"He's well cute inne?" Parsley had, as usual, scattered the cream rugs as he'd pelted down the hallway only to stop dead and walk slowly and gingerly towards the stranger coming through the front door. "Hello mate" she put out her hand for him to sniff as per Charles' instructions and beamed up at him with delight as Parsnip licked her fingers.

"Oi come here you" Charles did what he'd been longing to do since he'd first seen her in the canteen some hours before and bent down and kissed her very gently on her closed mouth "Or did you mean it when you said you were coming to see the dog?"

"What did you think I was coming 'ere for?"

"Oh, I don't know, I'm sure I'll think of something"

Charles put a couple of table lamps on as Molly looked around the lounge with eyes like saucers, the huge pale green velvet chesterfield-type sofa and the cream leather chair with the metal bits that reminded her a bit of the bed thingy in the dentists, the cream blinds at the windows and the dark green silky curtains that weren't shut but were far too long so that they were all bunched up on the shiny dark floorboards. She was sure that it was very trendy, more like a picture in a magazine than a place where people lived, but it was all so tidy that it wasn't very cosy. There was nothing about, no pictures or ornaments or newspapers and no mess anywhere; she turned back towards him with a grin plastered all over her face, she'd expected to feel in awe of his house and she wasn't. Charles shut Parsley out of the room, saying that he didn't need a bloody audience as he turned towards her with his face wreathed in a similar smile so they just stood, without doing or saying anything, and grinned at each other just as they had across the canteen earlier that evening.

Molly's heart was racing as he stroked his thumb down her cheek then cupped her face in the palm of his hand tilting it up so that she was looking at him as she waited eagerly for him to kiss her. Nerves made her want to try and fill the silence, but she couldn't think of anything to say as she became even more aware of something she'd first realised during their car journey over here, that she was still fairly disastrously pissed. She wished he would say something or do something, preferably kiss her, because the anticipation was killing her and she wished more than anything that she'd laid off the vodka, her alcohol levels were still high enough to make her incredibly impatient and she wasn't used to all this softly, softly, slowly, touchy feely stuff. Not that she wasn't loving it, she was, but she was also fighting a temptation to jump him, which, even with her present somewhat clouded judgment she could see would be a mistake.

"You okay?"

"Course" She'd closed her eyes for a second as he'd butterfly kissed the corners of her mouth and then had to snap them open again quickly as the floor tilted alarmingly.

"Right, bedtime I think"

"Oh good"

She wrapped her arms round his neck and entwined her fingers into the curls at the back oblivious to the fact that putting her arms above her head had made her dress ride halfway up the cheeks of her bum. He gently untangled her hands and pulled her arms down, then the skirt of her dress, thanking heaven that she hadn't done the same thing at the party, and stroked the tendrils of hair off her face.

"No"

"No?"

For a minute she didn't understand what he was talking about, surely he wasn't saying 'no' that they weren't going to bed? What the fuck did he mean 'no'?"

"No" He stroked her hair back again.

"You mean that's it?"

She was sure he couldn't possibly be serious because this certainly hadn't been in her plans, and she didn't think it had been in his either, although she wasn't so sure now.

"I think you need to go to bed and sleep it off a bit"

"What? Go to bed and go to sleep? Just like that? On me own?" She was still struggling to make sense of what he was saying.

He nodded and the worst of it was she could see that he was now struggling to keep a straight face as she felt the hot wave of mortification that she could have got this so wrong. He'd tried to dump her at hers, and she'd almost refused to get out of his car, instead she'd invited herself to his and talked about meeting his bleeding dog when they both knew what she was inviting herself for, and he was virtually her boss. He'd turned her down and now he was laughing at her, shit she'd pulled some stunts over the years when she'd had a bit too much, but this one took the prize for just about the dumbest thing she'd ever done.

"Okay" She couldn't remember ever feeling quite so small and stupid in her life, going to bed and getting away from this embarrassment suddenly looked favourite to her.

"I'll get you a drink of water so that you won't get a horrible headache in the morning"

"Thanks"

OGOGOGOGOGOG

The bed was warm and fuggy and comfortable under the duvet as she stretched out, she'd got no idea what time it was but she knew that she needed to get up and use the loo, and it was getting urgent but because the air was chilly in the room she'd been putting off the moment for as long as possible. She turned her head and found herself looking straight into a pair of chocolate brown eyes on the other pillow as a warm grin spread over his face. God, it was his bed, had he invited her or had she just barged her way in? This was a fucking nightmare.

"You okay, sweetheart?"

"Fine, I just need the loo"

She looked into the mirror over the sink with some trepidation as she washed her hands but actually wasn't too unhappy with the way she looked considering the raw material wasn't great. Her hair was beyond help, a complete mass of tangled curls because she hadn't brushed it before she'd crashed last night and she had mascara smudges under her eyes but she wasn't too panda like. It was very chilly in the bathroom making her shiver and she had no memory of coming in here last night, she also had no idea at all where her clothes were, she was stark naked and frozen and didn't even know whether she'd taken them off or he had, but she was pretty certain that they hadn't made love. In the cold light of day, or nearly dawn or whatever time it was, she was again flooded with mortification at what memories she did have of the previous evening, all of it. He must be wondering what the hell he'd let himself in for when he'd taken her home from the party, someone who'd invited themselves to his house and then couldn't even remember getting undressed let alone getting into his bed.

"I'm so sorry" She stood shivering and looking down at where he was lying propped up with his arms folded behind his head.

"What for? What have you done?"

