Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the Flying doctors, I am not making any money from this.
Chris woke up from a good night's sleep and found her husband Daniel lying opposite of her in the bed, smiling, like he had done every morning the past few weeks they'd been married. Her lips formed a happy smile of their own and she stretched her arms in his direction to pull him closer.
"Good morning Mr Wellings,"
"And good morning to you Mrs Wellings. Sleepyhead!"
"If I catch you calling me that in public, I'll have to seriously harm you."
"What? Sleepyhead? I wouldn't call you that in public."
"No! Mrs Wellings of course," she laughed. "I am proud of being a doctor."
"I know that. I know I'm old-fashioned, but I can't help it."
"Well, you want to know a secret? I'm old-fashioned too. I love hearing you say it every morning. But I was serious about the harm though," she smiled.
Daniel buried his face where her neck met the shoulder and started to kiss the shoulder.
"Do you really have to go to work today?" he mumbled between kisses.
"Yes, I really have to go to work today. Honeymoon's over, you know."
Her husband groaned. Chris threw a quick glance towards the alarm clock and saw that she barely had time to shower before her shift started.
"Daniel! Did you turn off the alarm clock?"
"What if I did?" he said mischievously.
"I have got to get to work!" she said and tried to get out of bed but Daniel was quicker and got on top of her and pinned her wrists to the mattress with his hands.
"Da-!" he silenced her with a kiss.
"Isn't there something called fashionably late?"
"Not in the medical business, there isn't!"
He cocked his head, and smiled widely. As always she was fascinated by his beautiful brown and green eyes.
"Hmm, maybe we could call you in sick? You do look a little flushed to me, it's probably a terrible fever coming on."
"Daniel..."
"And you would have to spend the whole day in the bed! At the very least."
"Geoff would have my hide if I called in sick. Now, let me go."
"Only if you give me a kiss.
"Good morning everyone!" Chris said cheerfully as she stepped into the Royal Flying Doctor's Base. She was greeted by Geoff, Kate and Sam who was just leaving for a clinic run.
"You owe me a buck!" DJ shouted after them.
"What was that about?"
"Oh, that was a bet between Sam and me."
"What about?" Chris asked as she made her way into the base to get herself a cup of coffee.
"Oh, err, nothing special."
"Go on, tell me then."
"It was stupid, really. We made a bet about whether you would turn up before or after noon. By the way, are you and Daniel coming to the pub tonight?"
"Why would you bet on a thing like that?" when DJ saw she was still smiling, he eased up.
"Well, with you being newly wed and all..."
Chris just smiled, thinking about how close it actually had been for her not to show up.
"What was it that you said about the pub?" she asked.
"I've finally convinced Vic to have live acts, namely me. I'll be playing at the pub tonight. It's going to be big! Huge!"
"We'll be there then!"
"Do we really have to go to the pub?" Daniel asked as he shoved some of the dinner he had made into his mouth.
"DJ is performing or something so I promised him we would be there. Why? Don't you want to go?"
"I just would prefer a quiet night in."
"We've had quiet nights in through most of our honeymoon. " Chris pointed out. "Besides, I thought you would appreciate some live music, since you play the guitar all the time and make songs. Perhaps you should join DJ?"
"Not a chance!"
"Why not? The bits and pieces I've heard are quite good. You can play, so why not back DJ or something, if there'll be more nights like this?"
Daniel fidgeted.
"Because it's another thing to play for you, than to a crowd. I don't like being stared at."
"Ok, it was just a thought. I suppose it's my turn to do the dishes then?" Chris said and picked up their plates.
"Hey... Do you know you are the most wonderful wife?" Daniel smiled. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
"Yes, I do know," she smiled back.
The pub was unusually crowded, even for a Friday night. With the usual local customers, a group of loud, apparently already drunk, shearers mingled. Chris, Daniel, Kate and Geoff shared a table near the corner where DJ would play.
"When's he going on?" Kate asked. Chris looked at her watch.
"In a few minutes," she said and just then, he a appeared with an acoustic guitar and sat down on a stool. He adjusted the mic stand and tapped the mic to see if it was on.
"One, two, one, two. Can you hear me?"
"Yeah!" one of the shearers shouted and some scattered applauds were heard.
"Ok, here we go then!" DJ started to play a fast tune and sing along to it.
The crowd did not seem overly enthusiastic and soon seem to lose interest in his playing.
Daniel enjoyed hearing DJ play, and he secretly wished that it was him that were so brave to sing for a crowded pub.
"He's good!" he said to the others at the table and they nodded in agreement. Then suddenly the sound of glass being broken was heard and angry voices accusing one another for being responsible for the wasted glass of beer. A fist landed on someone's cheek, and so the fight was started. Before anyone could fathom what had happened the whole pub seemed engaged in fighting physically or verbally abusing one another. DJ saw one of his mates getting dragged into the fight and he immediately stopped playing to jump in and help.
"Cut it out you mongrels!" Vic yelled but to little avail.
"Guess, we'll have our hands full tomorrow," Geoff said as he rose to help breaking up the huge fight. Chris and Kate joined him. Daniel bit his lower lip and looked at the guitar DJ had left behind. What if he could..? With the guests of the pub in an uproar, they probably wouldn't know the difference anyway. Without really thinking about it, he got up and took DJ's guitar. Feverishly he searched his mind of a good song to play, but the only one that came to mind was one of his own creations.
"I guess it's do or die now," he thought and began to softly strum the guitar. His voice felt very shaky as the first words came out, but after the first sentence he felt more secure and even sang a little louder. Though he didn't dare to look up from the floor, Daniel both heard and sensed that the crowd was calming down and turning their surprised attention to him. In his mind he was in the living room, singing only to Chris and it was a love song he had written to her, though she had never heard it.
As Chris was trying to mediate between two arguing men, she heard a familiar voice singing low from the corner. To her and everybody else's surprise, she saw that it was Daniel. He was singing softly and his voice seemed to sooth and calm everyone down. The words were pure poetry of love and devotion and it brought tears to Chris' eyes. Eventually, the last tone of the guitar faded and the pub of Copper's crossing was dead silent for a few seconds. Then roaring applauds were heard, shouting and whistling. As Daniel looked up from the floor and then realized that it wasn't just him and Chris, he felt his cheeks flush a little. DJ came up to him.
"Thanks mate! Won't you play another one?"
"Nah, that's the only one I know the full lyrics to."
"It was beautiful, who is it?"
"Uh, it's mine actually."
"Really? I didn't know you were a song writer?"
"Well, song writer is a bit too much. I dabble."
"Don't be modest now, you are really good!" Chris said and put one arm around his shoulder and smiled. "By the way, what song was that? I don't think I've heard it before."
"You haven't, it's a new one and I wanted to surprise you with it. It's called 'Precious', because that's what you are to me, I wrote it for you" Daniel whispered softly in her ear. The tears of happiness was threatening to fall from her eyes as she leaned in to kiss him.