The Sweetest Devotion

Booking in

Within the hour Nikki and Jack are on their way to the hospital, although her waters had already broken Jack had made Nikki sit on a plastic bag for the duration of the car journey to the hospital, Nikki had also rung ahead to the maternity unit alerting them to her arrival.
The couple arrive at the hospital, and Jack turns the engine off before looking at Nikki who is running her bump rigorously. Jack places his hand on her knee, squeezing it gently "Everything okay?" He asks with a smile.
Nikki nods looking at her bump, "I'm scared, I don't want to go in there," Nikki mumbles as the tears start to slip down her face, and the real panic kicks in.

Jack knew the past was haunting her now, the thought of losing her child was breaking her and right now she doesn't want to even step foot inside the hospital. "I know you don't want to darlin', but you and bump will be much safer in the hands of the doctors and midwives," Jack smiles as he leans over kissing her cheek.
"Jack, I can't I want to go home," She mumbles as a sudden contraction takes hold of her body, her face contorts in pain and she grabs Jack's arm as she tries to breathe through to the contraction.
"Nikki, come on. Let's get you booked in, and then you can have pain relief to take the edge off," Jack smiles.
"I don't want pain relief, you heard and saw my birthing notes, No drugs, not like last time..." Nikki groans as she starts to come out of the contraction.

Jack gets out of the car and grabs her hospital bag from the boot before walking around to her side and opening the door, He looks at Nikki and holds out his hand to her, "Me and you, we're going to walk into that hospital together, face it all together and then walk out those doors with our baby girl here," He smiles and Nikki then takes hold of his hand.

She gets out of the car and Jack locks the car before walking with her hand in hand to the maternity unit entrance and booking Nikki in. A Midwife shows them to a side room and allows Nikki to get comfortable before an allocated midwife comes along to check on Nikki.

Soon a midwife walks into the room followed by a trainee midwife, "Dr. Nicola Hodgson?" the midwife quizzes looking down at the notes she has entered with.
"Yes..." Nikki smiles sightly.
"Hi, I'm Jess I will be your midwife today, and this is Anna our trainee midwife it's her first day, are you okay to have a trainee with you?" Jess smiles as she pulls on a disposable apron and grabs a set of latex gloves, Nikki nods at the request and watches Jess as she reads through her notes before giving Nikki a knowing smile about her previous birth.

Jess talks Nikki through what is going to happen and then asks her to remove her leggings and underwear so she can examine Nikki, Jack helps Nikki out of her leggings and underwear before placing them on top of her bag. Anna grabs an extra blanket so Nikki has some modesty during and between examinations. "Going to be a little bit uncomfortable now," Jess speaks as she carefully gets Nikki's dilation. "Okay, four centimetres, we would usually send you home at this dilation but with your history, we would like to keep you in," Jess smiles.

Nikki moves as she straightens her legs back out after the midwife has checked her over. Jack who is stood beside Nikki kisses her head and watches as she Jess removes her gloves and writes a few notes now. "When your waters broke there was no blood or cloudy looking water?" She quizzes.
"No, it was clear..." Nikki smiles running her hand over her bump.
"Great, now this could be a bit of a wait for baby so would you like any pain relief?" Jess quizzes.

Nikki instantly shakes her head, "No, no way! I don't want any," Nikki protests and Jess nods before putting the used gloves and apron in the bin.
"So have you delivered any babies before?" Jack asks the young midwife who is stood at the bottom of the bed observing what Jess does.
"No, only the fake simulated births at Uni," Anna smiles.
"So ours could be your first?" Jack smiles and Anna copies his expression with a nod.

Jess and Anna run a few more tests and Jess gets Anna to feel Nikki's bump to find out if the baby's head is down and engaged which it is but she wants to test Anna first. They also run a quick heartbeat monitor on the baby as well as checking Nikki's blood pressure. Soon the two midwives leave Jack and Nikki to settle for a while before she is examined again to see how far she is.