"And you're going to be here all day?" Jackson asks her, for the tenth time that morning. She's due in 4 days, and the closer it gets, the more over bearing he gets, which she didn't think he was possible of.
"I plan on picking up that order from target, but other than that, yes, I will be home all day." Solace nods.
Jackson sighs in relief, "Okay. Good. Are you sure you don't just want to hang out in the hospital?"
Solace looks over at him, eyebrow raised, "Two weeks ago you were begging me to stay home."
"I know, but, it might be safer if you're at the hospital. If anything happens you're all alone here—"
"Jackson." Solace stands up form the couch, with only a little trouble, grabbing both of his hands, "Everything will be fine. I'm not due for another 4 days, and I'm not feeling any sort of labor symptoms. I will be okay."
"I could stay home, start paternity leave early—"
Solace cuts him off, "No, you need to go in. We agreed you'd start when the baby arrived. We both will be off work for awhile and then Meredith and Derek will be gone when we get back. The hospital needs you for as long as you can work."
Jackson nods, knowing the girl is right. The hospital and the board wont be at full capacity for a few months, "Okay." He kisses her, turning to grab his bag and coat. He opens the door to leave, turning over his shoulder to her, "You'll call me if you need me?"
Solace laughs, "Yes. Now go." Pushing him out the door. Once she closes it she looks down to her stomach, "Your daddy is crazy. He's lucky he's so cute."
***
Jackson is in the ER when the big explosion happens.
"What the hell happened?" Someone shouts.
Jackson pulls out his phone, "Tanker blew! Everyone get ready for more patients in-bound. Someone call the burn unit, make sure they have beds. Start paging for more hands."
He walks to one of the hallways, calling Solace. He doesn't giver her a chance to speak when she answers, "Solace! Are you okay? Where are you? Are you near the accident?"
"What accident?" Solace asks, mouth full of ice cream.
"Are you underwater right now?!"
Solace swallows, "Jackson, stop worrying. I'm at home eating ice cream."
"I'm sorry." Jackson sighs, rubbing his hand down his face, "I just have this bad feeling."
"Don't tell me that!" Solace shouts, "You're supposed to be the level headed one."
"Just don't leave the house today, okay?" Jackson begs, "We have incoming traumas, but I'll try to get these done and come home. Maybe I'll start my leave early."
Solace can hear the stress in his voice, "If that's what you need."
"I love you. I need to go."Jackson hangs up the phone when she says it back, closing his eyes. She's safe. Baby is safe. He's just worrying over nothing.
He walks back to the ER.
***
"Ow. Stop that." Solace looks down to her stomach, frowning. The baby was moving a lot, the kicks causing sharp pains to radiate through her stomach, "You still got 4 days buddy. Don't prove your dad right."
Her phone rings again, making her roll her eyes, thinking it was probably Jackson again. "I'm fine." She says answering.
"Well, I'm glad that makes one of us." Meredith chuckles on the other end.
"Oh, sorry." Solace apologizes, "Thought you were Jackson."
"Figured." Meredith responds. Solace can tell by the background noise she's at the hospital.
"What's up? Is something wrong?" She questions.
"I don't know. I need some help with this peds patient." Meredith answers.
Solace places her bowl on the table, getting comfortable on the couch, "I'm all yours."
"The mother is positive something is wrong, but all the tests and labs are coming back clean. His strep test was positive, but that's it." Meredith explains, "But she is adamant that something bigger is wrong."
Solace nods, taking all the information in, "Well, that's normal for parents with sick kids, especially if they're stressed out. We see it a lot actually."
"Could she be right though? Could something else be wrong?"
"Maybe?" Solace sighs, "Look Mer, we're doctors, we need to go with the science and what we know."
"Is there a but coming?" Meredith asks.
"But," Solace chuckles, wincing right after when more sharp pain spreads through her stomach, "Sometimes, parents just know. If you think she's right, then keep running tests. But if you think she's just being a stressed out parent, go with the evidence we have."
"Thanks." Meredith sighs.
"Anytime." Solace says through clenched teeth, closing her eyes.
Meredith notices the change in her voice, "Hey, what's wrong?"
Solace takes a few breaths, the pain lessening, "Uh, nothing."
"That didn't seem very convincing."
