Chapter 54 - It's Fine

— Tobias

The next week ends up difficult for Tris and I. Well, more her than me, but it's difficult for me to watch and feel hopeless.

As she enters her thirty-second week of pregnancy her discomfort has gone through the roof.

"Please just don't touch me, Tobias," she sighs raising her hands to her forehead and closing her eyes.

"Okay," I say as soothingly as I can, rolling back over in bed. I hear Indy claw on the door lightly and decide that Tris will be fine here if I take him for a walk.

Strapping his harness, I turn out of the apartment and down the hall, my dog a few feet in front of me.

I can't stop worrying about her, and until now I haven't noticed how much of a clingy husband I have been since we discovered her pregnancy.

I almost always have been coddling her in one way or another: her hand in mine, hugging her, playing with her hair, rubbing her bump...

Her and I were never that clingy couple, but now that she has become so uncomfortable and practically yelling at me sometimes to not touch her, I realize that we are that couple.

Dr. Scott is coming over to check on her patients today in Dauntless and Tris has an appointment with her at noon.

I don't know if she's going to be able to get down to the infirmary to see her.

I make a mental note to call the doctor on my way home from this walk and see what she thinks.

A lot of Tris's discomfort has been coming from her leg, which Dr. Scott had worried about. Her body is changing with this pregnancy, and her leg is swelling from the pregnancy along with the injury making the pain worse.

I just hope she won't need surgery when One is a newborn.

She hasn't been sleeping much, and she practically stopped training with Zeke and Chris with the exception of once a week with both of them. The day that the ambassadors surprised her with her baby shower ended up being her last day before her maternity leave. She didn't want it to be her last day, but the following Monday she woke up so uncomfortable that she gave in and told Josh she was done for a while. Ambassadors have been stopping by the apartment with questions on papers and just to say hi, but she's been keeping a tight leash on making sure they ask before they come because of the pains she gets.

It's normal, I guess, the discomfort she's having. Her organs are pushing to make room for One as he grows, and her skin is stretching as he does so.

It just sounds painful. I can't imagine it actually happening inside of me.

I decide to call Dr. Scott. She picks up after two rings and tells me that she's on the train to Dauntless right now.

I tell her about Tris's discomfort as she's seven and a half months pregnant, and how I don't know if I can't torture her to get her down to the infirmary today.

"Well, that's not going to stop me. What apartment number is yours? I can do the scan of her leg from my laptop and she doesn't even have to get out of bed. I was wondering how she was doing with the pregnancy and her leg, and I guess this is expected."

I tell her how to get to our apartment when entering from the Main Building and she says she will be here in fifteen minutes.

Tris is probably going to be mad at the lack of notice, but she'll have to get over it.

I unhook Indy from his leash and he barrels through the apartment. I panic for a second that he might go into the bedroom and jump on Tris, but he turns and goes into the kitchen instead.

"Hey," I lean against the doorframe of our bedroom and Tris opens her eyes to look at me.

"Hi." She mumbles quietly and I sit next to her on the bed, cautious to keep my hands to myself in case she's still as uncomfortable as she was this morning. She reaches her hand out to mine and I take it with both my hands, rubbing her knuckles softly.

"I love you," I press my lips to her hand lightly before releasing her hand. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Not really," she shifts on the bed. Her eyes find mine and she looks at me skeptically. "What?"

"Dr. Scott is coming to the house to see you. I called her and told her you weren't feeling well, and she said she can ultrasound your leg with the program on her laptop."

Tris sighs, her hands running across her bump. Slowly I move my hand to her bump and she tells me that it's okay and how the lotion she uses helped the stretching pain a little since this morning.

"He won't stop kicking," she comments and I feel my son's movements from under my hand.

"Be nice to your mother," I press my lips to her belly quickly and she smiles lightly. A soft tap on the door breaks us apart and I go to answer it.

Dr. Scott has always been overly smiley for an Erudite, and sometimes I wonder if she's like that for just Tris and I. It's never a forced feeling, but she always seems naturally happy when she is with us.
I mean, we have gotten to know he really well. She's been Tris's doctor through thick and thin.

