Here's chapter 12. Your reviews, comments, etc would be greatly appreciated :) Thanks so much.
TWELVE
They arrived back home an hour or so later, just in time to hear the phone ringing. Pippa had fallen asleep on the walk home, so while Martha took her into the spare room to sleep, Jack answered the phone.
"Hi, Jack, it's Sally," came the voice when he answered the phone.
"Hi, Sal," Jack said. "Are you just checking up on Pippa? She's just fallen asleep, so Martha's put her to bed."
"Um, I was actually calling to ask if it was ok for Pippa to stay with you for a little but longer?" Sally said. "There's been an accident right out the front of the hospital. It looks pretty bad and I'm not sure how long it will take them to clear it. So I don't know what time I'll be back to pick her up."
"It's fine," Jack assured her. "As Martha told you earlier, she can stay the night if you would like... I haven't been called into work yet, so the accident mustn't be too bad," he added.
"Head on, apparently," Sally told him. "But that's all I know."
"If it's a head on, then it must be pretty serious. Anyway, I'll see you when I see you? And don't worry about Pippa. We've actually had fun minding her."
"Thank you, Jack," Sally said gratefully.
Jack put down the phone and turned around to face Martha, who was just sitting down on the lounge. "There's an accident near the hospital, so Sal can't get out until they clear the roads. I'm not sure how long we'll have Pippa for, now."
"She can stay for as long as Sal wants her to," Martha replied, smiling.
Jack sat beside her. "I just don't know why I haven't been called into work yet. Normally, they require almost everyone for accidents. Especially head ons, which is what Sally told me."
Martha wrapped her arms around his body. "Don't complain," she said. "That means you are home for the whole night." For the last week, Jack had been working late nights and he wasn't getting home until midnight at the earliest. She was actually looking forward to him being home with her.
"Hey, what are we going to feed Pippa for dinner?" Jack asked.
"Who cares?" Martha said. "It's only two o'clock. Anyway, Sal may be back by then."
"Just thinking ahead," was all Jack said. He put his arms around Martha. They had had Pippa for only a few hours and already it was tiring them out. How did Sally manage it full time, with a job and with Flynn in hospital?
OOO
Later that afternoon, Jack had decided to cook for Martha. But at the same time, he had to be caring for Pippa. Martha was in the shower and just his luck; she had woken up at that exact time. So he had had to get her out of bed, make sure she was ok and then find her something to do. Their house wasn't really built for kids, so he put the TV on for her to watch.
He had just started to cook when Martha came out of the bathroom. She smiled at him and then looked over at Pippa, smiling again.
"She's missing her mum and dad, I think," Jack said. Ever since she had woken up, Pippa had been really quiet and a bit distant. She had been avoiding Jack and wouldn't look at him.
"I can't wait until we can have kids," Martha said, surprising Jack with the statement. He had never heard her mention it before. He hadn't really thought about it seriously. Martha must have mistaken his surprise for disinterest, because her smile faded. "I probably should have asked instead of assuming?" she questioned.
"No, you just got me by surprise," Jack assured her. "You are thinking about kids already?"
"Well... yeah" Martha said. "You're not?"
"I was kind of thinking we'd wait a few years," Jack told her truthfully. "You know, buying our own house, getting settled."
"Oh," Martha looked at the ground. It took her a minute or so to look at him again. "So you don't want kids for a while then?"
"I just wanted to spend some time with you, before we got into all that stuff. You're only eighteen, we have forever to think about that."
"Yeah, but I just assumed, because we are getting married. And I always had this vision that I'd get married and have a baby close together." Martha walked over to where Pippa sat in front of the TV and sat beside her. She had completely gotten the wrong impression off Jack. A few years wasn't really that long, but she really wanted a baby. She wanted to be a mum.
"Hey, Pip," she said. "Are you okay?" She knew that Pippa couldn't really talk, but it was worth a try. She wasn't surprised when Pippa didn't say anything. "Maybe we should go and get some of your toys," she added. "Do you want your toys?"
