#the midwife called vik fic

[sissytobitch10seconds]

The Midwife Called Vik

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Among the streets of Poplar are all kinds of people. The most generally respected are the nurses and nuns, even if some of them are a stranger than most. Warnings: Mentions of miscarriage, a pregnant trans man, and 1950s-typical bigotry Word Count: 8,605 Ship(s): Viktor Hargreeves/Five Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves/Ben Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Lila Pitts, Jayme Hargreeves/Alphonso Hargreeves, and Sloane Hargreeves/Luther Hragreeves

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A/N: So I recently started watching this show and it was all I could to do watch a the first four seasons before I started combining my obsessions. I really liked the way that this turned out and I have a small headcanon for how everyone got set into the world in this AU. I hope that you all enjoy! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

No one paid much attention to the fact that Vik's hair was too short and that pants were where a skirt should have been. In public, the name was Viktoria Hargreeves. A good English name with a Russian twinge to honor parents and a homeland long lost. At home, around the husband and trusted family, he was Viktor. When it was just him and his husband, he was Beloved. 

It was a dangerous world to be the person that he was, so they did it in a way where nothing would reach the public ears and he could be safe. Fashion trends were already beginning to change and if anyone asked why he had done away with his skirts while he had gone away for his nurse’s training then he fed them the same lie about it being easier to bike around when not wearing a skirt. The truth was that the idea of having to wear a skirt every day for the rest of his life was enough to send him into a panic attack. The same was given for the reason that his hair was cut so short, he just told people that it got in the way when he was trying to work.

All in all, he had done a good job of hiding his transgender identity while still being able to live in a way that made him more comfortable. People had a larger problem with his homeland than how he presented himself to the public, especially after he got married. It was very disconcerting for a lot of the less traveled folk to hear that he was still Russian Orthodox, as his parents had raised him to be before they had to hurriedly send him from the Soviet Union, instead of being Church of England or even Catholic like his husband was.

He loved his job and the people that he worked with, enough that a couple of comments about his odd appearance or his choice of worship wouldn’t drive him away. 

When he woke up that morning, it seemed like the sea had lurched out of the harbor where it belonged to berate their windows with steady, heavy droplets. He could hear the crackling of thunder and see small flashes of light far off in the distance, where the majority of the storm was. He had seen far worse even when he was living in England and going to school in the bit that was further inland, but this was nothing compared to some of the winter storms he had gotten while living in the Soviet Union.

Viktor rose slowly from the bed so that he didn’t disturb his sleeping husband and then got on with his day. He had just finished changing into the midwifery uniform that he would wearing throughout his time of being on call and helping the citizens of Poplar when the very man that he had been trying not to disturb joined him.

“The storm is quite bad,” Five informed him as he leaned down and kissed at Viktor’s neck.

The other man let out a small hum as he held onto his lover’s forearms and leaned back against him for warmth and comfort. Viktor was short with a boyish figure, most likely because of the absence of meals and rest in his youth after the war. He had mousy brown hair that clung to his forehead and around his ears with hazel eyes set behind full lashes. His cheekbones and jawline were easy enough to mistake for that of a man’s from the people that didn’t know him. Five, on the other hand, was tall and thin. He had grown into them now, but when he was a teenager his limbs had been so long that they looked like they belonged to another man entirely. He had dark brown hair that he had cut in such a way that it hung almost all the way down to his cheek on one side while being cropped close to his head on the other. He had the most mesmerizingly sharp face and the deepest green eyes that Viktor had ever seen.

“The storm isn’t that bad,” the pregnant man replied softly. He let out a small sigh as he felt his husband’s hand drift down so that it was resting over the top of his stomach. He had just begun to show, so the bump was easily hidden beneath the rain coat and cardigan that he wore when he was working to keep warm. It was enough that the people that knew him well would be able to tell without it, which was why Five was holding onto it now as he tried to make his point. “мой милый,” Viktor laughed.

“It really is howling. Perhaps you should extend your rest at least one more day. I’m not sure that I want you venturing out in those winds,” Five replied. His accent was growing thicker with every word that he said, just as it often did when he was upset. Five had grown up deep in the rural-most parts of Ireland with his mother and grandparents, so he had a very distinct accent that he had tried to stamp out in favor of speaking like his old college professors, but when he was worrying it came out stronger than ever.

“It’s nothing as bad as I faced when I was living back home. There was a reason that my parents sent me over here and it wasn’t just because I was non-conforming,” Viktor said softly. He missed both of his parents dearly, as well as his homeland, but he knew that he would never be able to return to either of them. Something about pregnancy made him rather melancholic with homesickness, though. “I think that if I stay here any longer then I am going to go insane. I want to go out and see my patients and my friends again.”

