"Nate! What on earth are you doing here!?" Louise had opened the door expecting the postman and was immensely surprised to find Doctor Nate instead.

"Louise, who is it? Did the package come, Luv?" Ma walked through carrying Evie on her hip from the kitchen it was just after nine and they had just had a tussle with Evie winning, porridge was everywhere. "Oh, aye, who might this be? If your selling you'll need be on your way lad"

"Ma, this is Doctor Nate remember you meet when Evie was born" Louise turned and took Evie off her mother, picking a bit of porridge from the little one's hair.

"A long way for house calls don't you think" Ma muttered. Ever since she found out that the doctor had stayed overtime for free during the birth and paid Louise a free housecall, she had thought he was after something.

Something other than taking a pulse and asking her daughter to open her mouth and say arrrrrr.

"Oh, not a house call I'm afraid. I took a chance, while back in Liverpool for business, to come see my favourite patient" Nate watched a scowl appear on Mrs Harrisons face "Evie, of course"

"Of course" Ma said dourly. The words fully laden with sarcasm, she might not have liked the circumstances of John and her daughters nuptials and this silly trial separation thingy but she damn well wasn't having this young man sticking his stethoscope where he ought not. Fancy Doctor or not!

"Come in, come in. Will you stay for tea? I made some scones, fresh this morning" Louie smiled and grabbed Nates elbow all but dragging him in to the kitchen. Her mother was being overly motherly since Eve and her return and Lou was suffocating in the loving yet overloaded attention. "Sorry 'bout the mess, Evie hasn't developed very good eating skills yet"

"I'll just be up making beds if you need me" Ma pointedly glared at Nate, making Lou puzzle over the way she was acting around the good doctor. She didn't understand her mother's obvious displeasure at the doctors appearance on their doorstep this morning. "Don't forget we have to go to the shops shortly, Louise"

Louise giggled after her mother walked off muttering something about handsome stethoscopes. Handing Evie over to Nate she turned to the kettle, then turned back looking at the good doctor sitting chatting to her daughter "Sorry about Ma, I think she thinks you've come by to see me"

"And if I have...." Nate had a look on his face that Lou hadn't noticed ever before... hopes and wishes mixed with a load of sincerity.

Louise almost fell over, Nate may as well have tipped the world on it's head with what he implied...

And his voice wasn't the good doctors' bedside manner anymore, no it was that of a man, a very handsome man..wanting to be a bit closer than the bedside!
The zoo had been fun and very nice and Nate was very good with the baby but he was still the doctor and she the patient and that was all she ever thought they were.. his car too, was posh and she felt little, tiny even, in it.
Even though she knew George had grand ideas with his motors it just wasn't the same...she could throw crisp packets all about in Georges motor because it was just George.
She tinkered frantically with the cups, scones and milk trying to recover. Her composure slipping completely when she accidentally scattered most of the sugar across the countertop.

"I didn't mean to scare you"

"Oh no you didn't scare me" Louise dropped a scone on the counter "I just hadn't expected that to come out of your mouth"

"Well you're a lovely girl, Louise. I'm not really your doctor any more, you're alone at the moment and I did only come by to see you, even though Eve is certainly worth the trip for her smile" Nate grinned at her and she remembered again how wonderful he was to her in her previous condition. She smiled back, he was just being gentlemanly silly, that's all, she tried to relaxe.
Lou carefully laid out the spread of tea, scones and jam on the table, taking Evie and settling her back in the highchair they ate quietly, casting glimpses at each other as Evie chattered, well she gurgled and smacked her hands, on the highchairs small inbuilt table.

"Would you - "Both Louie and Nate spoke in unison making them both laugh. They both went back to finishing the scones and tea, leaving Evie to coo and gurgle happily, banging away on the table to fill the awfully awkward silence.

"Would you like to go to dinner this evening Louise" Nate played with his teaspoon keeping his eyes averted from the large round dazed ones that stared back.

