Chapter 68
“Trust your intuition and be guided by love.” – Charles Eisenstein
Rose's POV
Dr. Danvers told me anytime after finishing my fifth month and starting my sixth, I could go into labor.
So Iexpected my mid-month scan to be more detailed than before.
What I didn’t expect was for the ultrasound technician to call Dr. Danvers in and show him the ultrasound at today’s appointment.
That had never happened before. And then Dr. Danvers himself ended up scanning me.
Then he had a doppler scan set up for me.
By the time we both sat down across from him in his office, Aiden and I had already sensed something was off.
“We have a slight problem,” he finally said, turning to us, the expectant parents.
My hand in Aiden’s tightened. Stark terror for my unborn child rolled through my body, seeping out of my pores and making my lips tremble.
“It’s nothing to be too alarmed about. I’m just worried…
.I dug up your mother’s file.” Dr. Danvers' voice was calm and soothing, he was visibly trying to keep us from panicking.
“I wasn’t the pack doctor back then. But I believe she suffered from avery rare condition, a form of placenta accreta that went unchecked. I believe you have something similar. “
Aiden’s hold over my hand became a death grip. It was no secret that my mother had died in childbirth.
“It's actually a very rare condition, and practically unheard of among werewolves.
I want you to know that there is no specific causal link as far as genetics go.
Just because your mother had it, doesn't increase your chances for it.
Which is why I wasn't overly worried. But the type your mother had could have been similar to yours.
" Dr. Danvers looked me square in the eye.
"This is the first time I have seen this in a female werewolf.
In your condition, the placenta has attached and grown into your uterus.
It's called placenta increta. As werewolves, our bodies are able to rectify such issues in our body automatically and heal appropriately. The ultrasound technician picked it up in your previous scan and expected your body to naturally fix it. However, in this scan, it seems to have gotten worse.”
“What about the baby? Will she…will she be all right?” I asked, lips pale and voice trembling.
“She’ll be fine,” Dr. Danvers assured. He pursed his lips and looked at Aiden.
“I'm going to need you to sign off on some documents. If her placenta is unable to detach, I will have to do a procedure which requires manual removal of it from her uterus. We’ll need to make arrangements for a blood transfusion. Though for werewolves it’s not common to be unable to heal, I’m not going to take any chances. ”
Aiden’s grip cut off the flow of blood in my hand.
Dr. Danvers kept speaking, looking at Aiden and me.
I knew he was telling all of this because his patients needed to know the full extent of risks that came with this complication.
I knew the rules, the procedure, and that all complications had to be accounted for.
But when it came to my baby, all medical training fled out the window.
I wasn’t a woman in the medical field right now. I was a mother worried for her baby.
"There is a possibility the luna could hemorrhage and bleed to death."
Aiden's hand spasmed over mine, subsequently a knuckle in my hand popped. He immediately dropped my hand horrified.
“It’s OK.” Iassured him, shaking out my hand.
I could tell Aiden was about to go into full-on panic mode. I placed a hand on his arm before looking back at Dr. Danvers.
"What does all this mean for our daughter?" I had to ask. That was my main perogative.
“Your baby is a good size. She’ll survive.
We’re going to give you a couple of injections to speed up lung maturity for the baby.
And I think it’s better if we go ahead and schedule a delivery for this coming weekend.
The more we prolong it, the more your placenta will end up entrenching itself into your uterus which is fatal for the mother.
The placenta is meant to be expelled immediately after birth but that doesn’t happen if it grows into the walls of a mother’s womb. ”
It was too soon. I wanted to try waiting the entire six months. I opened my mouth to argue that but Aiden beat me to it.
“What are her chances of survival?” Aiden inquired.
His face was pale and eyes were wide as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Quite high,” Dr. Danvers assured. “She’s a werewolf, after all. Her body will heal. These are all precautions.”
“She’s part-human,” Aiden growled. “What if she doesn’t heal like she’s supposed to?”
“I’m right here!” I huffed, crossing my arms. The baby would be fine according to Dr. Danvers. I would be fine too.
Aiden looked like he’d been given the news of someone’s impending death.
“It’s normal to be worried,” Dr. Danvers assured me before looking back at Aiden. “I think right now, because she can’t turn and the werewolf in her has been repressed, it’s hindering her healing abilities. Once the baby is born, her body will rectify everything on its own.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Aiden pressed.
Dr. Danvers hesitated for a milli-second before replying. “It will.”
“But what if it doesn’t? We need a specialist here to deal with a worst case scenario,” Aiden argued.
“My specialization was in gynae.” Dr. Danvers replied patiently. “I am capable of handling it if things don’t go according to plan.”
“I’d still feel more comfortable getting a second opinion,” Aiden asserted.
I gasped. How could he doubt our doctor? But I saw the fire in his eyes and knew it was completely pointless disagreeing with him right now.
When we got home, Aiden pulled me into his embrace as we sat on the couch in the TV lounge. I could sense his agitation, his worry. He was a wreck internally.
“Everything’s going to be OK,” I assured him.
“I’m not going to lose you.” Aiden spoke determinedly.
Three days later..
We’d gone to three other doctors and Aiden had someone flown in specially from Paris to come take a look at me.
