My Friend/His Sister Ch. 01

"Laura?"

"We were driving past and saw Shauna with your car, we had to stop!"

"But... Shauna.."

"Is driving to yours, she'll give Pete your car and can then drive everyone else home in hers, so you've got me."

She reached out for my hand and squeezed.

"Thank fuck," she said, "I thought Shauna was going to faint on me!" She closed her eyes, and hissed to the ambo techie, "here comes another one."

"Excellent," said the techie, another girl about Sue's age, "bags of time, Sue. Another one Jan!" She shouted through to the driver.

I felt the truck lurch as it pulled into the traffic, the Techie indicating I should put on my seat belt, as the blue lights became evident.

In what seemed like moments, we were pulling into the A&E department, and I was unclipping my seat belt and climbing down out of the truck, watching as Sue was brought out still on her trolley holding the sides of her extended belly and her breath, and we all followed into the busy Friday night hospital.

"Straight on up to maternity," said the driver, "they know we're coming," and we plodded on through empty corridors and one lift to 'Maternity', then 'Delivery Suites'.

Still holding Sue's hand, I stood while midwives appeared, blood pressure cuffs were attached, and monitors started to monitor.

There was a quick, 'could you help Sue into this gown' which had been thrust into my hands, as they ran off to a screeching sound further down the corridor.

I grinned at Sue, who grinned back. This was going to be one view of Sue I'd never had before and would probably never forget either!

Pulling the curtain around, I helped my colleague and friend out of the long frock, then her blouse she'd been wearing, then her bra; I guessed her panties were in the ambo somewhere!

I raised the gown, for my now naked friend to slip her arms into, just as she started to pant quite significantly,

"I think Baby's coming Laura!" she gasped, and gripped the backs of her thighs, her pretty face a flushed bright red. I looked down between her legs and there was the crown of the baby's head.

I grabbed the 'call' button, and pressed it three or four times, putting my head out of the curtain, then the door into the corridor,

"Nurse?" I shouted, "you need to get in here before the baby does!"

I looked back to Sue's pretty, red, clenched-jawed face, then down between her legs and the face of her baby.

A nurse was soon there, and wove past me, reaching down to the baby and wiping goo from its scrunched face,

"You're doing fine Sue; got another push for me hun? You've done the hard bit already!"

Back at the top of the bed and away from the mess, I hugged my friend, and kissed her cheek, as she bore down one last time, as the second nurse came in.

"Chord!" shouted the first and I saw scissors whipped out by the second and a quick snip had it free, and baby was laid on her Mum's tummy for the first time, emitting a quite powerful cry for someone quite so tiny, and four weeks early, "and it's a little girl, and she's gorgeous!"

The clock on the wall was noted and the time written on the chart, I noticed we'd been in the hospital for sixteen minutes.

The nurses continued to fuss over mother and then baby, who was wrapped in a blanket, and handed to me.

I stepped across to Sue, while nursey type people fiddled and fussed between her legs.

"She's gorgeous Hun," I whispered, noticing the red mass of the afterbirth being withdrawn, and checked over. Sue looked across at her child in my arms.

"Hey you!" she said, with a tired smirk, "you're early!"

"Probably because the cord was around her neck," said the first midwife, still messing at my friend's private parts, "the little darlings often know what's best for them."

Seeing the blanket being pulled up over Sue, I handed across the brand-new daughter into the loving arms of her Mummy.

Then the big frame of her husband Pete was in the door and strutting across to his new family.

"Meet Daisy, Pete!" said Sue showing her giant husband their tiny child, literally two minutes old. Pete was silent for a few moments as he stepped in and kissed his wife, "you remember Laura from work?"

"Laura, Hi!" he said, beaming a grin at me, "well, I suppose that's going to be a dinner you'll never forget!"

Using Pete's phone, I took pictures of the happy family, leaving the posting of such to Sue and Pete, but promising to tell the gang that tiny Daisy had made her appearance just before midnight.

"That's Daisy Laura," said Sue, "thanks for being there Hun," she said with the hint of a choke to her voice.

"Welcome Babe," I said, trying to sound cooler than I felt, "it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen, thank YOU."

We hugged, and I even got one from Pete. Insisting I'd get a cab, I left them to get to know Daisy, following directions back down to reception, and the taxis I hoped might be dropping off.

There weren't any and just as I thought about calling one, I looked across at the large staff car park and the red bays marked 'emergency doctors only', and there was what looked very much like my brother's electric MPV that Claire had complained of not two nights before, the personalised registration MAX 0F1L announcing it was.

