xMissWhitneyBexx: You're welcome. You'll do fine, I'm sure :-) x

Chapter Eleven

"Lily, how are you feeling?" Alicia asked, hurrying over to Lily. "Are you feeling any better?" Lily just put on a fake smile and nodded at her. "I have my resit coming up soon, I was hoping that you would help me out with it. Is...Is that okay? Lily?"

"Doctor Chao," Lily corrected her.

"Technically, it's Doctor Hardy," Alicia laughed. "You and Ethan are married now, don't forget."

"Mrs Beauchamp still prefers Doctor Chao," Lily sighed and flicked through the notes that she was holding. "Ethan and I are both consultants and it could just be a little bit confusing so whilst at work, I use my maiden name."

"Right," Alicia said. "So will you help me or not? With the exam I mean?"

"What do you need help with?" Lily asked, looking to her.

"I just need someone to test me," Alicia said. "I really don't want to fail again." Lily hesitated but gave her a nod. "Thanks Lily, you're the best. You're feeling better then?" Lily nodded again and kept her focus on the patients notes. "What was wrong?"

"I don't know really," Lily sighed. "I just felt really sick every time I woke up, I was usually fine by the evening."

"Maybe you're pregnant again," Alicia suggested.

"I don't think so," Lily said. "Ava's enough for the moment and with Ethan's illness, we cannot be having another child."

"It's a possibility." Alicia gave a small shrug. "How is Ethan? It must be awful, finding out that you could have Huntington's Disease. What are you going to do when the symptoms start?" Lily sniffed and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I'm sure you'll all be fine. How about a girls night this weekend? We could invite Robyn as well."

"Really?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, it'll be fun," Alicia told her. "I haven't been out in ages and you look as if you could use a distraction. Ethan can look after Ava, can't he?"

"I'll have to check with him," Lily said. "When were you thinking?"

"Saturday?" Alicia asked. "We could go to the pub nearby." Lily nodded in agreement, promising that she'll try and make it. "Awesome. Well, I should get back to work now but I'd have a think about what I said. Besides, having another baby in the family couldn't be that bad." And she patted Lily on the shoulder before walking away.

Lily thought long and hard about what Alicia had said and quickly filed away the notes.

"Mrs Beauchamp!" She called. "Can I take my break?"

Connie shot her a look of shock. Lily never asked if she was able to take her break, Connie usually had to remind her to take one. She couldn't say no, Lily had been working some long hours and she was due a break anyway.

"Um...Sure..." She replied. "Are you okay?"

"I just feel a bit sick," Lily said. "I need some air."

"Again?" Connie raised an eyebrow. "We really need to look into that Lily."

"I'll talk to you later," Lily said and hurried off, almost knocking Rita over in the process. She knew what she had to do, even if she wasn't pregnant she needed to check. She sighed heavily and made her way towards the hospital pharmacy, rushing straight towards the pregnancy tests. She felt so awkward and embarrassed, scared that people were watching her and judging her. She just grabbed the cheapest one though and slammed it onto the counter, fishing in her pocket for the correct change. She purchased the test and the woman stuffed it into her bag for her to take.

"Hello Mrs Hardy," someone called as she exited and she turned round to see Cal standing there. "What were you doing in the pharmacy?"

"Um...Work...Work stuff..." Lily lied quickly.

"Work?" Cal asked. "Mrs Beauchamp just told me that you were on your break."

"I had to grab something, okay?" Lily snapped. "It's none of your business." Cal narrowed his eyebrows at her and she sighed heavily. "I was picking up a pregnancy test if you must know."

"You're pregnant again?" Cal asked.

"I don't know," Lily answered. "That is why pregnancy tests are invented."

"Alright," Cal chuckled. "Calm down. At least Ethan will have one child that belongs to him."

"Shut up," Lily hissed.

"I'm just saying." Cal shrugged. "I um...I didn't even know that you two had had sex lately. Ethan never mentioned it."

"It's not the sort of thing that you really discuss with your brother," Lily said, a frown on her face. "Sorry and all that."

