The Fourth Side of the Triangle

Chapter 14

14.

Amy was incredibly close to not surviving the birth of their son, Joshua James Luke Haydon. The responsibility of having a child seems to shock some sense back into the young couple and Amy starts to look after herself as well as her child. Of course, with Josh taking up the majority of her attention, there is nobody watching Oliver. Weight has stopped dropping off him, but he doesn’t seem to be gaining it back either. Although the baby’s birth appears to have mended something inside of him, it doesn’t stop his relapse back into his unhealthy ways. It is like Joshua has filled in the gap that James had momentarily left; his bright blue eyes pierce his heart, but in an entirely good way and from then on, it is Oliver who never leaves Amy’s side in between takes, shielding his baby from the cameras along with Becca, who has also taken a shine to the baby, and was of course immediately made godmother.

From the outside, it would seem that from that moment on, time starts to heal its sufferers.

They finish filming for the time being and set off on promoting the new series, taking them to different hotels every week. Every atom of Oliver’s being is tired, but he dotes on his son, spending every second of his spare time with his lover and his baby.

Soon, events bring them back to London for a question and answer session in front of a small audience, all fans of the show.

 Oliver stirs as a triangle of sunlight falls across the room, illuminating the foot of the bed in its wake. He brings a hand up to rub at his face that is still scrunched up with sleep, before slowly opening his eyes.

The first person he sees is Amy, who is placing a tray on the bedside table. Oliver watches as it hangs dangerously off the edge, threatening to fall onto the creamy white carpet below.

“What’s all this?” he asks, voice still thick and slightly croaking from sleep.

“You have to eat something,” Amy tells him somewhat sternly, although worry lines have etched their way onto her forehead, creating small crevices in the skin. Oliver shakes his head as his stomach clenches unpleasantly- even eating half a piece of toast would leave him feeling sick.

“What time is it?”

“Nearly eleven. I left you as long as I could, but David is growing impatient.”

Amy sets down the knife that she has been using to spread jam on a slice of toast; the very smell of which is enough to make Oliver feel slightly queasy, making his stomach churn. Oliver looks up from his pillows at the girl who is now sitting at the edge of his mattress, her fists clenching and relaxing slightly in her lap. As the light from the window falls onto her face, Oliver can see that Amy is biting her lower lip, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“Please Oliver,” she whispers finally, “eat something.”

Oliver doesn’t answer, and instead rolls to the other side of the bed, where he rises, stretches and heads off in the direction of the bathroom without a word.

When he returns, Amy is nowhere in sight.

It is Derek who speaks first, after the rapturous applause has died down.

“Um... hello there everyone,” he starts, “first of all, I would just like to thank everyone who has come to see us today... it’s so nice to see all of you here, given that this is our first proper public appearance to talk about this series and I think I speak for all of us when I say that it really means a lot.”

A couple of people in the audience begin to clap, but they quieten down almost at once. Derek simply takes it in his stride and carries on.

“Now, I won’t bore you for too long, as I am sure that you’re all dying to ask us some of your brilliant questions, but I just wanted to quickly say how proud I am of the three other people sitting up here with me. In fact, it’s an honour to be seated with them today.

As I am sure you are all aware, our dear friend and co-star was involved in a very serious road accident earlier this year, and is currently still in hospital in the deepest type of coma there is. James Thomas is incredibly close to all of us- he brought warmth, humour and energy to the set and always gave it his all when he was playing his role as Fabian. Alice, Nancy and Oliver here have been absolute troopers these past few months. They’ve battled on, despite the fact that they’ve been dealing with their own grief. But I have to say, the person who has impressed me the most- in fact, who has impressed us all, is Oliver. Ollie has always put everything into his role as Thomas and everyone on set knows just how hard he works. He is often the first on set and the last to leave at night. I know that Oliver has had an enormous amount of personal issues to deal with as well as the... well, loss of one of his closest friends from set and from his everyday life.

There have been numerous times since James has been put into hospital where we felt that we couldn’t carry on the show. We had to replace our Fabian Hague which I think was the hardest task I have ever had to do, emotionally as well as finding the right person to suit the role. Samuel Hitchcock who took on the role, has done a fantastic job, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to these three- Alice Butler, Nancy O’ Malley and Oliver Haydon, and I would just like to say thank you to all of them.”

He finds that the model answers he has prepared and built on over the years are no longer keeping the fans happy; they want more, to know about his social life, his baby- Nancy has to physically clamp her hand around his knee under the table to stop him from leaving the stage.

He is in some ways thankful for the audience- it gives him something to focus on. It is like looking out a a mass of silhouettes as the bright lights that are shining almost directly into his eyes are preventing him from making out any kind of features.

Most of the questions that are shot at them are about James. Each time, he manages to worm his way out of answering them, leaving David to answer. He catches Alice’s eyes fill up with tears more than once- Nancy has her chin set in a firm pose, her teeth clamped together. Oliver simply stares out at the ocean of figures.

After the show, Oliver finds Amy and Josh curled up and asleep on one of the sofas and he knows, in that moment, that nothing can take away his love for his family... nothing.