A/N: Almost there, Chapter fifteen is on the drawing board and will include the Epilogue which I expect to get out before Ep2 of S2 if I possibly can, RL permitting.

Decided not to include material from S2, there is a massive temptation to add bits from the new story line but on reflection I think I'll wait and see how things pan out before I get tempted to add spoilers.

To those of you who were unhappy that some authors had taken down their stories from the site, I hope you've seen that Jen listened to your pleas and re-published and hopefully Itsembarassing might do the same at some time in the future, maybe, now that things are a bit calmer, but at the moment all we can do is to keep fingers crossed…..

Thank you for your support and for your reviews, I hope that you enjoy this, Oh and by the way, if you've never tried pea-pod wine, take my advice and don't.

Chapter Fourteen

"US? What, as in YOU and ME? You want to marry ME? Yeah, fine, course" Molly collapsed into fits of giggles as she decided that he couldn't possibly be serious and that it was obviously the hippie juice getting to him so that she gave him a hard nudge with her shoulder and risked his precarious balance as well as her own "You're 'aving a laugh, aren't you?"

He had his arm round her waist and was holding her upright because her own legs for some reason that she couldn't immediately put her finger on seemed to have developed the consistency of over-cooked spaghetti. She peered up at his face through the locks of hair that had once upon a time been part of her very best effort at an elegant up-do but which were now obeying gravity and doing a nose dive so that they were falling over her face like a pair of net curtains. She was doing her absolute pissed best to blow them out of the way so that she could see whether she was right and if he'd got one of his trademark broad grins on his face, something that would confirm that this was his idea of some bloody joke. The trouble was it was proving almost as difficult for her to get a clear look at his face as it had been to match the key with the keyhole when she'd been trying to get the front door open.

She finally managed to get him into focus, nodding emphatically at how successful she was before saying anything, but was then a bit confused when the expression that flitted over his face looked almost as if his feelings were a little bit hurt "Shit, you ARE taking the piss, aren't you, I mean, you don't mean it do you?"

"Of course I mean it, why would I be ….. it doesn't matter?"

"But I thought we was alright as we are … I mean, we are, aren't we? You know what, I think you might be a bit … pissed, or pea-podded"

"I'm not a bit anything, well I might be a bit, and of course we're alright as we are, look, forget it, forget I said anything"

"Nah don't want to forget it"

"Jesus, you're bloody contrary aren't you?"

"Nah … not really, it's ….. well, if you're sure you're not taking the piss or nothin'" She took the deepest breath she could manage bearing in mind the sudden and almost overwhelming urge she had to give in and laugh like a drain, the whole thing was ridiculously surreal and was obviously some sort of pea-pod induced side effect "Why 'aven't you said anything before now, why 'aven't you asked me properly, you know, got down on one knee or some'ing?"

Containing her laughter any longer proved impossible at the thought of him going down on one knee in front of her, although most of her desperate need to laugh was rooted in a nervous bout of disbelief that this was even happening. However, laughing meant that she had great difficulty getting her words out in any sort of coherent fashion, and it didn't help that she was clinging to the conviction that he HAD to be messing, there was no other logical explanation.

"If I got down on one knee I'd have to let go of you and then you'd bloody well fall over and I'd fall over as well, probably on top of you, flatten you and not in a good way and it's highly bloody unlikely that I'd be able to get up again"

"There yer go, told you not to drink that stuff, said it was lethal didn't I?"

"Yes alright little Miss Know-it-all, so what's your excuse?"

"Someone lied to me"

"Of course they did, silly me" He snorted a sceptical laugh down his nose, a sound that was chock full of disbelief "Come on, bedtime I think"

"Oh good, now you're talking"

"I'm not sure there's going to be any of that right now"

"Any of what? Don't know what you're talking 'bout mate"

"Yes you do, you know exactly ….. and what the fuck was in that stuff anyway?"

"Pea-pods?"

"Oh very clever"

"I know, it's some'ing people say a lot 'bout me"

-OG-

"You weren't serious earlier were you?"

Molly cuddled into his side and put her head on his chest so that he tightened his arm round her. He'd been right about the detrimental effect on his normally reliable ability to show willing, making her giggle uncontrollably until she'd got a bit worried she was in danger of wetting herself so she'd pinned on the nearest thing to a straight face she could manage and reassured him that a night off was fine by her, as long as he didn't make a bloody habit of it. She'd paused for a few seconds then added that she wasn't bothered as long as he remembered it the next time she said she'd got a headache.

"I don't remember you ever saying you'd got that sort of headache"

"There's always a first time, you never know, could go off you"

"Yes I do" He snorted a short laugh "And was I serious about what? About being pea-podded? Sorry, 'fraid so"

"Big'ead" Molly began to giggle again "I wonder how the lads are feeling? They was knocking it back a bit so they'll most probably all of gone blind by now …. Or come to think of it, that might be some'ing else does that? Dunno, but I bet they're looking forward to going out at stupid o'clock in the morning for a nice long run"

"Think I'll give it a miss in the morning, let them go without me"

"What's that, Bossman's perk?"

