Entry tags:

char: ginny weasley, char: persephone montgomery, location: victory road clinic, time: 2009 08

RP: Evaluating the Womb
Who: Persephone and Ginny
When: Friday, August 18
Where: Victory Road Clinic
What: Ginny is following up with a specialized healer about her pregnancy bombshell.
Warnings: Emotions


Ginny was still struggling to wrap her head around the fact that she was pregnant. Her mind kept cycling between "No!" and "How?!" to the point where all she knew was that she did not want to be pregnant. When Luna had come over and forced her out of the mental fog she'd been in for two days after finding out she was pregnant and benched until she was no longer pregnant, she'd thought she should wait to make a decision until she knew who the father was. If it was Marcus, should she go talk to him about it before making a decision? And if it was any of the number of men she'd slept with before she and Marcus had started dating (though there really hadn't been many in the weeks after returning from Brazil and before starting to date Marcus), would that make any difference?

Instead, shouldn't she just terminate the pregnancy sooner rather than later? Get it done and out of the way so she could get back to her life? It felt like a cold and callous decision to make, but also like the only one that made sense to her. She didn't want kids--that hadn't changed since it had been the driving force in her finally ending things with Harry for good. But had the reality of being pregnant change things? She didn't think so.

All of these thoughts bounced through her head as she sat in the waiting room at the Victory Road Clinic, anxious and paranoid that someone would recognize her and know why she was here. The last thing she needed right now was for it to get out that she was pregnant, especially since she didn't plan to continue the pregnancy. She flipped through a magazine, not really paying attention to anything on the pages, as she waited to be called back.

☤

After her last patient left, Persephone took a few moments to straighten up and make sure that everything was exactly where she liked it. For her, it was a little routine and brought her comfort. Once she was sure that her office was in order, she called for her next patient. She was on her feet to greet Ginny, offering her a hand to shake. "Hi, I'm Persephone Montgomery." They'd actually been in the same year at school, but she doubted that Ginny would remember that. It wasn't important, anyway.

She gestured at the pair of comfortable chairs that were set opposite her desk. "Take a seat and let's have a chat. How are you?"

☤

As Ginny was called back, she was sure she recognized the other woman, but she couldn't place her. It was something that happened more often than she wanted to admit, but could she really be faulted for that? She'd led a very busy life and had an active social circle, so should she be expected to remember everyone she'd ever met? Only once she said her name, it clicked for her, and she shook Persephone's hand. "Ahh, right. Hufflepuff, yeah?" There hadn't been so many people in her class that she couldn't remember them, after all.

She shook the woman's hand and then followed her in, taking a seat in one of the chairs she'd motioned to. "Oh, umm... it's been a bit of a rough time, honestly. I thought I had a stomach bug, but..." Well, obviously she hadn't, as here she was. "So, uh, how does this go?"

☤

"Aye, that's right." Persephone smiled warmly, hoping to make the other woman a little more comfortable. She closed the door firmly so that they would have complete privacy.

Persephone sat behind her desk, hands folded neatly atop the polished surface. "Well," she said carefully, "that depends how you want it to go. Normally I would ask you about your medical history, then I would do an examination. It's non-invasive and you don't even have to get undressed. That'll give us an idea of dates. Then we would talk about..." Judging by Ginny's uncertainty, she chose her words carefully. "...what comes next for ye." She pushed her glasses up. "But we can do that in any order you want. I'm here to help however you need me, ye ken?"

☤

It definitely put her a bit at ease when the door was firmly shut, and Ginny sighed softly as Persephone sat down. "Okay, umm," she began after the healer had explained some of what would normally happen at these things. "Yeah, I understand. So, maybe we can start with the examination? I want... need to know when it happened. Or, you know, as close to as possible," she explained.

Although Ginny didn't think it would change her decision, she still wanted to know.

☤

"I'll get it as close as I possibly can," Persephone assured her. "If you want to go lie down on the examination table, that would be great. Get yourself comfortable, okay? And ye can ask any questions that come to mind." Throughout her sister's pregnancy, she had gotten much better at explaining procedures to patients; that was something she had never really had to do when she was with Healers Without Borders. "I do have to ask you something, though. When was your last period? Is your cycle regular?"

