Taking Leave

Winnie arrived home from work looking more tired than usual. At 33 week gestation, she noticed that her feet, hands, face, and ankles have become a bit swollen. She mentioned this to Jules earlier in the day when she phoned SRU to check in with Spike, a condition of her continued gainful employment.

Peter answered the call from trunk line one, "What's your emergency?"

Winnie laughed and said, "Spike is my emergency. Tell him I called and I'm alright."

Peter's eyebrow arched and said, "Thank you, please make it a point to call earlier because the man keeps coming back to ask if you've called yet." He mimicked Spike, "Has she called yet?" in his high pitched voice. "Why don't you call his cell instead, preferably every 10 minutes." Win laughed at Peter's frustration.

"Cause he could be out on a 'hot call' and if I call him on his cell, he'd think something's happened to me."

"Ok, makes perfect sense."

At this point Jules walked by. "Hot call?"

"No, it's Winnie... reporting in."

"Oh," she changed direction and headed straight for the despatcher's console and took the phone off Peter. "How are you, girl?"

Win squealed when she heard Constable Callaghan-Braddock's voice, "You're back! Since when?"

"I'm surprise your husband hasn't mentioned it. I've been back a week."

"No, but he told me about Sadie's first birthday celebration on Sunday. We're definitely coming. Wouldn't miss it for anything."

"You better be there, Billy and Raf will be there, too."

"Yeah, I know... Billy and I will be out shopping for Sadie's present, what does she like?"

"Don't... please don't. She has more clothes, shoes, accessories than she could possibly use. She has more toys than is reasonably safe to own. Please just come."

"Who's looking after her when you're at work?"

"Sam. We have overlapping shifts and then of course Mom and Dad Braddock, they're crazy about Sadie."

"Does it make it hard not seeing much of each other?"

"Hard. Very hard. Tough adjusting to it. But it's only been a week so they're keeping an open mind and will make appropriate adjustment as we go. We'll see. But enough of me and Sadie, what about you?"

"My feet, hands, face, and ankles are a bit swollen."

"That water retention is called oedema. It's often worse in warm weather and later in the day. Win, one word of advice - surprisingly, drinking more water, helps. So, drink up! But if the swelling's severe, and you have headaches, call your midwife or doctor straight away, because these are sometimes symptoms of pre-eclampsia."

Funny, she thought, she's read all about oedema from pregnancy books but it's different coming from Jules. It's more real coming from someone who's been there, done that; and from who you really, really trust.

Just then a lab tech walked in to hand Win a folder, she nodded as she kept one ear peeled to Jules, she replied, "Good to know that, I haven't had a drink of water today, been stuck in my office."

"Well, what are you waiting for then, get that glass of water now," Jules said sternly.

"Copy that," said Winnie. It cracked them up.

"Seriously, Win, do it now."

"Ok, bye, oh, tell Spike I called. Where's he anyway?"

"In a huddle with Ed. Go. I'll tell him you called in."

They hanged up the phone. Winnie got up to get a bottle of water while she has the chance. Jules peeped into the briefing room and mouthed "She called" to Spike. The Techie excused himself to chase down Jules, "What did she say?"

Jules rolled her eyes dramatically, "What's she going to say? She called to say she's good. And we talked about her oedema."

"Oedema!" he said rather like he was hit by a lightning. He fished him phone out and Jules hurriedly grabbed it away from him.

"It's nothing serious Spike. Oedema. Water retention. Get it."

"Right," he said. "I knew that... but for some reason it sounded ominous."

Jules cackled her head off, shook her head said, "You're worse than Sam. Anyway, what's taking too long in there?"

"Oh, ah... we're discussing my leave of absence."

"Leave of absence? Who's giving birth anyway? You or Winnie?"

Spike smiled, deep dimples formed craters on his cheeks. "I don't want to miss a thing. Ed and I are talking about the possibility of me taking a full-year paternity leave."

Jules' eyes bulged out of their socket and said, "Just so I know I heard you right, full-year? As in 12 months?" He nodded vigorously.

She grabbed his sleeve and pushed him back inside the briefing room. Ed had a smirked on his face, he had a feeling what this was going to be about.

"Boss," said Jules in a frightening mood. It appeared to Spike they'd have to call Greg Parker to talk her down, "You can't let him do this. One year leave! What are you both thinking?"

Ed raised his hands and said, "Don't look at me. It's his idea. I'm trying to make him see reason."

"Why is everyone so opposed to me taking a year leave? It's none of your business," he said petulantly.

"What do you mean it's none of our business?" replied Jules, arms across her chest. "We're here to keep the peace and allowing you to walk into a combustible situation is not keeping the peace. Spike, honestly, you will be in her hair the whole time. And, honestly, I'd wouldn't blame her if she throttles you in the middle of the night while you sleep."

He stood in the middle of the room undeterred, unmoved. She backed down a little just because she knew he could dig his heels in if push came to shove. "Spike, a baby doesn't do much the first six months. All she or he does is eat, sleep, cry and poop. Let her have the first six months and then you can have the next six. The second half is when babies grow their first teeth, crawl, sit up, discover the world."

He looked pensive and said, "Then she'd be missing out of those."

Ed smiled, "Knowing you... you'd be rigging her lab with techno gizmo so she couldn't possibly miss a thing. I can imagine a live streaming video of this baby in her lab."

The geek brightened up, like someone plugged an electrical rod up his bottom. "Smart, I like that. I really like that. I'll talk to Win about it tonight."

So the moment Win walked in the door, looking tired and swollen, Spike's gave her a full, close up inspection, "How's the swelling, tesora?"

She sighed. "It's ok. I had plenty of water today so I actually feel better." She kissed her husband and he took her bag from her. He frowned, it was heavy. "You shouldn't be lifting these heavy stuff. Leave them in your car or ask me to get them for you." Here we go again, she thought, but decided against having a domestic about it.

She smiled and changed the topic. She's become an expert on this technique. "I heard you were discussing your leave with Ed."

"Yeah, I was. I wanted to know if I could have a full-year paternity leave..." She froze. Oh my God.

"Please tell me you didn't get it."

"Well, it was only an initial discussion. I told him I'll discuss it with you first." Relieved, she exhaled.

Thank God for that.

Winnie said, "I want to take six months off to be with our baby. And I was wondering if perhaps Ma can come live with us for six months. I don't want her to miss out on her grandchild."

"Are you sure? You're not worried she'll take over our household Mafiosa-like?"

She laughed, "No, I don't think she's like that at all. So, no, I'm not worried."

"What about me? I don't want to miss out, too." Oh God, here we go.

"Angel Boy, three is a crowd. I'd take the first half six months off, you take the next six months off."

"And Ma? What if she wants to stay on after six months?"

"Let's play it by ear... if it's working out, why change it? If it's not, we can always find her a place of her own nearby."

"Ok," he said gleefully. Then the geek mumbled to himself, "If baby comes on time, it's only four week and three days before I'm a Dad." Then he remembered something, "When is your last day at work?"

"Today." She said with a wide grin. He danced a jig, "Today, today."

"That calls for a celebration." He opened the fridge and presented her her favourite chocolate cheesecake. He sliced a portion for her, the thinnest portion ever, a world record. She glared at him. In his defense, he said, "You have to go easy on sugar. But promise, after the birth, you can have all the cakes you want and more."

In spite of the temptation to clobber him she thought to let this slide because he's such a nice guy. Instead, she said, "Promise?"

"Promise, cross my heart."