Five considered it, his lips pursing into a fine line. He glanced back at the crib that they had already prepared at the foot of their bed, anxiously anticipating the newest arrival to their little family. “Alright, fine. But the moment that you start to feel poorly, you are to call me and come home or to the nunnery to rest.”

Viktor squirmed so that he was able to turn around in his husband’s arms. He threw his hands up so that they were threaded behind Five’s neck and dragging him down just far enough that he could press their lips together in an adoring kiss. “I am going to be fine, Five. I know that you’re just worried about us, but I’m already further along than I was last time and I’ve been resting for the last week. If something bad happens, then you will be the first to know so that you can help stop it. Alright?”

The taller of the two adorned a soft expression on his face as he leaned down and pressed a kiss first to his husband’s forehead, and then one to his lips. Finally, he got down onto his knees and placed his hands on either side of Viktor’s hidden bump before he leaned forward and kissed the roundest spot. “You be good for us, we’re expecting to meet you this winter.”

“And we will,” Viktor reassured him. “My mother said that she knew with me. And she had lost three before I was born.”

They stayed there for a moment longer, Viktor’s hands threading through the long locks hanging down onto the right side of Five’s face while his husband rested his forehead over where their baby was safely tucked away, awaiting their debut to the world. But they both had patients to attend to that wouldn’t be able to wait, so they went their separate ways. They were able to eat together and share another comforting moment by the front door of their home, but after that they both knew that they would be unable to see each other at least until late that night depending on how Viktor’s day went.

He had left his bicycle at Nonnatus House, so he was walking to work with his favorite black umbrella perched over his head to keep him dry from the pouring rain. The way that the wind nipped at his nose reminded of being back home in the Soviet Union. When he had first moved to Poplar, he had trouble acclimating to the rain and lack of snow. Some days it still troubled him, even though he had been living there for well over five years.

Several people greeted him when they recognized him on his way to work, waving to him from their safety under their own umbrellas or underneath the awnings of shops and homes. Several children were dressed in thick wool coats with hats stuffed onto their heads as they ran around, catching raindrops on their tongues and splashing in all the puddles that they could find.

The East End was about as poor as the town that he had grown up in, so it was comforting to see that even though the people in England worshiped differently than he did and didn’t speak his mother tongue, they were still the same. People living in poverty or destitution, people that were unable to work and that hadn’t yet been rehomed, were the same all over the world.

Nonnatus house stood tall amongst the rest of the buildings surrounding it. The red brick and Gothic architecture was one of the first things that Viktor remembered about moving to Poplar, so it was a welcome sight once he finally arrived. He walked up the front steps very carefully so that he didn’t slip on the slick wet gravel or uncleaned steps. Marcus had been rather overworked with a burst pipe in the basement so it made sense that they hadn’t been cleaned in a while.

He opened the grand doors and then quietly shut it behind him. He shook off his umbrella before doing so, casting the droplets down onto the cement instead of on the clean floor of the nunnery. He placed his umbrella on the hook and then removed his woolen coat before setting it on the hook over the top of that.

“Vik? Is that you?” a sweet voice called out from down the hall, near the sitting room where the nuns and nurses gathered when they weren’t running the clinic or attending to housecalls.

“Yes it is! I’m finally being allowed back to work,” he beamed as he turned to face his dear friend.

Sloane was the tallest woman that Viktor had ever seen, especially when it came to the underfed and malnourished that seemed to litter the streets of Poplar. She had long blond hair that she kept back in braids or a ponytail, away from her face. Her skin was tanned caramel from her years working a farm in Wales when she was younger during the war. She had the sweet features that every woman longed for, even if they came with a rather undesirable height.

“I’m glad that you’re back! It’s been so dreary around here without you,” Sloane informed him sweetly as she wrapped her arm around his. The two of them had grown very close when Viktor had first moved to Nonnatus house as Sloane was only six months his senior, so had very weak bonds with the rest of the midwives at the time. Everyone, other than the nuns, serving now had come after the duo had started their work a half decade prior.

Viktor pressed a hand to the lower part of his stomach since they were in the relative safety of the hallway. Sloane was one of his closest friends so she had been told both about his gender and the baby despite the married couple deciding that they were going to keep the pregnancy a secret until they were more sure that it was going to stick this time. They had picked her out of all their friends because of her medical expertise and talent at keeping secrets. “You know how Five can get when he’s worried about something.”

