Time to hold on to your hat (as we would say in Swedish) because things are about to get intense. Happy Friday and I'm very grateful if you review to let me know what you think about the turn of events :)

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Chapter 20: Charles

Bones coming by like that got me out of balance for a moment. Out of balance in addition to what the whole thing with Molly already had achieved. I did not want him to apologise, not now when I had moved on and was perfectly fine thinking him a douchebag. The past was a valid reason to hate him officially, even if my hidden main reason now was that Molly had chosen him over me. Or rather, that she had had him all along and I was just the little extra on the side, like a holiday fling in the Afghan desert. And everyone knows what happens to holiday flings when you return home, they are quickly forgotten in favour of your normal life.

It felt good being cruel to him, not give forgiveness when he asked for it, to feel that I was the one in power – but only for a short moment. As soon as he left the tent I felt the bitter aftertaste in my mouth. It is not easy being revengeful when you are a decent person in your bone marrow. I knew it must have taken him quite some courage to come and apologise like he did, and he must also be going through hell over Molly. How ironic - our worst nightmare bonding us. It even seemed like he might have suspected that I had feelings for Molly and I wondered why, but at least I thought that was one area where I managed to sooth his concerns. I would not jeopardise the operation by risk having a jealous boyfriend coming along. The whole situation was complex enough anyway.

We left at dawn, transported by helicopter that dropped us off at a safe distance from the cluster of compounds where we had intel that Molly would be somewhere, and then carefully moved forward on foot. I had never been so tense before an operation, everything was at stake this day. Elvis and his men sneaked closer as a vanguard and took the guards at the entrance by surprise and took them out. We then followed and swarmed the compound. We needed to find Molly immediately, so no one would get the idea to cut her throat as a last desperate act before being captured or killed, but when the door to the part of the compound where she was thought to be held was knocked in, it was empty. Bullets were fired here and there, and I saw enemies falling, but my eyes sought desperately after her. It seemed some men had managed to jump on a truck behind the buildings and drive off. Had they taken her with them? Or had they already killed her? I heard Elvis in my headset.

"Does anyone have eyes on the primary?"

"Negative."

No one had seen Molly, where the fuck was she? I was beginning to panic.

Then she came walking, slowly around a corner, and she saw me too.

"Charles."

Her voice broke so it was a whisper rather than a shout for help. I would have wanted to run to her, but I could not - because she was wearing a bomb west. Before leaving they had put on a bomb west. Someone else shouted;

"Eyes on the primary! She has a bomb west on, back away!"

Activity became even more intense. Everyone moved away from her like she had the plague. The situation was communicated, and I knew from previous experiences that a disturbance signal would be transmitted so that it would not be possible to detonate it from a distance if a remote control was connected to it, but the danger that she might do it just by her own movements remained.

My heart broke when I saw her and it physically hurt in me to see what they had done to her. She was beaten and bruised. She had a cut on her forehead and no one had cared to clean the blood away, so it had just dried, and she was smudged with dirt. She was thinner than when I last saw her, and her lips were dry like they had not even given her enough water to drink. It looked like she barely had the strength to walk, and when she stumbled and nearly fell I knew what I had to do. In a few big steps I reached her and held her. Not hugged her, it would have been too dangerous, I could have blown us both up if I squeezed the west, but I held her under her arms to make sure she would not fall, and I sought her eyes with mine.

"I'm here Molly."

"It can blow up Charles, you should go away, keep a safe distance."

"No way I'm leaving you alone with this Molly. I'm staying right here, and we'll get you out of this thing."

Tears were streaming silently down her cheeks, drawing patterns on her dirt smudged skin. I wanted to kiss those tears away but now was hardly the time even if she had wanted me to.

Then Elvis came running from the other side of the building.

"Charlie, what the bloody hell are you doing?"

"I'm keeping her from falling Elvis. If she does, you know the bomb might go off. I hope the disturbance signal does its job and then you'd better call in a bomb team fast as hell."

Elvis signed to Spanner to take care of that. Then Bones came running too, but froze in his step when he saw Molly in the bomb west.

"Molly!"

"John?"

He looked like he was going to come closer, but Elvis grabbed him.

"Don't even think about it mate. Charlie has her, so she won't fall, the rest of us will keep our distance until the bomb team arrives."

