(no subject)
Who: Rowena, Salazar and St Mungos Healers
What: Rowena goes into labor
Rating: Um. PG-13
Salazar checked his journal on a mere whim, as he was in the forest
conversing with the mystical serpents that lived within, and he had
never been happier that he did. As soon as he saw that Rowena said
that she had gone into labour, he cast the snakes aside and ran faster
than he ever had in his life into the castle, down into the dungeons
and to their chambers, leaving his shirt, and shoes outside.
He nearly crashed into a suit of armour and a statue of a dragon in
his rush to get to her. When he finally reached their chambers, he
threw the door open, panting and sweating.
Rowena was sitting calmly on the sofa, a book propped up on the swell
of her stomach, absorbed in Hemingway. When Salazar burst in, she
glanced up, eyebrows lifting automatically, marking her spot on the
page with her finger. "Well," she said, "that was prompt. Honestly.
My water hasn't even broken yet."
She smiled slightly condescendingly at him, and that smile became a
grimace as another contraction swept over her, causing her to tilt
forward slightly. It was gone in seconds, though, leaving her only
slightly more flushed.
"You cannot be so calm about this!" Salazar felt like his insides were
about to explode by the way she was acting. "Too early... Too. Early."
He walked over to the sofa and sat down next to her, watching her like
she would burst into flames at any moment.
"I keep telling myself that it is a perfectly natural process. Many
women go through this. It is a life milestone." The contraction was
continuing as Rowena spoke, though she forced her tone to remain at
least vaguely steady.
When he next spoke, he nearly shouted at her. "What part of 'too
early' are you not getting?" With that knowledge, he was finding it
difficult to understand how she can seem to calm about it. If it were
a woman she was a doctor to, he could understand. But not about
herself and their child....
"Well, I can either sit here with contractions, or sit in the hospital
with them. I--," Rowena suddenly broke off as the contraction
clenched her stomach roughly. She paled and pressed a hand to her
mouth as she coughed violently, spitting blood into her palm.
"That solves that problem." Salazar experienced his own
contraction, though he thought it was nerves other than sympathy
pains. He shrugged it off and stood, holding his hands out to her.
"We're going to the hospital-- Where is that fucking cure?" Ever since
she told him about it, Salazar spending countless hours going over
it's location, memorising it flawlessly. Now however, he had no idea.
Rowena felt as though she were about to faint. Salazar appeared to be
spreading like dye in water out to the sides, diffusing in the air.
She stared at him wordlessly for a moment, the blood still hot and wet
on her hands. "It's...ah...." Her head spun. "Laboratory. Freezer.
Second tube to...to the right."
"Be right back!" Salazar Apparated to her laboratory, and searched
frantically through the freezer for the cure. In his haste to find it,
he missed it several times before finally finding it. He put it safely
in his pocket and went back to their chambers.
"Okay. Now we go."
Rowena stood slowly, not quite trusting herself on her feet. The
dizziness passed, though, as that contraction faded and moved on. She
grasped for Salazar's hand.
"Do you need me to carry you?" he asked, taking her hand. She appeared
to be better, if only slightly, but he was not about to risk her
fainting.
Rowena shook her head. "No...I think I'm fine." She gripped his hand
tight, praying to stay off another contraction at least until they
were at the hospital. She smiled, tilting her chin up. "I'm fine."
Forgetting to put another shirt or pair of shoes on again, Salazar
wrapped his arm protectively around her waist and carefully Disappate.
Once at the hospital, he pushed them through the long line at the
reception desk, past a woman covered with pussing bright orange horns,
and up to the front.
"Salazar," Rowena muttered, face flushing in embarrassment as he cut
the line. "We aren't urgent. We can wait...."
"Yes we are and no we cannot," he said irritably. He never expected to
act this way when it was time for their son to be born, but then
again, he never expected him to be born this early. He didn't act even
close to this way during the birth of his two now deceased children,
although this would be the first time he was permitted by the mother
to be in the same building.
"Salazar. Labor is not urgen--" Another contraction hit her
and she broke off, choking on her own words as her stomach clenched
and she felt her chest constrict, forcing another bloody cough from
her lips.
