Chapter 151

April 1st, 2022

The next half an hour passed in a mixture of shock, haze, panic and fear. Rory kept googling how much blood was supposedly an insignificant amount, but her focus was scattered, hence she was not really doing a great job at it. And she was usually very good at looking things up. Logan tried to google an exact moment when one needed to go to the emergency room in cases like this, also… the nerves were not helping. And to Logan this was all new - he'd never felt so helpless in his life.

Rory wasn't really sure how to even quantify the amount, and kept comparing it to various odd object and amounts she could think of - clearly blabbering - it was definitely less than there had been when she'd miscarried last time, but more than during her last few periods, which had been a little unusual, even for her. But her doctor had assured that too to be normal after coming off the shot.

It was already late, near midnight, and she knew Paris was out with Finn, the two finally exploring what they could be, so she really didn't want to bother her, along with some odd feeling of shame of not wanting to say what she feared out loud.

Logan, while feeling helpless, was in action mode. He wanted to take her to the hospital either way - to do something, anything. But Rory was in a conflicting mode - on one hand not wanting to make a big deal of it, especially if this was nothing, as if being this flaky panicy person who rushed to the hospital without good reason to waste the doctor's times, and at the same time clearly scared out of her mind. On top of the latter she felt as if there was nothing she would be able to do if it was that anyways, and going in would only really confirm what she feared.

After a while, Logan just made the executive decision - "Come on, get dressed. We're going. You won't sleep like this anyways, so we might just as well get you checked out," he said, knowing but not saying that he also knew Tristan to be at work that evening. While going this to one of their friends wasn't going to be easy, both a revelation and possibly a moment of grief at once, it was still about having a man on the inside, which could possibly help them get their answers even if it was nothing sooner.

Rory, not knowing what else to do either, got dressed, wiping her tears into the back of her hand as she did. Logan didn't know what else to say - and got dressed himself, already blaming himself for having possibly caused this. The timing wasn't exactly forgiving and he went over every move he'd made in the past hour - could he have been gentler? more careful? Even the car stereo that woke when he started the car, blasting a mood booster playlist, sounded inappropriate so he turned it off completely, leaving them driving five minutes to the hospital in silence, while Rory kept preparing her for the worst internally. She had known this could happened.

Logan went to talk to one of the nurses at the nurse's station while Rory took a seat, as if unable to speak, her mind repeating to herself - why is this happening again? - over and over again.

Thankfully Tristan was in, and because they were a little short staffed on the nurses front, he came out of his break to get them started.

"Hey," Tristan said, as he saw them, having gotten the summary from the nurse already.

"Hey," Rory and Logan answered in unison, unenthusiastically. It wasn't the least awkward situation possible, but somehow seeing a friend, instead of a complete stranger, was comforting.

"Come on, let's go talk in private. I already paged our on-call OB/GYN," Tristan said, leading them into a room. "And, Rory, if this is too weird with me asking these questions, I can just call a nurse, but they might be a while - they just had bussful of kids come in with food posioning and the parents are being a handful," he added, and continued to make clear that he wasn't actually going to be the one to examine her beyond checking her initial vitals.

"It's fine," Rory replied, at this moment not really caring who was asking the questions and checking her blood pressure. It was surprising how much having Logan hold her hand helped, though. Not that it made it easier, but she did feel like they shared this. Mentally she just felt fragile, the tiredness adding to it.

"How far along do you think you are?" Tristan asked.

"Six weeks or so," Rory replied, adding, "I had an appointment scheduled for the 11th."

"When did you first notice the bleeding?" Tristan asked.

"Just now, like 45 minutes ago," she replied.

"And how much are we talking here? I know it's hard to quantify it but have you gone through a pad or more in that time?" Tristan continued, being very professional about this.

"Less I think, I haven't checked now," she replied.

She was urged to go check and she did, confirming that it was definitely less. This part was a little embarrasing, but unlike the Tristan she would've known in high school, this was a medical professional through and through.

"And what did you do just before? I'm sorry - I have to ask," Tristan said, kind of guessing what it could've been.

Rory blushed deeply in that moment, and Logan replied for her - "Yes, there was intercourse involved, but nothing too rough in my opinion," he said, shrugging lightly. He'd read about this and Rory had assured him too - sex couldn't hurt the baby. But what if it still had?

"I mean it's never happened before in these past weeks after…, the bleeding I mean," Rory tried to explain. She didn't really believe sex could be the culprit. She wasn't sure she could live with that kind of guilt from something that had felt so good.

"And this is your second pregnancy, right?" Tristan asked, filling out a form for her.

"Actually, no - third," Rory replied. "I had a missed miscarriage in 2016," she added, a lump in her throat, but thankfully she felt Logan squeeze her hand again. It helped.

