Driftwood

[Suzza101]

Great chapter 

i love this. 

So happy that Roo os going to get help

Poor Oscar!!!! 

I really like the idea of Kyle and Brody as friends, i think it will be awesome to read about them hanging out as mates (if you do, do a chapter about that) 

Please Update soon

[hward]

My first time back on here in ages, and what a find this story is.  I'm really enjoying it and I especially like the flashbacks to when they were on the island. Looking forward to more

[Ludub]

6 hours ago, hward said:

My first time back on here in ages, and what a find this story is.  I'm really enjoying it and I especially like the flashbacks to when they were on the island. Looking forward to more

Awww! Thank you hward!  It's so nice of you to comment! Really pleased that you like it!  I'm really just indulging a little fantasy I have about Roo and Matt getting together because I actually think they could work really well under the right circumstances. Being forced together on an island for four years would certainly have given them the opportunity to explore any feelings that they might have had for each other, lol! Pretty good timing actually because here's another chapter 

Thanks Suzza, there might be some Kyle + Brody stuff coming up in another chapter! Not this one but soon, haha! Thanks a million for the feedback. Always appreciated. 

Thanks to everyone else for all the lovely comments. I'm glad you're all enjoying it. Really hope you like this chapter!

 

WARNING: ADULT THEMES

 

Chapter 7

 

 

“I look ridiculous!” laughed Roo, shaking her head at Matt and laughing a little incredulously, “It’s not exactly the sexiest look, is it?!”

“I don’t know” said Matt, smirking a little at the sight of Roo sitting there in the hospital bed. “Maybe it could catch on?” he said, giving her a little wink, “…I mean …I think you’re rocking that look pretty well.” He couldn’t help laughing a little; she did look pretty funny with that skull cap of electrodes on her head and the ones attached with stickers under her nose. It wasn’t a very attractive look, that was true, but he was glad that he’d been able to convince her to come to the city to see the specialists and let them run their tests. They could manage one night in the sleep clinic, couldn’t they? Leaving Alfie with Irene for the night had been hard but they needed to get to the bottom of this before Roo really hurt herself or someone else. Maybe they’d actually get to grips with what was causing her sleepwalking, and then maybe they could actually do something about it. “You kinda look like the Borg Queen” he said, giggling a little at that image.

“The who?” asked Roo, shrugging her shoulders at him with a confused look. He often made references that she just didn’t get.

“The Borg…” he began to reply, but he realised that it wouldn’t mean anything to her. She wasn’t much of a fan of sci-fi and she hadn’t seen any of the Star Trek movies. “Oh, just something from a movie...” he said, sitting down on the side of her bed and reaching for her hand, “It doesn’t matter”. He looked at the cap that covered her whole head with little fine wires and thought how cool this whole thing actually was. They were going to be able to chart her sleep patterns and see what was happening at each stage of sleep to see why she was getting up and wandering about the place. It was pretty badass really, even if Roo didn’t think so. “Maybe we’ll figure out why you’re so high maintenance” he teased, with a knowing smile. It was a silly little joke that they’d shared for many years now but he could see the smirk forming on her lips as soon as he’d said it.

“High maintenance?!” she squealed, jabbing him in the stomach a little playfully, “How on earth am I high maintenance?! I just spent 4 years on an island in a scrap of a dress without a single modern comfort… How is that high maintenance?!”

“Oh, so you didn’t expect me to find you the finest seafood available?” he joked, leaning in with a smirk on his face to give her a little kiss on the lips. “I didn’t spend hours searching for crabs and clams just so my woman could eat like a queen?”

“Your woman?!” she said, rolling her eyes at him and letting out a little snort of mock derision. “And ‘that’ was eating like a queen, was it?!” she laughed, shaking her head at him, “Squatting by a campfire… and cooking my own dinner in a saucepan I’d made myself?”

“Oh, so now you’re complaining that I didn’t cook it for you?!” he teased. “It wasn’t enough that I spent hours and hours catching you the highest quality fish and seafood the Pacific Ocean has to offer? That I risked life and limb to get you those sea urchins that you liked so much… I was meant to cook it for you too?!”

