20 weeks pregnant
GISELE STARTLED AWAKE, she'd been having recurring nightmares of the same dream. She was six and was hiding in a closet but she could still see through the opening, her dad was hitting her mom, which hadn't made any sense to her because her dad was the kindest man she knew... then again she was just a little kid and a lot of her memory were fuzzy from that time.
Gisele rolled onto her side, groaning out of frustration when she something wet and sticky between her legs, reaching over she shook her friend, "Emmy," she hummed in response, "I think I'm bleeding."
Emmy sat up, "Are you okay? Are you still bleeding?"
Gigi shook her head, "I don't think. Help me up."
Emmy quickly got out of bed and went to her side, she was still scared from last time Gigi woke her up saying she was bleeding.
Gisele had been 11 weeks pregnant when it first happened.
She had woken up with the urge to pee, she sat up and threw the covers off of herself, revealing a puddle of blood pooling in between her legs, and it was a lot. Her eyes began to get watery, she was freaking out due to the amount of blood.
The flushing of a toilet had gotten her attention, and it was then that she noticed Emmy wasn't in bed.
"Emmy." It had came out a mere whisper, so her friend hadn't heard.
Emmy walked back over to the bed, surprised Gigi was awake, "Why are you up?" she noticed how pale she was, "Are you okay?" Gigi shook her head and looked down at her lap, Emmy followed her gaze and was alarmed by the amount of blood, "Oh my god."
"I think I'm still bleeding." Gisele mumbled.
"We need to get to the hospital," she went over to the attic door and yelled down, "Lia! Amelia!"
Gisele took a deep calming breath, before switching to doctor mode and going through the signs of miscarriage(which she hoped what this was but wouldn't say it out loud) There wasn't any cramping, or abdominal pain, she didn't have a fever. She didn't have any back pain, well not any more than usual, which all were good signs.
Amelia had sluggishly trekked up the final steps, angry she was woken up in the early hours of the morning when she had work in a few hours, "I'm going to kill you if you woke me up just because you have cravings," She flipped thee switch, turning on the lights, "Also, I think we're all out of..." trailing off when she saw the panicked look on Emilias face then the pale sickly look on her sister's, "What's wrong?" she asked as she sped over to the bed, seeing the blood made her understand the panic, "Gisele, it's going to be fine. Everything will be fine, we just have to get you to the hospital. Meredith!"
"Are you cramping?" Emmy worriedly asked.
After going through the checklist and finding nothing else wrong, she was much calmer, "Guys, I'm fine. I just need help changing the sheets because I'm too tired to do it."
Emmy helped her up off the bed, "That much blood is not okay."
Amelia scoffed, not believing her sister at all, "Gigi, I'm taking you to the hospital. Arizona needs to make sure everything is fine-Meredith!"
Gisele sighed, there was no way she would be able to convince her sister and best friend that she was fine and wouldn't need another trip to the hospital, "Amelia, I'm fine. They're okay, most likely. I don't have cramps. There's no abdominal pain. My back feels like crap but what else do you expect when carrying twins," she grabbed Amy's hand and placed it in her forehead, "I don't have a fever. I'm okay."
Meredith had stomped up the stairs, angry her sister in law yelled with no regard of her sleeping children downstairs, who needed to be up in a few hours for school, "What's with all the screaming, my children are downstairs sleep-"
"We need to get to the hospital." Emmy said.
There was blood dripping down Gisele's legs and rather large puddle on the bed.
Meredith merely nodded, "Okay, I'll start the car."
"I'm fine." Gisele protested.
"No, she's not. We're going to the hospital."
"No, I don't need to because I'm fine."
"You are going to go to the hospital," Meredith said, "I'll drag you there myself."
Gisele groaned, "Fine. Can I at least get changed? Only if you all would allow it, of course."
"Yes."
"Fine."
"Sure."
"I'll call Arizona." Amelia said, headed for the door before disappearing down the stairs.
Around 15 minutes later, Arizona had met them in the ER and had rushed into a room, hooked up to the fetal monitors, and her blood had been drawn.
