Clara had her eyes closed and her head on Danny's lap, feet resting on the other end of the sofa. Her head was titling towards his chest, breathing in the scent of his cologne as her fingers played with the hem of his shirt. Danny's hands were rested atop her slightly bulging stomach as he looked down at her, admiring every contour of her face. Sometimes, he couldn't imagine his luck. Somehow, he had Clara, and they were going to have a beautiful family together. Everything was perfect. Even in that moment of silence and stillness, everything was perfect. They didn't need to speak to each other to know that they were both completely in love with each other in that moment.
"I've been thinking…" The first muffled words came from Clara, rolling away from his chest and sitting up to speak to him properly, curling her legs underneath herself as she looked over to him. "We need to start talking about what names we'd like." She said, placing her hands on her abdomen and gently tracing her fingers in circles over her skin.
"Love, we've got another three months to think." He reminded her, watching her with a smile on his face. "But go on then, if you've been thinking, I imagine you have one or two names in mind. Just nothing too alien. And not Doctor." He said, causing Clara to laugh softly as she lay herself back down again.
"Alright, well, I was thinking Ellie would be a nice middle name. Y'know, if we have a girl. I mean, we don't have to, but I want to. For mum." She said softly, waiting for Danny's reaction. He seemed happy, so she continued. "I don't have any first names yet; I want to think of those together." Clara suggested gently. "I mean, if we need to, we could buy one of the baby name books, but I don't think they feel right, I want us to think of the name ourselves." Danny smiled and nodded down at her.
"I think that's a lovely idea. How about I go make you some tea and we can talk about it?" He suggested, gently moving her head from where it rested on his lap and putting a cushion for Clara to rest on instead. As he walked past, he felt Clara's hand playfully slapping his bum and giggling to herself. Danny turned around and smiled at her, winking before he disappeared into the kitchen. Clara closed her eyes and curled up a little on the sofa, smiling and taking a deep breath as she made herself comfortable, listening to the sound of the kettle being switched on and the clinking of mugs.
Danny took a pair of tea bags, putting them into the mugs and leaning back against the counter to watch the kettle and wait for it to boil. He looked around, spotting the boxes of things they'd bought for their child, not yet unpacked. The highchair half constructed in the corner, with the instructions strewn aside in frustration. It made him chuckle gently; remembering how annoyed the pair of them got as they tried to put it all together. She was 28 weeks now, so neither were particularly concerned about it being built immediately, but the sooner it got done, the less they'd have to do when she was too pregnant to help. He knew Clara wanted to be a part of things, so he was trying to let her do everything she could.
As the kettle boiled, he heard a gasp coming from the living room. He presumed it was simply Clara jumping at the flick of the switch, so he shrugged it off. Danny poured the hot water into both mugs, before getting the milk from the fridge and pouring it into his. He grabbed a half-eaten pack of digestive biscuits, before he heard a call coming from the other room. It sounded a little desperate, but he guessed it was just her hormones kicking in.
"I'll be a minute love." He assured her. "You'll complain about the tea being too weak if I come in any faster." Danny chuckled to himself, adding two teaspoons of sugar to Clara's tea, before stirring the tea around in both mugs. He removed the teabags swiftly, before clamping the pack of digestives between his teeth by the empty half of the wrapper, and picking up both of the mugs. As Danny went into the living room, he heard a cry. Suddenly, he stopped brushing things off, and sped up a little. Clara was still lying down, so Danny put everything down before going to her side. Her hands were tightly clamped to her bump, so he had to prise them away forcefully to hold comfortingly. Now he was closer to her, he could see that she was in pain and crying. Worriedly, Danny tried talking to her.
"Clara, Clara, what's wrong?" He asked urgently, moving one hand to caress her cheek in an attempt to calm her down. "Love, deep breaths, c'mon, what's wrong? What's hurting?" He said, panic in his voice. Danny didn't know what had happened, or what he could do to help, so he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started calling for an ambulance, not taking any risks. Looking down her body for any sign of broken waters, he found something far more terrifying for both him and Clara. He wasn't sure if she'd seen yet, so he stood up and tried to leave the room. Clara's hands tightly gripped his, fighting to keep him with her. She was in complete and utter agony, with no idea what was happening or why she hurt so much, she didn't want Danny to leave her, not like this. She screamed for him to return, calling his name painfully and shakily as he closed the door to the kitchen behind him, speaking a clearly as he could on the phone.
"My girlfriend, she's pregnant, she's only 28 weeks a-and something's happened. There's blood, and she's in so much pain. She was clutching her abdomen. We need an ambulance, please, please. I love her, I don't want her to be hurt, and our baby needs help, please." He said, feeling himself start to sob too. Giving them their address, he hung up and ran straight back to Clara, still screaming for him. Danny didn't know what to do. He wanted to pull her close and tell her everything was going to be okay, but it might hurt her. He was afraid to do anything in case he did anything else to hurt her or the baby. All he could do was sit tight and hold her hand, watching her in pain and praying she'd be okay.