Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property of Buffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my imagination.
In the Name of the Father - Chapter 6
It was a Saturday morning, at the beginning of the Easter holidays for Louisa. She'd been playing with Luke on the floor in the lounge, when the phone rang. With his Mummy momentarily distracted. Luke took the opportunity to crawl as fast as he could towards the door, knowing exactly where he was heading. Louisa looked up and smiled as she saw him, she also knew exactly where he was heading – Martin's study. Now that he could crawl, Luke always made a bee line for it any chance he got. She didn't stop him, knowing the stair gate was in place and he could come to no harm. She always encouraged any interaction between Luke and his father. Besides, it was so sweet, the way Luke obviously adored his Daddy. Martin tried to be all grumpy about it, but she knew that really he was thrilled.
Luke crawled quickly towards the study door, and gave a little chuckle when he saw that it was slightly ajar. He pushed it open with his chubby little hand, and crawled straight towards Martin's feet. When he got there, he sat up, and looked at Martin, feeling very pleased with himself.
"What do you want?" Martin said on hearing Luke laughing by his feet. He looked down at his son, who was now trying to pull himself up by hanging on to Martin's trousers. Martin picked him up and stood him on his lap looking at him, smiling despite himself because Luke was just so cute and irresistible. Luke took the opportunity to grab at Martin's ears, thinking this was great fun.
"Where's your Mother, hmmm….? She's supposed to be looking after you," said Martin, trying to be gruff, but Luke was always so happy to see him that it made it very hard to be cross with him.
Louisa had now finished on the phone, and was on her way to see Martin's reaction to his little visitor, when the doorbell rang as she passed by.
She opened the door to see a tall, white haired, rather distinguished looking man there, who looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn't quite say why.
"Good Morning, I'm looking for Martin Ellingham, I was told I'd find him here. Christopher Ellingham, Martin's father," he said, holding out his hand, as he looked appreciatively at Louisa. Christopher had always had an eye for a beautiful woman, and although she was wearing just a simple red blouse, with a denim skirt, and her hair loose, Louisa looked stunning. He was just thinking that he must have the wrong house, believing Martin to be a confirmed bachelor.
"Louisa Ellingham, Martin's wife," Louisa replied as she took the proffered hand and shook it.
Christopher was visibly shocked. This beauty – Martin's wife! He could hardly credit it, and was, for once, speechless.
At that moment, Martin came out of his study carrying Luke, wondering who was at the door.
"Dad! What the hell are you doing here?" Martin said coldly. "What do you want?"
"Oh come now, no need to be like that is there?" said Christopher, staring at Luke. He didn't need to ask if this was Martin's son, it was blatantly obvious that he was, because they were so alike.
"And this must be my Grandson, well, well. What a grand little chap he seems – what's his name then?" Christopher put his hand out to Luke, but Luke became shy and buried his face in Martin's neck and clung to him. Martin suddenly felt very protective, and found himself instinctively putting his hand on Luke's head to reassure him. Maybe it was a flash of the memories of how his father had treated him.
"This is Luke and he doesn't like strangers."
Martin glowered at his father as he remained in the doorway. He obviously wasn't going to go away.
"Alright, you'd better come in, I suppose," he said reluctantly, as he handed Luke back to Louisa, showed his father into his study and closed the door.
The two men looked at each other.
"My word Martin, I'm really very impressed, that is one hell of a beautiful wife you've got yourself there, I really didn't imagine you had it in you, I must say. And a son – fine boy, if a bit on the soft side, still I'm sure the right school will sort him out ….have you put his name down yet for anywhere decent? It's never too early.…"
"Shut up and tell me what you want. You didn't come here to give me unwanted parenting advice."
Martin looked at his father and raised his eyebrows in a questioning way.
"If it's more money you're after, you're out of luck. I thought I'd made that crystal clear the last time we spoke. I also told you not to come back here, or have you conveniently forgotten that?"
It had been several years since their last contact.
"Look, I do feel really bad about how things were left between us, that regrettable….. misunderstanding, sorry business that was, but you know I really had no choice…." Christopher tried to explain.