A while later, Arizona walked back into the room.
"With the examination of the ultrasound and labs, I assure you that you're not miscarrying. Both babies have strong fetal heartbeats and are doing fine. I prescribed something to stop the bleeding. It was heavier than normal but it is normal to bleed sometime."
"That wasn't normal, that was a lot of blood." Amelia said.
Arizona nodded, "She's carrying twins, with multiples bleeding can heavier."
"I told you, I was fine. Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm less of a doctor," Gisele said.
Emmy helped her out of bed, going over to the closet to grab a new set of sheets. She changed the sheets before throwing them in the dirty hamper then climbed back into bed. Falling into a light sleep.
Once finished getting changed, she grabbed a new blanket and slowly got into bed, they both laid there on silence fir a brief moment before Gisele reached over nudging her a bit.
"Emmy." She whispered.
"Yeah." Emmy mumbled after a few seconds.
"You know what sounds sooo good right now."
Emmy sighed and turned over on her side to face her friend, "What?"
"That Japanese Mexican fusion food we had in México, especially the Salmon Sellado Con Verduras Y Salsa Wasabi, Sopa Miso Rojo and mochi con fresas."
Emmy silently stared at her for a moment, "I'm not flying to Mexico for food, besides it would be all gross when I got back."
"I know but you could find a place here and get me some." Gisele said.
Emmy groaned as she got up, "Fine," she headed over to the door and said, "I'll be back."
She climbed down the flight of stairs, tiptoeing over to Amelia's door before she knocked. Moments later, Amelia swung the door opened, her hair a mess, "What?" She sleepily said, her eyes still half closed.
"Your sister wants Japanese Mexican fusion food."
Amelia blankly stared at her, processing the words that had been said to her, "What is that? And where are we even supposed to find that right now?"
Emmy shrugged, "Sounds like a you problem. I'm going to stay here in case she wants to go to the hospital, she's bleeding a little. But she's fine. I'll text you the list, which involves sushi."
"I'm not getting her sushi." Amelia protested.
Emmy rolled her eyes, this had been an ongoing argument but she didn't see the problem with letting Gigi eat whatever she wanted, "She hasn't had any in three months. She'll be fine, besides it's just salmon, it's safe."
"Fine." Amelia relented and went back into her room.
Emmy climbed back up the stairs, "I got your sister to get the food," she crawled into bed and saw the far off look in Gigi's eyes, "Hey, what's wrong?"
"I've been having these dreams about my dad beating my mom."
Emmy frowned, "Maybe you-I don't really have any advice. Could it be repressed memories or maybe it's your subconscious telling you to beat Jackson."
Gigi shrugged, "I don't know, maybe but I was little and hiding in a closet but I do remover them fighting a lot. And my subconscious would be correct."
Almost two hours later, Amelia arrived with two bags of food in hand.
She let a huff out as she placed the bags on the bed in front of Gigi, "Do you know how hard it was to find Japanese Mexican fusion food?"
"You love me, so you'd do it regardless." Gigi said.
Amy leaned down and kissed her sister's head, "You're right. I've literally never heard any of these combinations before."
"We found this restaurant last time we went it was amazing. We should go soon."
Opening the boxes, Gisele couldn't resist the urge so she grabbed a strawberry mochi before eating the actual food. She danced a little in bed, happy to have her cravings satisfied, an intense pain shot up through her back molar.
Emmy noticed the sudden change in Gigi's face, "What's wrong?"
"My tooth." She mumbled, she stopped chewing and reached for a napkin before spitting into it. Inspecting it, there was a pink and white mush then she noticed pieces of her tooth. She groaned, "Oh my fucking god."
"What happened?" Amelia asked, extremely concerned about Gigi now.
"Are you being dramatic again? Food not to your liking?" Emmy joked, on multiple occasions both Emmy and Amelia would be awoken by Gisele, who had craving. One of them would venture around the city, searching for the outrageous foods Gisele desired and most of the time said food would make her nauseous because it wasn't up to her standards.
Gisele glared up at her, "Fuck you."