"Bloody right it is"

"Lightweight" She did her best to haul herself upright to look into his face "I was talking about …. you were taking the piss, yeah? Joking or some'ing, when you said about us getting married, I mean" she dissolved into giggles again "YOU …. marry ME?"

"What is so …. fucking hilarious about that?And no, I wasn't taking the piss, actually nothing could be further from the truth, but hey, don't worry about it I expect I'll live, now go on go to sleep and we'll talk in the morning"

"Nah, I want to talk about it now, well, unless you've changed your mind of course, sobered up or some'ing, come to your bleeding senses"

"You really are contrary aren't you? Alright, first of all, of course I haven't changed my mind, I love you ….. and I thought that you loved me, I'm just sorry if I was a bit too …."

"Bit too what? Previous?" Molly put a hand up to stroke his cheek as he leaned into her touch and nodded before she gave a slight shrug "It's not that, it's me …. I do love you, of course I love you, but I can't help it, I mean, why now?"

"Well, apart from the fact that I adore you, I think we've already established that, and that you love me, we've just established that as well … and being at a wedding together …. and all the … romantic ….. stuff, it all made me think a bit and I suppose I'd have to say that actually I was a tad envious of Smurf"

"What? Fuck, you must 'ave had more of that shit than I thought" She raised her eyebrows in disbelief "That has to be a bloody first, someone being jealous of that little knob. What you jealous of, him marrying Lauren? I'm bloody sure she'd of snatched your 'and off if you'd asked her to 'ave you instead of him, it would of been like that film Runaway Bride" she paused and giggled at her own words "Well, without the 'orse"

"Will you stop it, and you know very well I didn't mean that" He shook his head and then regretted it as the room tilted alarmingly, he was also getting slightly concerned that he appeared to be going numb from the feet upwards, so that he reached over and swigged water from the pint glass sitting next to the bed. It was supposed to be helping his vain attempt at warding off the pea-pod hangover which he had the nastiest of suspicions was going to be a bloody horrendous experience, a fully loaded reminder of his intake of hippy juice, especially as Molly kept crowing that she'd told him so.

"When we next go off somewhere, when we get deployed and we all know that that's something that will happen sooner or later, he'll know that she's there, at home waiting for him, that she loves him and that they …. I suppose that they belong to each other ….. together …. a family"

"Really?" She raised her head again to try and look him in the face and then smirked "You've got more bleeding faith in Lauren than I 'ave"

"What makes you say that?"

"Nothin', don't matter, look, ask me again when you've had some kip so you're not ….. when all that happy hippy shit has worn off … and then, well, then I …"

"Then you'll what?"

"Then I'll tell you, course I want to marry you, if you really mean it"

"Was that a yes I just heard?"

"Shit, don't tell me the hearing's going already, thought we had a few more years before that happened, of course it's a yes, it was always gonna be a yes wasn't it, you knew that, like me Nan says, you don't get many of you to the pound ….. or some'ing like that"

"Lovely …. I think"

"Well, you know what I mean"

"Do I? I'll tell you what, I'll just concentrate on the yes and forget the rest"

"Probably best"

-OG-

It was only a couple of weeks later that her intense happiness turned to absolute dismay when he told her they were off to Kenya for some mission or other and she'd been horribly convinced that he must of known about it on Lauren's wedding day, the day that he'd proposed, it seemed like too much of a co-incidence otherwise, although he adamantly denied it. She'd been walking around with this idiot grin on her face with her feet floating about three foot off the floor ever since he'd asked her and then real life had to come in and slap her in her face. There was no choice about whether she was going to keep her promise of being okay about it if he got sent away, she'd said she wouldn't make a fuss no matter how much she wanted to and there was no way she was going to behave like the ex, but it was hard, bloody easy to say and not a bit easy to do.

The meet the family had gone as well as she could have hoped, actually better than she'd expected. Charles had been all happy grins and nice and polite to Dave, which was more than she'd have been if he hadn't been with her, and had been extra specially nice and lovely to Belinda and Nan, so that they were now both firmly convinced that the sun shone out of his bum, but there was this tiny bit of doubt that kept on creeping into her head. She still had to meet his mum and dad, and she had a strong feeling that she was going to be a bit of a shock to their system, especially his mum, but more importantly there was still the question of Sam. If the little boy hated her guts it was going to be a bit difficult to say the least.

She'd said nothing at work until the day after she'd got her ring and then couldn't stop waving her hand around to admire the platinum band with its single diamond and hoping that other people would notice. Lauren was still away on honeymoon which meant she could show off to the succession of visitors who came in to check once the word had got out, even if some of them had pulled surprised faces when they'd copped a look at the ring and at the photos of him that she'd pinned up on the board that used to be Lauren's wedding board. Molly wasn't surprised that they were surprised, she was surprised herself.

