Chapter 53 - And the Lights Went Out

Warm skin and smooth fragrant hair penetrated my senses while a soft voice breathed in my ear. Slim arms and soft hands were draped over me while I returned the embrace. I don't know how long we lay like that, not complaining, but after a while I felt quite warm. That's when I realized the ceiling fan must be turned off. I flapped the damp top sheet and Louis stirred.

"It is warm," she whispered.

I rose from the bed and flipped the switch repeatedly to no affect. "Hm."

"Problem?" muttered Louisa.

"Fan's packed up."

"The clock's gone as well."

Louisa was right as the red LED of the bedside clock was dark. All other lamps were without power. "The power's gone."

"Oh?" Louisa sat up and pulled the sheet across herself. She reached for the telephone and listened to the handset. "Phone is out as well."

Lightning flashed outside the draped windows. "Must be the storm."

"Nothing we can do about it, is there?"

I shook my head automatically. "I have the alarm set in my mobile."

"So come back to bed?" I could see her pat the mattress while lightning flashed.

I went to bedside, checked my mobile and saw the time was 12:37. "After midnight."

She sighed.

"Problem?"

"Nope."

I got back into bed. "There must be something wrong, from the way you sighed."

Louisa put her arms around me and buried her face in my chest. "I just…"

"Just what?"

"Not sure that I want to go back."

"We have to go back. You know that. Besides, we can't very well leave James with his great-aunt, can we?"

"I know," she said, slightly petulantly. After a few seconds, she said "Has this been fun, for you? Seems like every time we turned around there was some medical emergency and you had to swing into action."

"I couldn't very well ignore them could I?"

I saw her shake her head. "No. But I think they'll miss us… after we leave."

I sneered into the dimness. "I doubt that Catalao will miss us."

"I wasn't thinking about him. That little Italian boy, Ermano was it?"

I squeezed her. "You're the one who pulled him out of the surf."

"But you gave him CPR."

I nodded. "We worked together."

Louisa snuggled against me even closer than she had been. "Just like at the Castle." She stretched and kissed me. "We need to do that more."

"Go to the Castle?"

"No," she sighed. "Work together."

What she said rang true. "Yes. We can… we should."

"I think we've done quite well this week, don't you?"

I thought back over this week. My wariness around Louisa had decreased, I was reading her body language far better, even though I had to snatch victory from defeat with a midnight run for flowers, champagne, and candy, but I had managed to hold back my anger, at least verbally.

"You've been brilliant, Martin. You really have," she went on. "I'm quite glad I brought you along."

"Oh, really?" I grabbed her bum and she squealed.

"Martin! Was that called for?"

I leaned my head against hers. "Yes. And thank you for everything."

"Well, don't think you can just go around squeezing my arse whenever you want! People will talk!"

I turned my head and looked about the dimness around us. "I don't actually see anyone else around, do you?" I gave her another squeeze.

She laughed. "My God!"

"What? What's wrong?"

She'd thrown her hand to her mouth. "I had no idea that you would ever…"

"What? Louisa, whatever are you speaking of?"

She laughed. "I had wondered if miracles were possible. But it does seem… that things have…" she cleared her throat.

"What things?" Now I was getting annoyed. "Would you please speak plainly?"

She snuggled into my chest, her breasts and firm nipples pushed against my chest. "Martin."

"What? Can you explain…" It was getting hard for cogent thought as she pulled me closer.

She answered my exasperation with a kiss on the lips. "A bloody miracle, Martin."

"What?"

"I knew that somewhere under that stuffy suit was someone I could love. And here you are. I knew it."

"What in God's name are you saying?"

Her hands started to stroke my back, then my waist, then ran down my thigh. "Right here; here you are."

"Louisa… I really don't understand what you are saying or what you want."

She laughed. "Oh Martin. I swear at times you were raised on the planet Mars."

I tried to resist her advances, at least my brain did, while physiology and her proximity, began to affect my body. "Uh, Louisa… it is getting late… or early."

"Martin," she whispered. "Plenty of time until the morning." Her hands kept moving and I guessed the inevitable result.

"We do need sleep, you know," I replied but next said. "We can always sleep on the plane, I suppose."

"Yeah… That's what I was thinking," she purred. "Now about the other thing. You made a joke. At least what passes for a joke from Martin Ellingham."

"I did?" Now I was running a hand down her back.

"And you've changed, you really have."

"Oh?"

"Yes, Martin, you have, and I have as well."

"But we're not… perfect, though."

"No, we're not done changing. Take my word for it. I'll change and you'll change, and we'll change together. That ok?"

Those few words spoke volumes. Hadn't I changed from a surgeon to a GP and from single to married? I was a father as well, something I had no idea would ever happen when my haemophobia drove me to Cornwall.

"Yeah." I held my wife in my arms and kissed her on the mouth. "Perfect enough." I smiled and doubted she saw it, but she probably felt it as I rubbed her back while she laughed.

000

Sometime later, a breathless and sweaty Louisa rolled off of me. "God Martin, that was…"

Whether what she was about to say was that I'd sent her to heaven or to hell, I had to wait to find out, for just then there came a pounding on our bungalow door.

"What in hell?" I shouted.

"Oh, my God! Who is it?" hissed Louisa.

The pounding continued as I sprang from the bed, threw on a dressing gown, and stumbled across the room to the door, wincing from driving my great toe into a chair leg on the way. Hopping about on my good foot, I peered through the peephole viewer set into the door. Someone was huddled outside in the pouring rain, banging on the door once more.

"Doc?" I recognized the voice as Alf Sheppard. "I need help!"

"Martin?" called Louisa from the bed.

"Shush!" I hissed at her.

Alf hit the door, with both fists. "Doc? It's the wife! I think the baby's coming! Doc!"

My head rocked backward and I stared at the ceiling. "Hell."