Just Fine

32 Weeks
March

"Grant? Can you hear me, Grant?" Kerry rubbed the teenager's sternum vigorously with a clenched fist as she called out his name. The boy stirred but didn't open his eyes, "Hey Grant, I need you to stay with me, okay? You have to stay awake." The teenager made a small groaning noise. Kerry shook her head disapprovingly, "He's still postictal," she said as much to Abby and Gallant as to herself.

"Want me to push more electrolytes?" the nurse asked.

Kerry nodded. "Find me either when neuro gets down here or when his parents arrive; whichever happens first." She said, "In the mean time, Gallant, you can clean and suture that lac."

The student nodded dutifully.

Pleased that everything was under some modicum control at least for the time being, Kerry shed her gloves with a deft, practiced motion and started for the door.

It was a considerably calm evening. Kerry had learned early on to appreciate the quiet shifts when they came, and tonight was no exception; there'd be a dull but unrelenting aching in her back all evening and she wasn't in any mood to be shuffling from trauma to trauma.

It was just busy enough to keep her mind occupied without being overextended, Kerry decided. She had four of her own patients scattered throughout the floor in addition to the ten or so other patients on the floor that the other doctors and students were treating. Grant Mitchell, the seventeen year old from Lincoln Park who came in after having what appeared to be a seizure on the El, was one of those fifteen and had been the first patient to arrive via ambulance since the start of her shift five hours ago. They'd sent off blood work to check for anything out of the ordinary in his system, but she had a strange feeling that the seizure had been a creation of his own body. The only trouble with that hypothesis was that, assuming he did have a diagnosed seizure disorder, he would almost certainly have some form of a medical alert and would not have a valid driver's license if they were currently uncontrolled. Kerry sighed inwardly and shook it off; there wasn't anything she could do to get to the bottom of his situation right now.

"Kerry! We've got an MVA coming in; man in a pickup truck crashed into a mother and daughter in a sedan!" Susan called out as soon as Kerry stepped through the double doors of the trauma room she'd just left. The blonde was pushing a gurney with an adult woman on it. Behind her, Kerry saw Luka heading her way with another gurney. That one had a grown man on it.

Kerry groaned inwardly, realizing she must've jinxed the ER when she mused that things seemed to be calm, but dutifully spun back around to tell Michael and Abby to move Grant into the suture area. She'd almost made a full 180 degrees when a sharp, cramping pain ripped through her abdomen. A gasp escaped her involuntarily and she lurched forward, nearly losing her grasp on her crutch. She thought she was going down until a strong hand grasped her elbow firmly.

"Whoa, Dr. Weaver—" Michael Gallant said, steadying the petite woman, "Are you alright?"

Kerry blinked quickly, "Uh…yeah. Yeah, I think so."

Carter, who had been watching the scene as he came down the hall, motioned for Pratt to take the patient into the now-empty trauma room before joining Kerry and Gallant. "Is everything all right?" Carter could tell that some force deep within her wanted her to deny anything had just happened and he hoped she'd be able to squelch it down for both her and her baby's sake. He had seen her flinch, gasp, and falter and he had a very strong feeling that things were not all right.

Finally, Kerry shook her head. "I…I don't know. Maybe. I'm not sure."

Taking control, Carter nodded, "Go help Pratt in trauma two, Gallant. Get Dr. Kovac if you need help."

The student nodded and left the pair, but not without one last worried glance directed in Kerry's direction.

Carter turned his attention back to Kerry. "Abdominal pain?" He asked in a hushed voice, his eyes serious.

Kerry gave a single, tight nod.

"Let's go to an exam room…" He suggested carefully.

Kerry walked, albeit slowly, across the hall and into an empty room. Carter followed closely behind, one hand positioned mere inches away from the small of the redhead's back, ready to offer support should she need it.

Once Kerry had gotten onto the gurney, he continued to ask questions.

"Anything else feel different today?"

Kerry nodded; the backache she'd had all day, which she had previously attributed to the fact that she had a stomach the size of a basketball, was what made the suddenly painful cramp so alarming. "Cramping in my lower back since this morning."

