A/N: Have not decided yet whether to carry on to Boxing Day or New Year's Eve, I thought I'd see what sort of support there is first, but whatever I decide to do, thank you for your support for this and please tell me what you think. Sorry my laptop had an attached of the heebies, started eating stuff, so have had to re-check everything.

CHRISTMAS IN BATH

"What was it like, Christmas out there?"

Bill was doing his level best to keep the conversation away from any sensitive areas, he was still slightly afraid that Margaret would launch into her 'What we owe Molly' speech again despite him warning to her not to. She was completely sincere, he knew that she meant every word, but Molly seemed to find it embarrassing and he didn't want anything to spoil the happiness he could see surrounding his son and the girl with the long hair and amazing green eyes who was sitting next to him.

"Fun" Molly turned and smirked at Charles "We had this great waiter for our dinner, although the miserable so-and-so wouldn't let me have a Vodka and he got a bit shi….. annoyed when we chucked mince pies at him after, seems it's an army tradition or some'ing, I thought it were a terrible waste of mince pies, meself, mind they were a bit sh…. , not like yours Margaret"

"They were also bloody rock hard, hurt like hell" He smirked back at her.

"Did they? I thought that were just you making a fuss about nothing, it were only a bit of pastry"

"Yeah, but it was army pastry, like concrete, some medic you were, couldn't see that I was in agony"

"What, you were the waiter?" His grandmother sounded appalled "You waited on people then they threw food at you? But you were their officer surely, their CO?"

"It's a tradition Gran, and anyway they had to clean it up afterwards, so ….." He grinned at Molly "You were breaking regulations all that day, I remember, you left your hair down and put a bit of tinsel round it, I've still got the photos somewhere"

"Yeah Brains gave me the tinsel, said I looked like a little angel, numpty, but I didn't know you took any photos, can I see them later?"

Being allowed to sit next to him had been a huge relief, she'd had this vision of having to sit next to Graham his uncle, the one Margaret had called incredibly boring, a fat middle-aged man who hadn't yet said a single word to her and who, Molly was sure, she'd have absolutely nothing in common with. She'd been sure that they'd do that 'posh' thing of making people sit opposite each other, but she'd been wrong. As it was Charles was sitting in between her and Sam so that she was sitting next to Margaret as well which was even more of a relief. She tried a couple of times to whisper and ask him what was in the letter, if it was a letter, but he just kept tapping the side of his nose and smirking which was really bloody annoying, the curiosity was killing her.

Sam's stage whisper to his dad was clearly audible all round the table. He had been taking sly peeps round his father's back or front whenever he thought no-one, especially her, would notice ever since they'd cleared the remains of the main course away and Margaret had been right when she'd told Molly that the only one who would grizzle about the lack of bread sauce would be Caroline. Sam seemed to have recognised her but had just kept on looking and then looking away quickly when she caught his eye. Everyone had pulled crackers, and Molly had used her phone to take pictures of Charles wearing a pink paper hat, which she said had distinct blackmail possibilities and was a Christmas present for his platoon and now everyone was saying that they couldn't eat another thing, as they waited for Margaret to bring in the pudding.

"Molly was a soldier when you were in hospital Daddy, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, still am mate"

"You don't look like one now" Sam leaned forward completely so that he could inspect her closely from the other side of his father as Charles ruffled his hair and explained.

"Lady soldiers are just like men, like daddy, Scamp, they don't wear their uniform all the time either, Molly only really looks like a soldier when she's wearing her uniform" then he turned to Molly and whispered "And not even then most of the time"

Sam pulled a puzzled face as Molly giggled, then he thought for a moment "You were funny, I remember you made me laugh and I 'member you were holding Daddy's hand, why was Molly holding your hand, Daddy?"

The silence that greeted this announcement and question was profound, suddenly everyone was hanging onto every word and paying such close attention that Molly could feel another blush starting to creep up her neck. She wanted to weigh into the discussion, but the only contribution that came immediately to mind was 'Oh shit' so she had to sit there and squirm while she waited for Sam to share his next observation with his interested audience. She was getting increasingly cross with Charles who had an utterly self-satisfied smirk across his face, a smirk she longed to remove with a slap.

