Charles James was a typical army officer and most things had to be precise. Well not everything of course, he wasn't that much of a stiff but a lot of things such as timings had to be stuck to if possible. As eight in the evening rolled by he got off of the sofa he had been sat upon, watching a trivial program, and made his way up to his son's bedroom. Opening the door he saw his son playing with his toys. "Sam, half an hour then bedtime alright?" Sam looked up at his father, he was already dressed in his military patterned PJs and his hair was slightly stuck up from his bath. "Sure dad... Will you tell me a bed time story before I sleep?" he asked, his brown eyes meeting his fathers. "I'll tell you one if you go to bed now, does that sound alright? I know what you're like, if my story isn't long enough you want two." Charles didn't really mind having to tell his son more then one story, after all whenever he went on tour he had missed many a night of doing so. He was trying to make up for lost time. Nodding Sam was about to make his way to bed before he noticed the slight eyebrow raise from his dad and swiftly tidied away his toys before making his way into bed. Walking over to Sam's bed Charles gently sat on it next to Sam and watched him for a moment. Sam was looking at the two watches on his left wrist. Each one right next to each other. "Would Molly be asleep now? It would be half passed midnight there." Charles sighed. In reality she probably wouldn't, not if she was out on patrol but he wasn't going to tell Sam that. "Yeah she would." Looking up at his father Sam then looked down at the two watches. "I miss her..." This made Charles's heart briefly stop. "Yeah me too scamp... me too..."
Molly had been sent back to Afghanistan for another tour. Despite the pair of them sitting emotionally in front of the TV as they saw the flags being pulled down from Bastion it had turned to be a small pull back. For once Molly was correct about that theory. Once they government had some how found enough money they had sent troops back to continue a mission that seemed to never end. Molly was one of those sent. Part of her was looking forward to it however part of her was also resenting it. She had been building up a great relationship with Sam and he was beginning to even see her as a second mum, much to Rebecca's dislike, though she didn't stop it.
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"Molly... do you have to go?" Same asked as he wondered into Molly and Charles's room, rubbing his eyes of sleep. It was early morning and as usual before a tour she couldn't sleep the night before so Molly was up triple checking she had everything that she needed. Charles however was laid in bed pretending to be asleep, listening to their conversation. "You should be asleep Sam, if your dad knew you were up at this time he would freak." Sam however ignored that and wondered over to her, tears in his eyes. "I don't want you to go..." Sighing Molly stopped what she was doing and made her way over to Sam and bent down onto her knees pulling him into a hug. "Me nether kiddo but it will just wizz by!" Pulling away she looked him in the eyes. "Wonna see what I was goin' to give you in the morning?" Receiving a nod she went over to the bedside draws and pulled out four watches. Going back over to him she put them on the floor. They were all dark colours, black, brown, green. The black one being a double. "Pick two." Sam looked down at them thinking for a second before picking the brown one and the green one. "Good choices." Molly grinned and took the green one. "Right this one here is set to the time here." She set it to the time in England, doing the same to one of the black ones and places the green one upon his left wrist, her set black one upon her right. "Now this one is going to be set to the time in Afghan." she changed the last two watches to Afghan time putting her other black one right above her English one. "Where do you want it? On the other arm?" Sam shook his head. "Same one." Putting it under the green one she ruffled his hair. "Now you will always know what time it is in both places and so will I. This will make it easier for calls." she playfully stuck her tongue out at him and he giggled.
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Charles looked away from the watches on his son's wrist and ruffled his hair. "What story do you want tonight?" Sam cuddled into his covers and had a little think. "Soldiers!" Chuckling Charles nodded. "Alright." Getting comfortable he closed his eyes as he began. "The plane touched down and a rabble of men walked out, well men and one women." As usual when telling this story Sam took it upon himself to interrupt. "Two section!" Charles chuckled "Yeah two section. In two section there was-" and again Sam interrupted. "Bossman... the leader! Kinders, Brains, Mansfield, Baz Vegas, Dangles, Kinders, Nude-Nut, Smurf and Dawesy the medic!" Little did Sam know was that all the characters in the story he enjoyed his father telling him were real. The story was real. "Daddy! You forgot to tell the bit before the plane, when Bossman yells at two section because of them not being ready for photos, calls them 'Wombles' " Charles clearly leaving words out, "and him threatening to throw Dawesy out of the plane!" he giggled. Charles chuckled. "You clearly know the story better then me, why don't you tell it?"
A lot of time past and Charles finally made his way down to the living room to lay back upon the sofa. It was normally this time he would lay with her, cuddling before bed, however not today. While he was used to being left behind, sometimes when his parents weren't here it just felt even more lonely. He himself was in the army still however due to his relationship with Molly he couldn't accompany her. He hated it but he understood. He missed her but he knew he didn't have long until she came back. Half a month. He was counting down, even as far to the minutes. He was counting to the minutes till he would be upon that tarmac again but instead of flying off on tour he would be hold the keeper of his heart in his arms again.
Time had passed since he had laid himself on the sofa to watch some boring program. He must have fallen asleep however because he was woken up by a knock on the door. Groaning he sat up rubbing his eyes and checking the time. It was eleven in the evening, Who would be at the door that late? It occurred to him that his parents had told him they may come home early, they didn't know, and they had also forgotten their house keys. As his phone was upstairs he couldn't of heard them contact him to tell him they were coming home. Getting up he made his way to the door, seeing the silhouette of two people. He was convinced it was them, after all who else could it be?
Getting ready to playfully scold his parents for waking him up he opened the door and found his heart stop in his chest, it now seeming to be at his throat as everything came crashing to reality. There in front of him were two smartly dressed soldiers, a man and a women, the looks on their faces telling him everything. "Captain Charles James?" The man asked. The formality was killing Charles even more, he was feeling light headed and was struggling to keep his knees from buckling. "Y-yeah..." he tried to speak but his voice was hoarse. "Maybe we should come in and speak?" the women suggested but Charles instantly shook his head. "Just tell me." That was all he could say while trying to sound like his normal self, but he was slipping to stern officer mode. It was his form of coping. The man shuffled slightly before sighing. "Captain, this is about Molly Dawes. She's M.I.A and has been for a week now. It isn't looking good. I am sorry." Charles looked up. "Right. Okay. Thank you." Without even saying good bye he closed the door clearly just going through the motions. He needed to get away from them.
He felt physically sick and he couldn't think. M.I.A... Missing in action. For a week. Tears began streaming down his cheeks and his stomach churned. How could this have happened? His knees finally buckled and he found himself on his knees crying. His mind went wild with what sate she could be in and he instantly put is hands out in front of him, retching. Luckily he wasn't sick however. "No... no... Molly... what's happened? Where are you? I should have been there... I should have been there..."
Sam had woken up and had walked down to get a drink of water when he stopped in his tracks seeing his dad hunched over upon the floor near the base of the stairs crying and saying something about Molly. Sam couldn't understand what was going on being too young but having never seen his dad like this could tell it was bad. Running to his dad's room he took his dad's phone and called his grandparents. "Nana, daddy's crying... no I don't know... he said Molly's name though... yeah... okay... I will.. Love you too." Ending the call he went down and wrapped his small arms around his dad, who hadn't moved from that spot still crying. "Don't worry. Nana and Grandpa are coming home."