Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property of Buffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my imagination.
Don't count Your Chickens... - Chapter 20
Having finished making her regular delivery to Bert's restaurant, Joan drove up the road to Martin and Louisa's house to drop off some of her vegetables, knowing how they preferred her home grown organic crops to anything in the shops.
She hummed happily to herself as she parked her truck, and wandered round to the back door of the kitchen as usual.
She glanced in through the window, about to call out 'onlyme' in her usual way, when she was once again stopped in her tracks by what she saw.
Martin was holding Louisa in his arms, but she was sobbing and crying as if her heart was breaking, Martin was just holding and comforting her as best he could. He glanced up over her shoulder, saw Joan, and shook his head at her to say 'notnow'.
'Callme'she mouthed at him and made a sign with her hand to show him what she meant. He nodded back at her, and she headed back to her truck.
"Dear lord, what on earth has happened to upset Louisa like that," Joan worried to herself. "Oh no, please don't say it's anything to do with the baby..."
xXx
It was the beginning of October. Louisa had got through September without revealing her pregnancy to anyone at school, although it had been hard at times. She'd managed for the most part to avoid any lunch time supervisory duties, the food smells were revolting to her at the moment. She was incredibly tired all the time, however early Martin insisted she go to bed, but she forced herself to keep going through the day, she had so many things she wanted to get sorted and in place to ease the eventual announcement of her pregnancy to the School Governors. She was trying to subtly coach Emma Greenway in a lot of her tasks, she was a brilliantly organised and talented teacher. A lot of people had commented on how she reminded them of Louisa herself when she very first came to teach at Portwenn school.
The educational trip to The Eden Project had been a particularly exhausting day for her. Much as Martin had predicted, she'd felt very sick by the time they'd arrived, but she'd managed to make light of it to the other staff by blaming travel sickness. Her group of children were the known trouble makers. As one of the most experienced teachers there it was the normal arrangement, it was unfair and possibly unsafe to land an accompanying parent with these difficult children – funny how it was never their parents who volunteered to help with these trips, Louisa always thought. It meant that Louisa had to be on her guard and concentrate the whole day.
When she got home that day she just collapsed on the sofa, too exhausted to do anything but watch Luke as he turned the lounge into a toy strewn disaster zone. When Martin came in from work, he'd taken one look at her crashed out on the sofa before taking Luke with him into the kitchen and putting him in his playpen while he prepared their supper. Luke wasn't very pleased with this arrangement, but at least he got to watch Daddy, and Mummy wasn't a lot of fun at the moment. Martin was not at all happy that Louisa had overdone things in his opinion, but knew that he'd only be accused of fussing too much if he made any comment, so he held his tongue and simply did his best to help by preparing supper and doing Luke's bath and bedtime routine. Louisa was very grateful that he did this, giving him a bit hug and kiss for his troubles.
The date had come through for Louisa's twelve week appointment and dating scan at the hospital. It was for one afternoon the following week, so Martin had blocked that time out in his surgery diary, piquing Pauline's curiosity.
"What are you doing then?" she'd wanted to know.
"Important meeting at the hospital, I can't be late for it, so don't squeeze in any extra patients that morning," Martin had briefly told her, determined that nothing was going to make him miss this appointment.
"What kind of important meeting, what's it about?" she'd asked.
"Mind your own business." was the only response she got as he'd disappeared into his consulting room.
"I hope he's not going after another job again, he's acting in the same shifty sort of manner as he did before," Pauline worried to herself.
Louisa told Sally Chadwick that she would not be available that afternoon, being rather vague about a budget meeting that she had to attend, which was not an unusual occurrence so Sally just put it in the diary without comment.
