Title: Moving in and moving on
Fandom: The Doctor Blake Mysteries
Author: Ceindreadh
Type of Story: one-shot
Characters: Alice, Jean, Matthew, Danny
Rating: 15
Spoilers: Set between the Family Portrait & Ghost Stories telemovies with spoiler based speculation re the latter.
Summary: When tragedy strikes, people have to deal with it in their own way.
Word count: ~ 2,000
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I'm only borrowing them, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Danny Parks carried the heavy box through the front door of the Blake house. "Upstairs or downstairs?" he asked Matthew who was supervising proceedings from the hallway.

Matthew took a look at the label on the top of the box which had been written in Alice's precise hand. "Medical books," he read. "Put them in the study, Alice can go through them later."

Danny started slightly, "She's going to be using the Doc's study?" He shifted the box awkwardly in his hands. "Is Jean okay with that?"

"Jean's not really okay with a lot of things these days," said Matthew, with a sigh, "But she's having to deal with them…we all are." He visibly pulled himself together. "Alice needs to have somewhere to work as the Police Surgeon and there's plenty of room for her books and stuff inside, and if..." he quickly corrected himself, "When Lucien returns, well he'll just have to get used to sharing." He tried to force a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.

It had been four months since Lucien had taken a trip to visit Li and his grandson. After a shaky start, Lucien had managed to somewhat restore his relationship with his daughter and regularly sent money to help the orphanage which had taken her in so many years ago and which she was now in charge of. Lucien had decided to pay a visit with Jean and stay for a month or so to see if there was any more practical help he could give. Matthew had grumbled good naturedly about him taking yet more time off, "You only had a honeymoon last year!", but once Alice had agreed to step in as acting Police Surgeon for the duration, he had grudgingly agreed to deal with the paperwork.

Only a few days before the departure however, Jean had received word that her daughter in law had given birth prematurely and somebody was needed to look after Amelia, and indeed Ruby herself for the few weeks until Christopher would be able to get leave and return from his overseas posting. Lucien had suggested postponing his trip, but Jean had insisted that he go. "You've made a promise to Li, and you can't let her down. As soon as Christopher gets home and Ruby is well enough, I'll join you."
But by the time Jean was ready to travel a month later, Lucien had already gone missing. The reports were sketchy, Li's letters in unaccustomed English hadn't had much detail. There'd been a storm, a bad one. Lucien had left the orphanage following reports of injuries in the ensuing floods. His jeep had later been found in the river, but there was no sign of the good Doctor. Searches had been organised but to no avail. Lucien was declared just one of many casualties of the storm, many of whom were never found.

Jean had been devastated. Both she and Matthew wanted to fly out and continue the search themselves, but Alice's cooler head had prevailed as among other arguments, she had pointed out that neither of them knew a thing about the region, they couldn't speak the language, and would most likely end up getting lost themselves. Alice had also had the idea of contacting Mattie's father. "He's got government connections and Lucien didn't piss him off that much when he visited before, maybe he can help." Unfortunately, Martin O'Brien had been more than willing to help, his contacts had had no more success in finding Lucien. Martin had privately told Matthew that there'd been reports of bandits in the area before the storm. "If Doctor Blake crossed paths with them, it wouldn't have ended well." Matthew had refrained from passing that piece of information to Jean.
As the days became weeks and then turned to months, Jean stopped jumping at the sound of the phone. Matthew stopped automatically looking for Lucien at crime scenes. The people of Ballarat stopped asking them if there was any news, and Doctor Lucien Blake was officially declared missing, presumed dead.

"You can put the kettle on when you've brought the rest of the boxes in," said Matthew, looking at his watch.

"You do know," said Danny, "That not only am I off duty, but you're not actually my commanding officer." He smiled as Matthew glared at him. "You know, I've almost missed that look on your face." He turned and brought the box to the study, setting it carefully on the ground before heading back outside.

Upstairs, Alice and Jean were just finishing making up the bed with fresh linen. Alice had insisted on helping Jean with it, after bringing up her suitcase.
"Jean are you sure you don't mind me moving in?" asked Alice, not for the first time.

Jean smiled back at her, "Of course not," she said. "It's nice to have this room occupied again." She looked at Alice's suitcases, "I'm sure you'll have more variety in the wardrobe than Charlie used to."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," said Alice, "This was Charlie's room then?"
"Yes," Jean nodded, "And Mattie's before then. It's the largest of the guest rooms. I would have put Matthew in here, but of course with his leg and the stairs. Still, I'm sure it'll be nice for you both, being under the same roof…" Jean looked as if she was about to say more, but her face fell, and she bit her lip and Alice didn't need to be a mind reader to know that Jean was thinking of who was no longer under that roof.

