A/N: Almost at the HEA, just the Epilogue now in a couple of days – I do hope you enjoy this, and that you have enjoyed the story, I would be grateful; if you would review for me, thanks.
Molly mopped up the last smear of egg yolk with a cold chip before dipping it in the remains of the ketchup and wiping it round the plate. She looked up under her lashes and slowly and suggestively licked her fingers one-by-one gazing at him with eyes as wide as they would go, until she was unable to keep a straight face any longer and succumbed to a fit of giggles "Good or what?"
"Lovely, haven't had egg and chips for bloody ages, forgotten how good they are and these" He pointed at his plate "Are without a shadow of doubt the best egg and chips I've ever had" Charles pretended to smack his lips in a parody of appreciation for the excellence of the food and then snorted a laugh as he smirked back at her.
"Yeah alright, no need to overdo it"
"Sorry, so ….. what now Molly, have you decided what's next?" The question obviously took her by surprise judging by the way her grin was instantly replaced by an anxious frown and from the way her shoulders tensed up around her ears, she was dismayed at the thought that he was going to start on about her moving in again, but realized she was wrong as he carried on talking "Are you going to stay and wait for another Yemen to crop up? Or … go for a promotion, it's about time for Lance Corporal isn't it? Actually I'm quite surprised you haven't done something about it already"
"Dunno, 'aven't quite got around to it" She shrugged "Always found it a bit 'ard to plan that far in advance, dunno why, it's just things 'ave an habit of going to shit when I do" She peeped at him from under her lashes as it crossed her mind that he might think she was having a bit of a pop at him, which she wasn't, not really "But I did sort of 'ave a plan, a bit of a one anyhow, but dunno, I'm not that sure now ….."
"What is it? Come on tell me, spit it out"
"D'you remember Obock, the little baby with the gippy tummy?"
"Oh god how could I ever forget her?" He raised an eyebrow and wrinkled his nose, unable to mask the appalled expression on his face at his memory of the smell and of how long it had taken for him to scrub it off his hands, it had seemed to linger in the back of his nose and throat for hours "Oh fuck, don't tell me that you're adopting her"
"Nah" She thought for a second and then sniggered "They probably wouldn't let me" She was still deeply entertained by the horrified expression on his face "Anyhow she wouldn't always smell like that… probably .. it was just that …. looking after her made me think I might sack the army and swap whinging squaddies with blisters and sunburn for looking after kiddies like her, don't know how or if it's even possible, they might not let me, well they won't if they've got any bleedin' sense, but … just s'posing if they did, it'd mean me being away …. a lot"
"And your point?"
"Well, don't you want me to stay 'ere …. with you?"
"Of course I do … and stop saying things like that, they'd be bloody lucky to get you and you'd be fucking brilliant at it, well, at whatever you choose to do, and ….." He paused then smirked "I've told you that before, haven't I? I also know that you'll always come back to me, you promised me once, remember?"
"That was a bleeding long time ago, things 'ave changed a bit since then"
"You haven't, I bet you're still the girl who keeps her promises ….. and even if you don't go off and do something with refugees, if you decide to stay where you are and carry on doing the job you're so bloody good at, one of us is bound to get sent somewhere eventually, both of us probably" He thought for a moment "But that isn't why you told me to fuck off when I gave you my key, is it?"
"I didn't tell you to fuck off, I dunno where you got that from, I never said anything like that, didn't even know if that was what you was askin' me, not for sure"
"Of course you did … what else would I have been talking about?"
Molly shrugged with all the expressive innocence she could dredge up. She knew that he knew her well enough to know when she was definitely lying to him, but she wasn't …. not exactly … she genuinely hadn't been 100% sure about it, he hadn't actually asked her to move in with him, to live with him … he'd just offered that she could share like she had with Adam, sort of.
"You did know" His voice sounded chock full of irritation and frustration "There are times, Molly, when you drive me bloody insane" He shook his head then made a valiant attempt to regain some control as he glared at her, knowing that boiling for a fight with her over it wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. Instead he tried to calm down and picked up the last cold chip on his plate, examining it closely "I might be wrong, but I don't think so, I think it's more that you still have massive doubts isn't it? …. I'm right aren't I? No, don't say anything, you know Molly, I don't blame you if you still feel like that, but I'd thought ….. I'd hoped I suppose, that the thought of sharing our lives might be something that would make you happy, it'd certainly make me fucking happy I know that"
"It was shit"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to do it like that, I just thought it would be ….. I'm not sure what I was thinking, I suppose I got a bit carried away with Christmas and ….."
"Nah, not that, I don't mean that, I meant it was shit without you, I bloody hated it, used to dream all the time that we was still together and then I'd wake up and …."