She retrieved the piece of rose quartz that she would need from where it was tucked away in a drawer out of sight with her other diagnostic tools. "I can promise ye this doesn't hurt," she told Ginny, "but some people say it tickles a bit." She paused, knowing this whole experience was a lot to take in for anyone. "I'm going to conjure an image," Persephone explained carefully in case that hadn't registered with Ginny yet. "Then I can measure it and work out the dates."

☤

At Persephone's urging, Ginny got up and went to the examination table, laying on it and shifting until she found herself comfortable enough to not feel completely ridiculous. She blew out a breath, trying to figure out if she had any questions. She wasn't sure she did. But then the healer was asking her a couple questions, and that was a good enough distraction. "Oh, uh, I have no idea. It's been ages. It's never been really regular, honestly," she admitted. "And the birth control I've been using for ages stopped it altogether. So, it's been a few years at least since I had a period."

When Persephone explained what she was about to do, Ginny nodded her head, giving her non-verbal consent to get at it, then. She felt a bit of anxiety about the whole conjuring an imagine thing--would she get to see the.... baby (gods, she hated even thinking the word!) or would it be a different sort of image? Would that make it harder to follow through with her intent to end this pregnancy?

☤

Persephone nodded as she listened: the more Ginny talked, the more she felt certain that Ginny was in the midst of making a difficult decision.

"You can always close your eyes," she said quietly, lifting her wand to start the spells that would create an image of the embryo in the air above Ginny's abdomen. She wouldn't judge if Ginny didn't want to look. There was an anxious air about the woman and not in a joyous, expectant way.

The spell came to her in quick, practised movements. Persephone's was a mask of concentration as she studied the image before her, moving the piece of rose quartz to manipulate it and measure it properly. She flicked the tip of her wand and the shimmering image disappeared.

"I would say you conceived at some point in the first two weeks of June. How does that sound to you?"

☤

It felt like closing her eyes would be the cowardly choice, and Ginny didn't want to be a coward just then. Wasn't it cowardly enough that she wasn't planning to continue on this path? Or was it just selfish? But it was her life that would be forever changed, and didn't that give her the right to be selfish? She could just imagine what her mum would say... which only made her pray that her mum never found out about this.

She stared at the ceiling as the thoughts swirled through her mind while Persephone performed the spell, but she glanced forward before the healer disappeared the image, and she saw the tiny swirling embryo--only a few centimeters, really. It looked human, and that was somewhat horrifying to the young woman. She turned her face back toward the ceiling and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to fight back tears.

When Persephone spoke, telling her about when she'd conceived, Ginny winced. So, before Marcus, then. That was at the tail end of her holiday with Luna, and there had been only one, maybe two people in those couple weeks after she got back, which meant... "Fuck," she breathed, her mind landing on the most likely culprit for having knocked her up. Someone she knew had just gotten married. Well, what did it really matter? He didn't have to ever know, after all.

☤

Persephone slipped both her wand and the rose quartz into the deep pockets of her soft duck egg blue robes. Ginny's reaction didn't go unnoticed and Persephone's heart went out to her. She knew she would never be able to continue with a pregnancy if she ever found herself in the same position.

"Let's go sit back down and have a chat," she said gently. "Can I get you anything? A drink of water? Or tea?" She wasn't above pinching some of that lavender tea that Alec liked so much.

☤

At Persephone's gentle words, Ginny sat up and slid off the exam table, going back to sit in the squishy chair. "Umm, no thank you," she answered. She didn't want to risk putting anything in her stomach right now. "What are my... options," she said after a brief pause, "if I really don't want this to be happening?" It felt like a more delicate way of saying she wanted to terminate the pregnancy, something she knew would cause heartache for probably several people in her life.

☤

Persephone took the chair beside Ginny rather than sitting at her desk. "Firstly, nothing's going to happen today. That's standard policy and I'd need a little time to prepare." She folded her hand in her lap. "At this stage in a pregnancy, there are essentially two options. One is a potion, the other is a more physical procedure." Pausing for a moment, she then proceeded to explain everything in detail so that Ginny could make an informed decision. She could recommend a counsellor for before or after, too, she advised, but she wasn't sure whether Ginny would take her up on that.

"Ultimately, it's your decision and ye can take all the time ye want to think about it. I can even give you some information to read if you want it."

☤

Ginny grimaced a bit when Persephone told her nothing would happen today. That was disappointing, as she really just wanted it done and over with. She didn't want to wait and risk not being able to play another week at least, but she also understood the need to prepare for whatever would happen. As the healer explained the two options she had, Ginny stayed quiet, listening and trying not to just make a knee-jerk decision. This was something she probably should think about.

