Note: This story is mostly in line with my previous Doc Martin stories, but adjusted to stay up-to-date with the events of Series 10 (i.e., Louisa had just one baby daughter instead of twin daughters, as she did in my story Martin's Island.)

The Martin Chronicles Part I: Our Last Summer

Chapter 1: Last Spring

Martin stood outside on the stone terrace with his cup of morning coffee in hand, watching as the sun rose behind Fern Cottage and illuminated the village and harbour below. Across the narrow road was a For Sale sign on a post, much like the one that had stood there years before, when he first moved here. After a rocky start, he had cut down that first sign and heaved it over the cliff to show his commitment to staying in Portwenn. This time, however, instead of being the one buying the cottage he was the one selling it and the sign stood as his commitment to leaving for good.

It was his and Louisa's joint decision to leave, he felt confident of that. As a family man now, he knew it was important that both partners be on board with such a momentous decision. Their relationship had managed to survive so many trials and tribulations and therapy had helped them find a path to living in harmony with each other's quirks and idiosyncrasies, not just for the sake of the children but for the sake of their enduring love for each other. So even just a few months ago, he would have dismissed the idea that they would ever leave the village they called home.

But so much had had happened in the last few months, starting last spring…

He had regained his license to practice as a GP, without the annoyance of the medical council evaluating his ability to work despite his blood phobia. He had actually made some progress in controlling the phobia, with the help of Aunt Ruth.

Mary Elizabeth became the newest addition to their family. She was only now sleeping through the night, allowing her parents to finally be well rested as well. Louisa's pregnancy had allowed him the chance to conduct and publish some research on geriatric pregnancies, and come up with the idea to modify and slightly improve the existing ventouse for the vacuum extraction childbirth delivery device his medical colleagues in the ob-gyn field would dub the Ellingham Cup.

That work had led him to be invited to be the keynote speaker at the annual ob-gyn conference, which in turn led to him being offered the deanship at Imperial College. He was moving back to London, now with wife and family in tow, to regain a measure of the prestige he had once held in his days as a vascular surgeon. His fortunes had changed greatly from a year ago when he resigned from medical practice, out of fear of the humiliation of being struck off.

Yes, much had happened in the past few months, and Martin was very satisfied with how things were turning out. He took another sip of coffee and unexpectedly felt himself choking slightly on the bitterness. He frowned at the cup and poured it out. The coffeemaker must be overdue for a cleaning, he thought.

He wiped his mouth with his handkerchief and went inside. It was going to be a busy day.

In the kitchen, Louisa was feeding Mary Elizabeth her morning bottle and encouraging James Henry to finish his breakfast before he could play with his model clock. Both children were calm and quiet for the moment, and Louisa found her thoughts drifting back over the events of recent months that led them to today.

There was the joy of giving birth to her new little daughter, and the pain of saying goodbye to her father as he took off for parts unknown, while being reminded once again just how untrustworthy he really was.

Then there was the irritation of meeting Sophie Trent for the first time, which really set things in motion. Louisa could concede that, as Martin's old flames went, Sophie was a bit nicer than that horrid Edith Montgomery, but from the moment Sophie showed up to invite Martin to give the keynote address at the conference in London Louisa was put off by the feeling that Sophie was hoping to rekindle some spark with Martin.

It didn't help that Sophie kept referring to Louisa as Laura, and before Louisa could correct her all those other doctors at the conference were calling her Laura as they engaged in their shop talk, which made Louisa feel excluded. The business of her having to go out into the hotel lobby in her spa robe to get her room key, and then later realizing Martin's presentation, complete with slides, was largely about her, still made her cringe a bit. Louisa could console herself that the slides were completely anonymous, there was no way anyone else could identify that cervix up on the screen as her cervix, but the fact that Sophie knew it was her cervix was all very… well, beyond awkward.

Still, the conference led to Martin getting this very prestigious job offer, and Louisa was quite proud of that. So they were packing up and moving to London, and it was going to be the adventure of a lifetime. She was quite looking forward to it, really.

To be continued…