Flac ~ Their World

Six months on

Early on a Monday morning, Jac rolled over in bed to find it empty. Fletch had already gone to work she guessed. She laid staring up at the ceiling, enjoying the silence and stillness of the house. Just as she smiled to herself, sick rose in her throat and she clamped her hand over her mouth. Jac leapt out of bed and ran out of their bedroom. She just about made it into the bathroom before she was violently sick into the toilet. This had happened on both Saturday and Sunday morning so she had rung in sick and taken the day off work. There had been a stomach bug going around with the nurses lately so she wasn't surprised that she had caught it.

She cleaned herself up and had a speedy shower and got dressed in some casual lounging clothes which she would not be seen dead wearing outside the house. Jac then trudged down to the kitchen and scavenged the cupboards for some food until she laid eyes on Fletch's secret stash of biscuits. She pulled the unopened packet out from the back and ripped it open. On her way down she had peeped into each child's bedroom and it appeared that Evie and Mikey had taken themselves to school and Ella, Emma and Theo had gone with Fletch to the crèche so there wasn't any risk of any children finding her stuffing her face. This year, it would be time for Ella to move up to school as she was becoming too old for the crèche.

Jac kept on eating, one by one the biscuits went in. It was only when the packet was suddenly empty that she realised how much she had eaten. Did I seriously just eat a whole pack of biscuits by myself? Jac questioned herself in surprise. This was very unusual for her as she barely ate anything these days. Lately there hadn't seemed much point because she just vomited it back up again but today she was craving biscuits.

For the rest of the day, Jac lounged around on the sofa watching rubbish day time TV. She found this excruciatingly painful and really wasn't used to sitting around with nothing to do. All she could think about was all those surgery opportunities she was missing because she wasn't at work. "Stupid illness." Jac muttered to herself, rather childishly. When 5 o'clock rolled around, she couldn't help but smile as she heard her family bustling into the house. Evie and Mikey were having one of their usual pointless arguments as they stomped up the stairs to their rooms. Jac stood at the bottom of the stairs and called up to them, "And hello to you too." She sighed and turned to see Fletch helping Emma out of her coat.

When the girls and Theo had also stomped up the stairs, a little less angrily than their older siblings had just done, Jac and Fletch embraced. Fletch pulled Jac into his chest and she breathed in his comforting scent and wound her arms around his waist. He kissed her head and whispered, "Hey you. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, I was sick this morning but I'm fine now." She replied, enjoying the comfort of his solid arms wrapped around her.

That evening was uneventful but when Jac awoke the next morning she was sick once again. This time she decided to stay in bed for the day, in hope she might be better tomorrow so she could return to work. At 8.30 she rang Petrenko to let her know that once again she would have to cope without Jac on the ward. When she had explained that she thought she had just caught a bug and that it was only in the mornings that she was sick, Petrenko was silent for a moment and braced herself for the backlash of what she was about to say.
"Ms Naylor...have you thought about taking a pregnancy test?"

Jac's jaw dropped in realisation. "No I hadn't thought of that. Thanks." She muttered and hung up. It all made sense now. The vomiting was morning sickness, the cravings for food. She didn't know for sure but it all added up. Still in a daze, panic started to kick in. Jac jumped in the shower and washed in under two minutes. She chucked on some jeans and a hoodie and grabbed her keys and phone. In a matter of seconds she was walking briskly out of the house, slamming the front door behind her. The loud phwack didn't even make her flinch in her current state.

The surgeon was practically jogging round to the local chemist. She was desperate to know if Frieda was right or whether she was just over thinking a stomach bug. She ran into the shop and bundled at least four pregnancy tests into her arms and paid for them. It was expensive but she wanted to be 100% sure. The woman who served her at the counter noticed her distress and gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Hey hey, slow down sweetheart. It'll be fine. Don't panic, it happens to us all. As long as you've got a good partner to support you, you'll thrive as a mother. Now go and take those tests and find out!" She said cheerfully. Jac managed to crack a small smile at the woman's efforts and pretty much ran back home again.

As soon as the front door shut, she threw her phone and keys onto the table by the front door and ran upstairs with tests in hand. Jac did each test in the bathroom and sank down to the floor afterwards, leaning against the bath side for support and waited for the results to be shown. She sat twisting her fingers this way and that, inspecting her nails and occasionally glancing at her watch nervously. When the time was finally up, after what had seemed like hours to Jac, she reached up with sweaty palms and grabbed the first one. The surgeon looked down at it and the result made her let out an enormous breath that she didn't know she had been holding.