“Well, if I was meant to be a queen…” she sniffed, with her nose stuck in the air in mock snobbery, “…It’s the least my man servant could have done…”

“Man servant?!” he gasped, pretending to take offence, “Is that all that I am to you?! Some kind of slave?”

“Slave?” she said, raising her eyebrows at him in a mischievous sort of way, “Now, I like the sound of that!”

“Is that so?!” he laughed, enjoying this old and familiar joke and grinning from ear to ear as she beckoned with her finger for him to come closer.

“That’s right” she said, grabbing the front of his t-shirt and pulling him in for a kiss, “I expect my man servant to take care of my every need.”

“Kinky” he said, flashing her a mischievous look, “We’ll see about that when we get home.”

They both jumped a little and turned to look when they heard someone clear their throat in the doorway. “Um…” said the junior doctor that had been in earlier, “I just need to connect you up so we can get started.”

Roo let go of Matt’s t-shirt and he moved back to the chair beside the bed looking a little bit embarrassed and wondering if the young doctor had overheard them. He’d forgotten that the room had microphones so the doctors could hear her if she started speaking in her sleep.

“I don’t know how you expect me to sleep in this thing” she said, frowning at the doctor as he adjusted a few of the electrodes on the little cap, “It’s not the most comfortable thing to wear, y’know?”

“I know” he said, giving her a sympathetic little smile, “You’re not the first person to say that, believe me.” He linked the wires up to a machine beside the bed and turned to look at Matt. “I’m going to need you to leave the room while Roo is sleeping.”

“He can’t stay?!” gasped Roo, looking wide-eyed and startled. “I thought he could stay with me… in the armchair?!”

“I’m sorry, but, no.” said the young doctor, shaking his head at her, “We can’t have any distractions while you’re sleeping… but he won’t be far away, okay?”

“But… But I…” she stammered, suddenly looking absolutely terrified, “But I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to sleep at all if he isn’t here!”

“He’ll just be in the next room” he said, trying to be reassuring, “I think you’ll find that you’ll fall asleep. Just try to relax.”

“I’ll be next door, Roo” said Matt, giving her a sympathetic little head tilt as he got up to leave, “You’ll be okay.”

She watched them leave the room and close the door. She hated being alone. Lying back against the pillow and giving a heavy sigh as the lights were dimmed, she wondered how on earth she was going to get to sleep in such a strange environment with all these wires everywhere. She owed it to Matt and Alfie to try though. She couldn’t just keep sleepwalking like this. It was getting out of hand! She’d had three more incidents since the time she’d stolen the car. Matt was scared and so was she. Matt was also terribly over-tired from keeping an eye on her. He’d had very little sleep for the last couple of weeks. They needed to figure this out whatever way they could, and soon! Maybe this was it? Maybe the doctors here could help her to stop? The counselling didn’t seem to be helping and she didn’t want to start taking medication until they had a better idea of what was actually wrong. One thing was clear, they couldn’t go on like this. Something was going to have to give. ‘Okay, just close your eyes and try to go to sleep’ she told herself as she tried to tune out all other thoughts, ‘Just breathe…’ Slowly she began to imagine the swishing sounds of the ocean and pictured herself back on the island, lying safe in Matt’s arms in their little hut, and with Alfie snoozing softly by her side… Life had been pretty good there…

 

