Title: Bio-Fooled, Chapter 1 (Twinges)
Author: DianeB
Rating: PG-13 (K+)
Pairing: Martin/Louisa
Summary: This is my version of what was going on inside Louisa's head during some of the more significant scenes from the S4 finale, "The Wrong Goodbye." I've also given Louisa a bit more credit for knowing when her labour started.
A/N: My eternal gratitude lies with Littleguinea from fanficdotnet for her fair eye to editing and to checking the "Americanisms." Any remaining errors are mine and mine alone. Written in April, 2011, after I watched this episode on my DVR about a thousand times.
Disclaimer: This story is for entertainment purposes only. I claim no right to anything affiliated with Doc Martin.
Louisa felt the first unfamiliar twinge of discomfort right about the time she caught the children super-gluing themselves to one another. The children provided sufficient enough distraction that by the time she had a moment to think about what she'd felt, it was long gone.
The arrival of Martin Ellingham gave her an entirely different sort of twinge, made worse by his announcement that he'd brought something for her, something that turned out not to be a declaration that he was staying in Portwenn, or even a gift for the nursery, but an envelope containing a spreadsheet of projected expenditures and a handful of post-dated cheques for the care and feeding of the baby, delivered as if he were arranging for kennel services.
It was all Louisa could do to accept the damned envelope with some modicum of pride, torn between wanting to slap him and wanting to burst into tears. It was beyond understanding how he could be so businesslike, so callous, even as he stood staring at her huge belly, at his own child.
The ringing of the school bell startled Louisa, but she was glad of it, because it gave her the excuse she needed to escape him. No amount of talking about bonding or special moments with a new baby would do any good, anyway, and when he began stammering that he was simply expressing his concern, it was all she could do to swallow past the ache in her throat, knowing that crying in front of him would do nothing but raise her blood pressure and endanger the baby. So instead she simply wished him luck, suffered through more of his unwelcome attempts to placate her, and walked away, feeling his eyes on her as she re-entered the school. Louisa knew she would need a private moment in the toilet to spill her tears before she could continue with her day. She could blame it on her fluctuating hormones, but she knew it was more than that. A great deal more.
As the school day continued on to its end, Louisa felt the unfamiliar twinge one more time, but she paid it no mind, knowing she was headed to the hospital in Truro for a check-up that very afternoon and could get it sorted then.
Never once did it occur to Louisa just what that "twinge" might be signaling.
oOo oOo oOo
In the taxi on the way to the hospital, ignoring a marginally more intense twinge, Louisa argued with herself about whether or not she should accept Martin's back-handed support of the baby. She'd braved a look at the cheques and was unsurprised to find them substantial. Of course she could use the money, and she knew Martin knew that, but bile rose in the back of her throat at the idea of taking his money because she needed it, like she was some sort of charity case. Damn the man, anyway, she thought, absently rubbing her belly. Why couldn't he just stay in Portwenn and be part of the baby's life, part of her life?
The ringing of her mobile brought her back to the moment. "Hello?" She could tell it was Martin, and after she'd confirmed she was in a Tommy's Taxi, she thought she heard a note of panic in his voice. Unfortunately, the phone's signal went dead after that, so she was unable to hear anything more of what he'd been trying to say. A moment later the phone rang again, and this time she was able to give Martin an idea of her exact location before the signal died again.
Tommy, meanwhile, was beginning to act strangely, and Louisa allowed a bit of her own panic, wondering if perhaps Martin had been trying to tell her something about Tommy himself. When Tommy started talking about it snowing and putting on the taxi's windscreen wipers, she knew she hadn't been imagining the panic in Martin's voice.
In the next instant, Tommy was unconscious behind the wheel, and Louisa's panic became full-blown. Knowing she had no choice if she wanted to survive, she unbuckled her seat belt and came forward, leaning over Tommy and grabbing the wheel, trying to steer the now-swerving vehicle. There was no way she could reach the brake, so the most she could hope for was to keep the car from smashing into anything before she could at least reach an uphill slope that would slow it down.
Hanging there over the front seat, she felt the twinge again, but this time the baby moved, and the twinge became a spasm like nothing she had ever felt before. Dividing her attention between this pain and the car proved to be too much, and as Louisa felt the car leave the road, she had a vision of Martin standing under a huge umbrella in the pouring rain, his arms wrapped tightly around her and the baby, keeping them safe, warm, and dry.
As the boulder loomed ahead, it took all of Louisa's will to keep herself from tensing up, knowing she'd be injured less if she kept her muscles from tightening. Again a vision of Martin filled her head, and as her reality spiraled down to a sudden, jolting halt, Louisa relaxed completely and allowed her body to be jostled around before coming to rest against the back seat.
Aside from a couple of squawking birds and the hissing engine, the silence that came after was total. I'm alive was the first coherent thought Louisa had. After that, her bladder gave warning. Very carefully, she extracted herself from the car, checking for bodily damage as she went. Once fully out of the car, she inspected herself. Aside from a few bumps and bruises, she was unhurt – and not without awe at the miracle of it.
Ignoring for the moment her bladder's siren call, Louisa opened the front door and tried to rouse Tommy. He groaned a few times, but was otherwise un-rousable. Stepping back from the car and shielding her eyes, she scanned the horizon for any sign of humanity, but quickly realized it was a lost cause. They were literally out in the middle of nowhere, without a phone signal or a working vehicle. An up the duff woman and an unconscious taxi driver.
"Okay," she said aloud to no one, "this is not funny," and then proceeded to laugh anyway, causing her bladder to start a final countdown.
Sighing heavily and picking her way carefully to the front of the car, Louisa hiked her dress above her belly, pushed her knickers down as far as she could, squatted, and finally emptied her aching bladder. To her own ears, in all that quiet, she sounded exactly like a racehorse.
It was then that she heard Martin's voice shouting her name, and for a moment thought she was imagining it again, because he sounded so panic-stricken, so unlike his usual controlled self, that it couldn't possibly have been him.
But it was him.
Quickly realizing her state of dishabille and the fact that he couldn't see her, she scrambled to put herself right before making her appearance.
His panic was genuine, she could hear it in his voice as he asked what she'd been doing, and there was nothing Louisa could do but tell him the truth. "I needed to wee," which was a mighty understatement considering the size of the puddle in front of the car.
But Martin remained unconvinced that she was unhurt. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," she said, walking with him back to the driver's side of the car. "I'm a bit shaken, but it's Tommy. He's breathing, but I can't wake him up."
"Are you in any pain or discomfort at all?" It was as if he hadn't heard what she'd said about Tommy. But since she hadn't felt the twinge-spasm in a while, she didn't have to answer his question with a lie.
"No," she said firmly, trying to get him to tend to Tommy. "I think Tommy's more urgent than me."
"Yes, yes, yes," he said impatiently, "but you're sure you're all right?"
What was this? Had she dropped into an alternate universe? One in which Martin Ellingham was suddenly, honestly concerned for her welfare and not just spouting words at her? When a man lay unconscious, clearly very ill? If she lived to be a hundred, she would never figure him out! "Yes," she repeated, as another spasm wrapped itself around her midsection, "I told you. Yes."
Well, no, but it wasn't like the pain was coming with any regularity or anything.
End Chapter 1