Christmas Imbroglio

Doc Martin belongs to Buffalo Pictures, this author has no rights, just having fun.

Chapter 1

The Row

December 18, early morning

Martin was looking so intently at his laptop screen that James surmised his father must be watching one of those horrible medical videos. It had been a great day in James' young life when he had worked up the courage to tell his father that those videos gave him nightmares, and he really didn't want to watch them anymore. Martin, always careful not to impose his own preferences on his children, had resisted the temptation to lecture, and then quickly acquiesced: "That is quite alright James. You do not have to be a doctor just because I am, you do not have to watch these videos at all." Later, however, Martin had been relieved to find that his daughter Joanie did not mind the videos at all: she stuck her little fingers on the touch screen eagerly to magnify anatomy pictures, and at dinner used all the color names memorized from her pencils to describe, in vivid detail, what she had seen on daddy's laptop, rather to the disgusted shivers of her mother and brother. Thus James was surprised to see on his father's screen not some gross picture of a bloody organ, but that of a train.

"Dad?" said James.

"Yes?" said Martin while still working at the computer.

"Mum says you are going to London tonight."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I am going to teach young GPs a short course on diagnosing rare conditions and diseases."

"How come you did not tell us before?"

"I didn't know. Another doctor was going to teach this, but she had an accident and they needed a last minute substitute."

"You dad?"

"Yes. I taught this course before in Truro… Nobody else was ready on such short notice, so they asked me to do it."

Not sure he had asked for such a detailed explanation James blurted out: "But the Christmas pageant is in three days and you know I'm the king of the elves! Will you be back in time?"

"I should be, yes. If I'm not, I'm sure your mother will have a video to show me."

"I don't care for a video, I want you to come see me! You know I have a song to sing all by myself, you must come dad!"

"Yes, I do know, and as I said, if all goes as planned, I'll be there. Now I need to buy my train ticket and make a hotel reservation... You can help me if you like."

At that James felt important and went to sit on his father's knee.

"See James, this is the timetable with all available trains. Can you find one that leaves this afternoon at about… 5:00, or 17:00?"

James studied the table attentively. It made no sense to him at all. Then he recognized something.

"I see Bodmin Parkway!" he said happily pointing at it.

"Good. Now follow with your eyes or your finger along the horizontal line with the times. "

James looked at the first number, and it was early in the morning, and the next one a bit later. With a big smile he scrolled all the way to the right and towards the end saw 17:21.

"There it is!" and he put his finger right on it.

"Thank you James, you selected just the train I wanted. Now we buy the ticket. See here, I have to write my name and address. "

"Doctor Martin Ellingham!" said James triumphantly jumping up.

"Yes, James, but don't yell please."

"Sorry. "

"Can you type my name?" asked Martin. James complied, nodding happily.

"Dad, will your name be printed on the ticket? "

"No, but you have to put your name in here to pay with a credit card."

Martin pulled out his wallet and took out a credit card.

"Would you like to write in the number James? It's a very long number."

"Don't be silly dad, I know my numbers, of course I can do it."

"I'm never silly young man, you should know that much about your father," said Martin.

"Sorry… but you shouldn't think that I can't copy a lot of numbers in a row, I could do it with my eyes closed!"

"Better you do it with your eyes wide open."

"OK," said James, and accurately copied the number on the electronic form. "Now what?"

"Now you copy these other numbers," Martin explained, showing James how to enter the card's expiration date and security codes. Shortly thereafter the ticket was ready and printed.

"And now the hotel. It is another website," said Martin and typed "Savoy Hotel London" in the search bar and the link for the hotel appeared. He clicked on that and said: "Now this is easier than the train timetable. You can choose the room… I want this single room… And you can choose your dates on these small calendars. I will get there tonight, teach two whole days and come back the third day."

"So…" said James with furrowed brows, "today is the 18th, you teach the young GPs on the 19th and the 20th, and come back on the 21st. Three whole nights dad! You never go away three whole nights. You are going to be lonely, aren't you? "

"Yes, I will miss you, your sister and your mother. But those young GPs need to learn, we can't let them make mistakes, can we?"

"Right, and my dad is the best doctor in the whole world!" screamed James happily spreading his arms wide and elbowing Martin's head in the process.

"Sorry," said James.

"I'm not the best anything," said Martin, rubbing his forehead.

"Mum says you are."

"Your mother is too kind," Martin sighed, "could we please book the hotel? My first patient will arrive soon enough."

"Here, click on 18…"mumbled James, "...leave on 21… OK. Done?"

"We need to write the credit card information again. Can you do that all by yourself? It works the same way as for the train ticket."

"Of course!" said James enthusiastically and typed in all the requisite numbers again, with very little help from Martin. "Done now?"

"Yes, that's a confirmation number, see?" answered Martin. "We don't need to print that, no sense wasting paper, it's bad for the environment. See that string of numbers and letters? Can you write that and Savoy, S.A.V.O.Y., at the bottom of the train ticket page we just printed?"