Louisa was feeling both very excited and very nervous about the scan, knowing that an all clear at this stage was a huge milestone to pass, at least until the next important scan at around twenty weeks. As usual Martin hadn't said too much about how he felt about it, but she knew that he intended to be there come hell or high water. She was very glad, it had been so lonely not having someone to share the experience with last time, and it was reassuring knowing that she would have his support should anything amiss show up on the scan.
xXx
Louisa wrote back to her Dad, as agreed with Martin, however reluctant his agreement was. She'd just written a short note, saying that she would meet up with him because she wanted to reassure him that she was very happy with Martin, and had not married him simply for security. She told Terry that she was very busy at school and with Luke, so that the best time for her to meet up would be in the half term holidays at the end of October. This would also be after she had had her scan, meaning that she could tell him about her pregnancy hopefully, if all was well. She suggested some dates and meeting up in Exeter, and that she would wait to hear back from him. She'd shown Martin the letter before she sent it, determined now to be open and honest with him, because he was being supportive to her even though he strongly distrusted Terry. Martin cursed that the man had reappeared in their lives just when things were going so well for them– it seemed that there always had to be a fly in the ointment, something to spoil things. He still strongly suspected an ulterior motive to all this sudden parental concern. Louisa knew she couldn't blame him, but tried to reassure him.
"It is possible for to people to reform, turn over a new leaf, Martin. You're always so distrustful of people, you always choose to think the worst," Louisa told him.
"Usually with good reason, in my experience," Martin had replied.
"Well at least try to keep an open mind for now, be optimistic for once in your life hmm – Dad might actually be going straight," Louisa had tried to cajole him.
'Pigsmightfly'Martin thought to himself.
"We'll see, won't we Louisa?" was the best that Martin could come up with that wouldn't upset Louisa. He could see that she desperately wanted to believe that Terry Glasson was making good. He just hoped that she wasn't going to be let down, yet again. For once she was letting herself believe that things were going to be OK with her father, usually she prepared herself for disappointment, so now he hoped that her bubble wasn't going to be burst.
No reply came from Terry for some time, and Martin began to think that perhaps he wasn't going to write back, and was relieved because it would avoid them having to meet up. He could see Louisa checking the post each day now, but saying nothing.
Then finally one Saturday morning as they were having their breakfast, the post arrived, and when Louisa brought it in she showed him another letter in the same handwriting as before.
"Looks like I've got an answer back from Dad," she told him, showing him the envelope.
"Oh. Right. Well you'd better open it and see what he says I suppose," Martin told her, trying not to sound too disappointed. He carried on feeding Luke his breakfast, leaving Louisa to read her letter.
Louisa sat down at the kitchen table, opened the envelope and started to read it.
Martin watched to see her reaction, and saw her starting to bite her lip and then saw her eyes fill with tears. Finally she threw the letter down on the table.
"He's done it again, why do I do this, why do I let myself fall for his lies, his stories, you were right all along Martin, I should have listened to you, he can't be trusted."
With this she burst into tears, so Martin took her in his arms to try to comfort her, not really knowing exactly what the letter said, but clearly it wasn't good news.
It was at this point that he glanced up and saw Joan at the window, and shook his head at her – he needed to find out just what Terry had said before Louisa clammed up in front of someone else. Luckily Joan got the message and left them to it. He'd talk to Joan later – they hadn't said anything to her yet about Terry being in contact, waiting to see what would happen after Louisa wrote back first.
"What did he say then?" Martin asked Louisa.
"He's back inside, broke the terms of his parole. of course he says it wasn't his fault, he's been 'stitched up' he says, how many times have I heard his excuses, his stories..." Louisa sobbed as if her heart would break, all the years of frustration and disappointment in her father being let loose, now that she didn't have to pretend that she didn't care, that it didn't hurt. She didn't have to pretend in front of Martin. She handed him the letter to read for himself. It read:
My Darling Girl,
I'm sorry to have to tell you but I'm not going to be able to meet up with you after all. I know you've heard it a hundred times before, but it really isn't my fault this time. I've been set up, some people that I've upset in the past decided to settle some old scores, and I've ended back up inside due to breaking the terms of my parole, 'receiving stolen goods' they've called it. I'm going to fight to try to clear my name, but it's going to be an uphill struggle I'm afraid, I can't afford any fancy solicitor to help me.
