Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property ofBuffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my imagination.
Birthday Girl - Chapter 14
Louisa smiled to herself as she stretched out in bed, feeling very happy with the world. It was her 39th birthday, a Saturday, so Martin didn't have work, and wasn't on call all weekend. She decided not to think about next year's milestone birthday, she could worry about that nearer the time.
She listened as Martin talked to Luke as he got him up and changed him – he never indulged in any kind of baby talk when he spoke to Luke, he simply wasn't capable of it. He was now telling Luke what a disgusting nappy it was, and Luke was finding it very funny, although Martin wasn't.
Finally sorted, Martin brought Luke into their bedroom and handed him over.
"Happy Birthday Louisa, I'll be back in a minute," he went off to the bathroom to wash his hands and then disappeared downstairs.
Louisa happily played with Luke for a few minutes before Martin reappeared with two envelopes and a package.
"These are for you," he said as he handed them over rather shyly.
"Oh thank you Martin," she said as she looked at them.
The first envelope had 'Mummy' written on it, and when she opened it, there was a card saying 'To My Mummy', and was signed 'Love from Luke'. It looked remarkably like Joan's handwriting, with a few scribbles in it too that she had managed to get Luke to put in it as well as scribble all over her kitchen table.
"Mmm…err… that was Joan's idea actually," Martin said rather embarrassed. Joan had left it with him to give to Louisa.
"That's lovely, thank you Luke, you are a very clever little boy," Louisa said as she kissed him. He was sitting on the bed next to her, happily occupied with ripping the envelope. Louisa carefully put the card out of his reach, now opening the second card.
It was another in the series of birthday cards that Louisa called 'The Ugly Hags' - they were prints of pictures of rather ugly old women. Martin was interested in art of all sorts, but he particularly liked this type of painting by the old masters, they were technically brilliant in his opinion. Louisa had been very pleasantly surprised on her birthday last year when Martin had given her a similar card and a book on Victorian house design and architecture, knowing how their Victorian house fascinated her. She hadn't expected him to remember her birthday then, after all it had been just a month after Luke was born, she hadn't known about his efficient spreadsheets then.
This year, as usual, all he had written in the card was 'Martin'. But of course Louisa would keep it, along with the other cards – not that there were very many - that he had given her over the years.
Then she turned her attention to her parcel. She felt quite excited by it, remembering the beautiful necklace that he had given her at the Midsummer Ball, and it hadn't even been her birthday then.
She unwrapped it – it was a book, and the title of it was:
'Toddler Taming – Helpful Tips for the Older Mother'
"So you seem to think that I need some help coping with Luke then?" Louisa asked, feeling rather offended.
Martin had been pretty pleased with himself for finding such an appropriate present. He didn't believe in buying gifts just for the sake of it, only if they served a purpose. Louisa's dress had needed a necklace to set it off, so he had bought one for her. Now he had found a relevant, informative book for Louisa, so he had bought it for her. Same thing in his opinion really, diamond necklace, child rearing book, both appropriate gifts that served a purpose.
"Well he shows every sign of being quite a determined, strong minded little individual, so I thought this book might prove useful," Martin explained.
"Oh. Right. Yes, I suppose he does," Louisa said as she put the book down, deciding that it wasn't worth getting upset about. She certainly didn't expect diamonds every time, and she supposed it did show thought of some sort.
"And we are going out to dinner tonight, Joan's having Luke for us, it's all been arranged," Martin informed her.
"That's lovely, I'm looking forward to it already," Louisa told him as she kissed him.
"Right well, I'll just have my shower and get dressed, if you're alright with Luke for a minute."
As Martin disappeared into the shower room, she knew he wouldn't take too long getting ready. Louisa was pleased to see that Martin had put his casual clothes out to wear today – it was still his only casual outfit, so far she had not been able to persuade him to order any more. She was working on it though. He had received several positive comments about his new look, but as Martin wasn't very good at accepting compliments, it made him feel rather uncomfortable.