Cal didn't say anything for a short while. "Are...Are you going to take it then?" Cal questioned. Lily sighed and leaned back against the wall, her eyes on the brown paper bag. "The test, I mean?"

"I don't know," Lily whispered.

"What's stopping you?" Cal whispered back and stood at her side, also leaning against the wall. "You want more kids, don't you?"

"Yeah, of course I do," Lily replied.

"So..." Cal gave her arm a gentle nudge. "What's stopping you?"

"One day..." Lily sighed and made eye contact with Cal. "Ethan is going to be really sick. His symptoms are already starting to slowly develop and I don't want him to have the stress of looking after another child. I...I don't even know if I could handle it, I'm going to be looking after two kids and my husband as well."

"You shouldn't think that way," Cal said. "Ethan would love more kids, you can't let his illness stop any of you or you'll never have any fun. Look, I'd take the test, see what the result is and if it's positive talk to Ethan."

"Why are you being nice to me?" Lily asked.

"Because you are my brother's wife," Cal said. "Besides, I care about you and I know that you don't want Ethan to know about that night."

"He is never going to know," Lily said. "Because it doesn't even matter. Ava is his daughter, just leave me alone Cal. If you really believe that Ava is yours, why haven't you told Ethan?"

"Because you need to tell him yourself," Cal said. "He has enough on his plate at the moment and I don't want to hurt him but I'm sorry Lily, he needs to know the truth and he needs to hear it from you."

"I have to go now," Lily whispered and immediately pushed past Cal before he could say anything else.

Tears pricked her eyes and she quickly headed into the girls bathroom and locked the door of a cubicle. She opened up the pregnancy test and took a deep breath, quickly wiping away her tears. She was so scared but she also felt a hint of excitement. Another baby might be nice. She followed the instructions and waited for a couple of minutes before looking down at the screen.

Positive.


Connie gathered Lily into her office for a small chat after her lunch break. Lily decided not to tell her about the pregnancy, she didn't want to tell anyone. She stood in front of Connie's desk with her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"Are you feeling okay?" Connie questioned her. "You don't need to go home?"

"I'm fine," Lily said. "Honestly."

"Okay," Connie sighed. "Do you think that the stress you are under at the moment could have caused the sickness?"

"Maybe." Lily shrugged. "I'm okay now."

"I'm just concerned," Connie said. "Considering the chat we had before about Cal trying to kidnap Ava. Do you still feel that way?" Lily was silent. "Lily, he has no reason to take her and he's her uncle. You need to try and get rid of this silly paranoia and just enjoy family time with Ethan and your daughter. It's important because one of these days you're not going to have an awful lot of family time."

"What are you saying?" Lily accused, her eyes widening.

"Well, Ava isn't going to be a little girl forever," Connie said. "Soon she'll be all grown up and she won't want to be spending time with her parents, will she?"

"I guess not," Lily said. "Do you regret not spending much time with Grace?"

"Yeah, I do," Connie said. "But she's still got a year left until she's a teenager and she's still at that age where she wants to spend time with her old mum so it feels quite nice."

"Sometimes I think that Ava would prefer to live with Cal though," Lily said. "She gets on really well with Matilda and I...Well, I didn't look after her properly when she was born."

"She loves you," Connie said. "And it's about time that you realise that as well. Go on, I think I am going to let you get back to work BUT before you go, was there anything that you needed to talk to me about?"

"No," Lily lied and shook her head. "I can't think of anything. Thanks Mrs Beauchamp."

"Any time," Connie said. "Just try and relax, yeah? You have a family now, you need to make time for them as well." Lily nodded. "What are you doing this weekend?"

"Well, I might go out with Doctor Munroe and Staff Nurse Miller on the Saturday evening," Lily said. "And we might take Ava out for the day on Sunday but we're not too sure yet."

"Go for it," Connie said. "Go on, you and Ethan both have the weekend off so treat yourself and do something nice with Ava."

"Okay," Lily agreed. "Thank you."

And in her head, she made a mental note to tell Ethan about the news.