It was really hot today! She felt sweaty and uncomfortable and she really needed to pee. How could she need to pee again so soon?! She’d only been to the toilet about ten minutes ago! Her bladder must have been crushed to about the size of a pea, she thought to herself. This was insufferable. Giving a heavy sigh, she rolled over onto her knees, and began to pull herself slowly to her feet. It took so much effort these days, just to get up, that she stood for a moment panting with her hands on her lower back. Her ankles were terribly swollen and it hurt to walk much of a distance at all. Her back hurt, her hips hurt, her feet hurt... Everything hurt! She was too old for this! She put her hands on her incredibly swollen belly, and stroked it gently, with a growing sense of anxiety. She’d never been more frightened. So many questions whirred around her mind. What was it going to be like when it finally happened? How much was it going to hurt? She couldn’t remember what it had been like the first time that she’d done it all those years ago. Not really. She knew that it had hurt a lot, obviously, but she couldn’t really remember it. Not the actual pain. She knew that that wasn’t unusual. She’d read that the brain actually has a mechanism to stop women from remembering the pain. Chemicals are released after the birth to wipe the memory of it from their minds so that they’ll be willing to put themselves through it again. They forget the horror and the trauma of the whole experience because they have a little baby in their arms, and a cocktail of hormones raging through their body telling their brain that what just happened was a good thing, despite a lot of physical evidence to the contrary. But what if her body just wasn’t up to it this time? She was 46 years old this time around, and they were stuck here on a desert island without a doctor and without any drugs, and all that she had was Matt… and he knew next to nothing. What if something went wrong? What if the baby was breach? What if the umbilical cord got wrapped around its neck? What if she just lacked the strength to deliver it safely? What if she couldn’t push? What if the baby got stuck? What if she haemorrhaged? So many worries… sometimes she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Most of all she worried about dying. Women had been giving birth like this for thousands of years, that was true, but they also used to die in childbirth all the time before modern medicine got involved... She was terrified. She wondered if she’d even survive the birth to hold her baby in her arms.

She waddled off towards the water and waded in. Her belly was so large now that she couldn’t crouch very well and she’d found that it was easier to just wade into the water and go standing up. Gazing down at her enormous belly as she peed, she began to wonder yet again what her baby would be like. She just hoped that he or she would be healthy. What on earth would they do with a sick baby in a place like this?! She tried to push the thought out of her mind. The baby would be strong and healthy and everything would be okay. She stroked the bump, feeling the baby move a little, and smiled to herself. Who’d have thought that Roo Stewart would ever get the chance to be a mum again? This was a nightmare and a blessing all rolled into one. Roo Stewart was pregnant! That she was pregnant to a 22-year-old man, and living on a desert island, never to be found again, was another matter. She was having a baby! She was going to be a mum! Looking again at the size of her belly a thought began to creep in that really scared her. What if it wasn’t just one baby?! What if there were twins? Her stomach was absolutely enormous at this stage but she had no idea how far along she really was. She had a rough idea, but she couldn’t be completely sure. What if she wasn’t as far along as she thought she was and this could still get bigger?! Managing one baby in a place like this would be hard enough! How would they cope with two?!

She made her way back up the beach and sat down as gently as she could on the little seat that Matt had made for her beside the camp fire. It wasn’t lit yet. She’d wait for Matt to come home from fishing and let him do it. He was better at it anyway, and she wasn’t in any fit state to be getting down on her knees to light a fire. Besides, it was still pretty warm and she wasn’t feeling great. She gazed out at the water and realised that the sun was beginning to set. It was a lot later in the day than she’d realised. It wasn’t like Matt to come home so late. Normally he was home long before sunset. She turned to look towards the rocks on the far side of the beach. He normally came back that way. ‘Where is he?’ she wondered to herself, starting to feel a little knot of anxiety in the base of her stomach.

 

 

*****

A few hours earlier...

“A pair of flamin’ galahs if you ask me!” huffed Alf, as he sat across from Irene and Leah at a table in the diner, “Am I the only one with any sense around here?!”

“Alf, don’t you think maybe… maybe you might be…” asked Irene, glancing at Leah for moral support. Alf had been flying off the handle more and more often these days and she knew that there was a very good chance that he’d end up storming off in a temper tantrum. She didn’t really understand this animosity he had towards Matt, especially given the good relationship that they’d had before the shipwreck. Was it really such a bad thing that Roo was with a young man that obviously cared about her so much? Everyone knew that Matt was a good person, a kind person... and that hadn’t changed. How could his age matter so much to Alf? Wasn’t it better that Roo was happy with her toyboy than unhappy with someone her own age, or very unhappy alone? She shook her head at him, wondering what went on in that stubborn head of his. “Don’t you think maybe… just maybe… you’re being a little unreasonable?” she asked, bracing herself for Alf’s reaction.

