Elvis Harte stood in the hallway, totally surrounded and outmanoeuvred by a 5'3" dot of a woman, a huge dog, and three children but totally ignored by the grey fur ball who had strolled from the kitchen to investigate the commotion, taken one disdainful look and headed up the stairs, presumably to leave him a present of a hair ball on his bed like last time he visited. Somehow, that cat knew he was a dog person and exacted her revenge every way possible. Managing to detach Lucy from his right leg, he lifted her up in to his arms, grinning when she planted a noisy sloppy kiss on his cheek. Dropping his own kiss on Molly's cheek he eyed her up and down, "Looking a bit frazzled there Mrs James, good thing I arrived when I did." His cheeky grin saved him from a sarcastic answer. Lifting a reluctant Lucy from his arms, Molly shooed the children and Manny into the garden. "Give me five minutes peace to catch up with Uncle Elvis, Okay?" Catching Sam looking at his watch she sighed, "make that some peace, no specific amount of time. I'll come and get you when lunch is ready."
Pointing him in the direction of the snug, she quickly made two cups of coffee and grabbed the broken remains of yesterday's attempt to make biscuits and headed back to join him. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but what are you doing here? Charles didn't say he was expecting you. Is everything okay?" Having met Elvis on that fateful Christmas eighteen months ago they had formed a relaxed, easy going friendship. Elvis often came to Molly for the sort of advice he couldn't ask Charles about. "Is Laura Okay?" "She's fine, growing like a weed. Deb has taken her to Spain for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd come and spend some leave under your feet if that's okay."
"Of course it's okay, you're always welcome here, you know that. In fact, you can help me out this afternoon if you would. I promised the little buggers a trip over to the park but I've got an assignment to get finished. I was going to do it tonight when Charles gets back but it would be good to have some time this afternoon as well, just in case." Molly was studying for a BSc Honours Degree in Nursing Practice through the Open University. "No problem, how about I take them for a burger or pizza first and give you even more time. I'll even take Manny. Pip can always ride him home." Laughing at her expression, he leaned back with his cup of coffee, eyeing the tin of broken biscuits before reaching in and taking a piece. "What's with the broken biscuits? I remember when my gran used to talk about buying broken biscuits from the corner shop because they were cheap. Charlie tightening the purse strings?" "They're the only things the kids won't eat so I have to break a few when I'm baking so I and Charles can get some." Their shared laughter was a release after the chaos of the morning.
"How's the world of Special Forces treating you? Been anywhere exciting?" Molly would never regret giving up the army to look after the children but she still missed it. Missed the camaraderie, the excitement, the organisation and routine. Even the disgusting jobs like cleaning up a squaddie's manky blistered feet. "Oh you know, so so. There's talk of another mission in Syria but it won't necessarily be my team. To be honest, it's losing its thrill. I was hoping to talk to Charlie about it while I'm here. Had a bit of a close call on the last mission. Spunky took a bullet to the thigh, he's doing okay, but it made me think. What about Laura if I catch the bullet. I've got her in my will but I don't know if the army will support her with us not being official."
Reaching across, Molly squeezed his hand, "you'll make the right choice whatever it is and if you do decide to jack it in, I could do with a full time Nanny." Giving a derisive snort, Elvis stood, placing his cup on the table, and headed for the stairs, snatching up his kit bag and Bergen from the hall as he passed. "I'll just dump this lot and get changed then we'll be out of your hair.
Watching him go, Molly could understand why Charles thought so much of him. He put on such an act of this lothario Essex boy when really he was a kind, helpful man who gave his heart for keeps. The woman who finally won him would be very lucky.
He had been best man at their wedding, and as he was on leave the whole month prior had practically taken over the arrangements. Charles had jokingly called him the Wedding Planner which Molly thought was hilarious and made the two of them watch 'Father of the Bride' with Martin Short as the wedding planner. Elvis had threatened them with swans as revenge. As it happened, it was perfect. Molly let her mind wander, remembering that day last July.
The house had been heaving with family, every bedroom filled to capacity and then some. Gina and Max along with Elvis and Dave and Belinda had taken the three rooms on the second floor, Jade, Bella and Lilly had been put on air beds in the playroom, Martin, Steven and Paul went in with Sam and Pip and Nan took over Lucy's room. Little Lucy locket had been delighted to share a room with her parents, chattering in to the small hours to her captive audience. The night before the wedding Elvis had taken Charles, Max and Dave to stay in a hotel, saying they needed man time to explain husbandly duties to Charles and it was bad luck for Charlie to see the bride before the wedding anyway. What he really meant was they wanted to escape the fussing women and over excited children.