"Well, Scamp, she was holding my hand because ….."

"Daddy was feeling a bit poorly that day, Sam, so I was just holding his hand to try and make him feel better"

Molly interrupted whatever Charles had been about to say at the same time as glaring at him while he carried on smirking, obviously completely unabashed at the turn the conversation had taken. Happiness and mischief were written all over his face until she couldn't help smiling back, wanting to laugh at the same time as longing to kick him but he seemed to know because he kept moving his legs just out of her reach.

"Tell you what Scamp, go and ask Grannie if she needs some help with carrying anything?"

Any intentions that Charles had of deflecting the general discussion away from his relationship with Molly was doomed to failure and was a complete waste of time as his aunt started the questions. Molly willed him not to vanish into the kitchen on the pretext of helping his mum and leaving her to face the interrogation, she wouldn't put it past him in his current frame of mind, he was enjoying himself!

"So, how long have you two known each other then? I didn't realise that you'd known each other for quite so long, I thought it was a new friendship" She looked puzzled as though she'd been deliberately misled "And what did you do out there, Molly? I mean, I know you're in the army, was in Afghanistan, but what did you actually do? Did Charles just say something about you being a medic, was that doing the same thing as the men?"

"Yes, Molly's a medic" Margaret put the serving dish down on the table as Bill tried his best to set fire to the pudding at the same time as telling Margaret that she hadn't put nearly enough brandy on it for it to flare properly, so she sloshed some more over it "She was the medic who …"

"Mum" Charles' voice was sharp with warning and Bill also started to talk loudly over her, both of them worried she was about to talk about Charles getting shot and Molly's role in saving his life again.

"I don't know why it's all such a secret" Margaret was muttering to herself as she started serving up the pudding which was now laden with so much extra brandy it was enough to put anyone over the drink drive limit because Bill had given up trying to set fire to his eyebrows "I would have thought it was something to be proud of"

"I used to look after them all, you know, if they was hurt or poorly or summat, if they got blisters or some'ing in their eye 'n that, but I also used to go out on patrols, did a lot of the same stuff as the men"

"She was a brilliant soldier, well she still is of course, just not one of my mine anymore" He turned and smiled at her, then looked around the table "She won a medal out there, for rescuing someone from a minefield, he'd been shot by a sniper, mind you she ignored every order I gave her that day as well"

"Sorry"

"No you're not, you never were, but we were all so proud of you that day"

"What even you? You told me off"

"I was the boss, I had to, didn't mean I wasn't proud of you"

He put his hand under the table and clasped hers giving it a quick squeeze, he had felt her go tense when it had looked as if his mother was going to say far too much again.

-OG-

It was going on for nine o'clock when the house was finally quiet, Betsy and Graham had taken Caroline home which Margaret said meant that she was going to mention them in her will after all, a statement which had made Molly giggle, as so many of Margaret's announcements did. Margaret was now snoring gently in a chair in front of the fire while Molly sat on the sofa and waited for Charles to come down from putting Sam to bed, an exercise which seemed to have taken hours. The only light in the room was from the roaring log fire and the Christmas tree lights and Margaret wasn't the only one who felt sleepy, although there was no way Molly would be able to nod off, well not until he'd given her that envelope back and let her open it.

The three of them, Sam, Charles and her had played raucous board games all afternoon, with Molly teaching Sam all the advanced methods of cheating that she'd perfected from her years growing up in a large family so that in the end Charles had caved in and begged his father to be on his team to even things up a bit. Listening to Sam giggle and seeing the happy grin on Charles' face had made it one of the best Christmas days she could remember, apart from the occasional niggle of homesickness for mum and Nan and the kids, a niggle which eventually made her go and sit on the bottom of the stairs to ring them.

"Everything okay?" Charles had pulled her down to sit next to him on the rug so that she was almost leaning against him as she nodded "Did you tell them where you were?"

"Nah, well, not exactly, they already knew I was in Bath"

"You didn't tell them you were with me?"

