushing until she heard a voice say "Time of birth 5:56 am."
She heard a lamb like cry and her baby was placed on her chest. Tears swelled in her eyes as she caught a glimpse of her daughter for the first time. She looked to Spencer and saw tears in his eyes as well. The nurses rubbed the baby clean as Spencer cut the cord.
They finally took her away to the side to get weighed and measured. The new parents watched from the bed as their daughter wailed unadjusted to the new world she had just entered.
"She's so beautiful."
"She is. I can't even describe how happy I am."
"You can't imagine how happy I am. That's our little girl!"
"Yeah, she is. I'm a dad now, wow!"
"Is that all you can say."
"Yeah." he leaned in and gave her a kiss.
After pushing out the placenta and being stitched up after having torn from pushing Emily now held her daughter in her arms.
"You've got so much hair baby! I bet it'll be so beautiful once you're older."
"Yeah, but we don't need to worry about that for a while."
"Of course not."
"Do you want to hold her daddy?"
"Of course!" he cradled his arms and watched as Emily placed her in his arms. Her little eyes blinked in confusion while her arms tried to escape the swaddled blanket around her.
As he looked as his daughter he now understood when parents said that no one knew the true meaning of love until they had a child. His body was overflowing with love for his daughter. He wanted to protect her, care for her, and be there for every step of the way.
Yay, baby genius is now here! You'll get to find out the name in the next chapter. I hope this labor and delivery scene was realistic enough for you who have already gone through it. If not please message me and tell me what I can switch up! Thanks for reading!