"This is," he said tersely. He made to pull his shirt towards
her to wipe the blood away, forgetting that he forgot to put one on,
and swore under his breath.
Rowena's skin had been taking on a yellowish, jaundiced hue over the
past few days, but this paled as she stumbled once, tripping over
nothing, grabbing Salazar's arm to keep from tumbling face first to
the ground. The room was spinning again.
Salazar lifted her into his arms and glared at the receptionist, who
had been looking at them with a shocked expression since the cut to
the front of the line. "Aren't you going to get someone?" he snapped.
The receptionist hit a button on the wall, signaling that aid was
needed in the lobby.
Rowena gripped the edge of the desk with both hands, keeping herself
upright. Her eyes focused on the golden tone of her skin. "My
liver..." she murmured, closing her eyes and letting her head fall
forward, biting back another round of pain.
"... is failing." Salazar finished her sentence for her, his
temperature rising even higher at the poor service at this hospital.
"That makes two of us, now," Rowena said grimly, a poor attempt at
jest. Her stomach curled inward on itself and she felt as though she
were about to vomit.
The Healers finally arrived, and charmed Rowena onto a stretcher
taking her and Ronan's vitals as they did so. The wheeled her into the
back, and Salazar followed closely, watching them intently. His
paranoia increased tenfold because of their late arrival.
Rowena's heart felt as though it were beating impossibly fast against
her ribcage and she was suddenly nervous. The new experience of
having a child, coupled with the strong possibility of death before
the cure could be administered...was incredible. Another contraction
hit her without warning, stronger than ever, and she cried out.
Salazar felt extremely sick when he heard her cry out, more of out not
being able to help her than anything else.
"Breathe," one of the nurses was urging her. "In and out--breathe
with me, okay? In--out--."
Rowena felt as though she were about to hyperventilate.
"I'm not going to let you die," Salazar said to Rowena, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "I promise."
Rowena had accepted her soon-coming death for months, but now that she
had grown accustomed to the knowledge that there was a cure, she found
that she was no longer ready to die.
The nurses wheeled her into an obstetrics delivery room, breaking the
bed and hooking Rowena up to an IV of fluids and anaglesics.
Salazar hung back, and one of the nurses handed him scrubs to change into.
Another contraction clenched in Rowena's stomach, and the nurse lay a
hand on her upper arm. "Don't push," she said. "We're going to have
to do a caesarean. Can you roll onto your side...?"
Salazar came in a few moments later, dressed in blue hospital scrubs and cap. He walked directly over to Rowena's side and took her hand again.
The nurses helped Rowena turn onto her left side, and she never let go
of Salazar's hand, even as they slipped a long needle in between the
space between her L4 and L5 lumbar vertebra, injecting the epidural
into the cauda equina of her spine.
Salazar felt very sensitive to Rowena right now, and he had to look away when she was given the epidural.
Rowena bit back another cry of pain as they withdrew the needle and
rolled her onto her back once more. Someone was charming off her
shirt and rubbing iodine on her stomach, rust-colored liquid staining
her skin.
Salazar knelt on the floor, so they were face to face, and he rubbed the back of her hand gently.
Lidocaine was injected on her stomach for good measure, though the
epidural and the other anaesthesia already had her sufficiently numb.
But the instant the scalpel broke her skin, a sharp gasp escaped her
lips and her whole body stiffened, her blood pressure skyrocketing as
her limbs began to tremble.
"She's seizing," the doctor noted, setting down the scalpel. "Hold
her still. Anna, give her Ativan."
The nurses hurried to restrain Rowena's arms and legs as one of the
women injected the sedative into the IV.
"It's hit her central nervous system now," the Healer told Salazar.
"One of the anaesthetics must have triggered it...."
"I can see that," Salazar said irritably. "Fix it."
"We can't fix it," the man said. "The damage is done, and
will only get worse. If it's in her brain, she isn't going to
survive." His tone was blunt, straightforward. "The most we can do
is control the seizures during the surgery."
"Then get one with it!" Salazar shouted angrily. "And here..." Salazar pulled out the cure and handed it to him. "Her cure."
"So she actually found it," the doctor sounded surprised. Rowena had
mentioned her studies on her last obstetrics check-up, but he'd never
believed she would actually find the cure.
