Disclaimer:Doc Martin is the property of Buffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my overactive imagination.

Happy Ever After – The Real World

Chapter 2

I truly had no regrets about choosing to stay in Cornwall with Louisa, and I was certainly not going to blow this last chance that I had been given by her to work things out between us. I was determined to do whatever it took to make her and James happy. But if I was being honest with myself, that didn't mean I wasn't suffering a few pangs, lamenting the loss of my surgical career that I had thought I was finally about to resume. In my mind, I had never stopped being a surgeon. It was what I was good at, what I had always excelled at. But I had made my choice of my own free will, and I just had to make a go of things as best as I could with what remained of my career.

The first thing that I had to do was to inform Robert at Imperial that I would not be taking up the Head of Vascular post. I did not relish making the call, but it had to be done, no point in putting it off once I'd made my decision. But actually it turned out to be easier than I expected. My temporary stand in, who had flown back from South Africa, had already let it be known that he would be more than happy to take up the position permanently.

"He's not you of course, but he's pretty good actually. Turns out he's met someone while he's been back here in London. Fallen madly in love it seems, doesn't want to go back to South Africa," Robert informed me. "Much as I gather has happened to you eh, you dirty old dog Martin. I hear you've got yourself a Cornish beauty to keep you warm at night. About bloody time, I must say I didn't think you had it in you."

Robert had always been a ladies man, and with his distinguished looks and charming manner he'd never had a problem attracting the fairer sex, despite being happily married. His numerous affairs had been common knowledge all the time that I had known him.

"I err…don't know…that is…it's not like that at all Robert," I tried to explain, caught completely off guard by his reaction, and having no idea how on earth he knew about Louisa.

"Oh come on Martin, no shame in finally giving in to the pleasures of the flesh after all these years. Could never understand how you managed on your own for so long, it's just not natural. And I hear you've even managed to produce a sprog, you certainly didn't hang about did you?"

I could tell from the tone of his voice that Robert was really rather enjoying this conversation, taking pleasure in my obvious discomfort.

"Umm…yes…we have a son…" I admitted.

"I have to say that I am bloody disappointed not to have you back here. There really is no one to match your level of skill, and it seems such a waste for you not to use your undoubted surgical gifts. I hope you're really sure she's worth the sacrifice, Martin, that's all I would say. So is it the full works, marriage and so on? Can I expect a Wedding invite?"

"I…err…don't know, it's complicated. One step at a time, I'm lucky she's even giving me a chance actually. You know I've never been any good at any of this kind of thing."

"True, you always were pretty clueless with the ladies weren't you, except for Edith of course. But then she was more like one of the boys in any case wasn't she?"

"Err…yes," I muttered, really not wanting to talk about that woman.

"Well, all the best for the future Martin, hope it works out for you in the way you want. And next time you're up in London, you must bring this fascinating woman to see me, seeing as she is the one who has finally managed to snare the big guy eh?" Robert laughed loudly before he hung up.

So it turned out that just as I had tried to tell Louisa when she had been fretting about her Head Teacher's job at the school, no one was irreplaceable.

My next call had been to Chris Parsons, to see about staying on as GP in Portwenn.

"Of course Martin, no question, we'd be delighted to keep you on, but…" he hesitated.

"What?"

"Are you sure it will be enough for you? You were so set on returning to surgery, won't you find being a GP rather restrictive and boring maybe?" He questioned me. "You know Robert was really thrilled to be having you back. Actually we met up the other week when I was up in town, caught up on old times."

So that most likely explained how Robert knew all about Louisa and James Henry. I'd forgotten that Chris had also worked in the team under Robert, back in the days before he had come down to Cornwall.

"Well you changed track when you got married and started a family didn't you Chris? Preferred the office hours of the PCT headship to the long hours of surgery, so I hardly think you're in a position to question me," I pointed out.

"True, but then I was just a bog standard surgeon, not gifted the way you were Martin, the way you still are."

"I've made my choice. I have no regrets. So do I have a job or not?"

"Of course you do, we're lucky to have you," Chris assured me.

However, I was pretty sure that Chris had something to do with the fact that only a couple of days later, I was approached about a surgical position at Truro hospital. Under the latest Government initiative, Truro had been designated as the surgical centre of excellence for the South West of England. It had been dressed up as a move to improve standards, but to my mind it smacked of a cost cutting exercise – closing down all the small local hospital departments to concentrate on developing one major centre. The upshot of it was that they wanted me to head up and develop the surgical team in general, and also to provide specialist vascular expertise.

Louisa was in the room with me when I got the phone call, and I saw her looking at me curiously as she heard my end of the conversation. I quickly filled her in when the call was over.

"Surgical post at Truro hospital. Wanted to know if I would be interested," I explained.

"Oh, right I see. And are you? Interested I mean?"

"I don't know Louisa, I've never really considered…well about being a surgeon anywhere but London. But I suppose there is really no logical reason why I couldn't work in Truro," I pondered. "What do you think?"

"It's really up to you Martin," Louisa replied, but I could see a worried look in her eyes. "Working in Truro – well it's too far away for you to commute back and forth every day, especially in the winter."

"Yes, I suppose it is. And I'm assuming you wouldn't want to move to Truro?"

"I'm not sure to be honest. I'd have to give it some thought. And then of course there's my job…"

It was quite apparent to me that this plan really was a non starter for Louisa, so I quickly assured her.

"Look, I'll tell them I'm not interested, Chris has already confirmed I can stay on as GP here in Portwenn, so don't worry about it any further."

I'd got it all so terribly wrong so many times before that I was determined not to risk spoiling things now. Louisa was happy living in the village, so that's where we would stay. End of story, however interesting the offer had sounded.

xXx

But of course that wasn't the end of the story. Bill Moore at Truro was a persistent bugger I had to concede.

"Look Ellingham, truth of the matter is you'd be perfect to run this set up, we can't believe our luck that a man of your calibre has chosen to settle in this part of the world. No one else has your expertise. Are you sure we can't twist your arm? It seems such a shame, such a waste not to make use of you. Couldn't you see your way to take on the role in some way? Why don't you come over and talk through the possibilities, and then we could show you what we had in mind with the set up. You know, it's pretty impressive I have to say, even if it isn't London," he tried to cajole me.

I had to admit that it sounded really tempting, and part of me was desperate to find out more. Louisa seemed to sense this, despite my denials when I told her that I wasn't interested and was happy to stay in Portwenn as GP. I had always been an appalling liar.

"Look, it can't hurt to find out more can it? It sounds really interesting, something that I'm sure you would be brilliant at. I know how hard it must have been for you to give up your London dream, so maybe we could work out some sort of compromise so that you could do this? Can't have you bored out of your mind can we?" Louisa joked, and she was clearly trying hard to be supportive of my career, just as she had been when she had initially agreed to move to London with me. But I was just so fearful of making the same mistake of being selfish and not considering her feelings and losing her all over again.

"If you're happy, I'm happy, and I know that you don't want to move from the village," I told her.

"But maybe you won't be happy if you can't ever be a surgeon again, and then I wouldn't be happy either. Just go and see what they are prepared to offer, and we'll take it from there," she insisted. "Don't pretend to me that it doesn't interest you - you have to be honest with me Martin, or it'll never work between us will it?"

So I finally agreed to a meeting at Truro Hospital.