Castle and The Originals

Chapter 22

Dr. Candace flipped through Kate's chart reading the nurse's notes, after escorting the Castle's to an exam room the nurse had taken Kate's vitals and both a urine and blood sample. "So Kate, overall how have you have feeling?"

"Pretty good actually."

Dr. Candace nodded. "Any specific concerns or questions before I examine you?"

When both parents shook their heads the doctor went to work. Kate gladly raised her shirt allowing across to her protruding stomach. Rick was overjoyed that Kate hadn't been asked to remove her clothing that time; apparently no pelvic exam would be required today. He watched intently as the doctor poked, prodded and measured his wife's belly. It surprised him at how non-gentle she was with it as compared to the way he and Kate always handled it, them, with kid gloves. He couldn't help but imagine his children sloshing around, helpless against the onslaught of the raging current. If she didn't stop soon his inner Cave Man was going to rear his ugly head again. He wasn't beyond dragging Kate out of there if it meant protecting her or his babies.

"I'm not really what you'd call a joiner." Kate's voice broke him from his imaginings; he had totally missed whatever the doctor had said to her.

"I get that, I really do but..." Dr. Candace paused; clearly she knew her patient well enough to know that trying to talk her into anything she wasn't comfortable with was futile. "Okay, if you won't do birthing classes please at least let me sign you up for one of our Maternity Ward tours, and I insist that you write up a birth plan."

Rick perked up when he heard the word write. "A birth plan?"

"It's kind of a guideline of what you both want the delivery to be; who you want in the room with you, what kind of meds you want us to offer, things like that. It gives me and the rest of the medical staff an idea of your expectations. Of course things don't always go as expected, but at least we'll have a idea." The doctor made a note in Kate's chart. "I'll make sure you get a workbook when you checkout today. It also explains how to go about pre-registering with the hospital and some other info about what to expect after delivery."

She puts the chart down.

"Okay, now down to the nitty-gritty. Overall things look good. Your fundal height measures quite a bit above average, but that's to be expected with twins and you are carrying extremely high." Dr. Candace told them.

That last sentence might as well of been spoken in Latin for all Rick understood of it, but Kate seemed to nod in understanding. He would ask her to clarify later. Right now he was more concerned with the word overall. Why hadn't she said everything looks good? Overall left the room for something to not look good; for something to look bad. His stomach suddenly took up residence in his chest. He grabbed Kate's hand; she smiled at him unfazed by the overall. He cursed his writer's mind; the mind that could so easily get caught up on the difference between the use of one word as opposed to another.

"Two things concern me."

The corners of Kate's mouth fell and she gripped Rick's hand hard enough to make his fingertips turn white. She had wondered what the scared look on her husband's face just a second ago was about. What had he heard that she hadn't? Kate's heart pounded against her ribcage; the sudden spike in adrenaline sent the babies swirling in her womb. Her babies were moving; movement mean life.

Reassuringly the doctor patted Kate's knee.

"Nothing too serious, I promise. The first is your blood pressure. It's still well within the normal range, but it seems to be creeping up with every visit. No need to worry about it just yet, we'll just monitor it for now." Dr. Candace reached down the table and lifted the cuff of Kate's jeans; examining her ankle. "Just call me if you experience any edema or headaches."