He picked up and examined his knife and then his fork, then put them down and carefully adjusted them until they were placed meticulously side by side on the plate before he looked up with a serious expression on his face, then leaned across the table and picked up a long lock of her hair and smoothed it all the way to the end before tucking it behind her ear and grazing his thumb over her cheekbone as she pressed her cheek against his hand.
"It was shit for me too" He half-stood and leaned across to brush her lips with his, gently nipping at her lower lip before moving back to sit down again "I'm sorry, I am so fucking sorry, I thought it was the right thing but it turned out I was wrong, so wrong"
"If it was shit for you 'n all and if you knew it was all wrong and that you missed me, why didn't you come and find me? I missed you so much"
He took a deep breath obviously weighing up his words before saying anything, trying to work out how best to say what he wanted to say next "I wasn't going to come back Molly, I didn't think it was wrong, I thought it was the right thing, for you as well as for me ….. emotional involvement is an indulgence I didn't believe in, it was something I couldn't afford so I'd always avoided it at all costs, well, you know that, in my experience it makes you take your eye off the ball, it's messy and people get hurt. You were so bloody young … and you deserved so much better than a washed up, messed up fuckwit like me. I thought I was finished and there you were just starting, and I thought it would be far easier for you if you hated me and then you'd get over whatever it was we'd had, and you'd move on"
Molly was filled with horror as she stared at him, she couldn't actually think straight as she struggled to remember what it was he'd said on that beach in Cyprus when he'd asked her to come back, and couldn't remember him saying anything like that. But he'd bloody meant it just now when he'd said he'd been trying to make her hate him and that he hadn't been going to come back, she could tell from his voice and from the way he was looking down and drumming his finger tips on the table top, as he avoided meeting her eyes, he'd got over her, got over them, had been busy getting on with his life without her, so what the fuck was this all about, what was he doing here?
"What you doing 'ere then? What, change your mind did you, or some'ing? Otherwise can't see what the fuck this is all about ….. I really don't get it" She swallowed, not sure now that she wanted to hear whatever was going to come out of his mouth next, she was horrified at what he'd already said "No matter what, might gonna have to say that you do know that you're none of them things, don't you? … bit of a dick sometimes, a lot of the time, actually, but not the rest of that shit, you're not washed up, not yet, and all that was just you being ….. fragged"
"I know and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything, shouldn't have told you" He scratched his head obviously regretting his honesty "I saw you ….. Brize Norton … I walked into the bloody place and there you were, talking and laughing with Fingers and looking as if you hadn't got a care in the world …. you looked just the way you always had, the same as you looked the very first time I clapped eyes on you and I knew in that instant that I'd got it wrong, I thought I was getting over you, but I'd got it all so fucking wrong"
"I didn't wanna …. move on as you call it, it was bloody hard"
"You did though, didn't you? Move on?"
"Nah, I never, not the way you mean, anyhow if you loved me, how the fuck could you 'ave even wanted me to find someone else? Sorry, I really don't get it"
"I wanted to kill him" His voice was soft as he looked up to meet her eyes "Still do a bit"
"Nah, that's not right, none of it was 'is fault, Adam and I, well, you know I care about him, but not the way I care about you, I never shagged him, we wasn't together like that ….. " She decided it wouldn't be the best idea she'd ever had to tell him about their wedding night in Vegas, honesty was all well and good but she couldn't remember it at all and for all she knew it might not even have happened, her and Adam had been so out of it that they didn't know "Snogged him once when I was slaughtered and in bits over you, but that was it, didn't go no further, I didn't want ….. I just wanted you"
"And now?"
She was afraid to meet his eyes; the last thing she wanted was for him to see how close she actually was to bawling her eyes out until for some reason her arms seemed to have made a decision to wrap themselves round his neck at the same time as his lips found her mouth. She was 100% certain that he must be able to hear how loud her heart was thudding as he held her and whispered "What do you think the odds are of us being okay?"
"What do you think?"
There was always going to be a bit of her that was going to worry, the guarantees that she'd been searching for didn't exist, not for anything, so the question was actually whether she wanted to live without him and eventually find someone else and that was the one thing she was absolutely sure she didn't want to do. If it all went to shit again she'd have to get over it again, she'd done it before, even if she had been a total fucked up mess last time.
"The one thing I do know is that it'll never happen again"
His slid his hands round to her back and slipped them inside her sweater to run them up the backs of her jean clad thighs until his fingers lingered for a long moment on her bum.
"You trying to seduce me 'ere Captain James?"
"Yup ... is it working?"
As soon as he moved his fingers over her waistband and touched the smooth, warm skin of her back, memories of the previous night hit him, of how close they'd been in this kitchen and how he wanted more than anything to show her just how ridiculously turned on he was...
