A little one shot where Alex returns to London, hoping for a reunion. I should be doing other things so naturally I'm writing fan fics instead. I don't own anything, if I did the last episode would have been very differently!
Update: Thank you for all the lovely reviews. This is a one shot for now. I may get time soon to add more, but it will be a while so don't hold out on that one! I uploaded this on the phone app to start with so some of the lines went a bit weird with spaces in the wrong place, hopefully I have fixed these now.
It had been a long time since Alexander Felsham had set foot in England. He had spent the last five years commuting between Tokyo and New York without a backward glance. Following his disastrous date with bankruptcy he had dragged himself kicking and screaming out of the disaster he'd created. He knew he'd made a monumental mess of everything in his life up until that point, so he'd taken the opportunity to start a fresh. He'd built his new company from the ground up and had finally regained some level of standing in the business world again. But more importantly he had a successful company and a secure income again. He had returned to London to do one important job. His only regret in his life had been Jane. He had taken her completely for granted and hadn't once considered that she was probably the best thing to ever happen to him. He'd left her with nothing and refused everything she'd wanted when they'd been together. He couldn't understand why she'd stayed with him so long in many ways.
But she was kind and loyal and had taken her marriage vows seriously. She had devoted herself to him and her position. He had been an idiot to hurt her. He hoped one day to get the chance to apologise, but he doubted he'd be able to find her.
He had tired directory enquiries, a few contacts he'd had left in Felsham and had no success.
He stood at the small desk in his hotel room staring blankly at the entry in the phone book before him. 'Lovejoy Antiques and Interiors' it read. He bit his tongue and sighed. He took a deep breath, picked up the phone and quickly dialed the number, before he lost his nerve.
"Lovejoy, I'm away at the moment, please leave a name and number and I'll get back to you..." Alexander put the phone down. He couldn't face leaving a message, he hated answer machines, they always made him sound like an idiot. He let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed his wallet, phone and hotel key from the table and headed for the door, deciding a walk would calm him down and clear his head.
He hardly noticed the direction he was travelling, he didn't have a destination in mind, he was too lost in thought. He needed to see her. Jane. He had tried over the years to forget her, to meet someone new, but he constantly failed. Every woman he met didn't hold a candle to Jane. He realised that now, far too late to change anything. He knew he would never stand a chance at getting her back. He didn't want her, he wasn't good enough and he wanted her to be happy. He knew now that that could have never been with him. She deserved much better. He hoped she had found it too. As long as it wasn't with Lovejoy he thought bitterly. He wasn't sure he could cope with that kick in the teeth. Although, he reasoned, he didn't doubt that the man loved her, which was far more than he had ever really offered her.
He wondered if she'd had a family. That had been the biggest wedge he'd driven between them. He hadn't wanted children. He still didn't. He knew it meant that there would be no heir to his title or to inherit his estate. Not that it had mattered in the end, he'd already lost the estate anyway. He knew he wasn't fit to be a father. He had disliked children and he had enough baggage from his own upbringing to know he would have made a terrible parent. There were times since when he wondered if Jane would have changed him, or if she'd have outweighed his failings as a father figure, but it had been too late by the time he'd considered relenting. The divorce papers had been signed and the last he'd heard she was off to America.
He'd searched for her in New York the last time he had been, but she had not been there. He'd tracked down several people she'd worked with, or had acquaintances with, but they hadn't heard from her. The last one had said that she had returned to London. So here he was. Still none the wiser as to her whereabouts.
He'd reached a small park now, it had wide paths lined with trees. Runners and cyclists were narrowly avoiding pedestrians. Children and dogs rushed about darting round trees, their harassed parents apologising to cyclists who almost came into contact with them.
Eventually he reached the other side of the park. Several benches sat under trees facing a children's play area. Three girls were giggling hysterically on the swings while a man rushed back and forth behind them, pushing each one higher each time. Two teenage boys sat on the fence trying to look casual and pretend the small boy who kept darting back to them wasn't actually with them. A girl and a boy were on either end of a red seesaw, the paint pealing badly.
On the far side of the park was a patch of grass on which a man, a young red haired boy and a woman, probably in her mid twenties he guessed, playing football. The man had his back to Alex, but he seemed oddly familiar. He wandered further down a sidepath through the trees to get a closer look. He frowned. The man didn't turn to face him, but he couldn't help but notice that he bore a remarkable resemblance to Lovejoy. He shook his head. He was imagining things now. He was obviously getting obsessive over his desire to find Jane and it was obscuring his thinking. He pulled his gaze away and set off towards the gate ahead of him to leave the park.
