Chapter Seven

Georgie was standing in amongst the buildings at the edge of the refugee camp when Fingers eventually caught up with her. She'd been there a while, watching and trying to figure it out. She'd seen the way the sex worker she treated in the clinic had looked at the police officer on the gate when she'd asked her about the drugs. That had to mean something- didn't it?

"What you doing Lane?" Fingers asked, stopping beside her and following her line of sight to the truck that was being unloaded.

"It's him… it's gotta be him." She muttered.

Fingers was quiet for a moment, she saw his face change as it clicked what she was talking about. "What? You think that copper is standing guard?"

Georgie nodded, watching as they started unloading boxes off the truck the people had come in on into the back of a waiting landrover. "Look at him. It's got to be."

"We need to go and find that special forces captain… she'll be well chuffed if we've solved it all for them. Maybe they'll change their mind and let me do selection again!" Fingers couldn't hide the excitement on her face.

Georgie watched him for a moment. They all knew how disappointed he'd been when he failed selection and ended up back with two section. As he went to walk away she grabbed his arm. "We're not going to go and tell them." She said, pulling him back. "Look he's now driving off."

They watched as the policeman climbed into the driver's seat of the Land Rover. "We'd better go get them quick then so they can follow him and-"

"Fingers." Georgie cut in. "We're going to follow him ourselves."

"Captain James said we didn't do anything unless we were given a direct order to." He shook his head.

Georgie straightened up. "I'm giving you a direct order, and as your superior I expect you to follow him." She told him. "Now get in and drive. If you don't hurry up we're going to lose him.

Fingers looked far from convinced but did as he was told.

He hesitated again as Georgie climbed into the passenger seat. "Look, that Captain Dawes will be begging you to go and join SF after you track these people down and help her find out who killed Bones." She encouraged.

After another half a second of a hesitation he started the engine and followed the path the truck had just taken. They were both quiet as they followed the truck, Georgie occasionally pointing out the direction he was going in. But by the time they'd reached the rocks the truck had disappeared around it was long gone and there was no sight of it.

"We've lost him." Fingers shook his head. "Let's just head back to the school and let special forces know, yeah?" He suggested.

Georgie shook her head. "Do you really think Bones would have just let them get away?"

"No." Fingers sighed. "But Captain Dawes said that-"

"Just shut up and drive Fingers." Georgie snapped. "No wonder you didn't pass selection."

His jaw clenched and she saw him glare at her but he did as she said and started the engine again, speeding in the direction they'd last seen the truck heading.

"Shit." He hissed. The second he drove around the rocks it became clear why they hadn't seen the truck drive away- because he hadn't. There was barely enough time to register the gun pointed at them before the shot was fired straight at the windscreen. He pulled on the steering wheel hard and spun them around to come back the way they'd come. There was a crash as he did so which he could only assume was all of the supplies for the school that they'd been carrying falling off the back of the truck. Captain James was going to kill him.

"I think we've lost him." Georgie breathed, turning to look out of the window. "You alright?"

"Yeah… I think so." Fingers mumbled. His heart was pounding and he felt sick to his stomach at the thought of having to go and explain this to Captain James.

"Oh shit, you're bleeding." Georgie said as he turned to face her.

His hand went up to his forehead automatically and came back covered in blood. "Oh." He mumbled.

"Let's get back and I'll get you cleaned up." Georgie said quietly.

"Did you or did you not see what happened to Bones last week?" Captain James snapped, pacing back and forth in front of the two of them angrily. He'd barely said a word to them for the first ten minutes after they arrived back, trying to get enough of a grip on his anger before he started speaking to them. "What the bloody hell were you thinking?"

"Sorry Sir." Fingers mumbled. Lane stayed silent, looking down at her boots.

"And what made you think that chasing after the drug runners who likely set the bomb on your own, after I specifically told you not to get involved, was what you were supposed to be doing?" He stopped in front of them, looking for some kind of answer or explanation as to what the bloody hell had happened. Neither of them said a word.

