Chapter eight
10 weeks later- May 29th 2012
30 weeks and one day pregnant
Jo sits in the busy waiting room of the paediatric and Maternity ward. She takes a deep gulp as she watches three different families with their children.
In Family one there was a mother and a father. They had two children, a boy and a girl. The girl looked to be two and the boy appeared to be about five years old. They looked happy, the kids were smiling and laughing. They had a family, the children had a mother and a father. That was something her baby wouldn't have. Her baby would be stuck with just a mother.
Family two there was a mother and a newborn baby. The baby had been crying but within a moment of the mother holding the baby she had calmed down. She looked like a natural... the way she looked down at the baby with such love was something of a foreign concept to Jo. She didn't have a motherly bone in her body.
Family three consisted of three boys who looked to be 7, 5 And 3. They were making a mess of the hospital room and their mother and father were struggling to control them. The parents were yelling and the children weren't listening to them. What if one of those kids tuned out to be Jo's kid. What would she do then? Her child would start spiralling down a path of juvenile delinquency. I mean, She didn't know how to parent... how to discipline a child. She was counting whole heartedly on this child to parent it's self.
What in God's name was she walking into? At least Paul's Bail was denied, that was something positive in her life.
Jo watches a nurse as she walks out of exam room 4. She had light brown hair that was the length of her shoulders and wore black glasses, "Josephine Stadler," she announces.
Jo sighs and stands up. She walks slowly towards the room. The nurse hands her a hospital gown and Jo waits on the exam room table for Dr Karev and Dr Robbins.
A moment later Arizona walks into the room and shuts the door behind her.
"Where's Dr Karev, or is it just you today Dr Robbins?" Jo asks curiously.
"Karev was pulled into emergency surgery. It's just me," Arizona smiles. Jo nods her head and lays down on the exam table. Arizona places some gel onto Jo's stomach and begins the scan, "how are you feeling Jo?" Arizona asks curiously.
"I have no idea where to live. I can't go back to Paul and I's house, too many awful memories have happened there. I don't think I could stomach it. I can't sell it because both of our names and signatures are on the contract. I don't have his permission and I won't ever get it. I'm broke, So that means I can't afford to rent anywhere. I don't want to move in with Steph or Jenna because then it feels like I'm a burden. But I can't raise a baby with no place to live can I? I guess the Bright side is that I lived in my car during high school, so I know how to do it, but I don't know how to do it with a baby. And wow, I never thought I'd be saying that, or even be seriously considering living in my car again," Jo vents. Arizona could sense that Jo was beginning to become emotional.
"The hospital has a housing allowance budget. You can apply for it, you've got a good shot. I don't know if you'd get anything before the baby comes, but you don't know until you try," Arizona suggests. She pauses the scan and places the Doppler back into the ultrasound machine.
"I don't know what the hell it is I'm doing. I can't raise this kid. It'll grow up dark and twisty and permanently damaged," Jo cries.
"Jo, look at me," Arizona orders. Jo looks up at Arizona, "I'm a paediatric surgeon and I never wanted kids. Callie couldn't understand why. I was thrown into the situation of Callie getting pregnant while we were broken up. It wasn't something that I wanted, but I loved her so I was going to help her raise this baby. I was unsure and scared at first, but then I saw this baby and she was sick, very, very sick, and while I didn't know that everything was going to be okay, I knew that I could get through it with my friends and family by my side, and you can too."
"I don't have any family. I don't know that I can," Jo cries.
Arizona places her right hand on Jo's right shoulder, "Family isn't defined by blood. Family are those who stick around you in times of trouble. Everybody in this hospital is your family," Arizona replies.
"I'm going to screw up this baby just like I screw up everything else in my life," Jo sighs.
"Then you'll do what everybody else does and take it one day at a time," Arizona says wisely.
"Thank you," Jo smiles.
"Your baby girl is healthy and has a strong heartbeat," Arizona smiles. Jo smiles with a sigh of relief.