Jack and Martha: After the Storm

[dolly-999]

Story Title: Jack and Martha: After the Storm

Type of story: Short/Medium fic

Main Characters: Jack and Martha

BTTB rating: G

Genre: Drama/Romance

Does story include spoilers: No

Any warnings: V/D

Summary: Set after the cyclone hit the bay, how will Martha and Jack deal with an unexpected little one, what will their family thing, and what's got Martha so stressed?

Has it been/Is it being proof read? No

Chapter number 1. The aftermath.

“Well it doesn't look to bad”Alf confirmed when he arrived at the surf club with Martha to see how much damage had been done.

“Yeah it's just pretty much broken windows and everything knocked over” Martha added. Jacks car then pulled up in the car park.

“Hey I thought you were going into work” Martha said.

“Yeah but the boss said that they had everything under control, so he sent me home” Jack told her.

“I wonder if the beach got stirred up to much” Alf changed the subject.

“Well why don't we go and check” Martha suggested.

“No, I'll check it in the morning”.

“Me and Martha could go and check it now if you like” Jack told him.

“Yeah” Martha added.

Alf could tell that they were just trying to get some time alone so he agreed “Yeah that would probably be a good idea. Here take the torch with you, I'll see you back home”.

Then Jack and Martha headed down the path that lead to the beach. “Well it doesn't look to bad I guess” Martha said, looking around at all the flattened shrubbery at the edge of the beach that was half covered in sand that had been blown onto of it.

“Yeah it could be worse” Jack added as they began to walk down the beach. It was a fairly pleasant walk, Jack had his arm around Martha's shoulders and Martha had her arm around Jack's waist, holding the torch in her other hand. There was silence for a while, but after a few minutes Jack finally broke it.

“Martha”.

“Yeah” she asked smiling at him, there was a twinkle in her eyes and the moon let off just enough light so that Jack could see Martha's face in the darkness.

“Martha, before when you said that you were glad you were with me, did you really mean it?” he asked.

“Of course I did, I love you”.

“I love you too” Jack said, they had stopped walking and were facing each other. Then their faces grew closer and they shared a very passionate kiss. When they finally broke apart Jack started kissing Martha on the cheek and working his way down and around her neck.

“God I love you” Martha said fairly quietly.

“Are you saying you love me or God?” Jack asked jokingly, pulling his head away from Martha's neck.

Martha laughed slightly. “You, silly” she said playfully hitting him on the arm.

About half an hour later they arrived back at Martha's apartment. “Well it doesn't look to bad on here” Jack commented.

“Yeah, I've cleaned up all the glass and put cardboard over all the windows until we can get someone in to fix them, so that's probably as much as we can do for now” Alf told them “Anyway good night, I'm off to bed”.

“I should probably start heading home” Jack said when Alf had left the room.

“It's getting late, why don't you just stay here tonight” Martha said wrapping her arms around him and laying her head on his chest.

“I like the sound of that”. They then headed off to Martha's room.

“Well I thing we've defiantly had enough drama for one day” Martha commented as they got into bed.

“Oh yeah, you can say that again” he said wrapping his arm around her.

Jack ran the back of his hand along Martha's cheek until she fell asleep in his arms, he stayed awake for a bit longer admiring her beauty, right now he felt like the luckiest man in the world.

Chapter number 2. Vomiting dramas

A month and a half had passed since the night of the cyclone and Summer bay had gone back to it's normal old self, it was still the same small town where everyone knew everyone and everything about them. However this particular morning Martha wasn't exactly feeling like herself, well actually she hadn't been feeling like herself at all any of the mornings this week, she would feel ill in the stomach, but it would be fine by about lunch time until the next morning. But this morning it had gotten worse when she started vomiting.

“Well love I think you should stay home today, we don't want you vomiting at work, you might scare the customers away” Alf told her.

“Yeah I think your right” Martha replied from where she was lying on the couch with a damp flannel across her fore head.

“This isn't like you, your never this sick. Maybe you should go and see a doctor” Alf suggested.

Martha didn't think it was necessary though she thought she knew what was wrong, but she wasn't going to worry him about that being a possibility right now. “Yeah, maybe I should”.

“Anyway I better get going, you make sure you call me if it gets any worse, ok”.

“Yeah ok, bye”.

When Alf had gone she pulled out a pregnancy test she had bought the afternoon before, she was still debating whether or not she should take it, but she had to know for sure so she got up and walked over to the bathroom to take the test.

About fifteen minutes later the timer went off. She walked over to were it was sitting on the vanity, picking it up to see what it said, she was pregnant.

“Wow, I'm gonna be a mum” Martha said to herself as she sat down in her bed with the test still in her hand.

Then she heard the front door open “Martha I'm home” she could hear her grandfather call.

“Hey” she called back out to him, putting the pregnancy test next to her bed and going out to the kitchen where Alf was.