"All right. Umm, will one of the options have a quicker recovery time, physically, than the other?" she asked. That was the most important thing to her, that it be safe and that she would be able to get back to her life quickly. "And when is the soonest I could come back in for it?" She could take the information to read and take time to think it over, but she couldn't imagine anything changing her mind. She didn't want to be a mum, and she definitely didn't want to have the baby of a man who'd just married someone else, someone she'd never intended to see again after hooking up with.

☤

"I would say the surgical procedure. The potion can cause nausea for several days after the fact. But ye may bleed for a couple of weeks afterwards." Persephone knew that she was a Quidditch player and her career was likely weighing heavily on her decision to move quickly, but Persephone had her own professionalism to worry about too. "I can do this tomorrow," she said, despite not normally working on Saturdays, "but ye won't be playing in next week's match either. Practice, maybe, but ye won't be match fit right away." It would be frustrating, but it was the way of things.

☤

Then she would do the surgical procedure, Ginny decided. She'd had enough nausea lately that she didn't want to deal with more of it, and she could deal with bleeding for a couple weeks. It would make things awkward with Marcus for a while, if he even still wanted to date her, but it was just a couple weeks. That was nothing. It was Persephone's insistence that she wouldn't be able to play in next week's match that had her flinching.

"Well fuck," she muttered. "Okay, it's...." She blew out a breath, pausing to gather her thoughts. "It's the beginning of the season. Missing the first two games isn't the end of the world." And it was better than being out for the bulk of the season carrying a child she didn't want. "But yeah, I'd like to do it tomorrow, and um, the procedure seems like the better choice." But now she just wanted to go home and cry a bit. And then she'd call Luna and see if she could come with her tomorrow.

☤

"No, it isn't," Persephone agreed, "but you'll be back to practice in a few days." She needed to explain herself a bit more. "It's the unpredictability of Quidditch, I'm afraid. The Snitch could be caught in five minutes or it could be three days. But you're going to need some rest. This sort of thing can take its toll and not just physically." Maybe Ginny would bounce back emotionally straight away, maybe she wouldn't; she hoped that Ginny would at least consider counselling, but she knew from personal experience that it wasn't easy knowing how to ask for help for your mental health.

She reached out her hand to briefly touch Ginny's. "Ye just sit tight. I need ye to sign a form and I'll print off some things for ye to read."

☤

Ginny sucked in a deep breath at Persephone's explanation and then blew it out slowly. "Right. No, I understand." She didn't have to be happy about any of this, but she understood it. She realized then that she had no idea how she'd gotten pregnant and wondered if she should get her birth control situation checked out and updated if need be. But she could ask Persephone about that tomorrow. She didn't want to deal with it today.

"All right, then." She nodded slightly, appreciating Persephone's professional yet kind manner. She waited quietly while Persephone got the things, and then she signed the form set in front of her. With the other papers in hand that she was to take home and read, she looked at the healer. "Is there anything else? Any special instructions to prepare for tomorrow?" she asked, feeling an anxious knot in her stomach.

☤

"I'd say don't eat breakfast. But I have you scheduled in early anyway. Go home and get some rest." Ginny looked like she needed some peace and quiet right about now, Persephone thought. "You're welcome to bring someone with you. I'm going to ask ye to stay here for about an hour afterwards just to keep an eye on ye." While Ginny wouldn't be unconscious for the procedure, there would still be some sedation, as well as pain relief. "Your health is my priority."

Persephone handed Ginny a business card with her name and contact details on. "Here. My phone is always on, ye ken? Text or call any time if ye have questions or just need to talk."

☤

At the instructions, which were really simple enough, Ginny nodded. "I can do that, yeah." Though she wasn't sure how restful it would be until after this was all said and done. "Oh good." She was relieved she was allowed to bring someone, as she definitely wanted Luna to come with. And staying for a bit after seemed like the smart thing to do. Even if the risks were small, she still wanted to make sure she got the best care possible so that she could get back to her life as quickly as she could.

"Thanks, Persephone. I appreciate this," she said softly. She stood up then and nodded to the healer. "So, tomorrow, then." She didn't think there was any reason to linger at that point, so she nodded once more and then turned to head out. Hopefully this would blow over quickly and have little or, more preferably, no impact on her career and social life.