"Piper!" Mrs Harris' voice called out.
"In the bathroom." Piper called back gagging and covering her mouth.
"Alright if I come in?" Mrs Harris said softly as she was now close to the door.
Piper nodded.
Then she realised Mrs Harris couldn't see her as a closed door separated them.
"It's open."
She made the mistake of taking her hand off her mouth.
She leached forwards throwing up.
"Your Grams is on the phone." Mrs Harris said looking at Piper knelt on the floor. "But now's not the best time for you to talk."
She lifted the cordless phone to her ear.
"I'll get Piper to call you back later." She said before hanging up.
She discarded the phone on the carpeted floor and scrapped Piper's long brown hair off her face.
"Oh sweetie." She said sympathetically. "How long you been in here?"
"Too long." Piper said. "No one ever told me pregnancy would be like this."
"They never do." Mrs Harris said. "You be alright for a moment if I grab you some water?"
"Until I drink some."
Mrs Harris listened to Piper as she got up and ran the cold tap placing a glass under the running water.
"I know morning sickness is a normal part of pregnancy." Piper was saying. "But th-"
She got cut off lurching forwards again.
"I got your back." Mrs Harris pulled Piper's hair from her face swiftly.
"But this," Piper continued sitting back on her heels. "Is just ridicules."
"At least it means you have a healthy baby." Mrs Harris said. "Or at least that's what every one kept telling me when I was suffering in the first trimester when I was pregnant with Cassy."
"How long until the first trimester is over?" Piper asked. "I feel like I want to mark the day after it finishes with lots of smiley faces and sticky sparkle stars on my calendar and have a big party. I'll call it 'hope'. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, I feel hope."
"You know, I think I spent about three months camped out in here when I was pregnant. I'm so glad you haven't taken a leaf out of my book, or maybe I shouldn't be giving you ideas."
"Oh no please do. That is a very good idea, or bad because then I'd be admitting defeat by the morning sickness. I have no idea. Is it always this hard to make up your mind when you're pregnant?"
"Not a clue." Mrs Harris said. "I think if it is it's an on going syndrome of motherhood with me. Although I think I read some where that the early stages of pregnancy, meaning until about 25 weeks are almost identical to clinical depression. Drink some water."
Piper took a mouthful.
"Now that's depressing." She commented. "The water," She leaned over the toilet again. "Not such a good idea."
Mrs Harris held Piper's hair off her face again.
"Any idea on that date?" Piper asked.
"Unfortunately trimesters don't tend to stick to the dates their supposed to."
"Hope. Diminished."
"Hey, if it's any constellation this pregnancy thing only last 40 weeks."
"That long?"
"Yhea that long. That sounded more depressing than I intended. Sorry."
"You know," Piper said softly, not really willing to admit the fact to her self. "Last night, or early this morning, I forget which; I think part of me was actually considering an abortion."
"Do you want to have one?"
"Never."
Piper's hand flew straight to her stomach, to her baby, defending it from the awful facts of life.
"I was only asking." Mrs Harris assured her. "I know you'd never be able to go through with an abortion."
"You see, I knew that and I felt disgusted at my self for even allowing part of me to even consider, no, that's the wrong word, think about it. It's just that I was lying in bed with a migraine, awake feeling sick beyond all belief and part of me was just crying out 'is this really worth all this?' and then screaming out 'it's not, it's not, nothing is worth going through all this for'. Then the question just wouldn't leave my mind. Is this really worth all this?"
"Oh Piper my dear sweet child." Mrs Harris said. "I promise you it is all worth it in the end. The moment you hold that little baby of yours in your arms for the first time every thing, all the pain and all the memories of morning sickness disappear and the only thing that matters is your child."
"That's real sweet and sentimental and all but you got any thing that will help me with this morning sickness I have now?"
"May be."
Mrs Harrison tipped some of the water from the glass down the drain so it was half full and put two tablets in it from the medicine cabinet.
"Try this." She said. "I promise you it will taste like the most discussing thing on earth but it'll stop the morning sickness."
Piper took the glass.
"Drink it all." Mrs Harris instructed. "All in one go."
Piper downed the glass and made a very disgusted face.
"Yuck!" she said loudly. "I think that might make me sick."
"Do you feel sick?"
Piper thought for a moment.
"Surprisingly no. What was that?"
"Two alker salts and half a glass of water. Works wonders."
"You have just saved my life Mrs Harris."
"I keep telling you Piper. It's not Mrs Harris, its Ali or Alison. Okay?"
"It just feels wearied calling you that Mrs Har-" She corrected her self in mid word. "Ali."
"You'll soon get used to it. As for the mood in here, we need to go put on a good tear jerker."
"Why? So I can laugh the entire way through it?"
"Exactly. Martin," that was Mr Harris. "Has taken Cassandra to the office with him for the morning so she can see where daddy 'works' and I don't want to do any more house work. We should veg out in front of the telly until they get home. We deserve the break. We could watch Titanic again. I cry sob you laugh. Or I have Ghost, Love Story or best of all Evita close to hand."
"Evita as in Don't Cry For Me Argentina Evita?"
"The one and only."
"That's all the convincing I need."