Disclaimer: Doc Martin is the property of Buffalo Pictures. I own nothing.

Authors note: Set about three months after the end of season 4. Contains spoilers for seasons 3 and 4.
I have no medical training so I looked stuff up on the internet and made up anything I couldn't find out so I apologise for any mistakes.

Summary: Sam Oakwood is suspended from school and his parents decide it's best not to give him any attention. What will the consequences of this decision be?

Chapter One.

Sam Oakwood sighed loudly but his mother didn't look up from the magazine she was reading. He coughed but she still ignored him. It was raining outside and his mother was ignoring him.

Yesterday he'd managed to make her pay attention to him by pretending to be ill. He'd even managed to get a false reading on the thermometer by putting it in his herbal tea whilst his mother wasn't looking. Unfortunately, that had led to a visit from Doc Martin who had been furious at being called out to a fake emergency. It had been worth Doc Martin's anger though because he had insisted that Sam be properly supervised and he'd had his mother's attention for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen today. His father had been adamant that Sam should not get any attention. In theory this was to encourage Sam to 'evaluate his value system' but in reality he was being punished. His father didn't care that he'd been suspended from school again. He was being punished because the headmaster disagreed with his father's parenting theories and had told him so. The headmaster had also accused his father of being unethical because he was testing his theories on his own son. His father had been outraged at being questioned by a 'mere teacher' when he was a qualified psychiatrist and lecturer at the University of North Devon. Personally, Sam thought that the headmaster of a large secondary school probably knew a lot more about children than his father did but his father would never that admit he was wrong. So, he'd lectured Sam about accurate placement of values within his ethical framework in the context of modern society and declared that Sam needed time without interruptions to work through the issues raised. Sam wished his father was like Tom's Dad. When Tom misbehaved, his father would tell him off and then say, 'Two weeks grounded,' or 'No pocket money this week.' And then the family would carry on like normal.

His parents thought that ignoring him would lead to better behaviour. Perhaps it was time for them to find out that they were wrong.

He looked outside and noticed that the rain was easing off. It was time to get into trouble. Sam slipped his coat on and went outside.

For about half an hour he wandered round the village looking for something that would make his parents pay attention to him. And then he saw it; a huge 4x4 parked by the shop. The owners had got out and left the engine running which was entirely stupid in Sam's opinion. He walked up to the door, checked that no one was watching and clambered in. It was an automatic just like his Dad's car. Smiling, he put the car into gear and put his foot hard on the accelerator pedal. The 4x4 surged into the middle of the road and roared up the hill.