"Well, the internal bleeding has all but stopped," Gwen reported with a brief, relieved smile. "But Debra did notice a few other weaknesses in a few of her vein walls, so we'll have to be careful with her blood pressure. I'm going to put her on a blood thinner, just for the duration, which..." she paused, relief sobering into seriousness, "...which will make surgery--if she opts for it--a chancy thing, Owen."

Gwen ran a hand through her lopsided ponytail, but forged on. "Her vitals are very good. Her heartbeat's regular, her pulse sounds good, and she's oxygenated back to normal. I doubt she'll be able to eat much yet, so I'll keep her on the protein IV; her system's going to need all the nourishment it can get, to keep healing itself."

She glanced back at the door, then leaned against the wall beside it, crossing her arms tiredly. "Time, that's the crucial thing here. They've been engineered with accelerated healing, but the metabolic cost is necessarily exponential. So if we're going to remove the fetus, we're going to have to move fast. As in, tomorrow morning, at the latest. Because Owen, as long as it's still growing inside her, it's hampering her ability to heal herself."

Gwen stared at him seriously. "The question is, do you believe her rational to make such a decision right now? And it'll have to be now, the medications she'll have to receive in order for surgery will take at least eight hours to be effective."