I meant it when I said I was worried about you, you deserve the best, but at least if you are financially secure I suppose that is something, and you have your little boy after all.
God bless you and I'm sorry for all the grief I've caused you over the years
Dad x
Martin read the letter with disgust at how easily and glibly Terry seemed to pass this off, not caring about the heartbreak he was causing Louisa. He could cheerfully have murdered the man at this moment.
He held Louisa tight until her sobbing subsided and she pulled away from him.
"I'm sorry Martin, I didn't mean to carry on like that, blame my hormones I suppose. What did I expect from him anyhow, being realistic? Even if it's true that he's been set up, it just shows the kind of people that he's chosen to mix with all his life. Well from now on, I'm just going to concentrate on our family, that's what's important to me," she told him.
Martin realised that she was putting a brave face on things, she was still desperately upset, even he knew that. But there was nothing he could do except to agree with her that it was best to look forward. He watched as she picked Luke up and hugged and kissed him to show him that Mummy was alright, he'd been scared to see her crying like that, he wasn't used to it.
xXx
Joan waited anxiously for a call from Martin, needing to know what had upset Louisa so badly, fearing the worst, that something had gone wrong, that possibly she'd had a miscarriage.
She jumped as her phone finally rang and she grabbed it quickly.
"Marty, is that you?" she asked.
"Yes, Auntie Joan, it's me," Martin confirmed.
"What's happened, what on earth's wrong with Louisa, has something happened with the baby?" she gabbled down the phone.
"The baby? No, it's nothing to do with the baby," Martin said, then filled her in about what had happened.
"The bastard, well if he ever tries to get in touch, make sure Louisa doesn't get sucked in again Martin," Joan told him, upset for Louisa, but immensely relieved that it was nothing to do with the baby.
"Well I tried this time, but without success. I hate seeing her so upset, especially at this stage of her pregnancy, I could cheerfully wring his neck right now. She says she'll never trust him again, but I don't know, it's like a weak spot she has for him. He knows just how to get to her, the 'caring father' routine, making out he was concerned about her, he knew that was what she wanted to hear from him," Martin confided to Joan.
"Families are funny things, bring out all sorts of contradictory feelings sometimes," Joan told him. "But Louisa's lucky to have you now, just make sure you try to be sensitive, you know how tactless you can be."
"Well thanks for the vote of confidence, I had worked that this was quite a tricky area all by myself actually," Martin told her.
"If you need me to look after Luke while you give Louisa your full attention, just say the word," Joan offered helpfully.
"Thanks, but at the moment Luke is taking her mind off things I think," Martin replied.
xXx
As they lay in bed that night, Martin held Louisa in his arms and said,
"Look, I know that I'm not very good at saying the right thing, but I am sorry things didn't work out the way that you'd hoped with your father," he told her.
"Actually Martin, I'm not. Better this happened now, it reminded me of the real Terry Glasson before I got totally sucked in again and maybe let him creep his way back into my life and our family. I have my family here, with you, and that's all I need, once we've had the scan next week we can hopefully relax and look forward to our new baby coming," Louisa told him, hugging him back and kissing his cheek. He'd been pretty wonderful today, not saying very much, not uttering the 'Itoldyouso' that he was entitled to, just quietly looking after her and Luke. He'd proved to her once again that he was her rock, that she could always rely on him when it really mattered even if he never said much. Martin was a living example of 'actionsspeaklouderthanwords', she knew now. Her dad was full of glib words and promises, but his actions never matched up. The two men were complete opposites.
"I suppose that is sensible," Martin told her, not totally convinced that she was immune to Terry.
Martin personally hoped that they locked Terry Glasson up and threw away the key. However, he thought he might make a phone call to his legal firm in London to see if they could look into Terry's claim to have been 'set up' when he was trying to go straight – he supposed it could just be plausible. The man was not only Louisa's father, he was also Luke's grandfather after all, so he thought he owed him that much. He wouldn't tell Louisa about this plan just yet though, he didn't want to get her hopes up only to have them dashed again, which he thought was highly probable given Terry's previous form.