InsaneJournal

I’m a bit terrified of Labor and Delivery and everything that could go wrong.
Who: Verity and Petie
When: During the Kryptonite Plot
Where: The Hospital
What: Random Encounter Number Two
Rating/Warning: Low/None - talk of labor and delivery
Status: Complete


Verity was taking a tour of the hospital. Mostly the birthing facility, but the other parts, too, where she might go while she was there to deliver the baby. There was a big group of soon-to-be moms and dads, along with a handful of best friends and grandparents, but Verity was there on her own. And seeing all the happy soon-to-be families was making her feel a bit queasy.

She wandered away from the group and headed down a different hall, looking for a bathroom. Soon she was separated far from the group, and was lost… though she was trying not to look as lost as she was. She turned down another corridor, and passed by an open doorway--in which she saw Roland’s eyes. She stopped, turned back, and peeked through the doorway once more. Not Roland, no. But someone who looked an awful lot like him…

Ugh didn’t even begin to describe how Petie felt. At least he wasn’t dreaming, that would have made things so much worse than they already were. A nurse was tending to him at the moment, though. She wasn’t especially pretty, but he liked her smell and her touch and the way she laid a cold cloth over his forehead. She looked up from her work and smiled toward the doorway.

“May I help you?” she asked.

Petie looked in that direction, his neck straining and hurting as he did, but he smiled. Verity was definitely not who he would expect to visit. His mother, mayhap, but not Verity. He waved at her and told the nurse, “She’s my friend.” A friend he’d rather like to kiss, if it weren’t for the fact he’d probably get her deathly ill.

Verity lost the look of confusion on her face the instant the nurse spoke to her. But then she stepped forward. “I just came for a quick visit,” she said, moving further into the room and giving Petie a concerned smile. She’d had no idea that he was one of the ones who was so sick--of course, she’d heard about them on Valarnet, just like she’d heard about plants attacking people and strange powers popping up left and right--and if she’d known, she would have come earlier. “I won’t stay long.” She had to get back to her tour, after all.

The nurse gave a nod, then signed to Petie that he had fifteen minutes. Petie nodded weakly and let the nurse switch his cloth out before she left. Petie looked over at pretty Verity. Her belly had grown since he’d last seen her, or maybe things were just that blurry. “Hi,” he greeted and tried to sit up a little. When he was too weak, he pressed a button on the bed so he could sit up without straining. He felt like a damned leper. This was ridiculous, and embarrassing at the same time.

“Don’t--” Verity started, holding a hand out to him as if to stop him from sitting up. She shook her head a bit, then moved to sit down next to his bed. She kept a bit of distance, though. Whatever he had made him look like death, and she didn’t want to catch it. Not in her current condition. “Don’t make a fuss. Really. Relax.” She said, settling into the chair. It felt like she was carrying a hundred extra pounds and not… well, just a few.

He went by her hand, that he should stop and he was grateful that she said so. The back of his head settled back to the pillow, his lips parted in a sigh. Everything hurt, more than it had hurt before. The only thing that wasn’t making him panic was that there were others who had apparently found this crystal and had become sick as well. Petie looked over at Verity, forcing a smile that looked more like a cringe. “You look good,” he said groggily, signing with the hand that didn’t have a needle sticking out of it.

"You don't," Verity said, gently. She was teasing. "But thank you. I feel huge as a bus. I was here for the tour of the Maternity Ward." The room was small, but liked fairly comfortable, anyway. There was a television, a private bathroom... "Are they taking good care of you?"

“Mmmhmmm,” Petie managed to intone. His head was nodding, but only a couple of times before it hurt too much and he stopped. He wanted to reach out and put his hand over the swell of Verity’s belly, but he didn’t think that was such a great idea. “Are you getting anxious?” he asked. It was better to keep the subject off of himself.

Verity nodded. So long as they were taking good care of him… this would pass. She was sick, too--unnaturally sick--back in January. The Blue Flu. The doctors took care of her, and she got better. Verity was confident that Petie would, too. And everyone else who was sick.

“A bit,” she confessed, answering his question. “I’m a bit terrified of Labor and Delivery and everything that could go wrong.” Nevermind what she’d actually do with a tiny baby in her life after that.

“That’s the easy part,” Petie said in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, but thoughts of his mother’s death in his dreams didn’t help matters. She was alive here, though, and he supposed that should matter more. “Will you be having her in the hospital?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Verity nodded, enthusiastically. “If anything goes wrong, I want to be five seconds away from help, not fifteen minutes.” She didn’t think anything was going to go wrong, but she wanted to be sure that she was surrounded by trained professionals. “Oh, and the drugs. I want to be close to the drugs.”

Oh, yes, the drugs, the drugs were the best part. Petie pointed weakly toward a gray box with a cord attached to it that led to a button he could press for more dilaudid. It was mostly full since Petie didn’t feel like he required very much and he always saw what the stuff did to his father, but he was still glad he had it. Thinking of his father, he frowned and looked at Verity. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “I’m sorry her father isn’t here.” It wasn’t his place, but he was too sick to care much about that part.

Verity looked where he pointed, and gave a gentle nod. She wouldn’t be in charge of her own medication, she was pretty sure. An anesthesiologist would have to come and administer the epidural. But that was different. That would make her completely numb from the waist down. ...so she assumed, anyway. They also had a “walking epidural” which only dumbed down the pain… she hadn’t made up her mind about a lot of this labor and delivery stuff. There was so much to consider.

“I am, too.” Thinking about the hospital stuff was a little easier. That part was doctors and nurses and not 3AM feedings all by herself. “My mom will be here, so there’s that.” For a little while, anyway.

That was good. Mothers were good. In this world, Petie was losing his father. In the other world, he’d barely known his mother, so he was learning not to take things for granted. “You’re going to be a good mother,” Petie said. She would, too. She already did.

Verity blushed a little and gave him a gentle "thank you." Becoming a mother was almost as terrifying as labor and delivery. But more permanent. "I'm going to try my best," she responded. That was all she could do. All anyone could do.