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Chapter Twenty-Eight

Second Scan

It was the day of Ethel's second scan and her and her sisters as well as Mildred were nervously stood outside the gates of the school waiting for Julie. She arrived early and hugged all the girls able to tell Ethel was nervous, especially when no-one was really speaking as she drove them to the hospital.

"Are you okay Ethel?" Julie asked worried as the girl was pale. Julie remembered how nervous she had been with her scans so she didn't blame Ethel for being terrified. Ethel nodded gently.

"Have you decided if you are finding out what you are having yet?" Julie then asked trying to eliminate the awkward silence.

Ethel shook her head and Julie sighed knowing she didn't have much time to decide. She glanced in her rear-view mirror at the girls in the back who also looked nervous, especially Esmerelda.


Julie was therefore so glad to park in the hospital. Well, outside the hospital. As it was a magical hospital there wasn't a car park so Julie parked on the road by the hospital and ushered the girls inside, she gave Ethel's name at the desk and all three blondes and Mildred sat down in the waiting room. Ethel rubbed her bump gently with her eyes close as if praying to herself everything will be okay.

Julie sighed as she looked around. She was getting a lot of strange looks because of her regular clothing, most people were probably trying to figure out how someone clearly non-magical knows about witches. She smiled awkwardly at a couple of people before keeping her eyes on the carpet, feeling very out of place.

Ethel though was looking around but it only made her sad. All the women here were with a partner who was hugging them as they waited and they were all much older than Ethel, about in their twenties or thirties. Ethel loved her baby but she wished she could be in their situation. Head over heals in love with a wizard and both of them looking forward to the birth of their precious baby. Instead, Ethel was a schoolchild and she felt alone in that moment despite her having people with her. She didn't regret keeping her baby, only sometimes it hit her what situation she was in.

"Ethel Hallow" a nurse suddenly said as she came out of the room sending Ethel out of her thoughts.


Ethel jumped up and walked into the room with the other girls and Julie behind her. The nurse had some chairs set out and Ethel sat in one as everyone took a seat around her. The nurse smiled at her and Ethel tried to smile back.

"How has everything being going with the pregnancy?" the woman asked Ethel who gulped before replying.

"Okay...well at least I think it is okay, I have never being pregnant before so I can't tell you for sure" Ethel replied and the nurse smiled and nodded in understanding.

"No pain or bleeding?" she asked the girl and Ethel shook her head. The woman smiled at her before speaking.

"Then it should be okay" the woman said before looking at Julie and Mildred. She was the same nurse from last time and she didn't remember them.

"My sisters and I are being fostered now, this is our foster mother Julie and our foster sister Mildred" Esmerelda explained knowing exactly what the woman was thinking.

"Oh fantastic, and is this going to be a long term placement?" she asked looking at Julie and the curly haired woman nodded.

"Yes, I am having the girls until further notice, when would it be best for Ethel to leave school?" Julie asked needing to prepare for that. She knew Ethel would have to leave school before she had the baby, she wasn't sure how Ethel would be able to carry on her work yet but she would come to that when it came to it.

"Around seven months, will that be a problem?" the woman asked her and Julie shook her head. She would make it work. The woman smiled happy with everything in order and told Ethel to hop onto the bed.

"Right let us take a look at the baby" she told her with a smile as she put some gel on her stomach. Ethel shook at that but she was not freaking out as much as she was during her first scan when she had not being able to keep still. She was excited about seeing her baby again even if she was so worried that something was wrong with it, she panicked all the time about it.

"It is okay love, try to relax" Julie told her seeing the look of panic on the girls face. Everyone looked at the monitor waiting to see the baby.

The nurse ran the scanner over Ethel's stomach looking for the baby, when she didn't find it straight away Ethel panicked and grabbed onto Sybil, as she was nearest to her.

"It is okay, it can take a while to find baby sometimes" the nurse reassured Ethel seeing her reaction to not finding the baby straight away.

Ethel nodded but still felt like she was in a panic. The nurse kept running the scanner over her until suddenly the screen changed and the baby appeared.

It was bigger than last time of course, but Ethel still got that faraway look of love in her eyes as she saw her baby on the screen.

Julie and Mildred both smiled at the same time. Mildred had never being to a pregnancy scan before and was fascinated by it, Julie was just falling in love with the baby even though she knew she was only fostering them and should not get to attached. The nurse smiled at them all.

"Let us hear the heartbeat" she said using another machine. Suddenly, a thumping sound came out and Ethel looked like she was about to burst into tears as she heard it.

"Good size, perfect heartbeat, everything is as it should be" the nurse told Ethel happily, she was so happy she could give the girl good news. Ethel might have kept her tears in but Esmerelda was crying but didn't seem to realise as she was silent. Julie rubbed her back knowing how emotional this must be for the elder girl.

"It still looks like an alien" Sybil whispered to Esmie and Esmerelda just cried in response before the nurse spoke again.

"Will you like to know the gender?" she asked looking at Ethel.

There it was. The moment had come and Ethel had no idea what she wanted. She looked at the nurse wearing an expression as if she didn't know what to do and the nurse smiled knowingly.

"It happens more often than you think, people coming in having not made a decision about it, it is a big decision after all, what I normally suggest is if we leave the mother alone for a while to think about it, do you want us to do that?" the nurse asked and Ethel realised with everything in her life she really had not had a moment to sit down and think it through. She nodded and the nurse left, as did Sybil, Mildred, Julie and Esmerelda, but Esmie didn't leave until after she had kissed her sisters forehead.


So Ethel was left alone. She lay on the bed in silence just letting herself think. Did she want to know? She had no idea.

She liked the idea of being able to buy clothes in either blue or pink for whichever gender it was but knowing was not going to make her love it more or less. She didn't care about the gender as long as it was healthy, even if it was a boy it would be hard, considering what their father had done to her but she would raise him not to be like that man.

When she had had it if she already knew would she be disappointed as she was not surprised and overcome with emotion as she found out if it was a girl or a boy? But did finding out now make it less exciting? She just didn't know what she wanted.

She closed her eyes then and let herself really think about it. She imagined that moment in a few months when she had just given birth and she is told that she has a little boy or a little girl. She can imagine how magical and special that moment will be as she is told the sex of her little baby.

She can also imagine that movement when she already knows the sex, she would already know but she would be so happy the baby is okay and healthy. She put her head in her hands unable to choose.


Eventually she told the nurse to come back in with her sisters. She sat on the bed and looked at the nurse knowing it was the time to decide. What did her heart want? She wanted that moment she had visualised in her head where she is told she has a boy or a girl.

"I don't want to know" Ethel told the woman. She knew now she didn't want to know. She wanted to be surprised. She wanted to be overcome with emotion as she is told just after they are born.

"That is fine" the woman told Ethel smiting. "I will print you out some updated photos" the woman told her leaving her with Julie, Mildred and her sisters. Ethel looked at her sisters and foster family before speaking.

"Did I make the right decision? Ethel asked looking at her family not sure about her decision.

"You made the choice you wanted to make, but I think it was a good one" Esmerelda replied hugging her sister happily, she was so relieved everything was okay with the little baby and her sister and she could not wait until they were here so they could love on them.