first_in_time | This Can Hardly Wait

Barbara glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. Ian's break time had just started. She knew because he sometimes called her instead of going into the staff room and eating with everyone else. Today, however, she wasn't going to give him the chance to eat for the moment, not with such important news.

The dial tone ws loud and clear as Barbara picked up their telephone, and each number she punched in had it's own sound to make. When she heard the ringing on the other end, her heart sped up and almost leapt from her mouth when a secretary answered.

"Yes, hello. I'd like to speak to Ian Chesterton please. This is his wife."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

first_in_time

"I'm very glad to hear that," Barbara replied and paused for a very brief moment before continuing: "I wanted to call because I've been given the day off to go to the doctors. I have some news."

From:

splendid_roman

That didn't sound like it could be good news, despite her tone, and he stood up straighter. "Is everything all right?" he asked cautiously.

From:

first_in_time

"For the moment it is." Barbara paused purely for effect then grinned widely into the mouthpiece of the telephone. "Ian, you're going to be a father."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian was silent for a moment, while he tried to take that in. "Really?" He was open-mouthed, astonished, not expecting that at all. "That's amazing." He was smiling again, starting to be less surprised at it.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara giggled down the phone line. "Isn't it? I'm sorry that you had to find out like this but I simply couldn't wait until you got home. Doctor Williams said that I'm about a month along and everything is going well for the moment but he still recommends regular visits to keep an eye on things."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian didn't care that much about how he heard the news, but he had been counting on eight months. "A month? That means you'll be due around the beginning of the school year." When he would be leaving the army and starting a new job.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara didn't care when she was due that much, she was just happy to be pregnant. She would be happier, however, if she had Ian there with her for celebratory hugs and kisses.

"Let's hope, then, that the baby comes on a weekend and you don't have to miss school."

From:

splendid_roman

"That would make a terrible impression, wouldn't it?" He chuckled. "Just starting a new job and having to be off because you're having a baby."

From:

first_in_time

"Better than being off because you can't be bothered going into work," she chuckled back. "I wish that I could kiss you right now."

From:

splendid_roman

"So do I." He had to settle for gripping the phone a little tighter. "I'll kiss you a lot when I get back to make up for it." He chuckled.

From:

first_in_time

"You had better or I might send you away to try again," she grinned.

From:

splendid_roman

"I think we've got very good at it," he said, grinning himself, "given that we weren't intending to have a baby just yet."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara laughed genuinely. "No, we weren't. I think that if I'd know birth control wore off so fast, I wouldn't have been so impatient and let you use a condom but I suppose that hindsight is a wonderful thing."

From:

splendid_roman

"At least we didn't try any of that sort of thing before we were married." He didn't want to be too specific over the phone when anyone could hear his side of the conversation. "And even though it's an accident it's a happy one."

From:

first_in_time

"It really is and far better now than before we were married. Can you imagine Audrey's reaction? Can you imagine my own mother's reaction?" Neither would have been pleasant but now she was excited to tell them both.

"I've got an idea - why don't we have lunch with our parents when you come back? We can tell them together and in person."

From:

splendid_roman

They'd have had a fit. And demanded they get married at once. Their mothers were far better off assuming that Ian and Barbara first slept together on their wedding day.

"That's a good idea. They'll be excited. And it'll stop them from asking when we're going to have children." He chuckled. At least Tom and Helen having a baby not long after Ian and Barbara's wedding had stopped his parents from asking for a while, but it hadn't lasted that long after Jamie was born.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara was fairly tired of being jabbed with elbows and told that she was next. They had only been married a few months when it all began, and now it was going to come to an end.

"Hopefully they'll wait a while before they start asking about number two or three or whathaveyou. What are you hoping for? A girl or a boy?"

From:

splendid_roman

"I don't know." He'd only really got as far as thinking about babies, which were pretty similar whatever their gender. "If it's a boy I could take him to football matches. I suppose I could do that with a girl too," he added. Assuming he could get a daughter interested in football.

From:

first_in_time

"How would Alice feel about you taking her niece to a football match?" it was meant as a joke but Barbara genuinely didn't know.

From:

splendid_roman

"I don't know, but it's not her decision to make." He didn't care what Alice might think. She'd never been interested in football, but couldn't remember if their father had ever tried to interest her in it.

From:

first_in_time

Strangely, Barbara liked that attitude. It made her feel as though she didn't have to worry about anything with tepheir child because she had Ian to protect them from most things. In particular, other people.

"I should let you go and eat something before you have to go back to work," not that she said goodbye right away.