“You do feel better, don’t you?” she asked, pausing so that she could turn and look properly at her friend.

He nodded and the stress sloped off of her shoulders. “Don’t worry, I do. Five wouldn’t have let me out of the house with all this rain unless I was in tip-top shape,” Viktor explained with a small laugh. He loved his husband more than he thought he would have been able to love anything in the entire world, so the fretting and worrying was comforting instead of annoying.

They walked the rest of the way into the nunnery so that they could join the others where they were getting their morning rounds. The head nun of the convent that they were working with rose and walked over to the duo. “Oh, Nurse Hargreeves, it’s so wonderful to see you again! I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to return to us before the baby boom. We’ve got fifty scheduled this week alone,” Sister Grace tutted with a small shake of her head. She was one of the kindest people that lived on the East End, which was why she was in charge of the convent and all of the nurses that served it.

“My husband has instructed me not to let you work me too hard just in case something like that takes me out of commission again, but I am back to be of help in any way that I can!” he beamed.

“I would suggest that Nurse Sparrow finish her tea as quickly as she can and then the two of you can leave on your normal rounds. You’re to visit Mr. Herschberger, Mrs. Patch, and Mrs. Velonos at the start of your day and then we’ll let you know if there are any deliveries that you need to attend to when you get back. Be safe, alright?” Grace said.

Viktor gave her a nod. He waved to the other nuns and nurses that were gathered around the living room table. Two of them had been on call last night so were absolutely exhausted and having a soothing cup of tea with their breakfast before they went to bed. Another was going to be waiting for the phone while Sloane and Viktor were out about town. Sloane quickly pushed past her friend and into the living room so that she could attend to the muffin that was half eaten on the table.

He was glad that he was going to be able to go out again, because he didn’t want to deal with some of the prying that the older nuns just couldn’t help themselves with. Viktor gave them all a polite nod and then explained that he was going to be on his way before he turned and left to get his coat again. He left his umbrella on the hook where he had put it after coming in so that he could ride his bicycle without being overly hindered by it. The bag full of sterile tools that he would need for the rounds he was to do was right where he had left it, securely in the back compartment of his bike.

---

He rode through the town as quickly as he could to avoid the rain, though he didn’t really notice it dampening his hat and coat since they were both fairly waterproof. When he got to the apartment where his first appointment of the day was being held, he parked his bike against their wall and then got his tools out of the back where they had been safely tucked away. Viktor made his way through the front door of the apartment and then up the rather perilous steps so that he could get to the specific room that he was looking for. Once he found it, he paused and then wrapped his knuckles against the wood. “Nurse calling! Mr. Herschberger?”

The walls of the apartment had paint underneath wallpaper, both of which were beginning to peel. The floors were warped from years of wear as people walked through them and the general dampness caused by the lack of proper glass in the hallway facing windows. It was clean enough and the younger, able-bodied tenants took care of the rats and mice with a cat that they kept. It made the apartment complex a bit more inviting than some of the others, as well as the company inside being absolutely lovely.

The door opened and revealed another one of Viktor’s good friends, though he didn’t happen to be Viktor’s patient for that day. Ben was a tall asian man with a shock of black hair that he kept carefully combed back. He had dark eyes full of hurt and angst for the world, which was well earned at this point. Despite the run down apartment that he lived in, he kept himself looking well manicured in the hopes that someone would finally give him the job that he deserved. He had been doing well until the anti-asian sentiment that settled across the people’s mind due to the Japanese involvement in World War II, regardless of the fact that Ben was Korean and his family had been living in England for two generations prior.

“I’m glad that you’re back. He was being a right pain to the other nurse that they were sending to tend to him while you were off duty,” Ben said as he stepped to the side.

He closed the door securely behind Viktor and then walked quickly through the apartment to where the aforementioned man was laying back on a sofa. The windows were opened just enough to let in some of the breeze, though Ben had the foresight to place a towel on the spot on the floor that would be getting damp because of the rain. The apartment was about as run down as the rest of the building had been, but it was kept clean by Ben in his free time.

“Klaus, were you giving my replacement a hard time?” Viktor chided.

The aforementioned man let out a dramatic sigh and tossed his head backwards. He was lanky and thin despite not being able to get up and do much because of the injury he had sustained when he had been fighting during the war. His dark brown hair fell into perfect ringlets around his face and neck, and his eyes were green in the same way that Five’s were.

“How could I let them tend to me when I knew that you were the only one suited for the job?” he asked, throwing his hands out to the side. His ‘HELLO’ and ‘GOODBYE’ tattoos were prominent on his hands when he did so, and Viktor knew that was the reason he was so fond of that gesture.