“He’s just a boy” huffed Alf, crossing his arms across his chest and pursing his lips in an obstinate way, “How does he think he can look after my daughter and that grandson of mine? He needs looking after himself for Pete’s sake!”

“Darl” said Irene, tilting her head at him with a pitying sort of look, “Don’t take this the wrong way… but I think you’re a flippin’ idiot! You’re gonna end up losing all of them if you keep carrying on like this!” She put her hand gently on his arm and gave it a little pat.  “Now you’ve always been one for plain speaking… and you know I’m not one for mincing my words either… so if you want my honest opinion, I think the way that you’ve been treating that young fella since he got back is just terrible. You should be ashamed of yourself!”

He rolled his eyes at her and gave an exasperated huff of disapproval as he threw back the last of his coffee.

“Yeah, Alf, I mean… We all thought we’d lost Roo… and Matt” said Leah, looking at him with big worried eyes. She really didn’t want him to ruin things for himself and she could see that things were headed in a very bad direction if they let things continue like this. Roo and Matt were at the end of their tether with him, and they’d been busy over the last few days looking for a place to move to. He was on the verge of losing them forever if he wasn’t careful. Alf was going to end up rattling around that big house on his own like some grumpy old oddity. She didn’t want to see him alienate everyone who cared about him out of some misguided stubbornness and inability to accept change. For a man with so much love to give, it seemed like a very sad end in life that he was creating for himself. They owed it to him to try to help him. “And now they’re back…” she said, “Don’t you just want to pick ‘em up and give them a hug?! I mean… you got your daughter back from the dead, Alf! It doesn’t get much better than that!”

“Not you too!” groaned Alf, shaking his head at them in disdain, “I know how lucky I am to get her back… I know that! …I just wish it wasn’t like this! …Those two just aren’t right for each other! Why am I the only one that can see that? It’s as plain as the nose on my face…” He looked back and forth at the two frowning women in front of him and gave a snort of derision. “You both know they wouldn’t be together if they hadn’t ended up on that island… It’s like mother and son… It’s disgusting! My Roo wouldn’t have looked twice at that boy if she’d had anyone else to choose from!”

“Maybe that’s true” said Irene, shrugging her shoulders at him, “But it happened… and they seem to really care about each other.” She smiled at Leah and said, “Matt’s a better man than Roo’s ever had in her life.” She gave Alf’s knee a little pat and said, “C’mon Alf! He loves her and he loves that little boy. Blind Freddie can see that!”

“That doesn’t mean I have to like it” grumbled Alf, picking up his hat and making a move to leave, “I wish everyone would stop sticking their noses in my business!”

 “Okay, fine Alf!” exclaimed Leah, crossing her arms across her chest and looking at him in a scolding way. “So… what is it that you want Matt to do?!” she asked, tilting her head at him and using a soft patronising voice like you would with a small child, “You want him to leave her? Leave his baby? What?!”

He considered this for a moment as he sat with his hat in his hands and stared into his empty coffee cup. Of course, he didn’t want Matt to abandon Roo and Alfie. Of course not! He didn’t want Roo to be left alone with a small child to care for. He didn’t want Alfie to grow up without a dad. What he wanted was for none of this to have happened in the first place. He wanted things to go back to how they’d been before, and for Roo to find a man her own age and be happy with him. This just wasn’t the life that he’d pictured for her. It wasn’t the life that he’d pictured for Matt either if he was honest. Roo was 48 years old with a two-year-old son. By the time Alfie was going to University Roo would be 64 years old and Matt would only be 40. What would their life be like then? They’d be so out of sync in terms of energy levels and interests that he couldn’t see it ending well. He just didn’t want Roo to get hurt. Or Matt for that matter. This just wasn’t what he wanted for them. Why could people not see how wrong this whole thing was? He could see that Matt and Roo cared about each other right now, but life would get in the way sooner or later, with its trials and its tribulations, and love just wouldn’t be enough. Age was going to be a problem eventually, no matter how politically correct people wanted to be about it. Why could no-one else see that?

