Her dark brown eyes squint at the bright white screen. Her brow furrows, and she gently shakes her head.
She offers the resident a heavy sigh, "Dr. Branson unfortunately I am not blessed with the eye-sight of a twenty something anymore. My glasses are still at the precinct. For all I know you could be offering me a document written in Portuguese."
"You seem like someone who appreciates evidence, such as lab results."
"I will take your word if you want to explain to me what the hell is going on. Am I making you nervous? You're sweating."
He wipes his brow, "Why do I feel as if I am not going to be on the right side of this interrogation?"
"Trust me when I say this is not an interrogation."
"The most likely reason you passed out is because your blood pressure dropped when you stood up."
"I am familiar with concept orthostatic hypotension."
He nods, "And because of your condition dehydration is more likely to occur."
"What condition would that be?"
"You're pregnant."
Silence falls like daggers between them. The bright eyed, shiny resident looks as if he is going to vomit. He nervously smooths the collar of his white lab coat.
"Is this a set up? Who put you up to this? Was it one of the nurses? I bet it was Peggy. She still owes me from the prank I pulled on her April fool's day of twenty-eighteen."
"Peggy isn't working tonight. I would really love to hear about a prank from three years ago, but unfortunately I have many other fish to fry."
"I think the lab has mixed up the samples."
"I had them re-draw your labs. I assure you that they are accurate."
"I assure you that they are most certainly not. It's not possible."
"An ultrasound tech is waiting for you upstairs to confirm, or refute."
A trauma alert is called overhead. The resident practically trips on his way out the door. Fin returns from the hall.
He gestures toward the door. "What did you do to him? He's white as a ghost."
"I tried to pressure him into letting me go."
"Did you succeed?"
"No. They are going to keep me overnight."
"In the ER?"
"No. They will be moving me to a room."
"I guess when you are a Captain you get the red carpet treatment," he teases.
"So I was hoping that you could run to my place and get some stuff. I have a blue NYPD bag in my closet with a change of clothes, and toiletries in it."
"How many go bags do you have, just out of curiosity?"
"That is for me to know, and you to find out," she winks.
"Are you sure that you'll be okay while I'm gone?"
"I am fairly certain the bed will trigger rather unpleasant alarm bells if I try to escape."
She shoos Fin out of the room in the nick of time. An RN from the second floor arrives moments after his departure. The young grinning nurse enters the room.
"I am Madison, and I will be your nurse for the rest of the shift. I am going to take you upstairs. I think the welcome wagon is already waiting in your room."
"Listen, you seem very sweet, but they have this all wrong. There has clearly been a mistake."
"If that is the case we will cope. Our unit is the only one without rooms overflowing with patients. You will at least get a few winks of shut eye if nothing else."
Less than five minutes later the nurse has secured Captain Benson into a room on the OB floor. The ultrasound technician offers a nervous smile as the nurse locks the bed into place. Madison offers another charming smile.
"I'll just be at the nurse's station if you need anything. Once Valerie is done I'll be back in to finish getting you set up."
"I can't wait," Olivia responds dryly.
Madison practically floats as she exits the room. The ultrasound technician approaches Olivia. Olivia begrudgingly peels off her blanket, and rolls up her gown. She mindfully disassociates as the technician talks her through step by step of the procedure. She is staring at the seam of her blue non-skid slippers when a rhythmic sound disrupts her train of thought. Her eyes shift to the screen positioned cattycorner to her bed. Her mouth suddenly feels Saharan desert dry.
"There is your baby. They have a nice strong heartbeat. I've done some measurements, and they coordinate with a gestational age of twenty weeks, which matches the results of the quantitative HCG that they ran. Do you want to know the gender?"
"Uh…" she stammers as she rubs her eyes, and tries to look way from the screen.
"Perhaps this is overwhelming for you. I can write it down, and you can look at it later if you want, or not."
"I… I don't know."
"You know what, I'll just tell the nurse. You can ask her if you want to know," the technician prints a series of images, "These are yours."
By the time that Fin returns Olivia is in a full blown panic. Fin ducks into the room with a grimace as he carries Olivia's bag into the room. She would be pacing a hole in the floor, if not for the five bell alarm on her bed.
"Man, those nurses are brutal. I asked a simple question, and you would have thought I accused one of them of murder."
"What did you ask them?" Olivia questions as she wipes tears from her face.
His brow furrows, "Have you been crying? Liv what is going on? Why do they have you on the OB floor? Were they out of other beds? I don't understand why someone with a head injury would be sent to the maternity ward."
She doesn't offer a response. He silently scoots onto the edge of the bed as she avoids his eye contact like the plague.
"Liv I am one of your ride or dies. We have been to hell, and back together. Please tell me what is going on before I assume the worst. I'm over here thinking you passed out because you have some sort of tumor that is slowly killing you."
"Not to my knowledge. It is life or death, but I am fairly certain I'm not dying even though it feels like I am. I feel like I can't even breathe."
"I can't remember the last time I saw you so panic stricken, and I've seen you with a gun to your head. Let's take a beat, and a few breaths, and you can explain. Think about something else. Like the time back before the squad room was renovated, and we were pulling a double, and we dared Stabler, and Cassidy to race in their chairs. We couldn't stop laughing when Cassidy's chair hit the chip in the tile, and he went flying."
Her face barely softens, but her breathing starts to slow.
"I'm ready when you are," Fin insists.
"I'm pregnant."
He starts laughing, "Nah. Don't play with me. What is really going on?"
She waves the pictures in his face, "I am serious. My geriatric uterus is growing a human being."
"What the hell? I mean, shit! I mean… I don't know what to say."
