Chapter 7

As the days went by and Jake heard nothing from the mainland, he remained silent about the truth regarding Louie and Sarah's absence and threw himself into helping out behind the bar and occasionally breaking up fights and persuading drunks to leave at closing time.

The story he had given when asked, was that Louie had gone away on business for a few days, and would be returning soon.

And he waited for the phone to ring.

That call did not come.

Almost a week had passed by now, and waiting for news had become unbearable. And so, six days after they had left, Jake did the only thing he could think to do – he called the hospital on the mainland and asked to speak to Bess.

As she answered the call, he felt heavy in his heart and sure that he would never be truly ready to hear the bad news he was expecting, and as he spoke up his voice trembled.

"Bess, it's Jake. I...I just wanted to know how Louie's doing."

"Louie?"

"You know how ill he is, you know it's serious – I'm guessing that's why I haven't heard from him or Sarah, I've heard nothing since they left the island and -"

"Louie's fine."

Her words confused him.

"No, he told me he might need surgery, he said -"

"Jake, I only said it was a possibility, but he's got it checked out and he's absolutely fine, Jake. The problems he had were connected with the injury healing. He's been really lucky, he is going to be absolutely fine, he doesn't need any further treatment."

Jake breathed a relieved sigh.

"That's so good to know, thanks, Bess – but why didn't they think to call back to the island and say anything?"

"Well I would have thought that was obvious," Bess replied, "I heard it from the specialist who saw him – he said that Louie was so worried he might have to have the surgery that he decided to make the most of the time he had left before the bad news came along. Of course there was no bad news, but him and Sarah are very happy now, they would have done it sooner or later any how, you know that, right?"

"What?"

"Right?" she repeated as worry crept into her voice.

"What are you talking about?" Jake asked her, "What have they done?"

"They got married, didn't they!"

"They did?"

There was a long, awkward silence on the other end of the telephone line.

"Oh dear," Bess finally said, "Am I to understand that you knew nothing about this?"

For a moment Jake just stood there clutching the phone in stunned silence.

Louie had married Sarah?

They had married on the day they left the island, and told no one?

"Jake?" said Bess.

"Yeah, I'm still here...no, I didn't know they'd got married. All I knew was Louie was worried about the outcome of the hospital appointment...and I'm glad it went well, I really am, I'm glad he's okay..."

"But you didn't have a clue they were getting married?"

"No one did."

Bess apologised for saying too much and said she hoped he wasn't too shocked by the news. He thanked her and said he was fine about the whole thing, and then he ended the call and walked through to the bar, where it was busy as usual and no one had a clue about Louie's secret.

Jake thought about his plans to sell the plane and take over the bar, and how he had assumed the worst, and then he wondered about that telephone call that Louie had made almost a week ago...

Why had he sounded so distraught?

What was he so sorry about, why was he apologising all over again?

As the bar continued to be busy and no one noticed him standing there by the telephone deep in thought, Jake suddenly understood:

Of course Louie was upset when he made that call, he had been trying to apologise for not telling him about the wedding. And now he thought about it, he realised Louie had also sounded more than a little drunk, too...

Jake shook his head as he thought some more about the man who had married Sarah:

"That's the second time you kept a secret from me," he murmured, and then he began to wonder what he ought to do about it...

The next day, as the sun rose high in a late morning sky, Louie tightly gripped Sarah's hand as their plane came in to land. This was nothing new to her – since the crash, Louie had hated flying. He kept his eyes closed until the wheels touched tarmac and then, as the plane slowed to a halt, he breathed out in relief and looked to Sarah.

"Flying will never be an enjoyable experience again, the crash will never truly leave me," he told her, "And next time we leave the island, we either fly in the Cutter's Goose, or we take a boat!"

She smiled as she looked into his eyes.

"So you wouldn't want to fly unless it was in Jake's plane?"

"He is a pilot I trust," he replied, and then he kissed her fondly and as he looked at her, in one glance he recalled every wonderful moment of the week they had spent on the mainland enjoying a very private week in their luxury hotel room.

"I think we ought to make news of our marriage public as soon as I reopen the Gold Monkey," he said, "Also the bar has been closed far too long, and I'm losing money!"

"I hope everyone understands why we chose to keep the wedding secret," Sarah replied.

"You mean you hope Jake understands. I hope he understands too."

And then he fell silent as he wondered if he had tried to call the mainland on that night when he had been drunk and celebrating -but still he could not remember, and decided to say nothing about it, because he knew Sarah would not be happy to know he had been making drunken calls and most likely making no sense with those calls, too...

