Who: Nora and Santiago
Where: St. Mungo's
When: End of November, 1978

Nora hated hospitals. Everything in them felt like death and she didn't like having to go in for something as simple as 'you're faking yourself out. Take some pepper up potion and get some rest and you'll be fine in the morning.' She'd been trying to diagnose that herself all weekend, and it obviously hadn't worked. When she got sick at school, that was enough. If things were going to interfere there, then her 'illness' was going to be a problem. She sat in the waiting lobby of the hospital looking through a small stack of reading journals, waiting for someone to come and grab her to go talk to a healer.

"Who's next, Maggie?" Santiago leaned far over the counter of the nurses station, reading the sign-in sheet upside down that the nurse had lying in front of her. The woman smirked and pointed past him, and still holding himself up on the palms of his hands, Santiago looked over his shoulder at the blonde woman. He looked back at Maggie with a grin, and winked, taking the folder from the nurse's hands. "Gracias, querida."

"You can't charm everyone with that accent of yours," she said with a smirk, but her cheeks reddened and Santiago hopped back to the ground. With all the paperwork that came from being chief resident, Santiago rarely had time to do any hands on work in the pit, and was glad to have some time. Put him in a right good mood, with everything bad that had been going on. Flipping the woman's files, and he meandered his way over and smiled kindly.

"Ms. Thompson?"

She looked up when she heard her name. It was a natural neck snap reaction, though she was usually responding to a whining child tattling on a classmate for hitting them. She smiled, pulling all her papers together. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice," she murmured as she stuffed the composition notebooks into her bag.

"It's what we're here for," he said with a smile, motioning for her to follow him into one of the examination rooms. Really, it was quite a slow day (seeing as he was able to get down here), though it was nice to see some consideration. Some people came in with paper cuts demanding to be put ahead of in line of someone who's been gored by a dragon (and Alex's cousin has mentioned that this is not a pretty scene).

Gesturing toward the examination table, Santiago flicked his wand out to pull out the small steps to help Ms. Thompson up. He leaned back into the counter and looked over her history, not seeing anything of much concern, "What seems to be the problem?"

She gingerly set her bag down next to the table, sitting on the edge. She folded her hands awkwardly in her lap, watching him as he flipped through her papers.

What was her problem? Nora ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a deep breath. "Well...I've been feeling ill the past few days. And I've taken pepper up potion and it hasn't done anything. I just...I don't know what's wrong. I'm not running a fever and half the time I don't feel sick but, I get nauseous and...." Nora trailed off, punctuating the long, run on thought trail with a simple shoulder shrug.

Santiago nodded along with her words, having heard the same spiel a million times before. It was probably a virus of sorts, or she was pregnant, and he turned around to pull some test potions out. Humming slightly, he asked over his shoulder as he reached for the pregnancy test,

"Are you sexually active, Ms. Thompson? And---are you taking any medications?" he asked, gathering up the potions and putting them on the counter. All he needed was a few of her hairs, and they'd have their answer. Santiago turned back around, a light smile on his face. "I've got a pregnancy, flu virus, and vertigo. If those don't solve it, we'll move on."

Sexually active? Why on earth did he need to know if she was--OH. Oh no. No. She couldn't be pregnant. "I'm...I take allergy potions," she paused, thinking, "And contraceptive potions. So there's...I couldn't be..." she said faintly, her heart now racing as she thought over the past few weeks. She and Griff...but there was no way she could be pregnant, right? The contraceptives were supposed to be very reliable.

Santiago kept his face neutral, and pulled out his wand to painless pull one strand of the woman's hair. He lifted the pregnancy potion and put it on the counter.

"Let's get that one over with first, hmm? If you don't think you're pregnant, you probably aren't," except Graciela probably thought the same thing, he thought, thinking about how his sister was due in less than a month (deus!). Santiago dropped the hair in, "It'll be five minutes."