The morning of the wedding had started as a typical British summer day – dull, wet and overcast. Molly wasn't bothered though. The wedding was indoors at the registry office and they had a bloody big tent thing put up in the garden for the reception, any overspill would easily fit in the house. She had chosen a simple cream shift dress which Elvis had said made her look taller. Yes, he'd even helped her choose her dress as her mum was in London and Gina was in Italy. The only other person she would have wanted to help her was her best friend Jackie and she was now in Australia. Since joining up most of her friends tended to be male, with the exception of Jackie. So, Elvis was designated stand in maid of honour until Jade got there to take over on the day.
Her mum, Nan and Gina had helped her get ready and Jade had done her hair. Bella had taken charge of Lilly and Lucy and Paul had the boys organised when the cars arrived. They were meeting the men at the registry office. Charles, Elvis and Max had already gone into the room but Dave had waited to walk her in. Sam and Pip had nipped smartly off, quickly followed by the Dawes boys to join the men and Gina took Nan and Belinda through leaving Molly with her dad, three sisters and Lucy who looked adorable in a pale lemon smocked dress and white ankle socks with white Mary Janes. As they walked through the door, Elvis had nudged Charles to focus his attention. He had stared at the beautiful woman walking towards him and felt his heart stop for just a moment. This amazing woman, the mother of his children was going to be his wife. She was agreeing to spend the rest of her life with him. How the hell did he get to be so lucky? Molly in turn was watching Charles as she walked past the rows of empty chairs towards the small group at the front of the room. She didn't see any of that, her eyes were on the man she loved, admiring how handsome he looked in the dark grey suit, the burgundy tie standing out against his snowy white shirt. The other men and boys were similarly dressed as they had decided against having a military wedding choosing civvies over uniform.
The service itself passed in a daze for Molly, repeating her vows automatically, not able to draw her eyes away from Charles's. As he'd finally leaned in to kiss her, he quietly whispered, "I'll always want you to be the last thing I see." Her whispered "ditto" brought tears to his eyes. Signing the marriage register had been quick but they had posed for a few photos with various combinations of family. Paul, who was doing a photography course had volunteered to take the photos but Molly said she wanted ALL her family in the pictures so they had hired someone. The end result had been a selection of formal and informal pictures taken during and after the ceremony and back at the house.
The lads from 2 section and some of Molly's mates from Catterick, along with a few officer friends of Charles had been the only army presence at the reception. The rest of the guests had been made up of old school friends and neighbours including the infamous Gilly from number 19 and one surprise guest, George, Charles's ex father in law. He had come to say goodbye to Sam as he was emigrating to Canada to live with his other daughter Lauren. He had been shocked and apologetic for interrupting the wedding but Charles, after a nod from Molly, had asked him to stay and spend time with Sam. It had been a fantastic afternoon, evening and in some cases, early morning, catered by a local company who were just starting out. The food had been amazing and they even provided the music which was a relief to Molly as a few days earlier she'd caught Charles going through his CD collection.
Molly Dawes had been really happy with her life as part of the James family but now, having the James name and Charles's ring on her finger she thought she couldn't get any happier. She'd been wrong. A taxi arrived to whisk them away to a luxury hotel for two nights and Molly had done the rounds of hugs and well wishes. She was just about to slide into the back seat when Sam, with Pip in tow had shouted, "Have fun, Mum," echoed by, "yeah, have fun mummy" Turning to look at Charles, tears of happiness overflowing she whispered, "Mum". That had been the first time the boys had called her mum and now, a year on it still gave her a thrill to hear them say it.
Pulled from her reminiscing by the thunder of feet, furred and shoed, she watched the boys and dog race through to the hallway. Elvis followed at a more sedate pace holding hands with Lucy. "Do you want the buggy? She gets fed up with walking after a bit." "Nah, it's alright. I've carried packs heavier than her." Grinning he followed after the boys. Walking to the door to see them off, Molly laughed to see the 6' man, holding hands with a curly headed toddler while trying to control a pony sized dog and two excited boys. "Good luck." she shouted after them.
Molly had jogged up to the second floor to double check the spare room was ready and that Elvis had towels in his room. They had stopped calling that room the 'spare' room as he stayed with them so often. He even left the odd item of clothing in the drawers for emergency stop overs. Happy that everything was fine, she did a mental tick and went downstairs to carry on with the next item on her to do list. Her assignment. Molly hated doing assignments; it reminded her of being back at school, or what she remembered from the infrequent times she attended. She was currently trying to complete the final module of her first year.