"Oh! Ummm today, oh wow" Louie rambled not knowing what to say, she had been rather boxed up recently, well recently being since she was seven months gone with Evie, but never in a million years did she think Nate would stand on her doorstep and drop this clanger on her. "Oh, I would need to take Evie if I said yes, Ma has bridge club tonight"

"Well I'll look forward to seeing you both then!" Nate pinched the baby's cheeks softly "I'll call by at five then"

"Oh, ok, ummm five it is" Louise blurted, too stunned to realise she had even had agreed. Nate was up, gathering his coat and hat readying them both to be on his way as she stood to frantically clear the table.

"I'll see myself out.... Err Louise? ..." Nate waited for Louise to gather the courage to turn around from the sink before continuing "I'm most looking forward to this evening" and just like that he was gone, door closing sharply as he left the house.

"Oh, Evie what have I done" Lou groaned to the baby as she sat back down to put her head in her hands then banged said head on the kitchen table repeatedly, hoping Evie would right her slightly wacked out world.

"You have gone and agreed to go out with a man that is not your husband and without an escort if you please" Ma marched back into the kitchen, taking a sip of her cold tea, then bustling about waving a tea-towel. "Louise what on earth were you thinking!"

"I wasn't, I don't think" Louie stood back up again to do the washing up her stomach was slightly amiss, perhaps she needed a doctor.. "I'll not go, just tell him when he arrives at 5"

"You'll go, it's very impolite to back out now" Ma wiped a plate, then picked up the baby bowl to dry.

"But you said-"

"You shouldn't have agreed in the first place. Louise sometimes I don't think you even open your eyes .... I'll cancel bridge" Ma turned to walk to the phone as Lou groaned louder.

"Ma! I'll be fine.... a meal and straight home. I'll have Evie with me, it's not like I'm going to the Cavern or out on the town alone with him"

"I do hate to cancel bridge...as long as you come home directly" Ma suddenly backed down, bridge was but one day a week wasn't it. Reluctantly she supposed the girl would indeed have a baby strapped to her, what harm could really come of it .....

******

Lou and Evie went with Nate for dinner at the newly opened Chinese restaurant by Penny Lane. Evie was terribly taken with all the gaily lit red lanterns, green dragons and other arty wall murals and bamboo print wallpaper that covered the walls. Louise began chattering nervously bout the decorations as Evie reached for all the table items that intrigued her inquisitive eyes.

"No Evie, mummy's chopsticks" Lou moved the chopsticks well away to the other side of the table, she'd be needing to use the fork set out as alternative cutlery anyway.

The meal was eaten quietly, Lou was tongue tied just knowing this was supposed to be an actual date not just patient and doctor catching up on life. Just by the way Nate looked at her when she stepped from the house this evening. His eyes clear lit up when she smiled hello and that smile of his was so indulgent of her, and knowing. He wasn't overtly forward as such but she sure knew he was interested.

Nate seemed to realise as the meal progressed Lou was jittery and overly fussing with the baby just to get out of looking at him as she spoke. He attempted to allay Louise's trepidation and lay a hand on hers at times but she would whip her's away faster than an outbreak of measles. Rather upset with Lou's apparent 'want to be anywhere but here' attitude he gave up and had them both home on the Harrison doorstep by 7.30, not a moment later.

Louise stood there somewhat dejectedly watching the sleek Jaguar auto drive off. Evie was sound asleep now and as Lou juggled her daughter, handbag and baby's bag on the door step she realised she had really buggered up, she really needed to apologise to Nate, and soon.

Lou regretted, almost as soon as the jag turned the corner of the street, that she had been so horrid and indifferent with Nate.
He was nice, he was charming and he had made a big effort to spend time and have a meal with her.
A girl with a baby.
And even if she didn't see him entirely like a eligible man about town she should still have been nicer, a friend to him. She felt like a heel.

But oh no...
All she could do was think about poppycock the entire evening.

The poppycock which was.. ..

That she was in the wrong place, with the wrong guy....