A/N: This is for all those lovely people who were kind enough to leave a review (thank you, all of you) and who have said they are hanging out for the next slice of my universe ... Chapter 5 will take a little while as it's only half written, but if I don't publish this soon I'll start tinkering with the delete and edit buttons ... I know, very bad habit ... anyway I hope you enjoy xx

-OG-

"Why not?"

"What do you mean, why not?" Charles stared at him as though he was Mansfield Mike and had just asked a particularly stupid question "For fuck sake, she's just some girl I met who was in a spot of bother, most of it her own fault by the way, nothing more ... she's no-one special ... " He gave a short derisory laugh as though the idea struck him as totally ludicrous "And I've got more than enough hassle in my life as it is without going looking for any more"

"Why hassle Charles? I'm not sure I understand ... " He paused as if he was weighing up his words "I'm not for a moment suggesting you should go running off into the sunset with her, I was simply saying that perhaps you might see her as someone who could be a friend ... just a friend, nothing more" He steepled his fingers and looked over the top of his glasses like some sort of benevolent gnome which irritated the fuck out of Charles "There is no reason why it has to be all or nothing you know"

"Nope, not going to happen"

Not for the first time Charles saw Daniel scribble a couple of words on the pad in front of him and wondered what the fuck he'd found to write about, and what the chances were of him ever being able to see what it was he'd written.

"What is it about the thought of this girl that agitates you?"

"Nothing, and I'm not agitated as you put it ... why would I be?"

The one thing that Charles was sure of was that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. The memory of the hurt expression on her face when he'd left to go home after delivering yet another pompous fucking lecture in his best Captain of the British Army voice meant he wasn't exactly proud of himself. Nor was he proud of the unforgiveable comment he'd made about her losing things when she'd asked him to write his number down, and the fact that he hadn't apologised after he'd said it, even though every fibre of his body had wanted to do just that. Instead he'd just shouted farewell to Bella and had turned on his heel and left, cutting off her attempt to thank him once again for his help.

But none of that was any of Daniel's fucking business.

"Just leave it ... okay?" He rubbed his fingers over the back of his neck and tugged at his hair as he stared at the floor between his feet, then looked up "it's really not that important"

"As you wish ... but maybe we'll come back to it later"

Daniel was loathe to let it die completely, it was the one point of contact he'd managed to establish with Charles who was still showing no sign of being prepared to discuss any other, and frankly more important, issues. Daniel was equally loathe to try and shift the focus onto any of them, somehow he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the upshot would be a rapid return to the monosyllabic conversations of the earlier sessions, that's if you could even grace them with that description bearing in mind that they almost exclusively consisted of prolonged silences.

"No ... that is the one thing we certainly won't be doing" He shook his head and the bit his bottom lip as he looked up at Daniel "I've got nothing else to say about it"

Chapter Four

"Right, that's me" Even though the curtains were drawn the rotating orange lights lit up the street outside so he put his hand across to squeeze Bella's arm "Nice to have met you Bella, take care"

"Yeah, nice to meet you 'n all, Charles"

Molly stopped and looked over towards the top of the banister rail to the open door again, Charles, his name was Charles, so how come he'd told Bella that and not her? She should of known it would be something grown up like that, a posh name for a posh bugger that was being dead nice to her little sister and not her, just typical of the good looking ones. What was it about her that made them act like that? But she was buggered if she was going to let another bloke see how pissed she was at him, and she was definitely very pissed that he was laughing and being all cosy with Bella when he'd been so arsey with her. She made absolutely sure that she didn't look in his direction and avoided catching his eye as she went to the bottom of the stairs and grabbed a fleece off the crammed coat rack shrugging it on ready to go outside.

Charles' immediate reaction was to wonder who the fuck the fleece belonged to. It was so big on her that there was not the slightest possibility that it was hers or Bella's either come to that, it was so big she was lost in it and judging by the way it was almost down to her knees and that the sleeves were hanging about a foot below her hands, it had to belong to some bloke.

"Just wait out there"

He could hear how curt and clipped his voice was as well as how unbelievably fucking bossy he sounded as he issued an order, but it was suddenly difficult to be relaxed round her and he wanted nothing more than to crack on and get it all sorted as soon as possible, to then get back in his car and put some distance between them. He wanted to get away, to be on his way home even though home wasn't really home anymore and it was where his mother would no doubt be waiting to tear strips off him for missing her fucking dinner party. It was no secret just how much she'd wanted him there, he could hardly have missed it the number of times she'd told him, and he had promised her faithfully that he wouldn't miss it, short of world war three breaking out. But he had done exactly that. Somehow he couldn't see her thinking that stopping to help some girl he didn't know get her car out of a ditch and then taking her home afterwards was an acceptable excuse for not showing up. He chewed at his bottom lip for a minute and then looked down at the pair of over-sized white fluffy Polar Bear slippers that Molly was sporting on her feet and raised his eyebrows.

