<USS Avalon> "Ready or Not"
- From: "Melanie Redgrave" <melanieredgrave@xxxxxxx>
- To: <avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 23:00:04 -0400
"Ready or Not"
Melanie Redgrave, Maggie Stewart, Lilin Rea, and Company
It's just a little gas, Melanie told herself as she pushed herself into a
sitting position. Just gas that hit ten minutes ago and is starting again.
Grunting softly, she pushed herself to her feet. She was just going to walk it
off. She took three steps towards the replicator for tea and had to stop. The
pain made her groan as she gripped the back of a chair so tightly her knuckles
turned white.
With a fizz, Maggie formed and blinked. She didn't think she could of her own
free will and even if she could, she hadn't especially wanted to. Yet here she
was... Then something registered as she turned and saw Melanie bent over and
clearly in pain. "Och, lass!"
"I'm fine." She hissed through clenched teeth and a tight smile. "Just a bit of
indigestion."
"Aye and I'm the queen of sheba," Maggie snorted, placing a hand on Melanie's
back. "The bearn's coming."
Melanie shook her head so hard she made herself dizzy. "No she is not." She
replied a little more easily. "I won't allow it. She's not to come so soon and
not while I'm on this bloody shuttle and Vevay's somewhere else."
"We're aboot t'dock, Vevay'll be waitin' for yeh when we get you t'Scik Bay,"
Maggie assured her.
Panic filled Melanie's eyes as the pain started to subside. "It's too soon. I'm
not due yet." Looking down at her swollen stomach she ordered, "You stop this
right now, miss. It's too soon for you. You've no patience whatsoever."
Maggie let out a bright laugh despite the seriousness of the situation. "Aye,
that'll tell her."
Melanie looked up at the older woman and scowled. "This isn't bloody funny!"
"No, quine, but she's coming, whether you want her to or not," Maggie said
softly to sooth her. "We got a medic here to contact the station?"
Slowly, Melanie sank into a chair while wrapping her arms around her belly.
"Lilin. She stepped up front."
"Call her then, quine, I don't think I can move so far from my emitter and
you're wearing it," Maggie said softly.
Reaching up Melanie tapped her comm badge before taking off Maggie's emitter
and handing it to her. "Redgrave to Rea. I need you back here please."
Lilin hit her own badge as she rose to her feet and moved quickly to the back
of the shuttle. "Ma'am?" she asked then dashed over. "Are you okay, ma'am?"
"It would appear that my daughter has decided it's time to join the world."
Melanie replied as she pushed out an easy breath. The pain had stopped. "I
however refuse to go through with this without my," She paused. Lover,
girlfriend, partner, none of those terms suddenly seemed right. They were about
to become a family. "wife."
Lilin let a bright smile touch her lips as she took the woman's hand. "Then
she'll be there, once we get you to the station. Have you informed their
medical bay?"
Melanie shook her head. She felt an odd pressure that was all together
different then the pains from before. It almost felt as if a bubble were
swelling and she made a tight face just before she felt something wet soak her
uniform. "Oh bloody hell."
"Your water has broken," the little nurse told her. "It's nothing to worry
about."
"She's not daft," Maggie huffed. "Call the station, girl."
Lilin stared at the hologram for a moment before tapping her badge again.
"Izar, this is shuttle Genevieve. There is a pregnant woman whose baby doesn't
want to wait any more."
The call was patched through right to sick bay. The voice that replied was
warm. "We'll have a medical team waiting at the hatch, Genevieve."
Melanie grunted as the pain began to built again and a headache flicked behind
her eyes. "I won't do this without Vevay. She's on the Captain's shuttle."
"It's bringing up the rear and won't be arriving for another few hours," Lilin
told her softly. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine."
Granted she spoke with an accent, but what part of what she was saying didn't
they get? Sitting in the chair, one hand on her stomach, the other gripping
tightly to one of Maggie's, Melanie looked up at the Bajoran woman. "Fine or
not, I'm not doing this without Vevay!"
"You don't have a choice," Lilin said kindly but firmly. "If baby's coming,
there's nothing you can do."
Maggie put a hand on Melanie's shoulder and squeezed gently. "Don't fret lass,
she'll be there."
Pure fear clouded Melanie's eyes as she looked up at Maggie. "It's too soon."
"It's right on time," Maggie cooed.
Just as Melanie was about to protest further, another contraction sent little
white stars into her vision, and a steady throbbing took hold in her head.
Melanie hissed out a long string of curses as she griped even more tightly to
Maggie's hand.
There was a large clunk as the shuttle docked and the moment the hatch opened,
Lilin saw the med team rush in. "Her contractions are about five minutes apart.
Labor has set in faster than I've ever seen before."
"I hope she doesn't follow this rushed pace all her life." Melanie moaned as
she was helped to the stretcher. "We'll never keep up with her."
Maggie chuckled as she followed behind. "Aye but at least you know she'll not
be late for appointments."
Melanie hissed out a moan partly from pain, partly from Maggie's joke. The trip
to the station's sick bay went by in a blur of questions. Was she ready for
this? Would she be a good mother? Could she do this at all? Would she have the
family with Vevay that she'd been dreaming about the last few months? Just how
badly was this going to hurt? It had just started and already it was less then
a picnic.
Maggie kept rubbing Melanie's shoulder and trying to make small talk. "I think
she'll be a bonny lass with good parents to keep her on the straight. She'll be
fine and happy. She'll be loved."