She handed the napkin over to Emmy, Amelia went over next to her, they grimaced when they saw the broken pieces Gigi's tooth.
"Oh my god." Emmy shoved the napkin into Amelia's hand, "Does it hurt?"
Gisele frowned, "Of course it hurts."
"We should go to the emergency room." Amelia said, tossing the napkin into the trash bin next to Gigi's bed.
"Shouldn't she go to the dentist." Emmy said.
"What dentist is open at two in the morning."
"I say, we should still go to the ER." Amelia suggested, "So she can get antibiotics and painkillers."
Gigi wanted to eat her food before she went anywhere and especially to go back to the hospital, "I'm not going anywhere until I eat this."
"Are you sure?" Amelia asked.
She nodded, moaning as she but into the sushi.
"Doesn't it hurt?" Emmy winced as Gigi kept taking bites of the food, imagining how painful it was.
"Yes, but it tastes so good."
A few minutes later, Gisele was in the middle of her miso soup when her mouth began to tingle. The soup was mouthwatering, so she ignored it and continued eating but then she felt her tongue start swelling, then her her throat started to itch.
She handed the bowl to her sister and chugged an entire bottle of water hoping that would help.
"Are you okay?" Emmy asked.
"No. I think I'm having an allergic reaction."
Amelia furrowed her brows, that couldn't be possible, her sister was not allergic to anything, "What do you mean?"
Gisele listed off her symptoms, both Amelia and Emmy went into doctor mode. Emmy checked her pulse which was beating at a rapid pace.
"Her pulse is way too fast." Emmy said.
Amelia used the flashlight from her phone to look into Gisele's throat and was immediately panicked by how swollen her tongue was, her throat closing didn't do anything to help settle her fears, "Yeah, we gotta go. Now!"
Amelia was honestly surprised she hadn't gotten pulled over with how many red lights she ran through. The car screeched to a halt when she parked.
Emmy helped Gisele out of the car, halfway to the hospital Gigi said she felt lightheaded.
"You can't park there–" the intern cut herself off when she noticed Gisele looking like she was about to faint, "Dr. Shepherd are you okay?"
Amelia threw her keys at her, "Park the car. I'll go get help." She told Emmy before running inside the ER, "I need some help!"
Maggie was sitting at the nurses station, when she heard Amelia's familiar yells, her sister looked frantic. Instantly, she got up and went over to her, "Amelia, what's wrong?"
"It's Gisele."
Maggie, Amelia and a team of nurses ran outside with a gurney, got Gisele on it before wheeling her inside.
"What happened?" Maggie questioned, Gisele's labored breathing concerned her.
"I don't know, we were eating. Her tooth broke, she kept eating then her pulse was way too fast, her throat closing and her tongue was swollen." Amelia explained.
"Let's get her to bed five and administer an epinephrine, quickly," Maggie instructed, "And page Robbins."
Emmy grabbed the oxygen mask and placed it over Gisele's nose and mouth.
Seconds later, Arizona ran over to them, immediately going over to Gisele's side, "What's going on?"
"Anaphylaxis." Maggie said, "She's already had a dose of epinephrine administered and she's on high flow oxygen. She's extremely lethargic."
Arizona nodded, "Get an IV in her and administer antihistamine and cortisone. I want three fetal monitors on her, immediately. I want to see how those babies are doing."
"I also want albuterol given to her to help relive her breathing." Maggie stated, "Gigi, do you feel like breathing is getting easier?"
No response.
Arizona palpitated the brunette's stomach but got no reaction and kept dosing off, "Gisele," she gently shook Gisele to get her awake, "Gigi, does this hurt?"
"Gigi?" Emmy harshly shoved Gisele's side.
Gisele groaned, barley able to open her eyes, "What?" she croaked out.
"Does it hurt when I press down?" Arizona asked. It took her a moment before Gisele weakly shook her head, "Good, that's good."
"Bp is 90 over 60. Heart rate is 112 bpm–"
"Baby A and C are in distress, heart rates have decreased. B is holding steady," A nurse announced, "It looks like she's cramping a little."
