Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Chapter 22

Barbara Hereward was nine months pregnant and as a midwife herself, she knew going out on her own so close to her time was not a good idea, but she had been unable to stay in for another day without going mad.

All she wanted was for her and her husband Tom to have their baby now she thought as she walked down the street to the small row of shops in Downton village. It was time. She was tired of the two of them being a couple and now they were so close to it, all she wanted for them was to be a family.

Because they were going to be a wonderfully happy family, she thought to herself as she put her hand on her swollen stomach.

Barbara waddled into the shop, said good afternoon to Mrs. Bakewell and sort her prize.

She walked over to the small freezer where she knew there were going to be ice creams. One of those was going to go down very well right then. She had felt so hot all day.

Coming out to the shops had seemed as if it was a clever idea and so it had been she tried to convince herself. She had got a bit of air into her and she felt as if she was slightly less likely to dip over into hysteria.

She slid open the door, leaned over the freezer and breathed in.

Not long to go now she reminded herself.

But it was in that moment it all came so much closer.

She was sure she had not wet herself. She was pregnant but as she was yet to lose her control entirely. But her feet were very wet…

"Not now," she sighed thinking of the unfairness of it all.

She had waited in for days and she had been so careful that she was doing it all right and yet now… when she had just wanted something for herself, she had got herself in a bit of a state.

But then she had a feeling this was the beginning of how motherhood was going to be and she had better get used to it.

X x x

Patrick Turner went into the corner shop in search of curly chips.

He had said to Tim they were going to have chips for tea and so chips for tea they were going to have.

Of course, if he had had his way then the two of them would have been home together already but as he was the local GP… there was no such thing as an absolute plan, his patients made sure of that. So when he had got a call to go and check on Violet Crawley even though what he wanted to do was go back and be with his boy, he knew he had to do his duty to his patient and do his duty he did.

But still it was done now, the old girl was not too bad and it was not too late to have dinner with his son. They were having a lazy night in front of the TV together.

For him, nothing was better in the world than that and he did not think anything could be better either.

He had gone into the shop with chips on his mind and a determination to get them and get out but once more his plan changed, and this time he could not even blame anyone else.

There she was. Elsie Carson's eldest daughter was in the shop and she looked just as beautiful to him then as the day they had met in the office.

If the truth was known he had felt guilty for his instant attraction to her.

It was not just because it was a betrayal – or was it? – he wondered to Elizabeth's memory but because he knew she had to be going through it now… and the last thing in the world which she probably needed was an aging doctor with a crush.

And he did not want to take advantage of her if she was having a rough time.

But there was no denying there was something about her in a way there had been nothing about nobody for him for years.

And as he had been thinking this, he had not realised she had turned towards him and even more than that - she was smiling at him.

God her smile was like the sun on a rainy day and he did not think there was way thing he could do about that.

"Good evening doctor," she said to him with a smile.

"Hello. How are you?" he said as the chips went right out of his mind.

He was sure he was able to stop for a moment to talk to her.

She was in a small village where she had not spent a lot of time and it was his duty to make her feel welcome. Or that was how he phrased it to himself anyway.

She had to admit there had been days of late when she had not been sure how she was, even though she was glad her trip North had not made her wonder who she was.

The presence of her mum had always let her know who she was.

But and there had been times of late when she had not been ok.

But now she thought she was.

"Yes, I am not too bad. Getting used to – well – I do not know if I am getting used do to everything yet but –"Bernie wasn't sure what she was saying as she was not yet ready to articulate how she felt about the whole situation.

And even though she knew there were certain people who she would have felt she had made a fool out of herself if she had spoken thusly in front of them, it turned out he was not such a person. Even though his eyes were on her, she did not feel shy. But she was ready to move on to an easier subject.

"Elsie is home now, have you heard?"

"Yes, I have gone to see her twice. She seems to be recovering well from the operation. Once she has had her chemo there is a good chance she will be well again," he said with a smile as he wanted to offer her comfort and he knew he could.

Everything pointed to the fact Elsie Carson was going to make it through and that she was going to have a long and healthy life ahead of her.

