Saturday 20th April 2019, 7am
Sam was just ensuring that Daniel was safe as he stood on a step whilst he washed his hands at the sink in his parent's ensuite bathroom after using the toilet. At 7 weeks pregnant, she was battling debilitating morning sickness but she was trying not to let it affect her relationship with her son because she didn't want Daniel hating the new baby before it was even born and she could hardly say no to getting out of bed when Daniel had come and woken her up, asking if she could take him to the toilet.
"Thank you." Daniel said as he stepped down onto the floor in his blue pyjamas.
"You're welcome." Sam sighed.
"Mummy, are you okay?" Daniel asked worriedly as he turned around to see his mother holding her hand over her mouth.
"I'm fine Daniel, just go back to-" Sam stopped as she swiftly turned around and vomited into the toilet. Admittedly she felt a bit better just moments after being sick, but she was still nauseous and she turned around to see that her son was not there. "Daniel?" Sam croaked worriedly as she wiped her mouth. She wondered if she had scared him because he had never seen anyone but himself vomit before and it certainly wasn't going to be comforting seeing his mother in such a state. She ran out of the bathroom and through her bedroom until she found Tom kneeling down on the landings and he was talking softly to his son who looked extremely frightened. "Daniel I'm sorry." Sam said sincerely.
"It's alright, I've got this. Go on, you go back to bed." Tom said softly.
"You sure?" Sam asked and Tom nodded so she slowly turned around and went back to the bathroom so that she could rinse her mouth out in the sink and flush the toilet. After taking some deep breaths, Sam felt a little better but she still wasn't 100% so she sat on the edge of the bed.
"Sam? You okay?" Tom asked as he entered his room and sat down on the bed besides his wife.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Sorry I didn't go and stay with you but I just caught Daniel running out when I heard you being sick."
"No it's fine, I'm glad you went with him. He's getting more and more mischievous and one of these days I'm scared he's going to unlock the child gate and run down the stairs by himself." Sam joked halfheartedly.
"Well Daniel's just 'making his bed' and then he's going to come downstairs with me and make you some breakfast so what do you want? Dry toast? Or I could do you some boiled eggs." Tom suggested cheekily.
"From now on, eggs are banned in this house unless they're being fried with bacon." Sam said sternly. "I could do with some porridge if you're offering. With a bit of honey and some banana on top."
"Okay. Coming right up." Tom stated as he stood up.
"But make it with boiling water. I think boiled milk might be a bit too sickly for me at the moment."
"Okay. Come on, you get back into bed."
"No, I'm fine. I'll come downstairs with you guys. I don't want Daniel thinking the baby is making me ill. Besides, I'm not tired." Sam stated as she stood up and then pulled her thin black dressing gown on and followed Tom to the landing where Daniel was waiting patiently for his father and appeared shocked when he saw his mother. "I'm sorry Daniel, I didn't mean for you to see that." Sam apologised again.
"It's okay. It not your fault. It Blueberry's fault." Daniel replied innocently.
"Blueberry?" Sam asked confusedly.
"Er, that's my idea on that one. I looked it up and at the moment, our baby is the size of a blueberry and I thought it'd make it much easier for Daniel to understand that there's a baby in your womb if we give him a rough estimate of how big they are every week or so." Tom admitted.
"So you wanna call my bump, blueberry?" Sam questioned.
"Yeah! Blueberry!" Daniel giggled as he clapped his hands together.
"Well... Blueberry it is. Now chop chop with my breakfast because my stomach is empty at the moment." Sam ordered and both boys rushed down the stairs before Sam padded down too. She sat at the breakfast bar whilst she watched Tom lift Daniel up and sat him on the counter whilst he got a saucepan out to make porridge.
"Right, do you think that you can slice a banana up for mummy?" Tom asked as he moved Daniel's step, which was really an upside down toy box, next to the kitchen counter so that Daniel could stand on it and reach the top of it; he was too small to reach the side without it.
"Yeah." Daniel nodded confidently so Tom gave Daniel a banana on a chopping board with one of his blue plastic knives before he began making the porridge in the saucepan.
