August 1963
It was two months since Trixie had returned from her weekend away with James, and since then, he had been drafted to join his brother-in-law fighting in Borneo. Apart from that, life had returned to normal. There had been no outbreaks of infectious diseasein
/Poplar, and each birth was as smooth as the last one. Summer had arrived in all its glory, and in between shifts the nurses were more than happy to have an ice lolly or two in the garden of Nonnatus House.
Patsy arrived back at Nonnatus just after six am. It was a pleasant morning - just warming up, with a cool breeze every so often. Sunrise had been no more than half an hour ago, so there was still a touch of rosiness to the sky, and there was a fresh
/smell in the air. Patsy's shift had just ended, after an pretty uneventful night. She'd only been called out once, at 4:30, and had spent the rest of the night asleep by the telephone. Now that she was done, all she wanted to do was curl up in bed
/and sleep.
She tiptoed up the creaky, wooden stairs to her shared bedroom, careful not to wake anyone. When she arrived at her room, she was shocked to find that Trixie wasn't in bed. She was about to leave the room to investigate, when she heard someone retchingin
/the en suite. She slowly opened the door and peeked in, to find Trixie kneeling in front of the toilet, gagging and vomiting. Patsy stood staring at her for a moment, hoping she was okay, then realised that she could try and help in some way. She
/made her way over to Trixie and with one hand pulled her hair away from her face, and with the other, rubbed her back to comfort her.
After what seemed like forever, Trixie stopped vomiting, and sat back from the toilet, leaning against Patsy for support. She let out a weak "thank you", then stood up and went over to the sink to wash her face and swill some water.
"What's all this about?"
"Hm?" Trixie turned away from the mirror and faced Patsy.
"This. How long has it been going on for?"
"Oh not long, maybe a few days..." Trixie was being purposefully evasive, and Patsy knew this. She raised an eyebrow at her, and Trixie sighed.
"Just over two weeks."
"Trixie! Why didn't you tell anyone? And how have you hidden this?"
"I didn't think it was serious - I thought that if I just didn't think about it, it would go away. And everyone's so busy round here that I didn't think they'd notice me occasionally slipping away to the toilet."
A silence descended on the room as both girls thought about the current situation; each knew the cause, but neither was willing to say it out loud. Eventually, Trixie broke the silence.
"I need a pregnancy test."
"I know."
"Could you ask Dr Turner to send a urine sample to The London, and pretend it's for a patient? I can't imagine what he'd think if he found out."
"Of course. But people are going to find out eventually. It's not exactly the easiest thing to hide."
"Yes, well, we'll deal with that when we come to it. There's no point making plans when nothing's been confirmed."
"Well then. You get me that urine sample and I'll leave it with Dr Turner later on. Then we'll have our confirmation."
"Thank you Patsy."
Trixie wrapped her arms around Patsy in a tight embrace, and rested her head on her shoulders. Ever since Patsy had joined Nonnatus House, the two had been very close, now more than ever.
Later on, while Trixie was out on her rounds, Patsy popped down to the surgeryto pay a visit to Dr Patrick Turner. When she got there, she was greeted by the smiling face of Shelagh, Dr Turner's wife and assistant.
"Hello Patsy. What can we do for you today?"
"I've got a urine sample here for Patrick to send to the London. I'm thinking there's a baby on the way."
"Yours?"
"Oh Lord no. It's from a patient."
"Oh okay, I see. Shall I go and give this to him?"
"That would be wonderful, thank you Shelagh."
She passed the little glass bottle to Shelagh, who inspected it to make sure it was up to standard.
"There's no name on this." She looked up at Patsy questioningly.
"Ah yes. The patient wishes to remain anonymous for now, due to her situation. Just put my name on the label, I'm sure it will be fine - all you have to do is explain that it's not my sample."
"Sure, whatever you need Patsy. Anything else I can do for you?"
"That's all, thank you Shelagh. I really appreciate it."
"Well, you're very welcome."
The two women said their goodbyes, then Patsy left the surgeryand made her way back to Nonnatus House to help the other nurses who were on call.
That night, Trixie couldn't sleep, and apparently, neither could Patsy.
"Did you get to see Dr Turner?" Trixie asked her friend.
"Yes and no. He got the sample, but I only got to speak to Shelagh. We had a quick chat, then I left it with her, and she said she'd give it to him."
"Well that's good. Thank you." Trixie paused for a moment, then remembered something.
"Whose name is on the label? You have to have a name for a pregnancy test. Please tell me you didn't tell her it was me."
"No, of course not. I just told her that I had a patient who wanted to remain anonymous for now due to her situation, and to just put my name on it instead."
"Oh, well that's a relief. Thank you for doing this, Pats."
"Anytime Trixie."
"When can we expect the results?"
"I'm not sure - I forgot to ask that. I assume it would be some time over the next five days, but don't take my word for it."
Trixie placed her hand on her flat stomach.
"Well, I think I know what the result will be."
She smiled to herself, then said goodnight to Patsy, and fell asleep.
