Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property of Buffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my imagination.
Spreading the Word - Chapter 17
Martin and Louisa decided to invite Joan to join them for their evening meal on Friday evening, and that they would tell her their news then.
As they sat round the kitchen table having finished their meal, which had included one of Joan's delicious homemade apple pies, Martin cleared his throat and looked at Joan.
"So, umm, how are all your crops on the farm coming along?" Martin asked Joan.
"Well, a lot of them have finished now, time to get on with the preparations for autumn sowing – why do you ask, you're not usually interested in the slightest about my crops Marty?" Joan looked at Martin, puzzled. Louisa also wondered what on earth Martin was up to. They'd agreed that it should be Martin that would tell her their news.
"I just wondered if you're growing any gooseberries, that's all," he asked innocently.
"Gooseberries...what are you going on about? No, I'm not growing any gooseberries." Joan wondered if he was going a bit doo lally.
"Well I just wondered how you're going to check under the gooseberry bush for any deliveries from the stork if you haven't, that's all," Martin said with a completely straight face as he now collected up the dishes from the table and took them over to the dishwasher.
Finally the penny dropped, and Joan exclaimed,
"Does this mean...you're going to have...you're expecting...oh come here, the pair of you!" She jumped up and first hugged Martin and gave him a big kiss, and then went to Louisa to hug and kiss her.
"When, how far, what...oh I don't know what to ask first!" she was overcome with emotion.
"It's very early days yet Joan. Providing everything is OK, it'll be due in the second half of April. We wanted you to know first, but we aren't telling anyone else, just in case, you know, until we've had the first proper scan and we get the all clear," Louisa told her, thrilled to see her so happy at their news.
"Martin, I knew you were being evasive about this baby business, but I thought it was because... well, you certainly didn't waste any time, seems you only have to unzip your trousers and she's pregnant." Joan always said exactly what she thought. And there was she worried that they hadn't even got round to any babymaking yet because they were too busy with work. Well it seemed that they certainly had been busy - in the bedroom. She was delighted.
"Auntie Joan, really!" Martin was thoroughly embarrassed now, and Louisa didn't really know where to look either.
"Well what I mean to say is, that at your age you're extremely lucky to have fathered another baby so quickly and easily. Must be the healthy Cornish diet, all that local fresh fish that you have in your diet, makes sure that your... you know... are able to..." Joan continued.
"Alright, alright, I think we get the picture," Martin told her, cringing and blushing.
"And a little brother or sister for you Luke. Two under the age of two, my word your Mummy and Daddy are going to have their work cut out, aren't they young man?" Joan gave Luke a hug and kiss too, ending up with apple pie in her hair from him.
xXx
On Saturday morning Martin got Luke up and took him down to breakfast. He knew that tiredness was one of the classic early symptoms of pregnancy, so he let Louisa sleep in.
Just as he was giving Luke his weetabix, he heard Louisa getting up and then rushing to the bathroom to be sick. Making sure that Luke's breakfast bowl was safely out of his reach, he went upstairs to check on her.
"Looks like I spoke too soon about not having any morning sickness," she smiled weakly at him.
"Come on, let me make you something to eat and drink, an empty stomach makes you feel worse," Martin told her as he guided her downstairs.
Luke had started to cry, he didn't like having his breakfast interrupted, so Louisa started to feed him again, but just the smell of his breakfast was enough to make her retch again.
"I think I'll just have some ginger tea, and a plain biscuit for now, that's what I found worked for me last time Martin," Louisa told him."Ordinary tea just tastes weird, and I can't stand the smell of coffee I'm afraid."
"Right, OK, well I'll just get that for you, then I'll carry on with Luke, he can just wait a minute for the rest of his breakfast," Martin said.
Louisa found the tea soothing, just as before, and once she'd eaten a biscuit and sipped her tea, she felt much better.
"I suggest that tomorrow morning I'll bring the same thing up to you before you get up, then hopefully you won't feel so sick," Martin offered.
"Thanks Martin, that's really sweet of you," Louisa told him as she pecked him on the cheek. He was so keen to be helpful and look after her, and she was trying her best to let him, even though it was using up a fair amount of her patience.
xXx
A week later, they were going over to Jenny and Chris Parsons for dinner on Saturday evening, Joan babysitting for them as usual.
Jenny and Chris had just come back from their holiday. They'd been away for Louisa's birthday, so they were treating this evening as a belated birthday celebration.
In the car on the way over Louisa quizzed Martin because she thought that there was a funny smell.
"Maybe it's the leather seats, have you cleaned them or something?" Louisa asked him.
