It'll be Soon

Ash walked into St. Mungo's and up to where she needed to meet Khaat for her appointment. She had been very bad about keeping them since she had been in America for the last few months and since she couldn't deny that the baby was coming and it would be in the next month or so she knew she needed to at least make sure everything was still going alright.

She sighed as she went into the room for the appointment. She wasn't even sure what she was going to have. She was almost glad because it would be a giant surprise for her, but she also wasn't looking forward to the tests they would do to the child to see if it took after its father. She sat on the exam table waiting.

Khaat was usually the one who took most of the young first time mothers simply because, even though her father had more experience at delivering babies than she did, most of the young women felt more comfortable with a women, she found. She picked up the chart for the next appointment and opened it to review it. Ashling. She hadn't seen her in months. She had wondered what had happened to her,and no request for prenatal care had come across her desk since Ashling had first come to see her early in her pregnancy, and by Khaat's calculations, Ash was in her 8th month now. Well past time for a follow up visit. She figured there had been some good reason, as dedicated as Ash had been to doing all the right things.

Her assistant, Hannah, came down the hall and presented Khaat with a new quick quotes quill. Khaat had found they were nearly priceless for cutting her work in half. "Sorry, Khaat," Hannah apologized. "The only color I could find downstairs was hot pink, with this strange fluffy feather."

"Its fine," Khaat laughed. "It reminds me of Abbey. Abbey would be playing with it by now. Thanks. As long as it works, its fine." She took the chart and went into the treatment room. "Hello, Ash," Khaat smiled. She opened the chart and put it on the countertop and set the quill with it. It stood up at prompt attention, ready to work. She frowned. It was an awfully obedient little quill. Maybe it had promise. Maybe its looks were deceiving. "Sorry," Khaat said. "New quill. I think its going to take its duties rather seriously." It made her laugh. "So, its been a few months since i've seen you. Catch me up. Where have you been? And how have you been?"

Ash looked over at Khaat. Mearly a glance but still enough to see that she was now clearly pregnant as well. "I've been in America." she started looking at her. "Varod disappeared and I had no clue where he was and my brother thought it would be best if I went there to be with some of our family, instead of staying here." She sighed thinking about how much she disliked it and loved being away from everyone at the same time.

"I've been alright." she added looking over at her. "Been getting a bit more tired in the last few months but I haven't had anyone to see until now to talk about it. I've been doing everything I'm supposed to except the check ups." She sighed and laughed watching the quill go to work. "I don't think I've seen a quill that looked like that before."

"Well, as you know, shortcuts, wherever you can get them, are a big help. And paperwork is an enormous job for me. So every little bit helps. I think I left my last one somewhere. I don't know. It'll turn up sooner or later. So--it sounds like the visit to your family went well. That's a good thing. The fatigue is a very normal thing when you're this close. Part of hat is just the difference in your size and body weight. What some women notice is that their energy amps up wildly in the last 24 hours before birth, and you might not notice it, but the people around you almost certainly will. If you find you have a sudden urge to rearrange the furniture or do some belated spring cleaning, or a big shopping spree...that sort of thing. Its a fairly common things. You might want to alert the people close to you to keep an eye out for that.

"I presume you have a bag packed to bring here with you to St. Mungos for you and the baby? You should have it where someone can help you get to it and get here when your labor starts. The book we gave you has a suggested list of things to bring, but feel free to include anything that you feel is essential to you. So. let's see how you and your baby really are." She went over to her to begin her check of Ash and her baby. She wasn't going to ask where Varod was or if he had returned. Not yet.

"I think I'm pretty much on my own when the labor starts." She replied looking at her. "I think my best bet is to try to see if my brother can come with me but I'd really rather not have him here." She looked at Khaat. "I won't find out what I'm having until I have it right?" she asked curiously. "That was one of the things we had been looking forward to finding out but..." she trailed off, shaking off the urge to cry because Varod wasn't around. She didn't want to cry about it anymore. She was about to be a mother. She wanted to be strong for her and the baby.

"Are me and the baby alright?" she asked curiously.

