Rebecca Hillary . net

“It seems we misjudged you, Bailey.” Abby apologized as they followed the small procession walking towards Dan’s chalet. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you have no reason to apologize. I’ve been a right pillock. I’m sorry.”
“I guess we’ll just have to call it even for now.” Abby offered her hand which Bailey shook earnestly. It was strange to think that less than twenty-four hours ago Abby had been just meeting this young woman, and since the she had almost lost Dan twice because of her, not to mention Miro. “Did you see Miro while you were in med?”
“Yeah, he seems to be doing ok.” Bailey told her. “He’s bearing up well, and should be out of the med centre later today.”
“That’s good to know.” Abby noticed the slogan on Bailey’s t-shirt for the first time. “I like your top.”
“It’s cool isn’t it. Do you know what it means?”
“Amor est vitae essentia?” Abby thought for a moment. “It’s Latin. It means ‘love is the essence of life’, which I believe is a Robert B Mackay quote.”
Bailey looked at her blankly.
“He’s an Australian analyst, I think. He also said that there are only two kinds of relationship, the ones where he’s interested but she isn’t, and vice versa. I don’t really believe that one, but I do believe that love is the essence of life.”
“Lind of like ‘all you need is love’?”
“In a way, yes.” Abby conceded. “Isn’t that why we’re all here?”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, think about it. I’m here because I’m in love with your father. I could have left if it hadn’t been for the fact that me and Dan hooked up. I was all set for staying in England after that management conference.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, right, it was Donna I told about that. Anyway, the simple version is that we were in Leeds, your dad got sick, I volunteered to keep him company, and it wouldn’t be prudent for me to go into detail about what happened after that, because he’s your dad.”
“So that’s how you got together? Playing nurse to him?”
“You could say that.” Abby give a half embarrassed grin. “I wonder sometimes what life would have been like if I hadn’t stayed with him that night, but I really can’t imagine not being with him.”
“You really do love him, don’t you?”
Abby nodded. “With all my heart.”
Bailey looked crestfallen. “I’ve screwed everything up, haven’t I? I know he loves you, and that you mean the world to each other. Now you’ve lost your baby and it’s all my fault.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Donna told me when she turned up earlier. She said I was to keep away from you incase you tried to kill me. Something about you having yelled vendetta after I was sedated last night.”
“Yeah, well I can’t lie to you, I did swear to kill you and that probably came across as a pretty perfervid speech, but you must be able to understand what was going through my mind at the time.”
“I think I can imagine.”
“But as a nurse you should be able to work out that it was nothing that you did to make me lose that baby. It just wasn’t my time, I suppose.”
“Bit of a twat really though, because I would have liked another baby brother or sister.”
“Oh, right.. Now you decide it was a good thing.” Abby gave Bailey a playful punch on the arm. “You don’t think it would have been a better to have decided that before you turned into a scalpel wielding lunatic?”
“Probably would have been a smarter idea.” Bailey admitted. “Are you going to try again?”
“We haven’t had time to talk about that actually. I mean, we probably will, but it’s not as if we’d been trying anyway. It just sort of… happened.”
“Did you want it? The baby I mean, not me turning into a scalpel wielding lunatic.”
Abby frowned. It hadn’t really occurred to her before how surreal the situation had become. She and Dan had only been together for six months. Six month, half a year, twenty six weeks, one hundred and eighty two days. And here in just twenty four hours she had gotten engaged, found out she was pregnant, lost the baby, found out she had a future step daughter older than herself, and nearly lost Dan. Twice. “Actually, I guess not.” She said, as they found themselves outside the chalet. “I want to have kids with him, I just don’t think I’m ready just yet.” She pushed open the door and walked inside, blissfully ignorant of the grin forming on Bailey’s face.