"Any cramping? Nausea? Dizziness?" he continued down a long line of questions until the female doctor Rory recalled from the day she'd been in here with Gigi, got there. After the OB/GYN arrived, Tristan excused himself to give them some privacy.

"Okay, I'm going to do an internal ultrasound, if that's okay. This early in the process it usually gives us a little bit better idea of what we're dealing with," the doctor began, urging Rory to get settled onto the examination table with her legs propped up.

Rory hoped to see the doctor's face relax - as a sign of positive news, but it took her a while.

"I'm just going to try another way, okay?" the doctor said. "I'll try externally," she added, which was almost making Rory doubt whether she'd been pregnant at all, or whether perhaps this had all been an ectopic pregnancy perhaps - too much reading on the topic having not done her any good.

"Okay - good news!" the doctor finally exhaled and looked at them. "For one the amount of bleeding wasn't severe, if I were to guess it was likely due to intercourse and it can happen sometimes. And no, it doesn't mean you can't have sex but just, maybe be a little careful. Do get checked out if there's ever any more blood. It's just that the uterus is going through a lot of changes right now, lots of blood in the area, so it's not uncommon," she explained.

"So the baby's fine?" Logan felt he needed to check, Rory being so caught up in her emotions, crying, even if mostly from relief now. The doctor handed Rory a box of tissues.

"Yes, the baby is fine," the doctor said, and finally turned the monitor to face them. "But I do think your estimate of 6 weeks is off, I'd rather say 10 weeks if we go by its size," she added.

"10?" Rory exclaimed, not believing it. "But I had my period in February, I don't get it," she said, sounding confused.

"It could be that you had implantation bleeding then, it sometimes falls around the same time when one is supposed to have a period and can be easily confused," the doctor explained, and continued to point out the baby on the screen as she searched for a clear picture again. "See, here?"

There was already a lot more to see than a tiny blob on the screen - a distinctive head, arms, leg and an umbilical cord, even it it was still small.

"And a heartbeat," the doctor said, turning up the volume and the fast thumping filled the room.

Logan couldn't believe his eyes. Hell - he couldn't believe it was happening - really happening. Seeing and hearing it along with the adrenaline that pumped through his bloodstream made it so much more real. He'd never really dreamt of being in this position through all these years, in part he'd even feared it, but now that it was happening, he was very much borderline getting emotional himself. Supposedly he had just experienced his first parental feeling too - genuine fear for the loss of his child.

"So everything's okay?" Rory felt she still needed to ask again, tears of worry replacing tears of happiness, and tried to wipe them off. She just couldn't stop weeping.

"Everything is okay," the doctor replied. "And it's good you came in - better safe than sorry. And now you should tell your doctor to make sure you'll do your first trimester screening in a few weeks so you're on schedule," she added.

Logan stood, just needing to stretch himself, and kissed Rory's temple, knowing how worried she'd been. It had been his job to be the strong one here, and he felt relief that he'd managed. God, he was glad he'd urged her to come in too.

"Now if there is some minor bleeding still, don't worry. It should stop completely within 24 hours and the volume should not increase. If there's anything - see your doctor or come back, but the baby looks fine, there's no notable damage referring to a miscarriage so I wouldn't worry right now," the doctor assured.

"Thank you," Rory exhaled.

Tristan hadn't gone too far, genuinely caring about the outcome of this case, and got a brief 'all good' from the doctor who had emerged ahead of them.

"So I do believe congratulations are in order," Tristan said.

"Thanks," Logan replied, feeling now more proud than ever.

"Thanks for being here," Rory replied, and felt he just needed to hug him. She hadn't expected it to be this important to see a friendly face coming in here, even if answering questions to him had been a little awkward.

"And turns out we're not just 6 weeks in but more like 10," Logan described to Tristan excitedly.

Tristan laughed. "I suppose that's only a good thing," he replied.

"Come on, lets get home, I'm so tired," Rory suggested soon enough.

It was as they walked towards the car, when Rory suddenly came to a halt. "Oh, no..," she began.

"What? What's wrong?" Logan fretted, fearing for the worst after the night they'd had.

"I'm pretty sure I won't fit into my dress at 26 weeks, 20-22 yes, but 26 is doubtful," Rory fretted, having done the math in her head, realizing she might end up needing to get a back up wedding dress now. With Em she remembered herself looking at 20 weeks almost like just having had a large meal, hardly showing at all, but 26 - that was when all of a sudden she no longer fooled anyone, maternity clothes or not.

Logan just kissed her then, right there in the middle of a near empty parking lot. "We're going to be okay, Ace," he said, holding her.