Frost & Fire

Chapter 18 (Abigail)

It was almost noon before I finally convinced Bruce to do that scan early. I knew there was a chance we wouldn't be able to see everything, but when we had the help here, I felt better having someone here that knew more about the child growing inside of me. Pepper and Nat were upstairs making lunch since I wouldn't be able to leave my room after this and I wanted to still have a meal with everyone each day.

"This is some set up here." Leytle commented as she looked around. "What are these devices?"

"It would take me more than an hour to explain it all, honestly," I said with a smile. "The most important things to know is the ultrasound machine. It's got two functions: one is for intervaginal and the other is a sonogram that we will be using."

"What is an intervaginal untrasound?"

"Basically, it goes into the vagina to check pregnancy really early on if it can't be determined by the sonogram. It can also be used to measure ovaries and more if there's a problem with female reproduction."

I sat up on the table and rolled my shirt up so it would be under my bra, exposing my stomach. I checked the temp and saw it was already set for forty degrees fahrenheit so it would be comfortable enough for me and I noticed that one of the only ones who weren't complaining was the healer from Jotinheim.

"My gods, Abby, I didn't realize it was really this cold!" Frigga's voice rang out and I realized she had actually chosen to come instead of a projection of herself. "Are you and the baby okay?" Leytle tensed and I could tell that Frigga sensed it too. "Relax, my son has told me why you are here. So long as you do not harm my grandchild or daughter-in-law, we will be good. Odin and I only wish to have peace."

"The peace he so desperately wanted when he stole our princeling as a newborn?"

"Stop it! You are both welcomed here, what was done before cannot be undone." I said sternly and brought both of their eyes to me. "Now, we are going to do the ultrasound once Bruce comes down and I would like it if we can all agree our biggest priority is the baby I am carrying? If we ever want peace, we need to be the ones to start showing peace."

"You are right, my Queen." Leytle said with a bow and Bruce and Loki finally came into the room.

I laid back so that I was laying flat on my back. The cold gel was squirted on my stomach and I reached for Loki's hand. As the wand touched my skin, the picture of our child came up on the screen, looking much bigger than only eighteen weeks gestation. As Bruce moved the wand and took pictures, we could see what looked like a normal child; the organs looked normal and the same with his brain. The only difference was truly his size.

"He's the size of one of our own. I am not sure how you will deliver." Leytle said in amazement.

"I unfortunately agree. Abigail, we may have to think of another way of delivery. It won't be safe to go naturally." Frigga said grimly. "How are you feeling otherwise? Any pains or spotting?"

"No, other than feeling extremely warm, everything feels normal. He's always moving so much and I swear there are times I can tell for sure if it's a foot or a hand kicking and pushing at my stomach."

"That's going to be the least of our worries. How truly cold is it on Jotinheim?" Frigga asked.

"Damn near freezing according to the standards here from the sounds of it."

The three of us went on into our own conversations, almost forgetting about everyone else in the room as I cleaned the gel off. There was plenty of bed rest talk as well as delivery options. Naturally, Frigga wanted to find another way and I knew exactly what that other way was while Leytle was being very stubborn that I needed to deliver naturally. It was the way she was raised and the culture she was from; if I didn't survive childbirth, that was okay and proved I was worthy among the other females of her race.