You still with me?

I really hope you are

Again thank you to Debbie for reading this before i even put it up as putting up chapters can be a nerve wrecking thing. Especially on a story like this!

-.-

2018

The next morning Molly was being woken up by a nurse to say that Charles was awake and asking for her. That was a little strange because she wasn't sure if he knew she was there but she guessed that the nurse had told him.

Her heart gave a hearty thump at the fact that he had asked for her and not for Lane. That was definitely petty but maybe Pam was right; maybe they could save their marriage after all.

She hesitated for a moment and looked over at her mother in law who probably should go in and see him too but she shook her head and said that she could see him after. The last thing Pam wanted to do was overwhelm him with two people in the room at the same time. So Molly took a deep breath and stood up before she moved into the room and he was sat up in bed so clearly he had been awake a while and now she was tempted to look at the time to see what it was.

What broke her heart was the look he had on his face when he saw it was her. The look of disappointment on his face was so obvious that it made her want to leave the room. Clearly it hadn't been her that he had been asking about.

"Molly I.. didn't know that you were here" he admitted and suddenly looked over at the nurse who was now leaving the room.

"I don't know where Lane is if that's who you're looking for" she felt the words tight in her throat that she was sure she had let a shaky breath out at the same time.

"I-" Charles suddenly didn't know what to say and as he brought his eyes back to look at her he knew she could see everything. But he tried again "I didn't think that you would come"

Molly was confused, at the moment her name was still his next of kin so if anything were to happen then she would be the first one to know then she would tell his mother and so on but for him to then say that he didn't think she would come was wrong. Of course she would be there. She still cared about him but of course he couldn't see that. "I am still your wife so of course I would be here" although she didn't know why she was justifying the reason why she was here by her husbands bedside.

Just saying that had left her feeling exhausted and deflated that maybe it was best that she left but her stubbornness kept her standing in the spot she was rather than leaving the room behind.

"I didn't think that you would move on that quick but I guess you had been lining her up before I even left" she said and watched him.

"I don't want to talk about it" Charles admitted and shook his head and wished that he hadn't because of the fact that he had a headache forming and talking with Molly was the last thing he wanted to do right now. He wanted to know if Georgie was alright but considering that the nurse thought Molly was Georgie then he had to guess that she was fine and had been in the room with him at some point.

"Okay how about you just listen then" it might've sounded like a question but it really wasn't and she wanted to get some words in and would rather it wasn't at the hospital but she doubted that she would see him outside of this place. It seemed to be a common occurance that he would be here anyway. "This isn't you, this isn't the man that I married" she watched him to see his reaction but it seemed like his face was still flat. "I love you, Charles"

"Then why did you decide that it was over?" His voice was quiet as he watched her.

"Because you didn't want me, in the end you could only think about Georgie and when a man starts thinking about another woman then his wife or girlfriend can kiss goodbye to the relationship that they had and you wouldn't let me help you"

Charles looked away for a moment and when he brought his eyes back to look at her he then said "I don't need help, Molly, I'm fine"

Molly shook her head "No, you're really not but for some reason you can't see it" she took a step towards him. "Unless you don't want to see it because then you know you will have to step back from the Army" she wasn't sure if she had hit it on the head or not but she needed him to see that he really wasn't fine. He had seen his best friend die and that would haunt anyone.

"Where's Georgie?" He asked instead of talking about Elvis.

Molly looked towards the window and saw his mother standing there watching him and she shook her head to say that she wasn't getting anywhere with him. That it felt like her efforts were falling on deaf ears and she wasn't sure if she wanted to do that anymore. Molly was tired from sitting upright in a chair all night, she had done it twice before but this time she felt like it wouldn't be worth it because he wasn't listening. She brought her eyes back to look at him. "Don't know, don't care" she said with a shrug. "Hopefully far away from me as she can get"

"I have to find out if she's alright" Charles spoke and looked over to the window to see his mother standing there watching the two of them and he lowered his eyes. Even at his age his mother was still a scary woman and when she was angry well she was downright scary.

