"You came, Miss," the breaths were long and drawn out, his cheeks were hollowed and sallow It looked like he had been starved, but it was cancer that had starved Billy Lamb's body of the life it was once so full of. Martha looked at him laying in the hospital bed, it broke her heart, seeing him like that. He looked old and frail, it wasn't the Billy that she knew.
"Of course I came." Martha paused, feeling unnaturally awkward, knowing he was referring to the meeting on the Thames. The knowledge that Caroline had gotten Head of Chambers, when Billy had so desperately wanted her to get it was difficult too. Martha moved, slowly, from her position at the end of his bed, to the seat beside him. "I'm not ready." The whisper was hardly audible.
But Billy, the man who had known almost every detail about her, before she even knew it herself for the past twenty years, already knew this.
"I know, Miss, but there are somethings in life that we're never going to be ready for." He barely managed to get his words out before he broke into a great coughing fit. As he fought for breath, Martha sat stone still in the chair. "I'm not ready to die." Silence was once again cast upon them.
Martha tried to compose herself, smiling inwardly she prepared herself to speak again, "I'm engaged." To evidence the statement, Martha positioned her left hand upon Billy's. The air was cleared as he conversation turned to the cheerier topic, a topic that couldn't help but make Martha's heart swell with happiness at the thought of her future. There was so much possibility and she was excited for all of it. It seemed like a fairy tale ending, a husband, a new house, eventually, and baby. Her new idea of bliss.
"Martha Costello married, I never thought I'd live to see the day," the last words were accompanied by a grunted laugh. "Now your not going to take their surname too, are you?"
"I don't know, but I've always liked the sound of Martha Reader." The shock on Billy's face was a picture. Although he knew of some of their history, he never could have supposed it would have led to this. But, the happiness it brought him was unimaginable. "My two favourite pupils. Who'd have thought, eh?"
"But I was thinking of keeping Costello at work, wouldn't want to confuse everyone." Martha paused, "I wish you could be there."
"I know Martha." His words were interrupted by a fit of coughs. He fought to regain his breath. "Do you know what I really fancy?" He said, quickly changing the subject, "a cigarette."
"Do you even know how much trouble I'd get in if I let you? Anyway, I am giving up. It's bad for you, you know."
"It can't hurt, can it? It's not like it's going to kill me."
"It would hurt if you blew yourself up, that oxygen tank doesn't care if you're already dying, it will happily explode if you decided to light one up." Billy didn't look happy at this news so Martha decided to move on with her news. "I'm going to have a baby."
"You're pregnant?" Billy smiled.
"Well not yet, but soon. And, I wanted you to know. You'd be their godfather, you know that. They'd always know about you. We could never forget about uncle Billy. Plus, they'd always know about you with that bloody great photo of you and Clive that always seems hanging around Clive's flat." They both smiled at the memory of Clive's Silk party, Martha more so than Billy, and they both smiled about the day it'd been taken. They had all shared so many memories. Martha had always had her doubts about Billy's belief that chambers was a family, put it down to his old heartbreak, mafia nonsense. But, recently she'd come to realise the truth in it. When they needed to, they all pulled together, and that's what counts in families. "We will always remember you Billy, don't doubt that for a second." Martha's eyes had glazed over with tears. She turned to leave before he could see her cry. As she walked through the doorway she turned and to say, "I've always loved you, you know that Billy. It's important that you know that."
"I know that," he smiled. "Congratulations Martha, for everything and everything to come."
"Bye Billy."