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Post by Lane Kent on Jun 22, 2005 23:24:40 GMT
Disregard what I just said while I go take a long lie down!!! Flamin` Nora...don`t think my heart can take much more. *makes mental note to present LaneKent with a doctors bill for an emergency EKG* ;D It should of been Ken's dad that would of been a good one. Anyway I think I better go find my lawyer now ;D |
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Post by eithne on Jun 22, 2005 23:28:09 GMT
Disregard what I just said while I go take a long lie down!!! Flamin` Nora...don`t think my heart can take much more. *makes mental note to present LaneKent with a doctors bill for an emergency EKG* ;D LOL!!! Hilarious!  |
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Post by eithne on Jun 22, 2005 23:40:51 GMT
Part 14 was brilliant again! And I was actually right in two of my guesses as to who the possible fathers could be. It does seem ever so slightly far fetched about Ken and the wig as well, but it doesn't matter. I've really enjoyed this story so I don't care! Just want to know if Linda will survive or not!
PENNY: You are being ridiculous. Are you getting Alzheimer’s or something?
A reference to the future?
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Jun 22, 2005 23:57:37 GMT
Penny being bald was my idea but Lane didn't like it so I was surprised when she used it. I was in a silly mood that day. LOL! Anyway, wait until the sequel when Ken gets told he's Linda's father - oooooh!!!  Patsy |
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Post by CG Wendy on Jun 23, 2005 5:56:46 GMT
I really did laugh out loud at that comment. Very funny and very clever
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Post by Lane Kent on Jun 23, 2005 9:39:22 GMT
Part 14 was brilliant again! And I was actually right in two of my guesses as to who the possible fathers could be. It does seem ever so slightly far fetched about Ken and the wig as well, but it doesn't matter. I've really enjoyed this story so I don't care! Just want to know if Linda will survive or not! PENNY: You are being ridiculous. Are you getting Alzheimer’s or something?A reference to the future? Well as I said before I really didn't know who the father would be, I was leaning to Ray or Preston. It was only while writing 13 and even 14 itself it came to me about Ken. I just threw it in for a laugh really. Mike's old Nemisis and all that. As to being Bald I decided to go with Rita's idea again for the laugh factor in the midst of all the heavy drama and didn't feel like dragging it all out a bit longer for Penny to get her Just Deserts. It seemed fitting enough :-) As to Alzheimer's yes sort of who knows where Corrie are taking that story. There again it can also be taken as a dig at Coronation Street for the upcoming story (which they still aren't admitting to so sounds like they are testing the waters and keeping all their options open). Glad you have all enjoyed the story as I was a bit nervous. |
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Jun 23, 2005 16:10:37 GMT
And I can give you a little teaser for the sequel. Danny has a secret which will be revealed...... Patsy |
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Post by Lane Kent on Jun 25, 2005 12:11:36 GMT
PART XV
Written Saturday 14th May 2005, Finalised Wednesday, 25th May 2005
As night turned into day, a nurse appeared to give Mike, Rita, Adam and Ray Sykes news of Linda. All braced themselves for the worst.
NURSE: We have had to do some emergency brain surgery on Linda. We also think we have stopped the internal bleeding throughout her body. Linda is in a coma and she is still critical and it is early days yet before we can give a prognosis. However if you would like to go and visit her one at a time in the Intensive Care Unit then you are very welcome?
Ray looked at Mike. “You go first Baldwin as I don’t think I can bear to look at her so poorly. It always broke my heart when she was little and she got colds.”
Mike put on a surgical gown, gloves and a face mask. Then he followed a nurse into Intensive Care. Nothing could prepare Mike for the pitiful sight that greeted him. She looked so tiny and helpless surrounded by lots of machines beeping away. Linda’s long brown hair had all been shaven off and her head was now full of bandages. There were tubes up her nose, in her mouth and going into her stomach. Mike approached her bedside and placed her hand in his. Even that had tubes coming out of it and he noticed the other was all bandaged up presumably from where she cut herself with the glass.
Mike was so overcome with emotion that all he could do is run out of there and waiting for him was Rita. She took him in her arms and they hugged.
Days would turn into weeks. Mike, Rita and Ray Sykes seemed to be the only ones who cared about Linda and there had been no progress in her condition whatsoever. Finally Ray stopped visiting when he ended up in HMP Strangeways on a three year stretch for yet another crime. So it was down to Mike or Rita or sometimes both to keep up the bedside vigils. Both still blaming themselves for Linda’s plight.
Rita had been cleared of all responsibility for running down Linda thanks to the eye-witness statements of Adam, Mike, Norris and other passers-by. Norris was still fuming that he had spent a night in the cells over it mind you and re-told the story to anyone who cared to listen as they did their shopping in The Kabin. In Norris’s version of events he was the wronged party not Linda still laying in a coma.
