Lay your Warm and Tender Body next to mine

"Well, well, well, so you're still alive, had you dead and buried" He laughed obviously completely unamused.

"I'm sorry, really I am, honestly this is first chance I've had"

"Yeah? Well, last I heard was bloody months back and you were in a Land Rover being driven by some fuck wit who didn't even know how to fucking drive and then …. zilch, nada, bugger all, disappeared off the face of the sodding earth, what happened to 'I promise I'll keep in touch' Hmmm?"

"I'm sorry Adam, I really am sorry, but it was difficult, there weren't a signal in the camp, it were a bit of a rat-hole actually 'n we couldn't get our phones charged … said I'm sorry"

Okay it was partially true. The bit about the signal and charging her phone was true but it was more than twenty four hours since they'd got off the plane at Akrotiri and she'd thought about calling him over and over, because as soon as her battery had charged she'd seen for herself just how many times he'd tried to get hold of her and how his messages had got more and more shitty so that she wasn't sure what she was going to say, what the fuck do you say when you know you've broken a shed-load of promises and you haven't got a good excuse let alone a good reason?

Well, apart from keep on saying sorry of course, but the more she apologised the less it sounded like the truth, even to her own ears, and the easy camaraderie they'd once shared felt like a thing of the past now or maybe it was that she felt dead guilty about him and didn't know why, it wasn't like they were ever a real couple or anything. The only thing that was comforting was that this was Adam so he was more likely than not to believe her bullshit.

"I'm sorry you was worried" Shit, there she was, saying it again "So, am I divorced yet?"

Oh fuck, nice one Molly. She could have kicked herself as soon as the words left her mouth, she could and should have worded that a whole lot better. He'd obviously been worried and she hadn't even asked him how he was before she'd gone straight in and demanded to know whether she was shot of him yet and she hadn't meant it to sound quite like that. That was really harsh. She'd rehearsed a bit of what she was going to say about the court and the divorce 'n that and then as soon as she'd heard his voice she'd forgotten all those tactful little questions and phrases. But she couldn't say anything to Charles about any of it at all until she knew everything, nor that there were any guarantees that he'd even be interested, she could sort of hear him now saying 'what are you telling me for?' but if he did care he was bound to bleeding well start interrogating her.

-OG-

"Sex-on-Legs was looking for you, asked me if I knew where you were" Tilly shrugged "Why can't we have a boss that looks like him …. with a voice like his? …. He's dead sexy, not like the rough bunch we've got"

"What did he want, did he say?"

Shit, shit, shit, she'd missed him, she'd hung around on that bloody terrace for what felt like hours and wouldn't you know it, sods law, as soon as she'd given up and gone inside, he'd appeared looking for her. It was almost as if Lady Luck had it planned like that.

"What did you say?"

Molly was offering up a silent prayer that Tilly hadn't come over all helpful and told him she'd gone to phone her husband, and then felt a little flood of relief when she remembered that there was no danger of that, that thank fuck Tilly didn't even know she had one. The last thing she wanted was for him to find out from someone else ….. she didn't even know how exactly she was going to explain it, but was pretty bloody sure that she didn't want someone else to start embroidering it into some fairy tale bollocks full of lovey-dovey hearts and flowers shit.

"He didn't say and I didn't know where you were so I couldn't tell him, could I?" Tilly looked at her "So where were you?"

"Nowhere, just on the phone to me mum, did he leave a message?"

"Nope, not that I heard, but then he looked at me with that knicker dropping smile of his and I was overcome with lust so I even forgot to ask if I could help him with anything instead" She sniggered suggestively "I said before, he'd only have to ask."

"TILLY, keep your bloody voice down for fuck sake, if Ma Morris hears you she'll have you hung" She did her best to keep a straight face and failed miserably "Don't let her hear you calling her rough neither, not sure how much of a sense of humour she's got"

"Sad old bag, fancies him herself doesn't she, ugly old boot, did you see her fawning all over him at breakfast? Not that he'd look at her when he can have me, she's bloody old enough to be his mother ….. how old do you think he is?"

"No idea, far too bloody old for you"

"I like my men mature ….. the older they are the better at it they are" Tilly sniggered again "And don't try and tell me you've never noticed how bloody sexy he is, cause I won't believe you"

"See how sexy you think he is when he's yelled at you to get out your pit at stupid o'clock in the morning and made you run round and round some sodding compound in 40 degree heat, in full kit, like he did me, and when he shouts at you the whole bloody time"

"I'd do my best to make sure he didn't yell at me, he'd be a very happy boy"

"Yeah, but that's not what we're bleeding talking about is it and he's a boy now is he? I thought you liked them ancient, needing help with ….. stuff …. and you're not funny so stop sniggering"

She'd hardly known Tilly before they'd started on this tour but had found that they shared a very similar view of the world, well, a similar appreciation of Charles' finer points anyway, although Molly would have loved to tell her to forget it, that she had absolutely no chance because he was hers, except of course that he wasn't, but she still couldn't see him ever going anywhere near Tilly. He simply wouldn't do that, not the Charles she knew.

