It was thirty five minutes before anyone appeared at the room to see Harry and in the time in between John had become increasingly agitated. He had let go of Harry's hand and had taken to pacing around the room looking irritated and sighing heavily.
"Will you sit down Johnny? You're making me feel uncomfortable." Harry said repeatedly, rubbing her bump and allowing the appearance of discomfort became more prevalent on her features.
"Where the hell has Kevin got to?" John was fuming, making himself more and more irate. "He said he was going to be back soon!" John scuffed his shoes on the edge of the wall and peered around the edge of the door every time he walked across the floor.
"Johnny… either sit down, or tell me what you know, because you can't be this worked up for no reason." Harry demanded; John paused for a split second in his pacing and then begun moving again.
"I don't know anything Harry… I thought Kevin would be back by now – I thought we would know something." John strained over his words.
"But you're making me nervous!" She said, "Please, sit down." John stopped pacing, but bounced anxiously upon the balls of his feet.
"I'm just… just getting annoyed!" John answered, "I asked for Kevin because I thought he would be the most attentive – that he would give you the care that you deserve!"
"And I'm sure that he will…" She said placidly, "But I'm not the only patient in this hospital… and I'm fairly sure that the blood they took can't be instantaneously tested." John scowled, but he recognised the truth in her words.
He was still standing when, finally, Kevin returned with an accompanying woman – who John took as the midwife.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to get someone free." He apologised, maybe perceiving the frosty way that John was conducting himself. "We still have to wait for the results of the tests I ordered, but I thought it would be good if Nurse Williams examined Harriet. John, would you like to wait outside while she does?"
"No, I'll stay right here, thank you very much." He snapped.
"Johnny!" Harry reprimanded him quickly. "Do as you're told! I'm not a child, wait outside – I'll be fine." John hesitated, wishing to argue with his sister, but the stern look she was giving him made it quite clear what his place was and he stalked from the room. Across the corridor, underneath the window of an empty room, there was a line of three plastic chairs – John sat down in one, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
Three hours ago John hadn't known anything about this situation at all… and now here he was, sitting in a hospital waiting to hear what a doctor had to say about Harry. It was very different viewing it from this side; John was used to being the doctor ad getting slightly irascible with over-anxious relatives and friends of a patient. Many a time had he joked about with colleagues afterwards about how a relative had been too wrought, too desperate and had made his work difficult, but it was very different seeing it from this side… Desperate for any kind of news, anxious about what was going on – what was being said without him being present. From now on, no matter how serious the situation, he would always understand how the worries of a patient's family could be paramount. There was a loud click and then the sound of creaking wheels, and suddenly the bed that Harry was on was in the corridor with her on it, being pushed by Nurse Williams and Kevin.
"What's going on?" John demanded instantly. "Where are you going?!"
"I think it would be best for Harriet to be in a maternity ward, we're taking her up there now – you're welcome to come John." Kevin told him as John ran along after them hassled at this new change.
"Why maternity?"
"We can't be certain until we get the results of the tests back, but I think that it's the best place for her to be – and there'll be more people available to look after her up there." Kevin told him as he wheeled the trolley into a lift and John crammed in alongside the bed, grabbing her hand.
"It's alright Johnny, stop panicking will you?" She said quietly.
"I'm your brother, and a doctor, it's my job to want to know what's going on with you." He replied.
"You didn't seem so eager to know what was going on with me six months ago…" She murmured, John tensed up suddenly.
"You know fine well the reasons for that." John had made it clear to Harry that while she was still proceeding in drinking herself to death that he didn't want anything to do with her, but if she decided to change her mind he would be there to help her. He had purposely chosen not to have anything to do with her while she was drunk… Well she had changed, and she had done it all without John's help or knowledge.
"Yeah well – I'm not incapable, so stop panicking; it's making me more nervous. You're meant to be my moral support alright – not the other way around!" John felt slightly guilty at this reprimand by his sister which was definitely true.
"Sorry." John muttered, gripping tightly to the railings on Harry's bed as they wheeled her into a bay room.
"I'm going to go and chase your results; I'll leave you with Nurse Williams. I promise you, John, I will be back before too long." He attempted to appease John's twitchy anxiousness, then turned to the nurse and said: "Can you please keep an eye on her blood pressure? Call for me if anything changes." Nurse Williams was left in the room with John and Harry – she continued to fix a cannula into Harry's left elbow and attached it up to a drip of clear liquid.
"Right Harriet, that's some painkillers I'm administering just now, so they shouldn't take too long to come into effect and you'll be a bit more comfortable. If you need anything or if you feel any new pain, or just anything – press your buzzer and myself or one of the other nurses will come in and see if we can help." She advised and Harry nodded in acknowledgement that she understood.
"What did they say Harry?" John asked the moment that the nurse had left the room.
"Nothing really…" She replied slowly, "Except from that I've stopped bleeding."
"Does it still hurt?"
"Well she's just given me painkillers – so what do you think?" She snapped.
"Sorry." John apologised, "What does it feel like?" Harry's reaction was one that surprised John; she exhaled heavily and let her head fall back onto the pillow behind her.
