Chapter Forty Nine- Officially Announced, But Still A Secret?

Quite a lot of you will have already guessed that we are expecting, due to my now pretty obvious bump! But me and Ollie are delighted to announce that we will be welcoming not one, but TWO new members into the Valentine family! Baby boy and baby girl will be joining us October 5th

"Right that's it, the world knows it all now Ollie!" She says excitedly as she hits post on the status.

"And now time to mute all the notifications of people congratulating us. As much as it is lovely, it is pretty intense." Ollie chuckles.

"At least it means everyone finds out all at once."

"I think a good few people have figured out you were pregnant by now anyway Zosh." He says subtly eyeing her tummy.

"I actually put that! But nobody knew the due date and what we were having. Everyone is finding that out at once."

Within seconds both their phones were constantly pinging with messages.

"Oh great you tagged me in it, so mine has gone mental too." Ollie jokes as he quickly scrolls through the notifications.

"Did you really think I wouldn't? These are your kids too!"

"Joking Zosh, of course you would. I'd of being offended if you hadn't." He smirks at her.

"Exactly. Come on we need to get ready for work." She says as she wanders off to go upstairs.

"A boy and a girl! I am so happy for you two!" Mo greets them at the station.

"Thank you Mo! You saw our little announcement then I take it?" Ollie asks grinning.

"I think the entire hospital saw it! It's the talk of the wards. People had obviously figured out you were pregnant by now. But you know how everyone loves an official announcement!"

"Great." Both Ollie and Zosia say in sync.

"Oh if that's how you are feeling you are probably not going to appreciate the little bit of decoration in the staff room." Mo says looking sheepish and then looking to the floor.

"Mo, you didn't!"

"We had to have a little celebration now it's officially announced! It's only a couple of balloons and a little present for the cuties, keep your hair on!" Mo says excitedly.

Zosia's expression breaks into a smile and she walks toward the staff room, closely followed by Ollie.

They were greeted by pink and blue balloons and two banners. 'IT'S A BOY!' and 'IT'S A GIRL!' and a gift bag sat on the table. Labelled 'To Baby Valentines, with love from Aunty Mo xx.'

"Aww could these be any cuter?" Zosia says pulling two baby grows out of the bag. One pink, one blue and they had a doctor's outfit printed onto them, the design complete with stethoscopes.

"Ha very appropriate!" Ollie looks at them giggling.

"I spotted them and couldn't resist!" Mo says joining them.

"These are amazing Mo, the first gift we have received for them!" Zosia tries to hide her tears.

"Hormonal happy tears!" Zosia quickly giggles.

"It is things like this that make it all feel more real, don't they Zosh?" Ollie says hugging her close to him.

"Hate to break it to you both but this is all very real, the little beauties will be with you very soon! You know how quickly the months pass!" Mo says laughing.

"I have lost count of the amount of times that I have said 'thank you' today!" Zosia says to Ollie a bit later on, sounding a little jaded.

"It was bound to happen Zosh. People are just happy for us."

"I know, I know, it's just quite intense. I feel drained!"

"Would you like this case you two?" Mo approached and asked the couple.

"What is it?"

"Nice little valve repair. Be an easy pass time for you two pros."

"Yes sure." Ollie holds his hand out for Mo to pass him the file.

A slight worried chuckle comes from Ollie after he opens the file.

"What is it Valentine?"

"Oh dear, Mrs Denton is going to love you Zosh." He says continuing to quickly reading through the patients file.

"The patient? Why?" She looks at him confused.

"One of the nurses has left a note saying she is extremely talkative, always have a reason to escape."

"Why does that mean she will love me?" Zosh responds arms folded.

"Erm, she is a retired Midwife."

She sighs looking very unimpressed. "Can I not get any peace from baby talk?!"

"At least I gave you the heads up babe."

"And that really helps! Right you go talk to her Ollie, I will go chase some results and then come over after I have found something to cover this up." She points to her tummy. She immediately notices Ollie's saddened expression that she wanted to hide her bump.

"I just don't think I can cope with intense baby talk from her as well as everyone else today. I am sorry. I don't want to keep them a secret Ollie, but just for my sanity today I think I need to."

"Its fine, I understand. I don't know how you are going to hide it from her all day though."