"How do you know if you're in labor?" Solace questions.
Meredith is quiet for a second before responding, "You're a doctor and you're asking that question?"
"Are sharp pains normal?" She says as another one comes, this one worse than the rest, making her gasp.
"Okay, I'm sending Derek to you." Meredith walks quicker down the hall, knowing telling Jackson would more panic, "He's bringing you in."
"Great." Solace thinks she gets out, but it could have just been a grunt. The pain isn't in her hips or her lower back, just on her abdomen. She tries to breathe through it, but it only makes the pain sharper, "Ow."
She thinks she lays there for 10 minutes before there is a knock on the door, "Key." She calls out, not wanting to move from the couch in case it makes the pain come back.
A few seconds later, Derek is by her side, looking frazzled, "Meredith said you're in labor?"
"I don't know." She shakes her head, rubbing her stomach, "I keep getting these sharp pains though."
"Okay, well, lets go in just to be safe, okay?" He helps her stand up, leading her to the door. He helps her to the car, going back inside for the go bag and putting it in the back seat. He looks over to her as he drives, watching as she tries to hide her winces, "Should I call Jackson?"
"No." She shakes her head, "Only if it is actually labor."
"Solace." Derek starts, trying to change her mind.
"He had a bad feeling today, Derek." She looks over at him, pleading, "If you say something and it's nothing, he's going to be unbearable."
Derek sighs, not liking it, but understanding, "Alright. But I have the ability to veto your say at anytime."
"Sure, sure, whatever." Solace groans, head on the seat rest as her hands try to hold her belly, hoping the pressure will elevate the pain, "Just drive faster."
"Two minutes."
***
"It seems you have a small tear in your uterus." The OB informs her, looking at the ultrasound, "I'm going to admit you and put you on some medicine to help. It's not a full uterine tear, but I do think we might have to go in and do a C section for safe measure."
Solace looks wide eyed at Derek, who nods at her, knowing what she wants, "I'll go get Jackson, okay?"
Solace takes some calming breaths as the nurses move her to the labor and delivery floor, putting her into a room. Everything was fine a few hours ago, she doesn't know where things went wrong. She keeps her panic inside until Jackson bursts through her door, making Solace release a breath.
"You're alright." Jackson walks over to her side, pulling her into a hug, "It's alright. Everything will be okay."
"What— what if I did something?"
"You didn't do anything." Jackson looks down at her, "Things happen."
Jackson stays like that for a minute, just holding her to him. When Derek came down to the ER, he just knew something was wrong. Actually, he knew something was wrong before that, but chalked it up to just being his nerves. He should have just stayed home with her today.
When the doctor comes in, he knows they will have to do surgery, "We think it's wise to do a c section, we don't want a full tear or more complications to arise from this."
Solace and Jackson look to one another, this wasn't the plan they had, this wasn't what they envisioned, but they'll do anything to make sure their son is healthy and alright.
"Okay." Solace nods, nurses coming in to prep her.
***
Jackson is sat next to Solaces head in the OR, whispering encouraging words to her, to keep her panic at bay.
Alex walks in, sending a reassuring smile to the couple, "Don't worry you two, once that baby is out he'll be in the best hands in this hospital."
"I think my hands are the best in the hospital." Solace jokes back, but her smile is weak, not reaching her eyes. Alex walks over to her, leaning down a little, winking at the girl, "You're right, but I can't have people knowing that. I have a reputation." He moves to the side of the room as the OB comes in, waiting for his time to check on the baby.
Solace tries to take some calming breaths as the surgery starts, listening to everything as Jackson informs her of whats going on, never letting go of her hand.
Both parents release a breath when they hear the cry of their son, making a true smile appear on their faces. Solace looks over to Jackson and Alex checks over their son, "Stay with him."
"You're not done yet." Jackson shakes his head.
Solace rolls her eyes, "I'm fine and I'll be done soon. Stay with him, he's just a baby."
Jackson chuckles at her reasoning, "Alex has him right now. Lets focus on you and then him. I'm not leaving your side."
After the OB delivers the placenta and sows up the small tear in her uterus, they move to closing her up. Solace starts to feel a little light headed.
"Doc." Solace calls out, "I'm not feeling too good."
