Sorry this chapter has taken so long to upload. I must have re-written it a thousand times and I'm still not entirely happy with it, but here goes!

Belinda and Jade had left Molly early afternoon, wanting to avoid the rush hour on their return home. She'd hated watching them leave, having enjoyed their company for the day, but she knew it wouldn't be long before Charles came home. She was determined not to clock watch; instead busying herself playing with Katie until it became apparent that she was getting tired and an early night was required.

Katie had taken a while to calm down enough to fall asleep, so once she was finally settled; Molly decided to stay with her for a while. She sat beside her cot, just watching her chest as it rose and fell, her eyes flickering with dreams. She was so beautiful; Molly couldn't quite believe that she'd given birth to her. Such a perfect, tiny human being that loved her unconditionally. Whilst she may have been unplanned, Molly didn't regret having her for one second. That little girl meant everything to her.

She closed her eyes for what was only intended to be a moment, but soon drifted off to sleep as well. She had no idea what the time was when she woke, finding herself stretched across the floor, her arm numb and cold from having slept on it. She sat herself up to relieve the pressure, only to experience a searing pain as pins and needles shot down the length of her arm, forcing her to desperately rub it an attempt to get the blood flowing once more. She stood herself up, carefully tiptoeing across the carpet of her daughter's room, avoiding the creaky floorboard, and down the stairs, just as the front door opened and Charles walked in, clicking the door shut behind him.

"What time d'ya call this?" She joked, a huge smile plastered across her face. She was so pleased to see him. Unfortunately Charles didn't seem anywhere near as happy as she was. Unwilling to return it the smile, he ran his hand across his clenched jaw, scratching away at his stubble. "What?"

"Why didn't you answer your bloody phone?"

Phone? Molly glanced around the hallway, but failing to see it, she headed through to the lounge in search of it. She immediately spotted it on the sofa; a little light flashing in the corner to tell her there was a notification. Once unlocked, she spotted the dozens of missed calls and voicemail messages from Charles. Without listening to them, she turned back to face him, assuming that he was going to tell her anyway.

"Well?" She prompted him, taking a quick look at the time on her phone. "It's eight o'clock…hang on…" she looked again, not quite believing her own eyes. "It's eight o'clock in the fucking evening; you were due home over an hour ago!"

"Well I'm sorry," he replied sarcastically, "but I haven't quite mastered the power of controlling other road users. Do you know what? I actually left work early today, so if it wasn't for the fucking motorway being shut, I would have been home by five. I could have had dinner with you and even done Katie's bedtime. That'll teach me for actually missing my wife and daughter so much that I couldn't concentrate at work." He ran his hand through his hair, the worry lines still evident on his face. "You're normally attached to that bloody phone of yours; all I kept thinking was that something had happened to you and I couldn't get back here. I swear time has never gone slower."

"I'm sorry." Molly bowed her head with guilt, not knowing what else she could say. "Katie only had a short nap when we were in town earlier, so I took her up to bed at six and I must have fallen asleep too."

Charles watched her for a moment, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself down. When he opened them again, Molly could see that tears had begun to form and she mentally kicked herself for not taking her phone with her.

"I'm so sorry," she apologised again, holding her arms out and reaching them around his neck, pulling him close. They stood holding each other for a moment, Charles dipping his head forward to breath in the scent of his wife. Despite his annoyance at the whole situation, he was still grateful to be home to her and know that nothing was wrong.

"Don't ever worry me like that again, ok?"

Molly pulled back to look him in the eye. "I won't, boss."

"Well…good." He rested his forehead against hers, gently rubbing his thumb along her cheekbone. "I love you, Dawesy."

"Ditto," she replied, closing her eyes to enjoy the moment. Despite being stuck in the car for several hours, he still smelt amazing. She tipped her head to kiss him, her tongue circling inside his mouth, savouring the taste. She groaned gently as he pulled away, gesturing that he wanted to get out of his work clothes. "Ok," she sighed loudly, glancing around the room at the mess that had been left. "I'll tidy up this bombsite and then sort something out for dinner."

As Charles headed upstairs, Molly stared in disbelief at the sheer amount of toys that were scattered across the lounge. They'd been given so many from family and friends since announcing the pregnancy and if truth be told, Katie only ever played with her favourite few, despite the fact that on most days, every single one of them would still come out. As she started to tidy them away into the toy box or tuck them into the corner of the room, she made a mental note to sort through them at the earliest opportunity. There were probably loads that could go into the attic until they were needed again.

Her mind began to wander and for a second, Molly considered the prospect of Katie having a brother or sister one day that she could share her toys with, but Molly had to shake the thought away. She wasn't ready to go through that again so soon.

