Disclaimer – I don't own any of these characters. They belong to Channel 7's Home and Away.
Martha's Secret.
Chapter 1Jack rolled over to the cold, empty space lying beside him. He gently caressed the sheets that a dearly missed person used to occupy.
"I thought this was supposed to get easier." He sighed, dragging himself out of bed and moving into the shower. On his way out, he gave a quick glance to the photo of Martha on his bedside table. He immediately looked away, as if to pretend to himself that he hadn't given in to temptation; hoping that he could forget the face in the photo for at least a few hours. But sadly, he couldn't.
As he drove to work, he stepped on the accelerator slightly harder than he should have, in the hope that the trip to work would finish a lot sooner than it was supposed to. He loved to go to work, not that he hadn't before, but now he had another reason to request extra-time. Work was the only place where he could stay busy and keep his mind off Martha. The only down side, however, was the 10 minute journey to and from the station. The atmosphere in the car was always lonely, boring and empty, just like Jack's life had been in the past few months. He couldn't stand to think about Martha, about why she left him, about why she suddenly fell so out of love with him, and even the loudest of music couldn't drown out these recurring thoughts. A smile appeared on his face when he finally arrived in the station's car park. An official Martha-free zone for his thoughts.
"Morning!" Jack said cheerfully, as he welcomed Constable Fitzgerald to her shift, 2 hours after he had arrived. She closed her eyes and sat down at one of the desks, resting her head in her hands.
"Jack, please, why do you have to be so alert at this time in the morning?" She groaned, moving her head down to lie it on the desk.
"Another late night I see?" Jack laughed, but Lara didn't respond; all she could do was give out a few muffled moans. Jack grinned to himself. "Another late night I see?" He repeated, raising his voice to nearly reach a shout. Lara's angry, pain filled head shot up, as she held her hands to her ears.
"Jack!" She exclaimed, standing up and swatting him with some case files. Jack laughed mischievously.
"Serves you right." He grinned. "Look, here, coffee." He said, offering her the mug that he had been holding in his hand since she had arrived. She smiled at the friendly present and accepted eagerly.
"Thanks Jack." She said between sips of coffee. "What are you doing here this early anyway? Why are you always here? You're always the first to stand up to help out with covering shifts, and you come in super early for your shift!" She said. "Are you trying to make all the rest of us look bad?" She giggled. Jack smiled.
"I could do with the extra cash right now." Jack lied. He knew it wasn't the reason why the station had now become his 2nd home, but this was a Martha-free zone, meaning that any thinking or discussing Martha was strictly off limits.
Later on that shift, Jack and Lara were sent down to the hospital, to do an interview on a recent victim of assault, set at a nightclub in Yabbie Creek. After Jack and Lara had carried out the gruelling task, Lara had persuaded Jack to go in to the mother's section of the hospital, so she could visit her niece in the newly born nursery. Jack didn't need too much persuasion, as he knew that there was a perfect coffee machine in the ward, ready to make him all the steaming hot coffee that he could ever want.
"Aww aren't they so cute!" Lara squealed as she pressed her nose against the window. Jack chuckled.
"Yea, they're alright." He smiled. Lara turned around, shocked.
"Alright! Don't tell me you don't want kids!" Lara exclaimed.
"Yea, I do want them one day. I just need to find the lucky woman with the best looking genes." He smiled. "My son's going to be the best in the playground, the coolest at high school, and the greatest at college." He laughed. "Oh, and the most ass kicking cop too; with the exception of his father of course!" He added cheekily. Lara laughed.
"Wow. You've thought this through I see." She said. "Right, I'm going to go in, and I'll hold my niece, Tia. That way you can see the beautiful angel." She gleamed, almost skipping happily out of sight and into another room, to search for a nurse.
Jack looked back towards the sleeping babies. He laughed as the baby in the cot on the 3rd row down, 5 from the left, began to cry, awakening the other babies within a 2-cot radius. He laughed to himself as he watched the nurses frantically try to quieten the babies, as they feared a ripple effect would sweep through the nursery, causing havoc and mayhem. He enjoyed the last, final sip of his hot drink, and slam-dunked it in the nearest bin. He looked back up through the window to see Lara with the nurse, obviously confused as to which baby was her sweet, innocent niece. Jack chuckled as he checked the change in his pocket.
"I guess I can have another." He smiled to himself, heading for the coffee machine once more.
The door of the ultrasound room 4 was slowly opened by Dr Free, revealing a very upset Martha stood indoors.
"You can come back anytime you like." She told Martha, rubbing her shoulder gently. "You don't have to go through this alone." She added. Martha forced a smile as she walked out the door, allowing Dr Free to shut it behind her. They walked together up the corridor, in silence. Dr Free looked up at Martha during their walk, each time feeling a pain in her heart as she watched the young woman cry. Dr Free couldn't possibly imagine what Martha was going through, and to tell the honest truth, she wouldn't want to; it was a truly awful situation to be in, especially for a young woman such as Martha. When they got to reception, Martha turned around to thank Dr Free, but she just couldn't get her words out. Dr Free understood, and just smiled. "You WILL make a good mother." She said. Martha couldn't help but reach out and hug the caring doctor. She'd been so alone after leaving everyone, abandoning them to be on her own. She thought it was the best thing; she wanted to spare them all the trouble. It wasn't their problem to live with, why should they suffer because of Martha? She loved them all too much to let it affect them, so she had decided that she would handle it on her own, until she had the situation under control. That is, if she ever got it under control, she thought to herself.
After Jack had thanked the robotic machine for the coffee, earning a few stares, he headed back to his space at the window, for the hilarious show he expected to see involving Lara and her search for her niece. A woman, who also seemed to be giggling at the chaotic mess the baby on the 3rd row had caused, had taken Jack's original space. As he walked closer, however, he noticed that the woman was not only giggling, but also crying. Her medium length, brown, straight hair bounced as she snivelled and hiccupped, desperately trying to hide the painful tears. Jack hesitated at first, but then persisted in carrying out his first idea, to comfort the poor woman. He steadily walked over beside her, and placed a hand in one pocket, and raised his cup of coffee up with the other, gently blowing away the hot steam flowing from the surface. Jack could see out of the corner of his eye that the woman had not yet turned to face him; she still had her hands tightly crossed in front of her, as she stared through the glass at the crying babies.
"It was that one, right there, who started it all." He laughed, pressing his finger against the glass. "He's going to be a trouble causer when he's older." Jack smiled, but the woman didn't reply, she remained silent and still. Jack sensed her eyes burning into his skin as he looked at the babies in the nursery. He slowly turned his head to face her, but was shocked when he did.
"Martha?" He exclaimed, his mouth wide open with surprise.