A/N- this one's a bit longer but I'm sure no one's complaining ;) This one comes from episode 2 after Captain James gives the lyrics to Molly. Please don't forget to follow/favourite/review it literally means everything! Enjoy :)
Molly looked down at the crumpled piece of paper handed to her earlier by Captain James. She frowned to herself as she didn't recognise the song he'd chosen, but then she didn't expect to. She wiped her brow and continued to scan over the lyrics, exhausted from the heat of the long day behind her.
Molly remembered the fleeting brush of fingers and the extended eye contact between them and smiled to herself, longing for more time to spend with the captain to get to know him better. Although she felt like she knew him inside out already – how far he would go to save someone's life, what he looks like at five o'clock in the morning without coffee – she found she didn't know the small details. She wanted to know where he lived when he wasn't in Afghanistan, what his favourite colour was and if he had any brothers or sisters like she did. With all this thinking about siblings before long she abandoned the lyric sheet and picked up her sister's letter again.
"Come back to me soon," it read, before she had signed it in careful black biro. Molly glanced at the photo of her ever-smiling sister and sighed. She couldn't go back if she tried. The more she thought about it, the more Molly realised that going back home would break her heart more than it would to be in Afghanistan. This was the real deal here. When you've seen men bleed nearly to death and been in the firing line of terrorists then everything else seems trivial. In her sister's letter she talked about how Mr Bell had given too much homework the other day and about how she was glad to have a room all to herself. Molly decided not to reply. After all, what could she say? That she was blown up by a mine the other day? The two worlds of home and war were complete opposites, and Molly just hoped they would never collide.
"Dawes?" Molly jumped in fright then quickly wiped the tear from her eye before turning to face Captain James. How long had he been stood there?
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "You didn't half scare me sir. I nearly dropped bombs in my pants!" she said, making the captain chuckle.
"I see you've been examining your lyrics, Dawes. They need to be learnt by tomorrow evening. The concert starts at 2000 hours."
"But sir, I ain't even heard of the tune," Molly replied. Her heart beat a little faster when his smile crinkled his eyes and she wondered whether the light and sunburn would kindly combine to hide her spreading blush.
"I don't know what you've been listening to but clearly not the best song in the world," he said jokingly. "We'll just have to practise it."
"When, sir?"
"Well there's no time like the present is there, Dawes?" The captain raised himself on to his tip-toes, showing his eagerness to get going.
"I was just about to pack it in sir. It is nearly midnight."
"Adds to the fun," he winked. "Follow me."
Molly willingly obeyed, exiting the medic's tent just behind him and following him into a tent she'd never been in before. A mixture of excitement and tiredness made her giddy as she realised what this whole gesture could be interpreted as. Inside the tent was a single bed and on top of that, the covers were as flat as the desert. On the walls were maps and sketches, as well as small photographs that Molly assumed were family. Propped up against the bed was a small keyboard and a couple of sheets of paper were scattered around the floor.
"So this is your kip room, sir?" she asked, smiling as the homeliness of it.
"I don't really..." The captain trailed off and looked down at his boots like they were the most interesting things in the world. "I don't really sleep much."
Molly didn't know how to reply to this. No amount of gossiping around the back of the bike shed at school could prepare her for these situations. Normally her words came instantaneously but whenever she was around him she had to think things through a bit more.
"I don't know what to say, sir," she finally whispered as the flatness of the bed covers made sense. "I mean, you must take a nap sometimes, or you wouldn't be alert would you?"
"Coffee normally does the trick. I can't because every time I close my eyes I can see such terrible things. This place follows me into my sleep. I see hell in my dreams which is foreboding for the future. When the war is over it still rages on inside of my head... Anyway," He sat down on the bad, creasing the sheets beneath him, and slid the keyboard onto his lap. "I'm still in shock that you don't know the song. Bloody disappointing, Dawes. Do you even listen to music?"
"Actually no," she replied, her serious tone contrasting with his joking one. "We never really had the money for cassettes or CDs when I was a kid and then I never really got into it after that."
"In that case, in one night I'm going to make up for a lost childhood. No music? Please, take a seat and I'll show you. Be prepared to hear the most amazing keyboard player on this earth!" He put on the voice of a voice-over from the X Factor and Molly giggled whilst she sat down beside him. The bed was surprisingly comfy, which wasn't good for her sleep-deprived state. "It's time! To face! The music!"
Molly was in awe of the agility of his fingers as he played the backing track from the proposed song. He sang the bits that he was meant to sing and Molly joined in when she had gotten the hang of it. She didn't comment on his awful singing for once and just enjoyed the moments they lived together. Once they had mastered 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart' (which took a considerable amount of time), James' fingers slid over jazz and rocked out to 90s hits.
"This is my favourite symphony of Bach's," the captain said. "Listen how there are two completely separate concertos to it and you'd never think in a million years they'd join but in the third they combine to create a perfect harmony." He looked down at Molly who was already gazing at him. "Sound familiar?"
"Sir, it would if I knew what a simpany or a conchertoy was." The utter confusion on her face made the captain laugh as he continued to play.
He may have made a wrong note or two but that didn't matter to Molly. She marvelled at how the same fingers that pulled triggers and took lives could master the piano and glide so gracefully over its keys.
It was just when he was playing the theme from James Bond when she started to feel her eyes go heavy. She glanced at her watch and realised it was three in the morning and the 2 section met up at five. Molly put her hand over his gently and looked up at him through bleary eyes. She noticed he had gorgeous chocolate brown eyes that she found she couldn't look away from.
"Thank you, sir," she whispered. It didn't matter what was going on outside in the camp because everything was happening right there and then. It was as if that moment was the turning point of the universe.
"Dawes, I- You do realise that if anyone knows that you've been here tonight I'll have the officers on my heels like blood-thirsty wolves."
"I understand, sir." There was silence. It wasn't an unbearable or awkward silence but a silence between two people who do not need to speak the words they mean, because the other one already knows it.
"Molly, I-"
"Sir?"
"It doesn't matter. I'm glad you liked the music."
"Loved it, sir. Never heard anything like it."
"Maybe you'd like to come round again soon. I can teach you to play if you like," he offered, raising his eyebrows hopefully.
"I'd love to do this again, sir," Molly replied. "I ain't ever gonna be as good as you but I can bloody well try."
"That's the spirit, Dawes," he said as Molly stood up and rubbed her eyes. "You rest up; it's a big day tomorrow."
"It is tomorrow, sir."
"Quite right. The time just slipped away from us."
"I hope you sleep well, sir," Molly said as she neared the entrance of the tent. "I mean it."
There was another silence in which both of them simultaneously wondered whether to go for a handshake or a hug. It turned out to be neither as the captain glanced at a folded piece of paper on the floor, picked it up and gave it to her.
"Can't forget your lyrics," he smiled.
""No, sir," she replied, taking it off him.
Their hands fleetingly brushed and they both immediately looked up at eachother. Molly exited the tent and found that it took all she could to contain herself from skipping back to her quarters. She glanced back to see him still standing there, his tall figure silhouetted by the warm golden glow coming from his tent.
This was all they needed. No handshake, no hug. No more homework from Mr Bell, no more lying sleepless in the moonlight. No more drunken midnights at the club, no more time wasted on trivial things. No more nights without music, no more days without each other. No more looking back and no more broken hearts.
