“Where’s Robert?” Maggie asked.
“He got out of surgery about thirty minutes ago,” John reported.
Maggie looked at her watch. “I’d better talk to him in my office before he sees Gini.”
“Robert. It’s Maggie,” she was heard saying as she left the exam room. “If you have a minute can you come to my office?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“Just want to talk to you for a minute.”
“Okay, on my way.”
He was ushered into her office when he arrived at her reception.
“Man, what a day,” he said.
“How’s your patient?”
“He seems to be holding his own. I think we got the bleeding stopped. It was a close one, but I think he’ll be fine.” Robert sat on the couch in the room and relaxed back.
“Robert.” She paused.
He looked at her puzzled. “Maggie, what is it?”
“Gini’s in Linda’s office.”
He immediately slid to the front of the couch. “I did hurt her. What’s wrong, tell me. Why didn’t Linda or Debbie call me?” He was up on his feet.
“She’s okay. Really, she’s just fine, but a little upset.”
“About what?”
“Robert, Gini’s about twelve to fourteen weeks pregnant. She thinks you’ll be ang—”
“Absolutely no pregnancies.” Robert dashed to the door.
Maggie ran to keep up with his fast pace. “Robert, stop, we need to talk.”
“No, Maggie. I told her she was not going to carry a child, and that is that.”
The minute Gini heard Robert’s bellowing voice coming in the room she started crying again.
“Linda, she needs an abortion immediately,” he barked.
“Rob… ber. Bay… be, gill. Jess… eeca. Rob… ber, bay… be, gill.”
“Gini, hush.” He put his right hand on the top of her head and wrapped his left hand around her arm lying on the bed.
“She is not going to have a baby,” he said sternly.
Debbie had never seen Robert so enraged. She stepped back from the examining table.
There was silence in the room.
“Look, Linda. Look and see when you can schedule to end this pregnancy.”
“Bay… be, gill.”
Robert looked then to Dr. Meyer. “Help me out here, John. Tell them this can’t happen.”
“First of all,” John started, “you need to calm down. You’re scaring your wife. Gini is perfectly healthy, healthy enough to be a mother.”
“Rob… ber, bay… be, gill, Jess… eeca,” Gini kept repeating through her tears.
Robert put his head back and took a deep breath.
“Pease, Rob… ber. Guiney, be… uff, goo. Bay… be, be… uff, goo. Rob… ber, lah… uff.”
He put his head back down and looked at her lying on the bed, then he started rubbing his thumb gently back and forth across her forehead. “Okay, if I agree, tell me how we’re going to do this.”
“I’ll get a new brain scan,” John said. “But you know how good her last one looked.”
“I’ve got a rush on her blood work,” Linda reported. “We’ll treat this as a high-risk pregnancy, mainly because of the hypoglycemia. We’ll do a C-section long before she goes into labor. We can manage this, Robert; we can.”
There was silence again in the room.
“Okay, just so you all know, if there are any problems—with the baby, with Gini’s physical or mental health—and I mean any, this fetus will be aborted. No questions asked. Understood? I am not going to lose my wife. I’m going to protect her.”
Gini rolled closer to him. “Rob… ber, bay… be, gill. Guiney, no, be… uff, seek, be… uff, goo.” She rubbed his hand on her face.
He closed his eyes and took in a long, deep breath. He needed to calm himself, push the fear way, and try to think straight. He would never suggest to one of his DAI patients to go through a pregnancy. But Gini wasn’t a typical severe brain trauma patient. She wasn’t on any medication, and she was functioning to her full capacity. She had worked so hard to live a normal life, and having a family was about as normal as a woman could get. Did he have the right to take that away from her, from them? He’d seen the joy and love in Lenny and Lisa with their child—envied it, really. Deep down he wanted to be a father, and he knew it. And John was the best in the field. If he thought Gini could handle carrying a child, then she could. Robert trusted him.
Linda smiled and squeezed Gini’s other hand. “I’ll go get the sonogram machine, and we’ll take a look.”
Debbie was still standing away from the exam table, not really sure how she felt about what she had just witnessed. Robert so out of character, Gini hysterical, and herself feeling both excitement about the baby and worry for Gini. She didn’t like the way Robert handled his fears, but she knew exactly what he was talking about. She remembered Gini as she had first met her, so wounded, not even knowing her babies were dead. She knew Gini remembered being pregnant but not how much she understood. Would this bring it all back? What did that even mean for someone with brain damage?
John told Robert he would arrange for the brain scan. Maggie patted Robert on the shoulder. “Come talk to me.” Dr. Meyer and Maggie left the room with Linda.
Robert leaned down to Gini and kissed her on the lips. Gini reached around his head, and they kissed again.
“Here we go,” Linda said, coming back in the room.
She smeared the gel on Gini’s tummy and moved the wand all around. She had positioned the monitor so that all of them could see it. Debbie stepped closer to the examining table.
“There,” Linda said, pointing at the monitor. “Yep, I’d say about fourteen weeks.”
“Rob… ber, bay… be, gill.”
“It’s too early to determine the sex, but the fetus looks healthy and good,” Linda said.
Robert picked up Gini’s hand and
