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

Chapter 9

The first night in their new home was not as quiet as Martin and Louisa might have hoped. Having been as good as gold all day, feeding and sleeping pretty much to order, Luke decided to be grizzly and unsettled for most of the evening and into the night. Louisa fed him, changed him, winded him, paced up and down with him, but he just wouldn't settle. When she tried feeding him again, he just brought the feed up again because he was still full up from being fed before.

"What's wrong with him – do you think he doesn't like being in this house?" worried Louisa. "Or perhaps my milk isn't good enough?"

"Don't be ridiculous, there is nothing wrong with your milk. As for being in this house, he's just a baby, it doesn't matter to him where he is," was Martin's helpful answer.

He watched anxiously as Louisa got more and more flustered, becoming tearful and upset. Of course, the more flustered she got, the more unsettled the baby became.

Eventually Martin could stand it no more.

"Here, give him to me," he said, holding out his arms.

By this time, Louisa was only too happy to pass the baby over.

Martin firmly held Luke against his chest as Louisa had shown him, gently patting him on the back. He walked around the house a few times, and miraculously Luke calmed down, stopped crying and went to sleep.

"How the hell did you do that?" asked Louisa in amazement.

"Years of medical training," replied Martin, gently placing Luke into the Moses basket next to Louisa's bed. "Can we go to bed now do you think?"

They both fell into bed exhausted, in their separate rooms. Although tired, Martin found it hard to settle as he turned over the events of the day in his mind. Things had moved so quickly, he hadn't had time to analyse his thoughts. How did he feel about them having separate bedrooms? At least she'd seemed as horrified as him when he asked if that meant a platonic relationship. And her suggestion of a 'sleepover' – well that could be intriguing – if they ever got to that stage.

Things were still pretty awkward between them a lot of the time, especially with Louisa's hormones raging. Tact and sensitivity were not his strong points he was aware, but he believed in telling the truth – what was wrong with that? They still had a lot of issues to sort out, but maybe it was best to wait until Louisa was a bit calmer. After her reaction to him financing the house, he hadn't dared tell her about the new car he was thinking of ordering for her. He'd researched which car of the size she was used to driving had the best safety record, and the best reviews with regard to carrying baby equipment, and then phoned around to check availability. The car dealership was going to ring him to let him know when they would have one to test drive. He'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

Also at some point in the near future, they would have to register Luke's birth, and they had not discussed the surname issue again.

And as for his views on Louisa going back to work full time at the end of the summer holidays – well he could see huge rows coming over that.

"At least I managed to settle Luke," he thought, rather pleased with himself, as he finally drifted off to sleep.