"Come on," he said, giving her hand a squeeze, "Let's get out of this aircraft and back on solid ground. I want to go back to the bar, I miss the place."

Being a pilot, it had been simple to make some enquiries and find out when Louie and Sarah were returning to the island. And Jake knew exactly when to expect them home, and he was waiting, and after thinking about the situation he had made his decision – there had been too many lies, too much hidden, and all of this had come between two people who used to be close friends, who had shared absolute trust before a woman had come between them.

Jake had made his choice.

He knew how he would handle the situation – exactly how it ought to be handled, and he would make sure that it was something Louie would never forget, either...

A short while later, Louie and Sarah walked together to the door of the Gold Monkey Bar. The door was closed and the building was in silence, and there was Jake Cutter standing outside, and as they approached him, Louie looked at him apologetically.

"You do not seem too pleased to see me, mon ami," he said, "Is something wrong?"

"I finally worked out what you were trying to say on the phone when you called me on the telephone, when you were drunk!"

Sarah looked at him in surprise.

"I thought you made a call that night!"

"I do not remember," Louie replied, "If I did, I was probably telling Jake that I was sorry I did not tell him about the wedding," and as he looked to Jake, his eyes wide with honesty.

"Jake, I told no one about the wedding! It was only afterwards I wanted to share the news with you and apologise for not letting you know before – but I was too drunk to talk -"

"And I thought the worst, I thought the news from the hospital had been bad," Jake replied, "I was worried about you!"

"I am sorry, I should have been more honest." Louie paused for thought and then added, "I really should have told you everything – I feel I have deceived you too many times, and I will always regret that. Are we still friends, Jake?"

For a moment Jake said nothing, but then his expression changed, and Sarah noticed it before Louie did:

Now there was a playful sparkle in Jake's eyes...

"Friends?" Jake exclaimed, "Friends, Louie?"

And then he smiled.

"I guarantee we're friends – and always will be. It would take more than a few secrets to end a solid friendship. And by the way, I've been busy in the bar – you might like to take a look at this."

And as Louie and Sarah stepped closer, he opened the door of the Gold Monkey Bar. And as they saw the painted banner that hung across the ceiling that said Congratulations, and the packed bar gave Louie and his new bride a cheer and a round of applause, Jake reached into his pocket and threw a handful of confetti over the newly weds. What followed was a joyful gathering at the bar that lasted until late at night, as Louie and Sarah celebrated their wedding with all the people who were gathered there, and it was a night neither ever forgot, and that was exactly the way Jake Cutter had planned it to be.

And so life went on much as before on the island of Boragora – Jake flew his plane and was always accompanied by his dog, and sometimes his mechanic Corky, when Corky wasn't sleeping in late with a hangover.

And Jake did not pine for Sarah. He concluded that while they had once been good together, they had never been a permanent item – but Sarah and Louie were a different matter entirely:

A couple of months after their marriage Sarah announced she was no longer working in the role of undercover spy, and there were two reasons for that – firstly, she would rather just be the wife of the local magistrate Bon Chance Louie, and secondly, while the government needed a spy on Boragora, they didn't need a pregnant spy...

Jake felt sure he would never forget the look of joy in Louie's eyes when he talked of how excited he was at the thought of becoming a father. And nine months later when Sarah gave birth to a daughter - the first of four children she would go on to have with Louie – Jake knew in his heart that the best thing he had ever done was find the strength to forgive Louie and Sarah, because it was undeniable that the two of them belonged together.

And sometimes when Sarah woke up on a bright morning and paused to look with love at Louie who lay beside her sleeping, she would hear the roar of an engine and out through the open bedroom window she would see the Cutter's Goose rising skyward as Jake took the plane across the water.

And on mornings like that she would smile, and think of Jake and Louie and how it was true that real friendship could survive anything. It had worked out better than anyone ever could have hoped, because Jake had forgiven the pair of them long ago, and Louie and Jake's friendship was as strong as ever. In the end, it had all turned out for the best, nothing damaged, nothing broken, because some bonds were indeed unbreakable no matter what happened in life, because some bonds of friendship were meant to last forever.

End

From the author:

I hope this fic has been enjoyed, I have tried where possible to expand on the Gold Monkey world, and make it a little 'bigger' as regard the storylines with the characters, and also, I have always wanted to write a Louie based romance, and I may eventually write another fic in this fandom - when I get another plot that grabs my imagination like this one did - and of course if I do, it will be another Louie fic :-)