I've been away for a few days getting thrashed at Quidditch, but I am now back and ready to catch up prompts!
Prompt from Stutley Constable: Nativity.
"Don't worry, doctor, Mary is strong." Mrs Hudson patted my arm, smiling, but I could see the shadow of worry in her eyes.
Mrs Lestrade poked her head out of the birthing room. "Martha, we need you." She disappeared back behind the door.
Mrs Hudson left me to my pacing, hurrying through the door after Mrs Lestrade.
In all my life as a doctor and a soldier, nothing had made me as anxious as the thick smell of blood seeping out from under the door. I knew how common it was for women to die in childbirth, but I could not bring myself to believe it would happen to my Mary. My beautiful, brave Mary, who had stayed faithfully by my side through illness and health, good times and bad, with a patient heart and a quick smile. If I had not had her to come back to after Reichenbach, I do not know how I would have carried on. I could not lose her now.
It might have been hours, it might have been days, but a single sound broke through my clouded thoughts like a shaft of sunlight.
It was the cry of a baby.