Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property of Buffalo Pictures. I own nothing except my imagination.
Least Said, Soonest Mended - Chapter 25
"It's just a routine monthly check Martin, you can come if you want to, but it just seems a bit of a waste of time. They'll only be doing the same checks that you've insisted on carrying out yourself after all. It's not fair on all your patients if you keep taking off time when it's not really necessary. I won't be having a scan this time, the next one is at 20 weeks as you know, that's the important one for you to come to." Louisa was trying to gently persuade Martin that it was fine for her to go to her next antenatal check at the hospital on her own.
"I said I wanted to be involved Louisa, and I meant it," Martin replied.
"Yes, I know, and you are involved far more than most prospective fathers. You can listen to the baby's heartbeat pretty much any time you want after all," Louisa reminded him.
"Hmm. I do have a pretty heavy schedule I must admit, with my surgery clinic as well," Martin conceded.
"Well then, it makes more sense for you to take the time off for the more important check up at 20 weeks, OK?" Louisa told him. She wanted to speak to her consultant Mr Stewart without Martin there, so was quite relieved to get him to agree not to come this time. She also thought that she could do some shopping in Truro after her appointment, it wouldn't be worth rushing back to school for the end of the afternoon. Martin and clothes shopping would not be a good combination, of that she was certain.
xXx
"All seems perfectly normal with your pregnancy for 16 weeks Louisa, do you have any questions that you'd like to ask at all?" Mr Stewart said after completing all the usual checks.
"Well, there is just one thing I thought I'd ask you about actually," Louisa told him.
"Right, well fire away," Charles Stewart told her.
"It's just that, well, how can I put this...I've become... that is I'm more needy…with my husband." Louisa felt rather embarrassed now that she had brought the subject up.
"Do you mean that your libido has increased?" Charles offered helpfully.
"Yes, actually. I've joked to Martin that I've become a bit of a nymphomaniac, but I'm just wondering if it's normal or if I'm a bit.. well extreme, and also how long it's likely to go on for," Louisa explained. Martin had of course explained all about the hormones and their effects on her, but he wasn't an expert on pregnancy in the way that Mr Stewart was.
"Let me reassure you that you are perfectly normal, Louisa. It varies from one extreme to the other, some women have no sexual desire at all when pregnant, other women like yourself have increased desire, for a while anyway. As to how long it goes on for, most women find that as they increase in size, their libido decreases - I'm sure you remember only too well how you felt in the last stages of your previous pregnancy. Don't worry about it, just make the most of this time together," Mr. Stewart advised her.
xXx
"Where the hell have you been?" Martin demanded as Louisa walked in to the house loaded up with shopping bags. His face was thunder like in the extreme.
"You know where I've been, at the hospital in Truro having my check up," Louisa told him.
"That was hours ago, you had a 1.30 appointment, it's nearly 6.30 now," Martin said.
"Well, I told you I wanted to go into Truro to the shops afterwards seeing as I was over there. I needed to be fitted for some new bras, I'm bursting out of my ones now, and my bump has expanded so much recently that I desperately needed to get some more maternity clothes too. And Luke needs some winter clothes, so I had lots to do. As I told you this morning, Joan was more than happy to pick up Luke from nursery and bring him here until you got home, so I knew I didn't have to rush back," Louisa explained tetchily.
"You could have let me know how your appointment went before you went off buying up the entire stock from the shops," Martin said, looking at all the bags she'd brought in.
"There was nothing to report, everything is fine as you know from all your own checks, it was just routine," Louisa pointed out.
"Even so, it would have been nice to have it confirmed, I didn't know if they might find something I'd missed," Martin persisted.
"Oh come on Martin, as if you'd miss anything. Anyhow, if you were that worried you could have called my mobile," Louisa replied.
"I did. Several times. It's switched off," Martin told her.
"Oh...right. I had to turn it off in the hospital, and I suppose I forgot to turn it on again afterwards. Sorry," Louisa admitted. It wasn't the only thing she'd forgotten today. When she'd gone back to the multi storey car park in the centre of Truro, she couldn't remember where she'd left her car, and it had taken her ages to find it. And then she'd got caught up in all the rush hour traffic, made worse by road works too.