"Of course you had a choice, don't try to make excuses for your appalling behaviour towards your own sister," Martin snarled back at him.
"Well, I just want to try to patch things up now, put things right, make a new start, forget all that unpleasantness. Surely enough water has passed under the bridge now, and I am your father after all. And, of course the boy's Grandfather."
Christopher was speaking in what he considered a conciliatory tone – it just sounded like wheedling and whining to Martin.
"Why now? It's taken all these years for your conscience to catch up with you has it?"
"Well, I know it's taken a bit of time, longer than I would have liked, but I've managed to turn things around, sorted out the financial concerns, made a bit of money actually, now that property prices have crashed – done me a favour. I expect you know that your Mother and I are divorced, she went off with that other fellow, so you see, you and Joan are all the family I have. And I'm now in a position to make you a very good business proposition. I've found this excellent private practice in Harley Street, so rather than being a GP in this God forsaken place, I thought we could set up a partnership together, as Doctors Ellingham and Ellingham, maybe your boy could even join us one day, that sounds good, don't you think? I could be the sleeping partner, you know, stand in for you when you're on holiday, that sort of thing. It would make you a wealthy man too. And now that you've got a family to provide for…."
"I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in being set up in private practice in London, I'm settled here, we like it, this is our home. All you're interested in is creaming the profits from a lucrative private practice set up to serve the needs of the hypochondriacal London society time wasters. If you're so flush now, maybe you should consider helping your sister out. You know - the one you wanted to evict from her farm. I certainly don't want anything from you, or to work with you – although I doubt you would actually do any work, you'd just sod off and play golf all the time, you just want to hang on to my coat tails to get yourself a living," Martin stated. His father obviously knew nothing about the new surgery initiative that Martin was about to implement at his practice, and he saw no point in wasting his breath in telling him about it – he would only belittle or criticise it anyway, he knew only too well from past experience.
"Look there's no need to be hasty, I understand, you need some time to think it over, to speak to your gorgeous wife, I'm sure she'd absolutely love the kind of life style you could have in London," Christopher tried again to convince Martin.
"You have no idea what my wife would like, you only met her two minutes ago, and she hates London actually," Martin told him coldly.
"Oh come now, what woman wouldn't want the finer things in life, especially a beauty like her, she deserves to be treated like a queen," said Christopher.
"Just because Mum was shallow, materialistic and narcissistic, don't assume all women are like that," Martin shot back at his father.
Christopher changed his tack.
"Look I do want to smooth things over with Joan, but you know that she won't have anything to do with me – so I thought you could maybe smooth the path a bit for me, you know she thinks of you as her son."
"That's because she is my mother as far as I'm concerned. A real parent." Martin said.
"Well, there you are then. Look, I'm staying at the pub, you need some time so I'll leave you to think it over, but do get back to me soon, would be great for me to see my days out with us working together. You're just being stubborn, you know you would prefer London really. You're just putting a brave face on things down here, and I'm giving you the opportunity to finally get out of this place for good. Right, well, can I just say goodbye to that angel of a wife of yours before I go?" Christopher pleaded.
"No, you can't. I'll see you out," said Martin, showing him to the door.
xXx
Louisa had disappeared into the kitchen with Luke when Martin had taken his father into his study. She didn't know all the details, but she knew there had been some kind of a big falling out over Joan's farm the last time his parents had been here several years ago, Joan couldn't even mention her brother's name without getting angry. She heard the men's voices and then the front door opening and closing. She guessed Christopher had gone. She waited to see if Martin would come and find her to fill her in, but he didn't. Knowing how hard Martin always found it to talk about 'feelings', she wasn't sure what to do, but her gut feeling was to go find him and ask him what had happened, because she felt that it would be best to get it out in the open.
She picked up Luke from his high chair where he had been sitting happily chewing on a rusk – food always kept him quiet for a while - and went to find Martin.
He was standing in his study, looking out of the window, with his hands behind his back. This was how he stood when he was thinking, trying to work something out, weighing up the pros and cons.