"No, I haven't, I think it's just your hyper sensitive sense of smell again Louisa. Now obviously tonight you won't be having your usual glass of wine, and bear in mind what's on that list of foods to be avoided I gave you, as we don't know what they'll be serving up," Martin reminded her.
"Alright Martin, I'm not stupid you know," Louisa told him.
"Well I'm only saying..." Martin decided not to say any more and held his tongue.
Louisa was very touchy, but of course that was to be expected with the surge of hormonal activity going on in her body at the moment, he thought. He just had to be very tolerant and patient with her, he realised she really couldn't help it.
Louisa had already snapped at him when he'd reminded her of the time after she'd gone to the loo twice before they came out.
"I can't help it if I need to spend a penny every ten minutes, can I? It's very annoying, but there it is," Louisa had told him irritably.
They'd agreed that they wouldn't tell their friends their news just yet as it was still so early on in the pregnancy, although Louisa had a feeling that it wasn't going to be that easy to keep it a secret. She was feeling quite queasy again, and the journey over in the funny smelling car wasn't helping. She took a cracker biscuit out of her handbag to nibble on, with a few sips of water from a bottle she had also put in her bag. She tried to make sure that she didn't get crumbs everywhere.
Martin was extremely fussy about his precious car. When they took Luke out in the Lexus, it invariably needed hoovering out as soon as they got back as somehow Luke always managed to make some sort of mess in it, and Martin couldn't just leave it. On the few occasions that he'd borrowed Louisa's car when his was in the garage for servicing, he'd tutted at all the baby detritus in there. She never drove his car, she didn't want to risk damaging it in any way when parking such a big car and facing his wrath if she did.
As soon as they walked in to their friends' house, the smell of cooking hit Louisa. Luckily it was a good smell to her, and reminded her that she was really quite hungry.
"We've got a bottle of champagne on ice, to toast your birthday," Jenny told them. "I know you don't drink Martin, but Louisa always loves a glass of bubbly, don't you?"
"Well usually, but the thing is..."Louisa racked her brains to come up with a good reason for them not to open the bottle on her behalf. She wasn't a natural liar.
"She's not allowed alcohol at the moment. Umm... medical reasons..." Martin stated.
"Oh that's a shame, we'll have to save it for another time then, have you been poorly?" Jenny asked her, assuming that she was on antibiotics that shouldn't be mixed with alcohol.
"Something like that," Louisa agreed, then changed the subject quickly to ask about their holiday in Tuscany.
The meal passed very pleasantly. Luckily Martin approved of all the food, it was a very well cooked beef dish with plenty of fresh vegetables.
Then dessert was served up. It was Eton mess, a crushed up meringue base, with fresh strawberries and cream on top. Normally this was one of Louisa's favourites, but tonight as soon as she smelt the sickly sugary meringue, she found herself retching, and had to rush off to the bathroom.
"Is she alright?" Jenny asked Martin, worried about her friend. "Is she still poorly, if she's been on medication?"
Martin was a hopeless liar too.
"No, no she's fine, it's just...umm...it's just..." Martin struggled to say something convincing. They should have thought of a cover story before they came, he supposed.
Jenny and Chris exchanged knowing glances at each other and smiled.
"I'll go and check she's OK," said Jenny, leaving the table.
Chris looked at Martin.
"Congratulations. When's it due then?" Chris asked him.
Martin didn't say anything, he just took a sip of water from his glass.
"Come on, I am a doctor too, in case you've forgotten, I do know the classic signs," Chris probed.
"Second half of April. It's very early days, that's why we didn't say anything yet," Martin replied with a smile on his face.
"That's wonderful! Really wonderful news, I'm thrilled for you both,. You didn't hang about then after all, Louisa obviously decided that now was the right time to try for another baby" Chris said to him.
"She did, yes," Martin was still a man of few words.
"I have to say that's pretty good going at your ages, Louisa getting pregnant so quickly, obviously no fertility issues with either of you," Chris replied.
"Well, it's still very early, and the risk of miscarriage is higher because of Louisa's age, so we don't want to make a big deal of it yet, and we certainly don't want it to be general knowledge," Martin told his friend.
"OK mate, no problem, won't say a word till we get the all clear from you and Louisa. Great news though," Chris said, patting Martin on the back, pleased to see that Martin was actually smiling and happy.
"But since you do know about the pregnancy now, perhaps I can ask your opinion on something?" Martin asked Chris.
"Sure, fire away," Chris replied.
"I need to book Louisa's antenatal care. I said she could go privately if she wanted too, but she refused point blank to even consider it," Martin said. Louisa had told him very firmly that it would be a totally unnecessary waste of money, she was more than happy to go to their usual NHS hospital. She remembered the mothers at the private school in London that she'd taught at, they all went 'private' and she certainly didn't want to be grouped with that kind of snobby, elitist, expectant mother.