"Your Daddy says you're determined, did you know that Luke Ellingham?" Louisa told him as she put her fingers into his mouth to retrieve the pieces of envelope that he was chewing. Luke had already decided that they weren't nice to eat after all, and for once didn't object to her fishing them out of his mouth.
They sat round the kitchen table having their breakfast, Luke as usual in his high chair, waving his feeder cup around and occasionally drinking from it. He'd finished his Weetabix, not messing around with it too much today because he'd been hungry. Now however, rather than chewing on his piece of toast, he was enjoying pulling it to pieces, chewing on the pieces and then taking them out of his mouth to investigate what they looked like, especially when he poked his finger in the gooey mess. It was keeping him quiet anyhow.
Martin passed Louisa her cup of tea – they usually drank tea in the morning, and they both preferred it made in a proper teapot. It was part of their morning routine, and Martin did it without even thinking now. He also handed her a folic acid supplement to take, as recommended for women trying to conceive or in the early stages of pregnancy. He was determined to look after her right from the beginning in a way that he had not been able to when she was pregnant with Luke, due to her leaving him in complete ignorance of her condition. He still felt incredibly guilty that she had not felt able to confide in him.
Louisa gratefully took a sip of her tea, she always claimed that she wasn't really human until she'd had her first cup of tea in the morning. That with a round of toast with marmalade was all she could usually face first thing.
"Urgh... Martin, what have you done to the tea, it tastes really odd," she exclaimed.
"I haven't done anything, mine tastes fine," Martin replied.
"Did you use different tea or something, it's got a different tang to it," she persisted.
"No, I didn't, I used the same tea as always," Martin insisted.
"Hmm, well maybe the dishwasher didn't rinse the cups out properly or something, I'll make a fresh pot in a minute," Louisa said. She still thought of the dishwasher as an unnecessary extravagance, never having had one before she moved in with Martin, and so she pointed out any faults that she found with it to prove her point. Martin told her that a dishwasher was far more hygienic than using a dirty dishcloth and an old tea towel to do washing up by hand. They still didn't really see eye to eye about it.
To change the subject, Martin handed Louisa her birthday cards that had arrived in the post and by hand, there were quite a few, from friends at school, also Jenny and Chris, Isabel, Roger and Maureen, Paul Blake on behalf of the Governors, even one from Holly, who had been very impressed to see the article about Louisa earlier in the year in The Times, and had decided to 'forgive' her, especially as she was now respectably married to a doctor as well. Louisa read that one very sceptically, she really couldn't imagine a situation where she would ever want to meet up with Holly again.
He watched as she opened them all, but there was one that she left unopened – it had a London post mark.
"You still have another card to open Louisa" Martin pointed out.
"Yes, I know who that one is from, and I'm going to open it later," Louisa told him, putting the card to one side for now. Martin was curious but didn't press her to know who it was from.
"So, what would you like to do today? Your birthday, your choice," Martin told Louisa.
"Let's go for a walk along the coastal path. We could take a picnic, and maybe Luke will have a nap in his buggy a bit later, especially if we let him walk for a while – with his reins on of course," Louisa suggested.
They'd had a bit of a battle getting Luke to wear his first pair of shoes, he didn't like the feel of them at first and tried to take them off as fast as they put them on, but he did finally seem to be getting used to them. Luke loved being out of his buggy and walking, but he would just toddle aimlessly in the wrong direction if they let him, stopping to pick up a stone or a piece of dirt that caught his eye and then try eating it.
"Yes, alright, that sounds like a good idea, it'll be good exercise in the fresh air," Martin agreed. The weather was reasonable, and there shouldn't be too many tourists up on the path, most seemed to prefer clogging up the shops and pubs in the village.
"Cooee, only me." It was Joan as she appeared at the kitchen door.
"Happy birthday Louisa," she said, giving her a hug and kiss then handing a card and present to her, as well as a bunch of flowers from her garden.