Patrick did not need to be told that with the rest of that life, she wanted to get to know her eldest child at last and spend as much time she could with all the human beings she had brought into the world. If he had been in her shoes he knew the one person who could really concern him when he was better was Tim and making sure they made the most of every day.

"I am glad." Bernadette had met plenty of doctors in her time and thus she had inevitably met some wonderful ones and she had met some not so wonderful ones.

And she knew enough of them to tell the difference.

Her mother had often sad a good medical practitioner should have bags under their eyes and he did. Julienne said it meant you could see that he cared for his patient and it was very clear that Patrick Turner did.

She had just been about to try and keep the conversation going when the two of them heard a grown from the back of the aisle which they were standing on.

And it was a moan which she was well able to recognise and she knew what it meant. She may not be at work but she suddenly felt as if she was ready to be.

Together the two of them raced to the back of the shop.

"Mrs. Hereward!" said Patrick.

Bernadette was relieved she was with the local GP. No doubt Patrick had been the one to confirm that this lady had been pregnant. He would know her history.

And while most of the women in the village she had no doubt did go to the hospital to give birth these days, there did not appear to be a lot of time for calling an ambulance. It looked as if he was going to be the one to deliver this baby as well.

She wondered how long it had been since he had brought a new life into the world.

"Do not tell me I should know a lot better than to be out on my own in the condition because I know I should. But Tom was out on his rounds and I could not stay in the house any longer – not on my own," she said as she held on to her crapping stomach.

"The time for 'I told you so' is gone don't you worry about that," he said as Mrs. Bakewell came up to the three of them.

"What is going on here?" she asked as if she could not believe such a thing was happening in her little corner of the sleepy village where she lived.

"I think it is obvious," Patrick said with some annoyance. He and Bernadette had enough going on right now without having to answer any stupid questions. "Mrs. Bakewell, I think you are going to have to shut the shop for a while," Patrick called over his shoulder and despite everything Bernadette could not help but laugh.

This was what she was good at but the owner of the establishment as quite the dear caught in head lights – as was Mrs. Hereward.

"I cannot say that going into labour in the middle of my local shop was part of my birthing plan," she said as she went red-faced.

To be honest, as this was her first, she had thought it was going to take a while to feel as if she was really in labour.

But then she thought back to that morning when she had been on the phone with her mother and the way she had thought her back was playing up that day. Then there had been the twinge she had felt when she had been getting her breakfast.

Had she just been lying to herself?

And it did seem as if it was a bit unfair to her – she and Tom had worked hard at getting that birthing plan just right for the two of them.

"I think the one thing I can assure you about parenthood is that it rarely goes to plan but it is the best thing in the world," smiled Patrick

He had been the one to monitor this pregnancy.

He was glad he was going to get to see it to its conclusion.

In his job, he got to see the sadness and the great joys of life.

Days like today were wonderful.

"Patrick do you have a surgery nearby and is there a chance we could move Mrs – Hereward it is – there?" Shelagh asked. She had to say she had brought life into the world in some odd places but she did not think she could add a corner shop to this list yet. Perhaps today would be the day.

Still at least all of this was going to make for a rather wonderful story when she got home.

"There is." he nodded,

But at that moment the mother to be felt her knees go a little weaker. "I did to think this was going to happy so quickly."

"Well if I am honest, neither did I," said the doctor with a smile making it clear this was nothing to worry about.

In fact, if Barbara did not know better than she would have said he was enjoying all this.

"I think we may well have to settle down here for the duration," Patrick smiled at Bernadette. It was clear time was not on their side.

"I do not mean to be rude but I have not seen you when I have been to the doctor's. Who are you?" Barbara addressed Bernadette.

Glad to be once more in a situation with which she, if not the mother to be was completely comfortable was, Bernadette had run down the aisle where she was sure she had seen a few dog blankets for sale - until Mrs. Bakewell got herself in order she did not think they were going to be able to do any better, but now that she was back she had realized she was yet to introduce herself to the mother to be - which was unlike her.