“I’m just worried about Roo” he sighed, putting his hat on and getting to his feet. “I’m looking out for her, even if she doesn’t understand that.”

“Maybe that’s what you think you’re doing, love” said Irene, looking up at him and shaking her head a little despairingly, “But what it looks like to them… and to everyone else… is you kicking them in the teeth every chance you get…” She got up and started clearing the coffee cups from the table. “I’d have a think about that before you open your mouth next time.” she added.

 

*****

Now...

 

Matt sat in a chair next door with the technologist who was running the sleep trial. He’d been given a room to sleep in but he’d wandered out into the hallway in a restless sort of way when he’d been unable to sleep. He’d been too anxious about Roo and couldn’t stop himself from wondering how things were going. The technologist had said that he could come in and keep him company as long as he didn’t distract him too much.  Squiggly line after squiggly line fed through on the equipment as the electrodes picked up Roo’s brain activity. It looked like she’d fallen asleep after all. They could see her sleeping on the video screens, and for the moment she seemed to be sleeping relatively peacefully, although she’d turned over a few times.

“See anything yet?” asked Matt, gazing at the lines moving on the screen with interest, “I mean… What does all that stuff tell you?”

“It takes weeks of analysis” muttered the technologist, glancing at him over his shoulder in a dismissive sort of way, “We’re tracking everything, brain waves, eye movements, heart rate, breathing patterns… everything… It’s not just a case of looking at those lines and going ‘oh, there’s the problem!’” He lifted his cup of coffee and took a very noisy slurp before adjusting something on one of the monitors, “I’d settle in there, mate. It’s gonna be one incredibly boring night.”

“Right” said Matt, sounding very disappointed as he leaned back in his chair. He’d hoped that there would be an ‘ah ha!” moment and that they’d figure out what was wrong tonight so that they could fix it. He needed Roo to get better very soon if he was going to have any chance of keeping his job. Much to his own surprise, things were going relatively well at Salt, even if he was getting more and more tired as the days went on. He was living on his nerves from day to day, with only a couple of hours of snatched sleep here and there, but he was still managing to hold it together for now. He’d only done a couple of shifts so far but he didn’t seem to have annoyed Brody too much. He wasn’t exactly impressing anyone because he’d found it hard to deal with the customers in any way that was more than quiet and polite, but he hadn’t fallen to pieces either, at least not in front of anyone.  He was slowly but surely getting to grips with Salt’s fine dining menu, and beginning to be able to talk about it, and describe the dishes in a way that sounded knowledgeable.  He really liked the food there, and the atmosphere in the restaurant was usually quite quiet and subdued, so it suited him quite well. He just hoped that he wouldn’t do anything to screw it up. He gazed at the video screen, seeing Roo move about a little bit and gave a little sigh as he wondered what was going on in that head of hers…

 

Roo waddled towards the campfire and lowered herself onto the seat beside it as carefully as she could. She couldn’t walk very far at all now because her back and hips were so sore. She stared off towards the rocks where she’d last seen Matt and began to cry. He’d been gone two days now and there was no sign of him coming back. He’d left her here, heavily pregnant and helpless, and he was just gone. All sorts of terrible thoughts were running through her mind but they all kept circling back to one thing. He was dead! It was the only thing that made sense. Matt had never left her like this before! He’d never gone away and not come back by nightfall. For him to stay away like this had to mean that something bad had happened to him and if that was the case then it meant he was never coming back at all! Images of Matt’s dead and bloodied body, lying crushed on the rocks, flashed through her mind. She couldn’t stop seeing it. He was lying dead somewhere and she’d never get to see him again! What on earth was she going to do now?! She was alone on a desert island, maybe only days away from giving birth, and now she was going to have to do it completely on her own! Maybe this was how it would happen? She’d go into labour and then she’d die too.

