Chapter 56

Moving quietly from the bed, she held her stomach as she walked to the bathroom. Breathing deeply, she tried to decide if she wanted to tell Angel about the false contraction she was having again. These, though, seemed to be coming much harder than the Braxton-Hicks she had experienced a few days ago. Regulating her breathing, she closed her eyes and tried to get her body to clam down.

Wincing, she doubled forward as her baby landed a very solid blow to her internal organs. Gasping for breath, another contraction radiated from her back to her abdomen. Taking deep breaths, she tried to walk to the door but was doubled over again as another angry kick landed on her bladder.

Sinking to her knees, she called for Angel. Half of her hoped he would come immediately and lift her into his arms and make everything okay. The other half of her hoped he wouldn't wake up and this was all a bad dream.

Looking up, she saw his stricken face as he opened the bathroom door. "Buffy? What's wrong?" The concern verging on panic was evident on his features.

"I don't know." Grabbing at her stomach, she realized with absolute certainty that there was something wrong with her baby.

Leaning closer to her, he scooped her up in his arms and was off down the hallway and stairs before she could say anything else. Placing her in the backseat of the SUV, he took a deep breath before running at his top speed back into the house in grab his shoes, a shirt, keys and cell phone. He was behind the wheel and pulling out of the driveway in seconds, speeding to the nearest hospital.

He slipped a shirt and shoes on at the first red light and blew threw the others. Tuning his senses to high alert, he listened for any and all oncoming traffic as he sped threw over a dozen red lights. It was nearing four in the morning, and his tired brain had immediately converted panic into adrenaline.

He didn't bother going to the Wolfram and Hart medical facility, where Buffy had been treated and where the birth was scheduled to take place in three weeks. Driving faster than most ambulances dared, he got them to the nearest hospital in half the time it would have taken at normal speeds. Thanking whatever powers that would listen for the lack of police intervention during his high speed experience, he tried to remain as calm as possible for Buffy's sake.

Buffy tried to keep her pain quiet. She knew Angel was on the verge of panic and that he was driving like a mad man. Wincing, she ground her teeth as her baby started doing summersaults within her. Whatever was happening, her baby was not happy about it. The pain of the contractions was minimal compared to the beating her organs were taking.

Whispering to her baby, she tried to explain that they were moving as fast as they could. She told her baby everything would be alright, that she understood and was going to fix whatever was wrong. The same bond that existed between her and Angel had grown between her and her baby, and Buffy could feel that her baby was in distress.

Angel listened with half an ear as Buffy talked to her stomach. His senses for focused on getting her someplace that could help her. Breathing hard, he pulled into the emergency area and was out of car, gathering Buffy into his arms, before the car had come to a complete stop.

Two nurses rushed to him as soon they were in the doorway. Putting her in a wheelchair, he followed closely behind as someone in pink scrubs tried to ask him questions. Knowing he wasn't answering very well, he instead tried to concentrate on Buffy. Keeping his questions for the nurse to a minimum, he waited until Buffy was on a bed and being hooked up to an alarming amount of wires to voice concerns to the medical staff.

Sensors were strapped to her belly as a nurse started reading something they told Angel had to do with the baby's heart rate. Holding her hand, he whispered comforting words into Buffy's ear and stroked her hair with his free hand.

A nurse got his attention, "The baby's having decelerations."

"What does that mean?"

"The baby's in distress, we need to get her upstairs to the OB/GYN floor now."

Stepping away, he walked in a blur of senses as they got her into the elevator and rode to the third floor. Taking deep breaths, he walked as calmly as possible behind the gurney holding his lover and unborn child. Buffy was obviously in pain. Lifting her in his arms, he set her on the bed in the room they had been led into.

Grabbing his shirt, she pulled him close so that only he could hear what she was saying. "They won't understand, Angel. The baby needs to come out now. How do I…" she paused as she tried to breath through a contraction. "How do I tell them that the baby's kicking me to death?"

Taking her hand reassuringly, he turned to the nurse. "What are you going to do?"

"We paged the doctor; he knows it's an emergency. I need you to answer some questions for me until he gets here."

He gave her a litany of information, including the due date, the name of Buffy's regular doctor, and the last time she had seen him. In the middle of an explanation, the nurse turned to the beeping monitor that was connected to a sensor on Buffy's belly. Leaving Angel, she immediately went to the monitor to read the information printing out.

The nurse asked her, "Are you having a contraction?"

At Buffy's nod yes, the nurse went to the room door and yelled for another nurse. Watching these proceedings, Angel's heart rate started to increase. Holding Buffy's hand tightly, he watched a doctor walk briskly into the room and look at the readout. It was about twenty seconds later that Buffy was wheeled towards the surgery.

Feeling as if he was about to faint, Angel wrote down a number for a nurse to call and then followed another person in scrubs into an area meant for expectant fathers. Agreeing that he wanted to be in the room while the cesarean was preformed, Angel was quickly helped into a gown, mask, gloves and hat and told not to touch anything. Going to Buffy, he held her head in his hands as he tried not to look over the blue sheet separating her chest from the rest of her body as it was quickly becoming covered with come kind of orange antibacterial agent.

"You'll be okay, Buffy. We'll be okay."

"It's all too fast, Angel."

"Don't worry, the baby will be fine."

Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on the cold solution being rubbed over her stomach and the IV fluid going into her arm. Biting back a scream, she let tears run freely down the sides of her face. Listening to Angels' words of comfort, she tried to ignore the fact that the anesthesia hadn't fully set it yet.

Gasping, she felt the surgeon start to cut into her stomach. Using every technique she had ever learned to manage pain, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Tuning out the sounds of Angel above her, the doctors talking around her and the steel clanging against sterile trays, she focusing only on her baby.

It wasn't until she heard the doctor exclaim that the baby was out that she opened her eyes. The blue sheet in front of her prevented her from seeing her baby, which almost sent her into a panic. Looking to Angel, she saw the alarm written clearly on his features. Fighting to keep from screaming, she tried to listen for sounds that her baby was alright.

There was no crying. Realizing with a sickening sense of dread that her baby wasn't crying, she started screaming to Angel to tell her what was going on. The last thing she heard before her sobbing filled the room was something about a cord being wrapped around his neck.