"Are you alright peeling that Daniel?" Sam asked and Tom looked down to see that the toddler was struggling to open the skin.
"Here, let me give you a hand." Tom stated as he made a small opening and let Daniel do the rest. Soon, Tom served up a bowl of steaming porridge to his wife. And on top was a mixture of thick, thin and wonkily cut banana and a drizzle of honey.
"Thank you, this looks lovely." Sam said because she knew Daniel was awaiting her approval. "Mm. That is really nice, thank you Daniel and daddy." Sam said meaningfully and Daniel appeared very pleased with the praise.
"Right, what do you want for breakfast Daniel?" Tom asked as he lifted his son up and sat him down at the breakfast bar on the rounded seat besides his mother. "How about a slice of toast with marmite and a nice yogurt?"
"Can I make the milkshake thingy?" Daniel asked.
"What milkshake thingy?" Tom asked confusedly.
"Oh he saw it on the TV the other day. If you mix petit filous with some milk and stir it, it's supposed to taste like a milkshake." Sam explained. "Go on, he needs to have some milk today; it's not going to do him any harm."
"Okey dokey. One slice of toast and one milkshake coming up." Tom announced as he turned around.
Sam, Tom and Daniel were playing football with a small goal that they had made out of Sam and Tom's coat in the middle of their local park. Meanwhile, Shadow, Alex, Zoe and Panda were also trying to join in and Sam was having some fun with trying to pass the ball to Tom without any of the dogs getting it which was a tricky choice.
"You're a really good goalkeeper Daniel." Tom stated - he and Sam had been taking it very easy with him and pretending that he was excellent at saving the goals but really, they were just tapping the ball with their foot and aiming for their son's feet anyway (he wasn't quite at an age where he realised that they weren't playing their best which of course, probably would've resulted in several broken bones.)
"I know." Daniel nodded.
"He's got his father's modesty." Sam laughed when suddenly, it appeared that something had fallen out of the sky and landed at Daniel's feet and it took them a few minutes to realise that it was a tennis ball. "What the...?" Sam trailed off, when suddenly, her heart skipped a beat.
"Mummy." Daniel cried out as he saw the giant dog bounding towards him at a ridiculous speed, who had his teeth out. But the boy was frozen out of fear and wasn't moving.
"Daniel!" Tom shouted as he went to run towards his son but there was no way that he'd make it in time. Suddenly, the humongous Great Dane was stopped in his track as a border collie barged into it and began growling and biting the attacker but Sam and Tom weren't focussed on that, they were too busy with running after Daniel and as soon as Tom reached him he lifted his boy up and held him against his chest. "It's okay Daniel I've got you." Tom said reassuringly and Sam placed her hand on his back before it dawned on her - it wasn't just any old dog. It was the Great Dane that Shadow had protected Sam from before when she was pregnant years ago on their walk on Christmas Day.
"Get off!" A man shouted as he dragged the border collie off of his dog but the border collie wouldn't budge until Sam whistled and all of her dogs came over and stood with her. It had been Zoe, the youngest dog, that was protecting Daniel from the dangerous dog.
"You idiot! Your bloody dog could've knocked my son out the way he was running at him!" Sam shouted as he approached the man whilst Tom stood with Daniel in his arms and the faithful dogs surrounding him.
"Excuse me? Your dog just bit me and look what he's done to my dog!" The man shouted as he pointed to his Great Dane that had spots of blood on it's back.
"You don't remember do you?" Sam asked.
"Remember what?"
"You don't remember that four years ago when I was pregnant with my son, who is currently crying his eyes out at the moment, your dog nearly attacked me in this very park on Christmas Day and for a split second, I thought that I was going to lose my baby until my dog protected me. You shouldn't even be allowed a dog that size, let alone the fact that it's off of it's lead and you threw the tennis ball literally at my son's feet where there was quite clearly a family playing football." Sam argued.
"That's got nothing to do with that, that was years ago. Right now, this is about your dog attacking mine." He stated firmly.
"Mummy." Sam turned around to see her son with tears dripping down his face as he reached his hand out for her. Sam just blanked the man and walked over to comfort her distressed son. "I'm sorry." Daniel sobbed.
