Chapter Two: Daddy's Girl

Martin pulled up on the newly laid drive of Havenhurst Farm, where the sun glistened picturesquely over the crashing waves behind the cottage, painted in a fresh coat of vibrant white paint illuminating the intensity of the brightness further. The place that always reminded him of Auntie Joan was before him. It was always her place even if it was more maintained now and had been refurnished to Ruth's liking.

Individually, they hopped out of the car, the wind brushing against their faces. It was strange not to hear Buddy the dog barking at their arrival or the chickens squirming hysterically in their pen.

James ran up the path, stopping at the front door and pointed over at the empty chicken pen,

"Where's the chickens?" he asked, confusion spreading over his face.

"Where are the chickens," Louisa corrected, "and I'm not sure."

She looked over her shoulder at Martin, who shrugged, he couldn't care less whether the chickens were in sight or not.

"They're in the shed for the winter," Ruth's voice came over from the door, where she held a little girl of around nine months in her arms.

Ava displayed two small front teeth as she beamed at her big brother and her deep blue eyes grew larger as she peered down at him, giggling immensely. She had long, elegant eyelashes enlarging her eyes further with thin brown hair, just like James.

"Auntie Ruth!" James shouted and hugged her.

"That's a nice welcome, James," she smiled, "How was your first day at school?"

"It was really good," he exaggerated his words.

"Well, I'll get you a drink and you can tell me all about," Ruth said, inching to the side of the doorway, allowing him to run through into the house.

"There she is!" Louisa smiled, as she approached the cottage, stretching out her hands to her daughter, "Hello Ava!"

Ava giggled and smiled at her parents.

"Dada!" she squealed, holding out her arms towards Martin.

Martin gratefully took Ava, out of Louisa's arms, secretly adoring the fact that she wanted to go to him. Ava began examining his tie but pulling at it.

"Hello," he mumbled quietly to his little girl.

"Tea or Coffee?" Ruth asked, her eyes rotating between Martin and Louisa, both occupied with giving Ava their undivided attention.

"A cup of tea would be lovely, thank you Ruth," Louisa said.

"Coffee, please," Martin said, his stern look softening when facing his daughter, who was now dribbling all over him.

"Are you going to come in, or just going to stand there?" Ruth questioned, rhetorically and began leading the way through to the kitchen.

"Dadadadadadada," Ava repeatedly babbled, waving her arms around aimlessly.

"She's definitely a Daddy's girl," Ruth smiled, before flicking the switch on the side of the kettle.

"We've tried to get her to say 'Mama', but its not working," Louisa sighed, a little disappointed as she patted Ava's back.

Inside the cottage had changed very little, apart from the refurbished kitchen and touch of paint here and there. The large open fireplace was now more of a centre feature than it was when Joan was alive. Instead of hanging old pots and pans from it, it displayed randomly laid logs in the mouth to be lit in the winter. On the mantle piece were photographs of James and Ava, even one of Martin and Louisa's wedding sitting amongst them all.

James was already sat on a chair, engrossed in a colouring book he had retrieved from the toy box.

"So James, how was school?" asked Ruth, folding her arms showing interest.

"It was the best!" he smiled, suddenly raising his head and placing his colouring pencils on the table, "My teacher is really nice and I saw Mummy as well!"

Louisa smiled, "We had assembly today."

"Ah, but I suggest you try not to mother him at school, it's the only place where he'll have independence," Ruth stated, raising her eyebrows as though she was talking to a psychiatric patient rather than Louisa.

Martin felt Louisa tense slightly, feeling offended of her mothering skills. One thing that Louisa couldn't grasp was why Ruth felt the need to advise her all the time as though she didn't know what she was doing.

"How come the chickens are in the shed?" Martin asked, quickly, not wanting them to start an opinionated discussion.

…

"I just don't like that she thinks she's always right!" Louisa stated as she climbed into bed that evening.

"Its just Ruth."

"I know Martin, but its like she thinks my school isn't up to standard, it doesn't help that Ofsted are going to make an appearance any time soon." Louisa said, taking in a deep breath as she settled down.

