EPILOGUE

She wasn't exactly jumping up and down and clapping her hands with unbridled joy like they were in some sort of soap opera, but then Molly hadn't really expected her to, Lisa had never really liked him that much. She still had some weird shit going on in her head about her and Adam and the part Charles had played in their marriage going down the shitter, which was basically nothing, but Lisa wouldn't have any of that so Molly didn't bother to try and tell her anymore. Lisa had known her for just about forever so she knew when she was almost crapping herself with nerves, even when Molly kept smiling and wrinkling her nose at her with the most nonchalant look a shit liar like her could manage. They'd been best mates ever since the days that the only time Molly would have a conversation with a bloke was when she was shit-faced otherwise she hadn't known what the fuck to say to them, when a relationship had meant a rubbish one-night stand with someone who looked good (ish) through beer goggles, or more likely a tequila haze, or at least someone who didn't obviously need a paper bag over his head. And since well before the fucking nightmare that had been Artan.

When Molly thought about Artan now, something she didn't do very often, she secretly thought she should be grateful to him, if it hadn't been for him being a total arsehole and all the shit on the night of her disastrous eighteenth she would never have joined up in the first place so none of the good stuff would have happened. She would never have got to be mates with the lads in 2 Section, or found that she was good at something, who would have thought it, her, Molly Dawes being bloody good at something, and …. she would never have met him. It wasn't very likely that their paths would have crossed without his Lady Luck sending her to the Under Fives as battle casualty replacement, they didn't exactly move in the same circles, well they hadn't used to. Sometimes she found it hard to believe how it was all so different now.

She wished the rest of the lads would hurry the fuck up and just get there so that she could get on with it and get it over with; she was bricking it at the thought of what she had to do. Charles had kept on that he would do it, that she didn't have to because it was up to him but she'd said no, that it had to be her but he was still a bit worried about it even though he kept telling her she'd be brilliant and that she had nothing to worry about. She could feel his eyes kept on looking over to check up on her from where he was standing at the bar chatting away with Brains, but didn't really matter what he was doing, she knew that that was what he did, he kept an eye on her to make sure she was okay, he looked out for her like that and if it had been anyone else she would have found it bloody annoying because she wasn't some pathetic little girlie girl who couldn't look out for herself. But it didn't, she loved the way his brown eyes would go all crinkley at the corners and be all soft and loving when he looked at her, so that she couldn't help wondering why people hadn't noticed anything. Lisa and Adam already knew of course, but none of the lads had said a dickie bird which they would of done if they'd of seen, that was something she was sure of. But now that was all going to change, well it would if only the other buggers would hurry up and get there and she could get it over with.

She took a huge gulp of her Vodka and coke, so huge that some of it escaped out the side of her mouth and dribbled down the front of her 'T' shirt so that she pulled it away from her body and tried to wipe it off with her hand, wet splashes on her tits made it look as though she'd got to the stage of pissed when you spill stuff down yourself because you can't find your own bloody mouth. She definitely wasn't there yet, it was her first of the evening and she was pacing herself, or trying to.

"I take it that you're not pregnant then?"

"What? Nah, who said I was?" Molly glared at Lisa, she didn't like the way that the other girl had moved her head and raised her eyebrows looking pointedly at the glass in Molly's hand as if she'd joined the booze police "Why does everybody always think that? And that I'd be stupid enough to drink if I was?"

"Sorry, just asking" Lisa shrugged "Thought you might be, that's all"

"Well I'm not, first it's me mum and then me Nan, and now you, what is wrong with everyone? Me Nan went on and on as if she didn't believe me and then she refused to tell me what to do when I wanted her to, just kept on bloody sayin' that no-one else could tell me and that I needed to make up me own mind … but that I should stop all the …. fannying around and worrying about what might be out there ….. somewhere …. that I just needed to start thinkin' about what I can't bear to be without" She nodded her head in Charles' direction "She thinks he's me good 'un"

"She thought that about Adam 'n all didn't she?"

"Yeah, there is that"

She heaved a huge sigh of relief when she looked up for about the nine millionth time as the door banged open, straightening her shoulders and getting ready to smile before slumping back in disappointment as the wrong someone walked across the room and waved to someone who wasn't her. Where the fucketty fuck had they got to?

Another drink really wasn't the way to go but she ordered it anyhow, and then grinned her appreciation at Adam as he made it a double on the house for both her and Lisa, giggling as he proffered his cheek and pointed at it asking for a kiss as payment, exactly the same as he always had done in the days when she'd spent hours and hours in this place getting ratted at the owner's expense. She didn't look to see whether Charles had seen and what his reaction was if he had, he wouldn't like it but he'd have to lump it, it didn't matter what she said it seemed like he'd always be jealous of Adam, he said he couldn't help it.