Her seizure had stopped now, and a second potion seemed to be bringing
her out of the deep sleep that normally followed convulsions.
"Yes, she did. Now get back to work."
The Healer nodded and resumed cutting into Rowena's stomach.
Rowena herself was reaching for Salazar's hand again, pale and clammy,
beads of sweat covering her brow.
He grabbed her hand as soon he saw her reaching for him, and wiped the sweat from her brow.
The Healer finished the incisions and had the nurses hold back the
flaps of skin. The uterus was visible, swollen with the child,
however premature. The Healer slipped two fingers inside Rowena,
palpating the lower end, as his other hand reached into her opened
abdomen to find the best way to remove the fetus.
Salazar put her hand in both of his and kissed her knuckles, looking down at her lovingly.
Rowena smiled at him weakly, but her eyes fell closed and she began
shaking again, though less violently this time.
The Healer pulled his hands out of her just in time, as the nurses
held Rowena down once more, this time merely waiting for the
convulsions to pass rather than administering Ativan. At this point,
with Rowena already opened up, the drug could prove fatal.
His heart stopped every time this happened, a small bit of hope going away time. he wished the Healers would hurry up.
The seizure passed, though this time, the amount of potion it was safe
to administer couldn't wake her from unconsciousness, nor could the
Ennervate charm. The Healer seemed to take it all in stride,
resuming his former stance and slipping a scalpel into the base of the
uterus, slitting a crease in the tissue.
To stifle his anxiety, Salazar knelt onto the floor and kept his head down, unwilling to look at her while unconscious.
The slit continued around in a semi-circle, and the tone of the voices
of the nurses and Healers seemed to increase in volume and intensity.
One of the nurses tapped Salazar on the shoulder.
"We're about to take him out."
Salazar lifted his head just enough to watch what they were about to do.
There was blood on the Healer's hands as he shifted their position in
Rowena's stomach, seeming to latch onto something. It took a bit of
tugging, but then a loud cry split the air as an infant head came into
view.
Salazar smiled nervously when he saw his son. He didn't want to hope that everything was fine until Ronan was checked and Rowena took her cure.
The Healer was very quick about his business, snipping the umbilical
cord and handing the baby off to a nurse for the usual cleansing of
nose and ears, palpation of spine, etcetera. Ronan was unnaturally
small, though that was only to be expected given his age. He
instantly got his own vital monitor screen, which was already
displaying a noticeable cardiac arrhythmia and a low oxygen saturation
rate.
"He needs to go to the pediatric CCU," the Healer told Salazar
instantly. "Heart defect, plus the prematurity...and he probably
inherited her TB, too."
Salazar sighed somberly, and nodded. This news made him feel like he wanted to cry.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," the doctor said reassuringly. "Most
preemies survive, even those with congenital cardiac defects. And if
this cure of yours works, then there won't be any problem. Speaking
of which---"
His next words were interrupted by the shrill siren alarm of Rowena's
monitor screen as her heart line went erratic, the green stream
becoming a mere vibration, craggy, jagged, with no pattern at all, no
rhythm.
"Ventricular fibrillation. Get me that crash cart. Anna, epi. And
someone, for the love of God, charm her closed!"
The room burst into activity.
"You should have been curing her instead of talking to me!" he shouted angrily, getting out of the way.
No one said anything to him at first, or even seemed to recognise that
he had spoken. Someone managed to spell Rowena's uterus and stomach
shut just in time for the cart to arrive with a series of potions and
syringes. The Healer was finding the correct position on Rowena's
chest and administering the first jolt of electricity. Rowena's pulse
paused briefly, then resumed, as unruly as ever.
Then a first year Healing student tapped Salazar on the arm. "Sorry,
sir," she said into his ear, "but that cure you were talking about....
We're going to need it." She held out her hand.
"I GAVE IT TO HIM EARLIER!"
"...Oh." The woman shied away and the Healer sent another jolt of
electricity through Rowena's chest, stronger this time. When this
didn't work, he snapped his fingers, ordering a nurse to fill a
syringe with the cure and inject it into the IV as he shocked Rowena a
third time to no avail.
Salazar was fuming, dead set in sueing the hospital for malpractice and he never saw them inject her with the cure.
