Author's notes: Hello, everyone! I'm new on here, so I sincerely hope I did it right with the layout and all. I've been obsessed with Code Blue and the relationship of Aizawa and Shiraishi for the last few months and I finally decided to let my obsession run free with this fiction of mine.
Warning: I rated the story T because there is going to be some detailed medical description, including surgery.

I hope you enjoy!

"The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel." – Florence Nightingale

"I feel like a giant walrus.", exclaimed Saejima while leaning back in the comfortable chair she was sitting on. She affectionately stroked her huge belly.

Shiraishi smiled consolatory. The flight nurse was about 8 months pregnant, and had been blessed with a particular tall baby growing inside of her. Although Saejima herself was a tall woman (even taller than her husband, a topic that did not seem to be a problem at all, although Fujikawa reacted very sensitive to the mention of it), she seemed to vanish behind the baby bump of hers. Shiraishi tried to take another sip of her tea, but when she approached the glass towards the direction of her nose and smelled the slightly bitter odour of the beverage, she coughed and put it away instantly. Saejima shot her a glance, and they both chuckled, ignoring the startled glances of the other customers in the restaurant.

They still couldn't quite believe it. Shiraishi and Aizawa, along with the whole staff of Lifesaving had been quite astoundished when Saejima and Fujikawa announced to be pregnant. On one hand, because Fujikawa managed to hold his mouth shut although he had known it for three weeks already, and on the other hand because Shiraishi had told Aizawa a week earlier that he was going to be a father.

Now, Saejima being in her 30th week of pregnancy, having constant back aches while working and being very careful because of her miscarriage when she was first pregnant, had taken her maternity leave two weeks ago. Shiraishi, though still in the 24th week of pregnancy, had to take an early maternity leave because of hyperemesis gravidarum. She was strongly against it, but after nearly fainting in the emergency, having a semi-severe dehydration and losing weight, both Aizawa and Tachibana had had enough and ordered her to stay at home for the time being.
Lifesaving was permanently shocked that two female staff members took their leave, but Tachibana managed to add two temporar replacements to the team, and thus, Lifesaving has been saved. At least, that's what Saejima and Shiraishi hoped.

"I think it was a good idea to leave the house for once.", said Shiraishi.

Saejima nodded. "I'm glad you invited me. Though, providing that you suffer from HG, I don't think the idea to have dinner was very thoughtful.", she responded, shooting a glance at the female doctor's almost full plate. The latter smiled apologetically.

"You're right, that was not the best I could come up with." Frankly, Shiraishi had not really cared about the meal when she asked Saejima. More importantly, she really wanted to spend time with her. In her eyes, it had been some sort of revelation when she started to meet up with Saejima privately on a daily basis. It wasn't that she didn't like Saejima. At work, Saejima could be very terrifing, especially her signature smile, and her mood swings in the beginning of her pregnancy as well as in the weeks before her leave had contributed to that.
But since Shiraishi had made her pregnancy official and had been yelling at the fellows in one second, crying about it in the next, which made the fellows very confused, she had found an unexpected ally in the flight nurse. Whom she could talk to about back aches, urinary incontinence and most importantly annoying husbands. She missed human contact while she was on her leave, even more when her husband had to take the night shift like tonight. Given that Fujikawa had to work today too, and Saejima being in a similar situation as Shiraishi, she had looked forward to spend some time with her friend, and it didn't matter what they did together.

Saejima observed how Shiraishi pushed her meal away from her with a disgusted grimace on her face. She had only eaten some of the vegetables on the plate, but it was better than nothing at all, thought Saejima. She signed a waiter.

"We would like to have the bill please. And could you please pack the meal of my friend? She'll eat it later." Shiraishi opened her mouth to speak, but glancing at her friend, she immediately shut it again.

"I think, I would love to go for a walk. What about you?", said Saejima as they left the restaurant. Shiraishi held her nose in the air and closed her eyes. The cool breeze of autumn passed her nostrils, fresh, smelling of rain, and she didn't feel nauseous anymore.

"Yes, me too." They walked down an alley of trees until they reached a dark park near the restaurant, only enlighted by the bright moon and the street lamps around them. It was idyllic and the silence soothed their slightly dizzy heads as they both still had been busy throughout the day. Who knew one could invest so much time in daily household chores? They were quite for a moment, before Shiraishi spoke again. "Fujikawa-sensei has the night shift, huh?"

