Rating: PG
Pairing: Sarah/Harry
Beta: hhertzof
Spoilers: None
Summary: Sarah’s pregnant, Harry’s the father, see the title for an idea of what happens next.

Sarah lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, wishing she could go back to sleep. She could see the room more clearly now and thought about getting up to see the sun rise, not that she thought it would cheer her up. The times she had written in her notebook in neat columns confirmed she was definitely in labour, courtesy of one of Harry's medical textbooks. She had not been terribly enthusiastic when he had loaned it to her just before she left for Aunt Lavinia's for Christmas. She had read the relevant sections anyway and immediately wished she hadn't. It was proving useful now, though.

She waited for a contraction, reasoning that her chances of sleep for the rest of the night were unlikely, then got up and made herself a cup of tea. Now it was dawn she felt slightly better about waking other people up.

Yawning while she waited for the kettle to boil, she opened the blinds and blinked in the sunlight. So it was a minute before she realised the world had turned white overnight. She swore but sat down and had her tea anyway before allowing herself to panic.

Back upstairs she knocked on the door and pushed it open, saying "Aunt Lavinia," softly.

"What is it?" Lavinia answered, without quite opening her eyes.

"The baby's coming," Sarah said, then had to sit on the bed because she had not timed it right between contractions.

Lavinia was immediately awake and sat up. "Now?" she asked, but had to wait for an answer.

Sarah shook her head then breathed out before she could speak. "I don't think it's time yet, but the trouble is it snowed last night. They didn't say anything about it on the weather forecast."

"That's because you fell asleep."

Not for long enough, Sarah thought.

Lavinia got up to look out the window. "That's not good."

"That's what I thought."

Lavinia went over to her wardrobe to pull a thick jumper out of it. "Put on some warm clothes," she said, "and phone the midwife. I'll see about getting us to the hospital."

"I really don't want to have it here." Sarah had read too many horror stories of all the things that could go wrong. The only comfort at the moment was that at least by tomorrow this whole thing would be over. She hoped so anyway, given the tales she had heard of labours lasting a day or more. It had gone on long enough already and had only been a few hours.

Lavinia patted Sarah's shoulder and said, "Don't worry, you won't. I'll make sure."

Sarah nodded, glad she had her aunt to take over and deal with everything. Or nearly everything, anyway.

The midwife seemed far too awake for someone who had been woken up at the crack of dawn in the middle of winter, but she did also sound entirely unconcerned. Since she did this sort of thing every day, Sarah reasoned she knew what she was talking about and tried to relax. Working herself up to another phone call did not really help that, though.

Harry, at least, had the decency to sound asleep and annoyed at being woken up when he answered the phone.

"Has it snowed there?" she asked, when he answered the phone with something that might have been "Hello".

"Sarah?" There was nearly two syllables in it.

"There's snow here."

There was a pause before he said, "You didn't ring me up in the middle of the night just to tell me that."

"I thought you got up early."

"Not when I didn't go to bed until three last night."

"That's still more sleep than..."

When she stopped he said, "Sarah?" Harry sounded worried, not entirely without substance. She had been hoping to get this conversation in between contractions but she had lingered with her hand over the phone for too long and was even now still putting off telling him. "Are you all right?"

"The baby's coming," she managed to get out eventually.

"Oh, um, I'll--"

She cut him off, already knowing what he was going to say. "No need to rush, it's not going to be for a while yet. But I thought you should know."

"Right, well, if there's snow there I should get going soon, just in case. How far apart are your contractions?"

"Harry, you're not an obstetrician, you're not my midwife and I'm really not in the mood to have this conversation with you right now." She looked up when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. "And Aunt Lavinia wants me, I'll see you later."

She put the phone down over his protests. She would worry about apologising later.

"You still okay to walk?" Lavinia asked, passing Sarah her coat.

Sarah nodded her head and put her coat on.

"We just have to get to the other side of the village where the roads have been gritted."

"Then what do we do?"

"Martin Harrison always gets up with the lark; he can take us from there."

Sarah nodded again as she added gloves and a hat to her ensemble. In the month and a half she had been staying with her aunt she had got to know many of the residents near Lavinia's new house. Martin knew all the places nearby to see interesting wildlife and she had spent some time with him pointing out birds of prey and rescuing starving hedgehogs that had woken up too early. He seemed to know everything about all of it and he reminded her of the Doctor. For a while she had even wondered if it was him in disguise.

Outside it was colder than she had been expecting, even given the recent weather. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue and the sun would probably melt the snow by the end of the day, although that was too late to be of any help. The two of them had to wait while Sarah wished her contractions were far enough apart to do anything useful in between or close enough that she was not facing several more hours of this.

Once they started they did not advance very fast. Lavinia asked Sarah what she was writing at the moment and Sarah told her in far more detail she would normally. Lavinia was interested, of course, but not that interested. However, she did not tell Sarah to stop but just asked her more questions.

Sarah found the night's sleep she had missed most of was catching up with her and she slipped a few times, with only Lavinia's grip on her keeping her upright. Sarah kept her hand on her aunt's arm, trying hard not to squeeze too tight when a contraction came. Lavinia never complained, though, just kept reminding Sarah how far they had to go, always making it sound like Martin's house was just around the next corner. It seemed like they had miles to go and it took hours, but she knew that was not the case from the count of her contractions she was keeping in her head along with the glances at her watch every few minutes.

Sarah was just glad there was not many other people around, only the milkman who did not even look twice at them. Perhaps he was used to crazy people about at all hours. The postman made a comment about the weather and asked if they needed any help, but he was having enough trouble with his bicycle, so Lavinia could only say "No, thanks" as they carried on past him.

Twice, Sarah tried to sit down for a rest and both times Lavinia pulled her back up, threatening to drag her along if she had to and telling her she would tell the baby her mother was a coward, which they both knew could only be an empty threat. Once they reached Martin's he offered them a hot drink and biscuits. Sarah took both gratefully, and sat in his kitchen enjoying being able to feel her fingers and toes again. She noticed how many biscuits Lavinia took and insisted they stay for breakfast. It was not Lavinia's fault, after all, that she was not likely to get much of a break today.

By the time they left Sarah was content to collapse in the car with her head back and her eyes closed. Outside the village they hit the rush hour but Sarah no longer cared. Now she only had one thing to concentrate on, so she did just that and let the outside world pass by her, trying not to think too much about what was to come.

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Fandom: Doctor Who | Type: Character: Lavinia Smith, Character: Sarah Jane Smith, Length: Long story, Pairing: Sarah/Harry, Series: Soap Opera, Type: Het | Link

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