She walked into the bedroom, and sat down on the edge of the bed. It was the first time she had been in here, and it was, to say the least, an awkward situation. She had hoped that the first time she was in Dan’s bedroom would involve them tearing off each other’s clothes and getting up to all kinds of activities involving whipped cream an ice cubes. Instead there was a sea of concerned faces and his daughter standing in the doorway. Abby had no problem with voyeurism, but that would just have been too disturbing to even comprehend.
She sat for a while, gazing at the floor and wishing that everybody would just go away and leave her alone to care for Dan, when she felt a gentle tug at the waistband of her trousers.
“Penny for them.” Dan muttered weakly.
Abby turned slowly to face him, and saw a faint smile on his weakened lips. She leaned in close beside him, whispered in his ear, “I was just wondering where you keep the whipped cream,” and she kissed him gently on his neck. In a random act of silliness, she put on her best mock-Transylvanian accent and cried, “I vant to drink your blood, vlah, vlah!”
Dan laughed. “You could if I had any left, you know everything of me is yours.” He gripped her hand, and squeezed her fingers. “Sorry I nearly died again. No, that didn’t sound right. I mean I’m sorry I nearly died. Again.”
“That’s ok. You’re alive, and that’s good enough for me.”
Doctor Blake coughed somewhere behind Abby, but she was too focused on Dan to hear him. He coughed again, louder this time. Abby turned around to look at him.
“Right, we’ve got him here safely, now it’s up to you to keep an eye on him for a while.”
“Just one, Doctor Blake?” Abby asked. She was experiencing an unusual level of giddiness that made her give silly responses to words and situations.
“Or both. And call me Ben. I haven’t had anyone call me Doctor Blake since I did school visits. Don’t let him do too much that might cause him to overexert himself. No midnight walks in the mountains, or snowboarding.”
“Well, there’s my night’s plans scuppered.” Dan laughed. “I was looking forward to a spot of midnight snowboarding as it happens.” To many this may have sounded like the ramblings of a madman, but there had been many nights when Abby had taken to sitting on a balcony, sipping foaming cocoa and watching Dan snowboarding lazily in the foothills. “Uh, what about…” he coughed, noticing that Bailey was in the room, “carpet making? Any advice?”
Ben laughed. It was a rich, thick laugh that made Abby think of honey and treacle, or more specifically, what she could do with Dan that involved them. “Yes, I suppose that that would be a viable option to stave off the boredom. But nothing too intricate, take time out if you’re feeling too tired, and let Abby do most of the work.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem.” Dan said with a look of delectation in his eyes. “Anything else.”
“Yes. I want you to stay in bed for the next couple of hours, or at the very lest I want you on the sofa in your front room.”
“I think the front room will be better, baby.” Abby decided. “There’s a much better view out of that window.”
“Right then, people. I need you all to bugger off and leave these two alone. They’ve had a pretty hairy couple of days, and they need some time to be together without any interference.” Ben ushered the others out of the chalet, and then came back to the bedroom. “Are you sure about the front room?”
Abby looked at Dan, who nodded his agreement. “It’s as good a place as any, and it does have a better view.” He said. “What did you put me in here for, anyway?”
“I just figured that you two would want to be in here.”
“Ben.” Abby said to him as though he as a child. “Look out of this window, and then go and look out of the living room window.”
While Ben was out of the room, Abby helped Dan to the end of the bed and into a sitting position. Once Ben returned, she said “Now don’t you think the scenery is infinitely better from the front window? Help me get him through there.”
Ben came over and helped to get Dan to his feet. “I would have thought that you two were one of those couples where you’d say something to the effect that you wouldn’t care what the scenery was like as long as you were together.”
“Do we really look that corny?” Abby laughed.
“Cheesy, gag-inducing slop, that is.” Dan grinned. “And besides, there’s not enough room in my bedroom for Abby to do a striptease for me while I’m recuperating.”
They reached the sofa, and between them Abby and Ben lowered Dan down. Abby sat down next to him and curled into him as he put a comforting arm around her shoulders.
