Friday 5th July 2019, 4:30pm

"What if we get caught?" Tom asked as he shut the door behind him. Sam had lead him to the oncall room where she was about to find out the gender of her unborn child. She was too impatient to wait another fortnight until her anomaly scan so she wanted to do the scan herself.

"Well then we'll say I had some abdominal pain and couldn't get an appointment with my obstetrician until Sunday and I couldn't wait that long." Sam improvised as she opened the machine and switched it on. She then went to put the lubricant on the transducer but Tom grabbed her hands.

"I want to do the ultrasound, you lie down." He ordered softly and reluctantly, Sam let go and laid down on the bed on top of the duvet. At 18 weeks pregnant, Sam had a perfectly rounded bump that she was wearing maternity sized scrubs to suit her shape and if she laid on her back, she couldn't see her feet because her bump was in the way. "Are you gonna lift your shirt up? Because funnily enough I don't think it'll be very clear through scrubs." Tom joked softly as he crouched down so that he was the same height as Sam.

"You don't say." Sam said sarcastically as she rolled her shirt up to her bra. Gently, Tom put the transducer on Sam's bump and moved it around a little bit until he had a perfect picture of their baby. Sam was relieved because she had been worrying about her baby being in an awkward position but they could clearly see the genital stub of their baby, and that was what they used to determine the gender. "It's a girl." Sam whispered.

"It is indeed." Tom grinned. "Daniel's gonna be gutted that he's gonna have a little sister." Tom smirked.

"I'm glad it's a girl." Sam smiled. "And I'm having a copy of this, I don't care if I'm going to get another one in two weeks." Sam said sternly as she reached up and pressed the print button.

"We're having a baby girl." Tom repeated so that it would help it sink into his mind as he used a tissue to wipe Sam's bump dry for her. "That means we get to make the nursery pink and get loads of little cute pink dresses."

"If she's anything like me, she's gonna hate dresses." Sam smirked as she slowly sat up and then Tom sat besides her on the bed.

"You looking forward to our holiday tomorrow?" Tom asked as he put his arm around Sam's shoulders. Sam had given Tom a £5,000 budget for their holiday that was supposed to be relaxing for her and give her a break from working. But Tom had taken on everything and told Sam not to do anything because he was going to book, organise and pack for the holiday and leave Sam with nothing to do but unwind and rest.

"I am now that I know I'm spending it with my baby girl." Sam smiled.

"Are we going to tell Daniel that he's going to have a sister or are we going to leave it until we go to your anomaly scan and he can find out when the sonographer tells us?" Tom asked.

"Um... I don't know. In some ways I think if he knows the gender then he might be able to bond with her a little easier and talk to my bump but at the same time, I'm just worried that he's going to be disappointed that it's a girl."

"Well he's going to have to get used to it sometime." Tom stated.

"I suppose so."

"Where are we going tomorrow?" Daniel asked as he sat in the bath that was filled with bubbles whilst his mother sat just next to the bath to supervise him. Tom had given Sam bath duty, which they would usually do together, whilst Tom was in their bedroom just a couple of meters away, packing for their holiday.

"I'm not sure Daniel. Daddy has kept it a secret from both of us so that he can suprise us when we get to the airport."

"Have I ever been on an air- aero- aeroplane before?" Daniel asked.

"No you haven't. But it's lots of fun and you get to look down on the people below you and they'll look like ants from where we'll be." Sam explained - she didn't want him to be scared but the only things that she knew her son to be scared of was being apart from his mum or dad for too long and he was occasionally frightened of the dark.

"Will there be toilets there? Or will I have to hold it? Because I don't think I can hold it for very long." Daniel asked innocently - he going through a phase of asking lots and lots of questions because of his curious nature and Sam was very impressed at how fast Daniel's vocabulary was expanding.

"Of course there'll be toilets where we go. There will be toilets at the airport, on the plane and where we're staying too so there's no need to worry about toilets." Sam said reassuringly.

"What if the toilets are too big and I fall in?"

