Monday 5th January 2015, 2am
Sam awoke to the feeling of a full bladder, and in general she felt cold all over. She knew she'd have to go to the toilet otherwise she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, but she was sandwiched in the middle of the bed with Tom on one side and Shadow on the other. She was cuddling her big puppy, so she turned around to face Tom, and her movements had woken him up.
"I need a wee but it's too cold to get up." Sam mumbled
"Well I can't help you there." Tom croaked jokily as he rubbed his eyes.
"Can you move please? I can't get out of the bed."
"Just move Shadow." Tom huffed.
"No, she's fast asleep and you're awake." Sam replied but upon hearing her owner's voice, Shadow lifted her head from the ball that she was curled up in, and she looked directly into Sam's eyes.
"There you go, she's awake; you can move her." Tom concluded before he turned over and he wrapped his pillow around his head. Sam huffed in annoyance before she gently encouraged Shadow to get out of the bed and then she made her way to the bathroom, only Shadow followed her.
"Tom look!" Sam laughed and Tom reluctantly opened his eyes and turned over to see the bright bathroom light, where Sam was standing with Shadow between her legs.
"What?" Tom moaned.
"Well it's a good job that I'm more of a morning person than you, isn't it?" Sam retorted before she closed the bathroom door, with Shadow staying firmly by her side.
9am
Sam was sitting at the nurses station, pretending to update a patient's file, when really she was just in need of a break. She felt tremendously nauseous but the last thing she wanted was to go home to a freezing cold flat.
"Sam, can you take a look at this case please? Mrs Beauchamp thinks that the foot will have to be amputated because the ulcers are too infected but I think that the leg could be saved." Robyn explained.
"Erm yeah sure." Sam took a deep breath before she stood up and followed the young nurse.
"Are you okay? You're looking a bit pale." She questioned.
"Fine I'm just... Trying out a new foundation but I think it's a little bit too light for me." Sam lied through her teeth before Robyn opened the doors to the private bay where Connie was standing by the unconscious and intubated patient's bedside. Sam made it just a metre from the bed until she could smell the putrid smell of the infected, pus filled abscesses on the foot that was out in the open. Unfortunately, that tipped the scales for Sam as she turned and only just made it to the clinical waste bin by the doors of the small intensive care unit room before she vomited.
She was mortified and couldn't believe what had just happened when she stepped back and closed her eyes.
"Sam, are you alright?" Robyn asked worriedly.
"I'm fine I just... I must be coming down with something... I had a fever this morning and a headache." Sam lied as she tried to indirectly persuade Robyn that it wasn't morning sickness by associating a fever with her symptoms. "Sorry you'll have to get another doctor." Sam muttered before she left the room.
"Robyn, could you go and get Dr Hanna for me please?" Connie asked.
"Yeah sure." Robyn eagerly disappeared once more before she returned with the clinical lead.
"Thanks Robyn, could you just give me a moment with Zoe alone?" Connie asked.
"Um, okay." Robyn replied before she left the room with just the two doctors left.
"What's this about Connie? I'm supposed to be in a meeting." Zoe complained.
"Sam, has just vomited - presumably because of the smell of these infected abscesses - but she claimed that she's coming down with something and I just thought that you should know." Connie explained as she gave Zoe a look, and so Zoe understood what Connie was implying.
"I know what you're trying to insinuate but Sam is ill, she's been looking after her parents because they've had a stomach bug over the weekend so I'm sure she's just caught that." Zoe lied, as she knew that Sam wanted to keep her pregnancy a secret. "I'll go and send her home, if she's not already going." She added before she left the room.
Zoe found Sam in the dark staffroom sipping a bottle of water.
"Sam, why don't you go home eh?" Zoe suggested. "You're obviously not very well."
"Honestly Zoe, it'll... It'll pass in an hour or so, it's never been this bad before so it can't get any worse."
"But Sam, you know what Robyn is like with gossip. It's up to you but if you stay, people are going to get suspicious. Or if you go home, then I can tell everyone that you've got a bug. It's just, I didn't think that you wanted people knowing yet." Zoe explained.
"But Tom's only going to worry." Sam sighed.
"Doesn't he know you're feeling sick?"
"Yeah, he just doesn't know how bad it is." Sam admitted.
"Well I still think that you should go home and get some rest."
"Um... Fine. I will." Sam replied reluctantly.
"Alright. And I've already told Connie that you were looking after your parents this weekend because they had a stomach bug so if anybody asks, you tell them that."
Minutes later, Sam came out in her skinny jeans and hoodie to find Tom in his scrubs by reception.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked worriedly.