I walked across to the A&E reception,

"Excuse me," I said to the receptionist, "can you tell me if Doctor Hardy or Doctor Neal are in, please?"

"I can check," he said, "might I ask the nature of your enquiry?"

"Yes," I said with a big grin, "I'm Doctor Hardy's little sister, hoping to cadge a lift home with either of them."

"Oh, that's OK, one moment!" He clattered away on his computer, then picked up a phone,

"Doctor Hardy, dial 106 for E D reception please, Doctor Hardy," ran through the loudspeakers, then repeated.

"I rode an ambulance in with my best mate, and just watched her baby being born!"

"Awww sweeeet," he said with a smile, "there you are look," he pointed back over my shoulder to where Steve was bearing down on me all smiles and red scrubs. I mouthed a 'thank you' to the smiling receptionist, as Steve did his usual 'Laaaauz' at the top of his voice and giving me a hug.

"Picking up or dropping off honey," he said with raised eyebrows, a hint of concern about what his baby sister could be doing in accident and emergency at midnight on a Friday night.

"Dropping off, you know that maternity leave dinner?" he grinned, "well, it was just in time!"

"Aawwww!" he said, "boy or girl?"

"A girl, Daisy Laura, 7lb."

"Laura after the girl holding Mum's hand?"

"I hope so," I said, "but Laura had been on her 'top three' girl's names list already."

"I bet she was glad you were there, anyways," he smiled, "I suppose you're short of a lift home now?"

"Precisely," I said, "drunk too much to drive yours, and then come back to collect you."

"Come with me," he said with narrowed eyes, slipping an arm around me, and leading me through several doors marked 'staff only' and into the hubbub of A&E, "I've been called in for an emergency consult, not sure how long I'll be." I found myself in a large crew room, with a mix of blue and red scrubs, and ambulance green. "Darlings!" he said grandly to the incumbents, "THIS is my baby sister Laura, moments shy of having delivered her best mate's daughter, now named after her!" There was a smattering of applause, "here, have a coffee to sober you up, yah crazy animal!" He poured me a large cup.

The two techies that had brought Sue in, saw me and dashed across,

"Born already?"

"Thirteen minutes to midnight," I said, "Daisy Laura, seven pounds!"

"Good job we left when we did!" said the second.

I sipped my coffee, added some sugar, and found a seat.

I got my phone and sent texts to Soph, Carly, Shauna, Bev, then 'messenger' messages to the colleagues I didn't have numbers for, to tell them about the birth of Sue's gorgeous little 7lb baby girl Daisy, leaving the 'Laura' addition for Sue to explain to them.

My phone bleeped with a few delighted responses, and I flicked through to see if Facebook was buzzing with the news. It wasn't, but I did notice that I'd been added to a few posts of us all at Frankie and Benny's; pictures of the food, the cake cutting and a final suggestion from Carly, asking if anyone knew how Mum-to-be had got on. I laughed, and finished my coffee, sitting back into my armchair, I was suddenly sleepy.

"Laura!" I snapped awake, "talk of the devil, here look," I sat up, "Kev, you remember my sister Laura; Laura, you must remember Kev... Claire's brother!"

"H... h...half-b... brother Steve, p... please!"

I looked up into a vaguely remembered face from years before, sat at his parents' kitchen table and very occasionally ours, a painful, hangdog expression on it back then, but now a rather attractive one, smiling down at me.

He held out a hand, and still slightly dopey, I stood and took it giving it a slightly soft shake.

"Kev!" I said, standing up awkwardly from the low chair, "It's great to see you again!"

And I meant it.

The broad-shouldered hunk stood across from me was tall, dark and very handsome, with just enough of a few days beard growth, to improve that very impressive face.

"W... W... Wow, L... Laura," he said, "I d... don't remember you l...looking l...like th...this!"

"I'd like to say she'd improved with age Kev," said my brother, "but I happen to think my baby sister has always been gorgeous." He paused, looking at the pair of us, "Lauz, honey," he said, I'm probably going to have to operate on the poor soul that's been brought in, but Kev is just about knock off and will drive you back to the ambulance station, then give you a lift home in his car."

"Oh..." I said, starring stupidly at the hot guy, fighting back the big lump in my throat, "that would be... great!"

And I meant it.

I had only my phone, my front door key and a few tissues, so nothing I had to collect, so excused myself for a quick scoot to the bathroom.

