Wow, I am actually overwhelmed by your reviews, I wasn't going to update again until the weekend but your reviews have made me want to do it sooner. I didn't think anyone would still be interested in reading this fic, but I'm so glad you are. There's a reason Dylan is acting like he is which will be revealed very soon, and Tanith Panic, you asked about Lofty's reaction, I'd already written most of this chapter but there'll be some Dyfty friendship in the next chapter which I hope you'll like.
Thanks for reading and reviewing :) Oh, and my medical knowledge has been learnt from watching Casualty and searching google, so might not be 100% accurate.
I'm sorry for anyone who gets alerts for this fic, I uploaded it earlier but the formatting went all weird so I deleted it until I had chance to fix it. Fingers crossed it works this time!
Dylan looked up from treating his patient as the doors to resus were flung open and Max ran in carrying a lifeless body, Zoe close behind shouting orders to Robyn and Lofty who followed her into the room, "Robyn, call obs and warn them that we might be sending her up then get me the ultrasound, Lofty I want IV access and her vitals, check her blood sugar too."
Dylan watched as Max laid the limp body carefully on the bed, a single word falling from his lips, "Rita"
"Can we get some screens up, give Rita a bit of privacy please?" Zoe asked, nodding in acknowledgement as some nurses did as she asked.
"Blood sugar's 3.1" Lofty told Zoe, BP's 85 over 60 and her pulse is 90, I've got a line in, do you want me to give her some fluids? She looks a bit dehydrated."
Zoe nodded, "give her a litre of saline with 5% glucose, see if we can get her blood sugar up a bit too, from what I was told she was being sick just before she passed out so that would explain why she's dehydrated, thank you" Zoe nodded as Robyn brought over the ultrasound machine, "can one of you send off for a full blood analysis, I don't want to miss anything."
Lofty nodded, "I'll do the bloods"
"I'll phone obs" Robyn nodded, "do you know how far along she is?"
"About 16 weeks I think" Zoe said as she pushed up the top of Rita's uniform to reveal the small swell of her stomach.
"Nurse Miller" Dylan called Robyn as she walked over to the phone.
"Yes Doctor Keogh?"
"It's 18, she's 18 weeks."
Robyn nodded, "thank you."
It didn't take long for the glucose to work and Rita slowly began to regain consciousness. The first thing she felt was a coolness and a slight pressure on her stomach, "what…" she frowned and reached out to touch her stomach only to feel a tug on the back of her hand, "what the…"
"You're okay." Zoe said softly as she moved Rita's hand away from her stomach, "you passed out in the toilets."
"I..I"
"You're quite dehydrated" Zoe explained, "we're giving you some fluids, when did you last eat Rita?"
"I, I can't remember" she mumbled, "I can't, I keep being sick." Rita closed her eyes again as her stomach churned again, "I, I'm going to…"
Lofty saw the colour drain from Rita's face and grabbed a cardboard bowl just in time, "you're okay" he said softly, rubbing Rita's back as she continued to heave.
"How long has this been going on for?" Zoe asked softly as she watched Rita continue to heave even though there was obviously nothing left in her stomach to bring up.
Rita shrugged, "a few weeks, a month. I started throwing up a couple of weeks after I found out I was pregnant."
"Has it always been this bad?" Rita shook her head as she collapsed back against the bed, "do you think it's getting worse?" Rita nodded and Zoe sighed quietly, "why didn't you say something?" she asked softly as she asked Lofty to administer a dose of a drug to help with Rita's sickness.
"It's just morning sickness, most pregnant women get it" Rita whispered.
"Rita" Zoe said softly as she saw the nurse's eyes fill with tears, "you know this isn't 'just' morning sickness, you don't have to deal with everything on your own, we're all here for you, you should have said something, I'll get you a prescription for something to help you."
"Thank you" Rita whispered, "is, is the baby okay?"
Zoe nodded, "perfect" she smiled before turning back to the ultrasound machine she'd been using when Rita had come round, "here you go" she placed the wand back on Rita's bump to put her mind at rest, "one baby with a nice strong heartbeat. I can't see anything wrong but I'm going to ask someone from maternity to come down just to double check."
Rita smiled softly as she gazed at the screen, "thank you" she whispered, allowing Zoe to raise the head of the bed so she could sit up.
