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In one universe, he met a little girl.
In one universe, he found out what would happen.
In one universe, he intervened and stopped it.
In one universe, he stayed home that night.
In one universe, none of this happened.

Guppy brings the tea through into the living room, and passes the cup to Frogspawn. She smiles slightly and thanks him, but her eyes still show that she is very much fed up of lying around all the time.

(Well, except for the times he wasn't looking. I mean, seriously, how did he think the hoovering and ironing were getting done?)

On the floor in front of them, Alex is lining his animals up in rows. He's been doing that for a while, first in order of size, then in order of colour. The gap between them is almost exactly a centimetre in each case. He looks perfectly content.

"Guppy, can you pop to the shop and get some bread?" Frogspawn asks, looking up at him. "I could really do with a cheese and pickle toastie."

"Sure." Guppy says. "Will you be okay with Alex?"

"Of course, he's fully occupied. I'm sure I can keep him entertained for half an hour even lying down." Frogspawn rolls her eyes slightly.

Guppy laughs, kisses her on the cheek, and goes into the hall to grab his coat and wallet. The door locks behind him as he leaves for the shops.

Of course, right on cue, Alex gets bored with what he's doing, grabs the Wii remote and takes it over to Mummy. She gets up and turns it on for him.

"Go on then, just one game mind." she says, picking up the other remote and sitting back on the sofa. She sets it up with her and him in two player tennis, then passes him the remote, slipping the strap on him just in case.

He waves the remote around randomly and wildly; and when he manages to hit it, she slowly bats it back.

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The house is bizarrely quiet.

Daddy has gone out to the shops. He said so. Alex heard, even if he was busy. When Daddy went out he started playing Wii tennis with Mummy. Mummy wasn't playing very well. He's pretty sure he would have won.

But half way through the game Mummy got up, holding onto her big tummy. And then she did a red wee-wee on the carpet. Honestly, these adults have such double standards; they tell him off for weeing on the floor. He didn't want to look at it so he looked back at the screen and waited for her to make a move.

There was a big bang and the floor shook. He jumped, startled. Why do people have to make so much noise? Looking around, ready to complain to his mother for making him jump, he noticed that she was lying on the floor.

This was very inconvenient because it was her turn on the game. No time for sleeping.

"Wake up!" he demanded, crawling over to her and poking her with his Wiimote. "Mummy's turn!"

Five minutes later, he's still not managed to wake her up. Which is odd, because when he makes noise or pokes the sleeping babies at nursery they wake up and make a horrible noise.

Then he remembers seeing on the NeeNaws that sometimes people fall over because they're poorly and can't wake up because they need the NeeNaws.

He goes through the baby gate with little difficulty, and picks up the phone. The button he has to press is that curly one at the bottom left, so he pokes it three times like they do on the television.

"Emergency services, which service do you require?"

"NeeNaws." Alex answers, after debating which way up the phone goes.

There is a brief pause, then.

"What's your name?"

"Alex."

"Can you tell me what happened, Alex?"

Alex carries the phone and looks at Mummy through the gate. She's still lying there, and the red is still there.

"Mummy's turn."

"Is Mummy there?"

"Yeh."

"Can I talk to Mummy?"

Alex doesn't answer this one because he doesn't know. Mummy might just not feel like talking.

"What's your address?"

Aha! He knows this one. He doesn't know what it means, but Daddy gets him to repeat it every day.

"Fordy for Ludden rowd Holby."

"Well done, Alex. We're going to send someone around. Stay on the phone."

Alex looks at the phone, then puts it on the floor and stands on it. This instruction wasn't on the NeeNaws. He has to get off when the lady starts talking again.

"Is Mummy breathing?"

He picks up the phone again. He doesn't know what that question means so he waits for further instructions.

"What does Mummy look like?"

Nasty red patch on carpet mummy is pale not moving brown hair with small green streaks pretty butterfly earrings green top baggy trousers pink socks with cat on big belly...

"Night night." he settles on.

"Did Mummy fall over?"

"Yeh."

Mummy is starting to move a bit, so Alex drops the phone on the floor and moves over. Perhaps the Neenaws will not be required. He picks up her Wiimote and puts it in her hand.

"Hello? Are you still there?" he hears the phone lady say. He goes back over and picks up the phone.

"NeeNaws."

"An ambulance is coming. Do you watch the NeeNaws on TV?"

"Yeh." Doesn't everyone?

He then jumps and drops the phone, as someone bangs on the door and peeps through the letterbox at him.

"Yep, I can see him Dixie. Hello there, are you Alex?"

Another pair of eyes peeps in through the letterbox.

"Jeff, I recognise him from somewhere. Doesn't Guppy have a kid about his age called Alex?"

"Yeah, I think so. Got the hair." Jeff peers back in again. "Alex? Stand back sweetheart."

Alex edges back, holding the phone. There's a series of very loud bangs; he covers his ears, then the door bursts open. He recognises the green uniform. Just like on the NeeNaws.

"Well done sweetheart." The one called Dixie touches him, and he screams.

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Guppy takes less than half an hour, and most of that is because the queue is long. He grabs a tub of Double Chocolate Fudge ice cream while he's there, since that's another craving of hers. He heads back to the house quickly, hoping it won't melt too much.