"O ye of little faith." She smirks as she walks away.

"So you save lives, I used to bring lives into the world." Mrs Denton tells Ollie.

"Yes, you were a midwife weren't you?"

"I retired last year after 35 years in the job. I miss it so much."

"I am not surprised you miss it then."

"I just loved seeing happy couples, glowing mothers to be and then the joy that a new life brings. There is nothing better." She then started to reel off various years and children she had helped deliver.

He kept smiling at the patient, but after a while of listening to Mrs Denton's career history; Ollie had nearly tuned out and was secretly thinking that Zosia had made the right decision.

"Do you have any children Mr Valentine?" She quizzes him.

Still only partly listening Ollie doesn't reply.

"Mr Valentine?"

"Oh sorry, I was having a moment there."

"You are too young to be having moments Mr Valentine! I asked if you had any children. Surely a handsome man like you must have a beautiful lady and a family."

This is not how he wanted the conversation to go.

"No children, not quite yet. Got the beautiful lady though." Technically that was all true.

"Early days? Engaged? No wedding ring." She comments looking at his left hand.

Wow this woman was persistent with her questioning. "Engaged." He said with a smile.

"So no doubt there will be a child on the way soon then!"

"Let's get back to talking about your treatment Mrs Denton"

"My husband worked on the same ward as I did, that was how we met. Let me guess, your Fiancée is working on this ward."

"I am sorry, but we really need to discuss your valve repair."

At this point Zosia was walking over to the bay. A folder carefully positioned and test results in the other hand.

"Mr Valentine, the test results, you may want to take a look." Zosia says to him.

Ollie takes a look at the results and then turns back to the patient. "The surgery needs to be done a bit more urgently than first thought Mrs Denton; if we wait much longer then we might have to do a valve replacement rather than a repair. It has rapidly deteriorated."

Mrs Denton didn't seem to be paying any attention to what Ollie was saying; she seemed to just be staring at Zosia.

"Mrs Denton?" Zosia speaks up. "Do you understand what Mr Valentine is saying? We will be taking you into theatre in the next few hours."

"Yes I understand; do what is needed. So who are you then dear?"

"My name is Doctor March." Zosia replies smiling at the lady. "I'll be assisting Mr Valentine in theatre."

"I leave you talking to Doctor March for a bit, I'll go organise a theatre slot." Ollie said walking away.

This earned him a glare from Zosia. Once he was in the distance out of the patient view point he mouthed to her 'it is your turn!' complete with a smirk.

"You shouldn't have to hide it Doctor March."

Zosia looked at the patient confused.

"The folder is doing a good job dear but I was a midwife you see. I know all the signs."

She sighed and placed the folder on the table in defeat. "I am sorry, it's nothing personal. I am just struggling with all the attention my bump attracts, today in particular. I just anchor for someone to talk to me normally at the minute. And I didn't expect you to do that when you used to be a midwife."

"See that is where you are wrong dear. I probably understand more than most that you want to be treated as normally as possible, and not always as the mother-to-be." Mrs Denton says to her.

"Of course, I should have known, sorry, I completely jumped to conclusions there."

"Did the folder not work then March? I knew it wouldn't." Ollie returns to Zosia and the patient a few minutes later.

"Shush you, try not to be too smug." She immediately answers back, whilst shaking her head. She hated it when he was proved right.

"I'll try my best Zosh."

The patient looks between the pair picking up on their tone; Zosia notices her questioning expression.

"Mr Valentine here is the babies' dad." Zosia admits to her and Ollie does a nervous laugh.

"Ah so it's you who is Mr Valentine's beautiful lady! So where's your engagement ring?"

Zosia immediately puts her hand to her necklace, where her ring always was when she was working. She then looks to Ollie as if to say 'you had already told her'.

"I only said that I was engaged, but that I didn't have children 'quite yet'. So I did as you wanted but without lying. Just Mrs Denton here is observant."

"We could not keep a secret if our life depended on it!" Zosia says shaking her head.

"We haven't told anyone about our wedding planning!" Ollie says smugly without thinking.

"Woah what is this about wedding planning?!" Mo overhears.

"You are a complete idiot Valentine." Zosia puts her head in her hands.