"Sure dad." And James copied, with Martin making sure the code was right. It was.

"We are done James, thanks for your help. Now you know how to buy a train ticket and book a hotel."

"But I can't travel by myself, can I?"

"No, but it's useful to know. Let's get back to the kitchen, I need another espresso."

"Isn't too much coffee bad for you dad?"

"Yes, but two cups of espresso is not that much."

"Can I drink it then?"

"No, caffeine is not good for children. "

"Can I just taste a little dad? "

"It's bitter, you wouldn't like it."

"But can I?"

"Mm… a small sip will be fine."

"Yeah, oh yeah, I can drink espresso!" exclaimed James joyously.

"That's not what I said, just a sip!"

"Sure, just a sip, but it's still espresso, so I can drink espresso, oh yeah!" said James and he ran to the kitchen.

Martin closed his eyes and counted silently to ten, as he feared he was about to get a headache.

While the two Ellingham men were arranging Martin's trip, Louisa and her daughter Joanie were sitting at the kitchen table, discussing Joanie's participation in the school's Christmas pageant. The seven year old girl was sad, and upset.

"But mum,"she complained, "why do I have to sing in front of everyone? I don't want to. I don't like it." She gave a look of anguish and angry temper mixed together so reminiscent of Martin's that Louisa had to hold back a smile.

"Joanie, you would be the only child in the school not participating in the pageant in any way. Would that not make you feel odd? "

"No, that would make me feel good."

"You think so now love, but if you were sitting in the audience when all your school mates are on stage singing, how would you feel then?" asked Louisa.

Joanie thought about it a little and said: "Happy for them."

Louisa shook her head, suppressing a smile and not knowing exactly what to answer.

"Let's get ready for school now, we'll talk about this again later," said Louisa.

Right then James ran in screaming something about espresso, while Martin stopped standing by the door with a puzzled look when he took in his little girl's very unhappy face.

Martin loved all the members of his family to bits and would make any sacrifice for any of them, to make them happy and keep them safe. But Joanie… she was his little girl, and as fate would have it, though she looked much like her mother, her personality was rather more like Martin's, so they understood each other very well and had a really special bond. Martin often reflected on the vagaries of genes that could mix in such a random way to create a seeming impossibility: James who looked like Martin but was as extroverted and socially adept as his mother; and Joanie, with soft brown hair, green-blue eyes, high cheekbones and a beauty glow about her, who was very shy, and preferred to pass her time with puzzles and other solo games than babbling away with other girls. Her beauty, Martin knew, was bound to make some poor sod fall for her so hard some day as he had for her mother… though just the thought of that gave Martin the shivers, so he dropped it immediately.

Joanie was a lucky girl to have parents who made her feel safe in her most painfully shy moments, especially Martin, who read all her expressions and feelings to perfection, because he had been in that shy place of hers all of his life. Louisa, however, had a genuine concern that Joanie would not do as well as she might if she did not learn to relate to her peers and people in general. And Louisa certainly would not let Joanie grow up to be half as rude as Martin could be. Of that, however, there was no danger, because Joanie was at heart just as sweet as Martin, but unlike Martin never had to hide it from the world under a suit of armor. Her parents, and especially Martin, were her armor. Indeed, Martin need not have worried about any future Portwenn boys going after Joanie. It would indeed take a dragon-slaying youth to face up to the doc when it came to Joanie, and the whole of Portwenn already knew to steer clear.

Thus when Martin entered the kitchen and saw Joanie's very unhappy expression, he picked her up in his arms and asked her in his most tender tone: "What's the matter Joanie?"

"I don't want to sing in the pageant! I don't want the people watching me! I don't want to!"

"Well don't then," answered Martin quite spontaneously, "I'm sure the pageant will go on just as well, in fact James will carry half of it himself if I know him."

But, in looking lovingly into his daughter's slightly less disgruntled face, Martin had not seen the thunder immediately gathering on his wife's brow.

"Thank you Martin!" roared Louisa. "Now that really helps!"

Martin looked taken aback and immediately recognized Trouble with a capital T, or maybe even TROUBLE?

"I just don't think we should force Joanie… or any child… to perform in public if she feels uncomfortable about it," said Martin somewhat defensively.

"What? You do not want her to be unable to speak in public without floundering," thundered Louisa, "or to isolate herself from other children, do you Martin?!"

"What's a floundering?" asked Joanie always keen to learn, but for once she was ignored even by Martin. His ire too was rising, as he thought of Joanie on stage with the spotlight shining on her, mute in a speechless panic. No, she definitely needed his protection this time, even if it was from her mother's well-meaning efforts to make Joanie less shy.

"In my consulting room!" gestured Martin to Louisa in a cold and rather harsh tone.

Louisa grabbed her coat and marched to the consulting room ready for battle: he would not raise Joanie to be socially inept, that she vowed to herself.