Once everything was away, she picked her phone up and sat herself down to listen to the voicemails. There were four in total, the first of which was just after six, the same time that she was taking Katie up to bed, and the same time that he would normally have just been leaving work. Instead, he'd already been stuck in traffic for two hours. The next message left fifty minutes later and another twenty minutes after that. With each message, his voice became audibly more panicked, forcing Molly to realise just how worried he'd been.

The final voicemail left at 7.30, was to say that the traffic was finally moving and he was on his way home. He sounded upset and fretful; something Molly wasn't used to hearing from someone who could usually remain calm in the toughest of situations. She hated herself for putting him through that and knew that it was her fault.

"It doesn't matter," Charles said from the doorway, resting his hands on the doorframe and smiling across the room at her. "Hindsight's a wonderful thing."

Molly looked up at him, her breath catching in her throat as she caught sight of him, stood there in nothing but his underwear. His skin wasn't as tanned as it was during his army days, but he'd managed to maintain his fitness levels and incredible physique, giving her the perfect view. Her eyes flicked from his naval downwards, a shiver shooting down the length of her spine as she bit down on her lip, all too aware of the effect he was having just by looking at her.

"Are you checking me out, Mrs James?"

"Maybe," her eyes scanned back up and over his chest once more, before finally settling on the smile that stretched from his lips to his eyes, lighting up whole his face. "You'd better be careful stood like that, Mr James, or you'll be taking me up to bed very soon."

"What's wrong with the sofa?" Charles asked, a cheeky glint in his eye. He walked over to her, desire etched on his face. As he tucked her hair behind her ears, he leant forward, kissing her gently at first. As his hands slowly edged around her waist, Molly gradually pushed them away again; still self-conscious about what remained of her baby weight several months after giving birth.

"Stop it," Charles breathed, desperately trying to maintain the contact. "Let me touch you."

"I'm still-"

"Beautiful," he interrupted. "You're still beautiful." He hooked his fingers on the hem of her top, lifting it over her head and running his hands over her body. He lips quickly returned to hers as he moved her backwards on the sofa, laying himself on top of her and urgently tugging at the button of her jeans.

They lay on the sofa sometime afterwards, fighting to catch their breath. Molly was still floating on cloud nine, her brain fuzzy from the pleasure and a euphoric energy pulsing through her body. She slowly pulled herself away and sat up, fanning her face in an attempt to cool down.

Eventually Charles sat up too, rubbing his hand along the length of her thigh. "I missed you today."

"Ditto," she sighed. "I thought it would get easier, but…" she lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "Mum and Jade ended up coming over today to keep us company."

"That was nice of them."

"Yeah it was." Molly smiled, her breathing to beginning to regulate at last.

"On the subject of mum's…" Charles spoke slowly, unsure whether or not it was the appropriate moment to have the conversation with her, before deciding that it was better late than never.

"What's your one gone and done now?" Molly rolled her eyes. "I swear one of these days she's gonna end up with a broken leg the way she's going."

Charles laughed, knowing that Molly had a point. His mum was even clumsier than her and that said a lot. "No, it's nothing like that; although apparently she did trip on the back door last night and has some bruising down her leg."

"Sounds about right for her. So c'mon, what is it?"

"Well I thought it might be nice for her to come over tomorrow and spend some time with Katie."

"She only came over last week."

"Yes, but Sam wasn't here then."

"Sam's coming over?" Molly suddenly felt the colour drain from her skin. She and Sam got along great and she loved his cheeky sense of humour, but she wasn't enthused by the prospect of having to look after him alone for the day, whilst also entertaining her mother-in-law. "I thought he was coming on Saturday? You know – when you're at home? What am I supposed to do with your mum and Sam all day? And why isn't he going to school?"

"It's a non-pupil day. I thought maybe you could all go somewhere for a little bonding trip? Perhaps you could all go swimming?"

"What the fuck? You know I can't swim!" Molly stared at him in frustration, trying to work out what he was finding so funny. As his face crumpled with laughter, he wiped away a stray tear, shaking his head at how gullible she'd been. "You're taking the mick, aren't you?"

"That was too funny." He bowed his head forward, kissing the bare skin of her shoulder. "Rebecca rang me this morning saying that George had booked them all on a last minute day trip to Paris, but apparently Sam doesn't want to go, and instead asked to come here a day earlier than planned. By some minor miracle my boss was actually in today and he seemed to think they could manage without me for the day."

"You're not working tomorrow?"

"I'm not working tomorrow," he confirmed.

