Molly glanced at her watch as she stood outside Major Beck's office, waiting for him to call her in. It was already an hour and a half after she'd told Charles she'd be home and she had no idea when she was actually going to get to go home. Beck had called her earlier and said he needed to speak to her urgently before she left and then he seemed to have promptly disappeared off the face of the earth because she'd spent the rest of the day trying to pin him down to work out what was actually going on
"Come in." He called from the other side of the door and she finally let herself in. "Have a seat Dawes." He nodded.
"Sir." She nodded, sitting down in front of him. He looked tense and more anxious than usual, she was going to guess this wasn't a social visit. Her stomach flipped as she wondered if she was somehow in trouble for being with Charles and wondering if she should've said something earlier.
"I'm sorry to have kept you Dawes, I just wanted to make sure I'd got everything organised before I spoke to you." He explained, pausing for a second to rummage through the stacks of paper on his desk until he found what he was looking for. "Syria.." He announced, holding a file out to her.
"Sir?" She looked at him blankly, taking the file from him automatically.
"This time tomorrow you'll be there." He explained. "I'm sorry we couldn't give you more warning, but you know how these things are. Especially when they involve you guys."
"Right… Am I allowed to ask why?" She mumbled, flicking through the paperwork in the file. The information was vague and not enough to give her any kind of idea why they were sending them out to Syria at such short notice.
Beck hesitated for a moment, sitting up a little straighter in his chair. "I can tell you that it's counter terrorism related. You'll have to find the rest of it out when you get there, I'm sure you can understand why."
She nodded. "Okay. Have my team been told already?"
He shook his head. "The details are all in there. I'll leave you to make all the arrangements."
"Yes Sir." She nodded, trying to hide her frustration that she was going to be at work for hours longer than she'd planned.
"Thanks Dawes, dismissed. Be careful out there, I'll see you when you get back."
"Thanks Sir." She smiled, getting up to head back to her own office.
She threw the folder down on her desk and called Charles the second she got back to her office.
"I was getting worried. Everything okay?" He asked, answering the phone on the second ring.
"Fine. Sorry, things are a bit up in the air here. I'm not going to make dinner." She sighed, her attempt at hiding her disappointment left her voice sounding high and false.
"Oh, Okay." The disappointment was clear in his voice. "And this isn't just because you've changed your mind and realised inviting my parents over was a terrible idea?"
"No, I really am sorry." She sighed. It had been her idea to invite his parents over in the first place, figuring she was going to have to make an effort with his mother at some point. Charles had been far from keen and now she was going to be leaving him to suffer through it on his own. "I'll be there as soon as I can, I really am sorry."
"And you're sure everything's okay?" He asked again, hearing the stress in her voice.
"I'll talk to you when I get home. If I don't start sorting this out I'll never get there." She told him.
"Okay, drive carefully though. Love you." He said, hanging up the phone.
"Love you." She said quietly but he was already gone.
She sat there for a moment, staring at the file Beck had given her and trying to get her head in to gear to work out exactly what she needed to get sorted.
"Can you just give it a rest for five minutes Mum?" Charles sighed, sitting down on the sofa opposite her.
"All I'm saying is what was the point in inviting us over so we could get to know her if she's not even going to turn up." His mum frowned, crossing her arms.
"She'll be home soon. Something has come up at work, that's all."
"Home." She stared at him, a look of horror on her face. "You mean she's living with you?"
"Not officially, no." Charles muttered.
"Honestly, I don't see the point in meeting her anyway. It's not like this thing is going to work out between the two of you anyway." Mrs James huffed.
"Mary." Mr James sighed eventually. "Can you just let it go? Charles is happy. That's all that matters."
"No! I'm not just going to let it go." Mrs James shot back at him. "You didn't see the girl. There's only one thing a girl like that wants with Charles and that's his money. I just hope you're not so stupid that you don't notice before it's too late Charles."
"You don't even know Molly-" Charles started.
"I'm not interested." She snapped back at him.
Charles locked eyes with his Dad for a moment, who smiled apologetically. They'd both had the same realisation that whatever he said it wasn't going to be enough. "Right… who wants a cup of tea then?" Charles sighed. It was going to be a long evening.
The BMW parked on the drive behind Charles car signalled that she hadn't entirely missed his parents and she couldn't quite decide if that was a good thing or not. She certainly wasn't in the mood to try and make friends with his Mum.
Charles met her in the hallway as she sat on the bottom step of the stairs and wearily pulled her boots off. "I've saved you some dinner, it's in the microwave you just need to heat it up." He smiled, holding out his hand to help her up.
"Thank you." She mumbled, her words lost in his chest as he pulled her into a hug.
"You sure everything is okay?" He asked, pulling away a fraction to look at her.
She stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether to tell him now or to wait until his mum had left. She took a deep breath, deciding it was best to just get it over and done with. "We can talk about it properly later, when your mum and dad have gone, but I'm being deployed. That's why I was so late."
He stared at her for a moment in surprise. He couldn't work out why he was quite so surprised. It was bound to happen to one of them sooner or later, but they'd both gotten so used to coming home to each other every night the thought had never even crossed his mind. "When?" He asked quietly.
"Tomorrow."
"Where?" He asked.
"Charles, I can't-"
"Right." His face fell. "You can't tell me, of course."
"Let's talk about this later?" She suggested. "I'd better go and apologise to your parents for missing the dinner I organised."
"I wouldn't bother." Charles muttered under his breath. "Mums on one tonight. It doesn't matter what you say it's not going to be enough."
"Wonderful." Molly sighed. "I really am sorry I left you to do this on your own."
"I know." He said quietly. "It can't be helped. Just bad timing."
She squeezed his hand quickly. "Come on then, let's do this!"
He squeezed her hand in return. "I'll go and heat your dinner up for you."
"This is why I love you." She laughed, opening the door to the living room. "Hi, I'm so sorry I'm late."
"That's okay, Charles said you had a work thing." Mr James smiled kindly. "All sorted now?"
"Something like that." Molly answered, sitting down on the empty sofa. "I am really sorry I missed dinner though."
"Charles didn't tell me you worked together." Mrs James said, looking at Molly judgmentally as she sat on the sofa still in her uniform. "Honestly I thought my son had a little bit more common sense than that but it seems like he's even more stupid than I thought."
"Technically we don't actually work together." Charles chipped in, walking back through carrying a bowl of curry for Molly and sitting down beside her. "Molly's in the army and our paths have crossed a few times but we don't actually work together."
"Thank you." Molly whispered, both for the food and for him attempting to put his mother in her place.
"Well what is it you actually do then?" Mrs James asked, looking back at Molly.
Molly nearly choked on the mouth full of curry she had as she tried to swallow it to answer Mrs James. "Special forces." She answered quietly. "I was on the team that found Charles in Belize."
Mrs James stared at Molly, then at Charles. "Well you didn't tell me that part."
"I did try but you wouldn't listen." Charles pointed out.
Mrs James muttered something under her breath, her entire attitude shifting as she looked back at Molly. ."Well, I suppose we have to thank you for everything you did there. Can you pass your thanks on to your Captain for me? If it wasn't for him my son wouldn't be sitting here now."
Molly couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she answered her and she could see Charles trying not to laugh. "Actually Mrs James, I am the Captain…. But you're welcome."