Dragonflies The Duncan Peters Files

by Fontien, Samantha

  “Don’t Dunc; I haven’t said anything to Jess yet. You know she will get pissy with me.”

  Duncan hung up the call, and placed the receiver in the handset, and thought briefly.

  “Then that settles it, we are left with only one choice,” as he sat back down on the bed and started to pull on his socks and shoes. He moved swiftly to the built in wardrobe and pulled on a t-shirt.

  “What are you doing Duncan?” a bewildered Simone asked watching his every move.

  “We my darling are nipping round To Rube’s and telling him you said yes for a start.” He flashed a hearty smile at her. “And I’m going to tell him, he’s going to be an uncle.” His face was that of pure unadulterated pride. “So the future Mrs. Peters, could you kindly get dressed so we can announce our news to them both? We can kill two birds with one stone.”

  “But it’s too soon Duncan to be telling people. It’s only early days; I just think it’s too soon. What if something goes wrong? I think it’s too early.” She shook her head while she stood up.

  He walked towards her and took her in his arms, peppering soft kisses upon her face.

  “Baby everything is going to be okay,” he looked deep into her eyes. “I promise you Simone everything’s going to be perfect, just perfect.” He lifted her face to him, and softly kissed her lips tenderly.

  Duncan felt like he could burst, he could feel the thump of his heart as he held her close. Simone closed her eyes while he just held her. She felt safe, complete, and she believed every word he said, he knew that.

  “Okay, let’s do it. Let’s tell them.” She laughed as she pulled on her shoes.

  It was only a two minute walk around the corner to Rubin’s. He held Simone’s hand tightly as he rang the doorbell. If he knew Rubin, he and Jess would be no doubt doing some form of bedroom acrobatics’. He checked his watch as Rubin opened the door impatiently, dressed typically Rubin style in only in a pair of sweat pants. Yep, as he thought he had interrupted Rubin and Jess’s bedroom gymnastics.

  He looked at Rubin who no doubt was going to ask him what the hell he was doing coming around at this time of night.

  “Before you start, it’s only 10pm, and I have news.”

  Duncan flashed a smile as he passed a confused Rubin; who then realised what his friend had said and gave him a beaming smile accompanied by a trademark Rubin wink.

  “Ahh nice my good man, come in, come in,” and he gestured to come in, he winked at a beaming Simone.

  Jessica called down from upstairs; it was like something out of an old sitcom, as Rubin tried to explain they had company.

  “Is it that the woman you’ve been telling me about. I like you Rube’s but I don’t want to be forced into a threesome with any of your skanks. I told you, I will ask one of my friends, I thought we decided on that. Fuck sake, talk about forcing an issue, I will arrange your extra Christmas pressie before the New Year, I just haven’t seen her to arrange it yet.”

  Duncan stood there, his arm around Simone, looking at Rubin, who was rolling his eyes. He could feel Simone tense when Jessica mentioned the threesome. That was when Rubin started to roll the eyes. It was truly comical, as Rubin edged closer to the door backwards as he tried to shout up to her.

  “No pet, it’s not one of my skanks, its Simone and Duncan.” He stood there clapping his hands together. “So Tea or Coffee?” He smiled trying to be nonchalant.

  Duncan stood there, what could he say? He tried not to laugh at the situation. But he knew Rubin would have no emotion to this awkwardness that semi filled the room.

  “I think my good friend; it’s time to get the bubbly out.”

  “She said yes.” Rubin walked towards his friend with a big cheesy grin, arms open wide in the air as Duncan and he, embraced, “Ohh man I’m delighted, did she like the ring? I told you, I’m good with that girly shit.”

  They realised that they were still hugging, and quickly changed into slapping each other’s backs in a manly way, having realised they were having an ovary moment.

  “I’ll go and get the bottle then,” Rubin flashed a mouthful of perfect teeth, and walked off in the direction of the kitchen with a hop and a skip in his step.

  A few minutes letter Jessica came bounding down the stairs and breezed into the living room to join them all, like her supposed private conversation with Rubin had never occurred.

  “Ooo champs lovely, what are we celebrating?” She asked as she snatched up a poured glass and sat on the arm of the couch where Rubin was sitting and crossed her long legs.

