He held her hand tightly as they walked around Hamleys, he felt that he needed to keep her close to him for a bit longer to make sure that he hadn't been dreaming in the last few hours, holding her small delicate hand in his again, feeling her fingers between his was symbolic of the beginning of the closeness between them again, the simple act of just holding her hand meant so much, the warmth radiating through his body and showing in his face, both of them caught each other glancing sideways quite frequently like they were checking if the other one looked as happy as they felt, in fact the sparkle was back in both of their eyes.
Molly led him to the wooden toys section, "he has a wooden fire engine that he adores, maybe we could get him another wooden truck?" Something had caught Charles' eye "I think this would be perfect!"
They got a taxi back to Guildford station so that they could collect Molly's car before heading back to the house. It had given them the chance to talk some more, including reminiscing a little about two section and Afghan and it allowed Charles to gather himself before he met Charlie.
The nerves had started to kick in as soon as they had picked up Molly's car in Guildford, so he had tried to put it to the back of his mind by observing his surroundings, taking in where she had been spending her life without him. he knew the area a little bit as it was close to Pirbright and Aldershot but he had never ventured out much than around the immediate vicinity of the base, and had the time to appreciate that the countryside here was lovely. The journey had not taken long though and he had butterflies again as the car pulled onto the drive.
She lived in the Village of West Clandon a few miles out of Guildford, Charles was instantly enchanted by the little cottage that she had chosen to live with their son, it was set back from the road slightly and had a little front garden with a picket fence, it was small but cute, just like Molly Dawes he thought and laughed a little out loud. She looked at him "what are you chuckling at?" He gave her a grin "nothing" she gave him a look "What is it Charles?" He moved across and kissed her on the cheek "the house is lovely Dawes, but you always told me you didn't like the countryside" she smiled at him "there are lots of things I thought I didn't like but these days I try not to knock it until I've tried it " she went quiet for a minute..."well are we going in?"
They got out of the car, Molly opened the boot and Charles got out the present from Hamleys, she put the key in the door and shouted for Nan who appeared and stopped in her tracks when she spotted Charles stood behind Molly. "Char..." He stepped forward "Nice to see you" she hesitated and looked at Molly as if to check she was ok and get some sense of what had transpired in the hours between Molly leaving the house this morning and now. Molly smiled and nodded at her as if to signal it was ok, just at that moment a little whirlwind came bounding around the corner "Mummy, Mummy you're back ...yay...did you meet the queen?" He held onto her legs and suddenly spotted Charles stood behind her, his eyes widened as he looked up at the tallest man he had ever seen, and then their eyes met, he instantly looked away and was scooped up into Molly's arms. My god he had always thought there was a striking resemblance between him and Sam but this was like looking in a mirror at a miniature version of himself, Charles thought, taken aback by how much Charlie looked like him.
"No I didn't meet the queen mate but I did meet a very good friend of mine" she turned towards Charles "this is Charles you both have the same name so I think you are going to be great buddies, how about shaking hands with our new friend?" Charlie was studying Charles intently "You are tall like a giant" he said putting his hand over his mouth and giggling. Charles couldn't help but laugh, he was upfront and cheeky like Molly, he held out the big bag containing the present "your Mummy and I did a little bit of shopping and we brought you back a present from London" Charlie was wriggling to get onto the floor and find out what was in the big bag. Charles sat down in the floor with him and helped him take the present out of the bag, it was a wooden fire station, he was so excited. For the next thirty minutes Charles sat with his son on the floor and built the fire station for him, Molly and Nan both had tears in their eyes as they perched on the sofa and just watched them both, Molly had never thought that she would see this day, Father and son discovering life together. When it was all finished Charlie ran and got his Fire engine and parked it outside. He was studying Charles again "You are cool thank you" and he held is hand out for Charles to shake it. Charles was biting his lip to stop the tears from coming, he gathered a breath and took Charlie by the hand "Thank you Charlie" he looked across at Molly and mouthed "I love you" she mouthed "ditto" back.
Nan got up from the Sofa and gave Molly a hug "I am gonna leaves you all to it" she gave her grandson a kiss on the top of his head and winked at Charles "See you soon" He nodded and gave her a look where she instantly knew all was well in the world.