A Few Days with the Grissoms Chapter 9

Where there had been chairs and children's toys was a bed unlike any Sara had ever seen—attached with four long ropes to the ceiling making a swinging bed. On the porch. Covered with an old quilt. A safety rail around three sides. Big enough for her and four children, and maybe a husband.

Eli stood at one corner, a beaming smile across his face. The workmen, Grissom, and several women from next door gathered around as she inspected this unusual creation. Three little girls danced and ran around the porch.

"We kept a secret!" Bizzy giggled. "We didn't tell, did we?"

One of the workman said, "We've never done this but it's strong, built to last." He tugged on a rope. "We used marine stuff—anchor rope—attached to rafters. It should hold a thousand pounds, easy."

She sat on the bed. Eli jumped up beside her. "It's the greatest thing and Dad thought of it all by himself." He crawled to the center making the bed sway.

"Up! Up!" Annie said, stretching arms skyward.

The same workman knelt beside the baby. "Here—put your foot right here and hold on to the rope." He showed her the wedge shaped foothold. Annie's face radiated with a wide smile. As soon as she reached the top, her sister followed.

Grissom picked up Bizzy and placed her with the others. Everyone smiled. "Remember, what do we do on this bed? Just like the one in the playroom?" He asked.

"We rest," said Eli.

"Be careful," Bizzy said.

The twins were rolling around giggling.

Sara sniffed. "Hormones," she said.

All the adults laughed.

…Two weeks later, the entire family filled the van. They stopped for Sister Deborah. Sara's four hours would be spent taking Eli to his first day of school. His sisters were as excited as he was. They had already toured the school, met his teacher, found his classroom, but today, all the classrooms would be filled with students. Parents and families had been invited to kindergarten rooms as each child introduced himself to others.

A pretty teacher showed Eli to his table with four other boys. Adults and smaller children stood around the walls as the teacher gave her welcome speech. "Now, we will have each child come forward and tell something about himself and his family."

The Grissoms listened and applauded as each child finished speaking, some saying their name and pointing to parents; others giving much more information, getting laughs from parents. Finally, it was Eli's turn.

"My name is Eli Grissom," he said. "My dad is Gil Grissom and my mom is Sara Grissom." He pointed to his parents. "Those girls are my sisters—Bizzy—really her name is Elizabeth, but we call her Bizzy, and Annie and Ava. And my mom is going to have me a brother soon." His hand made a quick motion across his abdomen and he grinned. Everyone thought he had finished, but he held up his hand just before Sara started to clap. "I guess you noticed I don't look like my real parents and that's because I'm adopted. That means my mother didn't have me, but she chose me to be her son." His face broke into a wide grin and he waved at his parents.

They were not the first to applaud his words, and Sara knew the other parents clapped a little bit longer and louder because she was wiping tears from her eyes.

"Hormones," she whispered as she felt Grissom's arm around her shoulders and felt his warm breath against her neck.

…Two more weeks passed and time had not flown by; it had slowed to a crawl, minutes drawn out to unbearable stretches of time for Sara. But her children were happy. Four places to rest had opened up more places to play, more time they could hear and see their mother as she stayed on her back or on her side. Sara read scientific journals, romance novels, children's books; she searched the internet for "stuff"—some serious and some silliness just to laugh. She shortened her shower so she could walk outside at least once a day. Four hours on her feet passed too quickly—meals took up a major portion of her "up time" since she refused to eat in bed. Once a week, Grissom drove her to her doctor's appointment and the only good news was their son was growing. She remained on bed rest. Her problem was not going away.

Her physician explained the image on the sonogram. "We could do a MRI but it will not tell us more than what we are seeing here," She pointed to an area along the uterine wall. "The placenta is making deep attachments—not outside the uterus yet." She turned to Sara, glancing at Grissom as she spoke. "You need to decide on several things. There is no doubt this will be a planned Caesarean—let's say in two weeks. We can immediately give you some strong drugs which will slow bleeding, give us time to attempt to cut away the placenta. It usually works with minimal blood loss. There are risks—it may not work at all. If we do this, you will have to take the drugs for several days. The medication has side effects and a woman can not breast feed.

"Your other option is to let us remove the uterus—we can leave the ovaries—so you do not go through menopause. We literally lift the baby out still in the uterus. There is little chance of excessive bleeding; you go home in a few days. You don't need the medication. The procedure is very similar to any Caesarean, but we take the uterus at the same time. This is the safest option, I think, but a woman loses the ability to have other children." The physician flipped through Sara's chart. "We don't need to make a decision today. Go home, think about this. Set a date and call me."

A/N: Thanks for reading and the reviews! Keep reading, another 3 chapters to go!