"Christ, they're no more suitable than those black things were"

"I weren't gonna go out in them was I?" Molly looked down at her feet, horribly aware of the huge difference in the tone of his voice when he was speaking to her to the one he'd been using to talk to Bella and wished that he would just hurry up and go. She could remember now only too clearly why she hadn't liked him when he was first talking to her, not to mention the way he wasn't looking at her when he spoke, or rather whenever he did, it was only to give her a dirty look "I'm not that stupid .. "

He raised his eyebrows again and then scanned slowly up from her feet to her face and shook his head with a look on his face like he thought she was some sort of naughty kid as he ran his tongue over his bottom lip which made her stomach flip over again, but it didn't matter how good looking, how attractive she suddenly thought he was, she could easily get very pissed off with seeing that superior disbelieving expression when he looked at her. He opened the door and went out to join the driver who was now leaning against the cab of his truck smoking a cigarette and not seeming to notice how heavily it had started snowing again so that his fag was getting wet with it as he talked on his mobile as if he'd got all night.

"'ang on, 'ang on a sec ... before you go, I need to know how to find you to pay you back don't I?"

"Let's just deal with one thing at a time, shall we?"

He didn't look back at her, but knew as soon as the words left his mouth that there'd been absolutely no need for him to be quite so brusque and that she had no idea what was making him snap at her the way he was, he wasn't sure he knew that himself. But he wasn't exactly surprised that he could feel a prickling in his neck from the glare she was directing at his back, but still didn't look round to where he knew she was standing in the open doorway watching him. Instead he just joined the driver who was now busy undoing the chains holding the car and nodded a greeting at the man before moving to help him get the ramps down.

"Alright ... so, this do you here then Guv?"

"Good a place as any"

He carried on resolutely not looking back at the house for any sign from Meghan, or rather Molly or in fact from either of the girls that it was an acceptable spot although he knew he should check it out with them, he was being high-handed and knew it, he was making decisions that were not his to make.

Molly narrowed her eyes and glared at his back, the arctic air meaning that her breath was forming a cloud of frozen mist in front of her face as she carried on standing in the open doorway and willed him to look back at her so that he could see how she was simmering with anger, until Bella yelled for her to shut the bloody door for fuck sake. Said she was letting in all the cold and that she could see what was happening just as well out the window without bloody freezing them to bloody death. How bloody dare he talk to her like that, who did he think he was? Not even her boss would do that, and he might have an excuse sometimes. She stood next to Bella and watched as the car was rolled down the ramps to be deposited neatly on the road outside the house and then as Charles chatted and laughed with the fat geezer and signed some papers in exchange for her car keys which he was now jiggling in his hand as he was talking.

"'ere ... why did Charles think your name was Meghan?"

"Charles" Molly knew she had a dead snarky tone in her voice as she rolled his name round her mouth like she had a marble in it and then did her best to emulate his posh tone "I told Charles that that was me name, told him I was Meghan Markle ... Why? And how did you know, was you talking about me to him Bels?"

"Nah, I wasn't ... well alright I was a bit... I just told him your name's Molly not Meghan ... but I think he knew that already ..." Bella sniggered "Why did you tell him that?" She was quiet for a second as she watched Charles put his head back and laugh with the driver "He's alright, inne?"

"You obviously thought so ... thought you thought he was Charles Manson ... and what did you want to go and tell him for?"

"He asked ... anyhow why not? It's not a secret is it? ... And who the fuck is Charles Manson?"

"Hilarious ... but I still don't get why you was talking about me, Bels ... and what the fuck were you gonna do with that thing?" Molly nodded her head towards the kitchen knife that was sitting on the sofa cushion "If you'd ever done anything in the kitchen 'cept for opening take-away or burning a pizza, you'd know it's absolute shit, it wouldn't cut anything"

"Yeah ... but he don't know that does he?"

"You can't go round threatening people with knives Bel, you'll get in trouble"

"Didn't threaten him ... didn't 'ave to" Bella paused and thought for a moment "Anyway I liked him"

"Yeah ... I saw"

There was a silence for a few seconds as both girls considered the implications of what Bella had just said and the tone of Molly's voice as she'd replied.

"He's married you know ... or least I think he is ... he's got a kid bit older than Martin"

"So?"

"Nothin'... just sayin'"

"Well bloody don't"

-OG-

"Just hold for a moment ..." There was a short delay when she could hear voices of people talking in the background "Hello .."

"Can I please speak to Captain James?"