After the fourth shock, Rowena's pulse went flat and stayed that way,
a long, unwavering green line, stagnant. A shot of epinephrine made
no difference and the Healer stepped back, peeling off his gloves and
turning toward a scribe. "Time of death, two fifty-nine pm."
Salazar felt his insides collapse when the Healer called her time of death, and he pressed his forehead against the wall, forcing the tears fighting their way out to stay where they were until he was alone.
A nurse turned off the monitors to quell the sirens, and so that
Salazar would not have to hear the flat hum of asystole. Someone
touched Salazar's back gently, then drew back. The Healer disappeared
into the scrub-out room to wash his hands and get undressed, the
nurses cleaning up the materials.
"Sir...I know this isn't the right time, but...I need you to sign
these papers...." A nurse offered him the forms acknowledging that he
was present for the death of a patient and that he gave permission for
an autopsy to be performed on the body.
"I'll do it later." His voice was flat, emotionless from the effort it took to keep from crying.
The girl nodded and turned around to help her colleagues put away the
syringes on the other side of the room, leaving Salazar, for a moment,
alone with Rowena.
It was a few seconds before anything happened, but then she spoke--
'Salazar...is it over?"
Salazar moved so fast he hurt his neck and was left momentarily immobile from the pain. Once he regained the ability to move, he hurried to her side on shaky legs, smiling and feeling an even more overwhelming need to cry than he had felt before. "It's over," he said breathlessly.
"I feel...good," Rowena said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.
"Really good, actually...." She smiled, and her eyes were bright,
alert. "I'd forgotten what it was like to be healthy."
Salazar laughed from pure happiness, and bent over to hiss her deeply on the lips.
One of the nurses had noticed that Rowena was, in fact, alive, and
summoned the doctor back into the room. He entered half-dressed in
scrub, looking thoroughly astonished, but not at all unpleased.
"Well, this certainly deserves a congratulations, mate," he told
Salazar, patting him on the back twice. "I'd heard of things like
this happening before, but I'd never actually seen it
myself...."
"I'm still going to sue you," Salazar said to the Healer seriously.
The man did not seem at all concerned, as though this happened all of
the time. "The patient advocate will put you in touch with the St
Mungo's attorney." He reconjured Rowena's vital monitor.
"Incredible," he whispered. "A complete turnaround. Perfectly
normal...."
"As soon as you've finished muttering," Salazar said coolly, "perhaps you could tell us how our son is?"
The Healer looked thoroughly chagrined and he pulled up a chair,
sitting down and crossing his arms across his thighs. "He's in the
paediatric CCU at the moment," he said for Rowena's benefit, "being
stabilized. He obviously has several problems due to his significant
prematurity, and it is very likely that he has inherited the
tuberculosis to some degree. Preliminary scans show what looks to be
congenital aortic stenosis."
Of course, Rowena thought, I couldn't ever really expect to
handle that BSL 4 virus and not have my son suffer some ill effect for
it.
"That can be managed with medications, and nearly cured with surgery
when he is old enough to handle it."
"Are you finished now?"
The Healer nodded, seeing his cue to leave.
Rowena was squeezing Salazar's hand even tighter, despite the fact
that she knew that in all likelihood her son would survive and be as
healthy as could be.
"I'm going to sue the hospital," he said again. "I mean it."
"Why are you going to sue the hospital?" Rowena asked. "Ronan's
sick because of me, not them."
"You died while the Healer was saying something to me."
"Don't be ridiculous. I didn't die. Obviously. I probably
simply had a cardiac arrest."
"Don't argue with me."
"I'm the one who just had a baby. I'll argue as much as I want,"
Rowena said stubbornly, glaring at him with an astonishing amount of
energy. "And I have automatic victory rights."
"I'm only stopping this conversation because you had a long day." Though the subject was now dropped, he was still determined to sue the hospital.
Two of the nurses returned to take Rowena into a recovery suite, promising both her and Salazar that they could go down to the CCU in the morning to see their son.
"I'm going back to the castle to shower, and get clothes for us for the next few days." He bent over to kiss her forehead. "I'll be back in a bit."
"All right." Rowena tugged him back by the hand and embraced him quickly. "I love you."
