A/N: Yeah I know, but some lovely people wanted to me go on and do the wedding and as I'm struggling to lose myself in S2 s yet, and I wasn't quite ready to let them go yet, hope you enjoy this. There is one more Chapter that is just about ready so in a day or so (hopefully).
Chapter Sixteen
He plonked himself down on the beach towel next to her and shook his head like a wet dog so that his dripping curls flew around and sprayed her with freezing cold salt water, then laughed loudly at her shriek, obviously thoroughly enjoying himself as she cowered behind upraised arms and glared at him.
"That's not funny, tell me again what I'm doing 'ere getting sandblasted every time I go out the bloody door, I've got bleeding sand in my knickers now" She shuffled her bum around to give him a graphic demonstration of the point she was making "Bloody stuff gets everywhere"
"Tell you what, you'd love Afghanistan"
"Stop being a clever bugger, and least it's bloody hot there, it's freezing ….. s'posed to be summer innit? Just look at them clouds, it's gonna piss down ….. not that I'm complainin' or nothin"
"Perish the thought" He put his head back and roared with laughter again at the expression on her face, she was doing her utmost to look and sound disgruntled as well as putting her arms round her body and hugging herself with all the beach towels draped over her for extra warmth "Can't think what's the matter with you, come on it's not cold, nice and warm in the sea, you should have come in for a swim"
"Can't swim, not a lot of need for it where I come from" She glared at him again, trying very hard not to give in and grin despite the way he'd winked and grinned at her "And anyway do I look bloody stupid? And don't answer that" She pretended to scowl and then gave in and smirked "Anyhow, you're lying to me, sunshine, I can see goose bumps popping up from 'ere, why don't you put your bloody woollie on before you get pneumonia? Numptie"
"Alright, I'll give you that one, the wind is perhaps a tad fresh"
He leaned across dripping more water on her as he plucked his hoodie from the damp sand on the other side of her before making her shriek and slap him as he tried to pull a towel off that she was clinging to and huddling under complaining that he needed it to dry his hair a bit before he pulled his sweater over it.
"Hey you, stop being bloody violent" He rubbed at the red mark on his chest where she'd just slapped him.
"FRESH? I'll give you bloody fresh, I'm going back to the room, gonna get the 'air dryer and blow-dry me nipples" She huffed as she looked down at her chest and scrambled to her feet "Get them back to normal"
"I like them like that"
"You can sod off"
-OG-
It was sod's law of course that the weather turned glorious the morning they were due to travel home. There was this lovely warm sunshine glinting off the blue sea out of a cloudless blue sky with a balmy breeze blowing gently in their faces as they went for a last walk around the headland, with the forecast of a mini-heatwave to follow just to rub salt into their wounds. The discussion about where they were going for their short break away had really centred on how much time Molly could blag off from work. Charles was on leave but she didn't have much holiday entitlement left, bearing in mind she also needed to keep enough time for the wedding and then for their honeymoon. Once upon a time, of course, she would have got Lauren to cover for her while she pulled a sickie which would have given them a lovely extra-long weekend away but those days had long gone.
Despite the weather, or maybe because of it, they'd had a lovely time. Skipping hotel breakfast to get up late, going out to eat brunch before spending most of the afternoon back in bed because it somehow didn't feel like a waste when it was so shite outside, in fact cuddling up to keep warm was an outstandingly good idea as far as Molly was concerned. Then they'd get themselves up in time to get tarted up and go and find somewhere to eat dinner, before coming back and going back to bed, a sort of practice run for their honeymoon.
They'd settled on the date for the wedding while they were still in Daisy's car half way down the A34 making their way home from Brize Norton. It would have been as soon as possible as far as Charles was concerned, the following week sounded perfect, but he didn't want to be selfish. He'd had the 'big day' and didn't want to deprive Molly of any of the stuff that went along with it, it was the first time for her and he could still remember how important all that shit had been to Rebecca, so that sometimes he'd wondered if it had actually been more important than their actual marriage. The discussions about dates and places had been frequently interrupted by Charles breaking off to shout at his mother to "watch the bloody road, will you?" and "for fuck sake be careful", whereupon she would turn her head away from watching the road to tick him off for his language.
In truth, Molly hadn't noticed up till then that Daisy was perhaps just a teeny bit reckless behind the wheel of a car, she certainly hadn't noticed on the way up to Brize that Daisy had this little tendency to drive like she was in a formula 1 race, or that she liked to over-take at every opportunity, but Charles was hanging onto the strap above the door as if his life depended on it. There was a look of complete horror on his face as he kept squeezing his eyes tight shut and holding his breath, then shaking his head in puzzled disbelief at his mother.