"They won't be, but if you are worried about that, you know me or daddy will be there for you to hold on to."

"What if I get lost and I can't find you? What if I don't know where I am? Or what if some man tries to take me like what happened at nursery to James when they had to call security?" Daniel asked worriedly and of course, Sam knew what he was talking about: a man had tried to collect a child that wasn't his but thankfully, the crèche staff knew he wasn't a parent of the boy he was trying to take and security escorted the man to a police car outside - none of the children had ever been put at risk because whilst the man was outside the crèche door, the staff members who weren't dealing with the incident had kept a watchful eye on all of the children.

"No man will ever try to take you as long as you stay with me or daddy. But just in case that does ever happen, you scream as loud as you can, you run away from the man and try to find someone official." Sam replied.

"Who's offy-call?" Daniel asked confusedly.

"Well, say if something happened in an airport, you'd go to a person working at one of the desks, or if it was in a shop, you'd go to the person at the till and ask for help. And you'll never get lost, as long as you stick to mummy and daddy, and don't run off."

"Okay. Can I get out now?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, you must be squeaky clean by now." Sam nodded. She always washed his hair as soon as he got in the bath so that he had as long as it took for the water to get cold, to splash about in the water and play with his bath toys. Sam pulled the plug out and then grabbed Daniel's green monster, hooded towel that went over him like a poncho whilst she waited for the bath water to go down a bit more so that she was safe to lift her son out.

"I need a wee mummy." Daniel pleaded.

"Alright, let's just dry you off a little bit." Sam said as she put her hands under his arms and lifted him onto his feet on the bath mat. She roughly dried him before she grabbed his step and put it by the toilet. "There you go." Sam smiled as she let her naked son step up and relieve himself whilst she rinsed the bath out. "Daddy, are we allowed to come out yet?" Sam asked as she didn't want to ruin the surprise and go out to see what he was packing for her.

"Um, yep. I've just finished our stuff. But can you get Daniel dressed into his pyjamas and then take him downstairs so that I can start packing his things please?" Tom asked.

"Yep sure." Sam nodded as she turned around to see her son already standing on his stool at the sink, washing his hand with the fun foam soap. "Good boy." Sam smiled. "How about we go downstairs, cuddle up in the armchair and try and read some flash cards together?" Sam suggested as she held a hand towel for him whilst he dried his hands.

"Can I have my milk?" Daniel asked.

"Sure. Do you want it warm, or cold?" Sam asked as she put Daniel's hooded towel poncho over his head and covered his body with it to keep him warm.

"Um... Cold please."

"Okey dokey, let's go and get your pyjamas on."

Whilst Tom continued to pack upstairs, Sam was curled up in the armchair with her knees up to her bump and Daniel sitting besides her as she went through a pack of very simple flash cards to help to teach him to read and the next one read: Dog. Daniel had a good vocabulary, but he was only just learning to read things so he could rarely associate a word with how it was pronounced because he hadn't leant it yet. And Sam was trying to go slowly and give him ways to remember them.

"What type of animal do we have in this house?" Sam asked.

"Um... Dog!" Daniel exclaimed. And Sam was slightly saddened that her dogs were not in the house at that time, Tom had already taken them to the kennels where they would be looked after whilst the Kent Family went on their holiday.

"That, that's right. And how many dogs do we have?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? Well let's count with our fingers shall we? There's Shadow." Sam listed as she held up one finger and Daniel copied her with his smaller hands. "And then there's Alex, and Panda. How many is that?"

"Fwee!"

"Yeah, three. Well done." Sam smiled.

"So this word says dog. What noise does a dog make?"

"Woof woof!"

"Yeah, well done Daniel!" Sam said as she moved on to the next card which said: Baby. "What's this one? What's in my tummy?"

"Food!"

"No. What's growing inside of me? And it's going to be your younger sibling in a few months."

"Baby?"