"But…"

"That's an order McClyde! I don't want any casualties because you were emotionally involved and could not follow orders. You'll keep your distance."

I reckoned that Molly must be disappointed that it was me instead of him holding her, but she did not look it. She kept her tearful eyes locked in mine and I was foolish enough to think that it almost appeared like she had feelings for me, but I snapped out of it. If there was one time in my life when I needed to be fully focused and alert it was this one. And I had to give her courage because I definitely saw panic in her eyes, and who would not feel that dressed in a bomb west. I had to keep talking to her, to keep her calm.

"I'm here Molly, and so is Bones, and Elvis and all of 2 section. We're here to help you. Everything will be all right, you'll make it. Who did this to you?"

"Badrai's son, Ahmad. They've been keeping me alive to treat one of their men who was injured, but Ahmad told me already days ago that he planned on doing this as soon as the man was well enough not to need me… Put a bomb west on me and leave me in the village near the FOB. It would be revenge on me for Badrai, and revenge on the village for the women warning me of the attack on the mountain CP. When you came storming in here he just changed his plan and put it on before he fled."

"God Molly, I'm so glad we made it here in time, before he left you in the village…"

"I still have to make it out of this… What if I don't Charles?"

"You will, I won't let anything happen to you! You're not alone."

She looked like she almost did not dare to believe that, and it hurt inside me to see that she would think that I would not be there for her.

"I thought I was. Alone. It has been so horrible Charles, so horrible… When I was locked up in that cell I tried to think of things that would keep me strong, that would help me through this… and I thought of you… but then I realised you were not mine to think of, that I only had myself to turn to."

The intensity of her crying seemed to increase if that was possible. She made me confused. Why would she think of me, not Bones? She had chosen him over me. If I was not hers, it was because she had chosen it to be so, but it made me devastated to think that she had not been able to find strength in me if she had needed it.

"I don't understand Molly… You're with Bones… or John, aren't you?"

"No", she whispered. "No, how can I be with him when I only want you… even if you don't want me."

"I thought… I thought you loved him, that you were engaged."

"We were, but I broke up as soon as I got to Bastion. I know I should have told you, but I was afraid I would destroy everything before it had even started… and now it seems I did anyway. Did you think I was with him?"

"Yes", I whispered.

"Is that why you didn't want to talk to me? But I told you I loved you! I have always loved you, and I still do."

This was such an absurd situation to feel happiness, yet that was what I felt. Pure happiness because she loved me. She was not his, she wanted to be mine. I knew no one had heard our words because of the distance they kept due to the explosion risk, but they could of course see us. Yet, I leaned my forehead to hers, so we touched. All that mattered was that I wanted to comfort her.

"I love you Molly. I never stopped loving you. I was just so incredibly hurt because I thought you were with him and I was nothing to you."

"How could you think that after our night?"

No, how could I? I had once again been a complete fool and now she was standing here with a bomb west on, so I could not take her in my arms and we were both at risk of being blown to pieces. If that happened I would at least die happy man, but it would be a bloody waste – we had to make it through this.

"I'm not sure Molly. Now it all seems so stupid I can't believe it myself, but we'll get you out of here, and I'll make it up to you. I promise you that."

Then I looked up because I saw Spanner returning in the corner of my eye. It did not seem like he had good news though, judging by his facial expression when he talked to Elvis. I heard Elvis voice through the headset.

"There is no bomb team available, Charlie. All are away on other missions and we can't wait."

"Fuck! What should we do?"

"I'll have to try to disarm it. You know I'm trained even if I'm not as skilled as the bomb team, but it's the best we can do. I'm coming over to you now."

I told Molly what would happen and saw the fear in her eyes. Why of all days was no bomb team available today? I saw Elvis explain the situation to the others around him and seemingly asked them to increase the distance to us even further because they backed away. I saw Bones, his face distorted in agony and he tried to convince Elvis he should come too, but I could read a "no fucking way" on Elvis lips. In this moment I felt sorry for him too, he obviously truly loved Molly and this day he had to live through hell.

Once he had been handed some tools that may come in handy, Elvis came towards us, walking slowly. It was not the right time for any fast movements.

"Hi Molly. It's good to see you although I wish it was under other circumstances. Quite a mess you got yourself into, huh? But Charlie and I are going to get you out of here in no time. Okay?"