“Uh huh, I’m sure. You weren’t just hazing her like you were with me?” Viktor asked. He set his bag down on the edge of the couch and the knelt down on the floor next to his friend. Viktor had originally met Ben and the two of them had immediately bonded because they both found out that they were queers in a part of the world where that kind of thing still had to be kept very hush-hush. Later, Viktor had been introduced to Klaus as one of the wards that he was going to be taking care of as a district nurse and found that he already knew Ben. They were another of the few people that knew about Viktor being who he was and not just Nurse Hargreeves or Vik.

Klaus turned his head to the side and smiled that wide, toothy smile that meant he knew he was doing something wrong. Viktor rolled his eyes and unbuttoned the first few inches of his top so that the wound he had come to inspect was visible. “Mind moving Dave so that I can get my work done?” he asked, gesturing his head down to where two sets of silver dog tags were hanging low on Klaus’ chest.

There were very few people that Viktor ever felt truly sorry for. Most had let their sour hand in life turn them into bad people that shouted at each other or abused their children. Klaus, on the other hand, had been drafted into the second world war when he was only eighteen and then lost the love of his life in the very battle that had given him the festering wound on his chest. Klaus carried Dave with him everywhere, even though they had only been involved for nine months and he was married to Ben now (in the eyes of each other and their friends, the law and the public certainly wouldn’t allow it). Viktor couldn’t imagine how he would feel if he had lost Five and he remembered the pain of his first ever girlfriend choosing a man and a marriage over him.

“I suppose I will, if you have to get on with your duties and can’t just drink with us,” Klaus sighed. He reached down and carefully removed the dog tags from around his neck. He wound the silver chain around his hand so that he could make sure he wouldn’t lose them while he couldn’t wear them.

Viktor was used to this by now since he had been helping Klaus for at least three years. He let out a little laugh and shook his head as he replied, “You know that I can’t drink. I’m working.”

He brushed his fingers over the edge of the wound and then winced when he saw that green puss was beginning to form in the dead center where it was at its worst. “Have you been taking care of this since you’ve chased the other nurses out?”

Ben, from the other room where he was preparing Viktor some tea as he always did, said, “You know that he hasn’t! I’ve barely managed to corral him into the bath most days so making him clean the wound that’s causing him all his pain is absolutely out of the question.”

The nurse let out a small sigh, though he knew that was going to be the answer. According to Klaus’ mother, a kind yet strict woman that Viktor had only met once when Klaus was first moving in, he had always been a very self destructive person. He seemed to have no care for his body or understanding that it would be around forever if he didn’t take care of himself. He drank too much, smoked too much, was frivolous with sex, all to fill the void that chronic night terrors and a war he was too young to fight in had left him with.

“Well, we’re going to have to clean that out. I know that’s your favorite part,” Viktor chuckled. That was his one way at getting back at his friend for not doing as he was always instructed to. Whenever Klaus let the wounds get as bad as they were currently, he had to clean them out with antiseptic that stung like nothing else.

He got out the tools that he needed while ignoring the complaints coming from his friend. He immediately got to work, which he was only allowed to do after shooting Klaus a sharp look that let the veteran know today was not the day to mess with him. Pretty soon the wound had been cleaned and dressed, and the dog tags replaced right over his heart where they belonged. 

“I want you to try and keep it clean and dry this time, alright? I’m not going to be able to come and change it as often as I usually do so it’s going to fall to you and Ben to do it,” Viktor instructed them firmly.

Ben handed Viktor the cup of tea that he had made, sweetened with condensed milk just how he liked it. He leaned down and kissed Klaus sweetly on the mouth, a gesture so intimate that Viktor felt lucky he got to see it.

“Are you sure that you don’t want a drink?” Klaus asked once Ben had moved so that he was sitting in an armchair next to the couch that his husband was on. The veteran reached behind the sofa and then pulled up a bottle of alcohol with ease despite the wound pulling painfully at both sides of his chest. 

“I told you this before and I’ll tell you as many times as you have to hear it, I’m not allowed to drink when I’m on call and working,” he reprimanded playfully. He adored his friends and he would have gladly had a small drink with them if they had been his last patients to visit before he was going home and he had not been pregnant. 

As if he was able to read Viktor’s mind, Klaus tilted his head to the side and smiled wide. “When’s the baby due then, Vik?”