Pippa shook her head.
"Are you hungry?"
Pippa shook her head again.
"Do you just want to watch TV?"
"No," Pippa told her.
Martha sighed and then turned to look at Jack. She found him watching her. "You can forget about kids," she told him. "I can't get them to do anything."
Jack smiled and walked over to her, laughing. "Martha, this is the first time you have ever looked after Pippa. You see her around, but she barely knows you. And she's in this strange house as well. It's scary for her. I can promise you that it will be a lot different with our own kids."
"Just not anytime soon," Martha said quietly.
Jack didn't reply. He hadn't realised that Martha was going to be so upset over it. Like she had assumed that they would jump straight into that, he had assumed that Martha wanted to wait. It had been a miscommunication between them and now Martha had convinced herself that it would never happen.
"Martha..." he didn't know what to say.
"No, Jack, it's okay. It was stupid of me to just assume. You're right; we need to wait a while."
"Martha, we need to talk about this. Clearly we both had different ideas about things. I'm not necessarily saying yours is a bad idea. I just had no idea it was how you felt."
"We'll talk about it another day," Martha said, before standing up and walking off into their bedroom.
Jack sighed. The last thing he had wanted was to upset her. But that topic was a touchy one. He should have handled it a better way.
Realising she just needed some time to herself, he went back to making dinner. Fifteen minutes later, Martha came out. It appeared that she had been crying. When he saw her, he left the kitchen and went over to her.
"Martha, hey, I never meant to upset you," he said, resting a hand on her back.
Martha shook her head. "You didn't. It's just me being stupid. I had convinced myself that we both wanted what I wanted. I never actually thought that you might have a different opinion. It's stupid of me, I know it is."
"I don't think it's stupid," Jack told her. "You just wanted what you know will make you happy. Everyone has a right to that. I just thought that we would wait a little while. That way we'd be older, more mature and we could give our kids the best life possible."
Martha smiled at him. "Yeah, I never thought of it that way. I just thought of what I wanted. But when we become parents, it won't be like that anymore."
"Exactly," Jack agreed. "And I'm not saying that is definitely when I want kids. If you accidentally fell pregnant when we weren't planning for it, then I'd be happy and I'd be supportive. Don't think that I wouldn't be."
"That's not going to happen," Martha smiled, putting her arms around his neck. "We'll be careful. I want both of us to be ready."
Jack kissed her. "Glad to hear it." He kissed her again and were then interrupted by the phone ringing.
"I'll get it," Martha said. She picked up the phone. "Hello."
"This is Julie from the hospital calling," came the reply. "I was wondering if I would be able to speak to Jack Holden. His father, Tony Holden and brother, Lucas Holden have been involved in a car accident."
"Are they okay?" Martha asked and without waiting for an answer, she said: "Yeah, I'll get him for you." She handed the phone to Jack. She was looking at him with a worried expression and he was wondering what was going on.
"Jack speaking," he said into the phone.
"Jack, it's Julie, from Northern Districts Hospital. I am calling to let you know that your father and brother have been involved in a car accident."
"What?" Jack asked softly. "Are they okay?"
"We have them in intensive care," Julie told him. "I am afraid that at the moment, the roads to the hospital are still blocked. I will be sure to call you when you are allowed to see them."
"Ok, thank you," Jack replied. "And call if anything happens," he added. He hung up the phone and looked at Martha. "Well that explains why no one called me to the accident," he said to her.
Martha gave him a sympathetic look. "Are you going to see them?" she asked.
Jack shook his head. "The roads are still blocked. Julie is going to call me back when I can see them."
"Jack, I am so sorry," Martha said.
"I just hope they're okay" was all Jack said. All of a sudden, neither of them felt like eating. They both felt sick with worry for Jack's dad and brother. They hoped everything was ok.
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