"I'm surprised you haven't heard yet but I kind of accidentally puked in ITU. Zoe's letting me go home for today so people think I've got a bug but I'm just gonna get into bed and get some rest, okay?"
"Yeah sure, you want me to give you a lift?"
"No thanks. I've called a taxi, it should be here any minute now. But thanks for the offer... I'll see you later." Sam smiled.
"Do you want me to get you anything special for dinner? I could stop on the way home and get us something." Tom offered as he followed her slowly to the main entrance.
"I'm really not hungry right now, but I might just have some soup or toast later." Sam admitted as they stepped outside where the slush and ice was clear in the immediate surrounding where they unloaded the ambulances, however as soon as the cover stopped, the ice and slush began. "That'll be my taxi, I'll see you tonight."
"Yep okay, just give me a call if you want me to come home early okay?"
"Yeah, will do." Sam replied briefly before she slowly got into the black cab.
For Sam, it seemed like the journey took forever and she felt every single bump and turn in the pit of her churning stomach. But finally, she arrived outside of her ground floor apartment, paid the driver and then locked herself in her home so that she could go and curl up in bed. Shadow greeted her owner, wagged her wail and put her ears down but unlike the usual fuss that Sam would make of her, she just gave a small pat on the head before she walked through to the bedroom, kicked her boots off and got into bed. Sam had just gotten comfortable lying on her back under the duvet when Shadow jumped on the bed and laid down, and then put her chin on Sam's stomach as though she as guarding her owner's unborn child.
Sam slowly opened her eyes to find that she was cuddling Shadow under the duvet in the middle of her double bed and Tom was squatting down besides the her.
"Hey sleeping beauty, how're you feeling?" Tom asked softly as he brushed a bit of hair out of her face.
"Not nauseous thankfully." Sam smiled as she realised that she was feeling much better than she had done before she fell asleep. "What time is it?"
"Almost 6pm. And I've got some good news for you: the gas man is here, he's just looking at the boiler now." Tom said quietly and Sam's smile widened. "What do you want for dinner? I looked it up and apparently eating more frequently can help with morning sickness in the long term so maybe you should start having five of six smaller meals per day rather than three."
"Have we got any bread?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, I stopped at the bakers on the way home and got a fresh loaf. How about a toasted cheese and ham sandwich with some of that rocket salad that's in the fridge?" He suggested.
"Um... Yes please. But-"
"Not too much cheese." Sam and Tom said simultaneously.
"I know." Tom said smugly. "By the way, you've really got to stop sleeping with her and cuddling her under the duvet." Tom stated as he looked at Shadow who's ears were just pricking out of the top of the duvet at the mention of her name.
"I will. Once she's got a proper dog bed, rather than a little basket that she doesn't fit in anymore." Sam stated firmly to which Tom rolled his eyes.
"But even if she did get a bed, you'd still let her sleep on our bed anyway!" He laughed.
"Aw, don't listen to him. I'd rather share a bed every night with you than with him." Sam said childishly to Shadow.
"Do you want me to make you your dinner or shall I just do mine?" Tom remarked.
"Has he fixed the boiler yet?" Sam moaned as she rubbed her cold arms under the duvet.
"Oi, we should be feeling lucky that he's come today; it could've been tomorrow." Tom stated before he got to his feet.
"I'll have my toastie extra crispy but not burnt please." Sam requested.
"I know, and you like a little bit of the cheese to come out at the sides and then get frazzled so that it's crunchy." Tom stated. "I'll go and get dinner on but before you come out of the bedroom, you might want to brush your hair because if the gas man sees you, he'd probably run a mile." Tom retorted before he left the room. Sam rolled her eyes before she pulled back the duvet and slowly got to her feet and immediately, Shadow followed her.
"You wanna go out for a wee?" Sam asked as she made her way though the kitchen - still in her skinny jeans and hoodie with bed hair - and then opened the back door for her dog but Shadow stayed besides Sam. "Go on, stop being a clingy little so and so and just go." Sam huffed as she used her foot to gently push the border collie out into the slushy garden.
Sam was leaning against the counter, whilst Tom began to heat up the George Foreman grill to make the toasties when the British Gas man came in.
"Alright, your boiler is working fine. No spare parts needed there was just a leaky valve and the connection needed tightening up." He explained.
"Oh thank god." Sam smirked.
"Ah, Mrs Kent. How're you feeling?" He asked as he realised that the woman who he had been told was resting, had appeared.
"Um..." Sam looked confusedly at Tom, who had to explain.
"I told him about the not-so-morning sickness." He admitted.
"Oh right. I'm feeling much better now, thanks for asking." Sam gave a small smile.
"Well, all that's left to sort out is the call out charge. Will you be paying by cash or card?" He asked curiously.
