Disclaimer: I do not own anything apart from the idea.
"We need you again."
The phone line went dead. Gemma looked around to make sure that she wasn't being watched by anyone in the room, as she stood there, her mouth agape and her phone still pressed to her ear. She was in the middle of a sitting room that had been decorated with garish banners and bright party streamers. A large banner above the back door read 'Happy Birthday Erin'. As she stared at it, she muttered "Shit" under her breath and hastily shoved her phone into her back pocket to avoid drawing attention to herself. She made for the back door, the nearest exit, when a voice from behind her called her name.
"Auntie Gemma, where are you going?" The voice questioned, running towards Gemma at full speed. Expecting the lump, Gemma bent down to catch her niece in her arms, to save her shins from the impact.
"Hello Erin. Are you having fun?" Gemma asked, embracing the child tightly.
"Yeah, I've eaten lots of cake and fed Cooper sausages and thrown water balloons at daddy in the garden and played in the sand and" The list went on, Gemma smiled courteously at her young niece, all the while trying to think of an excuse to make her leave.
"That's great Chicken." Gemma interrupted; "Why don't you go and find Mummy, Auntie Gemma needs to go and sort out some work stuff." She put the child down and encouraged her to run off. Gemma checked her watch. 2:52pm. She was sure the voice on the phone had told her to be ready for pick up at 3. Or was it 3:15? She couldn't remember. Had they even given her a time?
She made her way into the hall, grabbing her bright green rain coat from the bottom of the pile and threw it over her shoulders, just as Andrew was coming down the stairs, a sleeping baby lay in his arms.
"Where are you heading off to in such a rush?" He questioned quietly so as not to disturb the baby. Gemma looked around the hall to make sure they were alone.
"I've had a call from work. It sounded urgent."
"It had better be, this is your month off!" Andrew exclaimed, trying to hide his anger.
"I've got to go. I promise I won't be gone too long this time" Gemma leant in to kiss the sleeping baby, talking more to the child than Andrew.
"You had better not be, we miss you when you're gone!" He said, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Besides, we're supposed to be leaving for our honeymoon in 3 days. Make sure work know that the tickets are non-refundable."
"I will baby, I love you so much!" Gemma called back as she run down the garden path to the black BMW that was now waiting for her. She looked to the house to see Andrew still stood there waving, baby still sound asleep in his arms. She climbed in to the car, and with one last wave shut the door. "What have we got?" She asked, putting her seatbelt on. The other 3 people in the car said nothing as 1 handed her a tablet.
'DOCTOR SIGHTED' the headline read. Gemma's heart dropped. This was not how her day was supposed to go.