“You felling any better?” Alf asked.

“Yeah actually I'm feeling much better”.

“Well that's good, oh and you left your bag at work yesterday” Alf told her holding up her handbag to show her. “Do you want me to put it in your room for you?”

“Yeah sure, thanks” Martha replied, forgetting that she had left the pregnancy test right next to her bed in clear view from anywhere in the room.

“Um, Martha would you like to explain what this is” Alf said sternly, holding the pregnancy test results up in his hand.

“Um, u granddad, it's um-” Martha didn't get to finish her sentence.

“Martha I thought you promised me that you wouldn't make the same mistake your as your mother” Alf yelled.

“I'm not” Martha protested.

“Oh, good, so your going to get rid of it” Alf said calming down.

“No, why would I do something as horrible as that”.

“Martha, do you really want this baby to grow up the way you did in a foster home” he said getting angry again.

“It's not granddad, I'm out of school, I have a job and this baby isn't going to have a tosser for a father who only cares about money and his business like I did” Martha screamed, running outside and slamming the door behind her. She ran down to the beach and sat down, tears were running down her face, she didn't want to even think of getting an abortion, how could someone as kind as her grandfather even think of something so horrible?

Chapter number 3. I'm pregnant.

Jack walked down the path to the beach after his morning shift at the station and was very pleased to see Martha sitting there. He smiled and walked over to her “Hey how was your morning?” He asked sitting down next to her, but then he saw all the tears that were running down her face “What's wrong?”

Martha didn't reply, she just buried her head in his chest and began to cry even more. About ten minutes passed before Martha had settled down properly. “So are you going to tell me whats wrong?”

“Yeah, but there's something else I have to tell you first”. Martha paused for a moment “Jack, I'm pregnant”.

“Wow” Jack said in amazement. “I'm gonna be a dad. So what's this got to do with you being upset?”

“Well granddad found the test results next to my bed and he's trying to convince me to have an abortion” Martha exclaimed bursting into tears again.

“That's horrible. I'm not gonna let that happen, alright Martha” Jack comforted her, holding her close in his arms.

“Ok” Martha sniffed.

“How about we go get some lunch”.

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I'm starving” Martha said letting Jack help he to her feet.

“Well we can't have you go hungry now that your eating for two”.

After they had eaten Jack and Martha left the dinner to go for a walk. As they were walking along they came across Alf. Alf didn't say anything to them, he just gave Jack a angry look, he obviously hadn't gotten over the face that his granddaughter was pregnant.

“I'm guessing things aren't to good at home?” Jack said to her when Alf was out of sight.

“How did you guess” Martha sighed. “I don't know how I'm gonna cope still living with him”.

“How about you come and stay with me” Jack suggested “well at least until we can get a place of our own”.

“Really, you sure?”

“Yeah, of course I am. Anyway stress isn't good for the baby” Jack told her.

Martha giggled slightly “Your starting to sound like a dad already. Are you sure your dad's gonna be ok with an extra person in the house”.

“Yeah, it's only temporary. But I'll ask him anyway, how about you go and pack while I tell him and then I'll come and get you”.

“Yeah that sounds good” Martha replied.

When Martha got back to her apartment she looked around to see if her grandfather was there, he wasn't, it was probably a good thing though, like Jack said stress wasn't good for the baby.

“Hey dad” Jack said as he came through the door of the Holden's house.

“Hey, where have you been?” Tony asked from where he was sitting on the couch in the living room.

“Oh, just down at the dinner. Dad do you think I could talk to you for a minute?”

“Yeah sure mate, what's up?”

“Well, Martha's pregnant” Jack told him.

Tony's face almost turned to stone “Well that was quick” he said in shock.

“Yeah, I know. I'm worried though, ever since Alf found out he hasn't been really cranky with both of us and Martha was really upset about it, and you know how stress isn't good for babies”.

“Yeah, it courses miscarriages, the first time your mum got pregnant she had to much stress, you would have had an older sister if she had survived”.

“Yeah, I know. Anyway I was wondering if Martha could come stay here until we can get a place of our own”.

“Yeah, of course she can. Martha's always well come in this house, you know that don't you”.

“Yeah I know, I though I should ask anyway though”.

Back at Martha's apartment she had packed a few things she needed, granddad wasn't home yet so she wrote him a note to explain everything.

Dear granddad,

I know that your still having trouble coming to terms with me being pregnant, but I'm not going to change my mind. I want this baby and there's nothing you can do to change that.

I'm going to go and stay with Jack for a while until we can find our own house. I can only hope that you'll come to realize that this baby isn't just bad news, it would mean a lot to me if you were there to support this baby as it's great grandfather.

I'll talk to you later.

Lots of love

Martha

xxx

Martha left the piece of paper on the kitchen bench and grabbed her bags to leave.