It was plain that Lauren had already heard when she got back, the fake way she pretended that she was happy for her before making Molly's eyes prickle with unshed tears, not so much because she was upset, although she was a bit, but more because she was bloody well furious. After pretending to be all 'congratulations', Lauren had immediately said she should be sure to make the most of it while she could, seeing as how it wouldn't last and had then asked if Molly been to Bath yet, to meet his parents, because it was a really long way to go in the circumstances. It had really, really got up her nose, seeing how often she'd bitten her tongue when Lauren had started dealing in bullshit about her little blue knob of an arsehole boyfriend, well he was her husband now of course, god help her, and had begun re-writing history as soon as she'd decided to marry the little tosspot, apparently suffering from some pregnancy induced amnesia.

Molly was horribly afraid that the close friendship they had that had been based on spending all day together at work and a lot of evenings out having fun had well and truly bitten the dust. They still went through the motions of being mates, workmates anyway, but it was painfully obvious that Lauren was still eaten up with jealousy so that she made no secret of the fact that she resented her relationship with Bossman. She kept pulling faces whenever anyone came in to look at Molly's ring or photos and made no secret of her belief that it was all a big bowl of crap, so that the subject had become a total minefield.

It was Lauren who told her about the girl who was going to Kenya with them, a medic that Charles apparently knew well from before, and then Lauren had rubbed it in by going on about how good looking this Georgie was and how glad she was that she didn't have to worry about her and Smurf because apart from him being all excited about the baby, this girl was well out of his league. Molly had wanted to retaliate and say that no-one in their right bloody mind would pick him anyway, and that this girl was a soldier after all and last she'd heard the army didn't take nut jobs anywhere. A split second before she opened her gob to let fly, she decided not to give a smug-faced Lauren the satisfaction of knowing she'd got to her so just shrugged as though it didn't mean anything to her. Lauren didn't know what this girl looked like, or so she said, just that Smurf had told her she was well fit which meant Molly spent an entire afternoon and evening torturing herself with visions of Charles chatting to some tall, sleek and beautiful blonde who, in her imagination, looked exactly like Heidi Klum off the re-runs of Project Runway with legs that went all the way up to her bum …..in an army uniform.

Charles had put his head back and roared with laughter when she'd come clean and told him what it was that had put her so far down in the dumps. He'd pulled her out of her chair and cuddled her tight against him whispering in her ear that he had no interest at all in chatting up anyone except her. That he'd known this girl for ever and it was true that she was good looking, but she wasn't particularly tall, not a lot taller than Molly in fact, and she wasn't blonde and actually looked far more like Molly than she did Lauren, just not half as beautiful …. and not the girl he loved.

-OG-

Molly was down to counting hours rather than the weeks and days and was sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed watching him as he got his kit sorted and squared away as he put it. His Bergen and his kit bag were slowly being filled up with neatly stacked clothes and bit and bobs as she tried very hard to keep a smile pasted on her face for every time he looked up at her to check that she was okay and smiled at her.

She still hadn't met his mum and dad, somehow the time had sped by and the two of them hadn't got back from staying at their holiday home in Italy, a little apartment by Lake Garda that Charles had said he was going to take her to first chance he got when he got back, just the two of them, not even Sam was going to go with them. The afternoon she'd spent with him and Sam had seemed to go okay, well not bad anyway. She'd liked Sam, he was just the same as her little brothers really, into all the same things except for him loving Arsenal rather than a decent football team and he'd seemed to like her as well, he'd kept on telling her and his dad that she was funny. He was just a hell of a lot posher than she was used to ….. with better table manners and Molly could see her mum holding him up as some sort of shining example if she got the chance, which meant that the little bleeders would most probably hate him.

"You will be careful, won't you, remember to duck if some bugger starts shooting at you"

"Of course I will and it's not going to happen, no-one is going to shoot at me so you can stop worrying, and you be careful too, remember you've promised not to go down there until I get back?"

"Thought I'd go every night seeing as how you're not 'ere to boss me about"

"MOLLY"

"Sorry, that was s'posed to be funny, but it weren't really was it? Of course I won't, I promised didn't I?"

He'd made her promise faithfully that she wouldn't go near the place while he was away, admitting that it would worry him to death if he thought she was getting herself home on that bloody night bus and then walking the rest of the way on her own. Neither of them had mentioned Liam, even though they were both conscious of the part he played in Charles' concern, totally unnecessarily in Molly's opinion. She was more than capable of looking after herself, he knew that as well as she did, and she'd done it perfectly well before he'd come into her life. But he couldn't switch off his instinctive need to protect her and she didn't want him to be sitting ….. somewhere … wherever it was he was going ….. and worrying about whether she was safe.

It would be different when she'd passed her test, which she was determined would be at the first time of asking seeing as how everyone had laughed at the idea, then she'd be able to drive herself which would make all the bloody difference. It was bleeding annoying that that seemed to be a little way off yet because unfortunately it hadn't proved to be quite as easy as she'd expected.

-OG-

She hardly slept at all so that it was very reminiscent of the first night that she'd spent with him and just like that night, she'd put on her West Ham top to go to bed in so that his breath had hitched in his throat when he'd seen her. He'd wound his fingers in her hair and had done that gentle almost kiss on the lips thing of his before he'd slipped the top over her head and held her away from him. He'd looked at her for ages with his eyes all hooded and dark so that it was almost as if he was committing every inch of her to memory as he chewed at his bottom lip, and then crushed her against him.

-OG-