Even though Rita had been cleared of all wrong doing, she couldn’t get past the notion it was she who had been driving despite all Mike’s protests she wasn’t to blame herself. As to Mike, in his mind Rita couldn’t possibly be to blame because it was he that had believed all Penny’s lies and had carried out his obsession to find “his” daughter. If Mike had just left alone then Linda would not be laying in a coma now. Her and Mark would be married and living in blissful ignorance.
Mike Baldwin had just gone through the hardest time of his life. He had had many tragedies and hiccups. But financial problems, his mother’s death, Alma’s death, finding out his son was bedding his fiancée, facing suspicion of murder, all paled into insignificance compared to this. Mike couldn’t help but feel and grieve as he had in a way now lost both a son and a daughter!
Mike had lost a daughter because after all these years she had never really existed. DNA tests had conclusively proved that Mike could not possibly be Linda’s father. As to the son, Mike still had Adam but Mark no longer wanted to know.
Mark had gone back to Germany straight from Mike’s flat that fateful night. When he finally was bought up to speed with all the developments, Mark had refused to come back to the UK convincing himself Linda would die. Mark told Mike it was all Mike’s fault.
Now the truth was out, Mark couldn’t care that Linda wasn’t his sister after all, for in his eyes the damage had been done and he would never forgive Mike.
However out of the tragedy, some positives had come. Mike had learned to value what he had, and most of all his friends. Rita had been there for him in his hour of need. Mike wasn’t looking for romance and neither was she, but by Linda’s bedside, a platonic friendship was growing into something else.
Another lesson Mike had learnt was to stop meddling in other people’s lives. For this very reason Mike came to the difficult decision not to tell Ken Barlow that he may be Linda’s real father. Mike still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t another one of Penny’s lies but even if it wasn’t, what good could come out of turning yet another family’s world upside down? Adam was in total agreement with his Dad over this for Adam too had learnt the full meaning of that famous old saying: ‘be careful what you wish for as it just might come true.’
If you don't want a sugary sweet ending don't read the epilouge. If you like happy endings then do
EPILOGUE
One night some time later in Mike’s flat. Adam got up from the dinner table and went into his bedroom to listen to some music.
RITA: Well I’ll help you clear up this mess and be on my way back to Coronation Street.
MIKE: No, leave that, come and sit down with me on the sofa a minute.
RITA: Oh Okay.
Rita sat herself down next to Mike.
MIKE: You know we have a lot to be grateful for.
RITA: Yes we do, at long last it looks like Linda might get better.
MIKE: Today is a special day because not only has Linda opened her eyes for the first time since the accident but I also realised something.
RITA: What
MIKE: It is time to move forward with my life
RITA: What are you trying say Mike?
MIKE: I’m trying to say Rita, I think I have fallen in love.
RITA: Really, I thought you would be done with all that sort of thing after all your past experiences. Who’s the lucky gal?
MIKE: Isn’t it obvious?
RITA: No
MIKE: Stay here Rita, stay here tonight and every night.
Rita didn’t have chance to answer as just then the door buzzer rang.
RITA: Saved by the bell
MIKE: I’ll ignore it.
The buzzer kept on ringing.
RITA: (grinning) you better get that
MIKE: Damn whoever it is, I’ll get rid of them.
Mike answered the buzzer and the door opened
MIKE: Mark!
MARK: Hello Dad!
MIKE: What are you doing here, you said you never wanted to see me again.
MARK: I know, but I think it is time to put the past behind us. If you will let us?
MIKE: Oh son you don’t know how happy that makes me. Come in, come in.
MARK: No, not this minute, I’m on my way to visit Linda. I had a phone call saying there has been some improvement - and I was over here anyway visiting my mother.
Rita got up to join Mike at the door.
RITA: Yes, that’s right and I think Linda is going to need all the love and help she can get in the coming months, if she is to make any kind of recovery.
MARK: I know, I’ve been a bit of a prat about it all. No more though. I’m going to be there for her and I want all of us to be a family.
MIKE: I’d like nothing more, you, me, Adam, Linda and now Ri…
MARK: (interrupting Mike) Look Dad I don’t have much time right now, however I need you to do me a favour.
MIKE: (looking suspiciously at Mark) what kind of favour?
From around the side of the door Mark wheeled in a buggy that had been previously out of view. Mike and Rita gasped for inside the buggy sat a baby.
MARK: If I’m going to be visiting an intensive care unit I need someone to look after this little lady as I don’t think it is right she sees her mother in such a state. Normally my Mum would do it but she is out tonight.