They'd had a serious falling out over Adam's insistence on keep calling her his Princess, something that had started as him ripping the piss out of her and then sort of stuck. They'd been slumped on the sofa nursing varying degrees of hangover one Sunday afternoon both half-watching some shit on the Disney Channel when she'd started to moan and whinge to him about how it wasn't fair that she was never going to have the whole glass slipper thing and that she was missing the swishy haired gene that makes you look good in a tiara so would never be able to do the prince-capturing thing, and had then whinged a whole lot more that she wasn't dainty enough to look good in a Princess ball gown and that it wasn't fair that she looked more like a lampshade that someone had sat on. Adam had thought it was well funny, had pissed himself laughing and had then started calling her Princess, something he'd done ever since but Charles didn't seem to see the funny side at all where Adam was concerned.

Adam hadn't been the only thing they'd rowed about in those early days, horrible lost tempers and screaming insults, that was her, and stern disapproval from him as he'd walked away and refused to join in which had made her worse, and then wonderful passionate sex when they made it up, usually after she calmed down and said she was sorry and he'd argue it had all been his fault not hers, something she secretly agreed with. She'd insisted that she had to pay her way, as much as she could, and he'd got dead arsey over it, had kept saying that he could afford to pay for the roof over their heads and to put the lights on, could even afford to pay for the odd bit of food, and that he didn't want her money but she'd insisted and told him that they had names for girls like that where she came from and some of those names weren't very nice.

The biggest bone of contention between them was the way she'd wanted to mend his father when he kept telling her to leave it. She'd developed a bit of a bee in her bonnet about the way his dad was with him so that she kept coming up with ideas on how to make it better which pissed him off until finally he'd snapped and told her that if she was that keen on sorting a dad out, she should start with her own. Nowadays her and Mr J just got on with it, Molly didn't like him any more than he liked her, but they were a bit civilized about it, she tried not to roll her eyes behind his back and he nodded cordially at her before he walked out the room.

His mum she adored. Charles' mum was very keen on her charity work with the riding for the disabled lot, so that she went to the stables whenever she could get away from the house to help out. The first time Molly had gone with her she'd pretended it wasn't going to be the first time she'd ever been anywhere near a horse. Okay she didn't exactly lie and say she could ride or nothing, there wouldn't have been much point in that the way Charles was falling about laughing, but the more he laughed the more determined she was to show him, and it wasn't her fault she came from east Ham where there weren't a lot of horses around…..

The first thing she hadn't realized was that horses were so bloody big, they all were, she'd never thought about it before and hadn't known there would be such a strong smell of shit, or that she'd end up picking up the shit from out the stables without crying, or that it was such hard work. The one whose shit she'd been shoveling had kept on snuffling at her so that at first she'd thought it was going to eat her, but realised that it might have huge yellow teeth but it was gentle like a pet, a dog or something, although you couldn't get one on your lap and Mrs J said that it was looking to see if she'd got any polos so that Molly vowed that she would go back with packets of the bloody things, she really wanted the horse to like her even if she did smell a bit awful.

Charles had complained that she smelled of horse shit when she'd got back to Royal Crescent but she'd just grinned and gave him the finger when his mum wasn't looking, he hadn't gone with them, had admitted that he wasn't that keen which she'd told him was his loss. Now she was a regular when they went to Bath so that she didn't even notice the smell, well not as much as she used to anyhow.

-OG-

"WHAT? What did you just say, Dawsey? Say that again, I don't believe what I just heard"

"I think you heard me first time"

"What the actual fuck, Moll, I thought this was about you telling us you were off to be Mother Theresa?" Dangles looked round at the others seeking acknowledgement, agreement maybe or perhaps enlightenment from a group of equally gob-smacked faces, all of them looked totally shell-shocked with the notable exception of Fingers who had a knowing smirk on his face instead of the air of stunned disbelief from the others.

"What you grinning at Fingers? You didn't know either because you'd of said, and that was what she told us ….. wasn't it lads?"

"Nah I never, I never said what it was I might gonna want to tell you"

"Yeah you did, it was … you said it bloody months ago … "

"Well, things change, don't they?"

"Can say that again"

She resisted the impulse to do exactly that. Even though it was hard not to giggle with nerves and she was highly tempted to try and turn it into a bit of a joke she could sense that there might well be a sense of humour failure lurking there somewhere waiting to leap out and bite her bum once they got to know the rest of it, they were going to hate it that they'd been kept out the loop when they were supposed to be her mates. She went to take another swig of Dutch courage only to find that her second glass of Vodka had mysteriously emptied itself.

"But who is he, this bloke? Do we even know him?" Dangles was still looking around the group for enlightenment "Does any of us know this wanker, is he one of us? I mean, how come we've never heard anything about any of this before? Not a word, I've heard nothing about him at all"

"I think you'll find it's me she's talking about"

Charles had the biggest happiest shit-eating grin on his face as he walked across and put his arm round her shoulders, hugging her and then kissing the top of her head, before throwing his head back and roaring with laughter at the expressions on the faces of the men staring at them in a stupefied silence of shocked disbelief, with the exception of Fingers who was now muttering loudly to himself.

