Title: Upstairs on the Bus
Fandom: Call the Midwife
Rating: PG
Length: 897
Summary: Bill has a passenger on his bus who refuses to leave.
A/N: Mention of Thalidomide

“Come on, love, you’ve got to get off now.  You’re at the end of the ride.  Please, love, you can’t stay here.”

Receiving no response from the passenger the bus conductor clattered back down the stairs and went to speak to the driver.

“Here, Bert, there’s a woman up on top who’s refusing to get off.  She’s just sitting there, holding her baby and crying.  What are we going to do about her?”

“You’ll have to get the police, Bill.  If it were a bloke you could just throw him off, but you can’t do that with a young woman.”

“Seems a bit hard on her, though,” Bill, the conductor, paused looking across the road.  “Hang on a second, see the ginger haired lass over there?  I’m sure she’s one of the midwives from Nonnatus House.  Maybe she can help.”

“It’s worth a try,” Bert agreed.

Bill ran across the road.  “Excuse me, miss, you’re a midwife, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Patsy replied.  “I am.  Why?”

“Can you give us a hand?”

“What?  Is someone about to have a baby?”

“No, nothing like that.  But, she’s upstairs on me bus.  Could you have a word with her?”

Patsy ran up the stairs, followed by Delia and Trixie.  They saw a young woman, sitting on one of the seats, crying and rocking the baby to and fro.

Patsy went over to her.  “We’re nurses and midwives,” she said.  “Can we help?”

“No, no-one can help.”

Trixie moved into the seat behind, “Why don’t you just tell us your name.”

“It’s Jeanette, Jeanette Harris.”

The bus engine started and the bus began to move forward.  Delia ran back down to speak to the conductor.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

“We’ve got a timetable to keep,” the man replied.  “You’ll have to stay on the bus till we get back again.  But it’s okay, I’m not going to charge you for the trip.”

“I should think not,” Delia replied, heading back up the stairs again.

Meanwhile, Patsy had asked Jeanette if she could look at the baby.

“You won’t want to,” Jeanette replied.  “She’s one of them babies.”  The tears rolled down her face even more.

Patsy looked at Trixie and mouthed ‘Thalidomide’ and Trixie nodded back.

“It’s all right, sweetie,” Trixie said, “She won’t be the shock she might be to most people.”

Reluctantly Jeanette handed the baby over to Trixie and accepted the handkerchief Patsy passed to her.

Trixie quickly checked the baby over and said, “She looks well.  What’s her name?”

“Alison.”

Patsy looked thoughtful.  She believed they knew all the mothers who had had babies affected by the Thalidomide drug and she didn’t recognise Jeanette.

“Which hospital did you have her in?” she asked.

“She wasn’t born round here.  We’re from near Luton.  After I had her, my Mike, he’s an engineer, got a job by the docks.  We thought that perhaps if we packed up and moved we’d leave behind all the comments and the looks from people who’d known us, and we could start afresh.”

“But it hasn’t worked out that way,” Trixie said gently.

“We’ve got a flat, but it’s on the eighth floor.  It’s a nice flat, much better than we had before, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t go out.  And Mike works long hours and then he goes for a drink after work with his new mates, and I don’t blame him.”  Jeanette started to cry again.  “Because it’s all my fault.”

“No it isn’t,” Patsy said.

“I was the one who took the drug.  If I hadn’t done so, she’d be whole.”

“You weren’t to know,” Delia said.  “You took it for morning sickness?”

“Yes, I was being so sick and all I wanted to do was be able to eat, so my baby would grow right.”

Patsy nodded.  “Yes, we understand.”

They paused.  A couple of lads were insisting they wanted to sit on the upper deck of the bus, but the conductor told them to go inside.  When they started to argue, he told them he’d stop the bus and throw them off, so they gave in.

Jeanette said, “And now I’m causing trouble to other people too.”

“Don’t worry about them.  They’ll get off the bus, complain about the grumpiness of the conductor, and forget all about it by tomorrow,” Trixie said.

“You should come to our Mother and Baby clinic,” Patsy said.

“I can’t.  Everyone will stare at me.”

“Come right at the beginning and we’ll arrange for you to be seen in private straight away.  Tomorrow afternoon at two o’clock.”

Jeanette nodded doubtfully.

The conductor’s voice came up the stairs.  “End of the line.  All change please.”

They stood up and went down the stairs; the midwives ensuring Jeanette was in the middle of them.

Once off the bus, Patsy said, “Trixie, if Delia and I walk Jeanette home, could you let them know where we are?  We won’t be long.”

“Of course,” Trixie said as she turned towards Nonnatus House.

***

The following afternoon Jeanette hesitantly opened the clinic door and went in.

Instantly, Shelagh Turner went over to her, smiling.  “You must be Mrs Harris,” she said.  “Come this way and I’ll introduce you to Nurse Crane.”

Shelagh showed Jeanette into the end cubicle, where Nurse Crane greeted her warmly.  “Come in.  And this must be Alison.  It’s lovely to meet you both.”