The midwife flushed and laughed as his hand cupped the small bump hidden beneath his uniform and sweater. “Is it that obvious?” he asked as he looked down. No one else had commented on it, which was unusual because a pregnancy from one of the nurses was a big deal to the patients that they came to see. It meant change in their already chaotic lives, something not a lot of them wanted to deal with.

“It’s not, I’m just good at spotting this kind of thing,” Klaus beamed, obviously very proud of himself.

Viktor let out a nervous laugh of relief. He and his husband had been anxious since they had realized that his period hadn’t come for at least two months. It had been a scramble to make sure that he could still fulfill the work that he did around the community while also keeping the pregnancy a secret until they could be sure that it was safe to tell people. They were trepidatiously excited for the months that were to come and the lifetime that they would have after that.

“The baby’s due in about six months, should everything go according to plan,” he then explained when he realized that neither of the men in the apartment were going to let him leave without giving them some kind of answer.

“If you have a baby shower promise that you’ll invite us,” Ben said as he rose to let Viktor out of the apartment.

“I will. And knowing Five the baby will be baptized Catholic, lest Efa Hargreeves have our heads. You’ll both be invited to that as well,” he chuckled. He bade them both goodbye before he turned and went about his way.

---

By the time that he got to the front door the complex, he found that the mister for his next appointment was already standing there. “Officer Patch? Has something happened with the baby and your missus?” he asked, worry shooting through his spine so that he was standing ramrod straight.

Diego quickly shook his head, eyes filled with guilt. “Lila chased me out of the house this morning because Stan and I were being too loud. I just dropped him off at school and figured that I would give my favorite nurse some company on the way to the next appointment. If that’s alright with you, of course,” he added the last bit nervously.

Viktor’s features softened and he gave a nod. “I was actually going over to the flower shop for my next appointment, so maybe by the time that we get there she’ll have forgiven you,” he chuckled.

Diego let out a small groan at the thought of returning so soon after Lila’s outburst, but he began to walk beside his friend anyway. Diego’s family had moved from Mexico when he was no older than three, so he didn’t remember it much. He still spoke Spanish fluently because his parents had thought that it was very important to teach him. He now served as an officer for Poplar’s police department, so he and Viktor saw a lot of each other. Diego was relatively tall with a scar that stretched from one cheek to the ear on the same side of his head. He had skin that was tanned from birth and world-worn because of all the time he spent outside. He kept his hair cut short to his head and his body as fit as possible. He was one of the most trusted officers in the entire East End.

The two of them walked quietly before Diego asked, “How has Klaus been doing? I haven’t seen as much of him as I usually do.”

“I think that Ben has been keeping him out of trouble while I was on my leave. It’s harder for the other nurses to know the ins and outs of his language so it’s better for him to rest when I’m not there to help,” Viktor explained. “But I think that he’s doing well enough to be out and about again soon. Especially if Ben decides to take him on more walks to get their groceries.”

“Good, good,” Diego nodded. Just like Viktor was, he was also very familiar with the needy and underprivileged individuals in the neighborhood. Diego took care of Klaus just as much as Viktor did, though in a very different way. The two of them were good friends as well.

The rest of the short walk to the flower shop that Diego’s wife Lila ran was spent with them chatting about their lives. Viktor questioned how their eldest, Stan, was doing. Stan had been adopted from Germany when Lila was overseas as a spy and codebreaker during the second world war. It wasn’t necessarily abnormal for people to come back from their service with children, but it had been a little shocking for her to return with a three-year-old grasped in her arms.

Viktor gave a goodbye to his friend before he let himself in the front door of the flower shop. He admired some of the newly arrived peonies next to his favorite flower, purple tulips, while he waited for his patient to finish up with some of the customers that had been there when he arrived. They cleared out of the store once they had gotten their orders and bouquets, leaving him alone with his friend, “I’ve come to check your quarters for when baby comes,” he explained. “And I need to give you a check over since you haven’t been showing up to the antenatal clinics like you’re supposed to.”

The woman in question gave a playful sigh and a roll of her eyes. Lila was just a couple inches taller than Viktor, though she wore platform shoes when she wasn’t carrying about seven pounds of baby on her front, which usually made her taller. She was wearing a long cream colored sweater with a checkered dress that sinched under her chest and above her round stomach. “I know I’m supposed to go to those things but Stan doesn’t have school on the weekends so it’s hard to get away from the shop, especially now that it’s spring.” 

He let out a little sigh as he moved to the side of the counter door. Lila walked over to the door and flipped the sign so that it said she would be open in a bit before she walked the nurse through the shop up to the apartment above it. Viktor had been up there before when he was visiting her earlier in her pregnancy and when he and Diego were catching up, so he knew that it was already going to be mostly passing the inspection. 