On my return, I could see Steve and Kev having what appeared to be a very serious discussion in the corridor outside of the room I'd been sat in. I hoped my big brother wasn't giving him a hard time about what he could and couldn't say or do with his baby sister, not with that hunk! But then two nights before he'd joked about Kev being a biker and that I'd like him...

I walked back to them all smiles, with a single raised eyebrow to Steve, just in case he was stepping in to save my honour.

I had never told him, or anyone in my family for that matter, that he was about four years too late for that particular gallantry.

Drunk and on the third evening of an early summer break at Barry Island with some mates from my uni' course at a nearby pub, I'd hooked up with Alex, a Scots lad I'd known from my degree course, and we'd been making semi-drunk eyes at each other getting on for two years at least, and that night it finally happened.

I'd been on my second year while he was on his third, and I was incredibly horny and had been carrying a condom in my purse for the right man since Fresher's week.

We'd ended up in the moonlit woodland to the rear of the girls' cabin, and we made love, both losing our virginities. It was nice, and we tried again back at the halls of residence a few times.

It was new, and I enjoyed ever sexy minute of it, but I was going back to my southern English town while he was going back to Kelvinside on the outskirts of Glasgow.

OK, it was the posh part of Glasgow, but not where I wanted to start my career. Life moved on, and he attended his final lectures, and even though we had phone numbers, email addresses and were FB friends, it just finished.

I didn't regret it, and still don't; during a Friday night with a few mates a few months later, I admitted to the room, and myself I guessed, that perhaps Alex and I 'had sex' rather than 'making love'. I didn't care to be honest, and on reflection I think we were both horny, and there for the other person.

There had been a few dates, and a 'one-nighter' with a guy I thought might have 'led on to something'. It didn't and I wasn't that worried about it, leastways that what I told myself.

Kev was gorgeous, and I'd nervously checked myself out in the bathroom mirror, and my hair and eye make-up were still good, just right for such a hot guy that was going to drive me home at nearly one AM.

"I'll see you Lauz," said Steve, and blowing me a kiss.

"Stevie!" I said, blowing one back to him.

"Remember the exercises Kev," said Steve to my chauffeur/knight in shining armour.

"D... don't w...worry Steve," he all but spat out. Steve looked concerned and confused at the same time.

I saved the questions until we were in the car.

"Exercises Kev?" I said, settling into the quite well worn, but still quite comfortable seat of the yellow paramedic car my hero was driving.

"L...long s...story, L...Laura."

He didn't want to discuss it obviously, but I could live with that.

"I bumped into your half-sister again this evening, Kev," I said turning to him.

"I'm s...so s...s...sorry L...Laura," he grinned back at me.

"Weirdest thing," I said, "We'd been to the Greenswold Centre, dinner at Frankie and Benny's, I get the funniest feeling... well, that she got partied up, just to come out... well, to find ME. She told me she'd seen me through the window from Nando's where she'd been with her mates, but..." I closed my eyes, "we were up in the mezzanine, and... well... she couldn't have!"

"S... sounds like C... C... Claire!" he'd made the stuttered C's into a very hard K sound, and I guessed that she did nothing to improve the stammer he evidently still had.

"She was spotless," I said, "not even the slightest smell of anything Tex-Mex on her," I turned to face him some more, "I thought she hated hot and spicy food?"

"Always d...did," he said, again almost spitting out the words.

I thought about my Facebook page.

"I THINK she might have seen me tagged on a friend's Facebook and decided to come down and tell me more of her opinions."

"W...wouldn't p...put it p...past her!" he responded, as we pulled into a large yard with a few of the obvious yellow ambulances, cars and motorbikes.

He handed me the keys to his car and pointed across a small car park to where his Land Rover Discovery was parked and said he would be back in a few minutes. I headed over and waited about ten, while he refuelled, checked over and repacked kit he'd used from his ambulance car for the next user.

When he returned it was 1245, and I was starting to feel hungry again. He started the car and swung out into the main road.

"Kev," I said turning to face him again. (Yeeeeeees, I was bringing my cleavage into the action,) "I must confess I'm feeling a bit peckish, can I buy you supper? My way of saying 'thanks for the lift'?"

"You d...don't h...have to d...do that!" he exclaimed, "It's n...nnnnnn...no bother."

"I know," I said, "but I'm in 'Friday night mode'," I indicated my clothes, "and I could actually murder a curry, please?"

"I kn...know j...just the p...place," he said, with what looked like a relieved smile.