"Only a little something, I'm afraid," Joan told her. She couldn't afford big presents on her very tight income. Martin and Louisa were both working on ways that they could help Joan out financially without offending her very strong sense of pride.
"Oh Joan, that's so lovely, thank you very much, I really appreciate it," Louisa said sincerely as she opened the present to find homemade jams and cake. "And the flowers are beautiful, I'll just get a vase for them."
As she disappeared, Joan quickly asked Martin,
"So you are taking her out somewhere nice this evening while I have Luke, aren't you?"
"Yes, don't worry it's all arranged," Martin reassured her.
"Well, I'll be off, better get all my chores done before I look after this young man, have a lovely day Louisa," Joan said to her as she reappeared, then she gave Luke a big kiss, despite him being all sticky from his breakfast. Luke grabbed her top with his sticky hands and made her all mucky, but she just laughed, it didn't worry her.
"Yes well, just make sure you observe all the necessary hygiene arrangements concerning your chickens when you have Luke, wash your hands, and don't let him touch anything, you know how he tries to eat everything," Martin lectured Joan. Luke loved watching Joan's chickens, but Martin was ever vigilant over any possible health risks.
"Of course I will, do you really think I'd take any chances with Luke. Honestly Martin," Joan huffed as she left.
xXx
Louisa managed to open her birthday card that she had left for later in private when Martin was busy for a few minutes sorting his post in his study before they went for their walk. It included a letter, she read the contents and gave a big sigh. What the hell was she going to do about this? Martin would be furious, he'd never agree and she felt very torn. She put the card away to worry about later – nothing was going to spoil her birthday, she decided firmly. She'd just have to wait for the right moment to talk to Martin.
As they got ready to go for their walk, Louisa packed Luke's baby bag which she always took out with them, with spare nappies, clothes, wipes, bib etc. Martin noticed that she also put a little bag of her own in, which contained a few tampons.
"Oh, have you started...?" he asked her.
"Not yet, any time now, always best to be prepared, just in case," Louisa told him.
"Ah, right, yes," Martin answered.
"And err, how are you feeling?" he asked, remembering last month when she had been sick at around this time of her cycle, leading them to think that she could have been pregnant – a false alarm as it turned out. Pre menstrual symptoms could be very similar to early pregnancy symptoms as they had discovered.
"Fine, I feel fine, last month we just overreacted to my normal monthly symptoms, Martin, I always feel crap when my period is due, but I just panicked a bit thinking that we'd had a condom failure again," Louisa felt embarrassed remembering the fuss they'd made, rushing to do a pregnancy test. She wasn't going to make that mistake again.
xXx
They wandered along the coastal path, the sea breeze blowing all cobwebs away, Luke loving the feeling of the wind although at times it nearly blew him over as he walked along, luckily he couldn't come to any harm on his reins. After having their picnic, and enjoying not having to worry too much about the mess Luke was making as they were outside, they headed back home, Luke going off to sleep in his buggy. Martin rather enjoyed pushing the buggy, they took it in turns especially with some of the hills.
This had been a bit like a dream that Louisa had once had, of a relaxed, casually dressed Martin, enjoying a leisurely time whilst admiring the Cornish seascape. Luckily this time there was no earthquake to shatter the dream.
xXx
That evening, having dropped Luke off with Joan, Martin and Louisa went for their meal out. Unbeknown to Louisa, they were going to the same restaurant that Martin had taken Edith to over a year previously. He had found it to be reasonably adequate, and as he didn't go out to restaurants very often he thought that he might as well stick with one that he had been to before. Joan had forbidden him to take Louisa to Bert's or anywhere else in the village.
"Push the boat out for once Martin, take Louisa somewhere special, not just down the road in the village," she'd insisted.
What Martin hadn't realised was that the restaurant had changed hands, and was now an Indian Restaurant – a very good one as it happened, but Martin didn't usually eat curry, because he found that it gave him indigestion. He hadn't really been listening properly when he'd rung to book the table, so he hadn't registered the change of name.