Throughout all this James had stood mute and mesmerized, with his hand on the espresso machine, his tasting forgotten. He had never really seen mum and dad speak to each other quite like that. Martin and Louisa had in fact always been very careful to have their arguments away from the children. It was quite startling. James' vision of his parents together was of Louisa and Martin kissing hello or goodbye on the cheeks or lips; of them in their big bed inviting him in for a game of tickles; of them going out to dinner together, with dad bringing flowers or a gift on their anniversary; of mum taking off her shoe under the table and caressing dad's leg, which James could always deduce because dad's ears turned red and mum giggled for no apparent reason. So this sudden burst of anger made no sense to James and it scared him. He tiptoed to the consulting room's door and…. tried to eavesdrop, closely followed by Joanie. Now Joanie adored James almost as much as Martin, and where James led, she followed, hardly ever questioning his actions which were always far more daring than she would have liked.

Standing close to the consulting room door in the hall they could definitely hear loud, angry voices even if no words could be understood. James ran to the kitchen, took a plastic cup, pressed the cup to the closed door's keyhole and then his ear to it. James' heart was pounding and then the volume of the voices inside increased even more and this is what he heard:

Dad: "…because you think you know better about the children, so you decide about them for both of us without asking or discussing. You could have asked me what I thought about Joanie singing in the pageant!"

Mum: "Well it's not as if you always consulted me when you make decisions."

Dad: "Yes I do!"

Mum: "No you don't!"

Dad: "And what may I ask have I decided lately without consulting you?"

Mum: "Well you certainly did not ask me before you decided to go teach this course in London all of a sudden! Right when the school is very busy preparing the Christmas pageant, and I need to finish a lot of reports in the next couple of days!"

Dad: "But that's so unfair! I was asked to substitute for someone who had an accident, there was no way to know that ahead of time or find someone else! "

Mum: "Really? In all of ENGLAND? There was no one else?"

Dad: "No one else as well qualified on short notice. My practice has the lowest misdiagnosis record in the nation…"

Mum: "I KNOW! But you still could have said no, couldn't you?"

Dad: "Why? Those young GPs need the best possible training they can get. And in any event this was a work-related issue, nothing to do with our personal lives! I don't decide ANYTHING that has to do with our personal lives without consulting you first. Unlike you!"

Mum: "Oh, and what have I decided lately without consulting with you first, ah? What? "

Dad: "Oh, you were just about to throw Joanie to the wolves all on your own!"

Mum: "That's silly! Wolves!"

Dad: "Yes, and it follows a long established pattern, that… you think you are right about something and there is really no space for me to contribute."

Mum: "Like what, Martin, what in the world are you talking about?!"

Dad: "Like...if you don't agree with what I have to say, you walk away in anger without giving me the possibility to explain, your ideas and feelings being more important than mine I guess… it's all based on an assumption, that because you are the mother you have more rights to decide about the children than I do. I have never understood that. It started very early on by not telling me for six whole months, SIX WHOLE MONTHS! that you were pregnant, that we were going to have James, our James, and you decided everything there was to be decided about him all by yourself! We were not together then, but you should have told me!"

Mum: "But that's such a long time ago! I was scared, and by the looks of it you really did NOT want us then!"

Dad: "WHAT? I immediately asked you if you wanted to marry."

Mum: "You immediately also said I could have had an abortion!… and you WERE WITH EDITH FOR GOD'S SAKE!"

Dad: "I wasn't WITH Edith! She just happened to be there!"

Mum: "Well, right then it certainly looked to me like you had moved on with Edith and couldn't be bothered with me and James! You suggested marriage right then ONLY BECAUSE I WAS PREGNANT!"

Dad: "OH? YOU MADE ALL THAT UP IN YOUR HEAD, WHICH WAS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE YOU NEVER ASKED ME HOW I FELT, DID YOU?"

Dad sounded completely besides himself now. At that point in the row a rather shocked James, standing transfixed outside the door, heard a big noise from within the consulting room, a noise his panicked brain did not read correctly. He thought they must be physically fighting, whereas in his angry gesticulating Martin had accidentally knocked down a pile of medical supplies, and an empty glass vial had shattered. James, not being able to contain his feelings any longer, was about to open the door, when he heard a "Psst!" in the hall and turned to see Morwenna gesturing to him frantically and shaking her head and right index finger to mean "No, don't go in!" James refrained then, as Morwenna always knew best about the doc's moods. In his retreat James was just in time to avoid his mother furiously opening the door, slamming it shut again, and marching out.

"James, Joanie, get your coats and bags! Come on or we'll be late for school!" Louisa called them very loudly, clearly furious.

While Joanie had not understood any of the angry words coming from the consulting room, she knew in her heart that she had caused all this herself by not wanting to sing in the Christmas pageant. She felt as miserable as miserable can be, and rushed to get her coat with lowered head and tears stinging her eyes. She swallowed several times. Despite his own inner turmoil, James immediately perceived Joanie's despair. He took her hand in his and whispered: "I'll fix this, don't worry, and it's NOT your fault. " Then he lowered his eyes dejectedly: "It's mine," he thought, "all mine."

Then the children rushed after their mother who was practically running down Roscarrock Hill.