Twenty minutes later we were sat in the 'Moulmein Pagoda', doing justice to several large dishes of the most exquisite Myanmar curries and sides, chatting and laughing.

We talked about the old days and how Claire and been such a cow to him, and I opened up about her comments about my bridesmaid dress.

"J...jealous!" he hissed, "she's n...never been one, n...not to m...my knowledge," he sipped his Coke, "not eeee...even when her Mum rem...mm...married a couple of years back, but that w...was a r...registry office thing."

He smiled at me again. He was GORGEOUS!

He'd slipped out of his green uniform shirt, to a bottle green Tee with a light hoodie over it, and I could see he really didn't like talking about that evil stepsister that had been so horrible to him. So, I changed the subject, in a not 'changing the subject' kind of way.

"I met her on Wednesday," I said, "I teach at Fossett Park Primary School, just up the road from Mountebanks where she works."

"Teaching!" he said, "Mind you," he dunked a chunk of naan bread into his sweet and spicy sauce, "that's always w...what you'd p...planned to do, wasn't it?"

"Yeah," I said with some satisfaction, thinking on how he must have remembered, "Don't tell me, I bet Claire had something to say about it?"

He grimaced.

"Yep, sorry."

"Not your fault mate, you didn't say it."

"W...wouldn't have g...got a word in... edgew...wise."

"I can imagine," I grinned back at him. I'd noticed that the more relaxed and chattier I was with him the less his stammer affected him. I'd done some training courses about dealing with children with a stammer, and I knew not to make a point of it, so got back to me again, "Went to university, three years on a degree in English at Cardiff, a year on qualified teacher status, and here I am." I sipped some Coke, "so Paramedic then Kev, exciting?"

"C...can be," he said, "similar journey; I got the bug w...when I was in the St J...John Am...Ambulance C...cadets, then C...college, some of the same c...courses as Steve of course. He went on to study medicine while I w...went on to do P...Paramedic Sciences at Oxf...ford Brookes."

The stammer was getting so much better the more we chatted. My mind went to Mum's discussion about his Mum dying before they could cut her out her smashed-up car. I didn't even want to think about that and his career choice.

"Steve said you ride the motorbikes!" I grinned again, letting him know I was impressed.

"Yeah, for the job. Big ol' P...Pan-Europeans, major b...blast riding one of those th...things, especially with the b...blues and twos on the go!"

"I can imagine, I just have a cheesy little Kawasaki," I wrinkled my nose cutely at him.

"W...which one?" he said with narrowed eyes.

"Z650," I said with a hint of pride.

"Hardly that little, Laura," he smiled at me again.

"I like it," I said, "easier getting around town and parking but in the cold, the wind and the rain, I do pine for my old Focus!"

"T...tell me about it," he said, "Gore-Tex is Oooohkay," he said, and I noticed him slowing his breathing, "but no substitute for a w...windscreen, roof, five doors and a t...tailgate."

"You have a bike?"

"No," he said, "did do, but thought I needed to grow up a bit, so bought the D...Disco'."

I giggled,

"And that's a grown-up's car Kev?"

"Laura please!" he said affecting some injured pride, then paused and smiled back to me, "alright, p'raps it is a bit of a b...boy's toy!"

The stammer had reduced considerably, and I could only guess it was because he was getting more comfortable with me. I really did hope so.

In the hour and a half we'd been in each other's company, he'd really grown on me and I'd had more fun and felt more of a connection than I had with any other guy I'd dated... well ever, and this wasn't even a real date. I decided I'd sort that out.

"Kev?" I said, staring down at my almost empty plate and trying for 'cute and coy' again, "I've had just the loveliest time his evening, but I'm conscious that you've just finished work after a long shift," I caught my breath, "Could we do this again sometime," he looked properly chuffed about that, so I added some more cute, "if you don't want to, I'd perfectly understand, I wouldn't want to put you on the spot, with... anyone else..."

He cut in.

"No!" he all but spat out, "No, that would be great! P...please," he sipped from his Coke, "and there isn't a...anyone else'," he said quite simply.

I looked at him in surprise and with narrowed eyes.

"But... but you're gorgeous!" I whispered to him, looking him straight in the eye.

"So are you, Laura," he said with a grin, looking back at me, "so are you!"

"Wow!" I said, checking out the hot hunk, looking happier than he had all evening, and that was saying something. I looked at my watch and it was heading to three o'clock, then it was across to the waiters, still circling around the four occupied tables with two more couples and a large group I guessed was a family, or group of friends. "My treat Kev," I said waving to the waiter.