Ziva was resting in the DiNozzo's shared bed when the first contraction washed over her. Wincing in pain, she clutched her belly, waiting for it to stop. For the past few weeks, she had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions, and this one felt no different from the others. When the pain passed, she lowered her head back into the pillows and dozed off.
30 minutes later, Ziva awoke to a contraction that nearly stole her breath. Yelping, she clutched at her belly yet again, just barely remembering what she had learned in Lamaze class. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly and waited for the pain to pass. It eventually did, but in the process it left her lower back aching.
No. No! Panic filled the Israeli's mind. It is too early; they are not supposed to come for another two weeks! Ziva breathing became fast and shallow, fear overriding everything else. She frantically swept her hand across the nightstand beside her bed, until her fingers closed around the plastic shell of her cell phone. Picking it up, she opened it and hit 2- Tony's speed dial number. Please, please do not let him be in the field! Ziva thought.
"Hey Zi, what's up?" Ziva nearly cried with relief when Tony picked up on the third ring- right now she wanted nothing more than to have him at the house with her.
"T-Tony the babies are coming- they are coming too early! H-help me!" Ziva had not meant to sound so desperate, but her fear was overwhelming and was in immense pain. Over the phone Ziva could hear Tony's sharp intake of breath, and a poorly-disguised curse.
"Hold on Love, I'll be right there. Hang on… Boss…" Over the line, Ziva hear Gibb's voice mutter something indistinct. "Ziva's in labor, I need to get her to the hospital now." Tony responded curtly. Ziva's fear increased at these words.
"Tony… no… not a hospital…" But Tony would not budge.
"The babies are coming too early, Zi, and there's three of them. We need full medical support. Hang in there, sweetheart, I'm coming as soon as I can." With that, Tony hung up, and Ziva lay back in her pillow, breathing heavily.
…..
10 minutes later, Ziva, sitting in the back seat of one of the NCIS Chargers, moaned as another contraction washed over her. Gibbs, after hearing of Ziva's condition, drove the car, as he was could get there the fastest. Tony sat in the back seat with Ziva, rubbing her back and murmuring words of encouragement. As Ziva's contraction subsided, she saw Tony glance at his watch.
"10 minutes" he muttered. Ziva let out a shallow breath. Her first contractions had been 30 minutes apart, but now they had increased to 10 minutes. Ziva felt Gibbs increase the Charger's speed in response to Tony's words. Minutes later, announced by blaring car horns, the Charger roared into Bethesda's ER area, where they were met by a group of nurses, who brought out a wheelchair after a brief conversation with Gibbs.
Speaking gently, Tony helped his wife out of the car and towards the wheelchair. Ziva tried to pull away, determined to at least walk into the ER under her own power, but suddenly a strong contraction washed over her, causing her to double over and moan in pain, clutching at her belly. Taking Tony's hand, she allowed herself to be guided into the wheelchair, and was wheeled off into the hospital.
As the pain receded, Ziva heard Tony giving the one of the nurses her medical information. Once she was wheeled into the delivery room, Tony and Gibbs helped the nurses situate her onto the table, and then Gibbs left to wait outside. When Ziva was on the table, a doctor in scrubs came up, identifying herself as Dr. Cantor, a cheerful black-haired woman in her forties. After helping Ziva remove her clothes and get into a hospital gown, she then had the former Israeli lay down once again and hooked her up to a fetal monitor. The doctor's brow furrowed, and then she sighed.
"Ziva, I know that you wanted to deliver the triplets vaginally, but the fetal monitor is showing fetal distress. Because of this, the fact that you are carrying triplets, and because the babies are coming early, we need to do a C-section." Ziva tensed up, and felt Tony's hand brush reassuringly over her cheek. Noticing her distress, Dr. Cantor spoke again. "Ziva, we still can do a general anesthesia, so you can be awake for the procedure." Ziva took a shaky breath, and then nodded.
"Alright" she whispered.
...
A few minutes later, Ziva was lying back in the surgery room and Tony, dressed in a clean hospital cover, hairnet and surgical mask, was at her side. The anesthesiologist swabbed Ziva's arm with alcohol, and then carefully inserted an IV into her vein and raised the sheet to block her view of the operation, while a nurse shaved Ziva's pubic area and disinfected her belly with iodine.
Moments later the surgeon began to pinch Ziva's skin with a pair of clamps, asking her if she could feel them, which she could not, and she responded by shaking her head, feeling remarkably calm. In fact, between her and Tony, Ziva had calmed down the most, her heartbeat slow and steady on the monitor- a side effect of the drug running through her system. Tony gave her hand a squeeze as the surgeon announced that they were starting.
"Ready to meet your babies, Zi?" Tony whispered. She gave a small smile in response. As the surgeon cut into her belly, Ziva couldn't help but to think of how weird this was. Here she was, sitting calmly while a stranger cut into her- and she couldn't feel anything beside the occasional tug. As she looked up, she could see that Tony was looking concerned- the sound of the cutting was obviously much more frightening to him than it was to her.
"I am fine Tony" she said to reassure him. Tony opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Ziva felt an odd pressure go through her, and then a cry filled the room.
"Happy Birthday! It's a girl!" The surgeon cut the umbilical cord and passed the howling baby to a neo-natal doctor who cleaned her off, weighed her, and ran an Apgar test, and wrapped her in a pink blanket. Meanwhile Ziva gave a grunt. Tony, concerned, looked down, but Ziva shook her head.
"Pressure" she explained as a second cry filled the air.
"Another girl!" the surgeon exclaimed. The second girl went through the same procedure as her older sister, and Ziva grunted once again as she experienced another bought of pressure came through, and then third cry filled the room as the final baby was pulled out.
"A boy!"
Ziva let out a soft cry of relief, tears openly streaming down her face. Looking over, she saw Tony had moisture gathering in his eyes as the nurses brought their children over to them. Ziva held out her arms and gathered her three newborns close to her chest. Tony kneeled down next to her.
"Look at them Zi, they're perfect" Tony whispered, clearly in awe. Ziva gave a tired nod in response and looked at the date- March 25th.
"Ken, Tony, they are perfect. Shalom Caitlin. Shalom Tali. Shalom Isaiah. Welcome to the world."
All right, after so many reviews, and after thinking this over, a lot, I finally decided, in order to keep this story fairly realistic, (or at least as realistic as I could make it through research and not personal experience), I would have to re-do the triplet's birth entirely.
So, instead of a water birth, yes, the triplets are born by C-section.
For those of you who are just reading this, please enjoy!
Yeah, sure, you becha!