Trying Not To Love You

Part Fifty Four

Chapter Fifty Four

A/N Merry Christmas all, and thanks SO much to those who take the time to vote and comment, makes an old girl happy. Hope the holiday is suitably fun for those that celebrate. xxx

Walking back to the house gave them both time to calm down and accept all that had happened. Sonny had never felt so exposed, so vulnerable, and he wasn't comfortable with it, not completely. He'd spent so long hiding his emotions, fighting his demons that the thought that they'd so easily been exposed to Martha scared him. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that she'd listened and accepted him regardless, or the fact that she coaxed things out of him that scared him the most.

"You ok?"

It was a dark night, he could barely see much of the woman beside him, but he could feel her small hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

"I'm ok. Just feeling a bit..."

She sighed, "it's ok Carter, I get it."

He thought about her calling him by his first name a little earlier and sighed, she did understand him, maybe better than he knew himself.

"I'll make this up to you, I promise."

"I know that too, let's get home, it's freezing, and you still don't have a winter coat!"

Laughing he swung an arm around her shoulders, "I've got you to warm me up."

Smiling she slipped her arm reciprocally around him, tucking her hand into the waist band of his suit, "not like that first time we walked back here. Do you remember?"

He laughed, "when you couldn't get away from me quick enough?"

Sighing she paused to look up at him, "you scared me. But I'm not scared now."

"You should be. Look at what I've done."

She lifted her spare hand to cup his cheek, "don't. We've discussed it, it's over. Ok?"

Raising a hand he spread his fingers through her hair, to her ear, then throat, "I can't think what I've ever done to deserve you. I love you, you know that don't you. Forever."

Martha smiled hoping that life would and could be that simple.

"I need you to help out a bit more Carter." She'd showered and changed after spending the night with him, discreetly, and now she was lounging against the doorframe to his bedroom watching him barely move, sprawled out under the duvet. "I'm enrolling Ethan in school, and I need to be here more in the evening."

He nodded, his eyes still closed, "'k."

"Then I want to bath him tonight..."

"'k."

She smiled he so obviously wasn't listening to her, "then I strip naked and streak through the village."

She could see his mouth form the abbreviation of ok when he froze and opened one eye, "what?"

Laughing she moved away from his bedroom door, "when you can be arsed to get up you might find out!"

Martha could hear him laughing as she headed downstairs.

In the kitchen her father was sat with Ethan on his lap sharing some toast, Ethan eating more than her father.

"We need to get you dressed darling, time to visit our new school."

Her father looked up, "you sure about this?"

She nodded, "histrionics aside, I want him to spend more time with you. Starting school is logical."