"Hmm. Well, Joan is bathing Luke now, so sit down and have your supper. You must be tired after all that shopping, I really don't know how you could spend so long doing it," Martin said.
"Oh I'm not hungry, I had something out, and I've got my committee meeting in half an hour, I've just got time to see Luke before he goes to bed," Louisa told him.
"What meeting? Louisa you need to sit down and eat, and then rest instead of rushing off out to some stupid time wasting meeting, you're overdoing things again," Martin lectured her.
"I told you about this PTA committee meeting and it's on the calendar if you'd bothered to look. As Head Teacher it's important that I turn up and show my support, it's very hard getting parents to volunteer for these things. So just stop fussing, I'm fine, my check up was all normal. It's part of my job to go to these meetings, just as you have to go out for your job," Louisa insisted.
Martin was never very keen on Louisa spending evenings out on school business, he felt that the parent's evenings and numerous committee meetings encroached on far too many of their evenings.
"At least when I'm called out it's potentially to save a life, not to discuss which village idiot is running which stall at some stupid fete," Martin told her.
Louisa looked at him in disbelief.
"Here was me thinking that you're a new thoughful man, but you really haven't changed have you, you're still the same - arrogant, and old fashioned. You keep treating me as if I'm ill or something – I'm pregnant, that's all, it's a perfectly normal condition. So you can sod off Martin. I'm going up to see Luke, and then I'm going out," Louisa told him angrily. She was actually very tired and bad tempered and Martin's attitude was bringing out the worst in her.
A few minutes later the front door slammed and Martin heard her car drive off. Well at least she wasn't walking up to the school. But when he checked on the calendar, he realised that the meeting was at that tosser Paul Blake's house, he was a parent governor. He groaned to himself, no doubt he would be charm itself to Louisa, making him seem a complete ogre in contrast.
"Is it safe to come in now?" Joan asked, putting her head round the kitchen door. She couldn't help but overhear their heated conversation as she'd been completing Luke's bedtime routine, not saying anything to Louisa when she had come in to give Luke a cuddle and kiss goodnight before rushing out again.
"Why does she have to be so bloody difficult and stubborn?" Martin said in frustration.
"Why do you have to be so bloody rude and condescending, Marty?" Joan shot back at him. "What did you expect her to say when you belittled her job like that?"
"I didn't belittle it, I was merely stating a fact," Martin replied defensively.
"Really, I don't think that was how Louisa saw it, do you?" Joan pointed out.
She knew that Martin had reacted as he had because he'd been worried about Louisa, especially when he hadn't been able to get hold of her after her check up. But of course he hadn't told her that, instead he'd acted like a father telling off a naughty teenager, and that was pretty much how Louisa had reacted by going out and slamming the door.
"Well, I'm off home now, Luke is settled in his cot, you might want to look in on him to check he's gone off to sleep in a little while. You'd better hope Louisa's calmed down by the time she gets back hmm?" Joan said as she left.
Martin now had several hours by himself to reflect on their argument. He thought it was unfair that he always got labelled as the thoughtless one, when actually Louisa had been thoughtless in not phoning him after her check up, in his opinion. The fact that he had spoken to Charles Stewart and been given a personal update was beside the point, she didn't know that. Maybe he had overreacted when she'd finally turned up, but he really had started to get very worried about where she'd got to when it was past 6 o'clock, and it was this horrid panicky feeling that made him act the way he had.
Louisa arrived at her committee meeting feeling all hot, bothered and out of sorts. She did feel bad for not having switched her phone back on, she'd simply forgotten about it, she'd been concentrating on getting all her shopping done that afternoon. Ordering over the internet was fine for some things, but she needed properly measuring and fitting for her bras. And then she'd been in a bit of a panic when she couldn't find her car in the car park, which was a really stupid thing to do, her brain must be turning to mush. She'd wandered round for ages carrying all her shopping bags before she'd found it. But how dare Martin basically tell her that his job was so much more important than hers – although sitting listening to the parents on the committee arguing about what colour the banners should be to advertise the next Christmas Fayre, she had to concede that maybe he had a point.
xXx
Martin checked on Luke, he'd gone off to sleep with no problems. He stood leaning over the side of the cot watching him for quite a while, brushing his finger across Luke's soft cheek. He was so beautiful, so perfect. He was such a lucky little boy to have a mummy like Louisa, to be surrounded by so much love, unlike his own lonely childhood. Martin sighed, he'd gone and done it again, upset Louisa when all he was trying to do was look after her, and protect her. It was so hard sometimes, so complicated, life used to be so much simpler when he was on his own. But he wouldn't wish to go back to that life, never in a million years. So he had to try to sort this silly quarrel out somehow, if he could only find the right words, or else he was only going to make matters worse.