He was glad that he was back at work, having to take a break after half a decade of being on his feet every day while working had been absolutely Hell for him, but at the same time he was beginning to remember all the little things he didn’t really care for when it came to this job. He walked up the stairs to the apartment where the Patches lived, including Diego’s sister who was staying with him while they tried to save up enough money for a home so that they could rent out the flat above the flower shoppe and all live together. Diego’s parents had been very adamant about that when he got married, Viktor distinctly remembered several of the complaints that he had to listen to Diego gripe about around the time of his wedding.

“You know where the bathroom is. Diego and I still sleep alone, Eudora insisted on sharing with Stan when she moved in with us,” Lila said as she motioned her head towards the respective things that Viktor had to ask about. He had given her the run through of what he would be looking for when she first came to the clinic and told him that she thought she was pregnant. He knew that with the chaos of a twelve-year-old it was a little bit hard to keep a flat as clean as it needed to be for a home delivery.

Viktor walked through the apartment as he surveyed the walls and the floors to make sure that there were no mouse holes or mold growing underneath the paper. Everything was up to code, which meant that it was time for him to examine the baby since Lila hadn’t shown up to her last several appointments.

She had worked with him, which was a surprise since she usually put up a fuss and insisted that she and the baby were fine. He knew that word of his almost-episode and subsequent husband-imposed house arrest had gotten around Poplar very quickly, but he didn’t know that it would affect Lila of all people. He was ushered out of the shop and apartment so that she could get back to work after being reassured three times over that she would ring him when the baby came, if she had any concerns, and that she would let one of the other nurses come with the birth pack.

---

He rode his bicycle to his last scheduled visit of the day before he got to go back to Nonnatus House for lunch and any deliveries that he might be called out to. He was hoping that the day would be rather quiet so that he could reassure Five that both he and their unborn child were fine despite the downpour. The rain had lightened up during his last two calls so that it was more of an annoying drizzle than anything that was going to get him drenched or help him catch cold.

Viktor parked his bike outside of the tall apartment building that he was prepared to go into. The couple that he was seeing was nice enough, even if the wife had a mean tongue about her and was rather reclusive. She had been very difficult to persuade at the beginning of her pregnancy, but she had come around to Viktor when he had realized that he needed to handle her with the same sharpness that she handled everyone else with. Jayme was becoming a dear friend of his, and he was hoping that the visit would be a pleasant one. 

“Mrs. Velenos?” he asked as he knocked on the door and waited to be let in. 

When the door opened, he was met with the husband instead of the wife as he had been expecting. Usually, when he came calling in the middle of a weekday, Alphonso was off at his job. He worked at the same butcher shop that Five’s mother had before she was bade to retire back to the countryside to help take care of her own parents. He was a tall man with short brown hair and warm brown eyes, but his face was marred with scars from an incident during the second world war.

He clicked his tongue and moved to the side so that Viktor could walk in. “Good morning,” he greeted pleasantly, as he always did when he was dealing with the family members of his patients. Alphonso was just a little bit softer than Jayme, but still liked to be dealt with a roughness.

“Did they not tell you what happened?” Alphonso asked once he finally shut the door behind Viktor. The house seemed to have taken a bit of a dreary look to it where chipper livelihood usually stayed in the corners. It was something that was so prominent in the front rooms and the places where the couple spent more time, which is why Viktor enjoyed coming to visit them whenever Jayme couldn’t make it to the clinics like she should have.

“No, Sister Grace just told me that you were the last on my rounds today. Did something happen?” he asked worriedly as he set down his pack on the kitchen table. He glanced around the home to try and figure out where the missus of the house was. Usually Jayme was very quickly present whenever anyone was in her home, very protective of all of her things and her space.

Alphonso turned towards the stairs that led up to the bedroom. He let out a small sigh and said, “I guess that it’s possible we could have forgotten to telephone. It was a rather traumatic experience for us, after all.”

“Mr. Velenos, what happened?” Viktor asked. He was becoming more and more worried as the information that he needed refused to come to him. It was growing into his stomach and beginning to slowly spread throughout all of his limbs. He had become familiar with that feeling during the war and then it later adapted so that it happened whenever something was happening with his patients. The other midwives and nurses called it a superpower, but Viktor always thought that it was a mix of nerves and good observational skills.

He motioned for the other man to follow him and then stepped through the house. Viktor glanced around at the items scattered on almost every surface, something that Jayme was usually railing on her husband for since she liked to keep a relatively clean house. It was odd that the home was in the state that it was in, compounded only by the fact that Jayme herself was nowhere in sight.

