A/N: Sorry this has taken a while, been a bit difficult to concentrate the last few days, but hopefully everything is back to normal now (she says with everything crossed) so will try to get Chapter 13 out before Wednesday night.

Chapter Twelve

Molly knew that if looks could kill she'd be picking her teeth up off the floor as Lauren ignored her pleasant smile and polite 'morning' in favour of a look and a snarl before going back to pretending she was deeply fascinated by whatever work-related stuff it was she was looking at, total bollocks if ever Molly had seen it but it was obvious it was going to be another fun-packed day in the shit-shed.

Lauren had seen her sitting in the passenger seat of his car when he'd been dropping her outside because she'd made a big bloody point of bending her head a fraction to see who it was, although Molly was certain that she already knew, the same as she already knew that it was his car, she could have taken the subject of Bossman for her specialist round on bloody Mastermind. Arriving outside the Council Offices at exactly the same time as Lauren had made the timing a bit shit to say the least and she'd gone stomping up the steps without looking back at them once, so that in actual fact she missed the best bit when Charles leaned over and kissed Molly goodbye before she'd got out the car like he was some sort of boyfriend. Lauren would have had a bloody melt-down if she'd hung around long enough to see the floor show, but Molly hadn't at that point given a flying fuck what the miserable cow might think as she'd stood there and waved him goodbye, for all the world as if she was his bleeding girlfriend.

She'd then run up the steps with this huge grin on her face, not giving a shit that in spite of the lift she was well late for work telling herself that Lauren couldn't eat her and anyway why would it be any business of hers? But telling yourself something was one thing, it was dead easy and she should know cos she did enough of it, but believing it was something else entirely….. .

She began to sort through the shit that she'd left unfinished in her rush to get out of there the night before to meet him, but had then pushed it away and left it sitting in a heap to go while she went and got herself a cuppa and maybe a sticky bun if they'd got any before she started actually doing anything anyone could call vaguely constructive. She was bloody starving because breakfast, once they'd finally got out of bed and had taken their somewhat lengthy shower together in his not very big shower cubicle had meant there was only enough time left for two mouthful's of tea and a stale donut which she'd eaten in the car and her stomach was now growling, protesting loudly, bearing in mind the Thai curry nightmare of the night before and all the exercise she'd had in the last few hours. Going downstairs to the staff canteen she couldn't stop sniffing at her forearms. They still smelled of his shower gel, posh stuff that she couldn't have begun to afford because it probably cost about a million pounds a teaspoonful so that she made a resolution that before her and Charles split up she would do her best to try and nick some, when she got the chance of course.

Two days ago Molly would have done her best to placate Lauren. She'd have offered to get her a cuppa and would have been all apologetic, although what she had to be sorry about she didn't have a scoobie, but it was the way that their so-called friendship had always worked, well that was before the Bossman had arrived on her scene and sent the whole thing down the bog. If she was being honest she'd sometimes resented the way Lauren and her had always been a little bit one-sided, well, she'd always been sort of happy enough to let Lauren take the limelight while she was her sort of sidekick and audience and for Lauren to boss her about a bit, alright, a lot, but that was because most of the time there was all this stuff that she wanted to bury.

But he had come on the scene, and Molly wanted to tell Lauren to deal with it and to stop behaving like one of the little bleeders when they didn't get their own way. It was actually the least of her problems right now anyway. She hadn't worked out yet what she was going to say to him about tonight and whether it'd be better to tell him before they went out to eat or to see Shirl as he put it or whether she should wait and tell him after. She was going to have to tell him at some point that it was one of her nights for helping at the shelter and that they'd be expecting her and she couldn't let them down, she never had before and she didn't want to now. Anyhow, it wasn't really any his business what she did, but still …..

"I suppose you think … that he lurves you or something or that you love him" There was this sudden hollow disbelieving laugh "But tell you something, it's bloody obvious he's just using you, I mean, you slept with him right? Yeah, can see you did, you look like shit, I mean, did you get any sleep at all?"

"Thought you weren't talking to me"

There had been a tense silence in the room so that the sound of her swallowing her tea would have made Nan slap her round the head and tell her that she sounded like a bloody drain. She could hear herself chewing as well no matter how hard she'd tried she couldn't seem to eat her bun without making a racket, until Lauren's outburst had made her jump out of her skin.