He went back downstairs to his study, and started some research for his next surgery session. Getting engrossed in medical matters usually took his mind off everything else, and for a while it worked. Then he heard a car pull up on the drive, and so he looked out of the window. He didn't like what he saw. Paul Blake was dropping Louisa off. Where was her car and what was the hell was going on?
Martin opened the front door and went out to them.
"Ah Doctor Ellingham, I drove Louisa back because..." Paul started to explain.
"It's alright Paul, I'll explain everything to Martin, thanks very much for driving me, you really didn't need to, I'll pick up my car tomorrow," Louisa interrupted him.
"Right, well, if you're sure you're OK then Louisa?" Paul said to her.
"Yes, thanks, see you tomorrow at football club," Louisa told him as she now walked into the house with Martin following her.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on Louisa?" Martin tried to keep his voice calm.
"Don't start Martin." Louisa knew that he was very close to really kicking off.
"Then tell me why Paul bloody Blake felt it necessary to drive you back," Martin demanded to know.
"Alright, alright. I came over a bit faint, that's all, nothing major, but Paul didn't think I should drive myself back, so he insisted on dropping me home," Louisa told him. Actually she'd forbidden Paul from ringing Martin as he'd wanted to, pointing out that Martin was looking after Luke and couldn't just leave him to come over. Paul had only agreed not to phone Martin on condition that he drove her home. She'd hoped that she could sneak in without Martin noticing that Paul had driven her, that he would be too engrossed in reading some medical research to notice. Mind you, she hadn't come up with an explanation of why she had left her car yet, but now Martin had seen Paul drop her off it didn't matter.
"What do you mean 'a bit faint'? Come on I'm going to check you over, upstairs in the bedroom, now," Martin ordered her.
For once Louisa didn't argue. Her stubbornness had made her tell Martin she'd eaten when she hadn't, and she'd paid the price this evening by coming over faint and dizzy after rushing about all day and not eating properly, just as Martin had warned her.
"Hmm well you seem OK, have you actually eaten anything this evening – your faints are usually brought on by low blood sugar. As I've told you numerous times before, you need to eat regularly," Martin asked her after checking her over and finding nothing serious wrong.
"Yes, Paul made me an omelette, he's quite a good cook actually," Louisa told him.
"Oh is he? You let him cook you something, but you wouldn't have supper with me before you went out," Martin said to her, obviously peeved. He couldn't help himself, an irrational feeling of jealousy swept over him. Good looking, charming, sporty types like Paul Blake always made him feel insecure.
"It wasn't like that and you know it Martin. You just wound me up, treating me like a naughty school girl, telling me off for being late in," Louisa told him.
"Well that's pretty much how you acted actually, not letting me know you were OK, and storming off when I dared to ask you anything," Martin replied.
"Look I'm really tired now, so let's not argue any more. I admit that maybe I overdid things today, it's just how the day worked out. I've been feeling so well and full of energy recently that I thought I would be alright," Louisa admitted.
"You weren't working during half term week and it's given you a false impression of what you could undertake. Your body is having to cope with the increasing demands of the growing foetus after all. That's simply a medical fact, Louisa," Martin pointed out.
"OK Martin, lecture over, I'm going to bed now" Louisa told him wearily as she gave a big yawn.
"That's the first sensible thing you've said this evening," Martin replied.
As they lay in bed that night, Louisa reached out for Martin's hand and squeezed it in an unspoken 'sorry'. He squeezed it back in return, glad to make peace, glad not to have to try to say the right thing, because he knew that with his track record, it would probably be the wrong thing.