Poppy's PoV

I don't know what he had dreamt about but I'd never seen him in such a bad state as I had this morning. It really scared me. Was all this stress finally getting to him? Was the inevitability of a cancer diagnosis playing on his mind?
He'd hugged me for a good few minutes before he silently made his way into the bathroom, glancing back at me with a longing in his eyes that I hadn't seen before. I quickly got dressed, throwing on some comfy clothes that were easy to move in and got a message from Sam to say he'd be with us in ten minutes.

"Sam will be here in ten, babe." I shouted towards the bathroom as I slid my flip flops on. My feet and ankles were beginning to swell, a normal part of pregnancy, but meant that every outfit I now had had to revolve around flip flops and sandals. I stood in a floaty floral maxi dress and turned to the side, running my hands across my growing bump with a feeling of contentment. For the first time in a long time, I actually liked the way I looked. It didn't matter that my ankles were swollen or that I didn't fit into any of my normal clothes anymore. For once, I was just happy. Proud of my body for growing this little one and giving them everything they needed before they came into the world. Before I knew it, another pair of hands were round me and Calum stood behind me with a genuine smile on his face.

"I love seeing you happy." He said softly as he kissed my neck. I spun round to him and tried my best to hug him, my belly getting in the way of our usual close hugs.

"Me too. And I like seeing you smile. What worried you last night?" I pried carefully, hoping not to upset him. Calum's face dropped for a second before he shook it away.

"Just a nightmare. Nothing to worry about." He kept it secret, changing the subject quickly. "Do we need anything for this appointment?" I looked around and grabbed my small brown handbag.

"Nope." I said as I threw the strap over my shoulder. "Just us. Now come on, Sam will be here in a minute." I grabbed his hand and we locked up, heading down to the pavement as we waited for the car to arrive once again. I checked both ways just to make sure we weren't in the way of anyone when my eyes landed on someone I really didn't want - or need - to see right now. "Oh God." I breathed out, attracting Calum's attention. He followed my gaze to the right, stiffening where he stood as he saw who I did.

"How's my lovely daughter?" Kat and Gary (as i preferred to call them) sidled up beside us with their smug smiles.

"Please not now." I looked away, not even wanting to entertain them.

"Well that's not a nice way to greet your mother." My dad snapped, attracting attention from passers by.

"Neither is the way you treated me last time I saw you." I hissed, praying internally for Sam to arrive now so we could make a speedy getaway.

"That was all on you. We were trying to be nice." Mum added, once again painting me to be the bad guy. "How's everything?" She said, ticking a box to say she asked how I was and how the pregnancy was going. I could see from the glazed look that she wasn't even listening to the answer.

"You mean the baby? Great thank you. Excited to meet one set of grandparents who have actually bothered." I retorted, received displeased looks from my parents. Why should I act all nice to them when they've done nothing but put me down every second?

"How dare you. We've tried but you keep pushing us away. You won't let us help." Dad growled, irritating Calum more. I could see he was desperate to stay out of it to remain in everyone's good books but it wasn't going to last long.

"Not to mention you were once again all over the internet hanging around with some guy who wasn't Calum. You're tarring our family with your cheating ways, making your brother look bad." Mum continued. "And he let us know how badly you treated him when he popped round to talk to you." Calum's face contorted in fury, this was it. He wasn't staying quiet any longer.

"That man is a good friend of ours." Calum hissed. "She's not cheating and she's not ruining anything of yours. You're doing a great job of that yourself." Calum sighed, regretting interfering. I stroked his knuckles with my thumb to calm him as I always did. Looking down the road I could finally see Sam's car in the distance.

"And Will did a great job of ruining it himself. He was cocky and trying to ruin my relationship just like you guys are. You can't handle that I'm happy. You can't handle that I'm doing well without you. But I am. I don't need you. So please, just leave us both alone. I have enough going on without you guys as well." I barked, praying it'd be enough to make them leave.

"Well, if that's how you want to be." Mum said, tears welling in her eyes and tugging at my heart strings.

"Now look what you've done!" Dad scoffed, putting an arm around her as she sobbed, once again making people look over. Great. This was the type of bad press we needed on top of everything.

"Please, let's talk about this another time. You can come round. We've got to go somewhere now." Calum said softly, mum stopping crying as soon as she knew they'd got what they wanted. He offered me a sorry smile.

"Tomorrow night." I added. "I'll get some food sorted." Both parents smiled happily for the first time as the car pulled up beside us. "Sorry, we have to go." I said politely just to try to seem half decent. We jumped into the car and slammed the door shut. "Drive. Now." I growled to Sam who quickly drove off, barely looking to check it was safe to do so. I let out a large sigh, sinking into the chair as Cal put his arm around me.

"Hey. You did great. Don't fret about it." He smiled. I put my head on his shoulder.

"Where those the infamous parents?" Sam asked, looking at us from the rear view mirror.

"Unfortunately." I stated. "And it's about to go from bad to worse." Defeatedly I sighed, looking out of the windscreen towards the hospital where all our thoughts were about to be settled. We were going to find out if the cancer is back.

Authors note:
Love you all!
What do you think the outcome of this appointment is going to be?
How will the conversation with Poppy's parents go?