"Thanks for that, but don't know what you're on about, who said anything about love? I 'aven't said anythin' about anythin' but tell you the truth I'm a bit bloody sick of all this shit, I dunno why you think it's okay to be like this about 'im, Lauren, when it's got fuck-all to do with you what I do, or what he does either come to that"

"But you knew how I felt about him, about me and him and it never stopped you, not for a single solitary bloody second did it? I thought you were better than that"

"Lauren, you lied to me, remember? Okay you fancy him, I know that, but probably lots of women fancy him cos he's well fit, but that's it, innit? All there is, there was never any you 'n him and yeah you're right he did used to come down the pub a bit when we was in there, but that weren't to see you, I don't wanna upset you, but far as he's concerned you're Smurf's girlfriend and nothing to do with him, he came there to see me … he said"

"What, you talked to him about me? You told him …..?" Her voice was almost at screech level as she waved a hand around near her flat stomach "Why? Did you tell him so you could get yourself in there, is that it? How the fuck could you do that to me when I've got all this … stuff ….. going on? Thought you were supposed to be my friend"

Molly was trying very hard not to lose her temper with the other girl because despite the way that she'd been behaving and the things that she'd just said she couldn't help feeling just a tiny little bit sorry for Lauren, she was well and truly up shit creek, but for the first time Molly saw that she had a lot in common with most of the people she'd hung out with ever since she was a little kid, she was selfish, self-centred and nothing was ever her fault.

"I am, or I was before you started being so shitty … not sure now, but first off, I never told him anything about you, he's not interested in you Lauren, sorry, and all that ….. stuff …. as you call it, well, nothing to do with me that you was bloody stupid enough to let an arsehole get near you without a plastic mac, is it? Sorry, don't mean to upset you or nothing, but what the fuck was you thinking? Yeah, I know, none of my business but it's none of his either is it? It's between you and Smurf"

"You don't get it, don't understand"

"I do actually, but blaming me isn't gonna sort anything is it? Not gonna make it all go away" She tried hard to pin a smile on her face even though she'd much prefer to slap Lauren, hard, or better still punch her lights out "Have you decided what you're gonna do yet?"

"No, and don't you bloody start, I've got enough with my mum going on all the time without someone else joining in"

"I'm not, none of my business, I already said that, didn't I?" She shrugged "Have you told the proud father yet?"

"It's not funny so don't you bloody dare laugh, and no, course I haven't, probably won't tell him" She sniffed "And don't you bloody dare either"

"Would I? But Lauren he might be a dick, well okay he is a dick, but 'e's bound to notice if you go on with it, inne? You can't keep that a secret"

"I can have a bloody good try"

They seemed to have reached some sort of truce in as much that they'd started talking to each other, a bit, which was an improvement but it was still a long way from their usual matiness and Molly felt as though she was still treading on bloody eggshells. But it wasn't the first time by any means that she'd found herself in this sort of situation where she felt scared to say anything about something in case someone went apeshit but this was different because the feeling that she couldn't say anything made her desperate to talk about him to someone, to say his name out loud because her confidence was rapidly going down the drain. It was starting to feel as if it wasn't real if she couldn't share it, couldn't talk about it, but Lauren was never going to be the right person for that.

The longer the day went on the more difficult Molly found it to decide about the shelter and how and when to tell him, she couldn't talk it over with anyone so kept on making a decision and then changing her mind and then changing it back again. She was so tired that she couldn't seem to think straight which was earning her loads of knowing smirks from Lauren, something that in turn was royally pissing her off. It was almost going home time on one of the longest stress-filled days she could remember since the first day she'd started working there and had been shit-scared of making a mistake or someone realising what an imposter she was and showing her the door, when she suddenly realised that she'd been making an assumption all day that she was going to stay with him that night, was going to sleep in his bed. But she hadn't heard from him since he'd dropped her off, no call, no text, no nothing, okay so he hadn't actually said he would or anything, but that didn't stop the panic setting in that Lauren could be right, she could very well be making a monumental tit of herself.

He had this great big grin on his face as he waited for her at the bottom of the uneven concrete steps so that she risked life and limb by not holding the rail and not looking where she was going as she hurtled down them and flung herself at him. If he was surprised she didn't see it as he swung her off her feet and hugged her tight before smoothing her hair back from her forehead and kissing her lightly on her lips, a signal for Molly to tighten her arms round him even more and to bury her face against his chest.

