midwife » michael gray. [completed]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

"Father Hughes was a respected man with - "

"Father Hughes might have been a respected man but it does not make him a good one."

A few shocked gasps came from a couple of the nurses, but no one dared to say anything. After what felt like hours, Hannah finally looked up at Sister Maria and through her eyes, told her that she wasn't going to take back the comment.

"And what do you mean by that, Hannah?" Sister Margaret asked, her voice softer than what Sister Maria's would have been if she had asked the question. Everyone had always said that Sister Margaret had a soft spot for Hannah and it was somewhat true. She felt as if she had to protect Hannah from all the bad things that would unquestionably come her way.

Hannah tore his gaze away from Sister Maria and smiled at Sister Margaret before shrugging her shoulders. "That is for me to know and for you to never find out."

"Alright, that's enough now," Alexandra blurted out before anyone could interrupt her. "I think it's time that we get back to our jobs, does everybody agree? As acting sister today at the clinic, I want everyone to be nice and not argue for once. There's some obvious tension floating around today, and I hope that you will all - " Alexandra stopped to look back and forth between Hannah and Sister Maria before continuing. " - sort this out because we don't not want the mothers to be on edge either."

"There is no tension. Just ignorance from certain people," Hannah responded, shrugging her shoulders casually as she grabbed her heavy medical bag off the counter. "I have a few rounds to do before clinic, so I will see you then."

Everyone watched as Hannah walked away from the room, her heart racing from fear. It was very rare that Hannah argued with anybody or replied with sly remarks, but she was agitated this morning and being a little bit grumpy with the nurses and nuns would release the bad energy. However, it was probably not the wisest idea considering the Sisters were the reason for Hannah's employment at the convent.

"It's ever since she's been seeing that Michael. When she first arrived in Small Heath, she was the sweetest girl in the world and now she is nothing but a young woman, full of arrogance and irritation," Sister Maria said, a part of her sad because Hannah had changed so much in her eyes. Hannah hadn't changed at all, at least not for the worst, she was just fed up of hearing everyone speaks so remarkably about Father Hughes when he was the worst kind of human possible.

"I believe that Hannah and Michael are going through some issues and have been for a few months now. Once things have resolved themselves between the two, Hannah will go back to normal. She just needs time to process whatever is going on inside of her;" Betty said casually, not realising that she had made something click inside of Sister Maria's brain.

"When you say a few months, are you referring to when Hannah and Father Hughes started to work together on their orphanage and fundraising ideas?" Sister Maria asked, her fingernails tapping against the metal counter impatiently.

"I believe so."

Sister Maria huffed before smiling widely. "Well, that's interesting now, isn't it?"

+++

For the whole morning, Hannah had been thinking about Michael. It was hard to concentrate on anything other than Michael considering all the bad things that were happening in her life and the fatal mistakes that had led to the downfall in their once perfect relationship, but Hannah had no choice but to slip it to the back of her mind and focus on delivering Mrs. Jones baby.

"A baby boy," Hannah exclaimed, smiling widely for the first time in a while as she cut the cord. Hannah wrapped the new born in a blanket and handed him over to his mother who was smiling with pride. "He's beautiful."