Martin peered over the rim of his new medical book, watching Louisa stare up at the ceiling, the warm glow of the bedside lamp enlightening the side of her face, shadowing the other side. She frowned and squinted her left eye in deep thought. He concluded that she must have a million things racing through her mind as he returned back to his book.

"I've got to finish reading that nonsense report and set target levels for Year Six," she said to herself, unaware that Martin was listening, her eyes circulating the ceiling above where the shadows of the wardrobe and dressing table were cast into oblong shapes.

"Why don't you just relax?" he suggested, trying to find the sentence he was reading.

She glanced over at him, taking his hand off the book and gave it a slight squeezed.

"I can't, I'm just, I don't know," she shook her head and turned back to the obscure shapes on the ceiling as if reflecting her own muddle of decisions and emotions in her mind.

"What?" he prodded her.

"Everything's happening at once," Louisa sighed.

"Is it because James has started school, knowing that he is growing up has upset you and now everything seems bigger than it is?" he asked, pleased that he had drawn a logical conclusion on the basis of Louisa's emotions.

"I suppose," she nodded, "He's my little boy and he's grown up too fast." She bit her bottom lip, feeling tears prick the corners of her eyes, "I know I still have Ava, but you know, she won't be far along."

Martin stroked the back of her hand, remembering the way she reacted when she waved James off to school. Although she was the Headteacher, she still wanted that experience of 'sending' her child on their way to school for the first time. Martin, Ava and herself stood on the playground and watched him stroll off through the doors for the first time, tears rolling down Louisa's face.

"He's still you're little boy," Martin said.

"And yours," Louisa pointed out, "At least you've got Ava…. I just can't understand why she can say 'Dada' and hasn't attempted 'Mama'!"

"Louisa, she'll say it one day," said Martin, "It must be something to do with –"

"I'm not in the mood for a Doc Martin," Louisa sighed, "Martin Ellingham is who I want right now."

Martin frowned slightly and Louisa laughed, cupping his cheek in her free hand.

"I'm not being ungrateful, you know," she explained, "I just don't want to blink and James is going off to university and Ava is sitting her exams!"

"You're not. It's understandable that you want them to be children for longer, but James is still young. He may be in school now, but you may enjoy it better when he's perhaps seven and having full blown, interesting conversations about whatever."

Louisa smiled, "Aw, see I always knew you were soft somewhere."

She propped up onto her elbow and pulled him down giving him a soft kiss on his lips.

"I love you," she said, gazing into his eyes.

"Well, luckily, I love you too," he replied, his face softening yet again.

Louisa giggled, "I suppose I am lucky then."

The silence was interrupted by a voice coming from Louisa's bedside table, where a monitor lit up,

"Dada!"

"I think my daughter wants me," Martin said, sarcastically.

"Are you teasing me?" Louisa asked, slightly surprised that he actually was winding her up and little annoyed that she believed Ava preferred Martin to her.

Martin remained silent, acting innocent as he pushed the duvet off him, placing the medical book down on his bedside table. Passing the door he shot back a look at Louisa, who was smiling after him.

Louisa listened to the monitor as Martin spoke soothingly to Ava, gathering that she had woken up from a dream.

She found it so adorable listening to the abrupt, cantankerous Martin he normally was at work talking softly to Ava, who was replying in her little baby language. It was almost too cute to resist that she got up and followed Martin into Ava's room.

Leaning against the doorframe she watched as Martin scanned the two shelves sticking out from the beige painted wall, then nodding as he lifted a squared object out from where it stood orderly amongst other objects. He then paced over to the bay window and sat on the rocking chair situated next to a changing unit. Settling Ava in his arms comfortably, he opened, what Louisa saw was a book and began reading from it.

Louisa placed a hand over her mouth and smiled, she remembered all the times when she had caught him reading to James and still catching them discuss various topics together.

Martin looked over at the door, spotting Louisa standing there, smiling at them both. He ignored her; he didn't see it embarrassing any more, and continued reading to Ava.

Louisa widened the door further and crept in, trying to avoid the creaking floor boards from awakening James or disturbing Ava from going back to sleep.

As she reached Martin, Louisa knelt down on the floor beside them, resting her head on his shoulder, as she began to stroke Ava's hand, listening to Martin's voice.