Call the Midwife is the property of Jennifer Worth, Heidi Thomas Mcgann and the BBC.
This story is for Sarah, Ali, Hannah, and the rest of MMEPAC, who have been complaining about the lack of fics without knowing I was writing one. Enjoy! Xx
"Can you say Mama?" Shelagh's lilt echoed down the hallway when Patrick entered his home, and he smiled involuntarily as he heard his wife chatting to their daughter, and Angela's own incomprehensible babbles back. He quietly hung up his coat and tiptoed down the hall, praying that his daughter wouldn't say 'Mama' before he got there.
He stood in the doorway, watching his wife play on the carpet with their daughter, a far cry from the quiet nun that had stolen his heart two years before.
"Can you say Mama, dearest" Shelagh asked again, "say Mama", but the toddler was too busy giggling at her mother to respond.
"How about Dada" Patrick interjected, smiling as Shelagh jumped. "Patrick! I didn't expect you back so soon!" His eyes met hers as he smiled directly at her, prompting a delightful blush that blossomed on her cheeks as she glanced down once more.
"Dada?" Patrick repeated as he removed his jacket and knelt down beside them. "Say Dada", and then as an aside, "Dada will be her first word, you just wait" but Shelagh was quick to respond.
"Patrick, we've been through this - Carole did not smile for you if she didn't smile for me first. If it was wind when she smiled at me it would have undoubtedly been wind for you. Although she may have been smiling at that... Cardigan you were wearing" she sighed, before giggling slightly at the peeved look upon his face and kissed him lightly before he had the chance to retort.
"Call Timothy would you?" Shelagh asked, "I said he could have a biscuit once you were back." Patrick nodded, and stood to call his son, but whispered "say Dada and you can have a biscuit too" to his daughter before he called his son out of his bedroom.
Timothy soon appeared, and was greeted by a sound none of them had expected.
"Timfy!" A little voice piped up from the floor, and as one, Shelagh, Patrick, and Timothy's heads all swivelled to Angela who was smiling angelically from her place beside her mother and waving her arms in the air.
"Timfy!" She called again, and her older brother quickly hopped past his father to reach his sister, swinging her up in the air and hugging her.
"That's right Angie!" He said, "I'm Timothy!" Shelagh stood to watch her children, and Patrick quickly joined her, wrapping his arms around her waist as he leant his chin upon her shoulder.
"After everything", he said, "and her first word isn't 'Mama' or 'Dada' but 'Timfy'" he scoffed in mock disgust, "Tim will be insufferable now" and smiled as he watched his children, smiled as he felt Shelagh smile in his arms before she spoke once more.
"As would you have been, my love, had her first word been 'Dada' and not 'Timothy'" and at his indignant huff she giggled once more and turned in his arms to kiss him. With her lips on his he forgot all his annoyances fade away, for he had his wife in his arms, his son healthy and strong, and his daughter who had just spoken her first word.
Perhaps 'Dada' could be her next word instead?