MIKE: Are you saying I’m a granddad Mark?
MARK: Yes Dad, meet Margaret Mary Redman. We call her Meg for short. She is three months old and she is the reason why Linda and I were getting married.
Mike just looked on for a second in total bewilderment.
MARK: We were going to call her Penny but now I’m so glad we didn’t. Margaret is after my mother and is Eve Sykes’s middle name. Mary is for your Mum, the grandmother I never knew. However you obviously have told stories to Linda about her because she has told me a few.
Mike smiled
MARK: Now we are all certain that Linda isn’t my sister, I am going to ask her to marry me again as soon as she is well enough.
RITA: May I hold her?
Mark nodded. Rita lifted the little tot out of her buggy.
MARK: So will you look after her for me?
RITA: Of course we will won’t we Mike? You get gone Mark and don’t worry about a thing.
MARK: Thanks Rita
MIKE: Oh, before you go
Mike went over to a drawer and pulled out the tatty black and white photo of the baby girl he had kept all these years, the baby girl he thought to be his daughter but now he knew she wasn’t.
MIKE: You might like this Mark? It is a picture of Linda when she was first born. It is no good to me anymore however you might want to give it to Linda when she gets better or hold on to it for little Meg here.
Mark said his thanks and left the flat. Rita was still holding little Meg who had previously been peaceful. However with her father gone, Meg began to cry.
MIKE: You know I don’t know the first thing about babies.
RITA: What little I did know I’ve forgotten.
They both laughed.
MIKE: Let me take a look at her.
Mike took his granddaughter from Rita and was instantly mesmerised. She also seemed enthralled by him, stopping her tears and cuddling into him. He couldn’t get over her tiny fingers and toes and Mike counted every last one of them. She had the full set. And she was perfect in every way. She had blue eyes that appeared to be turning green and a lot of red hair.
MIKE: You know Rita, I’ve always had a fetish for red heads.
RITA: Oh really Mr. Baldwin now you tell me.
Mike and Rita stared at each other for a moment, then he lent in and they kissed and little Meg gurgled.
MIKE: What I was saying before Mark arrived
RITA: yes
MIKE: Rita! I want you to be the 5th Mrs Baldwin and the last woman in my life – from here to eternity!
THE END - OR IS IT JUST THE BEGINNING!
So some happy endings but some deliberate loose ends for the reader to make your own mind up or wait for a sequel.
So did Mike and Rita live happily ever after? Did she accept his proposal or was it all the heat of the moment born out of guilt.
Would Linda recover?
As Mark now knows Linda isn’t his sister, would he stick by his promise to Mike & Rita that he will marry her if she gets better?
Will Norris ever let Rita forget the night he spent in police cells?
Could Ken Barlow really be Linda’s father? Or is it another of Penny’s lies? If it is the truth what the heck would Deirdre say? She and Linda hated each other and because of Mike, Linda hated anything Barlow.
Is that really the end of Penny King?
Watch out for Patricia’s sequel – 'When Mike Met Rita'!
Now I'm going into fanfic retirement. At least Corrie anyway?
Regarding this Em one can it go on these boards or does it have to go on the Emmerdale ones?
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Jun 25, 2005 17:07:41 GMT
Actually the sequel's not called that but just plain Mike and Reet.
Patsy
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Post by Lane Kent on Jun 25, 2005 17:47:49 GMT
Actually the sequel's not called that but just plain Mike and Reet. Patsy Sorry |
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Post by RitaLittlewood on Jun 25, 2005 21:24:34 GMT
That's okay. I was just pointing it out to other people for when the sequel starts going up in case they wondered where it was.  Patsy |
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Post by eithne on Jun 30, 2005 1:07:28 GMT
Brilliant! Really brilliant end. And I loved the way you added in the bit about the optional Epilogue. If that warning hadn't been there, the ending would have ever so slightly been ruined, but I'm glad to say it wasn't.
Sorry I can't say more, but I will do the next time I'm on. I'm just exhausted now, so better go get some sleep (it's 2.10am as I type!).
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Post by Lane Kent on Jun 30, 2005 16:58:28 GMT
Brilliant! Really brilliant end. And I loved the way you added in the bit about the optional Epilogue. If that warning hadn't been there, the ending would have ever so slightly been ruined, but I'm glad to say it wasn't. Sorry I can't say more, but I will do the next time I'm on. I'm just exhausted now, so better go get some sleep (it's 2.10am as I type!). Must confess I don't like the epilogue but some people do want happy endings so hence why the option. Also I wanted to use Corrie's words against them about eternity or whatever it was Mike said to Penny. I nearly choked when he said them. |
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