"With the strangest accent known to man." Melanie laughed as the pain ebbed
slow away.
"Och aye, your English, my Vevay's American and to muddy the works my own
doric," Maggie chuckled, still rubbing the girl's shoulder. "Poor bearn."
As they entered sick bay, the small group was shown into a private room and
Melanie was helped to a bed and given a clean scrub gown to put on. For now the
contractions had stopped, but her headache was still pounding mercilessly. As
she allowed Maggie to help her change she realized when she normally had
headaches such as these it was never a good thing. "Doctor McEntire." She
gasped at a twinge of abdominal pain. "She's my doctor. She knows about my
blood pressure problems."
Lilin placed a hand on Melanie's shoulder and cooed softly. "It's okay, Dr
McEntire briefed me fully when she found out I was the one sharing your
shuttle. I have all the files and a case of your meds right here."
That made her feel better but Melanie still wanted the comfort of having
someone handle this that she knew and trusted, not that she didn't Lilin, she
simply wanted what she wanted and she wasn't getting any of it. "Is her shuttle
still not docked either?"
One of the medics glanced up from across the room. "Dr McEntire is on medical
leave, ma'am. Even if her shuttle was docked, she wouldn't be able to see to
you. She's in no fit state."
"Why not?" Melanie demanded as she decided biobeds were even more uncomfortable
with stirrups.
"Because she just gave birth to five children," the medic informed her. "She is
exhausted and drained."
Melanie's eyes went wide. She was far closer to her actual due date then Anna
would be to hers, which meant her babies were premature. "Are they all aright?
She and the babies?"
The medic flicked her eyes to her boss then back the Melanie. "I can't discuss
that with you, ma'am. It's against doctor-patient confidentiality."
Which meant something went wrong, thought Lilin. She filed it away to be dealt
with after Melanie had given birth. Then she would find out more.
"Thank you." Melanie sighed, worry building on top of worry. "By not simply
saying they're doing fine, you've answered far more then was asked." Melanie
sighed, but as the monitor above her began to beep singling another contraction
her sigh turned into a groan. Another string of cruses passed her lips while
her mind cried out for Vevay.
Ellia flinched slightly as she marched in and nodded to the attending doctors.
"Commander, my name is Ellia Ren, I'm the duty chief. Everything's going to be
fine. But can I ask you to do one thing for me?"
Melanie had such a tight clenched grip on the edges of the bed her knuckles
were white. She looked at the chief with a clear warning in her eyes, if this
was something stupid she hit the woman.
"Could you please stop projecting to freely and violently?" Ellia said softly,
taking a seat next to her and placing a friendly hand where Melanie could reach
it if she wanted. "My walls are tight and you're managing to give me a
headache. There are other less experienced telepaths around who'll be feeling
every slight twinge of pain you do. Your Imzadi will hear you even if you
whisper. Okay?"
If her face weren't already flushed from labor, Melanie would have blushed. She
took a deep breath as the pain once again ebbed away and then nodded. "Sorry.
I've very little training, I've only known I was part Betazoid for a year or
so. I'll try not to..." Melanie blinked and looked at the woman. "My what?"
"The one you're trying to call," Ellia explained. "You have one but you don't
know what one is, do you?" Sighing softly, she wondered for a moment what kind
of incompetent idiot had tried to train this girl.
Melanie simply shook her head, which wasn't the smartest thing to do with her
pounding head.
"Your Imzadi is your soulmate, the one person in all the universe who completes
you. You can never replace them nor can you change your mind. They are who you
are meant to be with," Ellia told her gently. "Mine is a human called Stuart.
He's on assignment at the moment. Why don't you tell me about yours?"
"Vevay," Melanie started, liking the idea of this Imzadi thing. Everything this
woman had just said fit so perfectly it was scary. "she's a security officer on
Avalon with me. I've only known her for a short time, but it's always felt as
if we've known each other forever and a day, as if our lives have always been
connected somehow." Tears welled in Melanie's eyes. "She's been with me through
all of this and now she's going to miss her daughter's birth."
"Hush now, lass," Maggie said as she took up post on the other side of her.
"Sometimes an Imzadi can sense you even if you can't hear their thoughts,"
Ellia said softly. "I bet she can. I bet she's praying for you."
"She wanted to be here." Melanie said softly as she wiped tears for her cheeks.
"I wanted..." She paused as she drew her hand away from her face. There as
blood on the back of her hand were it had grazed just under her nose.
Ellia nodded as she patted her shoulder. She had already flipped open her
tricorder and tsked at the results. The woman's preeclampsia was quickly
turning into eclampsia, and with the nose bleed symptoms would go down hill
from there. "Your preexisting blood pressure condition is progressing. We can't
wait for further dilation, Commander. If we're going to make sure you and your
baby are well and waiting for your Imzadi when she gets here, we're going to
need to do an emergency c-section."
Fear and panic, despite the fact she knew these things were not helping, lit up
Melanie's eyes. She was numb and scared to death. The only thing she could
mange was a nod of her head.
Her team sprang into action around the scared woman. "I'm going to administer a
sedative. Just relax, everything will be just fine."
A few moments after hearing the hiss of the hypo everything began to feel warm
and to Melanie it seemed as if she were suddenly swaddled in cotton candy. Her
mind relaxed as did her body and the last things she thought of were her baby
and her, ~~Imzadi~~
"Elphaba, where I come from we believe all sorts if things that aren't true..
We call it.. History."
~The Wizard
~Wicked~
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