A/N: Hope everyone had a nice weekend and thank you for all your reviews and the lovely feedback. I hope that some of you will, as I have been doing for the last hour, be able to picture CJ as he appeared in the photo that was posted on Instagram (thanks Debbie for that), it fed my imagination nicely, or was it just pure lust? Chapter 7 as soon as I've written it!

Chapter Six

She'd been keeping one eye on him while they were busy doing other stuff. She told herself it was so she could make sure she said 'goodbye' and 'thanks for coming' when he left, even if she'd have been totally gutted if he'd actually done what she'd told him to and gone. He'd been completely right when he'd said that the bloody place stank to high heaven, it was definitely worse than usual but that could have been because she didn't usually notice it at all anymore, it was just that him mentioning it like that had made her very conscious of it. She hadn't been able to help having a little bit of a snigger when he'd got himself collared by one of the smelliest buggers of them all. Mark was an ex-army Sergeant who used to be in the Signals, or so he said, but who ponged as if the last time he'd seen soap and water was before he'd even been discharged from the bloody army. Charles had ended up talking to him, or rather listening patiently while Mark bent his ear by rambling on for almost an hour which the rest of them had all agreed was well above and beyond any sort of call of duty. Mark not only smelt like a bloody skunk but he was a massive bore as well, so that even though everyone always did their very best to be supportive and nice to him and even to listen to all his bollocks as he whinged his way through a catalogue of self-pity that they'd all heard over and over before so that what they most wanted to do was to shake him or hit him with something as he droned on and on about how he had to drank a bit more than most people, his assessment, no-one else's, because of how hard it was for him being out of the army. How much he missed his army life and his mates, which was almost certainly true, but how he couldn't find a job or afford a roof over his head which meant that he needed the odd drink to help him cope.

Charles couldn't have known, not like the rest of them, about Mark's wife 'n kids cos Mark never mentioned how, even now, she hadn't shut the bloody door on him, more fool her, or that he'd had a job when he'd left the army, but how the stupid sod had kept on turning up for work pissed out his nut and had then stuck one on his boss, hit him, which meant that the job and the rest of it had all gone straight down the shitter. Every one of them knew that he'd have to get proper help for the booze before anything else could even start to get sorted and he didn't want to, didn't want to accept that he had a problem. In a lot of ways Mark reminded Molly of Dave, her dad, nothing was ever his bloody fault either.

-OG-

Charles was doing his best to shorten his stride so that she didn't have to keep breaking into a little jog to keep up with him as they walked side by side towards the back street where he'd parked earlier on. He was repeating a silent little prayer to Lady Luck that the car would still be where he'd left it, undamaged and with all its wheels still on because he'd just paid his insurance premium and it had been enough to fund the budget of some third world country so that he was desperately hoping to avoid making any sort of a claim for a while, like the next ten years or so, otherwise they'd be demanding the equivalent of the insurance premium for a Lear jet when it came to renewing it next year. He'd been totally convinced that the extortionate amount that was shown on the demand had to be a mistake or a misprint of some sort, only to have Gavin or Kelvin, or whatever the fuck his name was, anyway some smug little nineteen year old know-all in the call centre, take the greatest of pleasure in listing the number of expensive bangs and scrapes that his car had acquired in the car park at barracks, and how the company had understandably got the tiniest bit upset. Extensive shopping around on the net hadn't produced the miracle he'd been hoping for either.

"That's better" Charles laughed as he took in a few deep breaths, filling his lungs with the damp and drizzle filled fresh air "Smells a bit better out here anyway"

"It weren't that bad" She didn't add anything for a few seconds as she thought about it "Well, s'spose it was but you get used to it after a bit"

"I'm not sure about that" He exhaled a short laugh down his nose that sounded almost a snort "I don't suppose there's any point whatsoever in me asking you to take more care with all this is there?"

"I do take care and it's not dangerous, but you know some'ing, you keep this up 'n you're gonna give me the bloody willies" She huffed, her tone betraying just how much he was irritating her by sounding as if he was going to start some sort of lecture again "You know what you said to me earlier on, about not being me boss 'n that, well you was right and you need to listen when people tell you stuff mate"

"Sorry force of habit, and you're right, of course you're right, I'm being a bossy bastard"

"Nah, that's not exactly what I meant, 'n I'm sorry too, but it's just …."

" … That you've already told me it's none of my business and it's not"

"Yeah, sorry"

Molly was back to sounding defensive as the friendly banter had vanished somewhere in the few minutes it had taken them to walk from the front steps of the building and round the corner to the back street where he'd left the car, which, to his utter relief was still where he'd last seen it.

"Nice car, it's well posh innit?" She raised her eyebrows and grinned at him suddenly aware that he was doing her a favour and that here she was being all shitty to him as he operated the remote and unlocked the doors on his precious Audi "Beats the night bus anyhow, and the company's a bit better 'n all, well, would be if the miserable bugger cheered up a bit"

"Sorry, and what do you mean, of course I'm cheerful and I'd bloody hope that the company's better bearing in mind the night bus is almost exclusively full of drunks"

"How did you know that? I mean, you're absolutely right, well, all except for me, of course, but you don't strike me as someone who's spent a whole lot of time getting himself home on the booze bus"

"Appearances can be very deceptive you know, I have hidden depths"

"Not that 'idden"

Suddenly they were laughing again as he put his key in the ignition and secured his seatbelt, glancing across to make sure that she had as well before starting the car. He would have dearly loved to turn to her first and ask her why she did it and how she'd even got involved in the first place, although of course that could very well be because of her father even if that didn't seem to make an awful lot of sense because she'd already said that her father was still living at home with her mother. He opted for saying nothing because of the strong feeling he had that she not only wouldn't tell him but that she'd tell him again that it was none of his bloody business, and she'd be right, but the atmosphere between them would instantly turn back to shit.