"You're fine," Khaat said. "You both are. Let me give you a couple of options, Ash. My father is probably one of the best healers in England, and when it comes to delivering children, if I had to pick one healer to make sure that my baby and I survived labor and delivery, if it were a difficult situation, in all honesty, I would pick my father. Just so you know, my daughter, Abbey, was born out of a miscarriage when I was not quite 7 months pregnant. I almost died. I did it to myself. I didn't take good care of myself. It was an ugly time for me. I was in intensive care for weeks. My fiance took Abbey home long before I could go home. And, you know what? It was my father who delivered her. He had the skill to pull off an impossible situation.

"You're not in any sort of danger like that, not that I can see. But, so you know, even though you don't know him, you might want to change your options. You might want him doing the actual delivery and perhaps allow me to be your labor coach. The other choices you have, as I see it, are having a skilled midwife as your labor coach. My mother is a skilled midwife. My fiance is a trained healer. He was my labor coach.

"What I'm saying is that you do have a number of options. You do not have to be alone unless you want to be. And, you can choose, still, to know the sex of your chlld before delivery if you want. Or you can choose not to. That is entirely up to you.

"But I have a question for you. Where are you going to go and what are you going to do when the school year ends and you find you are on your own? Are you set up with a place? How are you going to manage with you and the baby by yourself? Do you have friends that can help you for a bit?" She didn't want Ash to go through the first bit by herself with no help. She was too young to be totally on her own. And, she also didn't know how she was going to support herself and the baby and even get started without a job or income. There were so many things that Khaat didn't know if Ash had even had a chance to consider.

"My brother is going to let us stay with him." she said looking at her, "Its not where I would want to be but he can support us until I get set up on my own with a job. I still don't know what I'm going to do for a job. I thought about trying to teach, but I'm not sure how that would work with a new born child to take care of on my own." She frowned a little. She really was at a loss as to how she was going to support her child. Of course so were most young mothers that didn't plan on getting pregnant.

"I would like to know what I'm having before I have it. That way I can go a head and start getting as ready as I can for it." Her mind was wondering who it would look like, already knowing that I could possibly look like neither of them. Children were weird that way. She looked just like her mother and her brother didn't look like anyone in her family.

"Well," Khaat said, with a smile, "So far it looks like you and your daughter are just fine." She paused to let it sink in, and then she said. "You need to decide who you want in the room with you when you welcome your daughter. You have a whole list of good safe options. You just need to pick. If it doesn't matter, then that's fine by me. I will be sure that you do have someone there who will treat you well. But it is always your choice.

"As for a job, I suggest you visit the new career center at Hogwarts and apply for an apprenticeship. That would be a good way to get your foot in the door with a job. I would think you'll need to apprentice under someone anyway. But if you had Hogwarts to help make the connection for you, it will at least make sure that you have a job in place when you are ready to work. It might be worth your time to check it out."

"I'll decide before I have the baby. You don't think its too late for me to start an apprenticeship do you?" she asked looking at her curiously. She wondered. The school year was almost over and she would be graduating. She didn't have any idea on what to do. "I will when I go back to school. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. I don't want to start something and then find out I hate and and be stuck with it. I'm really having a girl?" she asked curiously. She was almost excited to hear it. She really had no preference on what she was going to have but she did have to admit, she did want a girl more than she did a boy.

"No, I don't think its too late to start an apprenticeship, but you do need to talk to the career counselor in Hogwarts to find out. He can tell you for sure. And he might be able to give you some ideas to choose from. Its worth a try.

"And, yeah," Khaat smiled. "You have a daughter. And so far, she's very, very healthy, so far as I can see. Just keep doing what you're doing and it should all be fine. If its any consolation, I wanted to know too. I wanted to be able to decorate my baby's nursery and buy a really special outfit to take her home in. There were just special, traditional things I wanted to do for Abbey, and I don't regret for one moment that I knew before hand.

"Oh, and one more thing that was really important to me? A baby book. I wanted to record all of Abbey's firsts. All of them. And when I was too sick after her birth? My friends kept really great track and took all sorts of wizarding photos. Get yourself a wizarding camera if you don't have one. And a beautiful baby book. You'll find it is something that you'll treasure. And your daughter someday will treasure it just like you have."