It was perhaps unfortunate that their weekend away didn't really constitute any bragging rights so that Molly wished she hadn't been quite so gobby about the holiday in the sun that they were going to have just as soon as he got back from Kenya. It felt a bit as if she was having to make excuses now when she kept on telling people that it was because of their wedding, although by 'people' she obviously meant bloody Lauren who had this 'believe that and you'll believe anything' sceptical smirk on her gob and did a lot of unattractive snorting whenever Molly said anything to anyone about it in front of her.
-OG-
Charles had still not told her much about what had gone on in Kenya. Although Molly knew him well enough now to know that it had been nothing like the straightforward mission he'd led her to believe it was going to be, but she also knew that it was probably better not to push, even though her bloody impatience meant she had to keep telling herself to put a sock in it and that he would tell her all about it in his own good time, hopefully. The only thing that he'd really talked about was meeting up with this old mate from his Sandhurst days, someone who'd been deeply involved in whatever had gone down in Kenya and who'd agreed to be his best man. He'd told her that they'd got up to all sorts in the past, but had then turned pretty vague about it, had just said that they'd been real rascals in their younger days but what they'd done exactly was probably best forgotten. They'd apparently lost touch over something a few years back, and she couldn't help this nasty niggling little suspicion that this mate of his had been best man when he'd married the ex and that was why he didn't want to talk about it, but Charles hadn't said and she didn't want to ask, in her heart of hearts she wasn't sure that she really wanted to know.
"Molly, this is Elvis, Elvis Harte, Elvis this is Molly"
"'ullo Elvis"
Of all the things she'd never expected to be saying to someone who'd just kissed her on her cheek, that had to be near the top of the list. Okay he wasn't bad looking, not a patch on Charles of course, well in Molly's eyes no-one was, but he wasn't fat or bloated or wearing something tight and white and covered in sequins, but that didn't stop the million stupid things that were swirling round her nut about her thinking he was dead or that no bugger would believe her if she told them Elvis was alive and well … and in the wine bar, or a load of other crap. She managed with difficulty to keep it zipped as she smiled sweetly at both of them, in her experience it was far better to say nothing at all when her head was all over the shop and when most of what she was thinking wasn't even remotely appropriate, and she'd never been much good at chatting about … well nothing … in these sorts of situations when she was actually shitting herself with nerves.
"You weren't kidding Charlie when you said she was gorgeous"
CHARLIE? He'd called him Charlie and that was definitely the first time she'd ever heard anyone call him that, even his mum had said she wasn't allowed and that she hadn't been allowed since he was about eleven and away at school and had started taking himself seriously. And as for all that stuff about 'Charlie' telling Elvis that she was gorgeous, well all that sounded more like he had a bit of bullshit on his chin than anything else to her.
"Nope, I told you, she's beautiful and she loves me and she's going to marry me, so keep your bloody eyes off"
"Would I?"
"Oi, you two I am 'ere you know … Charlie"
"Sorry …. And thanks for that mate"
There was just a slightly unusual hint of possessiveness in the way he put his arm round her and pulled her in closer to him that made Molly wonder just how much competitiveness there was in their friendship.
"Sorry mate" Elvis sniggered, mimicking the way Charles had called him mate and clearly demonstrating that he wasn't in the least bit sorry "You know who she reminds me of? She looks a lot like …. Well ….. a bit like Georgie doesn't she?"
"No, she doesn't, she looks like Molly"
"Okay, if you say so, now tell me, beautiful Molly, what's a gorgeous girl like you doing putting up with someone like him? And what on earth are you doing agreeing to marry him for fuck sake?"
"I think he already told you, I love him"
The smug look on Charles' face was reward enough for her as he raked his teeth over his bottom lip in a rare demonstration of self-satisfaction, before twitching his head as if to say 'told you so' and allowing a happily triumphant smirk to spread itself across his face.
In the event, the evening hadn't turned out to be nearly as bad as she'd feared, she'd thought it was going to be very long and very tedious, not to mention bloody awkward, but it was okay. He was definitely posh like Charlie, maybe hadn't got quite as many marbles in his gob, but near enough, and they obviously did go a long way back, even if the 'remember when ….' conversations seemed to have more no go areas than anything else. She couldn't have put her hand on her heart and said that she really liked him or nothing, she actually couldn't think of much to say to him. He seemed to her to be a bit on the cocky side, loved himself, but she didn't hate him, so that was okay, not that it would have made a bit of difference anyway because best man was Charles' choice not hers. There was a lot of drinking and a lot of all these sort of undercurrents bubbling away between the two blokes so that it was obvious to her that there was stuff that they didn't want to talk about, which made her decidedly curious, well alright, left her downright gagging to know.
-OG-
Belinda and Daisy had really, really hit it off so that they'd decided to both go with her, almost as if they didn't trust her to choose her frock on her own, and then Jade and Bella had decided that they had to be there as well, so that, in fact, the only one missing from the outing was Nan and that was because there were one or two of the big stores that Daisy had mentioned visiting that had made it plain in the past that they could well do without Nan's custom in the future and would really prefer it if she 'shopped' somewhere else. No-one wanted to be the one to mention any of that to Daisy.