"Are you alright?" she quietly asked, gently putting her hand on his sleeve.
Martin turned to her and she could see now that he was shaking with anger, he was so furious that he didn't know how to start explaining.
"How dare he walk back in here as calm as you like and expect everything to be fine, sorted out, forgiven. Just because he's made good, got money again, he thinks that I'd want to set up a practice with him, be partners, let him make a living from me. I'd rather rot in hell first. And he had the gall, the cheek, to say that Luke was 'a bit soft', that a good school would sort him out when he hadn't even been here two minutes," Martin said, taking Luke from Louisa and actually cuddling him, much to her surprise. Luke was covered in rusk and very sticky. For once, Martin didn't seem to care.
"So what are you going to do?" Louisa asked him.
"Well first I suppose I'd better go and see Joan straight away. If he's staying in the village pub, word will soon spread and I don't want her hearing about him being here from someone else," Martin said, handing Luke back to Louisa, gathering up his car keys, and walking out.
xXx
Joan was every bit as indignant as Martin, and refused point blank to see Christopher, or have anything to do with him.
"I don't need his money, he can shove it up his arrogant arse, he can't buy forgiveness from us now. All this about him wanting to be a 'partner' with you, don't trust him Marty, he'd just let you do all the work, then take all the credit and the money. Doesn't want to end up a lonely old man, either, I bet. Well he made his bed all those years ago, he can bloody well lie in it now, all by himself," was her harsh response.
xXx
On the Monday morning, Louisa was sitting at her kitchen table, taking the chance of the school holidays to catch up on some paperwork. Luke was having his morning nap upstairs in his cot.
The doorbell rang, and when she opened the door, there stood Christopher Ellingham.
"Look, can I have a word with you, I know Martin is in his surgery, so I was hoping I'd catch you alone," Christopher explained to her. He'd spent Sunday playing golf, waiting to hear from Martin, but as he hadn't, he'd decided to try to push things along by getting Louisa on his side.
"You'd better come in," she said, leading him into the kitchen and offering him a chair.
"Where's the boy then?" asked Christopher, looking around.
"Upstairs, having his morning nap," Louisa replied, pointing at the baby monitor. Martin had now filled her in with the events of the previous visit his father had made. Louisa was very proud of Martin, the way that he had looked after Joan and made sure that she could stay at the farm by using money from the sale of his London flat. It made her love him even more. She wasn't in the least bit worried by the fact that it meant he had had less money to spend when they bought their house – why on earth would she want a bigger house than they had now? They had everything they needed and more, as far as she was concerned.
"Shame," said Christopher, "I would have liked to have seen the little chap again. Still, it's you I want to talk to. Look can't you get Martin or Joan to see reason, I just want to put right the silly misunderstanding we had all that time ago. It got blown out of proportion, was over nothing, really. Martin and Joan always could hold a grudge longer than anyone I know, bloody unreasonable, stubborn as mules the pair of them."
Christopher was again using his wheedling tone of voice, which grated on Louisa.
"That's between you and them, I can't interfere, not my business," Louisa replied firmly.
"But it is your business my dear, I mean, surely you'd like a much bigger, better house, get away from this little village in the back of beyond, send the boy to a decent private school, let him board, toughen him up, make a man of him? Martin means well enough I suppose, but he never did have much sense about these things, and as for being a little village GP.…." Christopher started saying, but was interrupted by Louisa, who could listen no more.
"Why on earth would I want a bigger house, this house is perfect for us, we love it here. And why in God's name would I want to send our son to private school when I'm the Head Teacher at Portwenn School? As for letting him board, to 'toughen up' – if by that you mean become emotionally stilted and withdrawn, then the answer to that is 'never in a million years'. And why do you always belittle Martin? What kind of a father are you anyway? Martin is an amazing, gifted doctor, a wonderful husband, and the perfect father to Luke."
Christopher looked at her in astonishment at this outburst.
