Used this prompt from otpprompts (Tumblr): Your OTP have been trying for months to get pregnant. Imagine person A finding out they're pregnant while person B is at work. They want to share the news with person B in a fun and creative way.
Forget TB, forget adoption. Entirely AU and straying from Canon. Massive thank you to Ali for your help with this one and the fantastic idea of the kitchen!
She stared at the typed words on the coarse, thick paper that she held in her hands.
'It has been confirmed that Mrs S Turner is eleven weeks pregnant at the time of this letter being printed.'
She couldn't believe it. After nearly a year of marriage she was finally 'with child'! As much both her, and Patrick, loved Timothy, a child of their own, born from the love that they shared would be the perfect addition to their family.
Now, that time had come.
She looked at the clock. It read thirteen minutes past nine, in the morning. Patrick would be home for lunch with her in just under three hours; providing that his patients allowed him to have a lunch break. Shelagh knew she wouldn't be able to wait until that evening to tell him when Tim was fast asleep. So she started to plan to tell him over his cold beef sandwiches at noon.
Although the news that she wanted to bear was indeed incredible, she wanted to make the announcement more special, finding some way of making it reach his heart even more. In search for ideas, she rattled her brain. Several minutes later, and after many laps of the living room, a bright grin came across her face.
She knew exactly what she was going to do!
Gently taking out the nightdress that she had been making, from her sewing bag, she placed it on some wrapping paper that she had already laid face-down on the dining table. The wrapping paper, was just big enough to carefully wrap the dress. However, she moved the soft clothing to one side and concentrated on the blank paper, and pen next to it.
Slowly, she picked up the pen, and wrote down the words so similar to those said to her over a year ago.
'I am completely certain' She wrote in her neat, copperplate handwriting.
Reading those words back to herself again, she lightly touched the place on her belly where their child was starting to grow and felt a warm glow pass through her body.
Smiling, she started to fold the nightdress in a square, and began to wrap it in the wrapping paper.
Lunchtime arrived quickly, a quick peck on her cheek and he sat down, expecting his lunch to be placed onto the table and a couple of hours with his wife before he went out for afternoon calls.
"Patrick? Do you mind if we took a walk after you finish your lunch today?" Shelagh asked as she placed the plate of sandwiches on the table in front of him.
He looked at her briefly, slightly puzzled as to why she would suddenly want to have a walk during his lunchtime break. Especially when they could make fairly good use of the privacy of the house, but it was a nice day outside after all, something that didn't happen often in Poplar.
"Ok, darling"
She smiled in return. Shelagh knew exactly where she wanted to go.
She released his hand to open the door to the community centre. Shelagh knew that none of the nurses and nuns would be here at the moment as they would usually arrive just before 2 'o' clock. She had little over half an hour.
Shaking slightly, the nervous excitement filling her body as she took back her husband's hand and clutched the straps of her bag even tighter in the other hand.
Patrick was bewildered as to why she wanted him to come to the centre, but she seemed too focused on her goal to fully answer his questions.
She lead him to the centre of the kitchen, by the sink. Shelagh stood so that her back faced the door, with Patrick facing her, opposite. The scene so familiar to those who could have seen the moment he had proposed.
Except this time, the roles reversed.
She reached into her bag, and pulled out the wrapped linen. With gentle movements, she placed it into Patrick's hands and took a quiet deep breath.
"Shelagh? I don't… What is it?" He asked softly, his eyes flickering between the item in his hands and her own blue depths on her face.
"Open it." She whispered back
He quickly, yet calmly, started to unwrap the gift.
Why here? He thought.
At first he saw the tell-tale swirls that the letters took, and then he started to read the words. Once. Twice. And a third time, he read them.
I am completely certain.
When these words were last uttered, it had been on a misty road when he had found hope in her, and in their future. But what was she completely certain about? He knew that she loved him. And visa versa. Even with the lack of news of any children on the way. They had been so hopeful but after every disappointing letter they read, their hearts sank even more. Many times over the time they had been married they had thought that she was pregnant. But each time those letters arrived Patrick felt more and more let down in the miracle of conceiving.
His eyes followed the paper when they hit something of a different colour and texture. Cloth, perhaps. And soft in feel as he dragged his fingers along the material.
Patrick placed the wrapping paper onto the surface next to him, and lifted the clothing up high so that the dress hung by the shoulders.
"The nightdress?" He was bewildered.
Her eyes sparkled back in reply, no sound uttered from her lips.
He read the words on the paper again, and looked at the nightdress.
Was this it? Had they got the news that they had both been dreaming for, for a long time?
The smile which he found in the next moment on his wife's lips confirmed his thoughts. Her hands dropped her bag onto the counter and moved slowly to her belly, cupped it gently through her heavy coat.
Their eyes met. Now, both pairs filled with the dampness of salty tears filling them.
He grinned so wide that his face ached, but he didn't care! They were going to have a baby! A baby!
He lifted her up by the hips, so that her legs no longer touched the ground, and swung her body round, and round. He didn't care that he was going dizzy, or whether the lifting would hurt his back. Nothing else mattered to him in that moment.
Gently placing her on the ground again, he placed a kiss on her upturned lips. Their tears broken free, and mixing together with each other's.
We're having a baby. He thought. A baby of our own.