The Big Brother Hole Ch. 05

"You've talked me into it." She said and I helped her up.

Twenty minutes later we lay together in her large bathtub, sipping from one of the many bottles of wine we'd been given since our arrival. She lay back against me and we just lay there, cheek to cheek, comfortable and safe in the understanding arms of our chosen lover, now life partner.

She got out of the bath and cleaned her teeth, I of course took advantage of her situation and rubbed her naked bottom peeking out from under her towel.

"Oi!" she said.

"Still my favourite view of you; pink and fresh from the water in a towel that isn't long enough."

"I did think that when you gave me your towel in the hole." She said after spitting and wiping her mouth, "I guessed that was why you gave it to me in the first place."

"Yeah well, how could I resist, I mean look at you. You're fucking gorgeous."

"Thanks Harry!" she giggled, still unused to compliments, "I figured that any shyness and privacy would be the first thing that would have to go as soon as I had to share the Big Brother Hole." She turned her bright blue eyes on me. "Did you have a peek while I was bathing that day?"

"Of course I did," I said, "like I said, you're fucking gorgeous; if it's any consolation I did feel terrible about it and tiptoed away."

"I actually hoped that you would."

"You did?"

"Of course!" she giggled moving to push against me but staring down, "Harry, that first morning I woke up in your arms, from the moment you got close enough to my face that I could see you, I had just the hugest crush on you. You were so kind and so sweet, what chance did I have?" I leaned in and kissed her. "And you remember that first morning when I went to bathe naked in the pool and I masturbated so you could check for cameras?"

"Yeah?"

"When I closed my eyes it was you in my mind watching me, and I started to play with myself; well next thing I looked up and saw your face in all the camouflage - actually living out my fantasy. You made me come for the very first time."

I pulled her into my arms and we kissed long, hard and passionately, and I pulled her towel off of her to feel her bare flesh pushing against mine.

"I love you Emma," I whispered.

"I love you Harry," she whispered back. I took her hand and we went to bed.

Lying there I thought about what the last woman I'd slept with had done, i.e. taking her daily birth control pill and mentioned to Emma if she felt that she was likely to come on again.

After all, she was back on a healthy diet and had been for nearly three weeks now. She wanted to go back to GP and see what if any damage her three months without menstruation had done to her.

She made an appointment the next morning and went to her Doctor who was really pleased to see her. Em asked when she thought her menstrual cycle might start again. The doctor did various checks and she came out of the Doctors office almost forty five minutes later. It seemed she wouldn't come on for quite a few months yet, seven to be exact.

"Harry," she said looking slightly stunned, "I'm pregnant..."

I don't know what she expected but my beaming smile must have given my feelings away as climbed out of her car and walked towards her.

"You're pregnant!?!" I let out a roar of a laugh and picked her up and spun her around in my arms, laughing, with her joining in. "Oh Em, Baby!" I all but threw her in the air such was my joy.

She shrieked. I dropped her down to her feet again and we kissed passionately.

We went to the nearest Costa and had a coffee to recover. Bubbling with the excitement. We figured that it must have been during the Indian summer week we'd had and we'd been at our happiest - in the Big Brother Hole; I didn't think I could get any crazier about Emma but there and then I'd have walked across hell and back for her.

That was it. I never went back to London Ambulance Service other than to empty my locker and take some of my stuff back. I sold my flat and banked the money, and moved to the Dales not before buying her a couple of different vibrators and having them delivered to my place of course.

She didn't throw away her special electric toothbrush of course. But besides all of her electronics she still insists that the thing she loves best to stimulate her clitoris is me!

I joined the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and we married two months later in her church in the Dales, her bump barely showing under a wonderful white lace gown that had been her Mum's and her sister Ann's. We had decided not to tell anyone about her pregnancy until after Christmas; her GP, who knew Ann and David of course, told us that it was best to wait until the second trimester before announcing things, so we did.

All the good that did us; Ann took one look at her during a wedding planning meeting and said,

"What is it Em?" She tilted her head to one side and beamed a grin, "YOU'RE BL..." she lowered her voice conscious that Ray and some other people were in the house and Mum was on Skyping on the laptop. "You're pregnant - aren't you!" It was a statement not a question.