"What's the matter? Not that I don't appreciate the welcome, I do, but is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just glad to see you" She hugged him even tighter.

"Lovely, It's lovely to see you as well" He put his hands on her upper arms and moved her back from him slightly so that he could look into her face "Are you sure that everything's okay?"

"Yeah, I were a bit, you know, worried in case you weren't here, in case you had to go and do something soldiery somewhere, I didn't know what bus to get"

She knew she'd just made a totally lame excuse, but it was the best she could come up with on the spur of the moment as he raised an eyebrow and waited for her to say something, to explain, his obvious concern was written all over his face.

"I don't think there's any such word as soldiery" He snorted a laugh down his nose before going on "I told you once, if ever I can't do something that I've promised, I'll always let you know, alright?"

"I knew that … sort of"

-OG-

Despite the fact that she'd slept there with him the night before his bedroom remained the one room that she hadn't had a chance to really look at ….. He hadn't shown her it to her when he'd done his guided tour when she'd been standing there like Little Orphan Annie with all her stuff in bin bags but she'd had every intention of having a bloody good snoop round it when he'd gone off to work or something, well it was only polite wasn't it? But then she'd missed her chance when he'd gone out to get that disgusting take away and since then she hadn't been in the place on her own. But she knew exactly what she'd be looking for, there were a couple of pictures of a dark-haired little boy, presumably his son, on top of the chest, nice looking kiddie who looked like him, well he would wouldn't he? But he had to have some others somewhere, didn't he? Some photos with her in them, the wife and Molly just needed him to go out somewhere for a bit, ten minutes should do it.

"Come on, let's go and get something to eat and then we can go to bed early, I don't know about you, but I've been bloody knackered all day" He was busy emptying the pockets of his combats onto the bedside table before he looked up and smirked at her "And not the sort of early night that you've got in mind"

"What d'you mean? Don't know what you're talking about"

"Shame"

Molly sat heavily on the other side of the bed and listened to him laughing as she took a deep breath before launching into the explanation that she'd been rehearsing in her head ever since they'd got home.

"Yeah, 'bout that, I know I should 'ave said, but tonight's a bit difficult, it's one of my nights for the shelter and they'll be expecting me …. I can't just …. sorry"

"No, why should you be sorry? I should have thought, would you like me to come with you, or if you don't want me to, at least let me come and pick you up, I worry about you that bloody night bus and I'm not even sure there is one comes out as far as this"

"Really? You can come if you like, Oh sorry, didn't mean that the way it sounded but I'd like that but you 'aven't forgotten what it smells like 'ave you?"

"How could I?"

-OG-

Shirl wasn't waitressing in the café, much to Charles' obvious relief and Molly's disappointment, she thought his fear of the woman was hilarious but the young waiter, obviously a student judging by the way he kept burying his head in a big thick book on the counter in between dishing up fried everything, was much more to Charles' taste so that they had quite a little chat when he was setting the bill.

The closer they got to the shelter the quieter Molly got, she seemed to have completely run out of things to say making Charles start to worry that in some way he'd done what she called his bossy bastard act again and that in fact she would far rather be there on her own.

"What's up?"

"Nothin'"

"I know that it's none of my business and you can tell me to keep my bloody nose out if you like, but I think what you do here, not just you but everyone, is fucking awesome, I just …. tell me, how …. did you get involved in all of it in the first place"

"It's a lon…, sorry bit of a habit, it wasn't cos of nothing really, it was just someone told me about the place when I were looking for someone, so I came to look and they did their best, you know, tried to help, so I ended up helping them 'n I've kept on ever since, been nearly a year now"

"Who were you looking for? Was it your dad?"

He had an insistent little voice in his head that was begging her not to say what he thought she was going to say, that she'd been looking for Liam.

"No weren't me dad …. it was Liam, I was looking for bloody Liam cos I was worried he'd be dead in a gutter somewhere so I went all over looking for him, 'n sometimes I looked round the back of Waterloo cos that's where lots of them go at night and it's not very nice there, but then one night I met Sylvie, the woman from the centre and she told me not to go there on me own at night and told me all about the centre and I wanted to see if they knew him or if he'd been coming there … sorry"

"But you didn't find him? You said you hadn't seen him since the night he hit you, right?"

"I lied"