Carter tried not to look alarmed. "Should we hook you up to a fetal monitor and see what's happening?" He knew the answer was yes.

"That's probably a good idea," Kerry said quietly, her voice uncharacteristically timid and shaky.

"Do you want me to call in someone else?" Carter was privy to the discomfort that could potentially arise out of being treated not only by a male employee, but also by a friend.

Kerry shook and leaned forward to pull off her lab coat when another wave of pain washed over her. "Shit…" She said through clenched teeth.

Carter frowned, "Same as before?"

Kerry let out a whoosh of a breath, "I don't think Braxton Hicks are supposed to feel like this."

Carter remained silent; he didn't think they were supposed to feel like that, either. Quietly, he finished helping Kerry out of her lab coat and told her to relax while he went to grab a fetal monitor.

Kerry leaned her head back against the gurney's pillow. She was thirty-two weeks pregnant and, if she had to guess, was in the midst of early labor. It was too early and she silently chastised herself for not recognizing the signs earlier; her back had been periodically achy since the middle of her second trimester, but when she'd woken up that morning she had noticed that a much heavier discomfort had wrapped itself around her lower back. She knew that back and leg cramping or pain were often the earliest signs of labor, but she wasn't sure why she hadn't considered that a possibility for herself…

Carter soon returned to the exam room with a fetal monitor, sonosite, and a cautious looking Abby Lockhart in tow. Expertly, Abby wrapped the fabric straps around Kerry's middle and positioned the monitor over the baby.

"How many weeks?" The nurse asked quietly.

"Thirty-two."

The younger woman bowed her head in affirmation.

"Everything looks fine right now..." Carter said after she'd been hooked up long enough to get a full read. "It's been about twelve minutes since your last and maybe thirty since your first…" He thought for a moment, weighing options, possibilities, and probabilities. "I think you should relax in here for a bit and we can call OB to come down for an exam then go from there."

Kerry was about to accept both suggestions when another strong cramp laced around her back and belly. She let out a gasp and her fist clenched involuntarily.

Carter checked the computer monitor and sighed. "You're definitely contracting…"

"You're sure they're not Braxton Hicks?" Abby asked.

Carter shook his head silently.

Kerry tried to squelch the hot, stingy tears that were forming in her ducts. She knew what Braxton Hicks contractions felt like; she'd been experiencing them since around her thirtieth week. While the contractions she felt now were somewhat similar, she knew both personally and medically that Braxton Hicks didn't come in an increasingly painful rhythm. Between that and the progressively worsening, throbbing back pain, she knew this was the real thing. She was in labor.

"Do you want me to call your OB?" Abby asked.

"Merrell Maynard up on the fifth floor," Kerry said automatically and without hesitation.

"What about Sandy?" She asked.

This time, Kerry paused. Sandy was bound to start a twenty-four in a little over an hour. She didn't want to bother her, especially if it all turned out to be a false alarm, but she also knew how angry Sandy would be if and when she found out that Kerry hadn't called her at the first sign of something gone awry. Finally, she nodded. "She should still be at home."

The nurse stalked off to place the two calls discretely.

"If you are in labor, they can probably slow it down or even stop it with Terbutaline or Magnesium." Carter tried to reassure Kerry, "And even if they can't, thirty-two weekers tend to do well. Their odds are what? 95%?" Kerry tried to force a smile and Carter put a warm hand on her shoulder. "It'll be okay, Kerry. It will be."

Abby came back in soon after and helped her change into a gown. Normally she would've been mortified to expose herself so much to someone she worked with, but her current circumstances allowed her to shed her guard almost completely. The nurse told her that Maynard was on her way down and Sandy was on her way then left, again leaving Kerry on her own.

The redhead's eyes wandered around the small, curtained-off area. The fetal monitor to her right showed a natural, healthy rhythm. For that, at least, she was thankful. She may have to have the baby early, but if there were no major complications, they would all be just fine. Just fine, she repeated to herself, they would all be just fine.