"It's okay" Zoe smiled, "I'm going to get you something to help with the sickness, you stay there and take it easy whilst we get some fluids back into you, I won't be long but just yell if you need anything."
Rita was laid on the bed, her eyes closed and one hand gently tracing patterns on her stomach with her fingertips. She jumped slightly when she heard someone clear their throat and slowly opened her eyes to find Dylan stood by the bed, "I erm" he ran his hand over his chin nervously, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."
Rita smiled softly, "we're okay" she nodded, "I've been sick quite a lot and Zoe thinks I'm dehydrated, she's going to get me something to stop me being sick. Zoe did an ultrasound and she thinks the baby's fine but someone's coming down from maternity just to make sure."
Dylan nodded, "is there, can I get you anything?"
Rita shook her head before frowning slightly, "I erm, I could do with going to the ladies."
"Right, shall I get Zoe or…"
Rita shook her head, "I think I could manage if you can just help me up."
"Right, yes, okay" Dylan helped Rita to sit up on the edge of the bed before putting his hands on her waist to steady her as she stood from the bed and stumbled slightly, "are you sure you don't want me to get…"
Rita shook her head, "no, no, I can manage" she reached out to take hold of the drip stand and took a shaky step forward, still feeling weak after being sick so much.
"Well, you obviously can't" Dylan said bluntly, putting his arm around Rita's waist to support her as she walked from resus towards the toilets, "I erm, I'll wait here" he said as he stood outside the ladies staff toilets.
Luckily he saw Robyn bounding over, "you're looking better" she told Rita as she held the door open for the nurse before looking up at Dylan, "I'll get her back to resus if you're busy" she told him with a smile.
"Yes, that would be very good" Dylan said, feeling slightly awkward in Rita's presence, "I erm" he gestured in the general direction of the ward, "yes, I'll be…" he didn't bother finishing his sentence before he walked off.
By the time Rita made it back to resus with Robyn, Dylan had left a sandwich, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of orange juice on the bed, knowing Rita needed to eat something, "someone's looking out for you" Robyn smiled as she helped Rita back into the bed and checked she had everything she needed.
"Yeah" Rita nodded as she looked at the food, "I guess they are."
Despite Rita's protests, Zoe decided to keep her under observation for the rest of her shift, she wasn't stupid, Rita knew Zoe had only done it to make sure she got some rest, but resting was boring. She'd been moved to cubicles after her second scan, but the curtains had been pulled closed, assuming she wanted privacy, it was too noisy to sleep and there wasn't much else to do. She was grateful when Robyn decided to spend her break in the cubicle with her, the young nurse bringing several glossy celebrity news magazines for Rita along with a blueberry muffin and a decaffeinated latte.
She'd had a visit from Lofty and, not long after he'd left, Connie had come to see how she was doing. The pair had called a truce since Rita had announced her pregnancy, and Connie had been an unlikely source of support for Rita. "Why didn't you tell any of us how you were feeling?" she asked, she hadn't had the easiest of pregnancies with Grace so she could understand how the nurse was feeling.
Rita shrugged slightly, "I thought it was just morning sickness, I didn't want to make a fuss."
"You work in an ED" Connie said softly, "nobody would mind if you told them you were feeling ill, the people you work with are more than just your colleagues Rita, promise me that if you're ever feeling 'off' in the future you'll come to me if you don't want to ask anyone else to check you over, even if you think all you need is to sit down with a cuppa for 10 minutes."
Rita nodded, "I will."
Connie smiled, "nobody will think any less of you if you need to take things a bit easier, they're all worried about you, about both of you, you're a good nurse and I've no doubt you'll be an excellent mother but you don't have to be superwoman, if you need help, if you need to take a step back then say something, everyone will understand" she glanced at her watch, "I've got a meeting to get to now, but you know where I am if you need anything" she said, not giving Rita chance to reply before she walked off to her meeting.
Rita managed to get a little bit of sleep before Zoe came to discharge her at the end of her shift, the doctor telling her to take things easy for the next couple of days and to let her know if the pills didn't help settle the nausea. She thanked Zoe and slowly made her way to the staffroom to get changed, her mind wandering to the news she'd received about the baby earlier that day, news she thought it was only fair Dylan knew too so before she left she'd simply tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a small piece of paper, a sheet of paper he unfolded once Rita had gone to find just 3 words printed in the nurse's neat script 'It's a girl'