A Sylan hurt/comfort fic set during the last few weeks of Sam's pregnancy. Written within the space of one night for my good friend Kay who, like me, is constantly starved of the sylan content we need to survive. Enjoy (and excuse whatever mistakes remain as it is currently 1 am at the time of writing this and I am too tired to see them).

Closing the door softly behind him, he let out a weary sigh. Twelve hours of constant emergencies had left the whole ED run off their feet, he hadn't stopped all day. The ache in his feet was growing with every passing moment and his stomach was growling like a bear. Dumping his things at the door, he crept through the hallway, with the plan of shovelling the closet piece of food down his throat before passing out in bed.

He'd nearly reached the kitchen when his gaze was drawn to a shifting figure in the dimly lit sitting room. The sight he was met with flooded him with emotions, it was the most beautiful image he'd ever seen.

Abandoning his stomach's need for food, he moved across to the old armchair and crouched down for the figure sat upon it.

A soft hand reached out to cup his face, her thumb stroking the rough stubble he'd missed whilst shaving that morning.

"How was your day?"

He shook his head with a smile and let out a small chuckle. Too much had happened. The details could wait for another time, he wouldn't bother her with them now.

"You should be in bed my darling." He reached up to interlock his fingers with the hand cupping his face, bringing them down to kiss the engagement ring sitting proudly on her finger. "You didn't need to wait up for me."

The soft, yet weary gaze of his beloved Samantha Nicholls met his. He already knew what her reply would be but a little part of him hoped that it would be something else. It broke his heart a little to know that something so beautiful, something they'd both dreamt of, wished for, was causing her so much discomfort.

"I know, but it's too uncomfortable everywhere else. I can only just about bear to sit here."

Dylan let his eyes drift down his soon-to-be wife's body and come to rest at the source of both their happiness and pain.

Sam's right hand was gently resting on the lower part of her stomach, gently cradling the immense swell of her baby bump in the nook of her arm.

At nearly 41 weeks pregnant the hoodie she had borrowed from him no longer completely covered her swollen stomach, leaving an area of bare skin exposed to him. He moved his hand up to that point and began to rub soothing circles into her stretched and torn skin. Tiny movements bumped into his hand as their unborn child shifted inside Sam. Though he knew the movements were now a discomfort to Sam he couldn't help but love the feeling, barely able to wait to finally hold their child in his arms.

He'd nearly always wanted to be a father. Not when he was a child but once he'd reached his adult years he had come to have an ever-growing desire to start a family of his own. After the disaster that was his childhood, he wanted to give a child all the chances he'd never had.

When he'd met Sam those hopes had grown even more as she too had revealed her want for a family.

But the time hadn't been right. Maybe they'd been too young or maybe they'd naively rushed into things too quickly but the little cracks in their marriage soon grew and they'd fallen apart.

When his marriage had crumbled so too did his dreams of a family. If it couldn't be Sam then it would be no one. There was no person on earth that he wanted to be the mother of his child more than her.

And so he had settled himself down into a life of just him and Dervla. The inevitable ache in his heart remained but he'd hoped that, with time, he'd learn to live with it.

It didn't last long.

Whether it was fate or sheer damn luck Samantha Nicholls came crashing back into his life, bringing the life back into his dying dreams. He'd lost her once. He vowed never to do it again.

It had been rocky, with their fair share of ups and downs, but a year after her surprise return they'd sat curled up together as two little lines on a stick turned their dreams into reality.

He was going to be a dad. It almost felt too good to be true. After everything they'd been through, he and Sam were finally getting their much-wanted baby.

However, he now knew that his dreams had missed one all so important aspect. Reality.

He was pulled from his thoughts by Sam's body tensing under his touch, her face screwing up with discomfort as pain rattled its way through her frame.

"Oh, my darling." He mumbled his sweet reassurances between planting faint butterfly kisses on her hand as he sat there watching her body torment itself.

Her pregnancy had been plagued with troubles from the beginning. Morning sickness and fatigue had left her practically housebound with exhaustion. Many nights and days they had spent with a basin, him holding Sam's changing body as it fought against the new life growing inside her.

No sooner had the horrific bouts of sickness passed had another, more concerning, problem arose. The more their little baby grew, the more Sam's body struggled to keep up. Her back and pelvis were soon in constant pain and her skin stretched beyond capacity. Her energy was soon drained completely and though she was normally stubbornly strong it was all just too much for her.

Five months after being signed off from work, Sam now spent most of her days confined to their bed, rendered practically immobile by the now-massive bump that was holding her body hostage. No position nor movement could dull her discomfort.

It tore his heart in two to see her like this. Though a family with Sam was all he'd ever wanted he had never, in a million years, wanted to cause her so much pain. As he watched her feebly try to rub away the ache in her hips he couldn't help but let tears brim in his eyes. They were quickly rubbed away with the back of his hand. Tears wouldn't help Sam.

Careful not to irritate her painful condition, Dylan manoeuvred himself onto the chair with Sam resting against him. He wrapped his arms down around the swell of her stomach and lifted it slightly if only to relieve a little of the pressure it caused against her pelvis.

"Ohhhh…" she let out an elongated sigh as a little of her pain was lifted. Her head fell back with exhaustion, resting in its special place at the nook of his neck. "Thank you."

They sat there for hours, the two of them balanced together in their old armchair. Dylan snacked on Sam's leftover dinner and had no need to disturb her from her rightful place in his arms. Not once did he stop holding the weight of their baby for her. It was the least he could do when she had relinquished every part of her life to grow their child.

Listening to the quiet snuffles made by her breathing slowing, he was beyond relieved to know that she had finally succumbed to sleep. He could finally relax slightly, knowing that she might get a good rest for the first time in weeks.

There were just days left. Soon all of it would be in the past and they could move forward as a family of three. Their reality had turned out so different from those dreams he had first had all those years ago. It had been beyond hard for both of them but for all the sickness and pain the magic of pregnancy had won them over.

He still felt honoured, every time he looked down at her, that he could sit there knowing that they were having a baby when so many couldn't. As he too let sleep take him, Dylan smiled with the realisation that those dreams from long ago had nothing on the sheer joy of his reality.