Charles had been thrilled when Molly told him, they agreed to keep it between them for now at least until she had reached twelve weeks when they would tell the boys and both of their families.
Molly pulled into the car park at the hospital as she got out of the car, she was met by Paul Jones who had recently joined her team "Hi Dr James, good to see you back, sorry to hear about your grandmother" Molly hesitated for a moment and said "thanks Paul" it puzzled her that he knew the reason she had been away, as she had only shared it with her boss who was usually quite discreet. She put it to the back of her mind and continued with him up to the ward to do the handover for her shift.
It had been a long day, she had felt slightly nauseous early afternoon and had to push through as they had dealt with a number of casualties from a road traffic accident with acute trauma injuries. She had been the same when she was pregnant with Sam, she never once felt sick in the morning always after lunch, a ginger biscuit and a glass of water had done the trick.
She was just putting her scrubs into the cupboard in her office and sat behind her desk to sign off her computer, her mobile buzzed on the desk, a message from Charles "hello my beautiful pregnant wife, how was the first shift back? salmon for dinner ok? xx" she was just about to type a reply when there was a knock at the door of her office "Come in" it was Paul "sorry to disturb you but I just wanted to check you were ok…I noticed you looking a bit green this afternoon when the RTA's came in" Molly was a bit startled, she hesitated again with him for the second time today "I'm fine thank you" she felt slightly awkward that he had took it upon himself to come to her office and ask, after a short silence where he looked as though he was expecting her to comment further he responded "Ok good night then" and closed the door. The awkward feeling Molly had lingered, she snapped herself out of it by messaging Charles back "Hey you, busy as ever major RTA, salmon sounds perfect, boys ok? see you soon xx" she grabbed her bag and coat and left for home.
As she reached the car she had a funny feeling of being watched, she looked around but couldn't see anyone, shaking her head that she was just being stupid, she got in and pulled out of the car park. As she reached the exit she caught sight of Paul again, on foot heading for the taxi stop. She felt her phone buzz again in her pocket, Charles probably, she left it thinking she would be home in less than thirty minutes with them anyway.
She opened the front door to be greeted by the delicious smell of cooking, Charles and the boys were already sat at the kitchen table with rugby on the TV in the family room, they were alternating between discussing the day at school and what was happening with the Rugby, Charles got up from the table as Molly moved to put the kettle on. He hugged her from behind, kissing her cheek "just in time", grabbed her meal from the oven and led her over to the table to sit down. Charles thought she looked more exhausted than usual "you ok?" she smiled and nodded "yeh fine" she turned to Sam and Charlie "so how was school? did you miss much whilst we were away?" Charlie chipped in first "no not really, got a bit of extra work to do at home this week but it's no big deal" Molly looked at Sam "how about you Sam?" he shook his head "no, most of what we are doing is coursework stuff that I can catch up on, Pippa is going to come round tomorrow night and lend me her files" Pippa was Sam's girlfriend from school, both Molly and Charles couldn't quite get their heads around him having a girlfriend but he was 17, so if anything he had been a late starter.
She was just finishing loading up the dishwasher when the phone rang, she called through to Charles to get it, retrieving an opened bottle of wine from the fridge she grabbed a couple of glasses and sat back down at the kitchen table, the boys were on the sofa in the family area of the kitchen watching the end of the rugby. Charles came through as she was pouring the wine "who was it?" he shrugged "no one there must have been a wrong number" he stood behind her massaging her shoulders trying to get her to relax, she had looked tired and uptight since she came in, he put it down to first day back and the fact she was still grieving for her Nan, it had only been a couple of days since the funeral and these things took time. He was so excited that they were going to have another baby but was struggling to gauge how she was feeling and because of everything that had happened didn't want to push her or put her under pressure with his enthusiasm. He decided to tell her about the comings and goings of the day at school instead as he sat down to enjoy the wine with her.
The boys had gone to bed, Charles was in the study writing some reports for school and she had her laptop on the kitchen table trying to finish an article on advances in trauma care that she had been asked to do for the Lancet. The phone rang again, she got up this time and walked into the hall to pick it up "Hello?" silence…."Hello?"…nothing, she shook her head, there must be a problem with the line she thought as she hung up and got back to her article.
As they climbed into bed, Charles lent across and took her in his arms, stroking the side of her face before softly kissing her "night gorgeous" she smiled at him "night" they both flicked of their bedside lamps, Charles must have been more tired than he had let on as he was in the first stages of sleep within a few minutes, Molly led in the dark with a very uneasy feeling but she couldn't explain what was making her feel like this. She had experienced the same flutter in her chest and a feeling of noise in her head when she had first returned from Afghan, she remembered describing it to Charles as "not being able to get a calmness in her night" it was a warning sign of PTSD at the time but not now…what had suddenly made this feeling return now…maybe it was the shock of Nan…then the baby…..maybe it was too much for her mind to take on and panic was setting in…..she knew she should talk to Charles about how she was feeling, bottling everything up had been disastrous for them in the past. She would see how she felt in a couple of days and if she wasn't feeling any different she would find a time to talk to him.