There was a fine line between not believing it and not wanting it, and Nora was currently straddling that line. There was a chance; everything was matching up. And even though she'd taken a potion...well, that didn't mean it was foolproof. Shoddy mixing, poor cutting; anything was possible when putting her fertility in the hands of others. Arms folded across her chest, Nora kept a close eye on the potion as if it was going to start making a noise like a siren, announcing to the world that she was--or, if there is a God in the world, was not pregnant. In all of her life, this was probably the longest five minute wait she'd ever had. "Merlin, this is nerve wracking," she murmured as she continued to stare at the potion.

From her nervousness, Santiago was quick to assume that the pregnancy was not something she could look forward to or---well, she had been on potions, pero if she was married...well, no ring, and kids these days, he didn't know what was wrong with them. You want kids? You get married, it's that simple! That simple, really, pero do they listen? No, silly kids---deus, okay, so maybe he still couldn't believe that his sister was one of those silly kids, but! But at least she was getting married (so last minute, pero---) and to a guy he liked, and oh, look--

"Congratulations," Santiago said with a weary smile as the potion started to spark, indicating that yes, she was pregnant. It was the neutral one, not revealing if it was a boy or a girl, and Santiago decided to let her digest the information before offering it to her.

She stared at the potion. Maybe it was a gag, like the fake candles that muggles sometimes put on birthday cakes. It was a joke--Griff was going to pop out from behind a curtain somewhere, laughing at her for getting so upset over something so silly as a fake potion. It took her brain a few seconds to translate that the wet feeling on her arms was tears falling. Taking in a shaky breath, she brushed the tears away stubbornly. "I'm what?! No. I'm not..." she felt anger set in--anger at the damn potion, anger at being nauseous, anger and Griff for getting her fucking pregnant (on the first shag, which she wasn't even going to touch yet). Fuck. "Well...I guess that explains a lot..."

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Santiago couldn't fathom himself what it was like to be in that position, but he'd known back in May that if he had freaked out and made it look like the end of the world, his sister would not have made it this far. So, hopefully, Nora had the same support once she left the hospital.

"Would you like to find out the sex?" he asked. It was the usual question, especially since he knew that she'd have to wait quite a bit at the maternity ward to find out, might as well give her something to calm herself down. Though...knowing the sex could double it all.

She didn't even think about what he asking as she nodded her head, still trying to wrap her thoughts around it--in however many months, she was going to have a baby. A tiny baby that...that was hers. And Griff's. Oh, shit. Griff. If this got out to the tabloids--did they know about her? What if it leaked somehow or...no. Merlin's beard, this really sucked.

"I...this is confidential, right?" It was a stupid question, but she wanted to know for sure. He seemed like a trustworthy healer, but...no. He wasn't going to take this to the Tattler. This was one nasty can of worms that was opening up on Nora.

"Of course," Santiago said, a slight frown crossing his features. It was never a good sign, that question, and though he had told himself many times not to get involved with his patients, to not truly concern himself with what happened once they left the room, he could only wonder about the reason behind her questioning.

His eyes turned to the newest potion vial, and smiled. Pink sparks were flying all over, "A girl!"

"The last thing I need right now is for this getting to a news source..." she rambled, looking down at her hands awkwardly, realizing how complex all of this was going to be; unwed, and dating an ace Quidditch player. Oy. The press would have a field day with this.

She looked up at his exclamation, watching the pink sparks in disbelief. A smile slowly appeared at the corners of her lips. Tears once again spilled down her face, as a soft peal of laughter was released. "A girl? It's...wow." A girl. She was having a baby girl.

Santiago smiled, putting his hands together and bending down a bit to look Nora in the eyes.

"I bet she will be just as beautiful as her mother," he said, hoping to ease her nerves just a bit. Hey, a compliment could be a bit of help, yes? And anyway, she didn't seem angry about it, just...well, terrified. And of the media? He could only imagine who the father was (or if SHE was a celebrity, h did not keep up with these things).

"We have some amazing healers in the maternity ward, if you'd wish to make an appointment."

She felt a ghost of her laugh still present on her face in the form of a smile. She felt suddenly exhausted, but didn't voice it. "I--that would be a good thing to do, I guess," she said, still staring at the potion. "Probably easier to set up now than later..."