"I am so sorry - My name is Bernadette Newgarden-" And she knew that did not help her a whole much for no one knew that name here.

"She is a friend of mine," Patrick took the liberty. "And I assure you, she is an excellent midwife."

x x

The time after a new baby comes kicking and screaming into the world is always magical.

Patrick could not be happier with the way the labour went in the end. He thanked God it was a rather easy labour - the new young mother was fit and healthy and there were no complications. God knows how they had done it but Barbara did not tear once – a veritable miracle given that the baby was a good weight when he came out at eight pounds, six ounces. It was quite obvious from the start that his mother was besotted with him and so she should be. She had worked hard.

"Aren't you just the most perfect person I have ever seen?"

Patrick beamed as he watched the two of them together and he thanked God for the fact Bernadette had been present. He was sure if he had had to manage on his own then he would have done, but he did not underestimate her skill and how useful that had been the situation. He hoped he had been useful for her. As this was her field of expertise, he had sat back at let her lead as much as the patient would allow it. As she knew him, Barbara had turned to him more but he had seen Bernadette form a bond of trust with her. Her training had been invaluable in fact and as time had gone on through the labour she had ensured she had not made a liar to him when it came to Barbara. She really was a wonderful midwife. It felt to Bernie as if it was a long time since she had brought a baby into the world – it had not been that long in fact… but so much had gone on.

And she could not help but think how glad she was it was here she had brought a new little one into the world – in a little sleepy village shop. And with him.

X x x

"If this was a different time I would be offering you a cigarette," Patrick said as he and Bernie stood outside of the shop. Not so long ago Mr. Hereward finally got there and it had seemed to Patrick he was all but weak with love for his son and wife as the family had left for the hospital for a quick check-up.

It had not been the day Bernadette had planned on. It had not even nearly been the day she had planned.

But it had been wonderful…

To be who she was again.

She had been a midwife again instead of a daughter who felt she was betraying her mother or a daughter who had to get used to a new set of parents or a new sister who had not grown up with her siblings.

She was a midwife again which was something she had chosen to for herself… which yes – all in all, that was wonderful.

"I think given what we just did if this was a different time then I might have accepted," she smiled as she looked at him. To her, it felt as if the Hereward's happiness was infectious. "Days like today are the reason I got into midwifery!"

"It is not a job for you – it's a vocation." Much as she had seen a lot of bad doctors in her time he had seen practitioners, nurses and midwives alike who simply should not have got into medicine.

But this was just where she belonged.

She nodded for she could not think of a better way to put it right then. "I think even if I had been brought up here I would have found my way too it," she realised.

She had spent so much of the last wee while trying to work out what would have been the same and what would have been different about her life if she had gone down another path and now she knew.

"Having seen you in action, I think you're right," Patrick said to Bernadette. He was suddenly very aware the two of them were on their own which they had not been enough for his liking.

The first time they had ever met they had been on their own but of course, the circumstances had been entirely inappropriate.

But after the time they had Tim he had longed for a moment on his own with her.

"You know me and Tim really would love it if you would come for tea," he said to her.

And his son was young so it was not as if he was going to be with them all night...

The smile which spread on her face filled his heart with joy.

"I would like that very much."

"Well, in that case, I think I am going to get to see you soon," he said as a smile appeared on his face once more – an even bigger one if possible.

"Before I go home to London I promise."

"Wonderful." he beamed.

"Have a good evening doctor!"

"You too," he said as he watched her make her way to the Grantham Arms.

For a brief moment, he wondered if her coming for dinner could be counted as a date, yet that seemed to him as if it was a silly idea.

After all... he had been a married man and he was cracking on to his fifties.

No, he could not possibly have a date – could he?

"Well I am shutting up for night doctor –I think we have all had quite enough excitement for one night," Mrs. Bakewell said sternly as she took in the 'open' sign.

"I quite agree," murmured Patrick, watching Bernie go. It was only when the door shut behind him with a tickle of the bell, he realized his error and turn to call through the door…

"Mrs. Bakewell – could you quickly sell me some chips?"

Please review!