"Yeah, a baby. But you're not a baby are you? You're a big strong boy." Sam smiled and Daniel clenched his fists as he pretended to tense his muscles in his arms. "You've learnt that off of your dad haven't you?" Sam muttered to herself. "Right, so we've had dog, then baby, what does this word say?" Sam asked as she switched cards to reveal: Family.

"I don't know mummy. What does it say?"

"Well, it's a word that I'd use to describe what me, you and daddy put together are. I think this is a bit of a tricky word, isn't it? It says family. You see it says Fam-il-ee, because the letter Y, can sometimes be pronounced like ee. Just like in the word happy, or-"

"Mummy and daddy!" Daniel said excitedly.

"Yeah, that's right. You're getting the hang of this aren't you?"

"Did someone say my name?" Tom asked cheerily as he came in the living room with a bunch of keys in his hand.

"Daddy has a Y in it." Daniel proclaimed proudly.

"It does indeed, well done." Tom praised before he looked at his wife. "Everything including hand luggage is packed in the car and ready to leave tomorrow morning at 3am." He announced.

"3am!" Sam protested.

"I know it's early, but we've got to drive to Gatwick airport which takes about two hours, plus we've got an early flight but you two can sleep in the car." Tom stated. "And Daniel, is going to have an early night to make sure he gets plenty of sleep for his holiday. Aren't you?"

"Do I have to?" Daniel moaned.

"You do if you want to go on holiday young man. Now, how about you go and have a wee and brush your teeth, and then I'll read you a story until you go to sleep?" Tom suggested.

"Can you and mummy read the story to me?" Daniel asked with hope apparent in his voice. Tom looked at Sam to check she was up for it and not too tired before Tom nodded. "Yay!"

"Be careful on the stairs." Tom warned as Daniel climbed off of the sofa and both parents went cautiously up behind him. "I've packed the last few of your antibiotics by the way, so don't worry about that." Tom said quietly.

"Okay, thanks."

"How is the infection now?"

"All cleared up. No problems whatsoever, I'm just going a lot more than I'd like but it's not painful or anything. It's just because there's a big lump on top of my bladder." Sam said proudly as she patted her bump.

Tom had just reached the end of the book and he knew his son was asleep. Daniel had drifted off a few minutes ago but Tom wanted to make sure that he was asleep before he and Sam silently left the room and went to their bedroom.

"Can you tell me where we're going yet?" Sam asked as they both climbed into bed.

"Not yet. I'll tell you when we get to the airport tomorrow." Tom stated.

"Have I told you, that we're millionaires?" Sam asked sleepily and smugly as she laid on her left side for the benefit of her unborn child whilst Tom wrapped his arms around she and let her bury her face into his chest.

"I do believe that you may have mentioned it once or twice." Tom smirked. "How's my baby girl?" Tom asked quietly.

"She's been shuffling about all day." Sam mumbled. "I've only felt one or two proper kicks so far, but I can definitely feel all of her little rolls, fidgeting and wriggling about in there." Sam explained and Tom smiled as he tucked his chin on the top of Sam's head.

"I've sorted out your clothes for the morning so you'll literally have to get dressed, have a wee and then you can get in the car. I'll get Daniel dressed so you can fall right back asleep again. And don't worry about alarms, I'll wake you up too."

"Thank you... For organising this whole thing. I know you've put a lot of work into this and I really appreciate what your doing."

"You're welcome. And hopefully, you'll still be thanking me by the end of the trip if you like it. But for now, just go to sleep, and don't worry about a single thing." Tom whispered. And that was exactly what Sam did because it was hard to worry about anything when she was in the safe arms of her husband.

Coming up: Where do you think they're going on holiday? And how will Daniel's first experience of an airport and an aeroplane go?

Thanks for reading, please review :)

Also, I'd just like to ask anyone who is reading this could possibly give me some ideas for when Daniel would be around 17 and Sam and Tom's daughter would be 13 because I've got a few ideas for them growing up but I want some ideas for their teenage years :) Just a few bullet points or even just one idea would be greatly appreciated, thanks x