"I love you too." Salazar kissed her again, before heading back to the castle.
What: Rowena goes into labor
Rating: Um. PG-13
Salazar checked his journal on a mere whim, as he was in the forest
conversing with the mystical serpents that lived within, and he had
never been happier that he did. As soon as he saw that Rowena said
that she had gone into labour, he cast the snakes aside and ran faster
than he ever had in his life into the castle, down into the dungeons
and to their chambers, leaving his shirt, and shoes outside.
He nearly crashed into a suit of armour and a statue of a dragon in
his rush to get to her. When he finally reached their chambers, he
threw the door open, panting and sweating.
Rowena was sitting calmly on the sofa, a book propped up on the swell
of her stomach, absorbed in Hemingway. When Salazar burst in, she
glanced up, eyebrows lifting automatically, marking her spot on the
page with her finger. "Well," she said, "that was prompt. Honestly.
My water hasn't even broken yet."
She smiled slightly condescendingly at him, and that smile became a
grimace as another contraction swept over her, causing her to tilt
forward slightly. It was gone in seconds, though, leaving her only
slightly more flushed.
"You cannot be so calm about this!" Salazar felt like his insides were
about to explode by the way she was acting. "Too early... Too. Early."
He walked over to the sofa and sat down next to her, watching her like
she would burst into flames at any moment.
"I keep telling myself that it is a perfectly natural process. Many
women go through this. It is a life milestone." The contraction was
continuing as Rowena spoke, though she forced her tone to remain at
least vaguely steady.
When he next spoke, he nearly shouted at her. "What part of 'too
early' are you not getting?" With that knowledge, he was finding it
difficult to understand how she can seem to calm about it. If it were
a woman she was a doctor to, he could understand. But not about
herself and their child....
"Well, I can either sit here with contractions, or sit in the hospital
with them. I--," Rowena suddenly broke off as the contraction
clenched her stomach roughly. She paled and pressed a hand to her
mouth as she coughed violently, spitting blood into her palm.
"That solves that problem." Salazar experienced his own
contraction, though he thought it was nerves other than sympathy
pains. He shrugged it off and stood, holding his hands out to her.
"We're going to the hospital-- Where is that fucking cure?" Ever since
she told him about it, Salazar spending countless hours going over
it's location, memorising it flawlessly. Now however, he had no idea.
Rowena felt as though she were about to faint. Salazar appeared to be
spreading like dye in water out to the sides, diffusing in the air.
She stared at him wordlessly for a moment, the blood still hot and wet
on her hands. "It's...ah...." Her head spun. "Laboratory. Freezer.
Second tube to...to the right."
"Be right back!" Salazar Apparated to her laboratory, and searched
frantically through the freezer for the cure. In his haste to find it,
he missed it several times before finally finding it. He put it safely
in his pocket and went back to their chambers.
"Okay. Now we go."
Rowena stood slowly, not quite trusting herself on her feet. The
dizziness passed, though, as that contraction faded and moved on. She
grasped for Salazar's hand.
"Do you need me to carry you?" he asked, taking her hand. She appeared
to be better, if only slightly, but he was not about to risk her
fainting.
Rowena shook her head. "No...I think I'm fine." She gripped his hand
tight, praying to stay off another contraction at least until they
were at the hospital. She smiled, tilting her chin up. "I'm fine."
Forgetting to put another shirt or pair of shoes on again, Salazar
wrapped his arm protectively around her waist and carefully Disappate.
Once at the hospital, he pushed them through the long line at the
reception desk, past a woman covered with pussing bright orange horns,
and up to the front.
"Salazar," Rowena muttered, face flushing in embarrassment as he cut
the line. "We aren't urgent. We can wait...."
"Yes we are and no we cannot," he said irritably. He never expected to
act this way when it was time for their son to be born, but then
again, he never expected him to be born this early. He didn't act even
close to this way during the birth of his two now deceased children,
although this would be the first time he was permitted by the mother
to be in the same building.
"Salazar. Labor is not urgen--" Another contraction hit her
and she broke off, choking on her own words as her stomach clenched
and she felt her chest constrict, forcing another bloody cough from
her lips.
"This is," he said tersely. He made to pull his shirt towards
her to wipe the blood away, forgetting that he forgot to put one on,
and swore under his breath.