"How long has it been since epinephrine was last administered?" Arizona asked.
"Twenty minutes ago." A nurse answered.
"Give another dose." Maggie instructed.
Arizona studied the vitals for the babies, baby a and c had decreased heart rates. The heart beats were so slow that she began to worry about complications. Baby b had an unusual pattern in the heart rate, which mean it was also in distress.
"All three babies are distressed–"
"So she's miscarrying or in extreme preterm labor?" Amelia asked.
"We're not there yet," Arizona assured both Emmy and Amelia, "Give her a dose of terbutaline."
After five hours, Gisele was stable enough to be admitted and moved into a room on the maternity floor. But not enough to stop the injections of epinephrine every two hours and oxygen from a nasal cannula.
Although, they had managed to stop Gisele's throat from closing completely, it was still a tad swollen but they had gotten her comfortable enough to where she could sleep.
Amelia laid next to Gisele, stroking her hair back, watching her chest rise and fall with some trouble.
"She's had like what? Five shots of epinephrine? Isn't that took much? Like overdose?" Emmy questioned, "I googled it but it only says how you should go to the hospital after using an epi. Anaphylactic shock."
Amelia shrugged, that wasn't exactly her field of expertise, "I don't know, I mean we should."
"I don't remember her ever having any allergies, ever." Emmy said.
"Because she doesn't."
Emmy was about to say something, when the door swung open and in walked Jackson.
"She could've died and neither of you called me!" Jackson raised his voice, "I had to hear it from an intern."
"Shut up."
Emmy rolled her eyes, "It had nothing to do with you."
He scoffed, "Nothing to do with me? She's my–"
Emmy stood up from her seat, stepping into his space, "She's your nothing. You're not boyfriend, or her husband, or si–"
"I'm the father of her children."
"Not on purpose." Emmy argued back.
"You don't care about the babies–"
Emmy cut him off, "And that's all you care about."
"That's not true. I care about Gisele and the babies but all you do is let her have unsafe food and drinks—"
"Please, sushi is not an unsafe food and European woman still have a glass of wine once an–"
"You let her have sushi and wine? That's probably why she had an allergic reaction."
They were now in each other's face, so Amelia carefully got out of bed making sure not to disturb her baby sister. She got in between them, pushing them away from each other.
"Now is not the time." Amelia said.
Arizona walked in, having heard the fight from down the hall, "Although, sushi it recommended not to consume during pregnancy, a few rolls won't harm mom or babies. She awake?"
Amelia went back to her sister, "Gigi, wake up." She shook Gisele.
Her eyes fluttered open and let out a groan, "What?"
"Gigi," Arizona said loudly, "We got the tests back."
Amelia helped her sister sit up a little.
"As you may or may not know, during pregnancy some people can develops allergies, from food to pets and sometimes metals. I'm your case strawberries." The blonde explained.
Emmy frowned, "But she's not allergic to strawberries."
"She wasn't before but like I said, people can develop allergies."
"They're literal fucking parasites." Gisele mumbled.
"That's a little–"
She rolled her eyes, "I was eating mochi when I felt my tooth break apart, so now my molar is nonexistent."
Both Jackson and Amelia stared at her speechless.
Amelia cleared her throat, "I will make sure to have someone give you some antibiotics so you don't get an infection, that's the last thing we need right now."
Gisele smiled weakly, "Thanks."
"All babies are stable now but I still have you on a light drip of terbutaline because you're still having light contractions. Other than that, everything is still the same."
"By still the same, you mean, her throat and tongue are still swollen. Causing her to still not be able to breathe properly." Amelia said.
"According to the nurses, the swelling has gone down a little, so we just have to wait."
"Thanks."
"No problem, call if you need anything." Arizona said before leaving the room.
Gisele looked over at Jackson, his eyebrow was furrowed meaning he was definitely angry, "Why are you mad?"
"I'm not mad." He quickly responded.
"You're definitely mad." Amelia added.
"I'm not."
Emmy scoffed, "You definitely are."
"I'm just tired of being a second thought and not being in the loop when it comes to you to the babies."
