As the train pulled into the station at Bath it suddenly hit her that she was actually doing this- she'd spontaneously got on a train to Bath and she was actually about to see him again. Her stomach was churning and she wasn't sure if it was a mixture of excitement or fear that she might've made a mistake. She wasn't even sure if her legs were going to work to stand up and get herself off the train.
Maybe this hadn't been the best idea she'd ever had, but it was a bit late to change her mind now.
She stood up and slowly filed out of the door on to the platform, looking above her at the signs to work out where she was supposed to be going. She followed the crowd of people who'd got off the train with her in the direction of the exit, hoping he would be easy to find because her phone had run out of battery so she hadn't got any way to get in touch with him.
She was so busy scanning the small crowd of people waiting by the entrance she didn't see him standing there until she'd almost walked straight into him.
"You might want to look where you're going Dawes." He smirked, putting a hand on her arm to steady her as she stopped abruptly.
"Sorry…" She mumbled, taking a step back out of his personal space. "Hi." Why did she suddenly feel so awkward standing there in front of him?
"You don't need to look quite so terrified Dawes." He frowned. "Come on, let's go and then you can tell me what really happened."
"What do you mean what happened?" She frowned, automatically following after him as he started to walk towards the door. Maybe ti would be easier to talk to him without him looking at her.
"You didn't just go out for a walk and randomly decide to get on a train to Bath." He glanced back at her, she looked down at the floor to avoid meeting his eye. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but if you do then you know I'll listen or try and fix it or whatever you want me to Molly."
She hesitated for a moment. She felt weirdly safe and comforted, even just standing in the entrance to the station beside him. This feeling was what made her get on that train in the first place. "I'll tell you later, can we just go? I really need to shower and get out of this bloody uniform. I'm still covered in Afghan."
He laughed quietly. "I think we can manage that. Come on, I'm parked just out front."
She trailed after him, sliding into the passenger seat beside him. It was a weird sense of deja-vu. It seemed ridiculous that it had only been a matter of hours since he'd picked her up from the airfield that morning. It felt like a lifetime had passed.
She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew he was shaking her awake and they were parked in the driveway of what might have been the biggest house she'd ever seen.
"You've sure gone up in the world since you were my neighbour." She commented, climbing out of the car. She suddenly felt so out of place, she'd forgotten somewhere along the line that they came from two completely different worlds. He'd been her bloody Captain for god's sake, how had she ended up here?
He slammed the car door behind him and walked around the car to stand beside her. "It's not mine, it's my parents. My lease was up on my place so I moved back here for a little while until I decide what I'm going to do."
"I see." She mumbled. He put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her up the path towards the house.
"What's wrong?" He asked, she stopped dead the second he stopped pushing her along.
"Nothing." She answered quietly.
"You've never been a good liar Molly." He raised an eyebrow at her.
"I don't know." She shrugged. "I don't want to intrude on your parents or anything. I didn't really think before I got on the train, I just… well I needed to call someone and you were the only person I could think of." She wasn't about to admit it, but she didn't have anyone else to call even if she had wanted to.
"You're not intruding, you know that. Mum was more excited when I told her you were coming than when I got home from Afghan. I think she likes you more than she likes me to be honest." He smiled reassuringly. "Just be warned she's probably going to force feed you tea and cake, I must've put on half a stone since I've been back here."
She cracked a smile at that. If only her parents had been those kind of people, maybe things would've been so different. She didn't have much time to dwell on it though, somehow they'd managed to reach the door while she'd been in her own little world.
The front door swung open before Charles had a chance to reach for the door handle and his mother rushed out and pulled Molly into a hug. "Oh Molly, it's so good to see you again!"
Molly was frozen for a moment, the shock of what had just happened rooting her to the ground, but after a second she managed to return the hug and the disentangled herself from his Mum. "Hello Mrs James." She tried to manage a smile.
"Come in, come in." She beckoned them inside. "Are you hungry? Charles didn't know if you'd had dinner so I saved you some if you'd like it. Shall I put the kettle on?"
"Mother." Charles had a warning tone to his voice, much the same as he had the time he'd found two section about to dive into the small paddling pool his Mum had sent him when they were on tour. "How about you let Molly take her shoes off first?" He suggested.
"Right, sorry." His Mum smiled, holding her hands up and backing away a couple of steps. "I'll leave you two to it, the food is in the oven if you decide you want it. I've made up the spare room for you, let me know if you need anything okay?"
"Thank you Mrs James." Molly smiled, more genuinely this time, watching as she disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.
"Sorry about her." Charles smiled apologetically. "Are you hungry?"
Molly nodded. "Yes, but can I please shower and get out of this bloody uniform first?" She looked down at her dirty combats and felt seriously out of place standing in beautiful hallway of his parents home, she was pretty sure she was leaving dirty bootprints on the floor.
"Yeah of course, come on." He gestured to the stairs as Molly kicked her boots off, placing them neatly against the wall. She followed him up the stairs, trying not to touch anything incase she left a dirty mark on something.
She followed him a long to the bathroom. "Two seconds, I'll go and get you some towels." He said, disappearing again and then reappearing with two towels and a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. "I know these aren't ideal but they're the best I can do for the moment, we'll sort something out in the morning." He smiled apologetically as he passed them to her.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it." She answered softly.
He smiled in return. "My room is just across the hall okay? Come and get me when you're done and we'll get you some food." He disappeared again, closing the door behind him.
She dropped the towels on the floor, standing there for a moment in front of the mirror looking at her reflection. She looked exhausted, and she couldn't tell if she'd finally got a tan while she'd been on tour or if it was just the residual Afghan dirt on her skin. One thing she did know, was that for the first time since she'd been back she didn't feel anxious that Artan might be just around the corner, being there with Charles she felt safe.