"Yes," said Em, "only we want to get to three months before we tell anyone."

"Best of luck keeping it from Mum," said Ann with a smile. That was that, houseful of GP's, no problem. There was a Rogers Wedding to arrange first.

I contacted Gramps and invited him and Nan to the wedding but he said that she'd taken a bit of a tumble and was in hospital having her hip replaced. He complained that 'Gerry' (my Mum) insisted that she wasn't available to help because she had to work and look after 'your idiot brother' who apparently hadn't stopped crying and bitching since that night nearly fifteen years ago when she sat on our doorstep with him.

I told him that we'd have to come south in the new year for the Mad Professor's trial and I'd bring Emma with me and they could meet and I promised I'd send him pictures.

A couple of nights before the big day her Dad asked me to come with him to walk their golden retriever dog. I figured it was going to be one of those father/son-in-law chats and that I should go. I slipped on my Wellies and Barbour and headed out of the back door and across the road to a large meadow white with frost that at this time of the year was free of the Friesian dairy cows that usually resided there (so Em told me).

Mick the dog waited patiently while his lead was unhooked and then proceeded to lose his mind temporarily and dashed around the field like a mad thing, returning to Tom's side once it had regained its sanity.

"Harry," said Tom after an uncomfortable few moments of silence, "I owe you an apology... and an explanation."

I will confess that Tom's appearance had made me just the tiniest bit uncomfortable and I still got the feeling that he wasn't totally happy with my place in Emma's life.

"You're Em's Dad," I said, "you're going to want the absolute best for her."

"Yes," he took a deep breath.

I had no idea what was coming next and didn't think it was going to end well for either of us.

"Spit it out Tom, after all what's the worst that can happen." I smiled to let him know that I had a sense of humour - after all in less than 48 hours I would be marrying his daughter in the church not a hundred yards from where we stood now.

He smiled.

"I'm sorry Harry," he held out his hand and I took it and we shook, "I'm sorry I was such a pain in the arse to you, I'm sorry that I kept you and Emma apart for those weeks and I'm sorry if I've come across as the stern Father. It's just..."

I could in the fading daylight that he was fighting to stay on control of his emotions, so I put my other hand on his arm.

"Don't worry mate," I said, "you've had a tough time of it and let's face it, I bet you're the only silly bastard that hasn't been offered any counselling to get you through all this."

I put my arm around his shoulder and we continued to walk slowly. I could see the tears pouring down his face as he walked and I let him shed them. He was still smiling though.

He stopped and leant back against a five bar gate that led into the next frozen field and watched as Mick the dog tried in vain to smell every smell that the ten acre field had.

"I'd convinced myself that I'd never see her again," he said wiping a hand down his face, "I read the papers Harry," he said, "The police start off by telling you there's nothing to worry about and she's bound to turn up, and then before you know it you're recording a video at the press conference asking for anyone with information to come forward." He stood up straight, "every time we hassled Yorkshire Police, the National Missing Persons Bureau, and The Home Office - there's always some hassled, over-worked, underpaid clerk," he spat the term 'clerk' giving it the same feeling he would have done to 'SS camp guard', "that turns round and says 'have you considered she might not WANT to found?" He snorted and turned around looking into the next field.

"It's when the press gets bored and 'the plucky family and friends of missing vicar demand action' gets to page seven after the celebrity bust ups and who the latest boy band member is sleeping with, and then finally you only get into the occasional editorial and it becomes 'hopes are fading for the family and friends of missing vicar' and they start to quote missing person statistics and with her disappearing from a service station on one of the longest North/South roads in the country they start to suggest that she could be anywhere - of course what they mean is her body could anywhere."

His voice broke and I stepped closer and put my arm back around him.

"Go on Tom," I said, "Better out than in mate."

He chuckled at that and got control again.

"After three months I'd stopped praying for her safe return, and just prayed that whatever had happened to her had been quick and that she hadn't suffered. I knew Emma and that she'd never just drop off of the face of the earth. I'd lost my baby girl Harry, I gave up on her." His face creased in misery.

