Chapter fourteen
4 weeks later- September 12th 2012
7 weeks old
It was 5am in morning when Jo's personal alarm clock woke her up. She begins to stir and turns on her nightlight. She sits up in her bed and smiles. As much as Jo never wanted to hear her daughter cry, those cries were exactly the thing that told Jo that her daughter needed her, and that made her feel so happy inside.
Just a few weeks ago Jo would have been to scared to pick her daughter up, or even touch her, but today, although somewhat hesitant, she kind of relished the chance. She promptly places her hands under her daughters back and lifts her up over to her chest. She cradled her daughter in her arms and within a few moments the little girl's cries became softer before not being heard at all.
While Jo still had a long way to go moving forward, the development was a good one on the parenting front. The past few weeks with Arizona had proved to be an invaluable experience for Jo and had seen her make leaps and bounds. She was so thankful that Arizona made the time and effort to help her recover. She had even helped Jo move into her own house. It was a small 3 bedroom, 2 story townhouse, But it had everything she needed It was only a short 15 minute drive to the hospital, and most of all it fit into her rental budget.
After offing her daughter the boob, Jo proceeds to place her back into the bassinet and gets up for the day. She couldn't believe that just one week ago she had started back at work. As a single mother, she couldn't afford to take any more time off work.
Thirty minutes later Jo emerged from the bathroom ready for the day. She looked over at her daughter, who was still asleep, so she decides to head downstairs to grab a cup of coffee and some toast for breakfast. As she walked down the darkened path to the kitchen, she turns on the lights to brighten the way.
It takes her ten minutes to prepare her breakfast and a further ten minutes to eat her toast. Jo ears perk up as she begins to hear her daughter cry. Jo sigh's and places her coffee cup down onto the counter. All she wanted to do was drink one cup of coffee uninterrupted.
She gets up from the counter and heads upstairs to attend to her daughter. One sniff of the nose informed Jo her she had let a bomb off in her nappy. Jo gathers her supplies, a new nappy, an armful of baby wipes, a pair of gloves, a plastic bag to put the nappy into and a pair of tongs to grab the nappy, because chances are that it was going to be full to the brim, and she wasn't going near that with her hands.
Several disgusting minutes had past and had changed the baby's nappy, that is with gagging several times. Jo cradled the baby on her chest and made her way downstairs, to where the baby capsule was. She loaded the baby up and then grabbed her bag, as well as the baby's bag. She heads to the garage where she loads everything up and then heads towards the hospital.
Scene break
"Damn it, I forgot my coffee," Jo groans to herself as leads into the back seat of the car to grab out the baby.
"Hey," she hears a woman's voice say. Jo jumps a little and then turns around while holding her daughter on her chest and notices Steph was standing behind her.
"Crap, you scared me," Jo sighs.
"Hey, language around the baby," Steph points out.
"She is 7 weeks old. I highly doubt she'll go repeating it around day-care," Jo replies with an eye roll.
Steph gives a little chuckle and Jo tuns to face the pram to her side. Steph watches as Jo fastens the baby into it and Jo locks her car, "Are you coming or going?" she questions.
"Coming," Steph replies with a smile.
"Well, let's go," Jo orders. Jo begins to push the pram towards the hospital and Steph walks beside her.
"So, has she got a…."
"Don't even begin to ask me if she has a name yet, because she doesn't. She didn't have one yesterday, or the day before that, and she's not gonna have one today, tomorrow, or even the day after that," Jo interrupts.
"But you are working on it, right?" Steph questions.
"I'm sure that I don't need to remind you, but I'm not very motherly and all that. I am trying here, okay?" Jo replies stressfully.
"Okay," Steph replies. She allows the subject to be dropped and decides to focus Jo's mind on something else. "Who's service are you on today?"
"Uh, Izzie's," Jo replies
Steph nods her head, "I'm stuck with Karev."
"Karev isn't bad you know. He's one of the good one's. I honestly Can't believe that you've never been on his service," Jo replies amazed.
"Well, you can thank Girl Shepherd for wanting to keep me as her Neuro Mule. You can hate Dr Webber for wanting to giving me a freaking well rounded education as the reason why I am not on Girl Shepherd's service today,' Steph replies annoyed.
"Well, I neeeeeed coffee. I left mine in the stupid kitchen," Jo says.
"Language!" Steph reminds Jo.
"Again, she's seven weeks old. She ain't gonna repeat that," Jo reminds Steph.
Scene break
"It's good to see you back Jo," Alex states as he walks over to Jo, who, after dropping the baby off at Daycare, was standing in the coffee cart line on the ground floor reception level.
"I've been back for a week," Jo states blankly.
"I know, but I haven't been here. I've been in Iowa visiting my mother," he reminds her.
"Oh, right," Jo replies with a firm nod of the head. "I can get her to stop crying now. And she no longer hates me... well, so doesn't hate me as much, so that's something."
"And you no longer hate her either? You like her now, right?" He asks hopefully.
"Well, I'm working on it," Jo admits depressingly.
Alex gives a little chuckle, "working on it?"
"Until you find yourself pregnant to the husband who almost beat you to death, then you don't get to judge how long it takes me to like the child," Jo replies. "Besides, I'm the depressing intern, haven't you heard?"
"No, I haven't heard that. I've been in Iowa," he states again.
"Oh, well, it's true," Jo confirms as she reaches the front of the coffee line.
"Decaf please," Jo asks the attendant.