"Hey, don't be sorry. You didn't do anything wrong." Sam said softly as she stroked his hair backwards and then placed a kiss on his forehead.
"So this is it? We're just going to leave this?" The man asked angrily.
"Why? What do you want me to do? Call police for you? Look if your dog ever comes near my family again, I will be taking further action." Sam threatened.
"Come on boy." The man whistled and the dog began walking away with it's owner whilst Sam settled her son.
Sunday 21st April 2019, 10am
The next day, Sam was just beginning to stop seething about what had happened in the park the previous day when the door knocked. She locked the dogs in the living room using the baby gate and she knew Tom was playing with Daniel in the garden so she opened the door to find two policemen standing on her driveway. Great. More stress for Sam and her unborn baby.
"Hello there Miss.."
"Mrs Kent." Sam corrected.
"Mrs Kent, sorry. I'm Chief Constable Marks and this is Constable Simons. We were just wondering if you own any black and white border collie dogs." One of them began.
"Is this about what happened in the park yesterday?" Sam asked.
"Yes it is Mrs Kent. We would like to informally question you about the incident after it has been reported to us that you are in the possession of a dangerous dog. Of course if this is found to be true, owning a dangerous dog is an offence and the dogs in question will need to be dealt with."
"Dealt with? You mean put down?" Sam asked angrily.
"Yes Mrs Kent."
"If any dog should be put down it's the man's Great Dane." Sam argued.
"Sam?" Tom questioned as he came to the door with Daniel on his hip.
"Policeman Plod!" Daniel giggled.
"Sorry, he's been watching too much Noddy." Tom stated humorously. "What's going on?" Tom asked.
"We would like to conduct an informal interview with you, your wife and possibly your son about what happened yesterday Mr Kent. Could we come in?" Chief Constable Marks asked.
"Er, yeah sure." Tom nodded as he opened the door and reluctantly Sam went through opened the baby gate and went into the living room where the four dogs were either rolling around, licking their cost clean or playing with a chew toy. Sam felt that there was no harm in having the dogs there so that they could see that the dogs were no threat to them so the two police officers sat on one sofa, Sam and Tom sat on another and Daniel sat on the carpet and picked up a dog brush and began brushing Shadow's fur.
"Right, first of all. I'd like to hear from your son if possible because he's less likely to copy an answer from you if he goes first."
"Mummy am I in trouble?" Daniel asked worriedly.
"And why would you be in trouble young man?" Constable Simons asked curiously as he sat with a notepad at the ready.
"Because I didn't run away when the big dog came. I did try, honest I did but I was stuck."
"Okay. And what's your name?"
"Daniel." He replied. Sam was livid at the fact that they hadn't even asked permission if they could interrogate her son, who was only three years old. She didn't want to protest in case the officers thought that she had something to hide, but she felt that she had no choice.
"Please, do you have to ask him about this?" She sighed. "He had nightmares last night and woke up screaming. I just want him to forget all about it." Sam pleaded.
"Is this true Daniel?" Constable Marks asked.
"Yeah and then I had to sleep in mummy and daddy's bed." Daniel admitted as he continued to groom Shadow's fur with the brush. "Mummy and Daddy made me feel safe."
"Right. Daniel, could you describe what happened yesterday from start to finish please?"
"Well Mummy took me to toilet but then mummy was sick and-"
"Daniel, I think he means what happened at the park mate. Not your entire day." Tom stated and Sam hung her head in shame as she felt the officers eyes looking at her sympathetically.
"I'm sorry if you're unwell Mrs Kent."
"I'm not. It's morning sickness." Sam admitted.
"Carry on Daniel." Tom prompted.
"Well I in goal because I'm a really great goalkeeper. And next a little yellow ball-"
"Tennis ball." Tom interrupted.
"Yeah, that." Daniel nodded. "Landed in front of me. I confused but next I saw a really big dog running really fast towards me and it scared me but then Zoe saved me and daddy cuddled me. Mummy had an argument with the man. And then we went home." Daniel explained slowly and disjointedly as he stuttered slightly because he had said quite a lot compared to his usual short sentences.
