Dylan Keogh is known for not showing his emotions. He puts up walls to stop people seeing his real feelings; making him come across as a grumpy and dry-witted person. Never has anyone seen him with his defences lowered, not even the woman he loves. He never imagined lowering them completely for anyone, and he definitely did not imagine that they'd come down in the middle of the night for none other than his unborn child.
100% fluff oneshot with Sam Nicholls and Dylan Keogh set in Series 28/29 in a universe where Sam and Dylan are still married
Dylan Keogh loved his wife more than anything else in the world, he truly did. However he wasn't very good with emotions. To be honest he was clueless when it came to that certain aspect of life. He found it awkward, confusing and actually quite terrifying. Someone could be bouncing around all happy one moment and suddenly they were upset or angry the next. This unpredictable side of emotions was the terrifying thing for him. He couldn't deal with the not knowing. Due to this he put up walls to help him cope.
These walls helped a great deal, he was rarely expected to deal with an emotional patient at work and no one ever asked or talked to him about their problems. The only down side was that he came across as sarcastic and grumpy. This caused people to avoid and dread having to work with him. He didn't have many friends for this reason. Very few people had actually seen his softer side, in fact he could count out the number of people on one hand. He never truly let his walls down for these people out of fear of not knowing how to deal with their reactions or emotions towards his true self. He didn't even let them down properly for people like his amazingly beautiful wife. Sam had seen Dylan with his walls lowered before, she had seen him during his best and worst moments, but the walls had never been completely down. She called him Grumpy as a sort of pet name showing that even she saw him as the sarcastic and closed off person he pretended to be. How had she ever fallen in love with him?
Sometimes he would sit and wonder about the day he would finally let his defences down. He would try to picture what would happen that day and who would be there. Sam would, he just knew it. Never did he imagine that it would happen at three o'clock in the morning with his unborn baby.
The room seemed to rock softly as the waves lapped against the side of the boat. The bright moonlight flooded the otherwise darkened bedroom with light. The beams of light cast all sorts of shadows on the walls. Some of the shadows kept changing due to the boat rocking in the marina's waves. Dylan watched these moving shadows through weary eyes. He had been awake for what seemed like eternity. Sitting up he turned to look at the clock on the bedside table, it read '3:00'. Sighing quietly he leant his head back against the wall.
Why couldn't he sleep tonight? He had returned home exhausted from a busy twelve hour shift in the ED. There had been a major RTC on the motorway involving countless people. Every doctor and nurse in the department had been worked off their feet with the never ending list of casualties. No one had got a break that day and he had returned home with no energy and had collapsed into bed fully dressed. After a quick one hour nap he had reemerged from the bedroom for a delicious dinner prepared by Sam. It had been slightly over cooked and the potato was lumpy but the meal of grilled beef and mash was perfect to him. Anything that Sam cooked was, except maybe her cakes but that was beside the point. Having eaten and curled up together in front of the tv for a bit the two of them finally went to bed at 9pm, both feeling the need for a decent nights sleep. Sam had dropped off the minute her head hit the pillow, falling quietly into a deep sleep. Dylan on the other hand had only been able to doze on and off since then.
He looked over at his sleeping wife. Her golden hair fanned out on the pillow, framing her beautiful face. Her slim shoulders could be seen poking out from beneath the duvet. Her body was curled up slightly, with her arms wrapped over her stomach as if she was protecting the precious being that lay inside. A small smile crept up onto his lips as he reached over and lay his hand on Sam's rounded stomach.
He could picture the day their lives changed clearly in his head, as if it had only happened yesterday. Sam had been feeling off for around two weeks when Dylan had insisted that he take her to their local G.P Practice to get checked out. She had fainted a couple of times in the past two weeks and wasn't eating as much as usual which worried him. They had gone to the appointment together and had sat holding her hand as the doctor ran her tests. Whilst they waited for the test results he had sat in the waiting room with Sam hoping that the results wouldn't show anything bad.
"Maybe it's just a stomach bug," he told her reassuringly, "you'll be back to your normal self in no time." A couple of minutes later the doctor returned with the results and called them back into her room. In her hands she had held a bundle of papers; the results of Sam's test. Dylan prayed for both his and Sam's sake that they were good. What if the results brought up something bad? Dr Carlos sat down behind her desk and signalled for them to take the two seats in front of her. As he sat down he could sense that Sam was slightly nervous. He reached for her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.
"Well Mrs Keogh," began Dr Carlos, "we have got your test results back. There's not much in them that should be a problem but I do need to discuss one thing with you." Dylan's mind quickly began to think up all the diagnoses that the doctor was about give Sam. He tried piecing her symptoms to cases he had seen when he had worked as a G.P in the countryside but anything he thought of didn't really match. How ill was his wife? Sam was a healthy woman in her mid twenties. She went out running numerous times a week and she rarely ate anything extremely unhealthy, there couldn't be anything that wrong with her... could there? Dr Carlos took a deep breath as if she was preparing to tell them some big news.