"Well, I must say you're very spirited. I was just trying…"
"Look, Martin and I are very happy as we are, thank you all the same, we have no wish whatsoever to move to London, can't stand the place actually. Our home is here in Cornwall."
"No need to be so hasty, spend a bit more time thinking my offer over, think what's best for the boy, what sort of life is he going to have stuck here, miles from any kind of culture or society."
Christopher was getting desperate now, and was playing every card that he could think of.
"I think you've said enough Christopher, we don't need time to think things over, we simply aren't interested, but there's nothing to stop you setting up your own practice in London if you think it's such a great idea, is there? So thanks, but no thanks."
Louisa showed him to the door as she was telling him this, and then firmly shut it behind him as he left, exhaling loudly as she did so.
xXx
When she came back into the kitchen, Martin was there – he sometimes popped back at lunch time if he had enough time whenever Louisa was at home. He'd been walking up to the kitchen back door, when he heard his fathers' voice, so he stopped to listen, without them being aware, meaning that he'd actually heard more or less everything that had been said.
"Martin, your father was here, you've just missed him," Louisa told him.
"Oh I didn't miss anything, I have absolutely no wish to see him," said Martin, looking at Louisa with love and admiration. It felt so good to him to have a partner, a soul mate, who had stood up to his father and defended him, not only because she loved him, but because she wanted exactly the same things that he did – their family, their home, their life together in Cornwall. And to think that he used to worry that they didn't have enough in common to make a go of things between them.
"I couldn't help but overhear the last part of your conversation actually," Martin confessed, partially telling the truth. "And I think you may have unintentionally figured out why Dad is so desperate for me to set up with him."
"What do you mean?" Louisa asked him.
"Well, as you know, he's been abroad in Portugal for some time, tied up with his wretched golf course scheme or something else just as ghastly no doubt, so he hasn't actually practiced medicine in the UK for quite some time. By law, all doctors must be registered with the General Medical Council before they can practice here. They've also very recently brought in 'revalidation' which means that all doctors have to regularly prove that they are up to date and fit to practice medicine. I've just checked the List of Registered Medical Practioners, and guess what?" Martin said.
"Don't tell me, he's not on the list, he hasn't 'revalidated' so he can't set up a practice," Louisa finished the explanation. "He never had any intention of actually working as a doctor, just freeloading from you…."
"Yep. My guess is that he bought the Harley Street Practice thinking he could charm enough patients who had more money than sense to make an easy living from, before he found out about 'revalidation'. Now he's stuck with an expensive practice that he can't use, unless he could somehow persuade me to take it on. Of course he could put the work in to be able to revalidate –not any easy task at his age, after such a long break from practicing medicine, so I don't think he could be bothered. It was never really about helping us out, his proposition was always about getting him out of a fix," Martin said.
Somehow though, he couldn't be bothered to be angry about it all anymore, because all this had shown him that he had something far more precious that his father had ever had – a loving marriage to an amazing woman. He could almost feel sorry for his father –almost but not quite.
"Look, let's go out to dinner tonight, you're on your holidays after all, maybe we could walk down to Bert's, take Luke with us, the place has only just re-opened after the winter so he hasn't had a chance to introduce too many strains of salmonella or listeria yet," Martin suggested. Luke usually sat with them when they had their evening meal, Louisa felt that it was important to all be together at least once during the day whenever possible, especially when they had both been at work all day. Luke happily tried all sorts of food that they had, usually getting in a terrible mess, but going for his bath afterwards.
"Right…yes…., that would be lovely. Ermm….what have I done to deserve this then Martin?" Louisa asked, rather taken aback.