"And anyway what about when he yells that you're too fucking slow and puts you on latrine clean? Believe me, Tills, he don't look bloody gorgeous then, and you can wipe that smirk off of your face, I meant too slow running, NOTHING ELSE, and definitely not what you're thinking"

"Sorry, I can't help the way my mind works, can I? I still would though ….. and don't tell me you wouldn't cause you would, go on, be honest"

"I am being honest and nah I wouldn't….. he might be married or some'ing, you don't know, and even if he's not, he'd have to have a personality transplant" She paused "And do you really want to wake up next to some bloke who's prettier than you are?"

"Thanks for that, Molls, nice of you I thought, and the answer is still yes please"

"Sorry, that didn't come out right, and stop bloody sniggering at everything I say"

-OG-

She was miles away, quietly daydreaming and picking up handfuls of silver dry sand and letting it drift through her fingers without really paying that much attention to anything. The lads were playing beach volleyball, so that she was half-watching them cheat and get all pissy with each other about it, yelling and shouting and swearing at one another as she started gazing unseeing at the dead calm sea. All that was missing was Eggy telling her that she could stop worrying about Smurf because he was going to recover, but that the Boss needed to have an operation because he was in a bit of danger. Eggy had sounded so doubtful about Charles' chances that he'd scared the bloody shit out of her, and even now when it was in the past and Charles had recovered, and even with everything that had happened after, she still couldn't forget how bloody frantic she'd been that day. She'd had to sit on this same beach and listen to Kinders and she couldn't do anything, nothing to find out how he was doing, she hadn't even known if he was still alive.

Now, looking back she couldn't believe that no-one guessed, she'd been so petrified that she was never going to see him again, ever. But they'd all believed in the Smurf and Molly bollocks that he'd been desperate to spread about, and she'd been just as bad because she'd let him do it. At the time it'd seemed the perfect smoke screen, but now she regretted that she'd told him that she'd never love him the way he wanted and that he'd died knowing that. Poor Smurf.

"Not going for a swim, then?"

"Fuck, don't do that, don't creep up on me like that, you keep on doing that 'n you're gonna give me a Julius Caesar, and you know I don't like wa'er"

"Sorry" He laughed without sounding in the least bit contrite "I just love the way you say 'hello' on planet Dawes and I didn't creep up, you were miles away" He laughed again "Hadn't you noticed it's actually quite hard to make a noise on sand, but I am sorry I didn't mean to startle you"

"You could 'ave coughed or some'ing …. and in case you hadn't noticed it's bloody taters" She gave an exaggerated shiver and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, there was no way she was going to tell him that it wasn't so much that she hated water, it was more that she still couldn't swim.

He was towering over her blocking out the sun so she gestured for him to move and then nodded towards where the lads were messing about down near the water "They'll be in there in a minute and you'll see, they'll all be screaming that it's freezing their knackers off" She laughed "I was thinking about last time I was 'ere, that's all, about Smurf 'n that and how worried I was and how pissed I was that I had to waste time sitting on this beach when all I wanted was to get home … and I'll 'ave you know I talk like normal people talk, not like people off of your planet"

"If you say so"

"I do say so"

She'd just deliberately tried to insinuate that she'd been worrying about Smurf that day, which was an insanely stupid thing to do when he knew full well that there wasn't a word of truth in that. He was laughing like he used to as he sat on the sand and accidentally brushed his arm against hers and then nudged her with his shoulder, trying to make her laugh, but instead making all the little hairs on her forearm sit up and her breathing go a bit funny, she suddenly seemed to have far too much breath. He folded his arms behind his head and lay back before giving this huge sigh of contentment and then closed his eyes for all the world as though he was about to drop off.

Molly immediately pretended she was engrossed in the free-for-all skirmish that was going on between the volleyball players, but was actually aware of every bloody breath that he took. His stomach looked concave where his 'T' shirt had ridden up and the gap between his shirt and his combats showed just how right she'd been when she'd first clapped eyes on him at Brize, he definitely had lost weight, so that he was even more lean than she remembered. Either that or he'd spent every spare minute of the last eighteen months or so in the bloody gym, which wasn't impossible given what a fit freak he was. The one thing that hadn't changed was that livid scar which was still pink and puckered so that it didn't look like it had faded at all and she had this sudden and totally insane impulse to lean over and trail her fingers along it, to see if it still made him shiver the way it always used to, and to ask him if it still hurt and whether he'd like her to kiss it better like she used to…..

Shit, she sat bolt upright as though someone had given her a poke with one of those electric cattle prodding things and dragged her eyes away from his body, hoping he hadn't noticed what she'd been looking at before she'd sat on her hands so hastily. Every instinct she had was telling her to bloody shift herself, to maybe go and join the lads as they all tried to drag one another into the sea, obviously doing their best to drown each other. Shit, shit, shit, sitting here on this beach, on her own next to him, close enough to put her hand out and touch him was a very, very bad idea.