“You ready to go?” Jack asked from the front door.

“Yeap”.

Chapter number 4. Welcome home.

“Well this is your new home” Jack said as he carried Martha's bags through the front door and into his room. He put the bags inside the door then turned around and picked Martha up in his arms, taking her into his room and closing the door behind him. He placed her on the bed and knelled over her, lowering his head to plant a kiss on her lips.

“I can't believe there's a baby in here” Jack said placing his hands on Martha's stomach.

“Yeah, I can't ether” Martha replied. Jack then went in for another kiss but got interrupted by the door opening. Martha and Jack both looked up to see who it was.

“Jack-”Lucas started “Oh, um, never mind” he added when he saw Martha there too.

“Some things never change around here do they” Martha commented when Lucas had walked away. She sighed, just like last time he had left the door open.

There was lots of conversation at the dinner table that night, Jack was telling them all about the guy he arrested that morning and Lucas told them about how scared Maddie was when they saw a snake while they were going for a walk in the bush.

“Babe you gonna finish eating that?” Jack asked when he saw that Martha had pushed her plate aside.

“No, I'm full” Martha replied shaking her head.

“Come on you've go to eat more than that”.

“Jack, I'm eating for two not a whole army” Martha told him, Jack had dished up her dinner for her and it had been a lot more than her pregnant belly could handle.

“Your what?” Lucas said with a confused look on his face.

“Oh, I thought Jack would of told you, anyway I'm pregnant” Martha told him.

Lucas paused for a moment “I think I'm gonna lose my dinner”.

“Lucas, be nice” Jack said sternly.

“Well, congratulations then” he said before leaving the table and heading off to his room.

“So how do you think he took that?” Martha asked.

“He'll get used to the idea, no use stressing over it” Tony said calmly.

The next few months weren't the happiest for everyone, Alf wasn't talking to Martha or Jack very often and when he did it usually ended up in an argument, Jack was getting more and more concerned about all the stress that was piling up on Martha, he didn't know how she was still managing to hold herself together, but then again she was a very strong girl.

“Why can't you just except that I've made my decision” Martha yelled at her grandfather, this wasn't the fist time she had done this in the last few months.

“Because your making one of the biggest mistakes of your life and I'm not just going to sit and watch that happen” he yelled back at her.

“Well don't watch then, and If your not going to be any help then why don't you just go to hell” Martha screamed storming out the door.

Alf couldn't take it anymore, he began to lose his balance and then he collapsed on the floor.

Chapter number 5. Take a chill pill girl.

When Martha got home after her argument with Alf she was more stressed that ever. She still didn't see where he was coming from or why he couldn't just except her decision.

“Hey”Jack greeted her “You look like you just had another argument”.

“Well, how did you guess” Martha said stressed yet in some ways sarcastically.

“Martha if he can't except the way things are then that's his problem, ok. You don't need to worry about him, he's only one person, everyone else so far is happy for you, even Lucas changed his tune” Jack comforted her.

“Yeah I guess so. But it's still hard, I always looked up to him so much”.

“yeah well he's not good enough for you, if anyone should be looking up to anyone he should be looking up to you, your not the one who's being heartless in this situation. Anyway what happened to that beautiful smile of yours?” Martha smiled slightly but a split second later it disappeared again. “Oh come on I know you can do better than that” Jack teased “anyway how about I go and run you a nice hot bubble bath”.

“Ow, I like the sound of that” Martha replied smiling and leaning forward to plant a light kiss on his lips.

“Ah now there's that beautiful smile I was talking about” Jack said smiling back at her.

Back at the apartment Alf was still lying on the floor when Morag walked in. “Alfred, I think you should take a look at this” she said holding a file in her hand.

“Alf” She called out again. Then she looked around a bit more and saw him on the floor. “Alf, Alf can you hear me?” she said shaking his arm. He didn't move though so Morag rushed to the phone and called an ambulance.

“Hey how are you felling now?” Jack asked Martha as she walked into the lounge room after her bath.

“Much better, thanks to you” She told him walking over to him and sitting on his lap, beginning to kiss him on the neck.

“How's our baby doing?”

“good, she's having a bit of a work out” Martha said placing Jacks hands on the sides of her stomach.

“She?” Jack asked confused.

“Oh, I did it again, I keep thinking it's a girl”.

“Well maybe it is then, they say nobody knows a child as well as it's mother”.

“Yeah. But you better promise me that if it's a boy there is no way your telling him that I thought he was a girl, ok”.

“Alright” Jack answered her. There was a bit of silence for a while and Jack and Martha were in each others arms just enjoying each others company, it had been a very long time since they'd been so relaxed. But the real world came back and hit them hard when Martha's cell phone rang.

“Hello” Martha answered the call. “Oh, hi auntie Morag. He's what? Oh my Gosh, Yeah let me know when you hear anything else”. Martha hung up her phone and burst into tears.