“The pregnancy was going fine. We missed one of the appointments that we were meant to go to but Jayme said that everything felt fine. She was glowing…” he paused, a heartbroken expression taking over his marred features. Viktor had been working as a nurse and a midwife for as long as he could, so he immediately knew that look and it sent cold shivers through his entire body. “Then one morning we woke up and she started bleeding. Didn’t stop until yesterday night.”

Viktor stopped and looked directly at the husband of his patient. “Where is she?” he asked, making sure that his voice was filled with enough urgency to convince the man he did need to see her but not so much that Alphonso might mistake it for something being critically wrong.

“Right through here, up in the bedroom,” he pointed to the end of the hallway once they were finally up the stairs.

The midwife gave him a nod of acknowledgement and then hurried down the hallway. Once he got to the door, he paused so that he could wrap on the wood and let the person inside know that he was there. “Midwife calling, would it be alright if I came in?”

Just like when he had been at the front door of the home, the door opened and one of the occupants was revealed. Jayme was still in her nightdress, though it was a different one than the item that Viktor had seen her in when he first dropped in on her to check on the pregnancy. Her eyes were dull and her hair was pulled into a messy braid that was more flyaway than braid at this point.

“You don’t have to be here,” Jayme said tiredly. She leaned heavily against the doorframe with an exhaustion that Viktor had seen in many women before and knew that he would see in many women after. “Didn’t Alphonso tell you? I lost it.”

He gave a small nod. He didn’t reach out to touch her since he knew that Fei, a blind woman that lived next door, and Alphonso were the only ones that were permitted to get away with that. “I know, he did. That’s exactly why I need to be here. Mind letting me through?”

Jayme thought about it for a moment, her eyes boring into the nurse’s until she finally gave in. She shifted to the side and allowed Viktor to walk into the bedroom. She shut the door behind her and then drifted over to the bed, where the covers were upturned next to her nightstand, like a ghost might.

“How are you feeling?” Viktor asked, setting his bag down on the edge of the bed. 

She was quiet for a bit as she lowered herself down onto the bed. The midwife sat down next to her so that he was close enough to reach out and offer her comfort should she need it but far enough away that she didn’t feel crowded. Jayme turned her head towards him as she said, “I don’t know why you’re insisting on staying here. You don’t have to, I’m not pregnant anymore.”

Viktor let out a little sigh. It was hard to lose something that you had so much hope for the future in. “I know what you’re going through, Jayme. That’s why I’m here.”

“How would you know what I’m going through?” she nearly snarled, the venom dripping from her every word.

Viktor didn’t jump back, he felt no hurt or anger. He knew what kind of pain she was in and he was the safest place that she had to release it. Her husband was going to be going through something similar though also entirely different, but she loved him and wanted to keep him so he was off limits. Viktor knew how to deal with that kind of anger because he had both felt it himself and seen it before in some of the other women he had helped in his career. 

“I’m pregnant again,” he admitted. It was the only way that he felt like he could say it. Phrasing it any other way would have made it all too real, the event that had happened what felt like a lifetime ago now. 

Jayme’s brows furrowed and she turned so that she was looking at her midwife with a serious expression. “What do you mean again? I know you, I think I would have notice if you had a bump or even a little one running around if it was from before you came here.”

He took in a deep breath. He knew that this was something she needed to hear, and now that he had admitted the pregnancy to someone other than his husband and the close friends that had been able to decipher it, he figured it would be easier to talk about. Jayme intimately knew the pain that he had gone through as well, since she was in the middle of going through it herself. “Around two years ago, my husband and I realized that we were going to have a baby. We were very excited about it. Then one day I started to get these small little stomach cramps. I ignored them. As nurses, we’re taught to put things aside so that we can help others. I pushed myself too hard when I was riding my bike back to Nonnatus house and by the time I got there, my entire uniform was soaked with blood. I had lost the pregnancy and it was on display for everyone to see.”

She listened intently to the story that he was telling. As soon as he got to the hardest part, the part where his voice faltered awkwardly because it was so hard to speak the words out loud. “I know what it feels like to lose a pregnancy because I already have. I know what it’s like, to feel like you entire future just slipped out from your hands without anyone asking you. I know what it’s like to feel as though you disappointed everyone around you without ever meaning to. But I promise that it does get better, as all grief does. Your next pregnancy is going to be the most nerve wracking experience of you and your husband’s life, though,” he chuckled weakly.

