The move to the new house had gone well and they had been getting everything unpacked and sorted when Molly's phone beeped with a message, when Molly looked it was a what's app from Georgie, it was on the group chat, which she had gotten more involved with after 'prof' and Marie encouraging her to get back in touch with her previous section, now she going to based in the same area of the country.
Georgie:
Marie gave birth to a little girl at 03:00 this morning. Weighing in at 6 lbs exactly, her name is Frankie, mother and baby doing well. G x
Georgie had also attached a photo of Baby Frankie and Marie and one of just Baby Frankie.
Within minutes there was a flurry of congratulations and she was gorgeous messages, the lads had decided to do a zoom call to wet the baby's head, which Molly thought was typical of the lads, any excuse to have a piss up, and showed Charles the photo of Baby Frankie and he agreed that she was beautiful, it had taken a week to get the new house sorted and finally had settle when they were discussing having a housewarming, when Molly had suggested having it the 2nd week in December and making it Christmas party as well, and maybe invite the special forces lads, which Charles had agreed saying it would be like the old days.
The weeks flew by and before they knew it the housewarming/Christmas party was upon them, the house was decorated lovely and when everyone turned up they had a wonderful time, the only member of the special forces lads who was missing was Dyno, Peanut and Spunky as they had moved on to others areas of special forces after Bones had died in the explosion, a great time was had by all specially as they wouldn't see each other again before Christmas, Well except Baz and Jade who was spending Christmas with Charles, Molly and Liz, Sam was going to be on holiday, which had upset Charles specially as he hadn't spent Christmas with him since before Elvis had died because of his PTSD and endless tours, but with encouragement from Molly, Ava, Henry and Liz, Charles had decided to take Rebecca to mediation to discuss the custody arrangement now he was back on track and was hopeful to get more time with him.
Christmas and new year had passed without incident, Charles had proposed to Molly about renewing they wedding vows, which Molly had happily agreed, and set a date for October that year, they had attended Baby Frankie's christening, which went off without a hitch, the months seem to be passing without much trauma and incidents.
The mediation between Charles and Rebecca was set for March but it didn't go well as Rebecca had decided to use Charles's PTSD and his job in the army against him despite knowing he was in the army before Sam was born, so it went to court and the Judge decided that whilst Rebecca had been the primary care giver majority of the time specially when Charles was on tour, the fact he maintained a relationship with his son, paid his child support, he was now stable and the fact Sam wanted more time with his dad, it was unfair for her to keep the current arrangement going so the judge had ordered every other weekend, and school holidays to be split, evenly, Rebecca finally agreed with much annoyance, but Charles and Molly were happy about the outcome and Charles thanked everyone for the endless support.
Molly and Charles had received a phone call from Qaseem saying that Taliban activity was increasing and that they were targeting people who had helped the allies forces, in the nearly 20 year long war, and he and Bashira may need to leave Kabul and Afghanistan, in which he was upset over as he used to think that one day Afghan would be peaceful but had begun to lose hope of that, Charles had suggested he find out about what was being done and how they can help, and asked where they would like to moved to in case they needed to, in the end they decided they would move to the UK and sure enough a month later Kabul had been taken over by the Taliban and there was a mass evacuation of vulnerable afghan citizens and none afghan citizens, it was decided that Qaseem and Bashira would move to Birmingham as they had a wonderful university for him and Bashira should she want to continue her studies and they moved over in August.
Since Charles and Molly had moved into their new house, Liz had come over to Molly and Charles house for Sunday dinner once a month to have a catch up depending on Barrack duties and training, but this Sunday Molly and Charles both had the weekend off, they had a lovely dinner and catch up and Sam was enjoying Grandma Liz's company as usually she'd be over on his weekend with his mum, upon leaving Liz said that she'd phone on the weekend, the following week they were having Sam again for the weekend despite the fact it wasn't their court appointed weekend, apparently Rebecca was "too busy"!, when Molly phone began to ring, Molly looked at the number which was an unknown so she left it go to voicemail, saying if it was important they'd leave a message to her surprise a few minutes later her phone beeped to say there was a voice message
UNKNOWN:
Hi Moll, it's your mum can you call me back please it's important
Molly had looked at Charles with a surprise look on her face and said "my mum just phoned me wanting me to call her back" Charles looked back at her and asked "did she say why?" "no just that it was important, probably need money and no one else can help or dad's gotten himself into trouble again," replied Molly, "well you're never going to know if you don't" said Charles, Molly got up from the sofa to go into another room in case it got heated and click on the number that just phone and it waited for them to answer.