"When you say Zoe saved you, who do you mean?" Constable Marks asked.
"That Zoe. Who else?" Daniel asked innocently as he pointed to the border collie sitting in the corner licking her paws to clean them.
"Right. Thank you very much Daniel. Now can we ask that you, Mrs Kent remain quiet whist I ask your husband some questions please?"
"Yep." Sam huffed as she leant back on the sofa and Daniel came up and sat next to her. Finally, after Tom had answered all of the questions, it was Sam's turn and her mind was bursting with things that she wanted to say - she was sure that she, nor Zoe, had done no wrong. And she was going to prove that the Kent Family were innocent.
"Now Mrs Kent. From start to finish, can you please describe the incident please."
"I can. But just before I do that, I need to tell you about the first incident that was involved with this man's dog."
"There was another incident?" The office asked.
"Yep. On Christmas Day of 2015, I was pregnant with my son, and me and Tom were walking through the park when the man's Great Dane came bounding towards me across the park. I was only four or five weeks gone so I was being very cautious of the time because I was worried about everything going wrong. But that dog scared the life out of me, and if Shadow hadn't have protected me, Daniel probably wouldn't be here. And just to make this clear, there was actually no physical contact between Shadow and the other dog, she just chased the Great Dane off and then came back to me. The owner apologised to me, and told me that there was nothing that he could do because his dog just jumped out of the boot." Sam explained. "So his dog was at fault there. Then yesterday, the tennis ball landed in front of Daniel. I heard Daniel cry out 'mummy' and I followed Daniel's eyes to see that he was watching that very same Great Dane running as fast as it possibly could towards him. Now if Zoe hadn't have intervened, that other dog would have definitely knocked my son over, and he had heart surgery about three weeks ago. His heart could've been damaged again before it had healed." Sam stated as she tried to pull on their heart strings. "All Zoe did, to my knowledge, was bite the Great Dane once on the side to stop it from running, and then he bit the man when he tried to separate the two dogs, but she didn't withdraw blood on the man. Now one little bite, to me, isn't an act of aggression. She was protecting my son. And I'd understands you investigating a dangerous dog if Zoe had bitten the dog several times, but it was only the once. Please, you can't put my dog down." Sam pleaded. "I'm sorry I can't do this." Sam put her hand over her mouth as her eyes were welling up and she ran out of the room leaving poor little Daniel to appear confused.
"Sorry. Her hormones are all over the place at the moment." Tom admitted.
"Is mummy crying?" Daniel asked worriedly.
"No, she's just a bit upset mate. She'll be fine in a couple of minutes." Tom said reassuringly.
"Well, we'd best get going Mr Kent. But I'm afraid this isn't over. We'll have to hand over what we know to an animal specialist in the police force, and they'll decide if Zoe is a dangerous dog or not. If she is considered dangerous, I must warn you. She will be put to sleep."
Saturday 27th April 2019
Sam rarely let Daniel watch the TV but just for once, she was letting him sit with a cup of water and watching his favourite program because Sam really needed some space to herself. She was 8 weeks pregnant, and the last thing that she needed was stress. But Sam was far from relaxed as she awaited Tom's arrival home from the vets, where he would bring home Zoe's ashes. After the dog had been deemed dangerous, animal control had come around, barely given Sam time to say goodbye and then taken her to a clinic where she was humanely put to sleep. And then cremated.
Sam had been trying to hold herself together for Daniel as she sat on the sofa with him on the carpet in front of her. But even though she had managed to hold back the tears, she still felt so awful. She had been given the chance to appeal, but the appeal was not processed by the police quick enough to save the poor dog's life. Sam had a huge lump in her throat that wasn't budging and she felt so very sick - it was midday and she knew it wasn't the morning sickness. It was guilt that she hadn't done anything more - but in reality, unless she had hidden Zoe and given a stray border collie then she couldn't have saved her life.
She jumped as the door clicked open and Daniel was mesmerised by the TV so Sam got up and went to the front door where Tom stood with a purple collar in his hand, and a small, wooden, cuboid box with two small paw prints on top, containing the ashes of one of their family members.
