The Surrogate

A nasty shock

Monday June 13th, Scarborough, UK.

A Vauxhall Corsa is the last car anyone would expect to see an F1 driver in,especially one named Sebastian Vettel. Holly might have been the one to go inside the car rental place at Newcastle's airport to collect the paperwork and key for the vehicle (it was one less place for Seb to get recognised) but the gorgeous German looks quite at home driving the black,sporty model of the little car.

They're both feeling tired this morning, having arrived at their hotel in the early hours from Azerbaijan. With the meeting with Matthew looming ever closer, sleep has been the last thing on their minds and their stay at a cheap travel lodge had amounted to less than six hours before they'd checked out to make the journey southwards to Scarborough.

Ending up on a coast road as they near their destination, neither of them take in the view of the sea, as they get closer to Scarborough they're both thinking of what Matthew will have to say more and more.

They're both silent and have been for over half an hour, not even the radio is on, neither of them have bothered with it.

Holly is too busy wracking her brain to try and figure out what her ex has got to say that's so important that she's had to fly here from Azerbaijan and Seb has convinced himself that Matthew wants to plead her for another chance at a relationship, probably using tracking down Imogen as bait to lure her away from himself. Hell will have to freeze over before he gives up Holly, there's no way he's giving up the woman he loves, Matthew can sell his story to every paper in the world, he's not getting her back. He'd rather suffer a media shit storm than lose her.

To his left, he's aware of her biting her nails and without saying a word, he reaches a hand across and gently removes her fingers from her mouth, entwining them with his instead. "I love you," he says, needing to hear her say it back to him.

His words and his voice are like a silk sheet draping itself around her body. She has a moment where she realises how lucky she is to have him as her boyfriend, there's probably hundreds of thousands of women (and probably men too!) who would die to be in her position, who would pay limitless amounts of money to be touched by this man, to be kissed and loved by him and it's herself who he's chosen. She raises the back of his hand to her lips and they linger there in a long kiss before she says the words that he's waiting to hear, "I love you too."

He glances at her, a soft, loved up smile making him glow even more than the summer sunlight. For a moment he manages to forget where they are and why they're here, he's just happily basking in her love and the sight of her big baby bump.

She's thirty-five weeks pregnant now, almost thirty-six and baby Emilia has shifted into a head down position meaning that Holly's bump looks like it's dropped down, she's also experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions as her body begins to get ready for the big day - the day when Emilia decides that it's time to enter the world.

This also means that Canada will be the last race that Holly accompanies him to before the birth and he's hoping that the nursery will be completely finished by the time they arrive back. Realising that it was tough trying to fit in decorating with everything else, he's had to employ a couple people to help finish the room, he can't wait to see it and at the moment it's the proverbial carrot on a stick that's helping him get through today.

A short while later and they're entering Scarborough, making their way along the North Bay. As it's nearly mid June and the weather is warm and sunny the roads are busy as tourists flock in to enjoy the beaches of both bays. The sea front is up on a cliff and it's lined with hotels and cheap little bed and breakfast houses. Seb finally notices the view of the bay and Scarborough castle on a hill that juts out, separating the North Bay from the South Bay. At any other time he'd consider stopping here and booking them an overnight reservation in one of the sea view hotels but today....