Things were getting out of hand with Aiden's crusade to find someone he was satisfied with. I knew what Aiden was looking for. He was looking for someone that would promise a 100% success rate. That just wasn’t possible.
I had done a bit of research of my own regarding this condition.
Dr. Danvers was right, it was extremely rare.
Only 1 in 2,500 pregnancies' experienced it.
And there were three forms of the condition.
I had placenta accreta, where the placenta had not fully entrenched itself into the muscles of my uterus but had definitely penetrated the walls of my uterus.
In very severe instances, the doctor might need to remove my entire uterus with the placenta attached to it.
It meant that if things got out of hand, I might not be able to have any more babies.
But I was a werewolf. My wolf would heal me. This is all just a precaution. Aiden, however, was on edge. He had become fiercely protective of me. Not even letting me take the leisurely two minute walk to Josie's house when I needed to get away from him. It was suffocating me to be honest.
“You know,” I began gently one night as my alpha paced the length of the nursery we’d finished decorating in hues of yellow with a Winnie the Pooh theme. “Even normal deliveries don’t have a 100% success rate.”
“They do if you’re werewolves.” Aiden ground out, grinding his molars together agitatedly. “Three doctors, three. And they all said the same exact thing. They were all quacks.” He ran an agitated hand through his hair.
I looked at Aiden and gave words to my thoughts. “The doctors are not quacks. But the problem is you want someone out there who can give you the prognosis you want to hear. You keep looking for someone out there to tell you that this is all a wrong diagnosis.”
“There’s got to someone or something that could tell me everything’s going to be OK…” Aiden muttered. Before I could respond, he suddenly looked up at me determinedly before turning on his heel and leaving the room.
I sunk down in a rocking chair, my eyes going to the black loopy writing on the wall where the baby crib was pushed up against.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
I rubbed my stomach comfortingly while staring at the quote from Winnie the Pooh.
“We can do this,” I said with conviction, speaking to my baby as well as myself.
Aiden's POV
“Give me that damn clock,” I demanded of Tony barging into his home unannounced.
He sat, lost in thought, on a recliner chair with his elbows resting on his knees and head bent towards the floor.
“The…what?” Tony looked up at me, face haggard and drawn. He looked like a man who’d been to hell and back.
“I need to know,” I pleaded. “I need to know if she survives this. I’ll only use it to go forward a couple of days. I won’t change anything.”
I didn’t mention that if I found out Rose wouldn’t survive, I was willing to go back in time and change things so she wouldn’t get pregnant. I knew I should have used a condom. Hell, I might just go ahead and go back in time instead of forward.
Tony exhaled deeply, passing a hand over his face before finally starting to speak.
“I don’t know where it is.” He bent his neck, head hanging down in shame. “If it meant it helped Rose, I’d give it to you. But I don’t know.”
“How could you not know?!” I exploded. “You’re lying!”
“I’m not lying,” Tony insisted. “I don’t remember where I put it.”
The betas voice was barely audible as he looked at the ground.
“What do you mean you don’t remember?” I asked incredulously. “How is that even possible? It’s only been a handful of weeks since you had to hide it away.”
Tony looked up at me a little guiltily.
“I set it off accidentally.”
I felt like I’d just had the wind knocked out of me. Why was this happening quite a lot recently?
“What?”
Tony scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I’m pretty sure my future-self was in this body and hid it somewhere.” Tony looked at me as if he’d done something unspeakable. “I’m really sorry.”
“What did you see when you went forward? How far did you go?” I fired off my questions in quick succession. Then I asked the one question most important to him. “Did you see Rose? Was she OK?”
“I went six years forward,” Tony revealed. “And no, I didn’t see Rose. The entire time I was home, taking care of a-a—” Tony's face reddened. "Newborn.”
There was a momentary warmth in my chest at the knowledge that six years from now, my brother would have a family.
“Yours?” I queried, wanting to make sure my assumption was correct.
Tony nodded. “I can’t really tell you more than that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. It was like a complete out of body experience. I couldn’t believe this was my life in the future.”
Even though I would have loved to sit with my younger brother and help him hash through it all, there were more pressing matters at the moment.
“We have to try to find the artifact.”I was adamant. I had to find it and make sure Rose would be OK.
“I’ve already tried looking for it,” Tony confessed.
“I wanted to hide it in one of the caves a few hours away from here. I went back and spent a great deal of time combing through the likely hiding spots. It wasn't there. We could go back and double check but I don’t think you want to waste time doing that, Aiden. Go be with Rose. Eventually, she’s going to start feeling nervous about the delivery, you need to be there for her. ”
I felt like an idiot. Tony was right. I needed to be there for Rose. Even right now, I should be with the person whose life was on the line. I sped home to find Rose right where I’d left her. Sitting in the rocking chair in our baby’s nursery, lovingly holding a fuzzy pink blanket up to her cheek.
“The longer my werewolf has been repressed,” Rose spoke softly, her eyes landing on me, “the longer it’s been taking me to heal from small injuries. I think this is normal Aiden for half-humans. Once I have the baby, it will all be fine.”
But there was a tone of uncertainty. As if she was just saying it in hopes of making it true. I didn’t argue. I just went over and held her in my arms, praying to the moon goddess that everything would be all right in the end.