The morning was crisp, as crisp as the gravel giving way underfoot. Each quiet breath sent a white plume out from their mouths as they walked across the base. Nebulous clouds rolled slowly across the overcast sky and birds flew mutely overhead.

They had been woken early that morning. Nina had forewarned them the day before, so it hadn't been much of a shock.

It was, however, a strain for Amelia, who had concluded her sickness was in-fact, morning sickness, and it was continuing at full force. She had been ripped from sleep an hour before everyone else, and was found asleep against the toilet by Owen after thirty minutes. She was now walking in a trance, eyes mostly closed as she struggled to keep from throwing up.


It was eerily quiet on the base. They walked together, shoulders brushing softly as they swayed in step. The buildings changed from sprawling buildings, like the hospital, to huts laid out in grids.

"This here is yours" the soldier that had been leading them stopped beside the door to one of the huts and pulled a whole bunch of keys from his jacket pocket. He opened the door and handed them to Richard.

"Your food stores are stocked, you have a limited number of tokens per person each week, which you can use to get your rations. You will be given work based on your previous occupation, you will find out your roles ahead of the weekend. I recommend you settle in here for now, sleep, eat. Feel free to head out around nine. You'll find a map of the base inside and you'll also see a landline with a code book. If you have any needs, questions, or request's, call the support line 4402" He stopped abruptly, straightening up and marching off without another word.

Ray jumped up and down beside Arizona, "Can I go in?" she squealed excitedly, springing up onto the step and jumping. Her eyes danced around the group, hesitating briefly on Amelia's ashen face. "Go" Arizona said, walking towards her with an energized grin, following her up the steps with Ellis bouncing happily on her hip.

"Come on…" Owen uttered quietly, wrapping his arm around Amelia's. She moved forward, every step making her stomach clench painfully. 'I need to lie down' she thought, pressing close to Owen as they slowly migrated down a long hall.

Through the first door on their left, Ray was jumping on a single bed. Arizona was just walking back to the hall after having settled Ellis in a crib. She grinned at the pair as she approached the door. "This place is great, I'm right across the hall from these two, and there's a double in there for you?" she said, gesturing to the second door on the left. She disappeared through the first door on the right, one of three, evenly spaced doors.

Ray saw the pair and pounced down from the bed, "Did you see my room, I get to share with Ellis! And … and you will be right here! See?" she said, running ahead of them and pushing open the hollow, dark wood door.

It was a small room, enough for a double bed to slot in at the far end, as if the room had been made to fit the frame. They'd both have to climb on from one side, the other side was pressed against the far wall. Above the bed was a wide single-paned window. A bedside table sat beside the head of the bed and two trunks sat against the wall next to the door.

Owen dropped their belongings atop one of the trunks and turned his attention back to Amelia. She ambled carefully to the bed and sat down.

"Ray… you hungry?" Arizona poked her head in. Ray nodded emphatically and ran from the room. "There's a toilet right next door to you if you need it" Arizona said, nodding once before backing out and pulling the door closed.

"Here lie down…" Owen said, plumping the pillow beside her and applying gentle pressure to her shoulder until she began to sink down.

She groaned quietly. "I still can't believe this is happening" she sighed, relaxing against the mattress. Owen sat slowly at her side, feeling nauseous for her. He soothed his hand under her shirt, against the bare skin at her waist, running up and down from her hip, to her ribs. "Me either…" he said, watching her slowly doze off.

He stilled his hand, the heel of his palm resting at the side of her stomach and he stared down, feeling warmth washing over his body. His eyes traced her figure as he tried to steady his breathing. He had found himself dizzy with worry since they had found out. Amelia had often been too preoccupied with the morning sickness to notice.

Amelia fidgeted, moaning softly in her sleep. Owen brought his hand up to her face, pushing her hair back with his fingertips, tracing around the back of her ear. He dropped a kiss at the corner of her mouth and she fidgeted again, pulling her knees up until they were pressed against Owen's thigh. He stood, finding a brick coloured wool blanket at the foot of the bed and pulled it up to her shoulder.