Gisele rolled her eyes, way too tired to have a fight with her future baby daddy, "You don't get to be 'in the loop' when it comes to me. As for the fetuses, I'll have someone inform you on their condition."
He clenched his jaw, "You can't just freeze me out of your life, Gisele."
"She can and she will." Emmy stated.
He turned to her, "I wasn't talking to you."
"But she's right." Gisele added.
"Gisele, you can't–"
Gisele cut him off, "I will do whatever I please whenever I feel like it." She said before snuggling further into the warm blanket and closing her eyes.
"Gisele–"
"Jackson, I think you should go. Now." Amelia demanded, "She needs to rest."
With that, he stormed out of the room.
Emmy let out a groan, "Ugh, I wish you would've chosen literally any other man to be your baby daddy."
"You and me both." Gisele mumbled.
Three days later, Gisele was back to normal and was being discharged.
"You're all back to normal, you don't need oxygen and the uterine contractions have stopped completely–"
"I can go home?" Gisele excitedly asked.
"You can go home," Arizona said, "Just stay away from strawberries. We ran tests, and turns out strawberries were the culprit."
Gisele frowned, she loved strawberries, "That's bullshit."
"I know. I'm sorry, just stay away."
"I'm sorry I couldn't be be there for your custody thing."
Arizona waved her off, "You were busy recovering, but I appreciated the letter you wrote for judge. It helped a lot."
"You're my friend." She smiled.
"I'm honored to be your friend," Arizona said, "Try not to end up back here again."
"No promises."
Once discharged, Emmy went to get the car and Gisele wanted to see her sister before she went home. A nurse had informed her, Amelia was getting ready to go into surgery, so she began her walk down to the OR floor, the nurses had insisted she use a wheelchair but Gisele refused, wanting to use her legs.
She had to take a few breaks on the way because she felt tired, now she was rethinking her decision against the wheelchair.
Right as she reached the OR floor doors, Gisele was stopped by a nurse, "Dr. Shepherd, do you need some help?" he offered, seeing how Gisele was using the wall to keep herself up right.
Gisele honestly thought it wasn't something that needed medical attention, she just felt a bit lightheaded, "No, I'm fine. Just a little lightheaded, thanks though."
Gisele had managed to say before Meredith's raised voice could be heard through the door.
"... building this life when none of this is actually yours."
Normally, Gisele would march in there and defend her big sister against Meredith, because 99 percent of the time she was wrong and being a bitch, but Gigi was tired and had promised Arizona shed take it easy.
Fighting with her ex sister-in-law was not taking it easy.
She heard a mumbled response form her sister but couldn't actually make out what she had said.
"You are living in my house, helping to take care of my children with my sister. You are marrying my best friend's ex. You are trying to do my husband's job. You know, you used to have humility, even a little anxiety, and now you even have his confidence. But why not? Because you've taken over everything else. You've even taken his place in Gisele's life.... Get a life."
She couldn't believe the audacity Meredith had, and if Gisele hadn't felt slightly dizzy at that exact moment, she honestly would have slapped the general surgeon. Gisele wouldn't have cared if that was her dead brother's wife, she had no right to tell her sister that when she had overcome so much in her life and was just making a life for herself.
Once the world stopped spinning, she thanked the nurse and went through the doors and over to her sister.
"Amy," she called out, giving her sister a moment to gather herself, "Arizona discharged me, and Emmy is gonna take me home."
Amelia turned around, a forced smile on her face, "Good, great. Ugh, I wish I could go home with you but I've got a ventricular washout on a massive brain abscess. Maybe a little last ditch, so I might be home early."
Gisele frowned, that didn't sound like her sister at all, so she knew Meredith was taking a toll on her confidence, "What are you talking about? It might be a little hard, but you're literally the best brain surgeon."