Alice wondered if Jean knew that Matthew had told her about the nights when he'd sat up with her.
The nights when Jean had draped Lucien's coat around her and drunk from his stash of whisky and ranted about a man who couldn't leave well enough along and had to put his own life at risk to help others. "Li warned him it wasn't safe," Jean had told Matthew one night. "She said to wait until the storm had passed. They were safe in the orphanage, a few broken windows but nobody was hurt. He could have waited until it had stopped raining instead of going out." Matthew, as had been his habit, had remained silent, knowing that nothing he could say would ease Jean's grief or even his own. He'd let Jean cry her on his shoulder while they sat on the couch, and when she slipped into an exhausted sleep, he'd covered her against the cold and replaced the bottle in the drawer, replenishing it as necessary.
Some nights Jean turned her anger inwards, blaming herself for not being there. "I could have stopped him you know. If I'd been there, if I'd travelled with him like we'd planned. He would have listened to me, he wouldn't have left me there." Those nights Matthew instinctively stayed with Jean until she was calm. Some mornings they ended up watching the sun come up together, but they never spoke of any of those nights in the cold light of day.
By day, Jean was calm, composed, the efficient housekeeper, the loyal friend, the widow who put on a brave face while coping with the loss of a second husband. Nobody outside would be privy to the inner turmoil she was going through. Alice had wondered if Jean expected Matthew to have confided in her the way Lucien would have confided in Jean. It wasn't something she could ask her, while she and Jean had grown closer over the past year, there were still some boundaries to their friendship.

"Of course," echoed Alice. "But he is considerably more mobile than he was when he moved in."
"Anyway, Alice," said Jean, briskly. "You are really doing me a favour by moving in."

Alice looked at her curiously, uncertain as to whether to mention that Matthew had told her discreetly that having an extra person under the roof would help Jean financially. "She's not going to say it to you straight, she won't want to put you under that much pressure," he had told her a few weeks earlier, "But with Lucien not here things have got to be a bit tight for her. Any income from the practice goes towards the locum and well, I know he had a bit of cash tucked away, but that won't last if she has to keep dipping into it."

"I'm doing you a favour?" Alice said, cautiously.

"Why yes," said Jean, "It'll stop the gossips in their tracks for one thing." She smoothed down the bedspread. "It was bad enough before, when Lucien…" her voice faltered slightly as it often did when she mentioned his name, but then she continued, "before you came to Ballarat, there was a lot of gossip about my relationship with Lucien, even before we were in a relationship. People naturally assumed that as we were living under the same roof that there was something going on." Jean stood back from the bed. "And now of course when it's just been me and Matthew…" she laughed, but it was a much more brittle laugh than it used to be.

"You don't mean they think that you and Matthew…" There was a sharp note in Alice's voice and she was almost surprised at the sudden rush of jealousy. It pained her sometimes to know that Matthew, her Matthew, had such a shared history with Jean and indeed Lucien, that she hadn't been part of. Alice quickly regained her composure, "I see," she said.

"On that note," and now Jean, looked a little embarrassed, "I just wanted to say. I know that you and Matthew have well…an understanding. And if you and he, well…I mean, you're both responsible adults, and I know Matthew thinks of this place as his home, and I want you to think of it as yours as well." She took a deep breath before continuing, "I know Matthew has stayed over at your place before and I'm not going to check whose bed has or hasn't been slept in…but if either of you wanted a larger bed, I'm sure that could be arranged…"

"Jean, that really won't be necessary," said Alice, a blush spreading over her face. She saw the look of confusion on Jean's face and continued, "I don't want to put you to any more trouble…Matthew and I, we'll be fine as we are." She took a breath before continuing, "And I know it can't be easy for you, seeing Matthew and myself together…"

Jean blinked back tears and forced a smile, "I suppose it's something I'll have to get used to…and I know it's what Lucien would have wanted. We all have to find a way to survive."
Alice reached out and squeezed Jean's hand. "I know."

There was silence for a few seconds before Jean regained her composure. "Well at least whatever else we have to worry about, the gossips will have to talk about something else now that we're no longer unchaperoned."

"Unless of course that there's something illicit going on with all of us," said Alice with a deadpan expression on her face, "Remember those army wives a few years ago." She managed to hold Jean's gaze for a few seconds before they both dissolved in laughter.

"Oh dear," said Jean, wiping a tear from her eye, "Forgive me Alice, that's not really funny. Oh my. I think I needed that."
"I think we both did."

"Needed what?" asked Matthew, from the doorway, making them both jump. "I came up to tell you the kettles on the boil and to see if you needed me to do anything for you."

Jean and Alice looked at each other and then both burst out laughing again. "We're fine, Mathew," said Alice.
Matthew looked at the two of them before shaking his head and turning away. "Women!" they heard him exclaim in mock disgust as he left.

"Yes," said Jean firmly as she looked at Alice, "I'm fine...at least I will be, in time."

The End