Dr. Chen, the resident physician caring for Ivy, said the chances of survival for the twenty-eight-week infant were roughly ninety to ninety-five percent.
Peter could not believe this was happening to him. It was not something he asked for or wanted. Not like this, anyway. He had assumed (hadn't he?) that she had used some sort of protection. In the past, he and Kate had never worried about birth-control. With Kate it was neither an issue or a possibility.
He thought back to their night together, her desperation. He also recalled the indications of her drug usage. The doctor warned him that she was very weak, and had admitted to taking drugs during the pregnancy. The birth would be difficult and extremely dangerous for her, considering her overall poor health. Presently the physician was attempting to prevent the premature birth by administering medication that could retard labor, to allow the baby its final eight weeks of development in the womb.
Now, waiting to find out if the drugs would take effect, Peter sat alone, wondering what he would do if the baby was born today, or next week…or whenever, for that matter. Even if they successfully postponed the birth, there was no running away from the fact that it was his child. And what about Ivy? Would she ask him to marry her? Who was the faulty party? Hadn't he known that he had done the wrong thing? Hadn't he known afterwards that things would never be the same again with Kate?
Kate. Their talk, before they had gone to dinner at the Holmeses' for the first time, about wanting a baby. About wanting to settle down, to marry. What would happen to him and Kate?
"Good morning, Mr. Jones," Dr. Chen said, snapping Peter's gaze from the clock.
"How is she?"
"There's been a change. After her first round of medication the contractions were less frequent, indicating that the pregnancy would not proceed," the doctor explained.
"That's good news, right?"
"It was good. But Ivy has passed fluid. The amniotic sac is leaking. Her labor has resumed. We have no choice but to see it through."