Molly frowned and looked down at the hospital room floor, she really wasn't getting anywhere with him. He just didn't want to listen to her anymore. "You never said it back"

"Said what back?" Charles looked over at her.

"I said that I loved you and you never said it back, not like you used to do when I said it" Molly didn't know why she was doing this. She didn't want to be in this position right now but she hadn't heard it; instead he had asked her why she had left him. He really didn't understand did he?

"Molly..."

"Tell me that you don't love me and I'll walk out of this room and I'll send Georgie your way"

"Molly, please.."

"You can't have three people in a marriage and I'm not staying around to be the third person so either let Georgie go and get the help that you need or just let me go and we get that divorce," she then added on "so tell me that you don't love me"

"There's nothing wrong me with, I don't need the help" he said in a whisper but it was enough for Molly to hear and he knew that it wasn't the answer she wanted.

Molly chewed on her lip for a moment and nodded before she turned towards the door, tears were warming the back of her eyes but she refused to cry in front of him. Not again. Her hand went to open the door but she stopped and looked back over at him for a moment "Do you honestly think Elvis would want this?" she asked and turned properly. "When he said to Georgie that if anything good happens in her life then it would be him... he didn't mean for you to be the one to be with her next"

"You don't know that"

"You honestly think that he would want you to throw your marriage away when he never got to marry himself?" Molly could see the cogs finally working in his mind, she could finally see him thinking it over. "I never told you this but Elvis rang me before he went to Afghan and he told me that you were looking fragged" she admitted.

"You never told me that, why didn't you tell me that?" he asked.

"Because he told me to never tell you and for a while I kept that from you because I thought it was the best thing for you," she sighed softly under her breath "he was like your brother and best friend in one and you were his, he loved you like his brother and treated you like his best friend; so when he rang me out of the blue and told me to get you to slow down and to think about putting missions behind I was thinking of ways to bring it up but then he died"

"And you tried to get me to leave the Army"

"Charles if he could see it before he died and I can see it now, then you must see that you need help but that is up to you, what you do is your decision" she said and nodded before turning back to the door and opening it before she walked out.

"How did it go in there?" Pam asked Molly as she came out of the room. Something told her that unfortunately it didn't go the way that she had hoped especially when Molly had shook her head when they looked at each other through the window.

"It's done" she said sadly and had hoped that after this they would've worked it out but it was always Georgie that he was worried about and was surprised that she, Molly, would be there in the first place. "He just doesn't want to accept the fact that he needs help and he's asking after Georgie so there is nothing I can really do" she said with a frown on her lips "but there could be something that someone else can do, it's up to you now. I've tried to get him to admit that he needs help and I was hoping that Elvis would help but even that didn't get him to admit he needed help" she did notice him starting to think over what she had said so maybe it could work in time but right now he's not going to want to get help.

Pam looked over at Charles from the window and then she sighed softly before shaking her own hair. Robert was away on business and she knew that he was flying back from Edinburgh but he wouldn't be here for a while yet so it was just her here. She looked over at Molly once more. "Are you going to be getting a divorce?" she knew it was probably none of her business but she didn't want to lose Molly.

Molly was quiet for a moment and knew that Charles hadn't said yes to a divorce but he also hadn't said no either but Molly just decided to say "Probably"

"I'm sorry that it's come to this" Pam admitted before she moved away from the window and gave Molly a hug and felt the younger woman hug her back before she then slowly pulled away and walked into the room. Now it was her time to have a talk with her son.

Molly watched them for a moment before she decided to walk away. She hated to do it especially when he was in need so much but at the same time she had to think about herself especially when he couldn't see that he needed help.

She reached into her pocket and pulled her phone out, going through the numbers she found the one she wanted and pressed call as she left the hospital.