  Duncan was sat next to Simone on the matching Chesterfield in the bay window; Simone had proudly linked her arm through his, so her hand hung delicately showing off the sparkling diamonds, which twinkled under the lights in the living room. He sat proudly holding his glass. He stood up; Rubin followed raising his glass ready for Duncan’s speech, smiling to himself for his involvement only days earlier when he and Duncan drove up to Hatton Garden. It was a good day, they had a few pints, (well he did as Duncan was driving his car as per usual).

  “Simone and I have an announcement,” he cleared his throat suddenly feeling a little nervous. “We are getting married!” He exclaimed excitedly.

  “About time,” Jess clapped her hands, squealing with delight. “I thought you would never make an honest woman of her,” she grabbed Simone by the shoulders, “Thought this one would end up an old maid.” She laughed.

  “Actually that’s not the only news we have,” he looked over at Simone who nodded her head gently, “We are also having a baby!” Duncan exclaimed ecstatically.

  “Whayhey! Nice one old man,” Rubin clasped Duncan’s hand, shaking it gleefully causing Duncan’s arms to vibrate to the shoulder, “Nice one old boy,” he leaned into Duncan, “about time or you’d be an old man kicking a ball in the park if you left it any longer mate,” and he playfully nudged Duncan in the shoulder with his. “Delighted for you, so when are we due?” He asked spinning round to Simone holding his glass up to her, who was being asked a trillion questions from Jess which she had yet to answer.

  “No, not yet, it’s only early days, I have to see the doctor in the new year to make it official.” She said a little embarrassed.

  “You mean us, I’m coming too,” he walked over to Simone and knelt down on the floor beside her. He took her hands bringing them to his lips, he kissed them tenderly. “What a wonderful Christmas, she said yes, and she’s having my baby.” And then Rubin started singing “Having my baby. What a lovely way of saying' how much you love me? Having my baby. What a lovely way of saying, you're thinking' of me?”

  Jessica stood up and moved towards Rubin, who had thankfully now stopped singing.

  “I think she’ll be doing more ‘thinking of him’, when she is changing dirty nappies and is dying of sleep deprivation. Sorry I don’t get this reproducing thing, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I mean, come on.” She stood there, knowing full well all eyes were on her as she took a sip of champagne. “Look we’re the ones that get fat. We’re the ones who have to push a watermelon out of something the size of a bloody pea.”

  “Yours isn’t the size of a pea sweetheart!” Rubin joked, and got a scolding look from Jess who continued on her rant.

  “You guys aren’t the ones up all hours doing night feeds and nappy changing; you guys are only there for the 15 minutes it takes to make them.”

  “Hey that’s not fair,” Rubin grabbed her hand and playfully pulled her to him. “I can go ‘all night long’ like ‘Lionel Richie’ baby, you know this” as she fell onto his lap onto the couch.

  “Well I’m not going to be like that; I’m going to be ‘a hands on’ dad, dirty nappies, night feeds, the works.” He sat on the couch next to Simone his arm around her tenderly.

  And he truly meant it. He never felt so happy, for him it was quite different to the Christmas he had experienced in 1991 at the hands of Juliette hearing she was pregnant with another man’s child. He took Simone’s hand, and squ
eezed it gently.

  “And, I’m going to every doctors or hospital appointment I can as well.” He said with conviction. He looked over at Jess, who seemed to be the only party pooper on this one.

  Jessica just sat there on Rubin’s lap sipping her champagne, while Rubin attentively rubbed her derrière. He and Simone didn’t stay too long; it must have been only two hours, until they did the short walk home. That night they made love again. Duncan eventually fell asleep with thoughts of Simone and fatherhood. It was one of the best night's sleeps Duncan had in a long while.

  10.

  The air That I breathe..

  Yes, 1995 brought changes in many ways, and not just Simone’s shape. 1995 also brought changes for Rubin too, with the end to his and Jessica’s relationship. He was obviously not handling the breakup too well with the amount of phone calls Duncan received from 'friends in private circles' asking him to collect an inebriated Rubin. This involved Duncan having to take a taxi to wherever it was, that Rubin had holed himself up, in his own personal ‘pity party’ which involved copious amounts of anonymous sex. It had become a regular thing, too regular. He would bundle Rubin into his car and drive him home with whoever he had decided to bring with him that night. This in itself was a huge accomplishment, considering that Rubin still had his black MG, which was more of a two seater sports car and not the nice sensible family type Volvo Estate vehicle that Duncan had just acquired as his and Simone’s family car. It certainly wasn't the kind of vehicle to pull up in; outside one of the many parties he had found himself playing 'taxi' for Rubin that's for sure. It couldn't be viewed as a sexy car at all, unlike Rubin's old yet classically sexy MG, "Betsy"...his was more of a big, boxy super tank like thing.

