That Night

Chapter 26

Marinette's look of confusion did not leave her face. She looked at her mother and when she saw her look of surprise and worry Marinette got worried too. Her breathing became ragged. She looked back to Dr. Dubois, "What is preeclampsia?"

Dr. Dubois gave her a gentle look. "Preeclampsia is a complication that can occur during a pregnancy. Some of the symptoms include high blood pressure and protein in the urine, both of which you have today. It can present itself through several issues with your organs and those of your baby, as well as affecting his development. To be sure that preeclampsia is what we're dealing with I want to do some blood tests and check your blood pressure again at another time.

"Right now, I'm going to do an ultrasound to check on baby, then we'll take you to draw some blood. After all this I will want you to come back tomorrow morning and we will look at your blood pressure then and the results of your blood work. If we find out that you do have preeclampsia, then we will talk more about everything then."

Marinette's eyes were wide and scared. "What can I do?" She bit her lip in nervousness.

"The best solution is usually to deliver the baby. But once we're sure this is what were dealing with we'll talk more and figure out what treatment would be best for you and your baby."

Marinette nodded minutely and slowly leaned back on the exam table. She felt completely numb. She stared blankly at the ceiling and made no effort to aid Dr. Dubois in lifting her shirt. But when she heard Louis' heartbeat sound on the machine, she smiled weakly and looked at the screen to see her baby boy.

Adrien got up form his chair and stood behind Marinette with his hand resting on her shoulder. "There's little Louis, and it looks like he's doing just fine." He squeezed her shoulder gently.

Marinette looked up at the man who had helped her create this life. "I'm scared," she whispered.

Adrien took a deep breath in, closing his eyes for a moment. "Me too. But we'll do this together." They both smiled at each other as much as they could in the current situation. Then Marinette looked up and her doctor.

"Everything appears to be fine. He's got a strong heartbeat; he even looks to be dancing around in there." She grinned at the parents, and they were glad of her efforts to ease their fears.

"Ok Marinette, Adrien, I'm going to turn your over to Nurse Lily and she's going take you to get your blood work done. I'll see you tomorrow morning, okay?"

Marinette nodded meekly. "Thank you, Dr. Dubois."

As Dr. Dubois left the room a nurse with short blonde hair came into the room. "If you'll just come down this hallway... We'll do the work in here." She looked to Sabine and Adrien. "You two can sit here." She gestured to some waiting room chairs. "Marinette, you will sit right here." She helped her gingerly get into the exam chair.

Lily spent several minutes setting Marinette up on the chair and drawing blood. She allowed Adrien to sit next to Marinette and hold her hand during the process. Afterward Lily led them to front of the office and gave them a parting smile.

They quickly set up an appointment to come back tomorrow then made their way home. The three of them walked very slowly, deep in thought. Marinette and Adrien were despondent, as was Sabine, but her motherly instinct overtook her and she tried her best to cheer the couple. When, after several attempts, she had no success she remained silent and just kept an arm wrapped around her daughter.

When they made it to the Dupain-Cheng house Adrien and Marinette went straight upstairs to Marinette's room, while Sabine stopped to whisper to Tom and tell him the news.

For the rest of the night Adrien and Marinette just sat on the chaise wrapped in each other's arms. When Sabine came up a couple hours later with some food, the pair were able to get a little bit of food down before they pushed it a way and continued to sit together in silence.

Seeing the state of the teenagers, Tom and Sabine called Gabriel to tell him the situation and to ask for permission for Adrien to stay with Marinette for the night. Gabriel was surprisingly willing and told them to let him know if he could do anything to help.

The couple made it through the night, sleeping very little. They were still sitting there, staring at nothing when Marinette's parents came into the room the next morning. They grimaced at the kids' haggard state, then walked towards the pair to prepare them for the impending appointment.

"Adrien, Marinette, you've got to get ready, we're going to leave soon."

Marinette sighed and Adrien helped her up from her reclining position on the day bed. They spent several minutes getting ready then they all made their way to the office. Tom wanted to come too, but he had to stay and manage the bakery. So, he had them promise to fill him in on every detail as soon as they got back.

Soon enough the trio made it into the OBG-YN office, and the staff got Marinette into the back quickly. They got her urine sample and took her blood pressure, then led her to the exam room. Dr. Dubois met them there minutes later.

"Marinette..." She spoke gravely. "We've gotten the results back and we now know for sure that you have preeclampsia."

"Preeclampsia can be extremely detrimental to you and your baby. Usually the best and most effective treatment would be to deliver the baby. But since you are not quite to the point in your pregnancy where baby is fully developed, we will have to take a different approach.

"I'm going to want to get you on a treatment of betamethasone in the next month to help baby develop more quickly and then we will schedule you for an inducement. We'll probably schedule the inducement for between the 32nd and 34th weeks of your pregnancy. But we'll wait to schedule that until we are closer to that point in your pregnancy and we can check on baby and know when it is safe to deliver him."

They continued talking. Dr. Dubois told them about all the possible symptoms and effects of preeclampsia. They discussed the medicine that Marinette would be taking and all its effects. Then Dr. Dubois answered what seemed like endless questions, especially from Adrien.

He wanted to be able to take care of Marinette and their baby and keep them from any harm. Now with this diagnosis he was even more intent on protecting the love of his life and their baby that she was carrying. It made him nervous and pushed him to take action for his Lady and the little bug growing within her.

When the questions finally died down Dr. Dubois informed them, "I'm going to need you come in more often now. For a while we'll move your appointments up to every two weeks, then we'll need to meet every week - we need to keep an eye on this baby."

Marinette nodded with a grim smile. She was still extremely nervous about what would happen in the next months, but Dr. Dubois was able to give her a little bit of hope. She had faith that soon enough she would meet little Louis and he would be able to join her little family with her and Adrien. She knew that Adrien would take care her and her baby. Everything would work out eventually.