"All of it. Getting pissed, and inviting meself to yours and then 'aving to be put to bed, your bed" She shivered "its bloody freezing in your house, why's it so bleeding cold?"

"The heating goes off at night, come here and get warmed up," He lifted the duvet and invited her to snuggle up against him "Christ, you're freezing. Don't be sorry, I loved it, all of it"

"Really?" She wasn't sure she understood any of this.

"Really. Although you might get the piss taken out of you when you get back to work because we had an audience for most of it, but I loved it, from the moment you told me you'd got pissed because you were scared I wasn't going to show up and that you'd bought a dress specially to make yourself gorgeous for me, which you didn't have to do by the way, you're already bloody gorgeous" he started to laugh "to the bit where you invited yourself home with me and then got in my bed, I loved it all"

"Oh shit, I can't believe I did that in front of everyone" She decided to worry about that later on when she wasn't trying to come to terms with what'd happened with him "We didn't have sex though, did we?"

"No, but there's no rush, we've got all the time in the world, the rest of our lives in fact"

"That's a bit previous, innit?"

"Nope"

"I thought you didn't want to"

"I know what you thought and you were wrong" he shook his head and laughed "Listen, I just didn't want to make love to the girl of my dreams for the first time only to have her fall asleep or throw up half way through"

"Is that what I am?"

"What, the girl of my dreams? Of course you are, you know that" He smiled and kissed the top of her head "Well, you know it when you're not pissed"

"I'm not pissed now"

"No, you're not are you?"

He started to kiss a trail down her neck and across her shoulder then across her collar bone and up to her mouth. He started kissing her gently, the kiss getting deeper and more passionate as she started to kiss him back.

"Charles?"

"Yup?" He carried on kissing a trail down towards her breasts.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can" He started to kiss upwards towards her mouth again.

"Did I undress meself last night or did you take me clothes off? And where the fuck are they, me clothes I mean?"

"Molly, I'm not a bloody saint, so believe me if I'd undressed you last night things would have ended up very different. You got undressed and I picked up your clothes from where you dropped them on the floor and I put them on that chair over there, happy now?" She nodded "Good, now could you please shut up and concentrate?"

OGOGOGOGOGOGOG

Charles lay cocooned in a warm glow of satisfaction and happiness, something he'd thought he'd never feel again when he'd lain awake at this sort of time morning after morning in what'd felt like a deep trough of misery, almost despair. He'd been waiting for something he hadn't even wanted, not that he would have admitted that to anyone, not even himself, it had seemed like such an epic fail at the time, now it felt like an incredibly lucky escape. He hadn't even met the beautiful green-eyed girl who was wrapped round his body at the moment, and he hadn't been exaggerating when he'd described her as the girl of his dreams, that was exactly what this felt like, a dream. In a few short weeks she'd changed everything, not only his love life but his whole life, so that the way he looked at things now meant he was beginning to feel happy with himself again, something else he thought he'd lost.

Her face was bathed in the same happy glow of satisfaction as she put a hand up and stroked the hair back from his forehead and then smiled as she holed him beneath the waterline.

"I guess that's the morning after pill for me then"

"Oh shit, I'm sorry" He was appalled that he'd been so carried away in the moment that the thought hadn't even crossed his mind, he couldn't remember ever having something like this happen to him before, he'd always managed to be in full control. "I can't believe I …..…that was so badly organised of me, I'm so sorry"

"What? It's your turn now to keep saying you're sorry is it? Are you saying you're sorry that we made love or sorry that we got a bit carried away for a minute, cos if it's that I think I might 'ave 'ad something to do with it as well as you"

"Of course I'm not sorry we made love, I can't remember being this happy for … well, I can't remember ….. but yes I feel like I should have planned things a bit better than that"

"Listen, don't worry about it, I'll sort it in the morning, it'll be fine, honestly" She grinned at him "I'll join all the bleeding fourteen year olds who 'ad a good night out last night but regret it this morning. And, before you start saying sorry again, I ain't saying I regret it cos I don't, I can't remember being this happy either, it just needs to be sorted, okay?

OGOGOGOGOGOGOGOG

"Morning sleepyhead"

She opened bleary eyes to the welcome sight of a large mug of hot tea and the less welcome sight of a fully dressed Charles pulling a thick sweater over his head.

"Where you going?"

"To take Parsnip out, poor little bugger's got his legs crossed again" He laughed "Then I'll go to the bakery on the way back and get something really unhealthy for breakfast. Stay there, I won't be long" He kissed the tip of her nose.

"I need a shower, I'm minging"

"No you're not"

"Oh I am, believe me. Can I use your toothbrush?"

"Of course you can, but if you're going to get up and shower, make sure you go back afterwards, then we can have breakfast in bed when I get back"

"Okay, but I'm gonna need to make a move soon anyway. I need to go home and get changed before I find the right chemist, there's no way I'm gonna ask for the bleeding thing wearing a dress that makes me look like I'm on me way 'ome from a night on the tiles"

"God Molls, I can't tell you how sorry I am" He shook his head as she pulled a face at him "Okay, okay I'll shut up. If we go home to yours you can pack a few bits and we'll come back and spend the weekend here, I've got some stuff I need to talk to you about"

OGOGOGOGOGOGOG

A/N: Okay, maybe not as romantic as some, but I thought I'd try to keep it in character and also not get too sloppy, even though that's a real temptation as thoughts of CJ and a bed creep into our imaginations.

Thanks for your lovely comments, as I've said before they mean the world to me.

Next up, Charles talks about the future and Molly is unsure about hers.