Making Jane Proud

Chapter 55 - A Waiting Game

"Holy crap!" Maggie face was bright red as she danced from foot to foot, sure signs of her nervousness. "What do I do? I should call Tom."

"No!" Ellie put out a hand to stop her friend as she reached to her jeans pocket for her phone.

"I have to, Ells. Your water's broken! Shit! I promised him everything would be fine...did you have to do this on my watch? Couldn't you have waited just a few days?"

"Yeah, like I'm doing this on purpose," Ellie snapped, then drew a deep steadying breath before addressing her bestie again. "Ok, sorry, just...just give me a minute to think." Maggie nodded mutely, staring at her wide-eyed while her mind raced. "Alright, we need to find out if this is actually my waters breaking, or...or something else, so...we need to call the doctor. Or the hospital. No, the doctor." She looked into Maggie's face, seeing there the uncertainty and slight panic she could feel bubbling in her own chest. "Call the doctor. I'm going to...sit down."

She moved to the couch, taking what she hoped would be calming breaths while watching closely as Maggie pressed buttons and held the phone to her ear. She listened as her friend greeted the doctor and explained who she was, but didn't hear anything after that as a sharp, stabbing pain in her lower abdomen claimed her attention. Putting a hand to her stomach, she felt the rigid tightness of her belly as she began to groan involuntarily. Loudly.

Maggie yelped and almost dropped the phone. "Oh god, she's groaning! Ellie, is that a contraction? Are you having contractions? Shit! You can't have the baby yet! Tom's not here!"

The pain eased slowly, leaving Ellie panting and starting to worry in earnest. Irrespective of Tom's presence or lack thereof, it was still too soon for the baby to arrive and her head was swirling with thoughts of all that could go wrong and the complications her diabetes could cause. She took a deep breath and held out her hand for the phone, describing the pain to her doctor and listening to her instructions. "Yes. Yes. We'll do that. Yes. See you there." Hanging up, she took another fortifying breath and turned to Maggie. "Mags, I need you cool, calm and collected, okay? You cannot go to pieces because then I will too and...so we can't, alright? Take a deep breath with me." They both took in huge lungfuls of air, exhaling slowly. "Okay. Now." She needed another deep breath before continuing. "We need to get to the hospital. Doctor Woods will meet us there and they'll do tests to determine if this is just false labour or...you know. We won't - listen to me - we WON'T - call Tom yet, until we find out... Understood?" Maggie's brief nod wasn't enough to reassure her. "Promise me, Mags. No calling Tom yet."

"Okay, not yet. I promise. But if they say you really are...then I'm calling him straight away."

"Only if you beat me to it," Ellie responded, trying to lighten the mood but more than half serious.

"Alright, deal. So, what do we need for the hospital? Is there a bag packed somewhere?"

Ellie shook her head regretfully. "Nope; hadn't gotten around to that yet." There was meant to be plenty of time still for organising those kinds of things. There was meant to be plenty of time still for all kinds of preparations. This wasn't meant to be happening yet. Oh god!

"No worries. Tell me where a bag is and what you'll need and I'll sort it. You call for a taxi."

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"All right, Ellie, I'm going to examine you and do an ultrasound to determine if your cervix is in fact preparing for labour. I'll also do a fetal fibronectin test, which checks for a protein baby secretes to tell us she's ready to come out. The swab I took doesn't indicate any bacterial infection from your waters breaking, but I'm going to give you an antibiotic to be on the safe side."