The Surrogate

I'm sorry

He might know exactly where she's headed to but now he doesn't know what to do for the best.

Does he chase after the woman he loves, the mother of his child?

Or does he stay and spend his precious spare time with his baby daughter?

It feels like he's got minutes to make a decision or maybe even just seconds. Even if he leaves now, Holly has got at least an hours head start on him on her journey to Zürich's airport.

He's got no idea what flight she's booked on, the only thing he's certain of is that she'll be heading back to the UK. She could be booked on a Swiss Air flight, easy Jet or British Airways or maybe even a different airline.

"You need to go after her," Heike urges him, able to see the indecision as he stares down at Emilia, "don't let her go, Emilia needs her mother and Holly will regret it for the rest of her life. And I know how much you love her, go and get her and bring her back."

He knows that she's right and he takes one more look at the sleeping baby in her moses basket before checking his pockets to find his car key is still there.

Decision made, he heads for the door but then stops and look behind him, "what if I get there too late? What if I can't find her?" he asks.

"You won't know until you get there, now go," Heike flaps a hand, urging him to leave and then quietly mutters to herself that he'd better find Holly because the alternative feels unthinkable right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every kilometre feels like it takes an eternity yet every minute disappears in the blink of an eye.

He's flying along the road at speeds that he knows are illegal. If he gets caught speeding then it'll only delay him and he doesn't need that. He doesn't care about the fine or points on his license, it's the time he doesn't want to lose. Yet in spite of driving as fast as he dares, he suddenly has to brake and now he feels like he's driving through thick, sticky treacle; like he's getting nowhere.

He's been on the road for an hour. Holly will most likely be there by now; she could even be checked in and waiting to board a flight and he's not even reached the airport yet.

It gets quickly frustrating - as is the infuriating driver ahead of him who's sticking rigidly to the speed limit and is now holding him up.

The section of road he's on consists of a series of bends and overtaking is tricky here due to the lack of visibility ahead. But he's got to do something, sitting here behind this dirty, white Volvo is driving him crazy already.

He accelerates enough to bring himself close to the rear of it, as if he's pushing the Volvo along or at least he wishes he was. Any hopes that it would make the driver speed up are futile, if anything it makes them purposely go slower and he slams a hand on the steering wheel while yelling loudly, letting a string of swear words fill the car.

He backs off a bit and then edges out to the left, trying to see if an overtake is possible but it's not, there's a string of vehicles heading in the opposite direction so he's got to hang on for now.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," he mutters angrily, tapping a hand on the steering wheel, craning his neck to look for gap in the traffic.

The last vehicle passes him, a red van. There's a gap or at least he thinks there is; it isn't ideal as he's now approaching a bend and he can't see all the way ahead of him.

Internally crossing his fingers, he goes for it and floors the accelerator, willing the power of the DBX to get him safely past the Volvo and back into his own lane before anything else comes from the opposite way. Pulling out into the other lane, he begins to pass the Volvo, whose driver is now gesticulating wildly and yelling something at him.