Wednesday 13th January 2016, 11am
Sam had just come out of a cubicle after treating a patient when Fletch pulled her aside.
"What's up? Is it Daniel? Sam asked worriedly.
"No no, it's nothing to do with Daniel. Look, don't be embarrassed but you've leaked; there's a patch of blood on the back of your scrubs." Fletch explained.
"What?" Sam asked confusedly and innocently.
"Oh... You didn't know that you'd started, did you?" Fletch asked softly as he knew that it had only been a few months since she had given birth and she was exclusively breastfeeding.
"No I um... Do you think anyone else noticed?" Sam asked quietly as she kept her back against the wall behind her.
"I'm not sure." Fletch shrugged. "Do you want me to get you anything?"
"No um, but thanks. Just cover for me if Zoe asks where I am." Sam replied before she disappeared into the store room behind her. She sorted through the shelves - things had been rearranged since she had left - and she had searched the entire room when she came to the conclusion that there wasn't a single pad or tampon in there for her to use. Though it made sense; it was one of the 'less' essential items in the eyes of management - who were presumably all male - and cutbacks had meant that they were running low on everything considered inessential such as decent shower gel or shampoo because they were an ED and few of their patients used the shower compared to if they were on a ward.
But that left Sam in an awkward position. She had nothing in her locker to use because she had emptied that before she went on maternity leave so it was relatively clean with nothing but a few of Daniel's things, her handbag, clothes and NHS hoodie. Sam then decided that before the stain got any bigger she'd better do something so she made a run for it and jogged to the toilets were she found that the bleeding was much heavier than she had expected -her, thankfully black, underwear was practically soaked in blood. She put some folded up toilet roll in her underwear, washed her hands and then 'um'ed and 'ah'ed about what to do when she saw the pad and tampon dispenser but there was a bit of paper attached to it saying 'OUT OF ORDER'.
"Brilliant." She muttered.
Suddenly, Sam heard her husband's distinctive voice so she opened the bathroom door and dragged Tom into the female's toilets before she slammed the door shut.
"What on earth are you doing?" Tom demanded as he had been in the middle of a conversation with one of the porters about football.
"Tom, please. You've got to help me." Sam pleaded.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"I've started but I haven't got anything and that bloody machine's not working. There's nothing in the store room." Sam explained quickly. Once Tom heard what she had to say he glanced down and saw that there was a dark red mark between her legs on her turquoise scrubs. "Can you run across the street to Boots and get some tampons for me?"
"But Zoe's already on my case this morning and I haven't got a break for another hour."
"Please Tom, it's really heavy and I can't go out like this." Sam begged and Tom noticed that her eyes were watering as they glistened in the bright toilet lights.
"Hey don't cry. It's alright, I'll go." Tom said softly as he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a quick hug.
"I hate hormones." Sam muttered into his chest and Tom chuckled gently at her whilst he rubbed his hands up and down her back.
Tom was just about to enter the toilets with a box of tampons wrapped up in a pair of clean scrub bottoms and some disposable underwear from the store room when he jumped at the sound of his boss's voice.
"Tom what are you doing? That's the women's loos." Zoe stated firmly.
"Er, there's a patient in there. I said I'd get her a couple of bits." Tom stated but Zoe raised her eyebrow, prompting him to tell her the truth. "Alright, fine. I just need to give these to Sam. Please, I'll be two seconds." Tom begged but as far as Zoe could see, all Tom was holding was the scrub bottoms.
"Well if she needs clean scrubs why didn't she just go to the staffroom and get them herself?" Zoe asked confusedly.
"Because I had to get her these as well." Tom admitted quietly as he pulled the scrubs apart slightly and showed her the box of tampons. "It's her first period since she's had Daniel so she didn't know it was coming. Please just let me give them to her, she'd be mortified if she knew I'd told you." Tom pleaded.
"Right, quickly." Zoe ordered and so Tom slipped into the bathroom which was empty except for one closed cubicle.
"Sam?" He questioned and she slowly opened it to ensure that it was her husband before she opened it properly. "Right, you said it was heavy so I got you these ones, but if they're not the right ones then-"
"No they're fine." Sam interrupted as she snatched the pile off of him.
"Alright well I got you a new pack of pads that I put in your locker if you want them as well to save us going out to get them tonight." Tom stated.
"Thank you." Sam went on her tiptoes and wrapped her spare arm around around his shoulders and gave him a hug.
"You're welcome. Now I'd better get out of here before someone else comes in." Tom grinned as he pecked Sam on the cheek and then walked out.
Five minutes later, Sam exited the toilets feeling much cleaner than when she went in there and she made her way to the nurses station to pick up her next case. She was just reading through the notes when she noticed that Fletch was besides her.
"About earlier... Thanks for telling me. I appreciate it." Sam said gratefully.
"No problem. You alright now?"
"Yeah. Fine thanks. Tom helped me."
"Well Zoe's being really moody today and she's annoyed with Tom because he wasn't in cubicles. This morning he was taking a patient, who only trusts him, to go to the toilet when she says that he should've asked a nurse to do that." Fletch explained.