By the time they got into Selfridges there had been so much argy-bargy that it was almost a full-on Dawes family war with people sulking and throwing strops and threatening to piss off and others muttering 'go on then, who cares'. Molly was not enjoying it. She'd set her heart on some sort of plain sleeveless type of silky shift dress, she still thought she looked horrible in anything big and flouncy and that girlie, girlie type stuff made her look like a lampshade after someone had sat on it and all the wedding dresses she tried on were no exception. The family tag team of so-called supporters, the bleeding bossy squad, kept on pulling frocks off of racks and persuading her to try them on, horrible white net meringues that did nothing for her at all and in the case of Bella and Jade, great big gypsy wedding hideous things that she could never imagine wearing in a million years but could well imagine Charlie pissing himself at the sight of her wearing one of them.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise to her when Daisy reminded her that their wedding day was probably going to be perishing bloody cold, it was what you'd normally expect at the beginning of December after all, but she'd had this picture in her nut of a sort of balmy spring-like sunny day. The sulky, stroppy boiling for a row atmosphere in their little party began to improve a bit when Daisy pointed out that if she bought something thin and silky she'd have nipples like organ stops in the photos which she'd hate in years to come when the kids and the grandkids looked at them to have a laugh.
"Tit tape" Bella grinned and nudged her big sister and then all three of the Dawes girls got the giggles as she considered it carefully for a moment "Long as you remember to take it off before lover boy sees you else he'll wonder what the fuck's 'appened, 'e'll fink you've gone all deformed"
"BELLA"
Belinda didn't know who to shoot her scandalised look at first, her daughter for her language, or at Daisy who wasn't family, then settled for Daisy as she tried to hustle her over to the rack again, shooting a look over her shoulder that sent the three of them into a fresh burst of giggles.
Molly compromised a tiny little bit in the end although not enough to please the 'ugly sisters' as she'd started calling them, by buying some little white furry bolero type thing that Daisy had gone on and on about her getting to wear over the top of the simple Pride and Prejudice knock off of an empire line frock. The frock did have a little bit of embroidery and some pearly bits on the bodice, but it had absolutely no frills or flounces and no gypsy bride would be seen dead in it.
-OG-
"Good day? Get what you wanted?"
"Is that s'posed to be funny?"
"Ahhh"
"It was alright I s'pose, I just hope I don't look a complete prannet in it"
"You, my darling will look beautiful in anything"
"Right answer" She giggled "ow did I know you was going to say that"
"I have no idea, ummmm, let me see now, it's called fishing for compliments"
"I hate you"
"I know, that's why you're going to marry me"
-OG-
He had the type of scowl on his face that she hadn't seen for months as he angrily tapped the face of his watch with one finger, then held his wrist up so that she could see what he was doing as she ran into the back of the church, horribly late but doing her bloody best to breathe rather than gasp as though she had a forty a day habit and was on her last knockings.
He was standing up the front next to Elvis, both of them togged out in their best fancy dress uniforms. His one had been hanging on the outside of the wardrobe door for the last few days, after nearly a week in the steam of the shower to make sure there wasn't a wrinkle or a crease in it anywhere and you could see your bloody face in his boots, well you could if you looked that closely of course. Neither of them had got a hair out of place and they were all clean shaven with not a bit of stubble between them so that they looked bloody immaculate, drawing attention to the way her hair was all over the shop and the way she'd got all hot and sweaty running because she was so late. She immediately jammed her arms down to her sides, scared shitless because she couldn't for the life of her remember putting any deodorant on her armpits, so that they might well stink of a mixture of BO and boiled onions like the bloke she'd stood next to on the tube earlier, and then realised she was a bit puzzled. She was no longer terribly sure why Charlie was wearing white gloves like a butler or come to think of it, why he was carrying a bloody great big sword or what he was even thinking of doing with it.
Everyone turned and tutted loudly as she started to run up the aisle to get to where he was but the annoying thing was that she didn't seem to be making that much progress. The aisle seemed to get longer and longer and he got further and further away so that she wanted to call out to him to please just hang on a tick, but then looked down and saw she had her scruffy old converse on her feet instead of white satin slippers she was supposed to be wearing, the ones that she now remembered she'd left on the tube. When she looked up again he'd vanished and it was totally the wrong bloke standing there waiting for her, a big smile plastered across his face and holding hands with Lauren who was smirking at her, so that she opened her gob to scream that she wasn't marrying him, Elvis, but no sound came out and then it was Charles' voice that was cutting through her panic.
"Molly, Molly, come on, wake up sweetheart, come on, wake up, it's a dream, you were dreaming"
"Fuck it ….. I'm sorry, can't do this"
-OG-