"What do you think the chances are that they'll stay where they are and leave us alone?"

"Not great"

"Nope, you might be right, so how about we go for a walk, see if we can get away from them?"

Molly nodded, it couldn't possibly be any worse than sitting in a deafening silence trying to think of something intelligent or witty or even vaguely sensible to say to him while she kept her hands to herself because that was doing her head in. None of this was easy, it felt bloody awkward as he got to his feet and put out a hand to pull her to hers and then held on for just a fraction longer than was strictly necessary. Her hand seemed to have gone icy cold but his was warm and dry and was wrapped round hers so that she wanted desperately to cling on to him, this was the first time she'd had any sort of physical contact with him since that terrible day in Bath.

She didn't know what she'd expected when he said he wanted them to talk but had been afraid to build castles that would turn out to be total bollocks. The one thing she wanted to know was the one thing she couldn't ask, whether there was any chance of them starting again, whether he still loved her, even a little bit. But she was half-convinced that what he intended was to tell her nicely that it had been very good to see her but it was time now for her to fuck right off again and that he hoped she'd have a nice life.

-OG-

"This is strange isn't it?"

"Who you calling strange? I'm not strange, I'm gifted"

"Course you are, I've always known that" He looked down at her and gave a loud shout of laughter, throwing his head back and attracting unwanted attention from a highly curious 2 section, and then shook his head and chuckled as she gave a little skip and muttered about how she couldn't keep up and would he kindly slow the fuck down.

"Sorry, I'd forgotten what a little short-arse you are and I wasn't calling you strange, it was just that it's … weird to be walking along a beach like this, with you, that's all"

Charles significantly shortened his stride to help her keep pace, he'd genuinely forgotten how much she struggled to keep up with him, as they walked side-by-side along the water's edge and did their best to look as though they were just aimlessly chatting as they wandered along and not as if they were trying to get some privacy by putting as much distance between them and 2 section as possible.

"Weird is worse than strange" She giggled and then took a deep breath "You know that I'm sorry, don't you?"

"What for?" He laughed "Oh god, what have you done now?"

"Now? Nothing, I'm not talking about now, am I? I'm perfect now, nah, I'm talking about before, about …. well, you know"

"You were always perfect, that's nothing new" He smirked wishing more than anything that they were somewhere where he could hug her, or even hold her hand "I thought you were apologising for calling me a bossy prick"

"Oh yeah" She looked up and smirked as she pushed her hair back from where the sea breeze was blowing it about like a flag and then giggled, her nerves were kicking in big time so that it was difficult for her to keep a straight face "I did say that didn't I? Sorry"

"No you're not, you're not sorry at all, you thought I asked for it and you were right, I was being a bossy prick so there's nothing to be sorry about, Molly, I'm the one who should be saying sorry, and I am, I don't know where the fuck I got the idea that I could lay down the law about what you could and couldn't do, you didn't have to ask my permission for fuck sake, I was behaving like I was still your boss"

"Yeah you were a bit, but you was right, I never thought about how anything I did could 'ave dropped Quaseem and Bashira in the shit, put them in danger, but I never meant to hurt them, or anybody, especially not you, I just didn't think, so I'm sorry"

"No, you did nothing wrong, I'm the one who needs to say I'm sorry, it all got out of hand and the next thing I knew I was yelling at you and laying all sorts of blame at your door for things that had nothing whatsoever to do with you, looking back now, I can't believe I did any of that"

She wanted to ask him what it was he'd been blaming her for, but wasn't sure that she wanted to hear the answer.

"Are you sayin' you never meant it when you said it was hard to put up with me mess?"

"I wouldn't go that far, the room looked like a bomb had gone off in a clothes shop"

"Stop exaggerating, it weren't that bad, a bit Primark at sale time maybe"

She giggled and could see out of the corner of her eye that his laugh was loud enough to make the lads turn to look at them again. It was now her turn to wish that they were having this conversation somewhere where she could hug him before she told him anything at all about what she'd done.

-OG-

A/N: Okay, sods law, got up this morning all ready to do a whole load of on-line stuff, got half way through answering some messages and Mr Virgin turns our broadband off – again -ring the fault line- again - and a robot tells me that "In order to improve the service in your postcode we're switching your broadband and television off – hope to be back by 5 o'clock" they didn't say which day – 5 o'clock comes – and goes – now 8.o'clock, allegedly - 8.00 and it's back, oh gee thanks, truly wonderful! I've got a good suggestion – now you've put the bloody thing back on, LEAVE it on and give us what we're paying for – grrrr – oh and to add to the joy, no Kindle all day either. Got this all ready in the hopes that at some time before hell freezes over I could get back on-line and post before they decide to improve things by turning everything off again.

Rant over, thank you for your kind reviews, and I do hope you continue to enjoy their journey. Chapter 10 will be as soon as ….. Virgin permitting. I hope everyone has a nice weekend.

-OG-