Chapter 210: Abby and Penny
Abby hates this. Tim and Jimmy are looking at her like she's
being a petulant child because she doesn't want to automatically jump to
letting the doc hack her open to get Kelly out.
She can see Jimmy backpedaling, trying to figure out how to
manage this, because, of course, he's all 'c-section-no-big-deal.'
Major surgery, bleeding all over the place, maybe never have
babies again, maybe instant menopause, no big deal. Ten days and then you're
all better. Yeah, he might heal up from being castrated in ten days, too, but
that wouldn't mean he was better!
Fucking men!
And yeah, Jimmy's pretending he gets it, but she can see
he's with Tim on the whole get this kid out as fast as possible, screw the
consequences, we'll pump you full of antibiotics and drugs and who cares what
you wanted as long as it's taken care of nice and tidy?
There are times when having men for your two best friends is
an issue.
Granted, she's not sure Breena or Ziva would be much better
right now, either. Breena flat out told her that the whole 'bonding' thing is
total crap, and that when you've got a little lamprey eel attached to your boob
every three hours, for two solid months, you're bonded. Literally.
And she just has a hard time seeing Ziva getting excited
about any particular path for getting a baby out.
But…
Okay, maybe this is a little whiny, but it's not what she
wanted!
She's not sick. Pregnancy isn't a disease, it's not a
'condition' to be 'managed.' And she should be allowed to be sad about not
getting the fantasy. And it's not insane to think that wait and see might
actually mean wait and see so maybe we don't need to schedule the c-section
right this minute (Jimmy) or go on bed rest (Tim!).
But mostly, she's scared. She doesn't want a c-section, at
all. Twenty to forty percent infection rate. Triple the rate of maternal death.
Increased rates of blood clots, heart attacks, uterine embolism. None of that
sounds like something she wants to sign up for if she can at all possibly avoid
it, and it sounds like this is something she can avoid.
Then Gibbs and Ducky and Penny were there, and Gibbs is
holding onto her like she's a life preserver, and she's fairly sure she's never
seen him this scared.
Tim's on her right. Gibbs is on her left. And being clung to
by 300 plus pounds of terrified male is not helping her composure at all, and
if they don't back off and just let her breathe she's going to snap and do
something really rash.
This was not going well.
Penny was sure that Jethro could take on a machine gun nest,
armed with only a pen knife and Hoorah attitude, without blinking. He'd go, do
it, and that'd be that. And if he didn't make it back, then he didn't make it
back, and that would also be that.
But he can't kill this. He can't fight it. And it's not
danger to him.
She knew from Ducky that he's got bad personal history with
this sort of thing, too.
So, it was understandable. It made perfect sense. The
problem is, Tim's holding onto not panicking by his fingernails, and scared
Jethro next to him is not helping that control at all.
And last but not least, you didn't have to be a forensic
psychologist to see that Abby was about to melt down. Pregnant women are rarely
known for emotional fortitude, and with two of her best guys one the edge of
panic, and the third treating her with kid gloves and lots of concern and she's
about to start yelling and crying.
Penny smiled gently at Ducky, and he nodded at her, aware
that she's about to do what Grandmas have been doing pretty much since the
invention of Grandmas, and that's slapping some sense into people who are being
silly.
"Jimmy, could you scoot over a bit?" Penny asked,
and then settled in front of them, sitting on the coffee table. She then leaned
forward and gently whacked Tim and Gibbs upside the back of the head.
"No one's dying. Not today, not tomorrow, not two
months from now. So calm down, both of you." Then she handed her phone to
Tim and Abby. "This is from Gladys. She's the head of Obstetrics at John's
Hopkins. Which means that she's one of the top five obstetricians in the world.
And if I knew any of the other four, I'd have cced them on the email, as well.