Molly was about to leap forward into his sweaty arms, when the baby monitor lit up, the sounds of Katie crying filling the room. "I'll go," Molly said, pulling her t-shirt over her head in an attempt to keep warm. "She'll probably want another feed anyway."

"Did you not have much luck with the puree today?"

Molly stopped in the doorway to look back at him, shaking her head. "I've tried everything, sweet and savoury, but she just point blank refuses it. Mum suggested trying some mashed up banana cos apparently I loved it when I was a little'un, but if that doesn't work she's going onto formula cos I swear, the amount that kid wants feeding these days, my tits are gonna fall off soon."

Charles bit down on the corner of his lip as he suppressed a laugh, an undisguisable grin stretched across his face. Molly could feel herself melting, full of want for her husband once more. If she hadn't have left the room immediately, there was a very real chance that she would have found herself on top of him again.

She just wished that he still had that same expression when she came back into the room twenty minutes later. Instead, he looked angry, his face creased at the temple. He stood, his feet fixed firmly on the ground, his arms folded across his chest. Molly stopped in her tracks, desperately trying to think what she could have possibly done wrong. The army stance was only ever used when he was angry. If it wasn't for the fact that he was stood in nothing but his underwear, she might have felt a little intimidated; instead, she found it mildly amusing.

"I thought I'd be nice and make a start on dinner." Molly opened her mouth about to speak, but Charles continued before she had the chance to respond. "You know if you're going to burn something, you might want to make sure it doesn't extinguish half way through; and you might want to make sure that you get rid of the evidence of said burning prior to your husband coming home." He paused for breath. "What the fuck, Molly?"

"It was a stupid thing to do, I know. I wasn't thinking, it just came in the post and I couldn't bring myself to open it."

"So you burnt it?" Charles raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Why?"

Molly walked over to the arm chair and sunk into it, hoping that it would bring her some comfort or even protect her from the glare of her husband. "Did you read it?"

Charles held out what remained of the envelope. There was just half of it left, a soggy mess of paper with a burnt curl down one side. "Well half of it is now ash; the other half is soaked through because you were clever enough to drop it in the washing up bowl. No, Molly, I did not read it."

"Alright, keep your barnet on."

He ran his hand through his hair, inhaling deeply and holding the breath until he was calm enough to exhale. "I'm sorry." He knelt himself on the floor in front of his wife, taking her hand in his. They both looked down, watching as his thumb stroked hers. "We promised each other that we'd have no secrets, remember?"

Molly nodded, nervously biting down of the thumb of her free hand, trying to think of the right words to say. "Do you remember about six weeks ago, I contacted HR and said that I wanted to take ASL for two months?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, when I found out I was pregnant I couldn't go to Cyprus, could I?"

"I know you wanted to go, Moll, but it was too much of a health and safety risk."

"I know, I know. It's just; I didn't want to regret the missed opportunity so I said at the time that if the chance came up to deploy to Cyprus when my OML ended, then I wanted to know. So when HR sent me a letter back confirming my extension, they also told me that there was the chance to go to Cyprus literally like a week after my ASL ends."

"I don't understand."

"They're going to send me to Cyprus. I rang my CO after I got the letter and we agreed that I would use my ten keeping in touch days to get back up to fitness before my medical. It seemed like ages away at the time and I was kinda excited about it. But then that letter came today and I knew it would be the date for medical and days that I can visit the garrison and suddenly it just feels like I'm being shoved on the plane."

"But it wouldn't be for another couple of months still."

"But it's going too quick!" Molly gulped, taken aback by her own volume. "I'm not ready to leave Katie."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

Molly shrugged, fixing her eyes on the ground. She knew she had no good reason for not talking to him and for choosing instead to bottle everything up. It had just happened. "Anyway, I have to stay home to look after Katie cos you're working full time."

"We already discussed this, Molly. I said I could cut down some of my hours and Mum said she's willing to take her on the days when I'm at work."

"But I'm her mum! I should be raising her, not her nan."

"So are you wanting to quit the army altogether?" Charles remained calm, his hand still holding hers, squeezing it reassuringly every so often.

"No I don't, I mean, I dunno. I dunno anymore."

Charles lifted himself to his feet, pulling Molly up and into his arms. "Come here. Only you can make this decision, Molly, and you know I'll support you whatever you decide. But you need to let them know soon, because they won't wait for you forever."

Molly lifted her chin just enough to look up at him. Tears were beginning to fall down her cheeks, overwhelmed by it all. She raised herself to her tiptoes, still struggling to reach his height as he leant forward to meet her kiss. "I don't deserve you."

"Other way around, Dawesy, it's me that doesn't deserve you."

A/N I purposely didn't describe his underwear in any detail as I think it's only fair to let your imagination decide that one ;)