She shrugged her shoulders, "You're just saying that cause you're my baby sister. It's a huge abscess, it probably won't work-"
"No, I am not just saying that, I mean it," Gisele gently shook her shoulders, "You are way better than Derek. Even Emmy's mom said you'd be the next greatest neurosurgeon when she was babysitting us that one time," Emmy's mom had been a world class neurosurgeon before she had died when Amelia was 19 and the girls were nine. Since Carolyn was a single mother, Amara would volunteer to watch her two youngest, she would usually let the girls watch cartoons since they were four years old and easily entertained but the only way she could keep Amelia out of trouble was to have her 'perform' brain surgery on a jello shaped brain. Amara would always tell Amelia she would be out of a job if she chose to become a neurosurgeon, and she wasn't lying about it. "I know you've met all of Amara's colleagues, and they've all said the same thing, even her abuelita says the same thing."
"I'm not too sure about that anymore."
"Are you really going to doubt a Lasker award winner?"
Amara had won multiple prestigious awards for her work in the field of medicine. The most famous work, was perfecting the Hemispherectomy and making them safer. She had won many awards had made sure to tell her daughter to be wary of the Avery foundation and and refuse their awards, how they were rigged. How she didn't care for an awards that catered to mostly Americans and it was better to be known worldwide, which she was.
It was now a message that Amara's mother now preached to Emmy and Gigi whenever they visited.
Amelia nodded, Amara had always been one of her biggest supporters and her idol, "You're right."
"You got this, even if the outcome isn't what you want you are still the best."
Amelia kissed her sister's cheek, "I love you, so much. Be careful okay, and ill see you when I get home."
"I love you too."
Gisele then made her way up to the residents lounge, to get some of her things before going home. Walking through the door, she saw Meredith holding Penny's hands. They obviously didn't notice her presence.
"You will be okay. You will pick yourself up, and you will go kick some fellowship ass." Meredith told the redhead, Gisele rolled her eyes.
She scoffed and walked over to her cubby, she couldn't figure out why Meredith held so much hatred towards Amelia.
"Gisele, I'm glad you're okay." Penny said.
Gisele smiled, "Thanks," she noticed the duffle bag in her hand, "You're leaving?"
She nodded, "Yeah, um, the timeline of things got moved up."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll do great."
"Thank you, and good luck with the babies." Penny said before leaving.
"Gisele, what are you doing?" Meredith questioned her, "I thought you were still under observation?"
"Nope. Arizona discharged me a little while ago."
"Oh, Amelia's in surgery. If you want, I can take you home. I'm off in fifty–"
"Why do you care?"
"Because you're my sister–"
Gisele scoffed, "No, you are not and will never be my sister. What, you think just because my brother married you, you'd be my sister."
"I thought–"
"Well, you thought wrong. You don't even like me, when I first got here you couldn't even stand me. You are just my ex sister-in-law, who is a bitch and extremely opinionated. But you're somehow kind and fair to basically every person but my sister, even to the one person you blamed for my brothers death. I mean, you couldn't even stand to be in the same room as a Penny for weeks."
"I dont know what's gotten in–"
"I'm tried of you treating my sister like shit. You literally don't know anything about her or me. You never tried getting to know us, especially not Amelia. You say she's living Derek's life, that she's doing his job, that she has his confidence. You think she had humility and was anxious, but you're completely wrong. She's always been prideful, especially of her work. Amelia is one of the most arrogant people I've ever known but because of Derek, he would put her down. And make her doubt herself. When he's not around she flourishes, not to mention that one time when she was in LA, she woke up a comatose patient Derek said would be impossible. So, you can't judge my sister, you dont know her or what she's been through. I know you wont get this, cause you grew up alone, but she's not taking Derek's spot in my life. It's called being there for each other. You're the one who needs to get your own life. Everyone is moving on, except you. You are still stuck in the past and making everyone around you miserable just because you are."
Before Meredith could respond, Emmy walked in, "Why aren't you answering your phone? I thought you died or passed out."
"Sorry, just needed to get some things."
She shoved a few more things into her bag before leaving the room. Emmy noticed the tension in the room.
"What was that about?"
"She was being a bitch to Amy." Gigi said.
NOTES
yes, apparently you can become allergic to things when you're pregnant. And you can lose teeth
Anyways, sorry for taking so long I keep getting writers block and want to give up on writing this