"Boss ... they're on their way" McGee said as he closed his phone and leaned his head back against the wall of the elevator.
He looked as though he was going to pass out at any minute, and Gibbs had to suppress a smile.
"You okay, Timmy?" Jen asked in concern.
"Yeah" he said with difficulty.
"Is it the smell of the amniotic fluid?" she asked.
"Think so" he replied, not wanting to add that it was more the sight of the bloody water.
Jen followed his gaze as best she could.
"Does that look a little bit too red to you?" she asked Gibbs, anxiety in her voice.
"Can't tell" he said. "Carpet's a bit dark."
"Oww" Jenny said, doubling up a little and curling her fingers into the lapel of his jacket. "Sorry" she said when the wave had passed.
"I need to sit down. I think" she said, as she started to slide downwards.
Gibbs slithered down and pulled her back against his chest, her hand firmly in his.
"Maybe not" she groaned, trying to rise to her feet.
Gibbs helped her stand and let her bury her face into his jacket when another contraction hit her.
"Maybe I should ask your name before I slobber all over your jacket again" she said with a small smile when you raised her head.
Gibbs smiled.
"Jethro" he said.
"There's less and less time between them isn't there?" she asked when she caught him looking at his watch a few contractions later.
"Now would be a good time for me to call the baby's father" Gibbs said "if you want to have him here for the birth."
Jen shook her head sadly.
"Father's a marine" she said.
People usually stopped asking once she said marine. She'd come to the conclusion that it was because they were afraid of what more there was to the story in these turbulent times. But apparently this man wasn't going to be one of those.
"Deployed?" Gibbs asked, rubbing her back and her neck as she rode out another wave.
Jen shook her head. Pain ricocheted through her, and suddenly her situation caught up with her. The fact that she was alone, having to depend on total strangers for support, and about to give birth. She was tired of sidestepping the issue and pretending everything was alright.
"Met him in Guam last year."
"Uh-huh."
"In a bar."
That brought his head up, but he recognised her need to talk, and figured that she probably didn't do enough of it. He wondered for a moment if talking would distract her from the pain, and he did something he ordinarily wouldn't have done. He got personal.
"What happened?"
"We ended up in bed. Halfway through the night his wife called."
"I take it you didn't know?"
Jenny shook her head.
"He was devastated. Showed me her picture. She was young, had red hair, was pregnant."
"God ..." she mumbled as her teeth clenched around one of his lapels.
Gibbs ran his hand through her hair.
"Breathe" he said. "As shallow as you can."
She cracked an eye open.
"So what happened then?" he asked, fending off the question about how much experience he had.
"He'd obviously been missing her, hadn't intended things to get that far. When I found out I was pregnant I could have found him and let him know. But what would have been the point? It would only have caused complications. Another marriage on the rocks. One more family hurt. I'll be fine. I alwa-"
He held her through another violent contraction.
"I think this baby's coming soon. You ever delivered a baby before?"
"Nope."
"Me neither" she said. "We'd make a fine pai -"
She trailed off and buried her face into his chest again.
He felt her fingers curl around his shirt.
"Something's wrong" she said.
"Nothing's wrong ..." he assured her.
She raised eyes full of pain to his.
"If anything happens .."
"Nothing's gonna happen" he said. "People have babies all the time."
"In elevators?"
She smiled through the lull.
The elevator shuddered slightly.
"Looks like we're not gonna make it onto the eleven o'clock news. We're being winched up."
Jenny braced for another contraction.
It was a only a few moments before they heard the grating of metal on metal.
"It's okay – you're gonna be fine" said an orderly as they pried the elevator doors open. "We've advised them over at labour and delivery. They're waiting for you."
Gibbs helped raise her onto the gurney and saw her hand reach for his as they started to wheel her away.
"Don't leave me."
Gibbs spared one look at McGee who was still looking pasty but there was little time for words before he was swept away.
"Are you the husband?" a woman enquired as they reached the ward.
Gibbs looked once at Jenny and saw her nod.
"Yes" he lied.
"Contractions?" she asked.
"Under one minute" he said.
The woman smiled and patted Jenny's arm.
"Then
I think we need to get this show on the road"
she said.
"I need to push" Jen said as another wave of of pain hit her.
"Not till I've checked you out" the woman said as they entered a birthing room.
"I need to push" Jenny insisted as they transferred her onto a bed. "And I don't want to give birth on my back. I want gravity to help."
But the contractions didn't let up, and there wasn't a chance for her to get up again.
She gritted her teeth against the onslaught.
"You're right" the midwife said with a smile a few moments later. "This is going to be fast. You need to push. Anytime you're ready."
She grabbed Gibbs by the hand as he made to move up to Jenny's head.
"View's better from over here" she said, keeping him by her side. "Come on Jenny. Baby's almost here. I need two, maybe three really big pushes from you. And we'll be done."
Jenny pushed. Hard. Once. And then once more.
"See .. the baby's crowning" the midwife pointed out to Gibbs. "Give me one last push Jenny. The head's right here" the midwife as she pressed down on her perinuem.
Jen's eyes cut to Gibbs', and he smiled and nodded at her.
"Just one. Come on Jen .."
Jen bit down on her lower lip and strained one last time. She smiled tiredly as she felt the baby break free of her body.
"It's a girl" the midwife gushed with a wide smile on her face.
And then she looked up at Gibbs.
"Would you like to cut the cord, daddy?" she offered.