"I knew it, I fucking well knew it, I should of opened a book when we was in Yemen, but the boss here, he told me I was talking bollocks and I believed him, what the fuck was I thinking?" He slapped a hand across his forehead then ran it down over his face "Plain as the nose on your face …. and as for you?" He raised his eyebrows at Molly who was grinning at him, Finger's bark was always much worse than his bite and she knew he loved her and that he loved the boss and would be heading up the cheer-leading squad once he got over the loss of his money making opportunity "Thought you were my mate, you could have told me"

"Thought you just said you knew"

She was giggling with a mixture of relief that it was over with and happiness, together with a fairly sizeable amount of alcohol. She hadn't been hungry for lunch, had been too churned up with nerves, but half a packet of stale cheese and onion crisps and some strawberry laces for pudding were proving totally inadequate in fighting the effects of the three glasses of vodka that she'd drunk very quickly …. so much for pacing herself.

-OG-

"How's it going with him?" Molly jerked her head in Adam's direction aware of Charles laughing as he chatted to the lads and that they all then looked over in her direction so that she wanted desperately to go and join them but she also wanted to talk to Lisa about something that wasn't Charles related, she was still her mate and didn't want to lose her, especially now that Lisa had dropped all that touchy-feely bollocks that had made her such a pain in the backside.

"It's not, I think he's still too hung up on you"

"Don't talk crap, he's never been hung up on me" As Molly said it she wondered whether Adam had used her as some sort of excuse for not getting involved with Lisa, she had some vague memories of him saying stuff that was less than flattering about the other girl "Might be time to get back out there Lees and let him get on with it, you know show him it's his loss" She pondered for a few seconds "Look around you, there's plenty of blokes here and they're a good bunch, some of them are pretty fit"

"Hey, who are you describing as fit?"

Charles put his arms round her waist from behind and rested his chin on the top her head as Lisa muttered something about needing the loo and left, which Molly didn't believe, Lisa was still obviously a bit shit about him.

"Not you, you're not available …. sorry 'n that"

"I love you"

"I was just trying to get Lisa to tell Adam to stick it and to find someone else, he's being an arsehole ….. I might gonna need to have a bit of a chat with him"

"No you won't, you'll leave them to it"

"Bossy prick"

"Did you hear what I just said to you?"

"Yeah …. course" She giggled "You might gonna need to say it again"

"I love you"

"Love you too"

"I know"

"That's alright then innit?"

-OG-

They had been in the car going home from one of their visits to east Ham when he'd said about how he'd always wanted a wife with a tattoo on her bum, so what did she think?

"Who said anything about a wife? Where you gonna find one of them, not 'ere, not me, told you before, I've done that once and I didn't like it, not gonna do it again"

"You haven't done it with me though have you?"

"You serious?"

Now they were in a wine bar on Guildford High Street with his hands on her hips and her arms round his neck her fingers playing with the curls on the back of his neck as he sang softly in her ear, totally oblivious to their interested audience as they danced, or rather swayed backwards and forwards on the spot to the soft sounds of the background music.

"When she's lying close beside me

And my heart beats with the rhythm of her sighs

This time the girl is gonna stay …"

"A week tomorrow Dawsey"

"You will turn up, won't you? Promise me you won't leave me standing there like a prannet in a fancy dress"

"Of course, I can't wait" He bent forward and kissed the tip of her nose "I'll be the one standing at the front sweating …. and dressed up like a bloody toy soldier"

"You'd make a lovely toy soldier"

-OG-

It was dead windy and pissing down with rain, but Molly couldn't have cared less even though the photos would be a bit shit. She was wearing the tiny tiara that Mrs J had got for her and the girl who'd done her hair had put so much lacquer on it to make up for it not being swishy, it was rigid and probably wouldn't move even if there was a hurricane blowing. She felt like the princess she'd once told Adam she could never be, her white gown might not have all the frills and ruffles and flouncy bits of a Disney Princess one, but she felt magic as she walked down the aisle and heard all the murmurs as she went past, it sounded like a breeze ruffling across the place but she didn't look to the right or to the left. She only had eyes for the tall dark man with the brown eyes who had the happiest expression she'd ever seen on anyone's face as she walked towards him.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today ….."

-OG-

A/N: Happy ever after a speciality – I do hope it wasn't too sloppy, but you know me I love a bit of ahhhh – I have tried to make sure that I didn't leave any loose ends, but I'm sure someone will let me know if I have…

Thank you for all the support and for the kind words you have sent, they have meant the world. I am not too sure what's next, I have had some suggestions which I am thinking about, but for the moment there are a lot of new writers out there writing some really good stuff, so will concentrate on reading them for a bit while I decide what to do.