"Not 'ere"
"Come on then"
He adjusted the jeans and pants that were strangling him before he grabbed her hand and pulled her along the hallway to the bottom of the stairs before bounding up them taking two at a time and tugging her with him as she shrieked at him to just slow down a little bit before he had them both down the stairs and they ended up in hospital with broken legs or something ...
-OG-
Stroking the arm that was across his chest with the back of his hand, he could feel the way she shivered at the feather-light touch of his fingers drifting up and down making goose bumps appear on her skin wherever he touched. He grabbed the duvet from the bottom of the bed where it had ended up and tucked it round her, his previous experience with Molly told him it was only going to be a matter of seconds before she started yelling about how bloody cold it was in the room. Charles was happy, totally, euphorically happy, the sort of happiness he'd experienced the night they'd had their first ever real date, the night they'd been to the Cloisters and he'd bought her back here afterwards; the night when he'd realized that it wasn't just a crush she had on him, that his feelings for her were reciprocated.
Molly clutched the duvet up to her chin and sat up pulling it off him and leaving him lying back with his arms folded behind his head, he hadn't been expecting it so was too late to make a grab at the bedding to stop her, as she giggled and ran her hands over his body pretending to be searching for something, examining his chest inch by inch and then checking out his scar with her finger tips before moving down into the dark hair of his groin.
"What. Are. You. Doing ? …What are you looking for?"
"Lookin' to see where you put the batteries in"
It took him a few seconds to realize exactly what she'd just said and slightly longer to understand exactly what she'd been insinuating, albeit as her idea of a joke "Oi, you cheeky little … you'll pay for that"
He whipped the duvet off her and raised his eyebrows while he flexed his fingers menacingly in front of her face to show that he meant business as he laughed and rolled her onto her back to tickle her. He was trapping her with his body as his long fingers homed in on her ribs which he knew were by far her most ticklish spot as she screamed and accused him of torturing her and begged him to stop. Pleas that he completely ignored until she told him she was going to wet the bed if he didn't, so that he stopped and grabbed her wrists to hold her hands above her head.
"Say you're sorry and then I'll stop"
"Nah ….. it was a bleedin' compliment, can't you tell when someone's being nice? No need for you to get all arsey"
"Compliment?"
"Yeah, course" She started giggling again and stuck her tongue out in a childish gesture "You know, that you better not ...do anything like that again"
"What, tickle you? Nope, sorry, can't promise that"
"Nah, not tickle me... not talkin' about tickling, I was talkin' about that other shit you pulled, you do anythin' like that again and I'll cover your balls in that hair removing stuff when you're asleep"
"Lovely, lots of men pay good money for that sort of thing" He laughed "They call it personal grooming"
"Do they? Not the way I'd do it"
"Fuck"
"Nah, that's the last thing you'd want by the time I'd finished" She giggled "Charles, can I ask you some'ing?"
"No, I don't want you to try it out and see whether or not it hurts" He put a protective hand over his balls so that she started to giggle again "Nah, not that, although now you come to mention it ….. nah, wanted to ask, did you mean it when you said I could put stuff in your house, you know, cushions 'n that?"
"Our house, and yup, you can do anything you like, within reason"
"What's that s'posed to mean?"
"It's a rented house, Molly, you can't get a sledgehammer and start knocking walls down"
"Shit, can't do a Kirstie makeover then?"
"Nope, sorry" He grinned and kissed the tip of her nose suddenly happy as he realized exactly what she'd just told him "Come on, we'd better crack on or we'll still be in this bed when mum and dad get back" He swung his feet over the edge of the mattress and sat up straight, arching his back "Come on gorgeous, let's go home"
"Charles can I ask you something else?"
"Yeeeees?"
"No need to sound like that is there, I was just wonderin' about your dad, about what you said"
"Don't worry about it"
"I'm not, just being bleedin' nosy"
"He wanted me to follow him, be a civil servant like him, so he wasn't too happy when I decided to join the army instead, and be a war monger as he called it, apparently he's into peace and love, not that I noticed"
"Sounds a bit shit"
"Yup, I thought so, and then I let him down, he believes in if you make your bed you lie on it, and in my case the bed in question was my marriage to Rebecca, he thought I needed to work harder at it, called me a quitter"
"Do you want me to take him outside and beat him up for you?"
"Nope, but thanks for the offer"
"You're welcome, what did he say when you sacked me?"
"Nothing, he just said that you were very young as though that made it understandable ... and he was still trying to pressure me back to Rebecca at the time"
"I wonder what he'll say now?"
"He'll accuse me of not being able to make up my mind I should think, come on, let's stop worrying about him"
"Okay, maybe we should get him together with Shazza, they'd 'ave loads in common, or even better, we could set Nan on him, she's well good at sorting dipshit Dad's, 'ad enough practice over the years"
"God help him"