"Tom," I said, "deep breath mate, she's just in there making coffee," I pointed to the illuminated kitchen window just visible through the hedges, "give yourself a break."

He giggled again, "I know, it's ridiculous!" he said, "I'm crying for the passing of a girl that is alive and well, deliriously happy and carrying my third grandchild not fifty yards that way." He wiped the tears from his face again,

"Everything reminded me of her Harry, every news report seemed to take me straight back to Emma; every car accident, every murderer, every rapist caught had my brain bashing itself to bits."

"You're human Tom," I said, "and whatever you are feeling now, you're coming out the other side of this nightmare. The first person you have to forgive is you."

He looked at me and smiled,

"They teach therapy to paramedics these days?"

"Nah," I said with a grin, "we kind of pick it up as we go along!"

"Well you're doing bloody well Harry, wherever you get it from." He pushed himself off of the gate and we continued walking. "Charlotte took the call from the police to say she'd been found alive and reasonably well, and she came into my office beside herself and I didn't know if it was good news or bad. I calmed her down fearing the worse; in my mind I was thinking of identifying the body and finding out what had been done to her. If I hadn't been sat down, I'd have fallen down.

Then she told me that she'd been held prisoner but had escaped with a young man that she was held with and was in Ipswich hospital being prepped for some minor surgery and was expected to make a full recovery. They told us not to come until the next day but I told Charlie to go pack a couple of bags and make some sandwiches as we'd leave as soon as the sun came up.

We hugged and laughed, and decided what we were going to do next. Charlie went into action of course and was her usual brilliant self. I went into the downstairs toilet and threw up. I haven't hugged a toilet bowl since I was a medical student Harry, but that night I laughed, cried, laughed again. I've never known such relief. Of course we rang Ann straight away and told her and she promised to come down as soon as her shift finished at six the next morning.

Charlie and I waited for as long as we could but just gave up trying to sleep and jumped in the car.

When we got to the hospital we met the detectives that had just finished with that bastard Professor and they told us how you'd escaped and that while you were both physically well, you had both had to... how did they put it... perform."

He put his arm around me again, "I was torn Harry, I didn't know whether to fall at your feet for keeping my baby girl alive and bringing her back to me, or fall on you with a knife for... doing what you'd both obviously had to do. The Police were talking about dealing with any press interest, I knew you and my baby girl were going to be splashed across the paper. You being taken away by the police was the final straw."

"I get that Tom, and to be honest I got it from the start. I..."

"I had no right Harry," he said not looking me in the face for the first time, "I jumped to conclusions, completely the wrong ones that I had no right to do that. You'd been through the same as she had, and for what it's worth, I'm so sorry; Friends?" he stopped walked and extended a hand. I took it and shook again.

"No worries Tom," I said.

"It's a parent thing Harry," he said, and we resumed our walk, "whether you daughter is 13 or pushing 31, she's still your daughter; I'm not comfortable discussing sex with either of my girls or even having to consider that it happens at all. Now Ann has two kids and being a Doctor I know the stork didn't bring them but... you get my drift."

I laughed.

"Tom, I fell in love with Emma from the moment she smiled at me; believe me, all the other stuff? That just kind of came along, as nature intended like and then we worked out that..."

"I get the feeling that you're trying to tell me in the nicest possible way that love came first and the other stuff... well, you only did that when you realised you had to?"

"Can't say it was all because we had to but that was pretty much the way it was Tom," I grinned.

"Nah," he laughed, "still not a conversation I want to have with a son-in-law!" We walked back towards the gate laughing, with me promising to never even suggest that his daughters had any kind of err... happenings, with Tom calling a slightly less energetic but much happier retriever back to him and clipping him back to his lead.

"Anyway," he stopped laughing and looked at me, "you've made my Emma into a very happy woman, and I've never seen her like it before. It's not often a father in law gets to say this kind of thing, but you are one of the best things that ever happened to her; Ann said that weeks ago and I can only agree with her. Thanks Harry, I really mean that."