 

Matt sat forward in his chair and stared with a concerned expression at the video screen. He could see that Roo was beginning to move a lot more and when he looked at the squiggly lines that were feeding through he was pretty sure that they seemed a lot more spiked and erratic. “Is that… normal?” he asked, looking at the technologist with big worried eyes.

“I said you could stay if you didn’t distract me.” muttered the technologist, keeping his eyes fixed on the heart monitor as the numbers continued to climb, “You can stay and be quiet, or I’ll ask you to leave.”

“Sorry” said Matt, getting to his feet and putting his hands behind his head in a frustrated sort of way. He could see that Roo’s eyes were open now and she was sitting up in the bed staring all around her. She had her arms held out in front of her in a strange way, almost like she was carrying something heavy like a watermelon. Suddenly she cried out and groaned in a loud, wounded animal kind of way. He looked at the technologist with a startled expression and made a move as though to go to her.

“Wait!” snapped the technologist, “This is what we need to see… You need to leave her so we can see what’s going on when she’s having these episodes.” He nodded at the chair for Matt to sit down again, “She’ll be okay, it’s all controlled here.”

He nodded and reluctantly took his seat again. The noises she was making were low guttural groans now, like an animal in pain. He grimaced as he watched her writhe around the bed on all fours. This was all a little scary.

 

How could he do this to her?! How could he leave her here to go through this on her own?! She was so angry with him in this moment, even if she knew that he was more than likely dead. She hated him for this. He’d left her. He’d gone and gotten himself killed like the careless and inconsiderate idiot that he obviously was. He’d left her here to suffer this alone. All on her own! He’d abandoned her when she needed him most. The pain was unimaginable. The contractions were coming pretty close together now and she could hardly tell where one ended and another began. It had been going on for hours now and she’d never felt more weak and tired in her life. How was she going to have the energy to see this through? Her whole body was screaming at her to push, but when she tried to, she just didn’t have the strength. Kneeling here on all fours, grunting and groaning like some kind of injured animal, this was how it was going to end. Roo Stewart wasn’t going to get to be a mum. She wouldn’t get to hold her baby in her arms, she wouldn’t get to have the little family she’d always dreamed of, she wouldn’t get to have any of the things that she wanted... Roo Stewart was going to die. She was going to die here, on her own, because she was too tired to give birth.

 

“Please?! You have to stop this!” pleaded Matt, as he watched Roo sobbing inconsolably as she lay panting on the bed, “I can’t let you do this to her!”

The technologist nodded slowly as he watched her on the screen. Her heartrate was excessively elevated and her breathing was becoming far too laboured. It looked like the dream had quickly descended into a panic attack. “I think maybe…” he said, getting to his feet, “…maybe it’s time we did wake her up.”

“I’ll do it” said Matt, as he turned and ran towards Roo’s room, “It’s better if it’s me.” He opened her door and rushed towards the bed. She was lying on her side, sobbing and breathing in a very fast and laboured way, as though she couldn’t take in a full breath. “Roo?” he said softly as he gave her shoulder a little shake, “Roo?! Wake up! It’s just a nightmare.”

“You left me!” roared Roo, suddenly sitting up and staring right at him with hurt-filled eyes, “You left me there on my own! How could you do that to me?! How could you do that?!”

“I’m sorry” said Matt, putting his arms around her as he tried to pull her towards him for a hug, “It’s okay, Roo! You’re safe!” He wasn’t sure what he was apologising for but he knew that she was angry and scared. All he wanted to do was comfort her.

“You left me there!” she growled, shoving him away from her. She drew back and slapped him, with a loud crack, really hard across the face, “I hate you for that! I hate you!”

He took a step back from her and put his hand up to cover his stinging cheekbone. He looked at her in shock as he began to realise what it was that she was talking about. “I tried to get back to you…” he said quietly, as his eyes filled up with tears, “You know that I tried.”

“How could you do that to me, Matt?!” she said, hugging her knees up towards her chest and starting to cry again, “You left me there… and I had to do it all on my own!”