“Babe what's wrong?” Jack asked.

“Granddad had a heart attack and he's in hospital” Martha sobbed.

“Martha it's going to be ok” he said holding her close.

“What if it's not Jack, what if he dies thinking I want him to go to hell”.

A few minutes passed and the only sound that could be heard was Martha's crying. Then Jack heard another sound. “Ah, ow, Jack, Help me” Martha said struggling to breath.

“What's wrong?”

“It's the baby Jack, it's the baby” she said holding her stomach.

Chapter 6, not everyone gets there fairytale ending.

“Jack hurry” Martha screamed in pain.

“Yeah babe, I'm hurrying” Jack said steering his police car round the corner at full speed with his siren on loudly.

When they got to the hospital the nurses got Martha straight into a hospital bed. “Is she going to be ok?” Jack asked nervously.

“We don't know” the nurse told him “but your going to have to go and wait in the waiting room”.

“No, can he please stay” Martha asked still in pain.

“I'm afraid not” the nurse told her closing the door behind Jack as he left.

“Martha have you been under any stress lately?”

“Yeah, tones” She replied still holding her stomach.

“Now I'm going to give you a needle that will get rid of the pain and I want you to tell me what you've been stressing about, ok”

“Ok” Martha did as she was told. And told the nurse about how her grandfather had been trying to get her to get an abortion.

“So is my baby going to be ok?” Martha asked.

“We don't know yet” the nurse answered. “Martha I've noticed on your medical history that you have post tromatic stress disorder, is that correct?”

“Yeah”.

“Look there is a possibility that it could kill not only the baby but you as well”.

“Just cause of the stress?” Martha questioned.

“I'm afraid so”.

“But isn't everything ok now cause it's stopped hurting?”

“That's not the case, it's only stopped hurting because of the needle I gave you. It will ware off in a few hours, if it still hurts then well have to do something but until then we won't know whether it's serious enough to cause damage” she told Martha. “So I want you to take it easy and I'll be back soon”.

Martha sat up in the hospital bed in silence for the next few minutes until Jack came in “Hey, the nurse told me everything. How are you feeling?” Jack asked.

“Worried” Martha replied with tears beginning to run down her face.

“Hey were going to be alright, your grandfather recovered while the nurse was in here with you and were going to get through this together, and live happily ever after ok” Jack comforted her.

“Just like a fairytale?”

“Yes, just like a fairytale” Jack replied “our fairytale” Jack paused for a moment to think. “Martha will you marry me?”

“Yes of course I will” Martha smiled happily, maybe she would be ok.

The next few hours went by fairly quickly, Jack was sitting next to Martha on her bed with his arm around her and she had her head rested on his shoulder. But when the pain killers wore off Martha began to feel pain in her stomach again “Ah, Jack, help”.

“I'll go get the nurse” Jack suggested getting off her bed.

“No Jack it's too late” Martha told him.

“No it's not”.

“Jack I love you”Martha struggled to get the words out as she struggled to breath.

“I love you too Martha and your not going anywhere” Jack told her.

Then the nurse came in, but Martha had already gone unconscious. “Mr holden, your going to have to leave the room, ok”.

“She's going to be ok isn't she?”

“Well do our best” she said closing the door after a doctor came in.

“Martha, I need you to wake up for me” the doctor said fairly loudly so that he could be heard.

“I can't feel her pulse” the nurse told him.

Out side of Martha's hospital room Jack was pacing like he was about to become a father when the nurse came out.

“Is she ok?” he asked desperately.

“I'm sorry, we did our best” she said sadly before walking away down the hallway with her clipboard in her hand.

The day of Martha's funeral was one of the worst days of Jack's life, their fairytale hadn't ended happily ever after like all fairy tales did. He couldn't remember a word of what was said during the funeral, he was to far off in his own world just thinking of how happy they had been together, all the love they shared and even the bad times when he would just hold her and hope that things would get better.

When everyone had left Jack got up and went for a walk to clear his head. 'If only I had hurried faster, then maybe she wouldn't have died' Jack thought to himself. He kept walking until he came to the cliff at the beach where he and Martha had shared there first kiss and sat down at the edge letting his feet dangled in the air, his face was coved in tears that just kept rolling down his face like a waterfall that never stopped, he couldn't live like this any longer so he jumped, hitting his head hard on the sharp rocks that lay underneath the surface of the water.

Jack was never seen alive after that day, and his body wasn't found until a few months later. Some say that at midnight on the anniversary of Jacks disappearance you can still see Jacks ghost sitting on the edge of the cliff, crying for Martha and their unborn child.

Ok, now before you all scream and tell me how much you hate me for killing Martha and Jack I just want to let you all know that it was really hard to bring myself to do that. I had to stop writing and calm down at least ten times while I was writing this.

Please tell me what you think.

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