"I'd say you were stupid and liabilities but I don't think that even begins to describe how stupid you were. They're targeting a senior police officer, they're not going to think twice about killing you two!"

"Sir." They mumbled.

"Get out of here and go and get cleaned up." He sighed, looking over their shoulders at the rapidly approaching form of Molly Dawes. "But judging by the look on Captain Dawes' face you haven't heard the last of this, and quite rightly so."

They both turned and walked away quickly. Charles tried to brace himself for what was inevitably coming when Molly reached him. He had contemplated getting in the truck and pretending he hadn't seen her coming for a brief moment.

"What the actual fuck?" She demanded as she stopped in front of him. "Could I have been any clearer when I told you that this investigation was absolutely nothing to do with you lot?"

He grimaced. "I know and I-"

"Where are the stupid fuckers?" She stood, hands on hips waiting for an answer. He realised as he stood there the last time he'd seen her look this angry was when they'd still been at Sandhurst and Rebecca had felt the need to point out to everyone there that Molly's dress was from New Look rather than designer and had then implied that Molly shouldn't even be there. It still made him cringe thinking about it now.

"Fingers was bleeding so I expect Lane has gone with him to clean that up." Charles told her, somewhat reluctantly. He knew they'd done wrong and he could see why she was angry but at the same time he wasn't quite sure what good Molly going in there all guns blazing was going to do.

She paused for a second. "Tell Lane to leave it. You can deal with her and I'll clean him up and I can talk to him at the same time."

Charles raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure that's really a good idea?"

"Me staying away from Lane is a very good idea right now because if I have to explain the concept of following orders to her once more…" She trailed off. "Well, I think you get the idea."

"Okay." Charles nodded. "Point taken."

"So then." Molly stretched up on her toes so she could reach to wipe the blood off the top of Fingers' head. "Would you like to tell me what the bloody hell happened?"

He winced as she wiped at the cut on the top of his head. "I don't know. I think I might've hit my head when we were driving away."

She dropped the gauze into the bag and stood in front of him. "Now is not the time to try and avoid the question, I'm not exactly in the mood to be patient with you right now all things considered. What the hell were you doing there in the first place?"

"Lane said it was a chance to impress you, after I failed selection and all that." He mumbled, looking down at his feet.

"Lane was wrong." She shook her head. "And I thought that you were smart enough to know that going against a direct order wasn't going to do anything other than piss me off and put everyone in danger."

His head shot up. "I know, and I really am sorry. But she said it was an order and I didn't know what to do."

Molly raised an eyebrow. "Are you telling me she gave you an order that was a direction contradiction to one that you'd been given by your Captain?"

He looked back down at the ground again sheepishly and didn't answer her.

"Let me rephrase this for you." Molly tried. "As far as this looks from the outside you were the one that was driving so you're the one whose responsible. And let me assure you that you're sure as hell never going to get anywhere near another go at selection after that little stunt."

He gave her a pleading look. "Please, she's my friend."

Molly shook her head. "No, she's your superior and I can assure you she's not going to be throwing herself under the bus to save your ass like you seem to think she is. I'm going to ask you again- did she order you to follow them?" She turned around to grab some steristrips for his wound.

When she turned back to face him he nodded slightly, unable to meet her eye.

"Thank you." She said softly. "Let me just stick a couple of these on here to close this up. You're alright apart from this?"

'Yes Ma'am." He nodded.

She was quiet for a moment concentrating. The second she finished he went to get up. "Hang on a minute." She stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder and sitting him back down on the bed.

"Sorry." He apologised quickly, watching as she pulled her gloves off and threw them in the bin.

"You don't have to keep apologising, it makes a lot of sense why you did what you did now." She smiled. "What I want to know is why you felt like you needed to try and impress me anyway? People fail selection all the time- it doesn't mean it's the end of the road."

He looked uncomfortable again. "It's all I've thought about doing for so long. Then when I finally got to selection it sort of never occurred to me what it might be like if I didn't pass and I had to come back to this."

A slow smile crossed her face. "Do you know what Bones would've said if he was here? He's much better at all this than me, hard to believe I know but it's true… He would've asked you what's better- apples or oranges?"