[hward]

Great chapter!  So it's triggered by Roo's anxiety/feelings over being left alone to give birth.  Well that's enough to give anyone nightmares, lol.  Really curious as to what had happened to Matt.  And yeah, I also think Roo and Matt could be a thing if the timing was right as I love their chemistry on screen.

[KittCatt]

Great chapter!

Loving the flashback's and the insight they give. Poor Roo, having to give birth in such a way, terrified that Matt's dead and that she's going to die herself  I'd be terrified too! I'm glad the sleep study is giving them some insight into Roo's dreams.

I'm glad that Marilyn, Irene and Leah were there to tell Alf what for. He is going to end up making Roo and Matt hate him if he continues, even if he's only complaining because he's worried about Roo. He did have some valid points- Roo would be 64 when Alfie's at uni. But, he can't go back in time and change things can he? And the alternative of Matt leaving didn't sit well with him either. If he can't get over it, he should at least try to respect them and the choices they make, because he hasn't been doing much of that lately. And i think they both need all the support they can get.

I look forward to more  

[Red Ranger 1]

The flashback/dream was interesting: I thought at first that it was just Roo's fear of being left intruding on her memories of the birth, I didn't realise until the end that it was what actually happened.Glad that Irene and Leah spoke to Alf.

[Guest]

Great chapter 

Glad they have some insight into what is happening with Roo.

Really liked the dream/flashback 

Update again soon

 

[Inactive User]

Awesome chapter, Ludub  

Liked the chat Irene and Leah, Marilyn had with Alf

And I liked the insight into what's happening with Roo

Update soon please xx

[Ludub]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Much appreciated as always!  Glad you're enjoying the story so far! 

 

12 hours ago, hward said:

So it's triggered by Roo's anxiety/feelings over being left alone to give birth.  Well that's enough to give anyone nightmares, lol. 

9 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

The flashback/dream was interesting: I thought at first that it was just Roo's fear of being left intruding on her memories of the birth, I didn't realise until the end that it was what actually happened.

 

8 hours ago, Kristen said:

Glad they have some insight into what is happening with Roo. 

Really liked the dream/flashback 

 

10 hours ago, KittCatt said:

Loving the flashback's and the insight they give. Poor Roo, having to give birth in such a way, terrified that Matt's dead and that she's going to die herself  I'd be terrified too! I'm glad the sleep study is giving them some insight into Roo's dreams.

I think this would be absolutely terrifying  (biggest understatement ever! Lol!). She was already anxious enough in the lead up to the birth with the thought of all the things that could go wrong without medical assistance. For Matt to disappear like that when she needed him most was just frightening beyond comprehension. Women do choose to have home births but they still have a midwife usually, and the possibility of calling an ambulance if things go wrong. They also have the support of family and friends in the weeks that follow to help care for the baby (usually). There are health visitors and community nurses and all other manner of checks to make sure that you're okay. There's also food and shelter. As far as Roo knew at this point, she was going to be alone. Alone with a baby (if she even managed to deliver it), with no one to help her, or even find food for her. Alone. It's a wonder that she isn't more barmy than she is.

11 hours ago, KittCatt said:

I'm glad that Marilyn, Irene and Leah were there to tell Alf what for. He is going to end up making Roo and Matt hate him if he continues, even if he's only complaining because he's worried about Roo. He did have some valid points- Roo would be 64 when Alfie's at uni. But, he can't go back in time and change things can he? And the alternative of Matt leaving didn't sit well with him either. If he can't get over it, he should at least try to respect them and the choices they make, because he hasn't been doing much of that lately. And i think they both need all the support they can get.

Thought it was about time that some of his friends had a word with him. He has been behaving in a very childish and unpleasant way, but I dont think that's out of character for Alf. He does go about things the wrong way a lot of the time. Wasn't sure if all the 'flippin' and 'flamin' was a bit too caricature-ish  but it was kinda fun to write, so hey...

[Suzza101]

Great chapter 

happy that there was some info into what is happening with Roo.

am really enjoying this fanfic

Update again soon!!!! ?