November 2023

She lifted her eyelids letting the light in slowly, she could feel fingertips on the inside of her palm, a hand on top of hers..."hey you" she smiled, her mouth felt dry "can I have some water please?" He filled a small beaker and put the straw to her lips. "how you feeling?" She looked down at her body instinctively looking for signs of treatment and then looked back at him "sore" He sat on the side of the bed and stroked her head, she was scared to ask but she had to "Charles...the baby?" He held her hand tighter "Molly the baby's fine, you are fine, thank God...I was so scared that I had lost you both" a tear rolled down her cheek "what happened Charles...the last thing I remember...he had a gun...and then...nothing" she began to sob "Molly Jones shot himself and you were hit but it was a clean wound, you lost a lot of blood but once they operated and stabilised you everything was fine"

"What happened with him in Afghan Charles?"

Charles hesitated..."Molly I will tell you, I promise but for now, let's concentrate on you getting better and looking after this one" he ran his hands gently over her abdomen smiling.

"Pass me my chart then" holding out her hand...he rolled his eyes and reached for the file at the end of the bed.

June 2024

Charles was pushing the pram along the path in the school grounds with Molly walking beside him. Isabella "izzie" James was sound asleep. Charles was utterly captivated by his new daughter she was the image of her mother, shining green inquisitive eyes that he instinctively knew would give him trouble when she got older.

The dogs bounded ahead but every so often would stop to look back and check the buggy was still there, they had instantly become very protective of the new addition to the family and would tug at either Charles or Molly's sleeve to do something the second she began to cry.

Both boys had also fallen in love with her, Charlie perhaps more than Sam but only because he was at an age where very little things met the expectations of the super cool universe he gravitated in. Charles had seen a spark when he first held her, though he was super quick to hand her back when she filled a nappy.

They stopped at the top of the path just in front of the school, he held her around the waist and put his forehead to hers

"It's been a long road hasn't it...to get here...this?"

"Not really it's only a short walk from the house" she giggled

He shook his head but couldn't help smiling she would never change, always a smart remark, in his heart he didn't want her to...that was Molly Dawes the smart mouth medic he had fallen in love with way back then.

He pulled her closer "you know very well what I mean"..."I adore you Molly James thank you for giving me a beautiful daughter"

She beamed, her best dazzling smile "you're welcome"

He put his mouth closer to her ear and whispered "we made it in the end Molls and I wouldn't have missed the ride for anything"

She whispered back "ditto"

Thank you for all of your feedback and reviews for this and other stories they are very much appreciated. I think I am going to have a break and do some one shots for a while now as need to get back to real life. To fellow Our Girl FF writers the other stories on here are outstanding so please keep going as I am loving your work. TTFN x