The nursery, a long, dimly lit room with the unattended radio chatting away in the corner, held two recliner rockers, a baby bath and a bench. In the past, all the babies would spend most of the night down here with the midwives and be taken out at regimented feed times to their sleeping mums. However, in these enlightened times of demand feeding and babies rooming in with mothers, most nights it was only used by the midwives when exhausted mothers needed half an hour of down time for a brief nap and babies needed a one-on-one with their midwife.

‘Now listen here, young man, your mummy is tired,’ Ava whispered as she swiftly undid his nappy, wiped the meconium from his bottom, and pinned a new nappy in place. ‘You need your arms wrapped and a good burp. Then you can close your eyes and go to sleep.’ She patted his bottom in a slow, steady rhythm. ‘Then I’ll tuck you back into your bed beside your mum because you’ve had a big day, too.’

She began a thorough check of his observations, ensuring nothing was out of the ordinary that could be upsetting him. Once he was wrapped and settled, she carried him back to his mum’s room and tucked him into his cot. She stood quietly in the dark and rocked the little wheeled cot back and forth until he was asleep. Kareena’s breathing sounded deep and untroubled. Her mum still snored and Ava grinned as she left the room to return to the desk to complete her notes.

The clock hands seemed to spin towards morning, until finally dawn arrived with another pink sunrise and a sense of promise. She hoped. She waved goodbye until next time to the early-morning staff, agreed to look out for a young woman of unknown gestation of pregnancy from up north who had slipped through the midwifery caseload system and was supposedly in Yulara now, and opened the door to greet the promise of Zac waiting for her.

He was there. Zac stood tall and solid against the wall, idly swinging his car keys, looking so much better than he had three days ago, despite another night in emergency.

This time when she greeted him, they were given a few raised eyebrows as night staff from other wards walked past, but Zac just smiled at them and took her hand. He raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them before tucking her arm into his. Ava hugged that to herself and tried not to plaster herself against him in a declaration of ‘mine’.

She raised her large bag in her other hand. ‘I brought breakfast cereal and toast to celebrate the end of night shift and thought we’d have a picnic somewhere special – oh, I don’t know … in bed?’