Hi everyone! Really sorry, I seem to have unintentionally taken a rather long break from writing and kind of lost where I was actually going with this story in the first place. I'm slowly getting back into it but the updates might be a bit slow for a while. Thanks to those of you that sent me lovely messages asking me to finish this. I'll get there I promise, just need to get back into it and find some motivation to finish it! Bex xx
She'd never really understood when the guys she'd dated before Charles had complained about being left at home for months on end while she disappeared off for work. She'd laughed and told them to think of it as a holiday from her, but in the end it had always come between them. Now, she was finally starting to understand why they might've had a point. It had only been two weeks and the house was painfully quiet without Charles there. Admittedly, even when he had been in the same country they'd both been working long hours and away on training exercises so hadn't exactly spent every evening together. There was something different though about knowing that he wasn't going to be home for months. She found herself sitting there on the sofa wondering where he was and what he was doing, wishing the days would hurry up and he'd come home to her. She finally understood that it was just as hard to be the one who was left behind at home.
She'd been busy at work, which was a small mercy, and at least gave her something to occupy her mind with. She'd been working longer and longer hours, figuring she might as well be doing something productive rather than sitting at home feeling sorry for herself about the fact that Charles wasn't there with her. Besides, the sooner they sorted everything out and could get some kind of plan in place the sooner she'd have something to do. It was exhausting though. Spanner had caught her asleep at her desk the other night and made a joke about how tired she looked, but she'd seen the look of genuine concern on his face, although he'd never come out and say whatever he was thinking to her face.
She was still sat at her desk, at nearly 11.30pm, when Charles called her. The ringing coming from her computer scared the life out of her for a moment, then a grin spread across her face when she realised it was him and she couldn't answer the phone fast enough.
"Hi." She grinned, his face filling the screen.
"Hi." He grinned back at her. "I wasn't sure you'd be awake. It must be late over there? I hope I didn't wake you up."
"Of course not. Wouldn't have minded if you had anyway."
He squinted slightly. "Where are you anyway? Either you've redecorated or you're not at home."
"I'm at work." She answered, quickly changing the subject. "How are things going?"
"Fine… You know how these things are." He shrugged. "Don't think you're getting off that easily. What are you still doing at work? You look tired."
"Thanks for the compliment. Love you too." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Seriously though, is everything okay?" He asked again.
She stifled a yawn. "I'm fine." She reassured. "Just trying to finalise a few things so we can actually get a plan in place and hopefully finish the job this time. Nothing too exciting I promise."
He didn't look convinced. "I miss you." He said quietly.
"Yeah." She said softly. "Me too. Turns out I'm not too good at being the one who gets left behind."
He laughed quietly. "Who'd have thought it. Thought you'd be glad to have a break from my snoring."
"Turns out I can't sleep without it anymore." She laughed. "Everything's okay out there though? Everyone behaving themselves?"
"They've all been on their best behaviour so far. Although how long that's going to last I don't know." He smiled. "I'll just enjoy it while it lasts I suppose."
"I would if I was you." She laughed.
"I thought maybe we could try and book a holiday when I get back, if you can have some time off? Maybe we can go somewhere with Sam?" He sounded almost nervous as he asked her.
"I'd love that." She smiled. "I'll start having a look. Give me something to do to entertain me."
"Good…." She never heard the end of what he was saying, the line breaking up and his face disappearing from her screen. The beeping noise signalling that they'd lost the connection. She sat there for a moment, staring at the screen to see if he was going to call back. After ten minutes she realised he wasn't going to be calling her back and started to pack her stuff up to head home, trying to reassure herself that it was just a problem with the connection and didn't mean something had happened.
She'd barely slept at all that night, laying there tossing and turning worrying about him. Eventually a text had come through from him apologising that the signal had gone and he hadn't been able to call her back but reassuring her that he was okay and he'd call her back later in the week. By that point though it was starting to get light outside and she'd had to admit defeat and drag herself out of bed to go back to work.
She'd nearly had a heart attack when she walked in and found Beck sitting there waiting for her. "Good morning Sir." She stole a quick glance at her watch to make sure she wasn't late. "Is everything okay?"
"Morning Dawes, sorry to jump on you first thing. There's been some developments overnight and I thought you'd want to be the first to know."
Molly's heart dropped for a moment as he paused.
"A terrorist group has captured a refugee camp in Kenya, we have intelligence which leads us to believe your target from Syria is there." Beck explained.
Molly just stared at him for a moment, the relief coursing through her as she realised this was nothing to do with Charles.
"Dawes?" Beck prompted.
"Sorry Sir, the way you said that I thought you were about to tell me something had happened to Charles."
Beck smiled sympathetically. "Sorry Dawes, I didn't think. I spoke to Captain James yesterday and all is going well I'm assured."
"Thanks Sir.." She smiled. "We need to get out to Kenya then, don't we? I'm not about to let him get away from us for the second time if it is him."
"I thought you might say that." Beck nodded. "Plans are being drawn up as we speak, local military support is being arranged to help recapture the camp and secure the area. Give me a couple of hours to finish arranging everything and then we'll discuss what the actual plans are." He stood up to leave.
"Thanks Sir." Molly nodded as he turned to leave.
Once he'd gone she pulled her phone out of her pocket, pulling up her last message to Georgie she quickly typed another one. 'Hope all is okay and Kenya is treating you well? Let me know you're safe.'
The rest of the day turned into something of a whirlwind. The Kenyan army had gathered some initial intelligence and carried out some surveillance which seemed to suggest that their original target was highly likely to be one of the men involved. It had been agreed that Molly and her team would make their way to Kenya to assist local forces with regaining control of the camp and hopefully capture their target as part of the operation. The initial intelligence they had been passed from the Kenyan army suggested that it shouldn't be too difficult although it still wasn't clear why the terrorists would have targeted the refugee camp in the first place. It had been decided though not to waste any time, Special Forces would make their way to Kenya while local forces continued to gather intelligence and Molly would be briefed properly when they arrived before they agreed a final plan.
The boys were all excited at having another attempt to actually achieve what they'd set out to do in Syria. It had been bothering them all that things hadn't gone to plan and they didn't like to leave a job unfinished. Molly on the other hand found herself sitting on the plane listening to them chatting excitedly with a sense of dread and anxiety. All she could think about was how lucky they were last time that things hadn't gone more wrong than they did. She wasn't about to make the same mistake twice but she had a feeling it wasn't going to be as easy as the intelligence they'd been given had suggested. After all, when was anything ever that simple?
She hadn't been able to speak to Charles before they'd left either. She'd called his mum in the end to tell her she was going to be away for a few weeks in the hope that if he called them then at least they'd be able to let him know. It was all just a bit unsettling though, a few years ago she would've thrived off the adrenaline of it all. This time, she just felt a bit like crossing her fingers and praying that nothing would happen and they wouldn't be needed at all.