"Nothing, nothing, I just thought that it would make a nice change, that's all," Martin said. He still found it very hard to vocalize his feelings to the woman that he loved so very much. But to try to show her how he felt, he went over and kissed her, holding her very closely to him, as she stood on tiptoe to reach him. The chemistry between them instantly ignited strong stirrings of desire in both of them, and they started kissing more intently, Louisa undoing Martin's jacket and reaching inside to put her arms around him and press up against him – she loved doing that, and he loved her doing it. They carried on kissing, stumbling back towards the kitchen table, Martin lifting Louisa onto the table, still kissing, with their passion now reaching red hot levels, as they fumbled and struggled to remove the articles of clothing that were hindering their progress. Finally successful, Louisa wrapped her legs around Martin as he pulled her to him in an urgent coupling that had no finesse, just pure mutual need…
Joan walked up to the back door of Martin and Louisa's house as she did most days, glancing in the window as she passed by, just about to call out 'onlyme', as she always did. However, she was stopped in her tracks by what she saw going on in the kitchen.
"Well, it seems Martin has no objection to a bit of action on the kitchen table himself now, does he? No doubt about it, Louisa's finally fixed his plumbing up," she chuckled to herself, as she turned around and walked away. Joan was as broad minded as they come, she'd led a pretty colourful life herself, so she wasn't at all shocked. In fact she was delighted to see her nephew losing his inhibitions in such a way, it was far healthier than the uptight stuffy individual that he used to be, in her opinion.
Martin and Louisa continued, both quickly reaching the climax to their intense passion. However, they were disturbed as they were recovering afterwards by hearing sounds on the baby monitor of Luke waking up from his nap and wanting to be picked up.
"Someone wants their lunch I think," Louisa's voice was muffled in Martins' chest.
"Luke can just wait a minute," Martin told her, still catching his breath and not letting her go straight away. They finally had to break apart when they could hear that Luke was getting very impatient indeed to be picked up. He was hungry and he didn't appreciate being kept waiting.
xXx
Al had popped into the surgery to see Pauline. She was fretting because the Doc was late back from lunch, and the patients were starting to back up.
"Where's he got to, he's never usually late. I'll give him five more minutes, then I'll have to ring him to see what's happened," Pauline told Al.
"Where's he gone then?" asked Al.
"Went home for lunch. Something must have happened to make him late," Pauline worried.
"Bet you he's gone home for a bit of 'Afternoon Delight', if you know what I mean. After all Louisa'll be at home cos it's the school holidays, eh?" said Al, winking at Pauline.
"Al Large, that is DISGUSTING, this is the Doc we're talking about. He wouldn't do anything like that, I know he wouldn't," Pauline replied, shuddering with distaste.
Martin now walked into the surgery.
"Umm…..sorry I'm late, medical emergency," he muttered, clearing his throat.
"Next patient," he bellowed, striding into his surgery without a backward glance.
Pauline looked at Al witheringly.
"Afternoon Delight. The Doc. As if."
Al just smiled knowingly and tapped his nose.
"Don't you be too sure, Pauline. He's a dark horse that one, you mark my words."
"Yea and you've got an evil one track mind, Al."
xXx
That evening, at around 6.15pm, Christopher Ellingham was walking up the hill towards his son's house. He was going to have one last ditch, full on attempt to persuade Martin to come to London with him. He was actually desperate to get Martin to agree to his proposition. He'd sunk everything he had into the Harley Street practice, no one had told him about this stupid 'revalidation' business with the GMC, he hadn't bothered to keep up with all the latest developments in the UK. He'd known that he'd be safe offering to help Joan out financially, virtually certain that she'd instantly reject any offer of help from him.
As he walked past the Large restaurant, he was just in time to see Martin and Louisa going down the steps to the restaurant. Martin was carrying Luke, and the little boy was smiling up at his Daddy happily. He watched with interest as Bert greeted them and made a big show of finding them a table with a beautiful view – it was a lovely sunny evening – and then getting a high chair for the baby and making a fuss of him. He saw them sit down together, he saw how they looked at each other, and how Louisa gave Martin a little kiss on his lips. He also remembered how fiercely Louisa had defended Martin when he'd dared to voice some minor criticism of him.
As he stood there watching, it finally dawned on him that there would never be anything that he could do or say that would tempt his son to change the life that he had here in Cornwall.
He slowly walked back down the hill to his stale, lonely room in the pub, to try to think of another plan, another way to get himself out of his latest fix.