"Yes."

"Is he alone?"

Saejima thought about it for a second. "No, I think Haitani-sensei is on duty too. Yokomine-san is working too."

"Ah, I see."

"What about Aizawa-sensei? I thought he wanted to swap all his night shifts with his colleagues for the time being?"

"Yes, but Shinkai-sensei called him today since he is sick. There was no one who could take the night shift either, so he had to go."

Saejima nodded. She already had received a frantic message from Fujikawa, who told her that Aizawa was in one of the worst moods he could display, a message she deliberately ignored. She understood that the neurosurgeon was worried about his wife, although he would never tell that to Saejima or Fujikawa.

"I wonder how they're doing back at Lifesaving.", Shiraishi pondered. Saejima laughed.

"You never change, do you? Always thinking about Lifesaving. Let this matter rest in the capable hands of Tachibana, he knows what he is doing. Didn't he say you should try to relax and enjoy your maternity leave?"

"I'm not worried about the organisation, I'm worried about the fellows. Haitani is a good doctor, but flinches at any emotional pressure. Yokomine is intelligent but acts like a daydreaming high schooler sixty percent of the day, and Natori would be very good, if he wouldn't be so full of himself and wouldn't try to maintain his poker face."

"Don't worry about it. There are other seniors in Livesaving that can support them, and Kazuo promised me to look well after them." Fujikawa had been named temporar staff leader, and honestly, Saejima thought, he was doing a good job.

They sat down on one of the benches and leaned back, enjoying the wind ruffling their hair. Saejima sighed relaxed, stretching out her tired legs and giving them a good rest.

"But I understand." Saejima continued. "Yukimura is a good nurse, very capable, and she aspires to become the best. But I constantly think about what I would be doing at this kind of hour, what kind of chores I would have made today, but I must leave them to Yukimura, and it puts me off, thinking about that. I guess I am as much of a control freak as you, Shiraishi."

Shiraishi smiled and nodded. As they sat there, they heard the siren of an ambulance nearby, disturbing the peace and quite of the evening. Shohoku was no less than a five minute drive away. Both women couldn't help but to think about Lifesaving again, reminiscing about the emergency room, the operation theatre, the ICU, everything they would do right now, wouldn't they be on leave.

"Oh!", Saejima suddenly exclaimed. "I forgot to ask you this whole week, what is it going to be?"

Shiraishi turned towards her. "Eh?"

"Your baby. Do you know what it is going to be?"

Shiraishi thought about it for a moment. When Aizawa and her had found out, they had agreed to keep it to themselves for a while. But then she had taken her leave, Aizawa had had to work overtime since the Neurosurgery was also understaffed, and they sort of forgot to tell anyone. She was not sure how Aizawa would feel about it, but she guessed that he would be okay with her telling it to Saejima.
Her train of thoughts was suddenly disrupted by her phone ringing. Frowning, she took it out of her coat pocket and frowned even more when she saw the ID. Haitani.

"Haitani-sensei?", she answered concerned. Saejima raised her eyebrows, pondering whether something bad has happened at the hospital.

"S-Shiraishi-sensei! I'm so sorry to call you at this late hour, in fact, I'm sorry to call you on your leave, I'm – "

"Calm down. Take a deep breath. What is wrong?"

Haitani didn't say a word for a few seconds, and Shiraishi wanted to speak again, when he said. "The ambulance brought a young woman into the emergency in her 36th week of pregnancy, increased blood pressure, dizziness, emesis."

Shiraishi nodded worried. "Preeclampsia." Saejima's eyes widened, and they both stood up unconsiously, a behaviour they picked up at Lifesaving; staying put, in case somebody needed you.

"Yes."

"Alright, Haitani-sensei. Where is Fujikawa-sensei?"

"Another ambulance has brought a victim of a motorcycle accident with polytrauma to head and abdomen. Fujikawa-sensei has taken Yokomine-sensei along with him for assistance. No one of them is able to come help me for the time being. Yukimura-san and I are all alone."

Shiraishi nodded to herself. She looked to Saejima, but she didn't have to wait for her answer. Their feet were already heading towards Shiraishi's car.

I hope you liked the beginning of the story! As for the medical vocabularay in this chapter, I would like to adress them in the next, as there will be a lot more of medical procedures. Thank you for reading!