Rowena's skin had been taking on a yellowish, jaundiced hue over the
past few days, but this paled as she stumbled once, tripping over
nothing, grabbing Salazar's arm to keep from tumbling face first to
the ground. The room was spinning again.
Salazar lifted her into his arms and glared at the receptionist, who
had been looking at them with a shocked expression since the cut to
the front of the line. "Aren't you going to get someone?" he snapped.
The receptionist hit a button on the wall, signaling that aid was
needed in the lobby.
Rowena gripped the edge of the desk with both hands, keeping herself
upright. Her eyes focused on the golden tone of her skin. "My
liver..." she murmured, closing her eyes and letting her head fall
forward, biting back another round of pain.
"... is failing." Salazar finished her sentence for her, his
temperature rising even higher at the poor service at this hospital.
"That makes two of us, now," Rowena said grimly, a poor attempt at
jest. Her stomach curled inward on itself and she felt as though she
were about to vomit.
The Healers finally arrived, and charmed Rowena onto a stretcher
taking her and Ronan's vitals as they did so. The wheeled her into the
back, and Salazar followed closely, watching them intently. His
paranoia increased tenfold because of their late arrival.
Rowena's heart felt as though it were beating impossibly fast against
her ribcage and she was suddenly nervous. The new experience of
having a child, coupled with the strong possibility of death before
the cure could be administered...was incredible. Another contraction
hit her without warning, stronger than ever, and she cried out.
Salazar felt extremely sick when he heard her cry out, more of out not
being able to help her than anything else.
"Breathe," one of the nurses was urging her. "In and out--breathe
with me, okay? In--out--."
Rowena felt as though she were about to hyperventilate.
"I'm not going to let you die," Salazar said to Rowena, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. "I promise."
Rowena had accepted her soon-coming death for months, but now that she
had grown accustomed to the knowledge that there was a cure, she found
that she was no longer ready to die.
The nurses wheeled her into an obstetrics delivery room, breaking the
bed and hooking Rowena up to an IV of fluids and anaglesics.
Salazar hung back, and one of the nurses handed him scrubs to change into.
Another contraction clenched in Rowena's stomach, and the nurse lay a
hand on her upper arm. "Don't push," she said. "We're going to have
to do a caesarean. Can you roll onto your side...?"
Salazar came in a few moments later, dressed in blue hospital scrubs and cap. He walked directly over to Rowena's side and took her hand again.
The nurses helped Rowena turn onto her left side, and she never let go
of Salazar's hand, even as they slipped a long needle in between the
space between her L4 and L5 lumbar vertebra, injecting the epidural
into the cauda equina of her spine.
Salazar felt very sensitive to Rowena right now, and he had to look away when she was given the epidural.
Rowena bit back another cry of pain as they withdrew the needle and
rolled her onto her back once more. Someone was charming off her
shirt and rubbing iodine on her stomach, rust-colored liquid staining
her skin.
Salazar knelt on the floor, so they were face to face, and he rubbed the back of her hand gently.
Lidocaine was injected on her stomach for good measure, though the
epidural and the other anaesthesia already had her sufficiently numb.
But the instant the scalpel broke her skin, a sharp gasp escaped her
lips and her whole body stiffened, her blood pressure skyrocketing as
her limbs began to tremble.
"She's seizing," the doctor noted, setting down the scalpel. "Hold
her still. Anna, give her Ativan."
The nurses hurried to restrain Rowena's arms and legs as one of the
women injected the sedative into the IV.
"It's hit her central nervous system now," the Healer told Salazar.
"One of the anaesthetics must have triggered it...."
"I can see that," Salazar said irritably. "Fix it."
"We can't fix it," the man said. "The damage is done, and
will only get worse. If it's in her brain, she isn't going to
survive." His tone was blunt, straightforward. "The most we can do
is control the seizures during the surgery."
"Then get one with it!" Salazar shouted angrily. "And here..." Salazar pulled out the cure and handed it to him. "Her cure."
"So she actually found it," the doctor sounded surprised. Rowena had
mentioned her studies on her last obstetrics check-up, but he'd never
believed she would actually find the cure.