"Now, do you want to keep these? Or do you want them scattered somewhere?" Tom asked softly.
"We're not scattering them; she deserves to stay with us." Sam mumbled as she took the box and collar and held them herself. "I'm going to bed." Sam mumbled before she tiptoed up the stairs with the ashes and disappeared.
Tom sighed. It was only 10am so she certainly wasn't going to sleep. He presumed that she just wanted some time by herself so he left her to it and went into the living room where his son was watching the TV.
"Daniel, what do you want to do today?" Tom asked. "Do you want to go to the park? We don't have to go to that park, we can go somewhere else if that's what's worrying you." Tom said kindly as he switched the TV off. His son had been scared to go to the park ever since the incident and if had been over a week now.
"Is Bean making mummy sick again?" Daniel asked. The foetus was the size of a kidney bean at week eight so that was what he called his little sibling and he wondered if that was why his mother seemed so distant from him.
"No. Mummy's not sick. Mummy's just sad about Zoe, and she needs some time to herself to think things through so why don't me and you go out for the day to give her a break eh?" Tom suggested as he tussled his hair.
"How can I make mummy happy?" Daniel asked sorrowfully.
"There's nothing you can do I'm afraid. Mummy just needs some time to herself so the best thing that you can do is just leave mummy alone for a little while. Okay?"
"Okay." Daniel nodded. "Can we do a puzzle together?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah, of course we can. I used to be the expert at puzzles when I was younger." Tom lied proudly and Daniel smiled as he ran over to his toy box in the corner and picked out a puzzle box of the hardest difficulty that he owned - a 150 piece puzzle of the map of the world. "Let's get cracking."
Tom hesitated outside of his own bedroom as he stood with a mug of hot chocolate for his wife who had not made a sound all day. All he had heard was the ensuite toilet flush a couple of times, but she had been in the bedroom until 4 in the afternoon and Tom was getting worried. After thinking about it for ages, Tom gently knocked on the door and after a couple of silent seconds he opened the door to enter the room that was quite dark because the curtains had been closed. And Sam laid in the bed that looked far too big for her as she laid under the duvet and cuddled Shadow under there, whom Tom knew had been in the bedroom all day with her.
"Sam... I know food is probably the last thing on your mind right now, but you haven't eaten anything since breakfast sweetheart and I'm worried about you. Kidney bean needs food as well don't forget." Tom said softly as he sat on the bed besides her. "This is going to sound harsh, but you've already lost Zoe from factors out of your control. You don't want to lose our child as well do you?"
"Of course I don't." Sam mumbled.
"Well then tell me what you want for lunch slash dinner and I'll make it for you." Tom ordered but Sam didn't reply as she continued to gently stroke Shadow under the duvet. "Daniel misses you by the way. He thinks it's his fault that you're sad and he thinks that it's his fault that Zoe is done because she was protecting him. And I think he needs to hear it from you that it's not his fault."
Sam slowly sat up after hearing that and ran her hands over her face before she tucked her hair behind her ears.
"Tom please. I'll tell Daniel that tomorrow, just let me be by myself today. Kidney Bean isn't going to die because I've missed one meal, and it's not as if I'm starving because I've had some of those ginger biscuits I had in my bedside table for morning sickness. Look, I'll be a new person tomorrow. Just leave me alone." Sam mumbled as she began to tear up so she laid back down again and pulled the duvet up to her chin.
"Do you want me to sleep downstairs tonight?" Tom asked.
"No. Just... Don't expect me to be talkative." Sam sighed.
"Alright. Bit I'm still going to bring you up some soup in a little while." Tom said sternly. He made his way to the door when suddenly, she spoke again.
"Make it tomato. I can't stand any of the chicken soup crap that you like."
"Okay." Tom smiled before he left the room.
Coming up: In the ED, Tom is too worried about his wife's depressed behaviour to take notice of his own health. Later on, he is found collapsed in the men's toilets. But what's wrong with Tom?
Thanks for reading, please review :)