It had taken her a while to get herself geared up to make the call. When he'd written his number on the pad so she could call him and arrange to pay him back, he'd made some bloody smartarsed comment about how he was probably wasting his time, that someone with her track record was likely lose it so he wasn't going to hold his breath, something that had made her even more determined to get the money together as soon as she possibly could, well, short of robbing someone. But despite her best efforts it had taken more than a week to raise the seventy five pounds that she owed him, and then only because she'd managed to get an increase in the credit limit on her card. She had this sort of on-going arrangement with the credit card people where she lied about why she needed the money and they'd know she was lying but would pretend to believe her anyway, and would let her have it, but the amount they'd agreed she could have this time had left her over thirty odd quid short so she'd had to make up the rest with a pay-day loan, something she'd always said she wouldn't touch with a bargepole. But needs must and Bella had no money to speak of either so she just didn't know where else she could get it from, apart from waiting till payday and that was more than two weeks away. It already felt like she was taking liberties with making him wait and that he'd probably think he was right and that she'd lost his number.

"This is Charles James ... Hello Meghan"

"Sorry ... iI can hear you're busy ... and me name's Molly by the way ... not Meghan"

She'd sort of known it was a direct line number he'd given her and that it was him that had answered even before he'd said his name, she'd recognise his voice anywhere and there couldn't be that many of them sounded like him, but she had been dreading actually talking to him so much that she was a tiny bit rattled when he answered so quickly. She hadn't been ready and anyway her brain was flustered so that her carefully rehearsed speech had vanished the minute he'd said anything.

"Yup ... I know" Suddenly he was leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the desk in front of him and with his ankles crossed as he smiled "No... I'm not busy ... well not that busy ... so ... what can I do for you Molly?"

"I wanna know where to send you your money ... and to say I'm sorry it's taken me so long"

"Not that long .. and I told you that there's no rush"

"Yeah .. well I got it now ... so where shall I send it?"

"Have you got a pen and paper handy?"

Her first instinct was to say now why didn't I think of that and to tell him that she hadn't been going to bother writing it down, had just thought she'd try and memorise it instead. Of course she'd got a bloody pen and a bit of paper handy when she was asking someone for an address, she wasn't completely stupid, but it hadn't taken him long to start doing it again. Once again he was talking to her as if she only had one brain cell that worked.

"'ang on a tic, got a crayon 'ere somewhere"

There was a moment's silence as he thought about what she'd said and why she'd said it "Sorry ... being bossy again, it's an occupational hazard I'm afraid" He paused as the remembered jolt of desire went through him at the thought of seeing her again, something that was almost certainly a result of abstinence and then thought about what Daniel had said about the way things didn't always have to be all or nothing.

"I have a feeling that I owe you an apology for some reason, well, I'm sure that I do ...so ...look, tell you what, what do you say to me buying you a drink one evening ... ... and you can give me the money then, it'll save you having to bother posting it?"

"What?... Me?... With you? ... For a drink? ummm dunno ... and you don't owe me an apology"

Molly knew she sounded incredulous, but that was because she was. She was totally gobsnmacked as well as being a bit, well just a tiny little bit pleased. It had been a very long time since anyone had asked if they could take her out for a drink, actually not since long before the tosspot had dumped her for the traitor, who was due back from her bloody honeymoon at the end of the week and Molly would love to have something to look forward to so that she would feel better about herself, when bloody Donna was swanning about the Unit showing off her tan and her bleeding ring mark on her finger. And he was bloody handsome.

"Yeah alright, why not?"

She knew it probably wasn't the most gracious reply to an invitation he'd ever heard but he'd really caught her out, this was the last thing she'd expected.

"Only if you'd like to"

"Sorry that sounded a bit shit ... yeah I'd like that ... but when was you thinking cos I'm on nights rest of this week, back on days next"

"Nights?"

"Yeah ... nights ... I work in the HDU at Musgrave Park ... thought you knew that"

He had known, he remembered now thinking that she couldn't be as young as she looked if she'd qualified, but, well he hadn't known exactly because he'd failed to join the dots between the photograph of the group wearing scrubs and Bella's description of a visit to her workplace by some bigwig. He'd been far too busy pigeon-holing her as someone who spent her working life doing her nails and talking to her mates on her mobile.

"Yep, come to think of it Bella did mention something ... and I think I do owe you an apology, I'm not always such a ... miserable ..." He paused and thought before saying anything else "So how about ... the weekend, Saturday perhaps ... or Sunday if you're not busy ... and not working?"

"Okay ... Saturday would be good" A date on a Saturday night was just what she needed to stop her feeling like a total loser, even if it was just going for a drink with a bloke who thought she was a bit on the dumb side "What time shall I meet you ... and where?"

"I'll pick you up"

"Nah ... you're alright, I'll meet you there ... wherever there is"

There was no way on earth she was going to let him pick her up at home so that Bella could see who it was she was going out for a drink with. Her sister would think it was dead funny and would hang about in the hallway smirking as well as poking fun at her, and would be saying things that would end up being dead embarrassing. It was only after she'd put the phone down and went in the kitchen to start the tea that she realised she'd forgotten all about what Bella had said about him maybe being married, he hadn't said, but then she hadn't asked. She'd just have the one drink with him like they'd arranged and would give him his money back and then say something about being dead grateful for his help but that she didn't mess with married men.

-OG-