"Where's home? Where are we going? Give me the postcode"

"You don't need that, it's not far just go down to the main road and turn left and then I'll tell you where to go"

"Not literally I hope, and it would probably be easier if we put it on the sat-nav"

"Yeah, maybe, but that thing don't know the short-cuts like I do, does it?"

"Molly?"

"What?"

"Shut the fuck up and just give me the bloody postcode will you"

"Right"

The traffic was, as was only to be expected, very light at that time of night which meant that the journey was short and quick, she'd been absolutely right that it wasn't very far but that made it far too short and too quick for Charles. Molly was also registering how quickly they seemed to be getting to hers as well, but in her case with a mounting sense of worry about what was going to happen when they got there. She just hoped that he wasn't expecting to be invited in for 'coffee' or something, because she didn't want to seem ungrateful and it had been really nice of him to most probably go miles out of his way to take her home, but inviting him in was something that wasn't going to happen in a million years. No-one, not even someone that she liked as much as she liked him, okay, that she fancied as much as she fancied him, was going to get through that door, and anyway there was still Lauren to think about and she was Lauren's mate, well she thought that they were still mates … maybe.

There was another little niggle of worry that was playing in her head.

"Charles, you won't tell anyone about all this, will you? I mean, you giving me lift home and about what I do sometimes in the evenings 'n that, I mean, you won't will you?"

"Not if you don't want me to" He stopped the car where she indicated and turned the engine off, leaving the keys in the ignition as he turned to look at her "Why is it such a secret anyway?"

"It's not, well yeah it is I s'pose, it's just that I don't want Lauren going round telling everyone at work, I don't want any of them to know"

"Why? No, sorry Molly forget I asked that it's none of my business, but I thought Lauren and Jamie already knew all about it, and their dad, didn't you say you'd told him?"

"Yeah, but it's just …. they don't really know that much or that I'm still going down there" she shrugged "I never even knew that Jamie knew anything about any of it till you told me earlier"

"Right, okay don't worry I won't say a word" He could hear the "keep out" sounds in her voice as he smiled at her and changed the subject "And I'll bet you give all your money to the beggars outside the tube as well don't you? The one's that sit on blankets with their scruffy bloody dogs tied up with a bit of string?"

"Yeah course doesn't everyone? Well I would give them me money if I had any"

There was a small silence as he tried to think of some other way of raising the issue of her personal safety again without being told to piss off and keep his nose out, as Molly sat next to him in the silence and got more and more uncomfortable and felt more and more awkward as she undid her seat belt and tried desperately to think of something clever and nice to say to him at the same time as she was getting ready to get out and escape by putting her hand on the door handle. She couldn't think of anything that wasn't just 'bye then'.

"Give me your phone"

"Why?"

"I'm going to put my number in it so that if you're ever in any sort of ….. difficulty …. or if there's an emergency, you can call me"

"That's nice of you"

"I am nice" He laughed "Now are you going to promise me? I know that I can't make you promise not to go there on your own any more, but I eant you to promise me that you'll call me if you need any help, okay?"

"Okay" Molly took her phone back from him and looked at the screen "Why's it got CJ?"

"That's me, Charles James, or Captain James if you like"

"What like Captain Pugwash?"

"Probably" He laughed "Go on piss off you cheeky little mare, I'm going to watch you go in"

-OG-

Molly still had the smile on her face as she climbed up the two flights of stairs and got to her door then put her key in the lock, her smile fading rapidly as she took her usual deep breath and prepared to go in. She opened the door a mere couple of inches, a move that she'd perfected in the last year or so, in fact ever since she'd kicked Liam out and started to live there on her own and then, in another very well-practised move, slid her hand round and flicked the switch to turn on all the lights before, again as usual, crashing the door fully open so that it went all the way back and hit the wall behind it. That way she would make absolutely sure that there was no-one there behind it.

She had her routine for when she got inside, she always checked out the tiny toilet and shower room first because it had a door, so that she checked behind the shower curtain after she'd burst in there throwing the door back as hard as she could to check that there was no-one hiding behind that door either, and then she'd check out the inside of the wardrobe, and behind the furniture and then under her bed, before, again as usual, checking behind the curtains last of all before she closed them, the final bit before she could breathe out properly and relax. She couldn't tell anyone why she did it, well didn't even tell them that she was still doing it which meant that she'd lied to her mum and her Nan and told them that she was fine and well over it, which of course meant she couldn't sleep over there at all now. Because it wasn't just in her room anymore, she couldn't sleep anywhere without checking everything out in the right order first, but she hadn't lied when she'd told CJ she wasn't afraid of being out and about late at night on her own, she wasn't. Molly prided herself on being 'hard as nails' but it was just that, no matter how hard she tried and she had tried over and over, she just couldn't seem to stop herself from needing to do it.

-OG-

News travels fast when a love affair ends

People keep asking

"What's happened to them?"

But It's too soon to know …..

One of the old blokes had started to sing, someone that Molly didn't know, in fact she didn't think she'd ever even seen him there before, but he had a really nice voice so that she sat on the edge of a table and started swinging her legs backwards and forwards and listened to the words and started thinking about CJ and the way he enjoyed singing. Earlier she'd kept on looking up every time someone had appeared in the doorway and come in, half-expecting him to show up again which was just a bit of real wishful thinking on her part because there was absolutely no reason to suppose that he would do that. She hadn't seen or heard anything from him since the day before yesterday when he'd given her a lift home ….. .

-OG-