“Miss Ainsley?” A nurse in pink scrubs calls for me from down a corridor. I actively try to avoid looking at the other expecting mothers as I pass because I know I will find nothing but pity in their eyes: a woman having to bring her son to a baby scan because she has nobody to look after him for a few hours. Usually my neighbour Mrs Lewis would look after him, but she has gone to Montana to visit her sister. She has been someone I have connected with over the years, when I have to work of a weekend or if he has to stay off school because he doesn’t feel well. She is always happy to have the company. I feel the eyes around the room watching, so to distract my mind from the feeling of being watched so closely I pull out my phone and call Liam. He answers on the first ring.

“Hey, we going in already?” His voice is low and calming, through the phone I feel his support. It fills my bones all the way from Vegas but beneath the question I hear the tremor in his voice. I nod in response. He must be freaked out. He has been far too calm over the last two and a half weeks, an anchor to my spiral – pulling me back into the real world. But it’s new to him; becoming a dad isn’t easy, and it’s not like he planned for this, especially not with me.

I let Jack hold my phone, keeping Liam on the line, while a nurse takes my blood sample. I settle onto the bed where Jack hands me my phone back, and I get my first real look at Liam. His hair looks wet from a shower or a sweaty practice session, and I can see he is lying amongst the plethora of pillows in his hotel room bed, a complete opposite to the one I’m lying on.

“You okay, El?” he asks.

“Yeah. I just wish you were here,” I admit. Something about being in this hospital again with my still flat belly out must be making me more vulnerable than I anticipated, because I never planned on telling him that. Maybe it was reminiscing in the waiting room about being alone that tipped me over.

“El—” Liam starts, but is interrupted by my ob-gyn coming into the room. Dr Horne was my doctor when I had Jack and it was a no-brainer for me to come back to her this time around. She was a rock in the room when I needed that support and there is no other doctor I would want to help deliver this baby.

“It is Ellis, yes?” Dr Horne asks.

“Yes, hi,” I reply quietly.