Fingers frowned at her. "I don't understand. They're not the same thing."

"Exactly." She smiled. "They're both different, neither of them are better than the other. They're just different. And just because you're having an apple today doesn't mean you can't have an orange tomorrow."

"I think I get it." Fingers said looking far from convinced.

Molly laughed. "First time he said it to me I thought he was off his rocker, and he might've been to be fair but when you think about it he had kind of got a point. What I'm getting at is yeah you failed, but it doesn't mean you'll never get the chance again. But you won't ever get another chance if you get yourself kicked out or even killed for following someones stupid ideas even when you know you shouldn't be… You've got a brain Fingers, use it next time for god's sake."

"Yes Ma'am." He smiled back at her, a look of understanding crossing his face.

"Good, now get out of here." She laughed. "You've got a roof to build or something apparently."

"Thank you." He smiled, heading for the exit to the tent.

She was tidying up when she heard the noise of someone clearing their throat behind her. She spun around to look at Charles. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long." He shrugged. "He'll live I take it?"

She nodded. "It's not too bad, don't even think he'll end up with a scar which I'm sure he'll be disappointed about."

Charles laughed. "That was really nice, what you said to him."

"So you were eavesdropping?" She stopped what she was doing and turned back to face him.

He looked guilty. "Well, not intentionally. I was coming up here to make sure you hadn't actually killed him but apparently I didn't need to worry because there's a softer side to you after all."

"You tell anyone and you'll regret it, believe me." She threatened, but there was a smile playing on her lips as she said it.

"Noted." He laughed. "So did Bones really say all that? Seems a bit unlike him."

Molly rolled her eyes. "I know you all thought he was a dick, and I mean don't get me wrong he could be a lot of the time, but he was a good guy at heart. I wouldn't be here without him." She could feel her eyes filling with tears as she spoke and she quickly turned away and pretended to be busy checking the kit in front of her so he wouldn't see.

"I'm sure he was." Charles said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She wiped a tear that had escaped as it rolled down her cheek. "Anyway, I was about to come and find you."

"Oh really?" He quickly removed his hand from her shoulder.

She nodded. "It turns out that Lane gave Fingers an order to follow that truck- told him it might impress me enough to get him back on selection."

"Are you sure?" Charles frowned.

She nodded. "Why would he lie?"

"I don't know…" He admitted. "But why would she do that after I told her not to?"

Molly snorted with laughter. "I've got a whole host of theories on that but I don't think we've got time for it right now."

"I'll talk to her when we get back." He offered wearily.

"I'll come with you." She said. "You can tell her to come to our office when we get back."

"Our office?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I need somewhere to work on this… and you're the lucky sod that gets to share with me!" She laughed. "Congratulations."

Molly had already well and truly made herself at home in what was now apparently their shared office by the time he got back from the refugee camp that afternoon. She was hunched over the desk, paper spread out all over the place and a cup of tea in his hand in what he later realised was his mug that she'd stolen from his desk.

"Make yourself at home why don't you." He teased as he walked in. "How's it going?"

She groaned, rubbing at her forehead as if it might somehow soothe her headache. "I feel like I'm going to be here a while… The local police aren't exactly helpful."

He smiled sympathetically, sitting down at his desk. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Keep your lot out of my way?" She shot back a little too quickly and before she'd thought about it. She looked up in time to see him grimace. "Sorry."

"Speaking of, Lane should be here in a minute." He sighed.

Molly raised an eyebrow. "How did she take it?"

He looked sheepish again. "I might not have actually told her it was you that wanted to see her, I didn't want to have to deal with the interrogation about why."

Molly rolled her eyes at him. "That right there is your problem…. She should be worried about you wanting to talk to her, not the other way round."

"I know, I know." He muttered. "The whole things a bit of a mess."

She was about to answer him when the door to the office swung open. "You wanted to see me Char-"

"Lane. Did your mother not teach you to knock?" Molly said sharply, stopping her in her tracks.