Her seizure had stopped now, and a second potion seemed to be bringing
her out of the deep sleep that normally followed convulsions.
"Yes, she did. Now get back to work."
The Healer nodded and resumed cutting into Rowena's stomach.
Rowena herself was reaching for Salazar's hand again, pale and clammy,
beads of sweat covering her brow.
He grabbed her hand as soon he saw her reaching for him, and wiped the sweat from her brow.
The Healer finished the incisions and had the nurses hold back the
flaps of skin. The uterus was visible, swollen with the child,
however premature. The Healer slipped two fingers inside Rowena,
palpating the lower end, as his other hand reached into her opened
abdomen to find the best way to remove the fetus.
Salazar put her hand in both of his and kissed her knuckles, looking down at her lovingly.
Rowena smiled at him weakly, but her eyes fell closed and she began
shaking again, though less violently this time.
The Healer pulled his hands out of her just in time, as the nurses
held Rowena down once more, this time merely waiting for the
convulsions to pass rather than administering Ativan. At this point,
with Rowena already opened up, the drug could prove fatal.
His heart stopped every time this happened, a small bit of hope going away time. he wished the Healers would hurry up.
The seizure passed, though this time, the amount of potion it was safe
to administer couldn't wake her from unconsciousness, nor could the
Ennervate charm. The Healer seemed to take it all in stride,
resuming his former stance and slipping a scalpel into the base of the
uterus, slitting a crease in the tissue.
To stifle his anxiety, Salazar knelt onto the floor and kept his head down, unwilling to look at her while unconscious.
The slit continued around in a semi-circle, and the tone of the voices
of the nurses and Healers seemed to increase in volume and intensity.
One of the nurses tapped Salazar on the shoulder.
"We're about to take him out."
Salazar lifted his head just enough to watch what they were about to do.
There was blood on the Healer's hands as he shifted their position in
Rowena's stomach, seeming to latch onto something. It took a bit of
tugging, but then a loud cry split the air as an infant head came into
view.
Salazar smiled nervously when he saw his son. He didn't want to hope that everything was fine until Ronan was checked and Rowena took her cure.
The Healer was very quick about his business, snipping the umbilical
cord and handing the baby off to a nurse for the usual cleansing of
nose and ears, palpation of spine, etcetera. Ronan was unnaturally
small, though that was only to be expected given his age. He
instantly got his own vital monitor screen, which was already
displaying a noticeable cardiac arrhythmia and a low oxygen saturation
rate.
"He needs to go to the pediatric CCU," the Healer told Salazar
instantly. "Heart defect, plus the prematurity...and he probably
inherited her TB, too."
Salazar sighed somberly, and nodded. This news made him feel like he wanted to cry.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," the doctor said reassuringly. "Most
preemies survive, even those with congenital cardiac defects. And if
this cure of yours works, then there won't be any problem. Speaking
of which---"
His next words were interrupted by the shrill siren alarm of Rowena's
monitor screen as her heart line went erratic, the green stream
becoming a mere vibration, craggy, jagged, with no pattern at all, no
rhythm.
"Ventricular fibrillation. Get me that crash cart. Anna, epi. And
someone, for the love of God, charm her closed!"
The room burst into activity.
"You should have been curing her instead of talking to me!" he shouted angrily, getting out of the way.
No one said anything to him at first, or even seemed to recognise that
he had spoken. Someone managed to spell Rowena's uterus and stomach
shut just in time for the cart to arrive with a series of potions and
syringes. The Healer was finding the correct position on Rowena's
chest and administering the first jolt of electricity. Rowena's pulse
paused briefly, then resumed, as unruly as ever.
Then a first year Healing student tapped Salazar on the arm. "Sorry,
sir," she said into his ear, "but that cure you were talking about....
We're going to need it." She held out her hand.
"I GAVE IT TO HIM EARLIER!"
"...Oh." The woman shied away and the Healer sent another jolt of
electricity through Rowena's chest, stronger this time. When this
didn't work, he snapped his fingers, ordering a nurse to fill a
syringe with the cure and inject it into the IV as he shocked Rowena a
third time to no avail.
Salazar was fuming, dead set in sueing the hospital for malpractice and he never saw them inject her with the cure.