"Hey O" Megan greeted him from the sofa, a steaming bowl of porridge in her lap. Ray walked over slowly, watching her feet as she carried a bowl for herself. She sat beside Megan and smiled up at her.

"Hey" Owen breathed out, taking in the large room. Behind him on the left was a toilet, separated by a wall from the shower room, his and Amelia's room behind that, beside their room, also on the left, was Ellis and Ray's room. Opposite those rooms, on the right of the building was three single rooms, Arizona took the one closest to the front door, followed by Alex' and then Richard'.

"Do you want some porridge sweetie or something else?" Evelyn was busying herself at the kitchen. The room smelt of sweet porridge, Owen walked to the window and opened it, hoping that the new smell wouldn't set off Amelia's nausea before it could even settle.

"Porridge is fine Mom, thank you" he waked into the center of the room, looking around. In the furthest corner from the front door was another bedroom, he could see Evelyn' things on the bed inside, another bed sat around the corner.

"This is a nice place isn't it?" Evelyn said, placing a bowl down on the bar that sat against the wall, seven stools pushed under it. "There you go sweetie" she said, sitting back down at a small round table in the centre of the kitchen space. "Did Amelia go back to sleep?" Evelyn said, pulling her tea towards her and stirring the contents. The teaspoon clanked against the tin mug.

"Yeah" he sighed, bringing his bowl and sitting across from him mom at the table.

"You know I had bad morning sickness with you?"

"Really...Sorry?"

Evelyn chuckled, shaking her head. "I had none with Megan… horrible heartburn" she said, grimacing. Owen smirked, enjoying hearing his mom talk about her pregnancies. "She had much more hair than you though" she smirked, raising her brows.


"Knock knock… Hello?" Nina called, she let herself in and closed the door. "Hello?.. Ray..." Ray gasped, and her eyes stretched wide. She smiled and jumped up from the floor, knocking over the Lego tower she and Ellis had been building.

Amelia grinned, unmoving from the comfortable embrace of the couch.

Nina appeared from the hall. A cat carrier in her right hand. Ray squealed, calling Ginny's name. Ginny meowed longingly, her fur poking through the front of the cage. Nina set it down on the floor and Ray fell to her knees, immediately releasing her friend and squeezing her in her arms.

Owen entered the room then, greeting Nina with a smile.

"Evelyn" Ray squealed, clamoring up from the floor and running over to where Evelyn sat, reclined in the armchair, "Look" she gasped, nuzzling her face into the scruff of Ginny's neck. Evelyn pulled the girl onto her lap and they both stroked the cat together. The creature stretched out its long body, basking in their love.

Amelia sighed inwardly, muscles relaxing at the feeling of Owens hot hand against the back of her neck. He stooped and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "Alright?" he murmured softly, his expression radiating love and worry.

She smiled, nodding, taking hold of his hand.

"Have you had a chance to look around?" Nina asked, sitting on the edge of the couch where Amelia sat. Amelia shook her head,"no, I haven't but I think everyone else has…" Amelia said, glancing at everyone around the room. Evelyn shook her head, "I haven't been out yet" she said, distractedly, scrunching her hand against the cat's belly. Nina looked up at Owen, "What did you think?" she asked.

Owen pouted his lips, shrugging, "It's good, everyone seems nice…"

Nina nodded, pulling some paper from the folder she had carried in with her. "I imagine you will get bored very quickly… so I have arranged for you all to start work in our community hospital." Alex and Arizona had migrated over from the kitchen.

"Now as you may have noticed, our population here isn't very big, so the inflow of patients won't be what you are used to. You can work when you like, as long as we have at least two of you at the hospital during the day, we won't need you in at night but we will need two of you to be on call. You are… and don't take this statement at face value… you are on call twenty four seven" everyone's brows furrowed at this. She lifted her hands in defense. "Listen... I'm on call twenty four seven but have had only two real patients in the past two weeks… you'll be acting as general practitioners when you're one of the two who're on shift at the hospital… and when you're on call you'll be paged if needed for something in your specialty."