Another row of benches stood against the flower beds bordering the park. On one sat a woman, her auburn hair sat neatly on her shoulders in gentle waves. A pair of sunglasses covered her eyes, but she held a hand to her forehead to block out the sun as she watched the boy, the man and the woman play football. Her other hand was resting on abdomen. She was obviously pregnant. And to Alex's astonishment, she was quite obviously Jane. He couldn't comprehend the image in front of him. He couldn't have found her so easily and unexpectedly could he? Her expression shifted, she was laughing at something happened on the makeshift football pitch. He turned to see the man scoop the boy into the air and spin home round, seemingly to prevent him from scoring a goal.
"Daddy that's cheating!" The boy shouted between laughing and flailing his arms. "Vicky save me!" He called to the woman. She ran for the ball and dribbled it round the mans feet and scored.
"That's what happens when you cheat, daddy!" She called.
Alex looked back at Jane who was shaking her head, still laughing.
Alex was spellbound. She looked more beautiful than he remembered. He shook himself.
"Come on man." He said to himself. "Pull yourself together. Go over there, do what you've got to do, the you can get on with your life." He took a deep breath and began his walk towards the bench and his unsuspecting ex-wife.
She didn't notice him as he approached. He took one last calming breath, savouring the moments peace before he opened the proverbial can of worms.
"Jane" he said softly beside her. She jumped slightly and turned to him.
"Alex?" She gasped, a mixture of surprise, confusion and a hint of horror on her face.
"Hi" he said awkwardly, shifting from one foot to the other.
"What on earth are you doing here?" She asked, taking a quick glance to the football match which seemed to have resumed.
"Just taking a walk, I'm in town and staying just round the corner. What about you?" He asked, amazingly having avoided lying to her. He still looked very awkward.
"Oh for heaven's sake sit down, I won't bite." She said. He complied. "We're visiting my stepdaughter." She explained, gesturing towards the woman on the grass. "How are you?" She asked. He laughed.
"This is bloody awkward isn't it?" He said.
"A little" she shifted her position slightly, absentmindedly stroking the curve of her stomach.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to ambush you. I'd been trying to find you as I was in London, unsuccessfully as it happens. Then all of a sudden you were in front of me." He confessed. "I think I'm in shock" he said with a laugh. She smiled.
"You're not the only one. You're not usually in London then?" She asked.
"Rarely these days. Tokyo and New York mainly. Occasionally Hong Kong. You said you were visiting?"
"Yes, Vicky. We're just outside Cambridge now. I lived in London for a while, but I much prefer the countryside." She explained.
"You always did" he began.
"Muuuuumm!" A voice called and a shock of orange hair rushed in their direction.
"Yes, darling?" She smiled lovingly at the boy, holding out her hands to him.
"Can I have my drink, please?" He asked politely as he reached her. She fished a bottle from a bag beside her feet and handed it to him. He took several long gulps, his head thrown back and his eyes closed. Jane was picking dry grass from his hair. He put the lid back on the bottle and handed it back to her. "Are you sure you can't play? Daddy keeps cheating." He asked brightly.
"Sorry, Love. I wish I could, if only to get daddy." She winked at him.
"Ok." He said sadly. "Can you help me beat him at hippos instead later?" He tried.
"Oh, now that I can do!" She smiled, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. "Go on and score that goal now, while Vicky's distracting him" she suggested. He ran, straight at the ball and scored, arms in the air and cheering to himself. She laughed, her eyes sparkling. She looked back to Alex.
"Motherhood suits you, Jane" he said. She nodded.
"I didn't know I could love like I love him. It's overwhelmingly wonderful and terrifying in equal measure" she explained.
"And Lovejoy?" Alex asked. "That is him isn't it?" He indicated the man, letting yet another goal past him.
"Probably the same answer" she laughed.
"How long have you been together?" He asked.
"We weren't when you and I..." she began, finding herself suddenly having to justify herself.
"I know. I know I said things back then about you two, but I didn't doubt you Jane. Not really." He said.
"I went to America for a while after the divorce, then London, I tried to marry someone else and got badly burned. The only place I could think to go to was him and I never left." She explained with a smile. "That was six years ago".
"And he's about to be a big brother by the looks of it." He teased.
"Funny!" She scowled at him. "I'm already hot and uncomfortable, don't make me anymore self conscious about my size, please." Her face softened. "I didn't imagine I'd manage one, never mind two."
"I'm sorry I was so against it. I stand by the fact I'd have made a terrible parent, but I'm glad you didn't miss out" he said, he looked back to Lovejoy, who was now lying on the grass with the boy sat on top of him. Vicky sat beside them. "Lovejoy looks happy" he observed.
"We are." She said.
"What happened when you went back to him?" Alex asked. She laughed. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry."
"Yes you do" she said, with a sideways smile. "I moped for several days, then we started working together again. I think it was his way of distracting me. Then Tinker, his old friend, the one who used to work with him..."
"The guy who always turned up drunk?" Alex clarified, Jane nodded.
