My Home From Home (ManxMan)

Chapter 24

"Congratulations Mrs Harper, you're pregnant." Henry let a smile creep across his face as he watched the revelation slowly descend upon the faces of the young couple sat across from him in his office. The wife, Sarah worked in the mine's administrative offices whilst her husband Jude was a foreman at the mine. They were a few years younger than Henry and seemed to be living perfect lives; married for seven years and now finally expecting their first child after much anticipation.

"P-pregnant?!" Jude's face brightened visibly; a wide grin blossoming over his face as he turned to his wife, who bashfully smiled with a wide smile on her pleasant face.

"Yes." Henry explained with a knowing smile, he knew just how important this was to them; they'd waited a long time for this very moment. "But I urge you both to exercise caution, which means you." He playfully raised a brow towards Sarah. "No hard work or heavy lifting. And you." His gaze shifted towards Jude, "Take good care of her."

"I will do, Doctor. You've got my word." Jude chuckled, barely able to contain his excitement. "We're having a baby!" He explained happily, leaning in to kiss his wife lovingly on the lips as they shared a moment together.

    Henry smiled with a content sigh as he watched the couple happy cherish their special moment; any of his own worries or concerns he had were pushed deep into the recesses of his mind. Because this was one of the moments he lived for; pregnancies, good diagnoses, negative pathology reports, cures, and turns for the better. But on the flip side of the coin he hated all the things that casted shadows upon his professions; bleak prognoses, grim diagnoses, death, pain.

    Soon the Harpers left his office and left Henry alone with his thoughts; he only prayed he'd have that happiness one day in life, to be a father. But alas he knew he never would; he'd never be able to marry the man he loved, dance in public in the arms of the man he loved, have a family with the man he loved. Though in his youth he found himself growing bitter and even jealous of people living these simple pleasures that he knew he'd never have, he'd since grown and learnt to simply live vicariously through them.

    But even as a fortnight had passed since the night Henry had first made love with Thomas in his bedroom, he felt more and more that what he shared with Thomas wasn't just a one-and-done like his past encounters with men had been; this was different, more intense, more potent, more memorable, more addictive.

It had been over a week since Danny began to improve and ceased to be at risk of infecting others; thus also ended Thomas and Henry's quarantine, and most importantly to them both, it was deemed safe for the precious little blue eyes baby Alfie to be at home. There was an I explicable feeling of incompleteness that seized to be the moment the halls were once filled with the sounds of Alfie's precious baby noises and giggles; like the house was once again a home.

However with normalcy came alongside it the need to sort out the logistics of how Henry and Thomas would work their little setup; ultimately resulting in the mutual  that they'd sneak into one another's room and fall asleep  in each  others' arms. Thus leaving one of them with the responsibility of waking early to sneak back to their own rooms before Danny woke up. every night fortnight they shared these coveted moments in each other's arms, sometimes even tempting fate by stealing moments alone during the day; and with each passing encounter Henry and Thomas felt themselves falling harder and deeper for each other.

"Dr Dunmurry?" Henry heard a voice beckon from the door, drawing him out of his thoughts as he glanced up through the fringe of raven black hair that'd fallen into his sapphire blue eyes. "Dr Dunmurry, I'm going out to lunch with Emily. Is there anything you need from me before I go?" Asked Mary with a smile.

"No, Mary, but thank you. You go on and enjoy yourself." Henry smiled at her with a nod, watching as the girl turned on her heels and sauntered away. There was something refreshing about Mary, she was a sweet young girl though there was always a glint of melancholy in her eyes. And how could anyone blame her? She was married young and whilst pregnant, her husband who worked in the mines died in a grizzly mining accident about a year ago; the stress alone was enough to cause poor Mary to miscarry.