"Decaf? Really? You don't strike as a Decaf person," Alex replies surprised.
"Just another downside of having a baby. I can't have regular coffee because the caffeine will pass through my milk and I don't want caffeinate my baby and keep her up all night, especially when I've just got her to somewhat like me," Jo states. The attendant hands Jo her coffee and she stands to the side.
"Wow, you really are depressing aren't you?" Alex asks curiously.
"Slightly less depressing then I was, the anti depressants have started to kick in some," Jo replies. "Anyway, I've gotta go, I'm on you Ex-wife's service!" Jo says excitedly.
"There's that excitement!" He shouts out as Jo walks away. As she walks away she turns and takes a few steps while backwards and showing Alex a smile before turning back around and walking properly.
She heads up to the OB wing of the hospital where she sees Izzie standing at the nurses station.
"Dr Stevens, good morning," Jo says as she approaches the blonde woman.
"Ah, good morning Dr Stadler," Izzie says as she looks up from her chart. "I know that you haven't been on my rotation before, but have you been on an OB rotation before?"
"Ah, no, I haven't. This is my first time," Jo replies.
"Okay, Well then, you've got lots to learn and you're lucky that I've got lots to teach," Izzie says with a smile.
"You are way too happy. Like inhumanly happy," Jo states.
"You'll get used to it. Now, let's go, we have a consult. Can you read me the chart?" Izzie asks as she passes Jo the chart and they begin to walk.
"Ah, Audrey Carmichael, 32. 37 weeks pregnant with her first child and has elected for a Cesarean birth which is booked for later today," Jo replies.
"Excellent," Izzie replies as they walk into Audrey's room. She was sitting on her bed and her husband was sitting on the chair next to her. "Audrey, Ethan, good morning. How are we today?"
"I can't wait to get this baby out of me," Audrey says excitedly.
"I understand. Now, this is DrJosephine Stadler, she's going to be assisting on your C section today," Izzie informs them while pointing to Jo.
"Hi," Jo says with a nod of the head.
"I have your blood work back and everything is on track. Do you have any questions?"Izzie asks with a smile.
"I think you've answered all of our questions more then once during our checkups," Audrey smiles.
"Well, if you think of anything else let the nurses know and they'll be more then happy to answer it, or they'll page me. If there's nothing else then Dr Stadler will see you for your pre op and to prep you for surgery at 3," Izzie smiles.
"There is just one thing," Audrey says.
"Anything," Izzie replies.
"It's for Dr Stadler," She prompts.
"Yes," Jo replies.
"Do you have children? I...I...I know Dr Stevens has three but I need to know if you have any. I...I don't know why but I just feel that my baby is so much safer in the hands of a mother... someone who's been where I'm going," Audrey explains.
"I Ah... I have a 7 week old," Jo replies.
"Okay, Good. Was it a smooth pregnancy? And how did you deliver? How's your recovery going? I...I just need to hear people's personal experiences to help put my mind at ease," Audrey blurts out.
"Hon, Dr Stadler might not want to share her personal experience," Ethan reminds his wife.
"You don't have to share," izzie says quietly.
"My Ah... my pregnancy was complicated. Not medically speaking, medically speaking it was smooth... but it was complicated because of my life. I tried for a vaginal delivery but had an emergency C section, and my recovery it's... um... well it's slow, again, because of my complicated life," Jo admits. The truth was that Jo was uncomfortable answering those questions, but she didn't want to close herself off to the patient. Patient connection is very important to establish and allows the patient to trust you more, which was especially important when you were holding their life in your hands.
"You have no idea how much better that makes me feel. Thank you Dr Stadler," Audrey replies.
Jo nods her head and gives a small smile.
"Rest up, we'll be back soon," Izzie says with a smile before she and Jo leave the room.
"How is the little one going?" Izzie asks.
"Well, she kind of likes me now and I'm working towards liking her. I haven't named her yet though," Jo replies.
"Good to hear you're making progress. It's a really slow day and you look like you could do with a sleep, a break or something, so go get yourself what ever you need. I'll page you if I need you before you start Audrey's prep at 3," Izzie replies with a smile.
"Wow, you being perky and cheerful has its benefits. I thought I was just going to be annoyed all day by your happiness, so thank you," Jo replies. Izzie gives a chuckle before Jo heads off towards the lunch room. She notices Alex was sitting down at an otherwise empty table and heads over to him and sits down.
"Will you go out with me?" Alex blurts out.
"I'm sorry, are you talking to me?" Jo asks as she looks around the room.
"Who else would I be talking to?" he asks.
"Alex, she is bright and bubbly, why did you get a divorce again?" Jo asks confused.
"It's complicated," Alex replies.
"And yet you've just asked me out? I'm 100 different kinds of complicated and I'm not exactly bright and bubbly," Jo replies confused.
"I know you are complicated Jo, and I know that you're not bright a bubbly. But I also know that I love you. It sounds like somebody else I used to know, and she's now married to Derek,"
"Alex, I'm sorry, but no. I have a seven week old, I'm trying to figure out motherhood. I... I... I'm coming out of a abusive Marriage that broke me... he broke me. And I'm not ready to open my heart up again, not while it's still broken. It's going to take me a long time before I trust somebody like that again. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is," Jo replies.
"It's okay. I get it. Robbin's told me that something like that might happen, so it wasn't like I wasn't expecting it. I just had to try, you know?" he asks.
"I know," Jo replies while nodding her head.