Those many months Shelagh was ill were agony to the whole family, Beatrix never liked the bottle, Angela wouldn't sleep as her mother was always the one to sing her to sleep, Tim was doing badly at school from the idea of losing another mum and Patrick was lost both at work and at home without his wife and receptionist. Nonnatus was struggling too, Sister Julienne seemed distracted and they had been short staffed at antenatal clinic for a while, no one could calm the children as well as Shelagh could so Trixie was left desperately reading story books to the young ones as they ran riot. Valarie rushed to Sister Julienne and tapped her on the shoulder urgently.
''Nurse Dyer is everything alright?'' Sister asked kindly, Valarie shook her head
''No Sister, we just got a call from doctor Turner, his wife took a turn for the worst earlier today, he said she was asking after you.'' Valarie said, taking the test tube out of Sister Julienne's hands and helping her get ready to leave.
''I'll take over here Sister, give her my best wishes.'' Trixie called from a chair in the corner where she was attempting to calm the children.
When Sister Julienne arrived the nurse informed her of what had happened, Shelagh had stopped breathing during the early hours of the morning, they'd only just managed to stabilize her. Patrick sat outside his wife's room with his head in his hands, only when Sister Julienne sat next to him did he look up.
''Nurse Busby informed me of the situation, would you like to come in with me?'' She asked standing up again and looking through the small window in the door at the young woman, Shelagh seemed more responsive but it was clear she was out of it.
''I can't go back in there.'' Patrick replied wearily, Sister Julienne nodded and pushed the door open, Shelagh moved her head a bit and hesitated, her eyes starting to brim with tears, she rolled her head to the side and looked at her old sister in Christ.
"Sister...?" She whispered, her voice was raspy and dry. Sister Julienne sighed heavily and walked quickly to the bedside, gripping onto Shelagh's hand tightly.
"My dear Shelagh, I'm so sorry" Sister Julienne gasped, trying to keep her voice from breaking.
"What do you have to apologise for?" Shelagh asked, a tear rolling down her cheek slowly as she looked up at her friend, Sister Julienne sighed heavily.
"For not being there. You needed me and I took the best part of two hours to get to you." She sniffled, Shelagh shook her head frowning.
"You are here now, that is all that matters." She said calmly, a tear rolled down Sister Julienne's cheek slowly, landing on the bed sheet she was leaning over.
YOU ARE READING
Suddenly x-Turnadette-x
RomantikA few things to note; I started writing this during Shelagh's pregnancy in the real show, it was originally a one shot but I made it into a longer story. The baby is the wrong gender but aside from that basically everything is the same. Mae is just...