"Well, she's been under a lot of pressure recently, I don't blame her for being snappy. This ED is going down the pan with all the bloody budget cuts." Sam grumbled. "Though it is a bit unfair that she's taking it out on Tom." She added.
The Kent Family had just got in from work and Tom took Daniel straight through to the kitchen so that he could get a drink without leaving his son unattended. He stood in the kitchen for five minutes whilst the dogs went out in the garden for a little while before he let them in. And he realised that his wife - who had been uncharacteristically quiet - had not followed him so he went through the living room and then into the bedroom with Daniel on his hip, where he found Sam crouched down next to the bed with her head hung and she was clenching the bedside table so hard that her knuckles had turned white.
"Have you taken any painkillers?" Tom asked softly as he placed Daniel in his cot to keep him occupied for a few minutes and then he knelt down besides her but she shook her head in reply.
"I'm breastfeeding... I don't want him to have to suffer because of me." Sam mumbled as she didn't even bother to raise her head to make eye contact.
"Sam, Daniel won't suffer if you take painkillers, it's safe for you to take ibuprofen and/or paracetamol and the only thing that is gonna affect him is the fact that he's going to be able to taste in your milk that you're stressed and that might upset him." Tom replied. "Look, why don't you get into bed?" He suggested.
"No. It's really heavy; I've already gone through three pairs of scrubs today so I'll stain the bed and plus when I sit down, I can feel the blood coming when I stand back up; it's horrible."
"Why is it so heavy?" Tom asked concernedly. "Are your periods normally heavy?"
"Yeah but there's heavy and then there's really heavy." Sam croaked. "Tom just leave me alone. There's a couple of bottles of milk in the fridge, you can feed him tonight." Sam ordered but as much as Tom enjoyed feeding his baby, he wouldn't enjoy it if he knew it was because his wife wasn't well.
"No, I'm not leaving you like this." Tom stated firmly.
"God this is worse than contractions." Sam moaned a she screwed her eyes shut. "And it's constant."
"Well then take some painkillers." Tom ordered bluntly as he rubbed his hand up and down her back. "If you take painkillers now, I can give Daniel his next two feeds by bottle and by then there won't be anything left in your bloodstream. And you can express some milk and then throw it away just in case. So if I get up and get some painkillers, will you take them?" Tom asked.
"Oh for fudge sake, yes!" Sam huffed.
A couple of minutes Tom returned to the bedroom to find Sam still in the same position. He got out a black bath towel and laid it on the mattress on Sam's side of the bed before he put her hot water bottle, painkillers and a glass of water on her bedside table.
"Come on, get into bed. And it doesn't matter if you leak anyway because we're getting a new bed when we move house." Tom said reassuringly as he helped her to get onto the bed, though she remained at a 45° angle with her chest close to her thighs because that seemed to be the most comfortable position that she could get into at that moment. He made sure that she swallowed the tablets and then placed the hot water bottle on her abdomen. "Do you want me to give you a belly rub and see if that helps?" Tom suggested.
"No, I'll see if the hot water bottle works for now. Maybe a bit later yeah?" Sam mumbled as Tom pulled the duvet up to her chin and tucked her in.
"Alright, you try and get some rest while I go and have some tummy time with Daniel. If you don't want to shout, just text me if you need me." Tom kissed Sam on the forehead before he lifted Daniel out of the cot and went into the living room.
10pm
Tom had been watching the TV on quiet, whilst he settled Daniel in his arms and it turned out that he could multitask because Daniel was already fast asleep. He carefully switched the TV off and walked into the bedroom where he found that Sam was already asleep but she had left the night light on for him to get Daniel safely into his cot. He then stripped down to his boxers and got into bed besides his wife. As he wrapped his arms around her, she unfortunately began to toss and turn but it turned out that she was trying to bury herself into his chest.
"Night." Sam mumbled.
"Night. You left the milk out on the side by the way, but I think made a cup of tea with it and it tasted a bit off so if I'm ill tomorrow, I blame you." Tom joked and Sam began laughing under the covers. "What's so funny?" Tom demanded.
"You told me to express milk, so I did." Sam stated sheepishly as she tried successfully not to laugh again.
"I don't under... Hang on a minute, you mean- you express milk into the milk bottle?" Tom shrieked.
"What? It was empty and I knew I'd have to express twice and I didn't want to get up again so I used it. It's only a pint sized bottle so it was just the right size." Sam explained before she laughed into Tom's chest once more.
"So I've just had a cup of tea with your breast milk in it." Tom concluded. "Lovely." He said sarcastically. "I take it your feeling better now?"
"Yeah, but it's still really heavy." Sam admitted. "Remind me to take my old prenatal vitamins in the morning; they've got iron and vitamin B12 in them and I don't want to get anaemic."
"You're not gonna get anaemic because of one heavy period Sam."
"You don't know how heavy it is." Sam quipped.
"Right, just go to sleep. And if you feel worse in the night, just wake me up."
"Yeah yeah."
"Night Sam." Tom said.
"Night Tom." Sam replied sleepily.
"Night Daniel. Goodnight Daddy." Tom joked and Sam rolled her eyes before she snuggled further into Tom's chest and settled down for the night.
Coming up: The big move finally arrives!
Thanks for reading, please review :)