Doc Martin is owned by Buffalo Pictures.
Chapter Twelve
Louisa pulled back. Danny had just succeeded in pushing her already scrambled brain to its limit. Dazed and bewildered, she finally managed to regain control of her speech.
'Danny... w- what was that for?'
'I – you were upset, I just wanted to try and make things better... we've got so much history Lou, I never really stopped-' Louisa held up her hands to silence him.
'No, don't say it, don't say it... Danny.' She looked him in the eyes, always a mistake. He looked so wounded; it was like kicking a puppy. She took a deep breath and carried on regardless. 'I want us to stay in touch, I'd love that. But just... not like that.'
'I understand, it's too quick, we need to think and take things slowly.' Louisa felt the immense surge of irritation that always came over her when she was being pressured into something.
'No. You don't get it. I'm having a baby. My head's all over the place and I barely know which way is up. Right now the only thing I want to concentrate on is getting through the next five months, and the last thing on my mind is a relationship.'
She stood and wobbled, drained by the events of the evening.
'I'm done in, I need to go home. I mean it about staying in touch, so here's my number. Think about it.'
On the way home she wondered if she'd handled it right. They hadn't parted on the best of terms, and he was frequently unbearable. You put up with Holly, she reasoned to herself. Even unbearable friends were better than no friends at all. And despite being a little overbearing at times, she knew that he was kind and sensitive. Yep – her childhood friend would probably help her get through things a bit better, and somehow always made her feel at home. She hoped she hadn't been too abrupt with him, but she'd just got out of a wonderful mess of a relationship and the last thing she wanted was another one.
After she'd mulled over the events of the evening so much that she was confusing herself, she managed to get through her door and have the best night's sleep in ages.
xxx
Martin finished clearing away his breakfast dishes. He turned off the tap and dried his hands, hearing the familiar sound of the surgery phone, which then stopped. As he walked into his consulting room he heard it start up again, as he called 'First patient!' He sat at his desk and wondered which hypochondriac he had the joy of facing this morning. None came. He headed out into the waiting room and was met by two women with kids bickering about who was to go first, and the phone still ringing. Pauline was nowhere in sight. Growling inwardly and wondering what he paid her for, he randomly selected one of the two patients and headed back into the consulting room to advise on threadworms.
When he headed out an hour later he was extremely confused. It wasn't like her at all, which had surprised him at first. Late, yes. But whilst her cousin had seen the job as a hobby and had taken as many sick days as she could get away with, he couldn't recall Pauline ever having taken a day off.
At ten twenty in a break between patients, she finally hurried into the waiting room, panting from the exertion.
'Where the hell have you been?'
'Sorry Doc, overslept, won't happen again, next patient Mrs Roberts, here's the notes,' she gabbled as she handed over the file, turned on the computer, dumped her bag and answered the phone in the space of ten seconds.
'Portwenn Surgery... Hello?' She replaced the phone. 'No-one there. Probably kids.'
Martin looked closely at her. She was pale and there were shadows under her eyes. Hungover, no doubt.
xxx
'Ben Johnson, get down from there right now! What do you think you're doing?'
'Climbing a tree, miss,' the boy said cheekily, to laughter from his friends.
'Come down Ben, if you fall you'll be badly hurt,' Louisa ordered, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. Ben, having gotten the reaction he wanted, grabbed a branch and prepared to climb down. Louisa watched in horror as the branch snapped and the boy desperately tried to clutch at something before falling from the tree and landing, unconscious. Louisa ran to him, pulling out her phone and dialling as she went.
'Portwenn Surgery.'
Louisa froze for a second, and then was jolted back to the situation. Shaking, she called for an ambulance.
xxx
'Mr Howard's notes, please. Pauline!'
Jumping, she handed them over. Martin eyed her suspiciously as she closed the computer window. Oblivious as he usually was to people's everyday problems, even he could tell that there was something up.