"Oh Martin, this is lovely, I know you don't like curry, but because I love it you've brought me here for my birthday, that is so sweet of you," Louisa exclaimed.
She was delighted and gave Martin a kiss to show her appreciation.
Martin had to quickly choose between two options – admit he'd made a mistake and upset Louisa, or stay for a meal and upset his stomach. Seeing Louisa's happy face, he chose the latter option, hoping that he could pick something relatively simple and bland from the menu.
xXx
The following morning, it wasn't Louisa who was feeling queasy, it was Martin who struggled to give Luke his breakfast, because his stomach was upset. He'd tried to stick to the blandest food at the Indian restaurant, but even so, what he did have still upset him, he'd been up half the night with indigestion and it had not been a romantic night at all for them. Luckily as it was his weekend off, he could now recover and take it easy at home.
"You poor thing, can I get you anything – I've always found peppermint tea to be good with an upset stomach," Louisa offered helpfully. She had thoroughly enjoyed her spicy meal, but poor Martin was suffering now.
"We won't go there again, I won't let you do that to yourself just to please me," she told him.
'Thank goodness for that. Next time I'll make sure I check things out properly before we go anywhere',Martin thought as he kicked himself for his mistake. Still at least Louisa had enjoyed it.
xXx
Louisa was enjoying the last couple of weeks of the holidays, but also part of her was itching to get back to school, there was always something exciting about the beginning of the new school year. For now, she pottered about the house. She put some washing in the machine - there was always washing to be done with Luke around. It took a while because as fast as she sorted the washing into piles, Luke re-sorted it for her, thinking this was a new fun game, toddling off first with one of her bras, which Louisa had to chase after him to retrieve and then a pair of Martin's underpants. She added her usual tablets and fabric conditioner into the drawer - she always used the same ones that were suitable for sensitive skin as she came out in a rash with anything biological or too strong, and she didn't want to take any chances with Luke's baby skin either.
The smell of the tablets suddenly hit her, a really strong, sickly flowery smell, and it was horrible.
"Oh my God, they've changed the smell of the tablets, why do they have to do that, they smell disgusting now," Louisa said crossly, holding a tissue up to her nose to block the smell as she set the machine going.
xXx
Martin had gone into work, he'd got over his upset stomach and was back to his normal averagely grumpy self.
Louisa had bitten his head off when he'd asked her again how she was feeling, and if she had started her period.
"Stop fussing Martin! Look what happened before, we jumped to the wrong conclusion, you know my cycle varies from month to month, I'm not one of those '28 days without fail' women. I feel just fine" Louisa told him. It wasn't quite true, she had been feeling a bit 'off', but again, that was normal for her, and she didn't want Martin insisting on another test already.
After dropping Luke off at Nursery, she went into her office at school, there was always so much paperwork to get ready for the new term. It was very quiet with no pupils or other staff around, but it meant that she could get lots of work done. She became very engrossed and didn't notice the time, but it was lunchtime and she suddenly realised that she hadn't had anything to eat.
"Oh gosh, better go and get a sandwich" she thought to herself, a sudden wave of hunger assailing her, making her feel quite nauseous. As she stood up, a familiar feeling washed over her, she suddenly felt very hot, there was a buzzing in her ears, and everything turned black as she passed out.
xXx
As luck would have it, Joe Penhale and Emma had just come into the school building, having seen the school door open as they walked by, Emma had some ideas that she had been meaning to run by Louisa. She was also itching to get back to her job, because Joe was driving her insane.
"Louisa!" Emma ran into Louisa's office where she found her passed out on the floor.
"Joe, call an ambulance and then call the Doc," Emma told him.
Joe did as instructed, sending out a priority call. He thought the Doc would be furious if he didn't pull all the stops out for Louisa.
Having just started his lunch break when he got the call, Martin was able to leave the surgery immediately and reached the school just as the ambulance arrived with its sirens blaring and lights flashing– there had been one relatively nearby for a change that had been diverted as Joe had made a police priority call. It meant that a crowd now gathered around the entrance to the school, curious to know what had happened.