She's thinking watch and wait is good advice. Basically, exactly what your OB
said to you. It's a borderline case, and likely won't cause any issues. That
little girl is going to double in size between now and when she's ready to come
out, if not more than that, so there's a lot more growing that's going to
happen, and your placenta will likely be out of the way by the time you're
ready to deliver. But no doctor, let alone one in a high risk specialty like OB
wants to get sued. Everyone is being cautious because one or two lost cases and
jerk your malpractice insurance so high it puts you out of business."
And right that second, Abby loved Tim's grandma more than
anything. The look on Gibbs face was worth having to go through this whole
thing. No one besides Franks had ever head-slapped him, and he didn't know how
to deal with it.
But she was going on like she hadn't noticed the look
(Shock, outrage, anger, and mostly more shock, but, and this was Penny's plan,
fear was gone, or at least shifted to the side.) he had aimed at her.
"There's only one thing a woman is designed to do, and
that's squeeze out babies. And Abby's going to be fine, so is Kelly. I've done
it." She looked at Gibbs. "Your wife did it," she turned to
Jimmy, "and yours, too. It's not fun. It isn't easy, but it's what we're
built for, and these two," she petted Kelly, "are going to come
through just fine."
Then she turned toward Abby. "And you are going to stop
pouting about a possible c-section and get down on your knees and thank both
God and science that they're available because if you need one, it will save
your life and your daughter's life. And that's all that matters on this.
"I've done this four times, and I can tell you, there's
no magic in doing it any given way. You don't get a medal for no meds or no
interventions. Anything that gets you and Kelly out of this in one piece is a
godsend and should be treated as such."
"That's not the problem," Abby starts, though it
actually is part of the problem, sort of, well, at least, giving up on an ideal
is the problem, "it's so much riskier."
"No one's talking about you having one for kicks and
giggles. And so much riskier is, according to Gladys, for healthy women without
other complications, three out of 100,000. So if your OB says get one, you get
it."
"I've seen thirteen out of 100,000."
 |
| Penny is done with this. |
Penny shoots her an I'm done with this look.
"And did you look into the maternal mortality rates for women who need
c-sections and can't get one? Did you research how many babies die when they
get into distress and can't get out fast?
"You're a scientist, Abby, start acting like one and
get into the data. That thirteen number includes all c-sections for all
reasons, including the ones where they did the c-section because the mother was
dying or already dead. You want Gladys' email, and I'll happily give it to you.
You can talk it through with her, but you know that anyone can mess with the
data any way they want to make it prove whatever they want. And I want you to
get out of panic mode and into data mode and realize thirteen out of 100,000 is
about your chances of getting hit by a car driving home from work, which you do
every single day without a whimper, so calm down about it!"
The next bit was aimed at Tim and Jethro. "And if the
OB says it's okay to try for a vaginal birth, and that's what Abby wants, you
two support her in it. A c-section is more dangerous, it's not easy, it can
take a long time to heal up from, so avoiding it if at all possible is a good
plan.
"So, we all on the same page? Abby and Kelly will be
fine. Baby's coming out however the highly trained medical providers you have
hired to provide you with their expertise think will result in the best
outcome. And we're all done panicking. Right?"
Jimmy smiled, saluted, and said, "Yes, Ma'am."
She's still staring at Tim, Abby, and Jethro.
Jethro nodded first, then Abby, and Tim finally yes,
"Yes."
"Good. You get any new ultrasound pics?" Tim
rubbed his eyes, got up, grabbed Abby's purse, and found the shots, handing
them to Penny.
Unlike the previous ultrasounds these were 4-d and provided
enough detail to see what Kelly actually looked like. And unlike the previous
ultrasounds, they'd been vastly too scared to really look at them.
Penny gazed at them for a moment, then handed the clearest
of the face shots to Gibbs and said, "What do you think, Jethro, Tim's
lips and Abby's chin?"
He stared at the shot, his arm around Abby, hand resting on
her tummy, feeling Kelly squirming around. He closed his eyes, resting his
forehead against her temple. "Yeah, Penny."
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