He hadn't been expecting the emotion that rushed through him as he did – even though he should have expected it. He'd felt the same awe when Kelly had been born. But Kelly had been his and that was normal. This child wasn't and yet the awe and the overwhelming desire to protect were as fierce as they had been the moment he'd first set eyes on his own child. And it didn't diminish when the baby was placed in his arms.
"You did good, Jen. She's beautiful" he said as he moved to place her on her mother's chest.
"Cold .." Jen mumbled as she raised her arms.
She faltered just as he was placing the baby into them.
"Jenny?" he called as her eyes fluttered for a moment and then seemed to roll back into her head. "Something's wrong" he shouted to the nurse.
Before he could as much as blink someone relieved him of the child, and he found himself relocated to a corner of the room while they attended to what was very clearly an emergency. He snapped out of his stupor almost immediately, determined to make his presence felt just as surely as he would have if she had been his significant other.
"What's going on?" he demanded as a doctor entered the room and instructions started flying about.
The doctor raised his hand at him as he supervised the nurses.
"Baby?"
He looked round.
"She seems to be fine" the midwife said from the baby station.
"Keep monitoring her. What does her birth plan say?" he asked as one of the nurses flipped through a folder with Jen's information on it.
"Nothing beyond the delivery" she said anxiously.
The doctor took the folder from her and ran through it himself, familiarising himself with the few details available to him. "Prep her for surgery. Mr ... Shepard?" he said, finally acknowledging Gibbs as he motioned for him to follow him outside.
Gibbs followed.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
The doctor ran a hand across his face, not slowing down as they followed the gurney to the operating theatre.
"After the delivery, the uterus continues to contract until it expels the placenta. After the delivery of the placenta, the uterine contractions help to compress the bleeding vessels at the region where the placenta was connected. In this case it seems there were no proper uterine contractions, so the blood vessels remained free to bleed. I don't have enough time to pull up her records so I need to know from you what kind of a pregnancy it's been. Did she have hypertension? High blood pressure? Especially lately. Did she have any sharp pains that weren't looked into?"
He took in Gibbs' frozen look.
"Anything?"
He shook his head minutely and Gibbs could see him battle frustration and concern.
"I think there might have been placental abruption" the doctor continued. "The haemhorrage is significant. A lot more than I'm comfortable with. Look .. " he said, putting his hand on Gibbs' "I know you're scared but I need to go in there and see what's going on. I may have to do ligation of the uterus. I may have to do a hysterectomy. It depends on what I find. If I do any one of those things there could be repercussions on your wife's fertility. But if I don't do this and the drugs don't work she could bleed to death. I need your permission to -"
Gibbs felt the weight of the decision press down on his shoulders. Not what he had signed up for, and yet he was almost sure that Jenny would choose this over the alternative. Especially knowing what he knew.
"Do it" he said.
The doctor nodded curtly and disappeared into the operating theatre.
The doctor nodded curtly and disappeared into the operating theatre.
Gibbs stood there staring after him for what seemed like an eternity. After a while he felt someone at his side.
"Mr. Shepard ..."
The midwife stood there.
"I know that you want to be here when the doctor comes out, so I've arranged for you to use this room right here."
She indicated a room a few feet down the corridor.
"Jenny will go into recovery after the surgery, but the doctor will come and talk to you here. I'll bring the baby from the nursery. I think perhaps you might like to hold her? It will be the best thing for her right now. Possibly for you too."
Gibbs stared at her for a moment as the implications started to pile up and hit home. But there was nothing to be done.
Stunned by the empathy in her eyes, he nodded. And followed.
"How are you holding up?" the midwife asked as he stood by the window and looked out.
His eyes cut to hers and the empathy took him by surprise again.
When he didn't answer, the woman smiled.
"I'll bring your daughter" she said quietly before retreating.
Gibbs looked out of the window one more time before pulling out his cell phone. He placed a call to Tony and ascertained that everything was moving as it should be. He'd barely hung up when the door opened again and the midwife was back, wheeling a transparent box in front of her.
"Had you already chosen a name?" she asked as she unwrapped the infant and stripped her down to her diaper.
Gibbs shook his head and stared as the midwife hefted the child and held her out to him.
"You may want to take off your shirt" she said.
Gibbs looked at her in confusion.
"I'd like you to try skin to skin. We try to encourage fathers to do it even when there are no complications" she explained. "Studies have shown that a father can soothe his newborn as effectively as a mother, and more effectively than if the baby is placed in a crib during the first two hours after birth if the mother is absent."
She placed the baby against his bare chest and watched as he wrapped his hands around her.
"You're a natural" she said, her tone warm.
"Skin to skin contact between a father and baby also facilitates the newborn's pre-feeding behaviour of seeking the breast within the first hours of life." she said with a smile. "So don't be surprised if she goes for a breast. The development of inborn nursing reflexes, such as mouth movements and rooting, is similar to that of infants that are skin-to-skin with the mother. Don't discourage her. It will prepare for the first breastfeeding when she's reunited with her mother."
Her smile grew wider when Gibbs shot her a bemused look.
"You'll be fine" she said, patting him on the arm.
She caressed the child's head briefly and then smiled at Gibbs again.
"I'll leave you two to get acquainted" she said.
And then she was gone.
Gibbs looked down at the little bundle at his chest, and mimicked the midwife's movements. It felt instinctive to drop the tiniest of kisses to her small head as he cuddled her and stroked her skin.
"Your mama's gonna be fine" he whispered to her.