Marion Lennox - To the Doctor: A Daughter

‘I wouldn’t believe you.’

‘Rats.’

‘So…’

‘Gemma, did Alan ever volunteer to be a sperm donor?’ Nate asked, and he watched as she took that on board. Her face changed. To even deeper confusion.

‘Yes. Yes, he did. Just before we were married. I wasn’t keen on it, but they were advertising round the hospital and he thought it’d be great…’

‘To spread his seed a little? I can see that in him. But he only did it the once?’

‘He said once was enough.’ She was thinking it through. ‘But I remember…his mother was so pleased that he’d done it because he’d had mumps really badly as a teenager and she’d been worried that…’ Her voice trailed away to a note of discovery. ‘Oh.’

‘Oh’s right. So he’ll have donated sperm. He’ll have been tested for fertility. In Sydney Central’s pathology lab. Who knows what he was told? But we can guess. Maybe that’s why he didn’t go back again. And if… Maybe if he was told he was infertile but then your sister told him she was carrying his child…’

She was staring in open-mouthed amazement. ‘Of course. That was why…’

‘Why he forgot about your salary? Why he dumped you faster than he could look at you and moved in with Fiona? A beautiful woman like Fiona who was telling the world that she was carrying his child? Wow! He’d married you for money but even to a creep like Alan some things are better than money.’

‘So then…’ Gemma was still thinking it through. ‘Cady wasn’t his?’

‘No, Gemma, Cady wasn’t his. And maybe deep down he knew it. Maybe that’s why he could treat Cady so dreadfully.’

‘Then who? Who is his father?’

‘I don’t know. Does it matter?’

She thought about that for a whole two seconds and shook her head. ‘Of course not. If it’s not Alan. Oh, joy, if it’s not Alan…’

Bleakness was disappearing by the moment and a brightness was appearing that he’d never seen before. It was as if a weight had been lifted that had been too great to be borne.

‘Fiona wanted to hurt me so badly…’ she said slowly. ‘She would have lied to anyone. Nate, how do you know all this?’

The answer to that was easy. ‘I don’t.’

‘But…’

He placed a finger on her lips. His baby was sleeping peacefully against his chest. The kookaburras were at it again in the gums above their heads, their laughter a glorious background for the crazy conversation happening on the veranda. The morning sun was on their faces, and the world was righting itself. It was as it should be.

Time is to come.

‘Gemma, I can’t tell you how I know,’ Nate said softly. ‘If I’m queried then I don’t know. Suffice it to say that people have broken a few rules on your behalf. Because they care about you.’

She was still taking it on board. ‘Someone…someone from Sydney Central told you that Alan’s infertile?’

‘No one told me anything.’

‘Yeah. Right. And if he’d called your bluff…’

‘Then we’d both have done DNA testing, and we both would have been horrified to find that neither of us was the father. But that’s not going to happen. You saw Alan’s face. He won’t come near us again. So until anything happens to the contrary, we assume I’m Cady’s father. As you’re his mother.’

‘But…’

‘And as you’ll be my wife.’

For a long, long moment neither of them spoke. Words weren’t necessary. What was between them was too new, too amazing and too infinitely precious for speech.

Neither did they touch. They sat side by side, staring out at the morning sunshine over the river.

Here was her home.

Gemma’s heart felt as if it was close to bursting. She felt like she was close to bursting. The enormity of what she’d just been granted… The lifting of a burden to be replaced by such sweet promise…

Her Nate…

Her love.

‘Will you marry me?’ he asked at last, and she closed her eyes as if in pain.

‘You don’t have to. Just because…’

‘Just because why?’

‘Just because you can.’

He grinned. ‘Now, there’s a statement. Just because I can means you just said yes.’

‘I can see I’m going to have to watch you,’ she said, but there was lovely laughter breaking through her voice. ‘You twist a girl’s words. You lie and you cheat. You write yourself love letters-and you boast about sex!’

‘Hey, telling the truth is hardly boasting.’

‘Was it great sex?’

He heard the tiny note of pain in her voice and the laughter died. Fiona was rearing her hurtful self again-but this must be the last time she came between them. From this day forth they’d be free. Free to mourn a sister who’d given them two such wonderful children. Free to move on with love.

He took Gemma’s face in his hands and cupped her chin. The baby was cradled between them, safely nestled between the two adults who loved her so much.

‘No, Gemma, it was not great sex. It was a mistake. An aberration. It was a one-night stand and as soon as I did it I knew it was a mistake. Whereas as soon as I saw you…’

‘Yeah, right. You fell in love just like that.’ There was a note of derision in her voice-of self-mockery-and he shook his head. He’d have none of it.

‘No. I thought you looked brave and warm and caring. I thought you looked like a woman of integrity.’ Nate hesitated. ‘I didn’t know then, of course, that you cheat at Scrabble.’

‘Hey…’

He was brooking no interruptions. ‘But, of course, you’re right. I didn’t fall in love with you just like that. It took me two whole weeks to do it. But in those two weeks, Gemma, I’ve fallen so in love with you that I can never fall out of love. I love you with all my heart, and with all my soul. I never want any woman but you. If you won’t marry me then I won’t marry anyone.’ The seriousness gave way to a smile. ‘I’ll pine to a shadow of my glorious self.’

‘You…pine?’

‘I’ll definitely pine.’ The laughter was back in full now, sparking between them with a warmth that was delicious all by itself. ‘So, you see, you have to marry me. It’s the only thing a caring doctor can do. To save me from a fate worse than death.’

‘Fate worse than death? Pining? Is that a medical condition?’

‘The worst. And the only possible prescription is marriage,’ he told her. ‘The prescription is a wife and two great kids and Uncle Graham and a dog called Rufus and our own Mrs McCurdle…and whoever else happens to come along. Just say yes, my darling heart. Just say yes.’

What was a girl to do?

‘Yes,’ Gemma whispered.

There was a whoop of triumph and Mia opened her eyes with astonishment. To find she was enveloped in a hug that promised the world.

‘Shall we go tell Cady he has a new daddy?’ Nate demanded, and Gemma shook her head.

‘Not until his daddy’s been kissed,’ she told him. ‘The cure for pining has to start right now.’