"Mrs. Grant, honey, you're having a miscarriage..." The doctor explained over the phone. Mellie was sitting in the bathroom, staring at the blood in her underwear. She sucked in a deep breath, letting out a quiet squeal as the doctor said those words to hers. How could anything get any worse at this point? "Come in when the pain stops...We'll have to perform a D&C when you come in."
It took a few seconds for Mellie to respond. "Okay. Thank you." She told her, trying to keep it together while she was on the phone. Once she hung up the phone was when she lost it, when she fell to the floor crying. She was sobbing hard, her face buried in her hands. She had already lost one child, wasn't one enough? Why was she losing another one? Why were her and Fitz always cursed with some kind of tragedy? Couldn't they ever be happy?
She clutched her stomach, sobbing even louder from the pain. She hadn't thought much of it when she was on Fitz's lap, crying about Jerry. She wasn't thinking that it was anything serious, that it was anything critical that had to do with the baby. If she had thought more about that, maybe she wouldn't be miscarrying now. Maybe she could have gotten to the doctor in time and prevented this. Maybe she could have saved her and Fitz's baby. This was her fault. If she wouldn't have been so selfish, she probably could have fixed this. She could have saved their child's life.
She was on the cold, hard floor for hours before Fitz found her. He had been looking for her for a while, and had finally decided to give up and take a shower. He walked in and looked at her, sighing quietly as he kneeled down next to her. Fitz ran his hand through her hair, shushing her quietly. She was staring at the wall, still crying, even more so now that Fitz was in there and touching her. She hadn't stopped. The tears had slowed, but she hadn't stopped crying. She didn't think she would ever stop crying.
"Baby, it's okay..." He whispered, lying down next to her and pulling her into his arms. No, it wasn't okay. Their son was dead. Their son was murdered by one of the men that they were supposed to trust with their lives. Their baby boy was murdered by one of the men that they were supposed to trust the most. "I wish I could say something to assure you of that...but I can't. I wish I could take your pain away but I know that I can't and that kills me, Mels.." It pained him to see her like this, to see her so hurt and so broken.
His eyes glanced over to the corner before looking back at Mellie. "Mels..." He whispered, looking down at his wife.
"I...I lost the baby, Fitz..." Mellie whispered quietly, swallowing hard.
Fitz just nodded, holding her close to him. He kissed her head and sighed. This was their last chance. There would be no convincing Mellie to try again, to try for another one. Not after this. This was their last chance for another baby. And that killed him. But right now he needed to be worried about Mellie and how she was feeling, not about whether they were going to be able to have another child or not. He needed to be worried about his wife and her emotions, and taking care of her. He needed to focus on Mellie.
"I need to go to the doctor." Mellie mumbled, sitting up and trying to pull herself together. She had a habit of that, of trying to act like she was okay, even though she was far from it. She had a habit of trying to hide her emotions instead of letting them show like she should. She knew that keeping everything inside wasn't good for her, but since that night, the night that Big Jerry raped her, she had kept everything inside and there was very little that she shared with anyone.
Fitz watched her. "Do you want me to go with you?" He questioned, looking at her. Mellie just shook her head.
"You have things to do, things to figure out..you don't want to be there when I get hard pieces of metal shoved inside me. It's pointless for you to go." Of course she wanted him there. Or course she wanted him to be there when she got the D&C. But he had to figure out more about the murder of their son. He had to stay at home and work and take care of the kids. She could do this by herself.
Mellie got up and got changed, trying to look as presentable as possible while also staying comfortable. She sighed to herself as she looked at herself in the mirror. She couldn't believe that this was happening. She couldn't believe thy this was happening so quickly. She took a deep breath and Fitz pulled her into his arms, holding her close. "Shh...it'll be okay, baby. Call me if you need anything." He told her quietly, kissing her for a few seconds. "I love you." Fitz whispered before wiping her tears away.
"I know. I love you too." Mellie responded, sighing quietly as she pulled away from him. Teddy ran into the room, tugging at the bottom of Mellie's pants.
"Momma. Momma." Teddy whined, looking up at her.
"What's up, little man?" Mellie asked, trying to put on a happy face for her son.
"Me loves you." He told her, pulling her down to him. He kissed her and gave her a tight hug before letting go and running off, going back to his room.
Mellie watched him, dumbstruck. "This is why I love him...it's like he knows. It's like he knows something is wrong and he immediately comes to the rescue to fix it. And he barely even has to say or do anything to make me smile...all he has to do is just hug me and tell me he loves me." Mellie smiled a little. "And everything's alright. Everything is alright once he just says those three little words...my son can make everything better."
"He can, can't he?" Fitz smiled at his wife, kissing her cheek. "I'll come check on you after you get back. Go straight to bed, okay?"
Mellie nodded, looking at him. She faked a small smile before she left, slowly walking down the hallway.
She went into the office and waited for her doctor, who almost immediately got her into a room. She wanted to do an ultrasound, but Mellie was very reluctant. There was something about seeing her dead baby on a monitor that just didn't sit well with her. She didn't want to do that. But she agreed, as long as she didn't have to look. As long as she could look away, she was perfectly fine with that.
The doctor put the ultrasound gel on Mellie's stomach, and Mellie looked away from the monitor. She stared at the wall, sucking in a deep breath. She stopped paying attention to everything around her and just focused on that one spot on the wall that she was staring at. She was so extremely focused, but she was brought out of that trance when she heard the familiar thumping filling the room. "Mrs. Grant..." The doctor looked at Mellie, who still refused to look at the monitor. "Mrs. Grant." She repeated and finally, Mellie slowly turned her head to her. "Ma'am, you didn't miscarry...your baby is still alive. Your baby is still alive with a very strong heartbeat."
Tears came to Mellie's eyes as she spoke. Of course, she stopped listening after the good news. She heard the "still not out of the woods" and "need to be careful" and "at risk because of your age", but that was all she got out of the doctor's speech because she was just so excited at this point. She was so excited that her baby was still alive, that she hadn't lost her and Fitz's child, that with all of the terrible things going on right now, there was still some good. There was still something good happening. Not everything was bad at the moment.
The doctor handed her a copy of the sonogram and sent her home with instructions to be as careful as possible and not to push herself like she usually did. She wanted her to not stress as much, but when you were Mellie and the First Lady of the United States, that was nearly impossible.
Mellie went home and went to bed, lying down and closing her eyes. Fitz was in there within minutes, laying next to her. She didn't say anything as she reached over and opened the top drawer of her nightstand, grabbing the sonogram and handing it to Fitz without a word. Fitz looked at it before looking back at Mellie.
"We're still having a baby." She told him, smiling at her husband.
Fitz smiled and kissed Mellie's forehead. "We're still having a baby."