"Well our NHS hospital is amongst the best Martin," Chris told him.
"Being Chief Executive of the PCT you would say that wouldn't you?" Martin pointed out.
"Yes, but it's true," Chris assured him.
"Well I gather old Hardwick has retired now." This was the consultant that had completed Louisa's post natal check that Martin had dealt with before.
"Yes he has, shame, he was first rate," Chris said.
"And obviously Edith Montgomery has returned to London." Martin knew that hell would have frozen over before Louisa would have gone to her in any case.
"Yes, she has, left under a bit of a cloud actually, between you and me," Chris told him.
"Really? How so?" Martin was intrigued to know.
"Well she upset quite a few people with her arrogant manner, always assuming she knew best when actually some of her diagnosis turned out to be incorrect. She seems to have become rather narrow in her outlook, happens sometimes when you specialise in a one area for too many years, she seemed only capable of viewing things from a gynae point of view. We also had complaints about her not being very good at keeping her patients informed and explaining things to them. We certainly wouldn't be in any hurray to have her back, put it that way," Chris explained to him.
Martin recalled his initial dealings with her concerning his patient Barbara Collingsworth, when Edith had refused to even consider or run tests for Martin's diagnosis of diverticulitis, assuming, wrongly as it turned out, that it was a cyst. He thought Chris could almost be describing her experiences of Edith to the letter. And then there had been the fact that Edith hadn't bothered to explain the Doppler results to Louisa properly, meaning that she worried unnecessarily for some weeks that Luke was a 'small for dates' baby when in fact he had been a very healthy 8lb 10oz – it really was unforgivable to cause stress to an expectant mother in that way.
"I see. So who would you recommend that I refer Louisa to, who's the best consultant in your opinion?" Martin asked Chris.
"I've heard very good reports of Charles Stewart, that's who I'd go for if I were in your position Martin," Chris advised him.
"Thanks, I will then." Martin trusted Chris's judgement on this.
"Would you like me to have a word with him?" Chris offered. There was an unspoken rule among doctors that if one senior doctor asked another to see a patient, it meant that this was someone special who should be given priority treatment.
"I'd appreciate that, thank you." Martin felt happier now that he had spoken to Chris as making the necessary arrangements had been on his mind.
"Leave it with me," Chris told him.
xXx
Upstairs, Jenny knocked on the bathroom door and asked Louisa,
"Are you alright? Can I get you anything?"
The bathroom door opened, and Louisa let her friend in.
"Sorry about that, nothing to do with your cooking," she said rather sheepishly.
"No, I think it's more to do with something you and Martin have cooked up together isn't it?" Jenny looked at her knowingly.
"Is it that obvious?" Louisa looked at her friend as Jenny nodded and smiled, and then gave her a big hug.
"I think it's wonderful, the best news," Jenny told her. "How's Martin taking it?" She remembered how upset Louisa had been thinking that Martin didn't want any more babies.
"Oh he's delighted, I'm really surprised in a way about just how thrilled he is, so fingers crossed, I'm hoping everything will be alright, it's very early days, things could still go wrong..." Louisa started to say.
"Oh don't be such an old worrypot, I'm sure the odds are in your favour anyway, and with Martin looking after you too..." Jenny said.
"Ah. Yes. Well the thing is...he's already driving me nuts, he's being so over protective. I want to let him be really involved, let him take care of me, you know...after last time. Even so, I can't help it, sometimes I just snap at him but even then he just takes it. I can see him thinking 'justherhormones,mustn'tupsether'. Right now I'd give anything for him to answer me back, have a good row, treat me normally."
Louisa's frustrations of the past week came tumbling out now. Martin was practically standing over her making sure that she ate the meals that he cooked for them after planning the most nutritious menu. He insisted that she went to bed early in the evening and let him get Luke up in the mornings after he'd brought her some ginger tea and a biscuit. He came home at lunchtime to check on her, or visited her at school if she was working there. Goodness knows what he was going to be like when she went back to work shortly for the new term. He'd also decided to do only one surgical clinic a week so that it didn't take up too much of his time.
Jenny laughed at her friend.
"Oh Louisa, just make the most of it, let him enjoy looking after you, it'll pass and then you'll be wishing he was like it again, I bet."
"Hmm. Can't see that happening any time soon. Sorry to grumble to you, I must sound really ungrateful, I'm just so used to managing on my own I suppose," Louisa admitted.
"Come on, let's go and rejoin the men now, see if we can find you something to eat that doesn't make you throw up eh?"
The women rejoined the men, Louisa letting Martin quickly check her over whilst giving Jenny a resigned look over his shoulder.