After the fourth shock, Rowena's pulse went flat and stayed that way,
a long, unwavering green line, stagnant. A shot of epinephrine made
no difference and the Healer stepped back, peeling off his gloves and
turning toward a scribe. "Time of death, two fifty-nine pm."
Salazar felt his insides collapse when the Healer called her time of death, and he pressed his forehead against the wall, forcing the tears fighting their way out to stay where they were until he was alone.
A nurse turned off the monitors to quell the sirens, and so that
Salazar would not have to hear the flat hum of asystole. Someone
touched Salazar's back gently, then drew back. The Healer disappeared
into the scrub-out room to wash his hands and get undressed, the
nurses cleaning up the materials.
"Sir...I know this isn't the right time, but...I need you to sign
these papers...." A nurse offered him the forms acknowledging that he
was present for the death of a patient and that he gave permission for
an autopsy to be performed on the body.
"I'll do it later." His voice was flat, emotionless from the effort it took to keep from crying.
The girl nodded and turned around to help her colleagues put away the
syringes on the other side of the room, leaving Salazar, for a moment,
alone with Rowena.
It was a few seconds before anything happened, but then she spoke--
'Salazar...is it over?"
Salazar moved so fast he hurt his neck and was left momentarily immobile from the pain. Once he regained the ability to move, he hurried to her side on shaky legs, smiling and feeling an even more overwhelming need to cry than he had felt before. "It's over," he said breathlessly.
"I feel...good," Rowena said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.
"Really good, actually...." She smiled, and her eyes were bright,
alert. "I'd forgotten what it was like to be healthy."
Salazar laughed from pure happiness, and bent over to hiss her deeply on the lips.
One of the nurses had noticed that Rowena was, in fact, alive, and
summoned the doctor back into the room. He entered half-dressed in
scrub, looking thoroughly astonished, but not at all unpleased.
"Well, this certainly deserves a congratulations, mate," he told
Salazar, patting him on the back twice. "I'd heard of things like
this happening before, but I'd never actually seen it
myself...."
"I'm still going to sue you," Salazar said to the Healer seriously.
The man did not seem at all concerned, as though this happened all of
the time. "The patient advocate will put you in touch with the St
Mungo's attorney." He reconjured Rowena's vital monitor.
"Incredible," he whispered. "A complete turnaround. Perfectly
normal...."
"As soon as you've finished muttering," Salazar said coolly, "perhaps you could tell us how our son is?"
The Healer looked thoroughly chagrined and he pulled up a chair,
sitting down and crossing his arms across his thighs. "He's in the
paediatric CCU at the moment," he said for Rowena's benefit, "being
stabilized. He obviously has several problems due to his significant
prematurity, and it is very likely that he has inherited the
tuberculosis to some degree. Preliminary scans show what looks to be
congenital aortic stenosis."
Of course, Rowena thought, I couldn't ever really expect to
handle that BSL 4 virus and not have my son suffer some ill effect for
it.
"That can be managed with medications, and nearly cured with surgery
when he is old enough to handle it."
"Are you finished now?"
The Healer nodded, seeing his cue to leave.
Rowena was squeezing Salazar's hand even tighter, despite the fact
that she knew that in all likelihood her son would survive and be as
healthy as could be.
"I'm going to sue the hospital," he said again. "I mean it."
"Why are you going to sue the hospital?" Rowena asked. "Ronan's
sick because of me, not them."
"You died while the Healer was saying something to me."
"Don't be ridiculous. I didn't die. Obviously. I probably
simply had a cardiac arrest."
"Don't argue with me."
"I'm the one who just had a baby. I'll argue as much as I want,"
Rowena said stubbornly, glaring at him with an astonishing amount of
energy. "And I have automatic victory rights."
"I'm only stopping this conversation because you had a long day." Though the subject was now dropped, he was still determined to sue the hospital.
Two of the nurses returned to take Rowena into a recovery suite, promising both her and Salazar that they could go down to the CCU in the morning to see their son.
"I'm going back to the castle to shower, and get clothes for us for the next few days." He bent over to kiss her forehead. "I'll be back in a bit."
"All right." Rowena tugged him back by the hand and embraced him quickly. "I love you."
"I love you too." Salazar kissed her again, before heading back to the castle.