Jayme tilted her head down and let out a little sniffle. She wiped at her face with the sleeve of her nightdress and then collected herself. “It’s not something I ever expected to happen to me. I knew that it happened, I knew that other women experienced this kind of thing, I knew that it was a possibility. But for some reason, I never considered that there was a chance it could happen to me or my baby,” she held her stomach with one hand.

“No one ever does. You want to think about the future in the best way possible because pregnancy is such a hard thing. It’s not something that you think about because you’re too busy looking forward to having your baby or worried about what will happen after birth. It’s okay to be sad about it too, you know,” Viktor murmured. She had reached over and taken his hand at some point when he was talking to her, so he rubbed over the back of her thumb.

She tilted her head down every further so that her hair was a black sheet around her face. Viktor remembered doing that when he was younger, before he had decided that he was going to keep his hair short. Her shoulders began to shake as tears wracked her form and the grief overcame her for what might have been the first time since her miscarriage. She was well and truly feeling everything that she had been bottling up inside until she got the permission she needed to feel it.

Viktor sat with her, holding her hand the entire time.

---

The day felt like it had been going on forever and also no time at all once he got back out on the busy streets. Sloane had been doing an appointment a few houses down, so they were walking their bicycles down some of the busier streets where they wouldn’t be able to ride side-by-side as they talked. She kept turning to go down the streets that were closer to the piers, and Viktor knew why. He let her steer them that way so that they could catch a glimpse of some of the cargo ships while they came in and out of the docks.

The wistful look on her face when she caught the edge of the harbor was something that he hoped she wouldn’t have to live with for the rest of her life. “I just wish that he would come home. Or choose some kind of career that wouldn’t take him away from me for so long,” she sighed.

“I think that these pay better than anything he’d be able to get with his skills that would keep him in town. He’s probably saving up so that he can whisk you away to the countryside,�� Viktor teased.

Sloane giggled and her face turned bright red. She was so enamored with her beau, it reminded Viktor of when he had first met his husband. Sometimes he missed the giddy feeling that came with first falling in love, but he adored what he had now. “I know that he has his reasons, he told me that himself the last time that he was here, but I do miss him so dearly. He can barely even spend any time in town with me because our schedules so rarely match up,” she pursed her lips.

“I’ll tell you what. If it’ll actually cheer you up, then I will take all of your patients the next time that he’s in town so that you can have some actual time with him. Sound good?” he asked as he turned slightly so that he could see her reaction better.

She looked at him with the kind of adoration and appreciation that only someone who had been given exactly what they wanted could have. “Would you really do something like that for me?”

“Sloane, we’ve been friends for the entire time we’ve been working as nurses in the London, of course I would do something like that for you!” Viktor laughed. They had just gotten to the edge of where the docks were visible, so Sloane parked her bike and then leaned against the railing so that she could look out over the rolling waves. It wasn’t anything like the ocean where Viktor had come from, but the Thames held a reassuring noise to it that he couldn’t find anywhere else in London.

The duo stood there in silence for a moment as they took in the cool breeze from the river and the sound of people working all around them. Viktor turned to go back to his bike so that they could make it back to the house before they were missed, when he paused. He leaned back against the railing so that he was facing inland and watched as the tall, blond stranger walked over to them.

Luther was a hulking mass of man. He was easily seven feet tall with shoulders so wide that sometimes he had to go through a door sideways just to be able to fit. He had buzzed blond hair and the sweetest smile that anyone was possible of possessing, one that hung heavy in his eyes even when he was frowning. When he noticed that Viktor was looking, he held a finger up to his mouth so that the smaller man wouldn’t say anything.

Slowly, Luther approached Sloane and then wrapped his arms around her once he had gotten close enough. He whirled her around in a circle with her squealing excitedly the entire time. When he had finished, he set her down and she was able to wiggle until she turned around and could wrap her arms around him. “I thought that you weren’t going to get back for another month at least!” she gasped.

“I managed to pull some strings by being the best sailor that a cargo ship has ever seen, so we’re back a little bit early. I also have a weeks leave,” he beamed. He leaned down and kissed her sweetly on the lips.

That was when Viktor had decided that he had seen enough. “I’m going to take up some of your patients today Sloane, but I did promise Five that I wouldn’t push myself too hard so despite your wonderful surprise you are going to have to come back to work in an hour or two,” he called over his shoulder.

He didn’t get a response but he knew that his friend had heard him. He hoped that there wouldn’t be too many soon-to-be mothers calling in with their labors in the next couple of days if he really was going to be filling in for Sloane. He didn’t want to face the worrying and fretting of his husband anymore than he already had to.