Mum:
Hello
Molly:
Hello Mum its Molly what do you want? You said it was important?
Mum:
Hello Molly, erm it's Nan... I'm sorry she passed away this morning
Molly:
What, what happened?
Mum:
She had a stroke this morning and I didn't have your number so I had to get it off Jade, sorry I couldn't ring you before.
Molly was in shock she hung up on her mum and sobbed just as Charles had walked into the room "Moll, what's the matter?" he asked "it's Nan... She's dead... She had a stroke this morning" sobbed Molly, within two strides Charles was next to her pulling her into a hug, after a few hours Molly had decided to text her mum back saying she'd text her on Monday to find out what was happening about her Nan's house and funeral arrangements due to them having Sam for the weekend, and tried to enjoy the rest of the weekend, and her mum had text back ok.
It was now Monday morning Sam had been dropped back at his Rebecca's yesterday much to his annoyance, and they were sat on the sofa both on their finally week of annual leave, Molly and Belinda had been texting most of the morning arranging to get Nan's house emptied and tidy, her Nan had lived in a council house and they needed it emptied and keys handed back in within a few weeks, Molly had arrange to go over tomorrow so they can get a head start thinking what with Belinda, Jade, Bella, her Aunt Linda and herself they could get it done within a few days, she had arranged with her C.O to see about having some compassionate leave which was agreed, and the funeral was to be help next Monday.
As Tuesday dawned Charles had offered to drive her to Nan's but Molly declined due to him having a counselling session which was important to keep on track, Charles had found because he was in such a good place his sessions was made into monthly instead of bi-weekly, so she said she would drive herself and phone him after his appointment, Molly had arrived at her Nan's house shortly before lunchtime to be greeted by Jade and Bella would both hugged her so tight, Belinda hung back in the background and said "hello Molly how are you doing" "hello mum, not to bad and you" replied Molly "well you know, I'm doing okay what with everything going on" replied Belinda with a sad smile, whilst they were working on Nan's house Belinda and Molly had caught up with each other for the first time in nearly 10 years but Molly omitted to tell her about the last two years apart from being shot in Syria, knowing that Nan would never betray her, but Belinda had said that Nan had told her that you had been shot but that Dave and Guilt kept her away and Dave saying that Molly getting shot was part of the Job she had signed for up for, which made Molly angry that her parents hadn't changed at all, but getting to know Bella again was a blessing and they vowed never to go without speaking again seeing as Bella was now in her twenties.
It had taken 3 days to get things sorted Belinda had taken most of the furniture as they had desperately needed it, and everything else was divided out to everyone else but Molly had opted just to have the Christmas and birthday cards that Molly and Charles had sent her and the letters she and Charles used to write to her Nan when they was on tour, during the time Molly had spent with her sisters and aunt Molly had found out whilst there was only Martin, Dave Jr and Ella living in the Dawes home they were all attending school on regular bases, Paul was thinking of joining the army, Bella was at university in Birmingham studying Nursing, Molly was also told that Dave was still trying to avoid going to work, spending his time drinking any money they had away and selling things to get more money, hence why they were desperate for the furniture.
The day of the funeral had come around quickly and Molly and Charles had arrived at the Dawes house as that where Nan was travelling to the crematorium from, they had decided not to go up to the house as to avoid any arguments with Dave, once they got to the crematorium Molly was surprised to see the members of two section waiting for them, it turns out that Baz had arranged it so they were there to support Charles, Molly and Jade, which made Molly smile knowing they were her true family, at the wake Molly had taken time to speak with Paul as her other 3 siblings didn't know who she was as it was a long time since they had seen her, her mum and dad didn't speak to her at all which didn't upset Molly as much as she thought as she knew her true family would have her back.