"Did you know that you're pregnant?" Dylan's breath stuck in his throats and his entire body froze. No, he must've heard the doctor wrong, Sam couldn't be pregnant.
But as he thought back over the past weeks he slowly began to realise that it was actually a possibility. About nine weeks beforehand they had come back from dinner at a nice restaurant and, well, it had turned into a very nice night for the two of them. He quickly stole a glance at his wife. He felt a tiny bit better when he saw the look of shock on Sam's face. They both sat in silence, just staring at Dr Carlos in disbelief, for a while before Sam started to speak. Her voice was barely a whisper and she was stuttering slightly, as if she couldn't quite believe what she was asking.
"H-how many weeks?" Dr Carlos' face relaxed into a smile. She was most likely glad that one of them had finally broken the thick silence and was showing that they had heard what she'd just said. Sam still looked shocked, anyone in her position would be, but there was also a look of curiosity on her face now.
"You're around ten weeks pregnant Mrs Keogh." Sam leant back in her chair and looked over at Dylan. Dr Carlos began to give them more information about what would happen. In two to three weeks they would need to go to the hospital for the babies first scan. They would also need to talk to the antenatal nurses about pregnancy care for Sam and the baby. All of the doctor's words seemed to go over Dylan's head. He still couldn't quite believe it, he was going to be a dad. Dr Carlos finished talking and gave them some leaflets about what they had to do so they left her room. Once they were out in the street he had turned to look at Sam. She still looked quite shocked but she also looked happy, excited even.
"We're going to be parents Grumpy," she had said simply whilst looking at him with a slight smile on her face. Dylan didn't say anything. He was still unsure if he would be a good dad. What if the baby didn't like him? What if he wasn't a good enough parent? Would he be able to show this child the love they deserved? He was pulled out of his thoughts by Sam taking his hand. "You do want this baby, don't you?" she asked looking up at him, her expression looking a bit sad. He squeezed her hand again and gave her as good a smile as he could muster.
"Of course I do Sammy, I'm a bit shocked that's all. I just can't believe that we're going to be parents." Sam's face fell back into a smile. She leapt forward; wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and leaning her head on his shoulder. He placed his arms on her waist and pulled her closer. Quietly Sam had whispered in his ear some words that calmed his nerves greatly; "You'll be the best dad Dylan. The best in the whole entire world!" Those words had been going round his head for the past eight months. 'You'll be the best dad.' At the back of his mind he was still quite nervous but he was now excited as well, he couldn't wait to meet his new baby.
He moved his hand slightly and began to softly rub Sam's stomach. It was relaxing and he could feel her body move slightly each time she took a breath. She looked beautiful, even when she was sleeping. After doing this for a few minutes he felt like he needed to do something. It was something he had wanted to do for a long time but had never really known how to do. "Sam," he called out, "Sam are you awake?" When he didn't get a reply he smiled. Great, she was fast asleep.
Dylan leaned forwards slowly so that his was really close to Sam's baby bump. He continued to rub it and began to speak.
"Hey little baby," he spoke softly, his voice barely a whisper. "You don't know this yet, but I love you more than anything in the world. Well maybe besides Sammy, but I love you so much." He stopped speaking.
There, he had told his baby that he loved them. He felt so much better now that he had got it out into the real world. It was true, he had known that since the moment Dr Carlos had told them they were going to be parents. Since then he had felt this strong, unbreakable love for the tiny baby growing inside his wife. The thing he had been afraid to do was show that he loved this little baby. It didn't really match with his grumpy act. At least now he had told his baby that he loved them, even if know one else knew for sure.
A tiny kick knocked against his hand. Dylan felt a big smile creep onto his face. He was sure that this showed that his baby had heard him. He started to rub Sam's stomach again. If his baby could hear him then he wanted to make sure that they were happy. Softly he began to singing a lullaby whilst smiling. If his baby hadn't been happy before then they would be now.
After ten minutes of quietly singing Dylan leant in closer and kissed Sam's bump. "Goodnight little baby," he whispered, "Remember that I'll always love you." Smiling, Dylan lay back down in bed. He truly couldn't wait to be able to hold his child in his arms and see them properly. He closed his eyes and was about to drift off to sleep when a voice interrupted him.
"I didn't know you could sing like that Grumpy, your voice is really nice."
Dylan's eyes widen in shock and he felt his cheeks redden. Slowly he turned so that he was lying facing the other way. He was met by a happy gaze that could only belong to one person.
"Sam," he started nervously, "You see I was just... well... umm..." He stopped talking, realising that he couldn't really explain himself, he was just too embarrassed. Had Sam really heard everything he'd said? What would his wife think of him now?
Shifting forwards Sam snuggled in closer to him, her face inches from his. He could feel her stomach pressing against him and he moved his hand so that it was again resting atop her bump.
"Don't worry," she spoke, her voice as calm and loving as ever. "I think it was really sweet. I'm sure baby loved hearing you sing, I know I did." Dylan couldn't help the smile that began to show on his face. Sam smiled at him and gently kissed his forehead. "I was right when I said you would be the best dad in the world and what you did just now proves it."
Word count- 2227 words