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:

splendid_roman

"All right." He went off to get some towels, then came back and stripped the bed and wiped the mattress a little, which was damp, and lay some towels on it. He did feel better for something to do and he was at least awake now.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara had waddled into the bathroom and sat on the toilet until the water stopped. She hung her dressing gown over the side of the bath and dressed in some spare clothes. She was just fixing her hair a little so that she didn't look completely scrambled when they went to the hospital when another contraction made her grip the sink.

"Ian!"

Edited Date: 2014-03-13 08:57 pm (UTC)

From:

splendid_roman

Ian dropped what he was doing to rush to the bathroom, worried about what might have happened. When he got there he realised it was just a contraction. Barbara might not agree with the 'just' but he'd been doing some reading before starting his new job and therefore knew exactly what was going on biologically. Which was really no help at all.

"Are you all right?" He stood next to her awkwardly, not sure what to do to make it better. "Would you like me to rub your back?"

From:

first_in_time

There wasn't anything Ian could do short of magically pulling the baby out without any further pain. Barbara reached out for Ian's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze now that the contraction had passed.

"Take me to the hospital. Please," she added, "I don't care if I sit about for hours, I just want doctors nearby."

From:

splendid_roman

"All right." He was less keen on sitting about for hours, but that was because he'd be in a different room, with no idea of what was happening or how long he'd be. But he wasn't going to deny Barbara on that basis.

"I'll get our things and ring the school." He kissed her cheek and went off to fetch the bag Barbara had packed ready and tell the school he wasn't going to make his first day of work.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara waited for Ian by their door then held his hand as they walked to the car. No more contractions came for the moment, thank goodness. It would have been dreadful to walk down the stairs with such a pain on her hips.

"I'm so sorry," she told him once they were in the car, "I know how excited you were for your first day of school."

From:

splendid_roman

He shook his head. "I am more excited to finally see our baby." He glanced over at her and smiled, before starting the car and pulling out of their drive. "And it's not your fault, it's the baby's for picking today to be born."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara put a hand on his leg as a substitute for hugging him in gracefulness. "It might be something I ate," she told him. "Apparently there are some foods which encourage the contractions."

From:

splendid_roman

He chuckled. That was an aspect he didn't know much about and on the face of it it seemed so odd a connection between food and contractions. "Did you eat anything special yesterday?"

From:

first_in_time

"Not to my knowledge," Barbara replied and braced herself for another contraction. Momentarily, she squeezed Ian's thigh but realised what she was doing and let him go. She curled up on the car seat instead.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian looked over at her, concerned, and hating that she was in pain and there was nothing he could do. "Maybe the baby's just determined not to let me go to school," he said, chuckling, hoping that would take her mind off the contraction a bit. "I just hope it doesn't feel the same way about going to school itself."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara breathed deeply through her nose as the cramping eased. "I'm sure they'll grow to love school. How could they not when they have two teachers for parents?"

She visibly relaxed into that seat and placed a hand over her stomach. "Maybe our baby is just keep to meet its parents."

From:

splendid_roman

"Maybe it is." He looked over at her. "How could it not be, with us for parents?" He grinned. "It's been hearing us talk all this time, it wants to know what we look like too."

From:

first_in_time

"I hope that it likes us," Barbara said and smiled a little. "I suppose that it doesn't have a choice in the matter, really. I'm not giving our child up for anything in the world."

From:

splendid_roman

"I'm sure it'll go through periods of hating us when it's a teenager." He grinned. But Barbara was used to dealing with teenagers and he would be too, in thirteen years time.

"I can't imagine having a teenage child," he said thoughtfully. That was probably because it was a long way off and their baby hadn't even been born yet.

From:

first_in_time

"Let's just work on having a baby first. It's going to be difficult enough and we won't be getting full nights sleep for the next however many months." That sounded more difficult than having a teenager to Barbara.

From:

splendid_roman

He nodded. "I'm not looking forward to that. I hope the baby takes after me and learns how to sleep well." He grinned.

From:

first_in_time

"If the baby takes after you, it will never wake up to feed or anything else. I'll have to wake myself up to make sure that it actually grows to be nice and big," Barbara chuckled.

From:

splendid_roman

"I wake up to eat," he protested. "In fact that's mostly why I wake up."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara giggled but another contraction cut her off and she groaned. They was getting more painful but at least they were still short. She sat back panting a little when it finished.

"How far away are we?" she asked and looked out the windows trying to get a feel for where they were.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian gripped the wheel tightly. It wasn't getting any easier watching her in pain.

"It's just down the road and round the corner." At least at this time of morning there wasn't much traffic about. He would have sped up, but there were traffic lights and roundabouts in their path and he didn't think Barbara would appreciate being thrown about. "We'll be there in a few minutes."

From:

first_in_time

Barbara nodded and breathed deeply. She knew that she was only at the start of things and that was not a comforting thought. Instead she tried to think about cuddling her baby or sitting with him in their lounge.

"Tell me about what you were going to teach today."

From:

splendid_roman

"Not much. It is only the first day of school and the kids will have had six weeks of getting used to not getting up early and going to school." He'd be looking forward to that himself, if it wasn't for the baby. Who knew how long it might be before he got a lie in again.

"I thought I'd do some fun, simple experiments that won't seem too much like work, but will still teach them something."

From:

first_in_time

"I'm sad that your students won't get a chance to have that lesson," she told him apologetically. "Your such an amazing husband. I know this wasn't my choice but I am sorry that you won't get to start your new job today."

From:

splendid_roman

He put a hand on Barbara's knee, briefly. "Maybe I'll just move my lesson plans on a day and give them today's lesson tomorrow." Assuming the baby came early enough for him to go to work tomorrow. For some reason people were keen to tell them horror stories of women spending 24 hours or more in labour.

He swung into the hospital car park. It was fortunately not too busy and he drove round to park as close to the hospital entrance as he could.