  Rubin was leaning over into the back seat talking to ‘whatever her name was’ sitting squashed uncomfortably in the tiny back seat; he kept knocking into Duncan, causing him to swerve.

  “Hey Rube’s, control yourself man, we’ll be home in a minute” he tried to sound calm, Rubin, was looking for a smack, as he had started to get a bit rowdy and was starting to ‘erk’ Duncan.

  “AHH man, chill, don’t sweat it old boy,” and he grabbed Duncan’s shoulder as he sat back down awkwardly in his seat after receiving a kiss from ‘what’s her name’ in the back..

  This unfortunately caused Duncan to swerve into a line of parked cars. Along with the crunching metal, the sounds of the car alarms pinged alive, as they struck each vehicle scrapping down the sides like the ‘Titanic’ on the iceberg. Duncan drew the vehicle to a stop, muttering a few ‘fucking hell’s’. Before he got out of the vehicle he shot Rubin a ‘I’m not fucking impressed with you’ look making Rubin drunkenly retreat back into his seat, with a trickle of blood coming from his forehead working its way slowly to his eye. Rubin wiped the steady trickle with the back of his hand. The alarms had done their jobs in alerting the owners and most of the neighbourhood it seemed, as they had all congregated on the street into an angry mob almost baying for blood, having their nice quite residential road, being rudely woken by an orchestra of howling and screaming car alarms.

  As Duncan walked back down the road to survey the damage that had been caused, he saw a blaze of blue lights flashing towards him, he stood there shaking his head at the damage done, six vehicles including Rubin’s. And Rubin’s car looked like it would be off the road for quite a while. Duncan spent nearly two hours exchanging details, between each of the owners, and the police officers who were attending, whilst doing the various DUI tests. Rubin was still chatting up ‘What’s her face’ who was now wearing Rubin’s jacket shivering in the night, while Duncan blew into the breathalyzer. Of course, it came up negative. He had been pulled out of his warm comfy bed, with his wife, and her swollen belly, he explained to the police officer. They all watched Rubin’s car get lifted and put on a flatbed truck. Thankfully the truck driver was an ex squaddie. He kindly dropped them the short distance home to Rubin’s. Once he knew Rubin and his guest were safely indoors, Duncan walked the short two minutes home. He turned the key in the door, and opened it, to be met by Simone sitting on the bottom step in the hallway.

  He was startled, not expecting to see her there, he was hoping he could have just slid back under the covers, so he could fall asleep cuddled up to her and the ‘Bump’ they had affectionately named it

  He could see something was wrong with her; they had still three weeks to go, till the baby came. They had waited to know the sex hence ‘Bump being called ‘Bump’. He had waited this long to be a dad, a few more months didn’t matter as far as he was concerned. He didn’t care if it was a boy or a girl. He steadily walked over to her concerned, he dipped to his knees.

  “What’s wrong baby?” he questioned worriedly, his hand on her shoulder.

  “I couldn’t sleep once you had gone, I’ve had this pain in my back most of the night, and...” and with that she crunched over “OOoouch,” she said through clenched teeth, “Oh that hurt like a mother, God, it’s been like this for the past hour.” She breathed hard through her teeth, trying to catch her breath. “Every bloody five minutes.”

  “For an hour? And only five minutes between the pain’s baby,” Duncan glanced at his watch, while he hugged her trying to sound calm. “I think we need to get you to the hospital,” he could feel the panic or was it excitement in him build. He jumped up.

  “Where’s the bag for the hospital?” He looked at Simone helplessly, who was still sitting on the steps.

  “It’s upstairs in the nursery. I didn’t bring it down, as it’s too early I have,” she started to count up the months on her fingers. “Damn baby brain, I’ve just less than four weeks to go.”