"You're welcome Tom, she's the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I promise you that nothing bad will ever happen to her ever again."

"I know you will Harry, I can see that in your face; saw it the first time we met and you spoke of her."

We headed back into the kitchen and removed our Wellingtons, while Mick headed for the front room and the fire. After supper and a glass of port (Emma had confessed herself a convert to the warming fortified wine) we all headed for our beds.

"What were you and Dad talking about?" she said, "he seemed... different somehow when you got back."

"Yeah, we had one of those father/son-in-law chats; he just got some stuff off of his chest that had been building up."

"Is he OK?" she said sitting up in the bed.

"Yeah, I think he just needed to talk to someone about stuff, he was still a bit messed up about things but I reckon he's back on the right track now."

"Stuff! What stuff? Harry..."

"Shhhh," I hissed, "it was bloke-chat and I signed the Hippocratic Oath. Don't even think about asking him about it."

She hit me quite playfully,

"No you didn't!" she said, "but I'll let you off this time." She kissed me.

"He didn't want to have any kind of discussion about our sex lives," I said, "he was quite happy to think that things like that happen but happier if he didn't have to think about it." She folded her arms and looked down at me, "but he did say that I was the best thing to happen to you in a long time." She smiled, biting her bottom lip and took a sharp intake of breath. We kissed again, "I was keen to point out that you were also the best thing to happen to me."

"And he doesn't even want to think about his daughters have sex?" I shook my head, "she pulled off her T-shirt nightie and knelt astride me, "We'd better be quiet about this one then hadn't we..."

I pulled her down on to me, and rolled over her. I knew that I had an erection and that she would be ready for me. As we had so many times we came together and as she parted her thighs I slid between them and slid myself into her already wet and waiting pussy. It was a really tender meeting of body and soul and following my conversation with her Dad I made a mental note that I should be way more grateful for what I had.

As we writhed together I told her I loved her, and she told me she loved me back. We whispered sweet nothings to each other and her approach to her orgasm turned me on so much that I came as she did, another wonderful idiosyncrasy of our lovemaking.

Two days later I stood in the church waiting with baited breath for my gorgeous bride to appear. The sound of 'Here comes the bride' had us all turning, and there she was, a gorgeous vision in white lace on the arm of her father who looked really proud. Behind her was her two escorting pageboy nephews in and Ann as her Maid of Honour.

The Bishop took the service and we exchanged rings. I'd known mates that had gotten married who reckoned it to be just another formality, one even suggested he felt more emotional passing his driving test.

For me, my head was spinning and my gorgeous, breathless bride looked and felt the same way. Within seconds it seemed, we were married and into the vestry hugging everyone and signing Emma's very own register. She had tears in her eyes as Ray blotted the ink on it and the marriage certificate.

"Congratulation," said the Bishop, "I'm so pleased for you both!"

The reception was in the church hall, and all taken care of by the same team of ladies from the village with the bar laid on by the pub. A wonderful time was had by all and seconds before she had a dance with her father I whispered, "You hug him long and hard, and you remind him how much you love him. You and Ann are his whole world, and he needs to be reminded that you know."

She did, and they danced for ages.

Then it was Ray's turn, and finally mine. It was wonderful and at a little after seven she went back to the house with her sister and her Mum and she got changed out of the dress they'd all worn.

In the way of all the many romantic marriages we headed for Manchester Airport and flew to Naples to enjoy a week on the divine coast. We took in Naples, Capri, Pompeii and Herculaneum, even getting a day and a night in Rome. It was wonderful and romantic, and as we lay in bed looking out across the bay of Naples after a wonderful lovemaking session, Em felt our baby kick for the first time.

By the time we got back there was a sobering request that Emma could not turn down. It was from Tina's parents who asked that having given Tina her first funeral could Emma carry out the last one.

So Em and I found ourselves at Norwich Cathedral and the huge turnout for a poor single Mum who had found herself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Emma wrote some wonderful words and for the second time handed Tina's eternal soul into God's care and asked for all to bless and promise to help and support the heartbreakingly captivating 18 month old Daisy that might soon forget who Mum was;