"What are you doing here, doll?"

"I thought maybe you'd let us" she pointed at Parsnip "him and me, stay for a day or two, it won't be for long, I'll sort something, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to go"

"Where else would you go? Come in so we can stop letting all the heat out" He opened the door wider and stepped to one side for her to pass and pretended not to notice the red-rimmed eyes and the tears that had started trickling out of them as she sniffed, then wiped her nose on the back of her glove "You'd better come in and tell me what's been going on, what's that long streak of piss done now?"

"Don't call 'im that" Molly remonstrated out of pure habit as she did every time he described Charles that way, " 'e ain't done nothing, It's not 'is fault, it's mine, I'm sort of letting 'im down and we've been fighting a fair bit and 'e's been down in Bath all day and he's staying there tonight and he ain't called me, not once" feeling the familiar wave of misery wash over her and knowing that she was over-reacting still didn't stop her bursting into a flood of tears as Eddie started conjuring up some fresh insults to call him when he saw him.

"You look like one of those girls off cable tele on Sunday afternoons, you know, a pregnant waif with her bloody dog wandering barefoot on the moors in a snowstorm looking for somewhere to kip"

"This ain't the moors and it ain't snowing, well not yet anyway, and I've got me bleeding shoes on" Molly was doing her best to appreciate Eddie's attempts at humour as he tried his best to stem the flow of tears "What the fuck's wrong with watching the footie on a Sunday like a normal bloke?"

"I like a bit of misery, me, and it makes a bloody change for you to have your shoes on, doesn't it? Now, let's have a cuppa and see what we can do about getting you home"

"I ain't got an 'ome" Another wave of self-pity caused more tears to cascade down her face.

"Of course you have you daft cow, you'll always have one here for a start, now sit down and tell me what's been going on"

-OG-

Two mugs of tea, a packet of chocolate digestives and an hour of a fairly disjointed explanation later and Molly was fast asleep in the chair in front of the fire, the dog stretched out at her feet with his eyes shut but occasionally opening one to keep a wary eye on Eddie every time he moved, as Eddie shook his head. Unfortunately he could see both sides of the problem, he couldn't help feeling sorry for Charles and his problems with caring for his mum, Eddie had always had a very strong sense of the importance of family, well he used to have until some of his relatives had sold him down the river. Never having had children of his own he had, for years now, looked on the girl asleep in front of him as a sort of surrogate daughter, although if he was being absolutely completely honest, he would have to admit that he'd always been just a little tiny bit in love with her himself, well he would have been if he'd been forty years younger, and it had been like that ever since the first day he'd met her when she came for an interview at Parkers. As things were she reminded him of his younger self, she was very feisty and very proud, hated admitting that she needed anyone's help for anything, and was intensely loyal to those she cared about, like Doreen and Bert and him and even though it pained him to admit it, that posh young bastard who'd upset her today because for all her toughness, she was very vulnerable.

Much as he felt for Charles and his dilemma over what to do for the best, although he was more than a bit worried about what was going to happen to Parker James if Charles decided to piss off back to Bath, he thought that the stupid bugger should remember that his first responsibility was to the little girl in front of him, the one that was pregnant with his baby. Eddie hadn't been too happy when they'd announced that they were going to have a baby, he was old-fashioned enough to believe that Charles should have put a ring on her finger before getting her pregnant, and he'd certainly never considered for an instant that it might have been her idea, or something that the pair of them had done deliberately, he'd assumed that it was one of those accidents that happen sometimes and that they were just putting a brave face on things.

He thought about ringing Charles, knowing that he would be worried if he did go home only to find her gone but he hadn't heard Molly's mobile ring so he had to assume that the bastard was still with his parents in Bath and hadn't rung her, so as far as Eddie was concerned it would do him good to worry a bit.

-OG-

Waking up with a very muzzy head and sore gritty eyes told Charles all he needed to know about what time he'd finally dropped off last night, or rather this morning, the alcohol hadn't helped at all, except to give him a crashing headache and a mouth like the bottom of the proverbial parrot cage. The first thing he'd done when he'd surfaced had been to put his arm out to pull Molly into his early morning embrace, as he had done hundreds of times before, only for reality to set in once again, she wasn't there and now he'd woken up too late to go to Eddie's before work. He'd just have to go into work first, he hadn't shown his face at all yesterday and he needed to go in and set the day in motion, then he'd be able to get off and collect her from Eddie's.

"You look rough, Boss" Doreen looked at him over the top of her glasses, "If you've got anything catching keep it to yourself, we don't all want it"

"I'm not ill, I'm just a bit tired that's all, bit of a late night and I didn't sleep well" He smiled at her, realising to his relief that she didn't know anything about Molly pushing off otherwise she would have been very hostile, Doreen was a founder member of the Molly Dawes fan club "Anything happen yesterday, anything urgent? Any messages?"

"There's some stuff on your desk, but nothing urgent, except can you ring Eddie as soon as you can" he'd been expecting that "Oh, and an old army mate of yours rang, said he'd call you back today"

"Did he leave his name or a number?" Charles had his fingers crossed, it was actually quite early yet so how much worse could this day get?