Nobody had been surprised when Molly started climbing the walls with boredom. The house was cleaned to within an inch of its life, laundry was done the minute dirty clothing was discarded and Pip and Lucy attended every toddler group session she could find. She'd even started dropping in at Gilly's for coffee. Charles had nearly blown a fuse when she told him where she'd been and she'd had a great time winding him up until finally admitting that Gilly was actually running a small B&B for people on the Jane Austen trail, hence all the couples coming and going every night. She didn't make it commonly known around the neighbourhood in case she was breaking any rules, some residents were very precious about the crescent, and didn't advertise, getting her guests through friends of friends and personal recommendations instead. Laughing, Molly had sworn Charles to secrecy.
Initially Charles had suggested Molly sign up for the local Territorials but, much as she loved the army she didn't want to do anything which might take her away from the children. It had been her mum who suggested the Open University; she had recently completed a Certificate HE course in Education to help with her teaching assistant job. Not really sure, Molly had talked it over with Charles who thought it was a fantastic idea. Pip went to a local nursery five afternoons a week so Molly was able to study when Lucy was down for her nap and in the evenings when Charles was playing with them. She stopped when the children were in bed so she could have some alone time with Charles but he always made sure she had at least half a day to her studies over the weekend. The dining room, which was only used for formal occasions had been designated her study when not in use. She'd chosen a nursing degree to build on her experience as a CMT and hoped, by the time Lucy was in full time school she might be ready to get some practical nursing experience.
She was thoroughly enjoying the course even though she struggled with large assignments like this, mainly because it kept her chained to the desk for long periods of time but it did challenge her mentally while the children challenged her physically so she felt she had a real purpose in her life.
The change of role for Charles had been difficult at first, moving from active duty with the threat of deployment always there to a training role. It didn't take long though for him to start seeing results in his trainees. At home too, things were more relaxed. Molly was home full time and he was home most evenings so they felt like they were starting to live as a proper family with the children. He'd missed a lot of that with Sam, first with deployments and then after the divorce when he'd moved back into barracks, only getting home once or twice a month for the weekend. Now he could help Sam with his homework, read Pip and Lucy bedtime stories and play endless games of make believe with all three. He even enjoyed taking the dog with him for his morning or evening run. His life finally felt right.
Thinking of Charles as she headed into the dining room, Molly checked the time on her phone and looked to see if he'd sent any messages. There was a brief WhatsApp message saying, 'Traffic not too bad, just stopping for coffee before driving into the City. Love you.' Charles had set off just before 07:00 to drive up to Glasgow.
Firing up the laptop, Molly opened the document she'd been working on and read through what she had written. "Thank god for spellchecker" she said aloud. All she had left to do was the conclusion of her work and that hopefully wouldn't take too long if she got her head down and her brain in gear.
Forty five minutes later, with a feeling of triumph, she pressed the send button and her assignment went winging its way to her tutor, too late to make any changes although she'd continue to have panics until she got her grade. She always did.
The house phone ringing caught her attention. There were three people who called the house phone, Gina, her Mum and her Nan. Other than them it would be sales calls or trouble. It was her mum. No trouble today thank goodness. Taking the phone with her into the kitchen, she switched the kettle on to make tea while she chatted. She'd found a renewed bond with her mum since becoming a mum herself. With the army it had always felt strange trying to talk to her mum or her Nan about what she did or about things that had happened. Now her mum understood exactly what she was talking about and could contribute, often giving sage advice. As she took her cup of tea to the table she was amused to see Kitty curled up in Lucy's wooden truck which had been left behind the door. "I hope you're all going to make it up here weekend after next for Lucy's party. You should see the outfit I got for her to wear." Molly snorted at the memory of Charles's face when she'd modelled her own outfit. "I got one almost the same for me and we've been practicing a dance. Honestly mum, she is so funny… you'd best warn Dad and the boys not to laugh though, she'd be devastated…. Yeah, Gina and Max fly in the Thursday before… yes Elvis will probably be here but tell Jade he's still too old for her. What? Is that Nan in the background? HIYA NAN! God no, she doesn't need to dress up. Urgh, I'm never going to get that picture out of my head now." Laughing she sipped her tea as she listened to her mum relay what she'd said to her Nan and laughed even louder at the reply.
They spent another twenty minutes catching up with news of the Dawes and James children and their adventures during the holidays. "I used to love the summer holidays, never wanted them to end. Now… roll on September. How the hell did you cope with all the little bleeders at home for six weeks, especially when dad was being a prannit?" She heard Belinda again relaying what she'd said to her Nan. "Why don't you put it on speaker phone so she can hear what I'm saying?... Just press the button with the megaphone on it… can you hear me now Nan?" Another ten minutes of three way chat and Molly glanced up at the clock alarmed to see it was nearly 15:00. Elvis and the kids had been gone for two and a half hours. Saying goodbye and returning the phone to its cradle Molly was deciding whether she should phone Elvis or just head down to the park to meet them when there was a loud banging at the door.