When Molly woke up that morning the last thing she thought she would see was a missed call from Charles and it was still pretty early but she rang him back because no one rings that early unless it was an emergency and she just kept praying that nothing was wrong with Sam.

He didn't answer the first time and it was only when she was making herself a cuppa that she heard her phone vibrating on the side and she looked down and saw that it was Charles, who else would it have been, and then picked it up answering as she did. "Hello?"

The call was about a meeting that he wanted to have with her and now she was sitting in a coffee shop not far from her barracks and she kept checking her watch, Molly was early, to see what the time was.

She was getting nervous about this because the last time they came face to face was the night he thought she was going on a date with Elvis; something she still hasn't denied or even confirmed for that matter.

The door opened up and she looked over to see a young couple walking in holding hands and she sighed and bit into her cake. She loved coming here and it was actually her favourite place when she wasn't working. In fact they made the best muffins here and of course she would always take one back to the flat with her. Hide it in her cupboard so that when she got home she could scoff it down with a cuppa.

Today the place she had picked was right in front of the window because even though the people outside could see them there was actually a little bit of privacy from the people inside. Molly checked her watch again and really wasn't sure what the hell this was about but it was making her feel nervous all the same.

The door opened again and she didn't have to look to know that he had arrived because he was on time just like he usually was. She did look up though when he sat down in the chair opposite her. A waitress came over and asked if he wanted anything and he ordered himself a coffee before looking back at Molly with a soft smile.

"Thank you for meeting me here"

"Well you know I live not far from here anyway so it's easier" Molly put her cake back down on her plate and took another drink of her tea. It was getting cold so she ordered another one. "What is this about, Charles? Is Sam ok?"

Charles looked a bit confused when she asked if Sam was ok, of course he was and then he twigged it because that was the only reason why he would want to meet her. "Uh, no he's alright, doing much better in school now that the bullies have left him alone"

Molly had heard about that and it hurt her to know that kids were as spiteful now as they were back when she went to school and no doubt when Charles went to school, the posh git. "Alright, I'll bite, what is this actually about?"

He smiled up at the waitress when she brought their teas over before he looked back at Molly. "I want to apologise for everything that I've done to you, Molly" he admitted. Elvis had told him to sit down and chat with her and that's what he was doing now but there was always Elvis telling him that Molly moved on.

She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a slow deep breath before her eyes opened back up. Molly didn't want to talk about this here in a coffee shop but maybe at the same time it was the best place to talk because at least then it meant she couldn't yell at him. "Why are you doing this now?" Molly asked as she looked up at him. It was the same question she had asked the night he turned up at her door not long before her date with Blue.

"Because I've been talking with someone, Martin Atwood he's my counsellor"

Molly's lips fell open at that because of the fact he was finally getting the help that he needed. The help that Molly couldn't have given him. She remembered he told her that he was getting better but she never thought it would be down to him talking to someone but she was glad about it. "Are you making the rounds or something? Maybe first Elvis and then me, who next, Georgie?" she watched as he dropped his eyes down to his cup.

"Elvis is actually the one who told me to have a chat with you"

Again Molly fell silent because she wasn't sure why he would point Charles in her direction but she guessed that at some point she was going to have to sit down with him. Sit down and try to get some sort of picture of what happened back then. "No one ever said Elvis Harte was a smart person" she smiled softly and that got a soft laugh from Charles.

"Well I'm sure that if I agreed with you then it's very likely he would bury me" Charles looked up at her with a smile this time.

"Well that is what happens when you're a soldier" Molly looked out the window and watched as a blue car went passed with music blaring out of it. "I always imagined that I would be throwing things at you if we ever sat down and talked about all of this"

"Still time to do that, though I don't think this lovely place would like their china broke, do you?" he teased at her.

A smile pulled at Molly's lips and she looked back at him before she tilted her head to the side as if she couldn't truly decide what the answer to that would be. "How could you do it?" she asked finally.

"I wish I had the perfect answer for that but all I can say is that somewhere in my mind it had been the right thing to do, I don't know whether being there would've made any difference, probably not" he sighed. "I was fragged, Molly, way before Elvis' supposed death, but I felt like I had to carry on because if I didn't have 2 Section then where would I be?"