Everyone seemed satisfied with the set up, nodding to one another. "Evelyn, Megan, there's various things you could do, would you like to see the options?"

Evelyn nodded and Megan slid down from her stool at the breakfast bar. Nina stood and lunged, passing Evelyn a sheet of paper. "You can decide between you who will start tomorrow" she said, sitting back down. "Amelia, maybe wait a couple of days wait to see if your sickness settles?" she said, and Amelia nodded, agreeing, feeling her chest tighten at the mention of her pregnancy.

It still scared her, no matter how many times she reminded herself that the baby was healthy, and that they were all safe, she still found herself awash with a paralysing fear.

She was vaguely aware of Nina leaving her side, moving towards the Evelyn before leaving. Owen showed her out. Everyone in the room scattered again, leaving Amelia alone, or at least she thought alone. "Hey" Alex appeared at her side. He smiled kindly, perceiving the fear in her gaze. Amelia forced a smile and inhaled sharply, "Hey."

Alex sat down next to her. "How're you doing?" he spoke softly, the chatter in the room giving them a sort of privacy. She dropped the smile, lingering at his eyes for a moment before looking down. "I'm terrorfied" she admitted. She shook her head, placing a hand against her chest.

"Everything is fine isn't it?" he asked. She nodded, looking up to meet his eyes again, smiling tearfully.

"Everything is happening so quickly… I have no control over it… anything could go wrong" she said, bringing up her other arm, and wrapping them around herself. He pursed his lips, lolling his head to the side.

"Amelia… you do have some control, you just have to look after yourself, you're surrounded by doctors… I really do think everything will be fine… perfect even… this… this isn't going to be like last time Amelia" he said, finally. She met his eyes, tears falling freely. She nodded almost imperceptibly and breathed in, closing her eyes and throwing her head back. "Alright" Alex said, patting her knee. She smiled genuinely now, and nodded, looking back to him. "You talk a lot of sense" she chuckled.

He smirked smugly, standing up. "Anytime" he replied, circling around her to the kitchen, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly as he went. Sunlight flashed around him as he passed the windows along the wall where the breakfast bar was affixed. They framed a landscape of fields and woodland. Layers and layers of fencing stood between them and the far distance. Dust specs danced around within the columns of light that bridged from the windows to the carpeted floor.

Owen stepped just into the room then. His eyes landed straight on her. It took her a moment to notice him there. Her eyes met his in a gentle way, and he smiled, sliding his hands into his jean pockets. "Want to go look around?" he asked. His voice was so faint that she relied mostly on the motion of his lips. "Yeah" she replied, nodding, pressing her open hands into the cushions to get up.


There was a buzz in the air outside, like a shuffling sound, the sound of people going about their day. They walked slowly, Ellis holding onto Owen's hand and waddling beside him. Amelia breathed in deep, eyes falling shut as she drank in the cool air.

"We can go and pick up everyone's pagers?" Owen said, stopping to lift Ellis up onto his hip. Amelia nodded, rocking against his other side, wrapping an arm around his waist. "You okay? You're very quiet" he asked her, lifting his free arm over her head and onto her shoulders. She smiled up at him, eyes sparkling.

"I think so…" She savoured the silence, looking down at her shoes, ankle high rubber boots she'd been given. "I'm scared" she said, still not looking up, kicking the gravel underfoot. "But I think i'm alright, or… going to be" she smiled, looking up to meet his eyes. He was grinning. His happiness was contagious. He pulled her closer, tightening his arm around her shoulders. She softened against him, leaning into the kissed he pressed against her temple. "Love you" she uttered.

"Love you too" he replied.

TBC x

Reviews very welcome x