23rd October 2012 – 09:00 Clinique de Marignane, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Aaron had been waiting outside the room for ten minutes when the door opened and the doctor called "Aaron Thomas?"
He stood and walked over, wondering why he'd been called.
"Your mum thought you might like to see this" the doctor smiled and led him into the room.
Aaron followed and saw his mum laid down on a bed with her stomach showing. The doctor sat next to her and put a gel on her stomach. Aaron had seen enough TV to know what was happening, so he moved to his mum's side so that he could see the screen, excited to see his little brother or sister. When the image came up, he couldn't believe how different it was to the grainy photo his mum had shown him a few weeks ago. He could see a proper baby now, with a head, spine and legs.
Chas was happy to see the image of her little girl kicking around happily in her little cocoon, but she caught the doctor frowning slightly and was on her guard straight away. "What's wrong?" she asked, making Aaron tear his eyes away from the screen and look at the doctor as well.
"Nothing to worry about, the baby's a bit smaller than normal, but with your morning sickness I'm not too surprised" the doctor told her calmly, smiling reassuringly, "I can tell the sex, would you like to know?"
"It's a girl isn't it?" Chas asked, already sure of herself. Aaron rolled his eyes until the doctor nodded in confirmation and Chas smirked at him. "Told you" she said, making him roll his eyes again and then look back at the image. A little sister.
Aaron stayed in the room whilst the doctor took Chas's blood pressure. Another frown. "Your blood pressure has gone up quite a bit since last time, we'll need to keep an eye on that" she said.
"Actually, I'm going away tomorrow" Chas told her, "would you be able to refer me to a clinic in Ireland? I'm not registered over there".
"I wouldn't recommend flying too far with your blood pressure high. If you really need to go, I'll certainly send all your notes to your nearest clinic, but once you're there I'd say no more flights until after the birth, and I want you to get checked out the day after you land to make sure everything's okay".
This all sounded very serious to Aaron. "What does it mean, having high blood pressure?" he asked.
"Well, if your mum develops sustained high blood pressure in pregnancy, it's called gestational hypertension and it can be a sign of other conditions, like pre-eclampsia, which can be quite serious if untreated.
"Is this related to the gravidadumthingywotsit?" he asked.
"It could be, it might just be that the stress of constantly feeling ill is increasing her blood pressure a bit. I'm going to suggest the clinic in Ireland do some extra tests just to find out exactly what's going on. Is that okay?" she asked Chas, who was very quiet.
Chas nodded. She wanted to get out of there before anything else went wrong. The doctor wrote her another prescription for antihistamines and vitamins and found the nearest clinic to Lough, a specialist clinic at Dingle District Hospital. She told her how to reduce her risk of blood clots on her flight and then wished her well. Chas thanked her profusely and left with another scan photo.
Later that day, she pressed the same photo into Aaron's hands as he dropped her off at the airport.
"Here, you have this. But don't leave it out, you need to make sure there's no trace of me left in your flat". She was trying desperately not to cry, but her eyes were wet and her voice wavered as she spoke, "thanks Son, for everything. I'm so proud of you, what you've become, and I love you so much" she told him as she gave him a huge hug.
Aaron wasn't faring too well either, tears already falling, "I love you too. And I'm proud of you. Please look after yourself, try and find something other than jellybeans to eat, and let me know you're safe when you can".
They hugged again and she left Aaron stood staring at the scan photo, wondering when he'd see his mum again.