Thanks for all your reviews last chapter :D Thanks so much to rivernymph99, without whom this chapter would be utterly tedious. She is full of brilliant ideas, go and read her stories! Enjoy this one... Please leave a review :)

"Are they kidding?" Sam exclaimed, holding up the Christmas card that had been slipped into her locker. "It's only the end of November!"
"Are you a bit of a Scrooge, Sam?" Tom chuckled.
"No! I just object to people celebrating Christmas before December."
"Talking of Christmas, what do you want to do for it?" he asked.
"We could see your parents?" Sam suggested.
"No, they're going on some fancy cruise for most of the winter," he was about to ask her about her parents, but stopped himself, thinking it might upset her. He knew her father was dead, but she never spoke about her mother. "It's our first Christmas together, properly, I mean, I was thinking we could just have a quiet day together - neither of us are working. And haven't we got a scan due around then?"
"Yep, I told you last week, I booked it for Christmas Eve," she grimaced. "I like the sound of that plan though." She pulled her scrubs on. "I think people are going to start noticing soon. If they haven't already," Sam joked, stretching her scrub top over her protruding stomach. She caught the look in Tom's eyes. "I know, I know, I'm going to tell everyone, today, I promise."
"Are you going to tell me why you wanted to wait?"
She shrugged. "It's just, you know, the first rule of pregnancy: you don't talk about the pregnancy. If everyone around here knows, they won't look at me the same way. You know what people are like."
"There's more though, isn't there?" he guessed. "I know you, you don't worry about nothing," he explained, without her having to ask.
Sam pressed the back of her head against her locker, and shut her eyes, avoiding his gaze. She was surprised at how easily he was able to get her thoughts out of her these days. Her voice became small. "I feel like it's just asking for something to go wrong. If less people know, there's less people to pity you if something does happen. And they get excited, and they make you excited, and it can all come crashing down so easily, it's just further to fall if other people raise your hopes."
Tom approached her and took her hand. "Maybe people will talk," he said. "But they'll stop eventually. And nothing is going to go wrong." He put his lips to hers. "I don't believe in tempting fate." He pulled away, walking backwards through the door that led to the crazy ED, smiling at her, and she couldn't help but grin when he almost knocked over Big Mac.

"Okay, Noel, next patient please," Sam said. She placed a folder on the reception desk before accepting another pile of notes from Noel. Flicking through the papers, she was not listening as he called the name of the next patient. A small women approached her. Sam's stomach turned.
"Mum?" she said.
"Samantha? What are you doing here?"
"I work here," Sam replied, slightly shocked. She shook herself mentally. She knew her mother was living in Holby, it was only going to be a matter of time before she bumped into her. She had been hoping it wouldn't be at work, in view of all her colleagues.
"Did the army not work out then? Or did you see sense in the end, decide to do something worthwhile," her mother remarked snidely.
Noel, who was still standing within earshot, butted in. "Er, Dr Nicholls, are you sure you're allowed to treat this women?" he said uneasily.
Sam turned to face him and smiled her best sarcastic smile. "As much as I'd love to hand her over to someone else-" she made a show of looking around the reception area, "-there's nobody else around." She headed in the direction of cubicles, refusing to look at her mother.
Noel nudged Louise. "What do you think's going on there?"
Louise looked up. "I don't care Noel, it's her business," she said moodily.
"Well, have you noticed how tight Dr Nicholls' scrubs have been looking lately?" Noel tried a different approach.
"This is Sam we're talking about. If you think she's pregnant, I think you're barking up the wrong tree."
"You want to bet on it?"
"No. Stop gossiping and get back to work," Louise ordered.

"So, what happened?" Sam asked, feeling her mother's wrist.
"I fell over," she replied.
"I don't think it's broken," Sam said shortly.
"Are you sure? Do you need a second opinion?" her mother sneered.
Sam had to grit her teeth to stop herself from retorting. "I'm going to send you for an X-ray to make sure. A porter will be along in a few minutes to take you upstairs. Is there any pain?"
"Only when you were touching it."
"Did you hurt anywhere else when you fell?"
"No."
Sam nodded, spoke to the nurse who, obviously not wanting to intrude, was standing awkwardly at the end of the bed, hung a clipboard at the railings of the bed, and left the cubicle.

