"I have to call Jack," Adriana said, her eyes squeezed shut from the pain as she and Bruce met with Dr. Kapoor after leaving the elevator to enter the private downtown Gotham medical facility.
"I have called him, and he is on his way as we speak," Dr. Kapoor answered her as they guided her to a sonography room.
Dr. Kapoor felt her abdomen, asked Adriana where the pain was, and got no response. She was trembling and keeping her eyes shut.
"When did the pain begin?" he asked, and Adriana gripped Bruce's arm with her eyes still closed. She was in too much pain to answer.
"It seemed to come on suddenly," Bruce answered for her. "Around twenty-five minutes ago."
"I will be right back," Dr. Kapoor said. "Just a moment."
Bruce looked down at Adriana's nails digging into his forearm. Dr. Kapoor left the room and Adriana's hand began to tremble from how firmly she was gripping him.
She opened her eyes and tried to breath and then looked down at the nail marks in his skin.
"Oh...Bruce-" she said apologetically.
"Don't worry about it," he said. "I am fine, and you will be too. Dr. Kapoor will take excellent care of you."
"I won't..." Adriana said and started to cry. "I....already had an ectopic pregnancy...and there's a higher chance I'd have another one...and here it is...and I'll lose my baby...and my other fallopian tube and-"
"Shh..." Bruce said and held her hand. "We don't know that is what is going on. I have a feeling you and your baby will be fine."
"But how?" she asked. "It hurts so bad..."
Adriana then felt overcome with his feelings. His thoughts. He was telling the truth. He was optimistic. He was also in pain.
"Your knee hurts," she said, forgetting her own pain.
"I am fine," he said and kissed her hand.
"You carried me to the car...you shouldn't have-" Adriana said. It was a lot of strain on his knee to not only walk without his cane but to have carried her made it worse.
"Shhh..." Bruce said again and kissed her hand again.
"You think..." she said to Bruce, feeling she was entirely in his head. "You think...we got here quickly...Dr. Kapoor is the best doctor out there...so everything is going to be okay..."
"Yes," Bruce said to her. "That is exactly what I think."
Adriana took a deep breath and shut her eyes again. The pain was excruciating.
Dr. Kapoor returned to the room.
"I will need your abdomen exposed," he said to Adriana. "Lower abdomen as well."
She lifted her shirt and tried to breathe. The pain made her hands shake horribly. Bruce reached over released the belt buckle and opened the top part of her jeans as Dr. Kapoor put gel onto her stomach.
Adriana closed her eyes, trying to breathe through the pain. She had seen thoughts and memories all her life. She had seen many people go through medical school, read ultrasounds and scans, treat patients...all of it. But she couldn't look at the screen. She didn't want to see. Instead, she stared ahead at the wall.
"Adriana," Dr. Kapoor said as he moved a device around on her stomach.
"Yes," Adriana said weakly and looked at him.
He pointed to the screen, and she looked over. She could see the uterus and bladder. She could clearly see the baby. She began to hear the heartbeat.
It was very small, and she could see definitively where the baby's head was. Tiny and curled up was how the baby looked. She could not make out the legs or anything distinct on the lower body. The gender would be unknown for weeks. She had no idea how far along she was, and she was expecting the baby to look like a vague blob. But it looked it a baby. She almost wanted to cry. It was so beautiful.