As he opens the door, things don't look quite right. The phone is on the floor, the cordless part a little way away. Suspecting the cat, he picks it up and puts it back on the table where it belongs, then reaches down to pick up the handset.

There's blood on it. A bloody handprint. A tiny little Alex-sized bloody handprint.

He drops it on the table and runs into the living room. No Frogspawn, no Alex, and blood on the carpet. Calling for them, he makes a run around the house to check they aren't still in there somewhere, then runs back to the hallway. The maternity bag is gone.

His mobile rings, and he fumbles for it in his pockets, his hands shaking, but manages to answer it.

"Frogs, I just got home, are you okay?"

"Guppy?" The voice is a man's, and it's familiar. "It's Jeff, we've just picked Fran up and we're taking her to St James' Hospital. She's had a bleed but she's stable."

"Have you got Alex with you?" Guppy asks, sitting down on the bottom of the stairs.

"Yes, he's sitting on my knee and he's fine." Jeff says. "Look mate, keep calm and make your way here, and I'll fill you in when you get here."

Guppy ends the call, grabs his coat again and runs out the house. He tries to get into the car, but keeps dropping his keys, so decides that he's probably too panicked to drive. So instead he sprints the five or so minutes to the hospital.

He knows his way around - he used to work there, after all - so heads straight for Resus. He can see her through the door, so goes in and approaches her.

"Guppy, you need to stand back for a minute." His former boss and one time girlfriend stops him getting any closer. "We're getting fluids into her and the bleeding is slowing down, but we're about to take her up to theatre for an emergency caesarean."

"Please, someone just tell me what happened!" Guppy pleads. "Is she going to be okay, is the baby okay?"

"The placenta is over the cervix, as you know, and it started to bleed. She will be fine, the baby is currently okay but is starting to show signs of distress. Please go and see your son while we prep her for theatre; we'll call you as soon as we're starting."

Guppy follows one of the nurses to where Dixie and Jeff have been looking after Alex, in the Relatives' Room. Alex is under the table, curled up and rocking. Dixie is trying to coax him out with a Bob the Builder toy.

"Thanks for looking after them." Guppy says to his former colleagues, crouching next to the table. "Fran's about to have a caesarean, are you able to keep an eye on him for a little while? He's probably going to be doing that for a bit." He digs in his pockets. "I'll call his Grandma and ask her to come pick him up."

"No problem Guppy." Jeff nods. "He was a bit scared when we came in but we got him sorted. He called the ambulance, you know."

Guppy stops mid dial, momentarily stunned. Then crouches down further to Alex's level.

"Good job Fry." he says softly.

They reassure him that Alex will be fine with them. Guppy thanks them again, and sprints up to the maternity department. He gets through to Frogspawn's mother and asks her to come and look after Alex. For once, the woman agrees without any fuss.

He hurriedly changes into scrubs. Frogspawn is just being anaesthetised as he gets to the theatre; not enough time to have the spinal anaesthetic. She smiles weakly and takes his hand, and as she goes to sleep, he strokes her hair and tells her how much he loves her. Then steps back to let the team intubate her and wheel her through into theatre.

It's a lot simpler than the one he had to perform on Mike a few days ago, with no magic involved for a start. Within a couple of minutes of starting, he sees the gush of liquid as the surgeon enters the amniotic sack. Seconds later, the surgeon is lifting the baby out head first.

"And we have a little girl." he announces, passing her over to the paediatrician bearing a towel. After what seems like forever but can only be about ten seconds, the baby lets wail a very indignant cry. Guppy cranes his head to look at her, as doctors check her anxiously.

"Is she okay? Can I hold her?"

"She's a bit small, she'll have to go to SCBU." the doctor says. "But you can for a moment, yes."

The paediatrician gets Guppy to sit down, and passes his new daughter over to him. She's tiny, if not as tiny as Alex. Amazing that a month will make such a difference. He has to smile at her expression of displeasure at such a dramatic exit from the nice comfy womb.

"Have you got a name for her?" the midwife asks, peering over his shoulder.

"Coral." Guppy says. "Coral Antonia Sandhu."

He looks back at Frogspawn. "Have you managed to stop the bleeding?"

"Yes, the placenta is out and the bleeding has been stopped." the surgeon confirms. "She'll feel a bit weak for a bit but she should be okay now."

Guppy breathes. His girls are okay. His little boy is okay. Now he can celebrate becoming a father again.

"Actually, bizarrely enough this may have been in their favour." The surgeon continues. "It looks like before the bleed, the placenta had already started to fail. If the bleed hadn't alerted us, we might not have known that."

"But she's okay?" Guppy asks, looking up at the paediatrician.

"Nothing to suggest she isn't okay." the paediatrician confirms. "She's early but she looks very well."

He doesn't want to let Coral go, but the doctors whisk her straight off to the special care baby unit, so he stays to be with Frogspawn as she wakes up. A text informs him that Alex has been picked up by his grandparents. Now he only has to split himself in two directions at once...
In one universe, he intervened and stopped it.
In one universe, he stayed home that night.
In one universe, she didn't bleed.
In one universe, silently, the placenta failed.
In one universe, she wasn't born.

But in this universe, it worked out in the end.