Coming out of the consulting room at lunchtime, he noted that she was absorbed in something on the computer, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Concerned that she was suffering a relapse of her gambling addiction, he headed over to the filing cabinet and glanced over. No, just a medical article. Surprised to see her reading something that might actually be of use, he glanced at the title. 'The Menstrual Cycle,' by P. Bischof. He'd read that particular article himself, and found it most enlightening. Pauline eventually became aware of his presence.
'Do you mind?'
Martin was taken aback at the ferocity in her voice, and headed back in the direction of the consulting room.
'Don't know how people can make any sense of this claptrap anyway,' she grumbled. Martin rolled his eyes. Mystery solved.
xxx
'There you are, I got some cranberry juice in. Now talk.'
'What do you mean?' Louisa knew that she was being deliberately evasive.
'Don't deny it, I saw you canoodling with the architect. Lord knows how you managed it; he'll barely give me the time of day. I know Gabby was after him too, but he's so stuck up. You with someone else's baby as well. No offense Lou, but it's not a desirable situation. Leaving early was good though, I know it's a cliché but playing hard to get does work.'
'I wasn't. Were you spying on me?'
'You weren't exactly being discreet, it was a public gallery. Spill.'
Louisa sighed. 'It was nothing, honestly.' She saw Holly's sceptical look and realised that she wasn't going to get away that easily. 'Okay, fine. He's an old friend. He came from London originally, moved to Portwenn when we were eight. He was one of my best friends – when we got older we were together for a bit. Then after he'd trained in London, he liked it so much that he stayed. I always wanted to teach at my old school, so I headed back to Portwenn and we split up. Then last year he came back and we got back together for a bit. He proposed, actually. But then he said he was going back to do this art gallery job, so we split again and I got together with Martin.'
Holly was listening avidly. 'And last night?'
'Came completely out of the blue. I went to have a sit down and he joined me. He was quite surprised to see me like this, so naturally we caught up. I got a bit emotional, he listened, then he kissed me. I was tired and confused, I just wanted to go home.'
xxx
'I mean, everyone wants kids don't they, it's human nature and all that, but you know, we're not even married yet and Bert'd be a nightmare and I'm still living with Mum and she'd hit the roof and she wouldn't want another sprog under her feet, she swore I'd be the last in her house and-'
'Have you spoken to Al about this?'
During the afternoon Pauline had become progressively more irritable and by the end of surgery patients were hurrying in to see Martin, eager to get away from the atmosphere in the waiting room. After she'd failed to find veins on three separate people, Martin began taking the blood himself, which did nothing to improve his overall mood. As the village slowly got used to Miss Glasson's absence, they noticed that his temper was slowly returning. After the third patient was sent in with the wrong notes, he realised that the surgery would run much more efficiently without Pauline there. So he told her to go home and come back tomorrow.
She'd returned at five thirty as surgery was finishing, and went in to see him about her suspicions.
'No. You know what he's like, completely hopeless, and then Bert'd wriggle it out of him and then before this time tomorrow it'd be round the whole village.'
'I see,' Martin replied, completely understanding her reservations. If you wanted to keep a secret in this village, keeping it away from the Large's was the first step. He checked his watch again and returned to the sink to check on the pregnancy test. He looked back at Pauline.
'It's negative.'
'What? Oh, thank God. Okay, see you tomorrow Doc.' She headed out of the surgery.
'Hang on, wait a-' The door slammed and Martin rolled his eyes.
xxx
'Well you could do a lot worse Lou, and clearly he's infatuated. With all that history too – I say you should go for it. He's well off, and you'll need some support later on.'
'No, I won't. And like I told Danny, I can't deal with a relationship at the moment. End of. I still have the fallout to deal with when Martin finds out he's going to have a baby.'
xxx
The next day Martin saw a marked improvement and there were no major mishaps. Honestly, he thought. Why on earth couldn't people just sort out their contraception? It'd save a hell of a lot of time and worry. It's not like it was rocket science. I've always managed it, he thought, and called in the next patient.
