"Well! Would you look at what we have here?!" Nurse Crane couldn't contain her smile as Shelagh entered the community center with her daughter at the tail end of clinic one Tuesday as she neared her eighth month of pregnancy. "Who is this little lass, Miss Turner?" she asked, bending down to the toddler's level.

Angela Turner beamed as she walked beside her mother, pushing her doll pram and baby.

"Angela refused to leave it at home..." Shealgh smiled, a tinge of exhaustion evident in her response.

"Baby!" Angela proudly squealed, wheeling her pram up to the intake table next to Delia Busby.

"Hello, Angela. What a lovely pram you've got there!" Delia cooed in her Welsh accent.

"Nurse Busby? It's quite the surprise to see you here." Shelagh interjected as Trixie tried to help her take her jacket off.

"Hello, Mrs. Turner. I had the day off, so I offered to run the table- you know, to try and help myself get used to the routine of clinic."

Shelagh smiled, watching as her daughter picked up her doll and presented it to Delia, reveling in the attention of someone outside her family.

"There's my girls! I was wondering where you'd got to." Patrick's voice carried from the kitchen as he made his way over to Shelagh. "Are you alright?" he asked, voice lowered as he looked her over.

"Yes, dear. We're fine. Angela wanted to bring baby for a checkup, too." Shelagh bit her lip to stifle her laughter as she rubbed her belly. "So it took us a bit longer to get here with the pram."

Angela, tired of only having the attentions of Delia Busby, picked up her baby doll and started walking around the now-empty clinic to see the other nurses.

"I'll keep a weather-eye, Nurse Franklin. You take Mrs. Turner in for her exam." Nurse Crane spoke from the toy corner.

Shelagh smiled, turning towards the cubicles when her daughter's excited cry of "Sister!" rang out through the hall. Shelagh's face blanched, and everyone froze in place, as they turned around to see the commotion. It was supposed to be Sister Julienne's week off- nobody expected her to turn up as she knew that Shelagh was a clinical patient on those days.

"Hello, Angela." came a quiet voice from the doorway which made Shelagh immediately relax as she turned to see her daughter in Sister Mary Cynthia's arms, babbling about her baby doll needing a checkup.

"Well, how about I take a look while Mummy has her exam?"

Angela nodded, clinging to the sister's neck as she was carried towards the cubicles.

"Sister, you don't have to do that." Patrick started to protest.

"Nonsense, Doctor Turner. Baby needs a checkup." Sister Mary Cynthia smiled at the toddler in her arms. "Hello, Shelagh. You're looking well, how are you feeling?"

"A bit top-heavy, but otherwise wonderful. Thank you, Sister." She turned her attention to her daughter. "Angela? You behave for Sister Mary Cynthia while Mummy has her checkup."

"'Kay."

Trixie ushered Shelagh to the next cubicle as Patrick followed them to help her onto the table. Unlike some of the other midwives, Trixie had no problem in allowing Doctor Turner to remain during Shelagh's examination, as long as he kept his distance.

"Alright, then! Baby is doing very well. Heartbeat is excellent, the lie is good and your vitals are beautiful. I don't think we'll be seeing much more of you."

"Really?" Shelagh breathed, struggling to sit up before motioning for her husband to help her.

"Baby is quite low, so I don't think you'll be more than another few weeks."

Shelagh beamed as she met her husband's gaze. "Well, while I'm going to miss seeing you all, I can't say I'm sorry to hear that. I'm starting to get quite large."

"No you're not, love. You're just perfect." Patrick whispered, placing a kiss on his wife's head.

"Thank you, dearest...but until you're carrying all this extra weight, you don't get to chime in."

Trixie tried to stifle a giggle, unsuccessfully. "Sorry..." she cleared her throat. "Any questions or concerns?"

"No, thank you Trixie. You've really been wonderful throughout this whole pregnancy."

The blonde smiled as she started to clean up her equipment and opened the curtain, watching as Sister Mary Cynthia and Angela settled her doll back into the pram.

"Well, what's the diagnosis Sister?" Patrick smirked as he helped his wife put her coat on.

"Oh! Happy and healthy, Doctor Turner. What about you, Shelagh?"

"Happy and healthy." She smiled back before grimacing. "And kicking me in the ribs. Oh! Angel, are you ready to go home?"

"Bye bye!" Angela called as she started pushing the pram out of the hall, barely waiting for her parents to follow her.

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"Shelagh-" Patrick said warningly as his wife continued her ministrations. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do."

Her hands slipped from his shoulders and moved down towards his tie, slowly unhitching the knot and pulling it from his collar.

"What am I trying to do?" she asked innocently, succeeding in her task as they sat together on the couch that evening after the children had gone to bed.

"You know perfectly well..."

"I'm simply kissing my husband, Doctor Turner. Surely that's not against the rules."

As soon as Shelagh had entered her third trimester, Patrick had enforced a "no intimacy beyond kissing" rule. She had been exhausted for most of the sixth and seventh months that it didn't matter, but once the morning sickness had disappeared she suddenly found herself insatiable. And no matter what she did, she couldn't get her husband to budge.

"My love, no matter how hard you try to convince me, you know we can't." Patrick responded to her kisses, his voice still holding a warning tone.

"I know that's how you feel." Shelagh nipped at his ear. "But I'm still not completely convinced of your reasoning."

"Shelagh-"

"Is it the belly? Because if it's in the way, I'm sure we could come up with some...solution." She placed her hands back onto his shoulders and tried to shift her body to her knees on the sofa next to her husband.

Patrick, whose eyes had been closed as he enjoyed the sensory overload of his wife's frantic passions, felt the shift and opened his eyes as he stilled her movements.

"No. It's not the belly- it's the fact that it could send you into early labor." He maneuvered her back into a sitting position, keeping one arm on her shoulder to make sure she didn't try to mount his lap again.

"You heard Nurse Franklin...baby is doing so well. I'm sure it couldn't hurt."

"I'm sorry, my love."

"But Patrick- you can't just-"

"No buts, Shelagh."

"I'm starting to get more than a little annoyed that people keep telling me that during this whole pregnancy." She sulked, shrugging her husband's hand from her shoulder.

"My love, I promise you, once this little one arrives there is nothing that could possibly stop me from being with you."

"Except nappies, or feeding, or the phone, or-"

"Shelagh. I promise you." He pressed their foreheads together, nuzzling his nose against hers. "But until then, no dice." He kissed her quickly before he got up from the couch, headed towards the kitchen to stay away from temptation.