"Not really, but it reminded me of some town somewhere"

"Was it Mansfield?" Charles now not only had his fingers crossed but he'd closed his eyes in a silent prayer as well.

"No, I don't think so; could it have been Braintree or something like that?"

"Brains?"

"Yes, that's it" Doreen beamed as Charles grinned at her and heaved the biggest sigh of relief he could, although the logic of how Doreen's thought processes worked was, as usual, way beyond him.

"If he rings back when I'm out, give him my mobile number and tell him to ring me at any time"

-OG-

"Hello Womble"

"What you doing 'ere? And don't call me that"

"Come here"

He pulled her into his arms, feeling her initial rigid resistance soften as she slowly put her arms round his waist and rested against him. Molly closed her eyes in a vain attempt to stop yet another flood of tears from escaping and then gave up the attempt as they cascaded down her face.

"I'm sorry, please don't cry"

"I'm not crying" she sniffed "Okay I am, but I'm just so fucking emotional all the time and I'm sick of it"

"You're allowed" He smoothed her hair back from her damp face, her eyes red rimmed and swimming in tears "And I haven't helped much lately have I? I'm sorry"

"I'm sorry too and it's not that I don't care about your mum ….."

"I know you do, I've just been a complete dick, Eddie called me an arse-wipe"

"Did 'e?" she'd stopped crying and started giggling "That's a bit 'arsh even for 'im"

"Are you smirking?"

"No …. Well, yeah, maybe just a bit"

"There's nothing funny about that, it's very cruel, and you kidnapped my bloody dog"

"No I didn't, I asked 'im if 'e wanted to come with me, maybe come and live with me and Lexie and 'e said yes, even wrote me a little note to give you if you moaned" Her reference to a long ago conversation about Parsnip made them laugh as he tightened his arms round her again and was reminded of the evenings when they'd talked bollocks to each other until they'd started laughing and then they'd laughed till they'd both been in danger of wetting themselves, the night they'd giggled themselves stupid having a snowball fight in the garden at midnight when they'd been pissed and it had been pitch dark, just in case the snow was gone by the morning, and the lunchtime when they'd had fast and furious baby making sex in the office and he could feel the prickling at the back of his eyes at the thought of how close he'd come to fucking it all up.

"Parsnip wants to come home with me" He bit his lip as he tried to keep a straight face and then sniggered slightly "He told me, and he wants you to come home as well, he says he'll cry himself to sleep tonight if you don't"

"Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"Did it work?" He raised his eyebrows as she pretended to consider her answer.

"I suppose so, I mean, I suppose I'd better come 'ome with 'im, I've always been a pushover for that bleeding dog"

"What about me?" Charles smirked "Are you a pushover for me too?"

"Looks like it, dunnit?"

"I love you, you know that don't you?"

"Yeah"

Charles would have given anything to hear Molly say that she loved him too, and although he knew that it wasn't going to happen, he couldn't help wondering what it would take for her to say those words and give him that reassurance he so badly needed.

"And you and Lexie were never going to live on your own, you know that too don't you?"

"Yeah"

-OG-

"Are you going back into work later?"

"Nope"

"Why not you lazy bugger? You had the day off yesterday"

"I'm tired; I didn't sleep very well last night after you decided to scare the shit out of me like that"

"Sorry, but you do know that If you're not there" Molly smirked at him "Every other bugger will just have a long lunch hour and then piss off 'ome early"

"Really? How do you know?"

"I used to work there, didn't I?" The smirking had now turned to a full blown attack of the giggles "That's what we used to do all the time"

"Lovely, maybe we need to get a manager, someone who'll crack the bloody whip when I'm not there"

"Can we afford one?"

"Probably not"

They were sharing a chair at home in Bow and Molly was curled up in his lap as he idly played with her hair, turning the strands round his fingers and making ringlets. Neither of them wanted to be the first to bring up the elephant in the room and risk spoiling their harmony, a hard won harmony that had been missing from their relationship for the past couple of weeks. Molly was the first to crack under the need to stop pretending it wasn't there.

"Will we need a manager, I mean, are you going back to Bath?"

"I have no fucking clue what's going to happen Moll, I wish I did, I know I panicked last week and that we can't just throw everything away and rush off back to Bath, I mean it's not even necessary right now, but we will have to sort something out eventually, she isn't going to get any better. And what do you mean, are you going back to Bath? I'm not going anywhere without you"

"What about your dad?"

"What about him? Now he really is an arse-wipe"

"Maybe 'e's finding it 'ard as well, I mean 'e's not used to 'aving to think about other people or doing stuff for other people, is 'e?"

"What you're trying to say is that he's a selfish fucker of an arse-wipe and you're right, he is"

"Your language has gone a bit shit since I first met you, hasn't it?"

"What do you expect living with you?"

"Nice ….. Posh twat" She giggled "Anyway your dad isn't as bad as my dad, now 'e really is a selfish fucker"

"Tell me about him"

"Yeah I will, but just not now, we've 'ad enough bleeding miseries for one day"

-OG-

Author's notes: Thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it, and hope you enjoyed this chapter.