Georgie looked completely thrown. "I…. I'm sorry Ma'am. I didn't know there was anyone in here."

"Well clearly there is, so you can wait outside until we're ready." She instructed. "And by the way Lane, it was me that wanted to see you- not Captain James."

Georgie hurriedly muttered some kind of apology, disappearing back out of the door and closing it behind her.

Molly gave a resigned sigh and hauled herself up out of her chair. If she was being quite frankly honest she just couldn't be bothered to listen to whatever kind of bullshit excuse Lane was about to try and feed her. It wasn't until she stood up that she realised Charles was laughing at her.

"Something funny?" She asked, standing beside his desk.

He looked up, lips still twitching as he tried to stop himself from laughing again. "Sorry… I'd just forgotten quite how blunt you can be. It's been a long time since we worked together."

She smiled. "Too much time working with Bones I think, he's got to me."

"You think?" He laughed. She didn't move from the end of his desk, just standing there with her arms folded watching him. "What?" He asked eventually.

"Just making sure you're done." She shook her head, still smiling slightly. "In my experience it tends to lose its effect if you give someone a bollocking and their Captain's pissing himself laughing in the corner."

He snorted with laughter again and she rolled her eyes at him. "Okay I'm done, promise."

She waited for a moment longer, just to be sure before she opened the door. "Okay, come in then Lane."

The difference in the way Lane walked through the door this time was almost enough for Molly to have a laughing fit of her own. "At ease Lane." She muttered, going back around to her desk. "Have a seat."

"Thank you." Georgie said quietly, sitting down opposite her.

Molly quickly gathered up the papers off her desk, just incase Georgie saw any of what she'd been working on and got any more ideas about going rogue. "Right then Lane, why do you think you're here?"

"Because of what happened earlier?" Lane offered.

"If you're talking about the part where you deliberately disobeyed a direct order not to get involved and then decided to go and chase down a drug runner who has already killed one soldier then yes, you're correct." Molly leant forward and rested her elbows on the desk as she waited for Lane to say something.

"That's not quite what happened." Georgie shook her head, shifting uncomfortably in her chair and glancing over at Charles.

"He's not going to save you if that's what you're thinking." Molly said, causing Georgie to turn back to face her again. "Why don't you explain to me what happened if that's not right?"

Georgie went quiet for a moment. "Finger's wanted to follow them- he was trying to prove himself to you. I couldn't change his mind so I thought I'd better go with him rather than let him go off on his own."

"So this was all his idea?" Molly asked, locking eyes with Charles for a moment. Georgie nodded. "And at no point did you think maybe you ought to call this in?"

"I should have." Georgie said quietly. "But it all happened so fast and I was concentrating on trying to get him to stop."

"Anything else you'd like to tell me about this or are you finished?" Molly asked, watching Lane's face as she was quiet for a moment.

"No, thank you."

"Okay then." Molly nodded. "I have to say I'm confused because from what you're saying this was all down to Fingers, yes?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Georgie nodded.

"So at no point did you tell him that you were giving him an order as his superior and you expected him to follow it?" Molly continued. Georgie's eyes went wide. "And you didn't suggest to him that if he were to find the people responsible for the bomb it might impress me enough to get him another go at selection?"

"No." Georgie said quietly, shaking her head. "I didn't." She turned in her chair to look at Charles again.

"I'm over here Lane." Molly snapped, causing her to turn around again. "I'll be honest, I'm not that bothered by the ins and outs of what happened. What's really bothering me is your complete inability to follow any kind of order."

"I-"

"I'm not finished yet Lane." Molly held a finger up to stop her talking. "I've worked with you three times- each of those times there has been some kind of incident as a result of you disobeying an order of some kind that's ended up with someone getting hurt. Can you see how that might cause me a bit of concern? Because you're the common factor in all of these, not Fingers."

"I'm sorry Ma'am. It won't happen again." Georgie said quietly.

"No you're right, it won't. Because believe me when I say if you put so much as a foot out of line I will be personally responsible for the end of your career. Understood?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Molly nodded. "You're dismissed."