"Card." Tom stated as he pulled his wallet out and then got out his card. After paying with the small handheld chip and pin machine, the man left, Tom turned the heating on and then he began cooking their dinner. "I'm pretty sure that people bought that whole 'stomach bug' lie. I mean, I didn't hear anyone gossiping. The only thing I did hear was Robyn saying about how she felt sorry for you becuase you'd been looking after your parents and now you've got it." Tom smirked. "Have you told your parents about the baby?" He asked curiously.
"Tom, I haven't told them I joined the army and served in Afghanistan, let alone married you and fell pregnant." Sam retorted as she opened the door and Shadow bounced in and then had a satisfying shake to get the water off of her fur where she had rolled in the snow.
"Why not?" Tom asked concernedly.
"Because I'm almost certain that they won't approve of you."
"Why not?" Tom protested.
"Because my dad is old fashioned, and he still thinks that I'm his little princess and that he can make all the decisions for me. The only partner of mine that my dad has ever approved of, was Dylan." Sam admitted. "I don't really care I mean, we kind of didn't exactly see eye to eye and... He wasn't the best dad." Sam shrugged.
"Did he ever..." Tom trailed off as he didn't want to upset her whilst he put his hands on her upper arms for comfort.
"Hurt me? No, no. Not physically anyway. When I say he's old fashioned, I mean he thinks that all women should be housewives, or that they should stay at home and look after children. When I told him that I wanted to be a doctor, he said word for word: 'you can't be a doctor Samantha, your little brain would explode with a career that requires high intelligence'." She explained. "That's why I hate being called Samantha, it reminds me of him." She added.
"And what about your mum?" Tom asked quietly.
"She... Well I don't think that she shared the same views as him, but she refused to stand up for herself, or for me. When she fell pregnant with me, she quit her job and never worked again until I went to university. She just stayed at home, and cooked and cleaned. It's not that she was a bad mum but... Well she can't be a great mum if she didn't support me when I told her I wanted to be a doctor no matter what. Can she?" Sam asked timidly.
"I'm hardly one to go for for advice about parents am I?" Tom chuckled halfheartedly.
"I don't want them coming in and ruining my life again Tom. And I don't want them ruining our baby's life either." She mumbled.
"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me. If you say you don't want your parents to know, then they won't." Tom said reassuringly before he wrapped his arms around her back and they gently swayed from side to side for a little while, before Sam broke the silence.
"Can you start dinner now because I've barely eaten all day and I'm starving." Sam admitted into Tom's chest and he chuckled as he pulled away.
"Go on, go and watch TV or whatever, and I'll bring it in for you in a minute." Tom said kindly.
"Can I have some orange juice with it please?"
"Yeah sure."
"How about, we go up to London on a Saturday or Sunday some time soon?" Tom suggested as he stroked Sam's hair whilst they cuddled on the sofa, watching the evening news in the dark as Sam didn't let Tom get up to turn the lights on when it got dark because he was too comfy. "We could get the train, do some shopping, have a nice picnic in Hyde park or something."
"Sounds nice but I'd rather have the whole day out, in which case it'd be best if we waited until the morning sickness has passed yeah?"
"Yeah, of course. We can go whenever." Tom replied. "You wanna go to bed?"
"What's the time?" Sam asked exhaustedly.
"It doesn't matter what the time is; you go to be whenever you are tired." Tom said sternly as he knew that she didn't want to be a lightweight because she didn't want to let the pregnancy affect her too much though it was clearly already tiring her down.
"Go on then." Sam sighed as she slowly sat up and then got up off of the sofa.
"You'll be feeling better by the second trimester - the morning sickness will have hopefully stopped, and you won't need the toilet as much and you won't be as tired." Tom said kindly as they both went to their bedroom to get ready for bedtime.
"I know." Sam muttered.
The both soon got into bed, under the duvet with Shadow curled up on the end of the bed by their feet whilst Tom held Sam in his arms in the dark room.
"You do know that if there's anything that you want or need, or if you want to talk about something, or you want me to do something for you, anything at all, you can ask me right? Or you can speak to me because I am here for you every step of the way." Tom said reassuringly.
"I know, and thank you." Sam whispered into his chest.
"You wanna talk about baby names?" He asked, but as he peered through the darkness, he could see that Sam had her eyes closed. He knew that she hadn't fallen asleep in such a short space of time because she had spoken just moments ago. But she clearly was too tired to discuss names so he pretended that he believed that she was asleep, before they both actually drifted off into the land of dreams...
Coming up: It's Valentines day, but how will Sam and Tom be spending it?
Thanks for reading! Please review :)