The Army saved her from a life she saw in front of her with her parents, kids, a lazy husband and dreams smashed and so it took her getting her tattoo removed and watching the Army office across from the parlour for her to finally make up her mind on what she wanted. Molly wasn't sure what she would do if she lost the Army. In fact she thought she had lost it when she was shot, it took her months to get herself back right and it was only when she walked back through the barracks did she find herself home.

"I wanted you to get help, Charles" she leaned her arms on the table but her eyes were on him. "I begged you to get that help but it didn't matter in the end you had to be ready to get it and unfortunately you weren't at the time"

"I threw my marriage away and I am so sorry because you deserved so much better than that"

Molly did deserve much better than that from the man who said he would love her until their dying day. "Til death do us part" she spoke and then sighed. She moved her arms up so that her elbows were against the table and her hands against her lips. "I do have to admit that I took a hammer to those chest of drawers, I hated them so much but wasn't going to let you have them"

Charles grinned at her "I figured you might've" he remembered when they got them, Molly hated the sight of them but he loved the fact they were old fashioned. They would've fit lovely in any cottage they had been thinking about getting when they retired from the Army.

They just never made it that far especially when he was discharged and Molly well she was going to be doing that with someone else.

She smiled because it actually made her feel so much better when she took a hammer to those ugly things. Molly got most of her anger out on those things. "You broke my heart when you decided that you wanted Georgie after three years of marriage, I felt like I wasn't good enough for you because I had heard so many times that if you met Georgie before me then you would've married her because she was the perfect woman for you"

"Who said that?" Charles asked.

"It doesn't matter, but after a while I started to believe all of that because if Elvis hadn't met Georgie and you did then things would be different right now, you would be married to her and no doubt have kids"

Charles shook his head "My PTSD brain wanted Georgie, it wasn't real and as for marrying her that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard because at the end of the day Molly, you will always be the best thing about me and alright we're not together but you and I were the best and that is why you deserve to be loved by someone who can give you everything and we both know that Elvis can do just that, he is a good guy"

"I'm not-" she wanted to say that she wasn't with Elvis, that Molly had thought up that plan when Charles came to her front door before her date with Blue. She wanted to hurt him the same way that he hurt her by going with her friend. "I'm not sure if telling Elvis that he's a good guy won't inflate his ego more" Molly laughed before dropping her eyes.

Charles laughed too "Well best not tell him he's good at anything then because it really will inflate his ego" he was coming to terms with the fact that Molly deserved so much better than him and if that was Elvis then at least it was with a guy that would love her wholeheartedly. "Molly.." he watched as she looked up at him "I will always care about you, and if you ever need anyone then I am going to be right at the other end of a phone call"

"Ditto" Molly whispered to him.

"Now finish that cake before I do because it looks amazing" he picked up his cup and took a drink of his coffee.

Molly looked at the cake that she had forgotten about in the time they had been talking and nodded a couple times before she picked it up and took another bite. "So good" she said through a mouthful.

They sat in silence for a little bit but this time it wasn't awkward but comfortable. Molly finished chewing before she said "So counselling, huh? I'm proud of you because you're finally doing something that will help you in the longer run"

"I finally decided to get my act together when Georgie said, in front of me, that she always loved Elvis and I came to realise how fucked up it all was plus a hot shower and a cuppa at my parents house and found the card, it was like someone was trying to tell me something" he had shut the card away when he first got it after getting discharged. He didn't want any counselling but now that he had it he wished that he had started it back then, Charles might still have had Molly.

But at least she was proud of him for finally starting to get himself better.

"What are you going to do now?"

"Oh I don't know, got a lot of time left in me yet, Dawes, big whole world out there" he wasn't sure what he was going to do but he will find something. Charles always does. "You continuing to stay in the Army?"

"For now, yes, I haven't finished yet"

"Would it be alright if, and you can say now, we kept in contact I don't want to lose your friendship even though I don't deserve it"

Molly wasn't sure what she should really say to that because was anyone friends with their ex? "I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement" and with that she shoved the rest of her cake in to her mouth and tried not to laugh because if she did then she was going to choke.

Maybe, just maybe, things would be a little bit easier from now on and maybe they had a lot more to work out but this was a good start at least.

The door went and Molly looked over just in time to see Georgie Lane walking in and knew that their peaceful conversation was about to get shattered dramatically. "Fuck"