“We have a home; this one! Weren’t you listening? Dad gave us this house, we have somewhere to live, and as for jobs, have you even looked at local jobs, at vacancies here in the Bristol hospitals? There are at least eight hospitals here in Bristol quite apart from Frenchay, Southmead and the Royal Infirmary, and so many more in Somerset, have you applied to them? No, you only applied to London hospitals. Take a chance, Dar, please, for me, for you, for both of us. I’m ovulating in the next few days, I want to make my baby here, with you, in this house where we grew up with so much love!”
She was right; I’d only applied to London hospitals, and only the bigger ones at that, hoping they’d select me from the hundreds of applicants they probably got for each surgical vacancy they advertised. Maybe I could do worse than be a doctor in my home town, perhaps I didn’t need the prestige of working at one of the top London hospitals, plus, the thought of making babies with Lena appealed enormously; she was gorgeous, sexy, determined, and she believed in me, all evidence to the contrary. She’d chosen me to be the father of her baby; with her believing in me, perhaps that was all I needed to make it work.
“Give me a couple of days, baby, I’ll start making some calls, maybe I can scare up an interview, or maybe even a Locum spot somewhere, just something to get me into the system.”
Lena smiled tremulously, looking so adorable I had to gather her in to me. I couldn’t help but glory in the feeling of this vital, sparkling girl in my arms, basking in the fact that she was mine, that maybe I had finally grown-up enough to deserve her, and resolving to do everything humanly possible to keep her wanting me the way she did right now.
The sound of footsteps overhead reminded us that there were other people in the house, and that Lena needed to get back to her own room before she was discovered ‘in flagrante’ in my room; not that we really cared; the cat was pretty much out of the bag now, but there was no mileage in rubbing everyone’s noses in it either. With a dazzling smile, a hot kiss, and a breathtaking wriggle as she slid her sleeping t-shirt back on that made my cock sit up and take notice, she was gone, padding silently out of my room and flitting down the corridor to her own.
After I’d had a long, leisurely shower, I came downstairs to find mum and Lena making breakfast, the smell of toast and bacon making my stomach rumble, while dad, looking much better than he had last night, was sitting at the table reading some papers. As I came into the kitchen, Min opened the doors to the dining room and we all trooped through, mum, Lena, Min and Doreen bringing all the breakfast things through to set them on the table. Lena ate her staple breakfast, the one she’d had nearly every day of her life; a slice of toast smothered in baked beans, with a fried egg and two rashers of bacon on top, the sight of it making me feel pleasantly nostalgic for the days when we were still kids, before everything happened that had brought us here today.
While Lena and the aunts chatted, I sat with mum and tried to make conversation while keeping one eye cocked on dad, just in case. After a while he put down his coffee and folded the last of the papers he’d brought through with him. He looked at me meaningfully, so I interrupted Lena so she could hear this too.
“Kids, the last of the property deeds have been signed and assigned to you; this house is now legally yours; there’s a folder on the kitchen table with all the Land Registry stuff in it, get a safety deposit box and keep that safe, it’s your title to this place. That’s not it though; your mother and I have something important to tell you.”
He looked at mum, who nodded.
“We confirmed our flights this morning; we’ll be leaving tomorrow, we’d like it if you could come and see us off, but I don’t want you to come to Cyprus with us, it would be far too depressing watching you leave to come home. It’s better this way; mum and I want to get settled-in first before you to come and see us, so give us a month or so first, okay?”
I heard a clatter as Lena dropped her fork onto her plate.
“So… soon? Mum? Daddy? You’re leaving? No, not yet, a little longer, please, don’t go, daddy? Please?”
Mum was suddenly at her side, holding her close as she continued to protest. I said nothing; what could I say? I knew every minute here was a minute less for him, he had to go soon, and the sooner the better; it still didn’t make it any better, though.
“Dar, please, tell them, not yet, please, I want my dad a little longer, please…” She was in tears now, and she pushed mum away and ran upstairs, her bedroom door slamming a few seconds later. Mum looked at me in mute appeal, and I nodded, going after her.
I found her in her closet, sitting on the floor with her forehead resting on her knees, her arms hugging her knees the way she would when she was ten years old when something had upset her. I sat next to her, leaning against the wall, carefully not touching her; Lena lets you know when she wants to be touched, and right now she was radiating her ‘keep away’ field cranked up high.
After a while she spoke to me, her voice low and muffled.
“You didn’t say anything, not a thing. Why not Dar?”
I sighed and let my head loll back against the wall.
“Because I know, and so do you, that it would do no good. They have to go, you know that, and nothing you or I could say would stop them, not if dad’s to have any chance of living just a little longer. They have to go, and I won’t try and stop them; neither will you. We have to let them go, but you should go with them, if you feel you need to, there’s nothing holding you here, and I’ll still be here when you get back, no matter how long it takes.”
Lena looked up at me.
“You’d let me go with them, stay with them until… until it’s over, and you’ll wait for me? Really?”
I nodded and took her hand, kissing the back of it.
“I told you earlier, there’s no-one else for me, only you, and maybe you need to do this. I understand, truly, and I’ll wait right here for you to come back, I promise.”
Lena slid over next to me and wrapped her arm around my waist, resting her head on my chest, the top of her head under my chin, like she used to when she was small.
Eventually she sat back up and looked up at me.
“Okay, Dar, I think I can let them go now!” she smiled, her lip trembling as two big tears quivered on her eyelashes. I wiped them away with my thumbs, brushing her hair back away from her beautiful face.
“Less of that, young lady!” I grinned, “Big girls don’t cry, remember?”
Lena smiled back and leaned over to kiss me on the lips, a loving, warm kiss, one that thanked and rewarded without being freighted with sexual promise, a kiss between spouses.
“You always knew what to say, Dar; I think that’s why I love you so much. You always made it right. Thank you, for now and for all those other times as well.”
I led her back downstairs, where mum was waiting anxiously, her face relaxing when Lena smiled at her.
“We’ll wait 6 weeks then we’re coming out to see you, okay? Make sure you kill the fatted calf, it’s been a long time since I ate a fat calf!”
Dad grinned at her joke, and reached up to take her hand, his other hand stroking her cheek as he nodded gratefully at me. Mum came up and hugged Lena as well, dissipating the last of the tenseness between them.
Breakfast continued, mum and dad telling us more about their travelling plans, with me trying to be as interested and supportive as I could, while Lena just stared intently at them, drinking-in every detail of their faces, storing up memories of them while they were still here with us in England.
Mum was curious about what my plans were once they’d gone, and I had to gather my thoughts; my plans and hopes were far down the agenda at the moment, I was still trying to come to terms with so many life-altering changes; the impending loss of my dad, my mum going away to basically sit the death-watch over him, my drastically and dramatically changed relationship with Lena, and the shock of actually growing up overnight; it would be true to say my head felt like it was bursting with trying to cope with so many changes in so short a time.
At last I was sufficiently together to answer her, seeing the hope grow in her eyes that I was going be alright.
“Well, mum, you’ve given us the family home, so I think my plans entail finding a job here in Bristol — Lena and I have to eat, pay the bills, keep the lights on and the house in good shape, so no, I’m not planning on doing a bunk for London just yet. I can’t speak for Lena, but I’m not going anywhere.”
Lena squeezed my hand under the table, which I think mum caught, from the sudden change in her expression.
“Lena, what about you?” she asked, more for form’s sake than because she had to ask; Lena was staying with me, here, in her home, and mum knew, or guessed, or intuited what was going on between the two of us.
“I’m staying with Darryl; this is my home too, and I don’t want to leave it; I’m not leaving Darryl behind again!”