They tidied up the room and Charles unpacked his and Sam's things so that it appeared he had popped back to "check in" whilst they had been out "shopping" Molly thought it was cute how Charles was scurrying around covering their tracks like a teenager trying to tidy the house up after a party when their parents were due back. Charles stood at the door and gave the room one last inspection before they left to go back to the house.

Molly suggested they at least stop at the supermarket on the way back to pick up some groceries, given he had gone to so much trouble with the hotel room, she didn't want them to "blow their cover" by coming back empty handed from the "shopping" trip. He threw her a disapproving look sensing the hint of mockery in her voice at his paranoia about being caught "at it" by his son when Sam probably wouldn't even think twice about where they had been or what they had been doing or why his Dad had already checked into the hotel already. She just smiled sweetly at him and blew him a kiss. He loved her teasing him really, it was one of the many things that had charmed him about her in the early days she wasn't afraid to challenge and break down his barriers.

When they got back to the house Sam was sat at the table with Charlie showing him a drawing app on his I pad and helping him make a picture on it. Nan was working her way through a pile of ironing, she was always helping out and had emptied, washed and tumble dried the contents of the laundry bin whilst they had been out. Molly thought how she never would have got through the last five years without her Nan, even though she loved her Mum, Nan had been her main champion and support network for most of her life. Nan looked up as they came in "Alright you two, see you got your shopping done, supermarket busy was it? " she craftily winked at Charles who immediately blushed right on cue much to Molly's not so secret amusement again.

Charles had insisted on making dinner for everyone and they had all sat around the table chatting and laughing with lots of banter and lots of funny comments from Charlie as he tried to join in the conversations. Charles had taken a moment during the meal to look around the table and watch them all laughing together thinking about how thankful he was for having them in his life, Rebecca's death had really made him reflect on appreciating every day and to be bold with what he was planning to do next.

Nan left shortly after dinner as she was meeting a friend in town to go to the bingo. Nan had mentioned meeting this new friend quite a few times over the last few weeks, when Molly had interrogated her about who, where, male, female? Nan wasn't giving anything up "That's for me to know and for you to know when I feel like telling ya" but Molly was pretty certain Nan had met someone given she was being uncharacteristically coy about the whole thing, and had a certain twinkle about her, she would crack eventually, if not Molly would have to follow and conduct a stake out to see who the mystery fella was.

Charles had gone upstairs to give Charlie his bath and after finishing the dishes Molly had joined Sam in the lounge. "Alright mate?" she asked as she joined him on the sofa, Sam smiled he loved how relaxed and cool Molly was, she was fun to be around and whenever she was with his Dad he seemed to be the same too, he could see she made his Dad really happy. "Molly can I ask you something?" Molly shrugged her shoulders "course you can…what is it?"

"why did you and Dad not see each other for a long time?...was it because of Charlie?"

Molly suddenly felt her stomach do a revolution she thought for a minute before she answered, she could give him the bland "its complicated" answer or she could be honest with the appropriate level of detail that he could process. She felt like she had bonded quite a bit with Sam since Rebecca died so she went for option two.

"Before I found out that I was having Charlie, I got a bit scared about me and you're Dad, you see before the army my life was very different, it was very different from your Dad's too. We had both come from such different worlds and the truth is Sam that back then I didn't think that I would be good enough to be with him so I got scared and I decided to run away…"

She waited, Sam just sat listening intently so she carried on

"And after I left, I was really sad and then Charlie came along and then I was too scared to try and explain to your Dad that I still really, really loved him and wished I hadn't run away... it felt at the time like it was all too late, that I had made a big mistake and it was too late to put it right and that coming back and telling your Dad about Charlie might stop him from having a better life without me"

Sam was thoughtful "You make my Dad happy Molly, if he asked you to get married would you say yes?"

Whoahh…there went the second revolution of her stomach…She laughed nervously

"me and your Dad love each other very much …..and yes maybe one day we will get married but for now we are going to concentrate on looking after you and Charlie… I will never try and replace your Mum Sam but I will be here for you when you need me and I hope that we can get to know each other much better if you come to Guildford…if not I will come and kidnap you from Boarding school regularly and we can go AWOL for the day"

Sam was laughing at the last remark, but also understood a bit better about why she had disappeared when he was younger and he was glad that she had come back. He also started to mull over how he was going to get his Dad and Molly to get married now that he was going to go to school in Guildford. He would tell his Dad about the school when they got back to the hotel tonight the Dad and Molly wedding thing needed more planning.

Charles had finished putting Charlie to bed and had come downstairs he had been listening the entire time…he waited a few minutes and then breezed into the room…"ok that's Charlie in bed, we should start thinking about getting to the hotel mate" Molly got up from the sofa as Charles got their coats, Sam got up and gave Molly a tight hug before his Dad passed him his coat. Charles moved to do the same he held her round her waist and gave her a kiss "Be back in the morning" he gave her a slightly despondent look that he had to go and leave her to sleep in a hotel, especially since Sam seemed to be getting on with Molly so well but checked himself to stick with the plan….one…step….at a time….James...one step at a time.

They got back to their hotel Charles was reading something on his Kindle whilst Sam watched some TV "Dad I want to go to the new school"

"Ok Sam…you sure?"

"Yes…are we going to live with Molly and Charlie?"

"Do you want to?"

"Well we can't live in a Travelodge forever Dad"

Charles chuckled "ok….let's see what we can sort out then"

The next morning they pulled up outside of Molly's house, Charles opened the car door "Come on"

Sam followed him as he walked away from Molly's and was heading for the next door house, he stopped at the bottom of the drive

"Dad where are you going?"

"Checking out our new home... what do you think"