“Much as the idea of a striptease thrills my bits,” Ben laughed, “I really should get going. What do you want doing about Bailey?”
Dan looked and Abby and she shrugged, saying “It’s up to you baby.”
“Well, I know that she helped today, but I still don’t trust her. Tell her that she can stay on in Gavin’s, and get Miro and Donna to move in there with her. I want her at the hotel as long as possible, because I’m worried as to what will happen if I let her go, but I also want to know if I was wrong about her.”
“Ok, I’ll do that. Anything else?”
“Yeah, sit down a moment, would you?”
Ben sat in an armchair opposite them. “What’s up?”
“I owe you a lot.” Dan said. “In fact I owe you my life. You’ve saved me twice now, and I feel like I should do something for you to repay you.”
“You don’t need to do anything. It’s in the Hippocratic oath, remember. I couldn’t have let you die, even if I’d wanted you to.”
“Well, we’ll put aside the question of whether you wanted me to die, because I’d rather not know that anyone else has had strong feelings about my being dead. You seem to be getting on well with my staff, and you said yourself yesterday that you’re between jobs.” Dan looked at him. “Do you know anything about obstetrics?”
“Yes, I’m a specialist as it happens. Bailey only recommended me to you because you needed a doctor and I was on her speed-dial.”
“I’m going to forget I heard that, because I know precisely what you mean, and Bailey is my daughter after all. But anyway, it seems we’re going to need an obstetrician around here soon, when Donna drops those sprogs, and damn it, I like you. Do you want a job?”
Ben looked shocked. “You mean it?”
“Of course I mean it. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t mean it, would I?”
“But what about the doctor you have working here?”
“Who says we can’t have two? And besides, Albert Jenkins isn’t exactly the sort of person you’d want delivering babies.”
“Quiet type? Enjoys fishing and visiting the great-grandchildren?”
“Something like that. So what do you say?”
“You know, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and say yes.” Ben laughed. “This seems like a dangerous place, but at least I’ll never get bored.”
“Champion! You’re a real diamond, my mate.” Dan reached forward and shook Ben’s hand. “There’s some champagne in the chiller if you want to stay and celebrate for a while.”
“You shouldn’t be drinking you know. I know you need to replenish your fluids, but I think that alcohol is blurring the lines a little too much.”
“Just a small one?”
“I’d get killed if anyone knew I was doing this. Go on then. Where is it?”
Dan grinned again. “In the kitchen, big glass fronted cupboard that looks like it belongs behind a bar.” Abby looked at him enquiringly. “I sort of ordered one more than we needed when the bar was getting refurbished back in September.”
“You didn’t?”
“Why not, it’s my money, and this way I could claim it back on my tax return. I do have business meetings in here you know.”
“When have you ever had business meetings in here? We have all business meetings in the function room.”
“What do you think that just was?” Dan laughed. “You know me. Finding any way to save a few quid here and there is my forte.”
“That is a very good point.” Abby smiled at him, lounging back against the arm of the sofa. “This is a lovely place you’ve got here.”
“I was hoping you’d like it. I’ve been busy doing the whole place up for the last two months. The only thing I haven’t done is the bedroom, because I figured that we’d be spending so much time in there, that you should really have some say in how we decorate it.”
“We?”
“You are going to move in aren’t you? I think seeing as we’re engaged it’d only be sensible to live together. Have you any idea how lonely it’s been for me going to bed without you every night?”
“It’s never been an easy thing for me to do either you know. I don’t know what it’ll be like falling asleep beside you after so long, but I really do want to learn.”
Ben came back into the living room with a bottle of champagne and three glasses. “I would have been back in sooner,” he said, “but your conversation sounded pretty deep and I didn’t want to intrude. Do you want to open this, Dan, or shall I?”
“Pass it here, and open the window as wide as it’ll go.”