"Okay…"

"You trust us, right? That we'll do anything for you?"

She looked into my eyes and I saw a faint smile in the corner of her mouth and I smiled reassuringly back, even though fear was squeezing my heart too.

"I do."

"Good, then let's get started. Charlie, I need you to move away a bit, so I have free access to the west and can wriggle it off. Can you please move down and stabilise her by holding around her legs instead?"

I did as he told me. Unlike her upper body, her legs I could embrace without risk and then I felt her trembling. All I wished for was for this to be over. Elvis had a closer look at the west.

"I will try to get this west off you Molly. I can see that in addition to the remote device for triggering, there seems to be a timer. It will probably be activated once I pull this thing off from you. What the two of you need to do is run as soon as I have taken it off, towards the others. I will throw the west in the other direction in case it explodes."

"And you Elvis?"

"I will run too, of course" he smiled.

I knew how dangerous this was. If we were unlucky and there was no delay on the timer, we might as well blow up, all three of us.

"We can do this", Elvis ensured us, and I hoped he was right.

"Thanks for being here, if there's anyone I trust to do this, it's you", I said to him and he gave me his cheeky grin.

Then I turned my head up to Molly, to look into her eyes again in case it would be the last time and I held my breath when Elvis said;

"Prepared? Now I do it."

Elvis started pulling the west over her head, first slowly and carefully, then asked Molly to raise her arms and in a quick move pulled it the last bit over her head.

"Now Charlie, take her – RUN!"

And I did, got to my feet, grabbed her around the waist to support her and ran for all we had. When we had put some distance behind us, there was the deafening sound of an explosion. We felt the heat, and the pressure wave threw us to the ground. We just lay there for some seconds, trying to feel if we were alive and not missing any limbs. We were alive, and we were unharmed. Our eyes met again, where we lay beside one another and the sense of relief was palpable.

"Are you okay Molly?

"I think I am. Go check Elvis. How is Elvis?"

She had been my first thought, but now I got up and turned around to see what had happened with him. Even if he had managed to throw the west away, he had been closer to the blast and now he was lying motionless on the ground.

"Oh my god, Elvis!"

I ran to him and kneeled by his side. He was still conscious although his eyes were dazed, he was bleeding from several wounds and he was also burnt. It was difficult to judge how bad his injuries were, if he would live or not.

"Call in a medevac!" I shouted and then leaned over him.

"Elvis, don't you dare go die on me. I need my best friend. Hang in there and the medevac will come."

"Charles..."

"Don't speak Elvis."

"I need to tell you... I'm sorry…"

"You have nothing to be sorry about, you're the hero of the day."

"But I must… I should have told you long ago… I knew that Molly loved you… I knew she wasn't with Bones anymore… so I could have helped you find your way back to each other sooner, but I just couldn't make myself do it because…"

His voice broke, so I guessed.

"…because you loved her too?"

Somewhere inside me there had been a suspicion that he might have feelings for Molly too, which was one of the reasons I had felt jealousy towards him at some point, and also one of the reasons why I had been so angry at him for leaving Georgie like he did, but I had never put words to the feeling I had. Not until now. And anyway, when he spoke, it turned out that I was completely wrong, as mistaken as any man can be.

"No, Charlie, I loved you. I have always loved you."

And with that confession he closed his eyes and became unconscious and I sat there stunned, like I had been struck by lightning, with my best friend – who loved me, in my arms until the medevac came and they lifted him onto a stretcher and transported him away to Bastion.

I saw that Bones had ran to Molly and held her, but it did not even make me jealous anymore. She was alive, which was the most important thing, and second to that she had also had made it clear that she loved me. I had nothing to worry about. So, when we got into the helicopter that would take us too to the Bastion hospital - me to be checked after the explosion, Molly to also be cared for after her ordeals as a hostage - I let Bones come with us. It would have been cruel to leave him behind when I knew he cared so much about what happened to her. I even let him sit beside her during the flight, with his arm still around her shoulder. It did not matter because now we knew, Molly and I, that is was us. There was no need to compete because I had already won. I did not take joy in the sorrow I knew it would bring him. I only felt joy in the certainty that Molly and I belonged together. Even if the one thing I wanted most in the world was to take her in my arms, I would be able to that for the rest of our lives. I could let him have this moment meanwhile Molly's eyes and mine did all the talking we needed for now.