"Do I have to keep repeating myself over and over?" She moaned and said: "Can't you just let me get some rest?" There was a small silence.
"Do you want me to leave you alone for a while, or… I don't know… get you some water?" John questioned, feeling the prickly atmosphere almost visibly emanating from his sister; she shrugged and John took that to mean yes.
In leaving the room, John found himself very much lost for what to do with himself… He wanted to be with Harry, he wanted to make sure she was alright; but clearly she wished to be on her own for some time. He wandered down the bleached clean corridors which were shining bright white despite the patches of dark that were coming in through the windows dotted around the place. More than most, John knew the inner workings of the hospital, he knew the directions that the corridors would take him and where they would lead – but still he wandered aimlessly along them, as though in a daze.
Eventually John arrived at the main reception, after climbing up several sets of stairs and descending even more. He was entirely lost for time – it had just so happened that he hadn't put on his watch today. He wondered whether he had been away long enough for Harry to have gotten some rest… It's not like he had forced her to let him come, she had wanted him there; yet ordering him out of the room doesn't generally bode well for the feelings of everyone involved. Maybe he was still a bit tetchy from the pain in his shoulder – but, come to think about that, he couldn't recall feeling any pain from the moment that Harriet had arrived at 221B… But maybe that was the shock of everything, possibly that had obliterated any prior thoughts or feelings of pain as he took in the new information about his sister, and was then so hurriedly required to help. He hadn't had time to think about his shoulder. Perhaps Sherlock was right about that also; did he really become insufferable because he allowed the pain he was experiencing to take over his life and prevent him from doing anything which might take his mind off of it? Ah! This was not the time to be thinking about that sort of thing, he should be concentrating on Harry and making sure that she was alright before thinking about anything else… He stood just outside of the revolving door, beside all the smokers – whether they be patients of relatives of someone in the hospital – taking in deep breath after deep breath.
"Why are you not with your sister, John?" A voice came from right next to John and he jumped to see Mycroft Holmes standing next to him. He exhaled loudly and shook his head.
"God, does Sherlock not keep his mouth shut when something is not his business!" John grumbled, this was very much back to the first days of when he met Sherlock – when Mycroft tailed him like a guard dog making sure that John was good for his brother.
"Do you honestly think Sherlock would contact me?" Mycroft asked scathingly, one eyebrow raised so high it was in danger of disappearing off his face.
"Well…" John paused at this statement. "You don't miss a thing, do you?"
"How is your sister?" He asked.
"She'll be alright. Pre eclampsia, they think." John relented back in his general courtesy to Mycroft. "They'll probably keep her in, they might have to deliver the baby early."
"She's in the best hands." Mycroft answered curtly. "I would have thought Sherlock would be here also."
"He's gone to collect a few things for Harry." John told him, and again it struck him the generosity of this act by Sherlock. "It's good of him."
"Yes. I can't say that it's not a slight surprise… but he values his friendship with you." Mycroft nodded, "If there's anything you need, have Sherlock contact me and I shall do my best."
"Thanks." John accepted, but already Mycroft was moving to leave.
If Sherlock had been with him, he would have used the current time to have a cigarette (or five) – right now John could understand Sherlock's relapses into that habit whenever he was bored or frustrated. It was something to do with your hands when there was nothing else for them to be doing. Instead John ran his fingers around his wrists repeatedly, then ran his hands across his face; and then repeated this action several times.
"Need something to do with your hands?" A voice came projecting out of the taxi which had just drawn up at the drop off point at the front of the main reception; Sherlock slammed the door of the cab and stood directly in front of John.
"Oh, it's you." John replied.
"Yes, I brought a bag for Harry." He raised the bag as though indicating what he was bringing. "Why aren't you with Harry?"
"She wanted some space to get some rest." John answered, rubbing his hands across his face once more. "So I left her for a while… She's been moved to maternity and she's stopped bleeding, but she's not completely out of the woods yet."
"Good. I'm glad that it's good news." Sherlock nodded.
"Your brother has been to visit." John told him bluntly. "Not Harry – he just appeared outside the hospital, left not long before you arrived."
"Can't keep his nose out of anyone's business, can he?" Sherlock muttered.
"How does he find out things like this?" John asked suddenly – Mycroft always seemed to know everything… and without an informer it would be interesting to find out how he did it.
"He has eyes everywhere." Sherlock answered.
"A bit like your homeless network then?"
"He does it the legal way though. He doesn't need the eyes and ears of London checking up on things for him, he's got access to every CCTV camera and every policeman, and everything important about this city." Sherlock nodded, "He is the overseeing eye… what did he want?"
"To check how everything was." John replied, "Being the guard dog."
"Ah… it's typical of him." Sherlock exhaled heavily; there was a silence between the two of them and then Sherlock suggested: "Should we go up and see your sister now?"
"Yeah, well – no time like the present." He agreed.
It still felt strange, like he hadn't quite got his head around the facts that had presented themselves today – Harry was pregnant and going to have a baby. She would need every bit of help and support that John had to offer… now was the time to let go of the past completely and focus on what was about to come.
But what was to come was going to arrive a hell of a lot sooner than John had expected…
A/N: I'd love to know what you think of this chapter! :)