"Nah, sorry" She bit her lip and pulled a contrite face "They don't know you, I'm not sure they've ever even heard of you actually, I don't wanna worry them"

"It's okay, don't look like that, you can tell them tomorrow" He kissed her on the top of her head "Come on, it's time you helped me, this horrible child keeps winning"

Molly wanted to tell him that she'd just promised her mum that she'd be home tomorrow, she hadn't imagined for a minute that he was expecting her to stay on once Christmas day was over.

-OG-

"Is Dad still hard at it in the kitchen?"

"Yeah, I did ask him if I could help, but he told me to bugger off cos he had it all under control"

Charles laughed as he explained it was a James family tradition for his dad to tackle the huge pile of washing up on Christmas evening, most of which was Margaret's pride and joy and wasn't dishwasher safe, and then for him to clear up and clean the kitchen, a picture which made Molly laugh incredulously as she tried and failed to picture Dave doing the same thing.

"Can I have me letter now?"

"I thought we could look at these first" He put the photo album down on her knee and then lifted her up so that she was sitting on his lap "Anyway I thought I'd tell you what was in it, you don't need to read it, honestly"

"Anyone would think you didn't want me to read it and we can look at those after" She put her hand out palm upwards "Come on, hand it over"

"It's just a sort of IOU really; nothing special" She could see the tinge of red on his cheekbones even by the light of the tree and the fire "Is mum still asleep?"

"Yeah, now stop pissing about and give it 'ere"

M,

This is a for the best Christmas present you could ever have given me. I can't believe Lady Luck has handed me another chance after I fucked it up so badly out there and then again when we got home. I was so sure that I knew what you were thinking and wanting and feeling that I didn't ask you what you thought or what you wanted or what you felt, and then I thought I'd lost you.

Worst of all, I never took any of the opportunities I had to tell you that I love you, not even after the thunder in the ditch when we both thought it was the end, so I'm telling you now. C xxx

"Do you mean it?"

"Of course I mean it, and are you going to just sit there or are you going to kiss me?"

"Is your dad gonna come through that door any minute?"

"Probably" He moved his hand and stroked down her face until he reached her mouth and then ran a finger over her bottom lip then kissing her gently, deepening his kiss as they both heard Margaret begin to stir at exactly the same moment "Shit, I don't believe it"

Molly now got the most serious attack of happy giggles that she'd had for years as she went to move off his lap in order to sit decorously next to him, but his arms round her stopped her and then with one eye watching his mother, he whispered in her ear, making all the little hairs shiver in his warm breath, that with a bit of luck his parents would piss off to bed in a minute.

By the time his father came in with an offer of hot chocolate, which they both declined and his mother had stretched, yawned and looked over at them approvingly, they were looking through the photograph album from Helmand, outdoing one another with their "Do you remember?" and "I'd forgotten all about that" Molly was still sitting on his lap as she ran her fingers down over pictures of Quaseem and one of Bashira so that she turned her head and looked at Charles and he kissed her forehead telling her not to worry about the little girl, that she'd be fine, and then they were both laughing at the antics of 2-Section in his paddling pool, bare bums for all to see, and a lovely photograph of Molly looking beautiful as she was about to sing with him on that stage.

"That was the night I knew I was bloody mad about you"

"Ditto"

"Really? I thought it was just me felt like that"

"Well, you were wrong, weren't you" He kissed her lips fleetingly, one eye on his parents "I'm not sure which was worse now, wanting to kiss you so badly that night or Christmas when bloody Brains put that tinsel on your head and I wanted to hit him, you looked so bloody gorgeous and I was so jealous of him touching you then laughing with you like that"

"I never knew that, and there was nothing to be jealous of, you do know that don't you, not with him, not with Smurf, not with anyone, it was always just you"

"I know" He put his mouth against her ear, making all the tiny hairs shiver once again "I know I promised you that there'd be no funny business" They both started laughing "But I'm not sure how much longer I can stand this, waiting for my bloody parents to go to bed makes me feel like a teenager again, so do you think we could possibly just go to bed?"

"Thought you'd never ask"

-OG-

"Mum it's me, no, course there's nothing wrong, it's just that I wanted to tell you that I'm bringing someone home with me … "