Tris managed to sit up in our bed while I answered the door. Indy behaves himself, not barreling up to attack Marie with kisses when he greets her.

She and Tris make small talk as she sets up the ultrasound on her laptop and is overjoyed to discover that we are having a boy. I sit next to Tris on our bed, and she expresses her concern for the ultrasound hurting because of her leg being so bad today.

Marie sits on the bed as well, running the wand down her leg as she stares at the screen of her laptop.

I feel my heart rate quicken.
Please don't have torn more.

"Tendinitis again," she frowns as she moves the wand. Tris's face twists and Dr. Scott apologizes. I take Tris's hand in mine and she gladly takes it.

I notice that she's shaking a little and my heart sinks for her.
I hate that she has to deal with all of this shit.

"It's almost healed," The doctor laughs out loud. "That tear is gone, from what I can see. Your pain is all that lactic acid build up, but that's not anything that hasn't been fixed before." I feel myself smiling and so is Marie but Tris continues to grip my hand and shake slightly, showing no emotion other than pain.

"That's good, Tris," I run my hand through her hair, hoping to pull herself out of her bubble of pain and anxiety. She looks at me, giving her best attempt at a weak smile as she sighs.

Marie checks the rest of her leg and then closes down the program on her computer and packs up the wand.

"It's great that the tear healed itself, but it's crucial that you don't let it re-tear. I never had to tell you to worry about the risks of gaining weight and your leg before, because you were always so tiny, but it's normal with your pregnancy— okay, I'm not wording this well at all, scratch that." She stops herself and I feel my eyebrows furrow.

"You're healthy in gaining weight with your pregnancy, I mean you have to to provide for you and baby, but the added weight is adding up to more stress on your leg." She states and I now understand her point she was trying to make before. "That's why so much tendinitis managed to flare up so quickly, because you're healthy for being pregnant, which ultimately isn't a healthy that your leg is use to. Does that make sense?" She looks at Tris and then me and I see Tris nod.

"I wouldn't do anything to treat the tendinitis before the baby is born, and I wouldn't bother with the icing unless it actually helps, which you were saying it wasn't anyways," I see Tris nod as she speaks. "And that treatment will end up being whatever exercises you were doing at physical therapy that you can still do at home. I won't make you be back over at Erudite all the time again, because chances are you don't need an actual doctor to reteach you all the stuff they did, and you can do it on your own."

Tris nods again and I notice her relaxing since Marie stopped the scan of her leg. Her pain is probably subsiding a little bit, at least I hope it is.

"You're a pacer, I remember that. I know I told you to try and rest your leg the last time I saw you, and that's not going to change, but I'm going to let you play it by ear and decide. Be on your feet as much as it makes you comfortable, but don't overdo it. And if you're going to pace, be by something to hold onto, just in case you were to fall. All it could take is one odd bend of your ankle or knee and that muscle could tear again, and that isn't the plan," she tries to joke at the end laughing lightly.

"And I want a picture when he's born," she smiles, standing from the bed. "If it's not too much to ask, of course." I bid her goodbye, reassuring to get her a picture once One is born. I give her directions to the infirmary from here once she is in the hall, and she is on her way.

Upon reentering the apartment I hear Tris groan loudly from the other room and I feel myself panic.

"Tobias?" She calls and I'm at the bedroom in under a second.

"Is everything okay?" I feel the stress in my voice and she laughs at me.

"I'm not dying, sheesh," she looks at me in fake disgust and I feel my heart rate slow upon knowing that she's alright. "I have to pee, and it's so much work to get from here to the bathroom," she giggles and I can't help but smiling.

If she wasn't pregnant, I would question if she was drunk.
Tris doesn't giggle.

"Here," I offer her my hands and help pull her up from the bed. She waddles to the bathroom and I bite my tongue not to laugh at how cute she is.

She would actually kill me.

She returns moments later and I she looks at me quizzically again.

I didn't notice that I was smiling to myself for practically no reason.

"What now?" She sighs, her hands on her hips.

"Everything is fine, just like I said it would be."

"It's fine, but it hurts." She sarcastically replies, sitting down on the bed sighing.

"But it's fine!" I cheekily grin at her.

"Yeah," she rolls over and sighs. "It's fine."