Life Together

Bittersweet

Ben made it to the hospital and when he got there Dr. Stein was waiting for him. "Hey Dr. Warren—

"Just call me Ben. What happened?" he asked as they rode the elevator to the floor she was on.

"She was talking to the baby and complaining of her kicking a lot. Then we were done with the surgery and about to close when she stepped off her step stool. She said she felt nauseated but before she could say anything else she collapsed," he explained.

"Is anything being done right now to figure out why?"

"Yes, they were doing assessments and taking blood to run some test."

They made it up to the room and when Ben saw Miranda with the IV in her arm and still in an unconscious state, his emotions overwhelmed him but he choked back the sob that threatened to come out. He sat on the side of her bed, touching her face and looking at the baby monitor on her belly. He leaned down to kiss her belly before going up to kiss her lips.

A moment later an attending doctor came in. "Hello, I'm Dr. Callaham," she introduced herself.

Ben straightened up, "I'm Dr. Benjamin Warren, chief Bailey's husband."

"Sorry to meet you in these circumstances. I ran some blood panels and she has close to severe preeclampsia. Sometimes the symptoms are hard to detect because they're symptoms that come along with pregnancy. But one of the test I did showed blood proteins around her heart vessels which—

"Which means that the pre eclampsia is already causing damage to her heart," Ben said.

"Yes. So it's best that we go ahead and get the baby out....today."

"She's not ready, she still needs two weeks," Miranda murmured in a groggy voice.

"Oh my gosh, baby," Ben said relieved and he leaned in to kiss her forehead.

"It is alway ideal to get as close to term as you can but in this case, it's not safe for you or her Chief Bailey. She is full developed and we can give steroids for her lungs if needed but she should be fine. We can do a cesarea—

"No, if I have to deliver early I want it to happen naturally."

"Delivering naturally could put more strain on your heart Chief."

"We will be doing the cesarean Dr. Callaham," Ben announced.

"Benjamin no, I— I want a natural birth. The first time I gave birth you weren't able to be there to hold my hand. Then when I was giving birth to Tuck, Tucker was in a freak car accident at the same time. I want to try naturally please," Miranda explained with tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

Ben saw how important it was to Miranda to try naturally, "We can just monitor her heart and if she or the baby starts getting stressed we do the cesarean," Ben suggested and Callaham agreed.

"I will be back so that we can start your induction process," Callaham said before walking away.

"Oh baby I should call you parents and have them bring our stuff."

"Benjamin, don't tell them I passed out. I want to wait until they get here. And it might be best you go since we didn't have our things packed." Miranda asked and Ben gave her a resistant look.

"I'm not doing that, I'm not leaving. I'm comfortable with your mom packing our things and grabbing Menna's stuff," Ben said as he took out his phone and made the call.

An hour later Miranda's parents were arriving just as she was getting induced.

"My baby is having another baby," Elena said as she walked in.