DOC MARTIN and all familiar characters are owned by Buffalo Pictures. No copyright violation intended. This is a work of fiction and for entertainment only, not for sale.
Martin and Louisa At The Font
Chapter 1
Quiet prevailed in the Lexus as it wound its way back to Port Wenn. Louisa kept turning to glance at the sleeping baby in the back, snug in his baby seat, making sure he was really there. She silently breathed a prayer of thanks that James Henry was safe and that Martin was not only sitting beside her, but had promised to always love her. She could hardly believe all of the things he had finally said, even though he was talking to Mrs. Tishell at the time.
Martin, for his part, was scared to death. He knew full well that this would be his last chance with Louisa and he definitely didn't want to muck it up. He was exhausted, too, from the mental strain of trying to find James and then from punching a huge hole in the wall he'd had in front of his sensitive side for years. Of course he had very little conscious realization of a lot of this - he had too much practice at not recognizing things like this within himself. Also, being introverted by nature, an outburst like the one he'd just had would wear out anyone, but especially someone "wired" like him.
As they neared the final part of the journey into the village, Martin glanced quickly at Louisa and asked, "Where would you like to go, Louisa? I'd like it if you came back to the surgery, but it's up to you of course.
"Yes, Martin, I will come back to the surgery but I think we might need to rearrange a bit," said Louisa. "Rearrange?" asked Martin. "Rearrange," she repeated. She paused a moment and then said, "I have done quite bit of thinking over these past days while we have been apart and I think...well, I think that our becoming intimate so quickly has not been a good thing. No, not like that," she added quickly as she saw the huge frown come over Martin's face. "What I mean is that I have gone over a lot of things in my mind and I believe that part of what has happened with us is that perhaps we got a false sense of closeness because we became intimate so quickly before we really learned to talk to each other."
"Louisa, you know I don't really talk." Sensing, rather than seeing the look on her face, he quickly added, "I mean, I haven't been so good at talking and I will have to learn, I suppose."
"Well, you did a perfect job today," she said, smiling up at him. "I think that now, with some practice, we can learn to work together I love you too, you know. And I always will as well."
Martin felt something shift inside him but quickly quelled the feeling. So much talk of feelings in one day had almost done him in. He tried to shift the conversation back to more comfortable ground. "So, what type of rearranging should we do?" he asked.
Louisa shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I think that maybe James and I should sleep in the guest room - just for the time being." she added. "I want to know you more, Martin. We have had a few dates, been engaged for all of 3 and a half weeks, argued for months while I was pregnant, and then had very little sleep and even more arguments for months since James Henry was born. I just think that we need to find time to work out our lives, plan, think things through."
"That sounds logical, I suppose," Martin agreed. Inwardly he sighed. Talk. He knew it was going to have to come but he wasn't looking forward to it.