"Alright, I'll take charge now, stand back," Martin told Emma and Joe, as he walked into the office.
Louisa was now conscious again, but rather groggy and light headed.
"I'm fine, don't make such a fuss, it's nothing," Louisa tried to tell them all, as the ambulance crew also came in and insisted that they check her out as well as Martin.
This time Martin exploded at her.
"You are not alright, and don't tell me not to make a fuss when you have been found passed out on the floor Louisa. You could have banged your head or hurt yourself in any number of ways. Just let me check you out properly for once, otherwise I shall have to insist that you are taken by ambulance to hospital to be checked out," he barked at her, frustrated by her attitude and worried about her, although he knew by now that fainting really wasn't that unusual for Louisa, and could mean several different things.
Reluctantly Louisa agreed to go to Martin's surgery with him, she certainly didn't want to be carted off in an ambulance. The ambulance crew were happy with this, the checks on her had all been within normal levels, so they concluded that it had been a simple faint and the GP could look after her now, so they went on their way.
"Luke's fine in the nursery for now, yes? Well I came down in my car in case we needed to go to hospital, so let's get you into it," Martin instructed her.
He brusquely said thanks to Joe and Emma, and they locked up the school as they all left. Martin shouted at the crowd of people still standing around,
"Haven't you got anything better to do than stand around and gawp? The show is over, so bugger off back to the pub or wherever else you've crawled out from."
Joe realised that he should really be handling this, crowd control was his forte after all.
"You heard the man, come on now, move it along now, otherwise I shall have to arrest you all for loitering," he shouted at them, in what he believed to be an authoritative manner.
The crowd slowly dissipated.
"Tossers, the pair of them," was heard from several people amongst the crowd.
xXx
Back at the surgery, Martin took Louisa in through the back door and made her a sandwich from the supplies that he kept in the kitchen for his lunch. Once she had eaten, Martin took her through to his surgery to check her over.
"Why don't you just let me look after you for once, accept my help, stop being so bloody independent, and let me do a pregnancy test?"
"It's not about being independent Martin, it's about not wanting to get my hopes up and then having them dashed. I felt so disappointed last time when the test was negative, I don't want to feel like that again, so I thought we should leave it a bit longer. After all, we'd be pretty lucky to be successful the first month we tried wouldn't we?" Louisa explained to Martin.
'Mind you, there had been rather a lot of 'trying', Martin had been pretty enthusiastic in his efforts',she thought to herself.
"Hmm, I suppose I can see what you're saying, but surely now that you've reached day 33 in your cycle and have passed out, don't you agree that it might be time to risk doing another test?"
"Well I do seem to have developed a hyper sensitive sense of smell and taste too, which could be another sign, so I suppose we could do a test, but then again I haven't been sick, so it could all just be pre menstrual signs," she said, telling him about the tablets for the washing machine.
"Ah yes, and the funny tasting tea," Martin remembered.
"Look, I don't think I can produce a sample just now, and it would mean using your loo and wandering in and out of the waiting room, which is full of your patients as usual. And you've got to get on, so maybe you could bring a test home with you tonight, and we'll do it together then. But it will probably be negative, Martin," Louisa was still psyching herself up not to be disappointed.
"Right. OK. That is probably the most sensible option. So see you this evening then - if you're sure you feel alright now?" Martin said.
"Yes, I'm fine, so bye for now," Louisa said, as she pecked him on the cheek, still feeling that it seemed naughty to kiss him in his surgery. Louisa once again found that when they were in his surgery Martin seemed the professional doctor rather than her husband, and her lover.
Louisa had to brave the stares of all the patients in the waiting room as she walked out, but even they were used to hearing that the Headmistress had fainted again.
"Keep taking them iron tablets," Pauline called out to her as she left.
Martin quickly packed a test in his bag to take home for later as he called out
"Next patient," in his usual terse manner, hoping that the afternoon would pass by quickly for once.