"Yes. Well anyway, he died, quite suddenly. Although after a lifetime spent in a beer barrel it wasn't entirely a shock, but Lovejoy took it hard. In the end we decided that life was too short to waste anymore of it. So we confessed everything and eloped fairly soon afterwards. Not a moment to soon as it turned out, Jimmy was already on the way by then."
"So you must now be the interiors bit on the end of Lovejoy antiques?" He asked.
"Hmm, and the Lovejoy bit" she smirked. A shadow appeared during the lull in conversation.
"I didn't realise that was you, Alex" Lovejoy said as he sat the other side of Jane on the bench. She handed him the water bottle she was still holding and he took several sips, not unlike his son had done.
"It's been a while, Lovejoy." Alex said eventually, having composed himself enough to speak to the man who was clearly a better husband than he had been, despite all previous experience of the man that would have suggested otherwise. "Jane's been filling me in. Sounds like you've both been busy." Jane raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't mean..." he began, slightly flustered, but Lovejoy laughed.
"We've been making up for lost time" Lovejoy said, resting an arm round the back of the bench to turn to face Alex. His other hand had found Jane's and was absently toying with her fingers. She laced hers into his.
"I'm glad." Alex said genuinely. "I only wanted to apologise Jane. I left you in a mess back then and I regret it. I couldn't have done anything other, but I was a terrible excuse for a husband even before then and you deserved much better. I hope you've found it now."
"I have, thank you. I'm sorry too, I stopped fighting for us. In the end it was probably for the best. I'm glad you came to say it though" she said graciously. "I'm sure there is someone out there who will make you happier than I could"
"That's kind Jane, but I doubt it. I'm happier as I am I think. I'm too selfish to keep anyone happy for long, but I can live with that." He stood. "Take good care of her Lovejoy. I know you love her far more than I ever did, but she's something very special and she deserves the world if you can manage it. Bye Jane. Lovejoy." He nodded.
"Alex" Lovejoy stood and took half a step towards him. "Are you sure you're ok?" He asked.
"Fine. I've done a lot of soul searching over the last few years, that's all. I left a fairly large trail of destruction behind me back then. I decided I'd best mop it up a bit. The last piece was Jane. I'm just glad you were ok." Alex confessed. He reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and handed an envelope to Jane. "Don't open it until I'm gone, that way you can't give it back. I expect you to do something with it, it's what you should have had all along if I hadn't been such an idiot. I'm sure the little ones could have a use for it even if you don't". He finished. And with that he turned and didn't look back. He needed to move on now. He was glad he'd had the envelope in his pocket too, he didn't think he'd have had the courage to see her twice.
Jane turned the envelope in her hand. She slipped her other hand from Lovejoy's and opened it. She stared open-mouthed at the cheque in her hand.
"Blimey" Lovejoy said over her shoulder.
"It's exactly what Felsham Hall sold for" she explained.
"You don't want to buy it back do you?" He asked. She laughed, turning to him with a loving smile.
"No, my love. I'm very happy where we are thank you" she reached up to caress his cheek. "I think I'll put it away for the children, I don't want it. You don't mind do you?"
"Not at all, it would give them far more opportunities than us." He kissed her forehead. "You sure you don't want to treat yourself?"
"No, I have everything I ever wanted." She said. Lovejoy rested his hand on her stomach. The baby kicked hard into his hand and they laughed.
"I know you're there too little one" Lovejoy said, caressing the tiny foot that stuck out. "You be gentle with Mummy mind." He looked back up to her sparkling eyes. "She's a remarkable woman" he leant forward and kissed her softly on the lips.
"Ewwwwwww!" Shouted a voice from beside them. Lovejoy laughed and pressed his forehead to Jane's.
"Boarding school would be a good investment for his future don't you think?" He murmured as he pressed a kiss on her neck just below her ear. She laughed.
"You'd miss him too much." She replied, giving him a gentle peck on the lips before turning to her son and grasping him to her and smothering him in kisses. He laughed and shrieked. "Come on, home time I think."
"Oh! But I don't want to go! I like it here with Vicky." Jimmy protested.
"You won't like it tomorrow when I have to go back to work, munchkin" Vicky explained. "I'll be up to visit soon though. I'll want to meet this new little brother or sister of ours when it arrives" Jimmy pulled a disgruntled face, before he brightened up.
"Can I have a piggy back?" He asked. She knelt down and he jumped on. She galloped ahead and Jimmy cheered.
Lovejoy and Jane smiled proudly after them. He slipped his hand into hers after he'd picked up the picnic bag from beside the bench. He set off, but paused when she didn't follow. She was smiling lovingly at him when he turned.
"I love you" she said simply. He grinned and stepped close to her.
"I love you too, Janey." He said.
She stepped closer and kissed him soundly on the lips.