Sam strode with as little anger as she could to her next patient. This was why she and her mother did not get on: her callous little remarks, tossed casually into everyday conversations like rubbish into a bin, always deliberately trying to demean her. Tom grabbed her arm her way past him.
"You okay?" he questioned.
She nodded. "My mum's here," she said glumly.
Tom was surprised. Sam didn't mention her parents often, and he didn't liked to ask about them.
"I'll tell you later," she said, seeing his curiosity. She marched on, before Zoe stepped in front of her, blocking her path.
"Sam, I've been meaning to ask you about... Actually, do you want to step into my office quickly?" asked Zoe.
Sam could tell that she didn't have a choice, so she followed her to the office.
"I wanted to ask you about maternity leave," Zoe said, closing the door behind her. "Have you spoken to Tom about it? Have you told anyone about this yet?"
"Yeah, we've talked. I want to keep working as long as possible, so until I'm about thirty six or thirty seven weeks. I haven't told anyone yet, but I was going to at the end of the shift today."
"Okay," Zoe scribbled something down. "Good, because it is getting a bit obvious now. You're what, four months?" Sam nodded. "Is everything okay so far?" Her work-stressed face softened.
"Yes. It was placenta praevia, but they're not too worried about it, and I've stopped getting morning sickness and weird cravings."
Zoe smiled. "I'd better let you get back to work." She opened the door for her, and then sat down at her desk.

Sam picked up her mother's X-ray results and took them to her cubicle.
"Your wrist's not broken, just badly bruised. You need to rest it for about a week. Come back in if it begins to hurt any more," she announced.
"So I can leave this ghastly place now?"
"Thankfully," Sam muttered, opening the curtain.
"Thank you, Samantha. Maybe you should try keeping in touch this time? I am your mother, after all." Before Sam could retaliate, Tom approached them.
"Everything okay here?" he asked, assuming, correctly, that this was Sam's mother. Sam nodded, smiling gratefully at him over her shoulder as they continued towards reception.
"Who was that?" her mother demanded.
"That was Tom. He's my boyfriend," she added, in spite of herself.
Her mother sniffed. "Seemed a bit pushy, if you ask me."
"Well I didn't, did I?"
"No, no, you're right, it's your choice. You know, Samantha, I am proud of you now, you seem to be a competent doctor. I'm pleased that you're finally doing something worthwhile. It's a pity you wasted so many years of your life, but I suppose it's what's happening now that counts."
"Don't act like you care mum," her temper was flaring. "Because I don't care what you think about my life, I've done just fine. And you know what happened with Alex wasn't my fault. You know that, but you just need someone to blame." Sam's voice was rising with her anger, and she was shouting now. "As usual it was me. Well I don't need you in my life. I've got a good job, a great boyfriend - we're even having a baby!"
Reception became utterly silent. Sam realised what she had said. She looked around. The reception area seemed to be the most full of doctors and nurses that it had been all day, not to mention patients. She swallowed, and fled to the staff room.

"I heard what happened," Tom said gently, shutting the door of the staff room behind him. He came to sit next to her on the sofa.
"Does everybody know?" she asked.
"I expect so. At least you didn't have to tell them outright though."
She laughed bleakly. "Do you know what happened to Mum?"
"I think she just left. Come here," he said, opening his arms. She fell willingly into his embrace, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Do you want to tell me about her?"
She sighed. "I haven't really spoken to her since I decided to join the army."
"Why not?"
"She's very... Conventional. She doesn't really approve of me, in general. And she thinks I killed my brother."
Tom was stunned. He knew she had killed a man in Afghanistan, but was there a second person whom she had not told him about? Her brother?
"His name was Alex. He was quite a bit younger than me, always looked up to me, so when I joined the army, he did too. But was killed. He was shot. And Mum always loved him more than me, and she was adamant that it was my fault. So she stopped talking to me," Sam's voice was hard, Tom pulled back. He didn't know what to say.
"Please, don't let this change anything. It was a long time ago, it's in the past, except it's not for Mum. Just one thing: don't ever try and make me talk to her; She doesn't want me around. Just forget I said anything."
"Oh Sam," Tom kissed her forehead. "Of course it won't come between us. Do you want to talk about it now?"
Sam shook her head. "Let's just get out of here." She stood up and gave him a hand to pull him up. Sam kept her head down as they walked through reception.
"Thank God that's over," she said as they walked out of the doors of the ED.