  “Okay,” Duncan tried to remain calm. “Okay, I’ll grab the bag.” And he flew up the stairs two at a time. “Where is it?” he shouted down to her.

  He was still frantically searching when it almost fell into his hand. He came bounding down the stairs to see Simone standing in a puddle of water.

  “I think my waters have just broken” she exclaimed looking slightly humiliated.

  Duncan had stopped in his tracks halfway down the stairs, stunned at the sight before him. That was when he went into auto-pilot. He walked down the stairs calmly to Simone, who was starting to double over again, just as a surge of pain took hold. She grabbed onto Duncan’s forearm, her fingers tightly wrapped around, gripping hard. He was quite surprised at how strong Simone actually was, when the pain had subsided, and when she had finally released her steadfast grip, there was her hand mark, already starting to welt in red on his skin. He averted his eyes to the floor, as he took her in his arms and started to comfort her.

  “When did that happen?” he stupidly asked, to be met by a fierce looking Simone, who was still recovering from the pain that had coursed through her body.

  “Just as you were coming down the stairs, I have to clean it up, before we go” and she waddled down the hallway to the kitchen. “I’m not going leaving that mess there” she called out as he heard her scramble with the mop and bucket.

  He stood there, what was she thinking? She was clearly on a mission and he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn’t move until she had done what she wanted. He flew down the hall, into the kitchen taking the mop from her, taking over the task in hand. Ignoring her protests as he quickly dealt with the floor and in just enough time to come to her aid when another pain racked through her body.

  “Come on baby, let’s get you to the hospital” and he helped her straighten up after the contraction subsided. “You ok to walk?” she nodded her head. “Come on baby; let’s get you to Queen Charlotte’s.”

  It was only as they were passing the telephone, that he remembered they had to call ahead, to inform them of their arrival. Throughout the call, his heart thumped hard in his chest. He tried to sound calm, as he saw Simone starting to double over again. He corrected his statement of the contraction times, and finished off the call telling them he would see them in ten minutes or before. He put down th
e phone and instantly he went to Simone, who was gritting her teeth.

  Once in the car, he put his foot down. There was barely any traffic on the road. Simone told him to slow down. He obliged until another contraction ripped through her, and the foot went to the floor again slightly as not to upset her any more than what she was. He pulled up at the car park, grabbing the bags and the waddling Simone into the entrance and into a waiting wheelchair and into the lifts of the labour ward.

  On the 7th August 1995, Isabella Caroline Peters was safely delivered, after nine hours of labour, and over three weeks before her expected due date. Duncan couldn’t have been more swollen with pride. He was proud of Simone, who delivered naturally, and surprisingly didn’t cause too many bruises on his arms. But for him, watching Isabella being born was the highlight of his life. She was beautiful, she had gorgeous red kissy lips, and her eye’s, oh when she opened her eyes and looked at him with the sapphire blue eye’s he just fell in love, hook line and sinker. He thought he would burst as she yawned and smiled at him when he introduced himself to her.

  “Hey baby girl,” he could feel the lump in his throat choke him as he said, “I’m your daddy. Do you know how long I have been waiting for you?” she yawned again at him.

  He looked down at the precious baby in his arms tears blurring them with emotion. She was perfect, just perfect. It was him that handed the swaddled Isabella to Simone, telling her,

  “Now Isabella Caroline Peters, it’s time to meet your beautiful mummy.”

  He stood back and watched Simone’s face light up, as she smiled down at their daughter. If he would have died there and then, he would have died a very happy man indeed.

  When Simone had fallen asleep, he nipped out to the pay phones. The first call he made was to Simone’s parents, informing them of their ‘first grandchild’s’ unexpected arrival. They were surprised due to the fact that she had made an early appearance nearly a month before her time. He explained ‘she was slightly less than six pounds at birth, and had to stay in the ‘Special Care Baby Unit for a couple of extra days due to her weight.’ Obviously they were worried, but Duncan soon reassured them, telling them that ‘she was so flaming beautiful; that she obviously couldn’t wait to show off her mother’s good looks that she had inherited’. The next call he made, was to Rubin. Rubin naturally was chuffed to bits for him and Simone. There was talk of ‘wetting the baby’s head’ which Duncan dismissed until Isabella came out of the SCBU.