The doctor looks up, checking the monitors and seeing nothing alarming, "You just had a baby, it's normal to have some discomfort within your body."
Jackson looks down at her face, seeing how pale she has gotten, "She's getting pretty pale."
Solace nods, trying to blink away the dots forming in her vision. The monitors start to beep wildly, causing alarm in the OR.
"She's hemorrhaging!" Someone calls out, but the voice sounds so muffled to Solace. Like the person is underwater.
Or maybe she's the one underwater.
"Solace!" She thinks Jackson calls out.
Most of her vision is black now, and her eyelids become too heavy to blink, causing them to close for longer periods of time. She thinks someone is holding her face, but she isn't sure. She feels cold and clammy. She hasn't gotten to see her son yet.
She thinks she hears Jackson call out to her again, call out to the room to help, but everything turns black before she can know for sure.
"Sir, you need to leave." Someone tries to get Jackson out of the OR.
"Like hell I'm leaving!" Jackson yells.
"Dr.Avery—"
"I own this hospital." Jackson interrupts, "I'm not leaving this room." He moves his hands back to Solace's face, "Wake up baby. Come on."
He doesn't even pay attention to the room or people around him, his brain to focused on the girl on the table, "I can't do this without you. I won't." He shakes his head, "Not when we've made it this far. You can't leave me now."
***
Waking up from anesthesia has never been fun for Solace, she's tired and grumpy. Sluggish. Thankfully, she had very few surgeries in her life. But it seems, now that she is an adult, and works at this hospital, she is in a constant state of waking up from the dreaded medicine.
But unlike the times before, she's met with the beautiful site of Jackson, holding their son in the chair beside her bed. Smiling down at him and cooing softly.
"I know. And then she got drunk and danced on the table with aunts Meredith and Cristina."
"What," Solace makes her consciousness known, "Are you telling our son?"
Jackson looks up at the sound of her voice, a big smile on his face, "Just how crazy his mom is."
"What happened?" She asks him, regretting it when his smile drops, "A blood vessel tear in your uterus caused you to hemorrhage."
Seeing the look in his eyes, it pulls Solace back to how he looked after the crash. She reaches out her hand to him, "I'm okay."
"I almost lost you again." Jackson tears up.
"But you didn't." Solace looks from him, to the baby in his arms, "I haven't gotten to see him yet."
Jackson stands, softly kneeling on her bed beside her, moving the baby into her arms, "Carful." He tells her when she tries to move too much.
Solace looks down to the baby thats sleeping peacefully, tracing a finger down the curves of his face. She smirks up at Jackson, "He looks like you."
Jackson chuckles softly, making himself comfortable on the side of her bed, Solace leaning her back against his chest, "Our parents think so too, according to the pictures I sent them earlier."
Solace smiles up at him, "He's perfect."
"Promise me you wont scare me like that anymore." Jackson tells her seriously. He's been in a constant state of haunting since she passed out in the OR. He's seen her, too many times, on the brink of death.
"I'm okay." Solace tries to reassure him again, looking back down at her son in her arms, "Would you tell your daddy I'm okay?"
"Don't bother trying to get him on your side, we've bonded for the last few hours." Jackson tells her, "He's a daddy's boy through and through."
Solace fake gasps, "No. Not my Finley baby. He's turned you against me." Her hand traces his sleeping face again, "What are his measurements?"
"Finely Everett Avery. 7lbs 5 ounces and 21in long." He answers her.
"You're going to be tall like you're dad, huh?" Solace coos, "Tall baby."
Jackson leans his head on hers, looking down at his son and telling himself that everything is okay, even if his heart feels like it hasn't slowed down.
Everything's okay.
Everything's alright.
But no matter how much he repeats it in his head, he just can't fight that feeling.
*****
I was going to make this more dramatic, but as I was writing it I found it's very similar to Meredith's birth this season, and that was not my intention.
Jackson obviously has some trauma anxiety, which we will be exploring in the next few chapters. Along with Solace getting a taste of how Jackson feels during the storm episode. Some anxiety of her own if you will.
I didn't know exactly how to fit the birth into the episodes, so that was a little rough to get around.
I hope you like the name! I can't remember if someone commented Finley or not, but I know a bunch of people wanted Everett for the middle name after Mark.