Dan put his arm down the side of the sofa and pulled out a length of blue ribbon, which he carefully tied around the cork. When the window was opened he passed the bottle to Abby. “Let her fly, darling.”
Abby popped the cork, and it sailed out of the window, it’s ribbon tails following along behind like slender blue hunting dogs. She passed the bottle back to Dan. “Was there any reason for that?”
“Just thought it’d be fun. We’ll have a competition when the next school group comes out here. The person who finds it wins a grand or something.”
“Any particular logic behind this little plan?”
“Yes, of course.” Dan smiled dreamily. “It’s an in-joke thing. The first time you popped my cork in our chalet.”
Ben laughed. “Are you two always like this?”
“Most of the time.” Abby said as Dan poured the champagne. “It gets us through the day, you know. Management is such a boring area of work, it’s not really as glamorous as it looks. I mean the pay is infinitely better, and the travel prospects are much better, but you have to be so serious. Joking around is a good way to relieve the tension throughout the day.”
“That and sneaking off every now and then for a quick grope in a room somewhere where no-one can find you.” Dan added, handing a glass to each of them.
“Well. Yes there is that of course.”
Abby sipped her champagne and stared out of the window. The storms had dissipated through the previous night, and now there was a serene orange glow to the sky. The setting sun cast an aura of contentment over the mountains. She felt for a moment as though this was something she had been dreaming of her whole life. If only this moment could last forever.
“Are you ok?” Dan’s voice was coming from miles away. She turned to him, and smiled.
“I’m fine.” She said. “I’m just enjoying this, being here with you, watching the evening draw in.”
“Well, you had better get used to it, because we’re going to be able to do this absolutely any time you like.”
Three hours and several bottles of champagne later, Ben announced that it was time for him to take his leave, and after walking into two cupboards and the doorframe, he left the chalet, pausing briefly to apologize profusely to a pot plant that he had accidentally kicked as he was passing.
“Now, about that striptease…” Dan smiled.
“Yeah, because I actually want to end up falling over and smacking my head of the floor, giving myself concussion and whiplash and goodness only knows what else.”
“Yeah, I’ll admit maybe over-indulging on champagne and then stripping is a bad decision.” Dan mused. “How about we just go to bed then?”
“Now that s.*ounds like a plan. Your place or mine?”
“Does it really make much difference?”
Abby laughed. “I guess not.”
Abby helped Dan to his feet and they staggered to the bedroom. Falling onto the bed, Abby was overcome by another fit of giggles, and it was a few moments before she could speak comfortably.
“What do you think that life will be like for us in ten years time?” She asked, laying on her back and staring intently at a small crack in the ceiling.
“I hadn’t much thought about it.” Dan replied, his head resting softly on her chest. “I’ll be fifty and you’ll be thirty four or so, and we’ll have a few kids, live somewhere delicious, and have sex all the time.”
“I like the sex idea.” Abby muttered, her eyes hanging heavy with sleep “How often will all the time be?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Dan said. Probably a couple of times a night, more at weekends and Christmas.”
“And how many kids?”
“A few. I’d like at least one more boy. More if we can. But our first boy will be called Jack. He’ll play football, and get signed up for Manchester United when he’s still in school.”
“Why Manchester United? Leeds might be good again by then.”
“I don’t know. Manchester United will pay him more, and he’ll be the one who’ll be giving us the money to see us through the autumn years of our lives.”
“Your autumn years you mean.” Abby said, ruffling Dan’s hair in a sleepy manner. “I’ll still be young enough to party with the kids when you’re old and grey.”
Dan shifted his head and looked at her seriously. “You don’t have any regrets about us do you? The age thing, I mean.”
“Absolutely not.” Abby replied. “I’ll always love you.”
In the shadow of the mountains, Abigail Horton and Deandre Levine huddled up and fell asleep together on the first night of the rest of their lives.
In the shadow of the mountains, Bailey Herbert grinned in the darkness of her room at the ingeniousness of the plan forming in her mind.