a/n: and it's official, I suck! I am so so sorry it took so long to update this chapter. I had to do some more research and I just had major writer's block. This chapter is pretty short, and it's a lot of medical stuff and explanations, and I struggled with it a lot. Hopefully my next chapter will be easier for me and more interesting, at least I do have some ideas as to what to include in it. Thanks so much for the reviews, y'all are the best!
The next two weeks dragged on for Sam and Santana. They thought they couldn't go by any slower. And there was a lot of crying. Obviously, they told Sam's parents what was going on, but they had decided not to tell anyone else until they knew for sure. Bill and Mary Evans had accepted the pregnancy by now, even though the situation was not ideal, and their son's childhood was officially over. Still, they thought all babies were blessings, and they had actually been really looking forward to finding out the sex of the baby. Bill finally got a job. It didn't pay as well as his old job, but it was better than nothing, and they were finally able to move out of the motel and into a small rental house in a safe neighborhood. Mary was looking forward to buying her grandchild's first frilly pink dress or soft, fuzzy football. The news that the baby was going to be a girl, however, was overshadowed by the fact that she may be born with serious health problems. Bill was pretty quiet, and it was obvious that he was sad, and Mary was heartbroken. She tried not to cry about it too much in front of the expectant parents, but sometimes she couldn't help it and she was almost as bad as Santana.
Keeping the news from their friends was hard. They were thankful it was summer though, it would have been impossible if school was still in session. The girls, of course, knew that Santana should have found out the sex by then, and Brittany, Quinn, and even Rachel were regularly texting her, asking if she knew anything yet. All she would say was "no," and that would be that. She wasn't ready to get into it yet. They'd asked a few times when she would know, but she ignored those texts. Brittany had tried to hang out with her a few times, and all of the Glee kids had even gotten together for pool parties, or the girls would go to the mall, and she'd always made excuses, saying that she didn't feel well. She felt guilty about that, but she wasn't ready to talk about it yet, especially when they didn't know for sure.
"Are you ready?" Sam asked, helping her off the couch.
"No," she sighed. Today, it would most likely be confirmed that their baby would have Spina Bifida. Neither one of them had slept much in the last two weeks, so it would be nice to know, but it was so heartbreaking that something might be wrong with their baby.
"Are you sure you don't want my mom to come?"
"Yeah," she replied. "We need to do this ourselves. Plus , I don't know who she could find to watch Stacey and Stevie on such short notice." Santana would have loved for Sam's mom, or even her mom to be there for support, but they had to be the adults now. Only they weren't adults, they were seventeen years old. Any one of the Glee girls would have probably been able to come over and watch Sam's siblings for the afternoon, but Santana knew they'd ask questions, and she wasn't ready for that. So, they went on their own.
The ultrasound seemed to take forever, and the technician didn't say much. The gel was cold again, and the pressure on her full bladder was really uncomfortable, but Santana didn't complain this time. She figured with everything her baby might have to deal with, bitching about those things would be pretty ridiculous. Finally it was over, and the high risk obstetrician didn't take long looking at the scans before calling them back. Sam and Santana didn't know whether that was a good sign or not. The grim expression on his face when they entered the office immediately told them it was not.
"I'm sorry to tell you, but your baby does have Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. It's Myelomeningocele, which is the most severe form, which means part of her spine is open and the cord is protruding through the opening. The good news is that the malformation is low enough on her spine that she'll probably be able to walk. Although it's likely she'll wear leg braces and probably have to use crutches or a walker. I'm going to refer you to a neonatologist and a neurosurgeon so you can be a little more prepared, and you'll need regular ultrasounds to monitor the baby's cerebrospinal fluid. I'd like to schedule a c-section at 37 weeks so we can be prepared and there are no surprises, but we may have to go in earlier if the ultrasounds are showing that there is too much pressure on her brain. And she will need surgery immediately after birth. Do you have any questions?"
The teenagers just stared at him blankly. They only heard parts of what the doctor had told them, mainly; "sorry", "nerves outside spine," "fluid", "crutches," and "surgery immediately after birth". They made their way out to Sam's car, and this time they just sat there. It wasn't like last time where Santana cried uncontrollably, they just felt numb. They'd pretty much been expecting the news this time, but they didn't know how to process the fact that it was now official. It had scared Sam how quiet Santana had been the last two weeks, but now that their fears had been confirmed, he didn't have much to say either. After several moments of silence, he just reached over and squeezed her hand. That's when she broke down.