Pippa's POV

I wandered back into the ICU and the nurse nodded at Charles's door so I went in.

"Speak of the devil!" Rebecca sighed turning to face me. "Might have known you'd show your face at some point!"

"Rebecca." I acknowledged her politely before slowly walking over towards Charles.

"What've you been doing? I got Sam from your parents who got him from the medic – who I know you lied about. Were you off having some angry forgiveness sex because he slept with yet another medic?"

"Yet another? There was one. And no, actually, I was arguing with him about how the army should treat the medics that saved your son's father's life! I believe it's only you that shags people by way of an apology for shagging someone else."

"That was two and a half years ago!"

"He slept with the medic over three years ago but you can't let go of that!"

"Ladies, ladies!" Charles sighed and I realised how insensitive I had been. "Rebecca, could you give us a moment?"

"Shall I take Sam?" she huffed getting up out of her seat in a stroppy manner. Charles shook his head and she marched out of the room.

"You look like shit!" Charles laughed looking at me. "You've still got all the Afghan shit in your hair and you fucking stink, when did you last have a shower?"

"Says he that is lying in a hospital bed with sixty million tubes coming out of him and also, is still covered in Afghan shit?" I laughed. "I had a shower the day you were shot so that was about a week ago. Not that bad!"

"How are you even here? Your tour ended a few days after ours…"

"I jumped on the plane with you and skipped decompression. They were taking us to Cyprus with your lot so I didn't miss much."

"How were you allowed?"

"I didn't ask, I just did."

"Shit, Pip! What if they discipline you?"

"Then they discipline me! I'll get disciplined for what happened in the Emergency Area anyway, what's one more."

"Fuck! What did you do?"

"Loads of shit that I shouldn't have."

"Tell me!"

"Fine! I followed the stretcher in and was helping out until the major came in and told me to step away because you were my brother but I didn't because you crashed and they were all junior medics because the main ones were still being paged so they all just stood there. So I started doing compressions and they were shouting at me to step away but I didn't until the doctors came by which time your heart was going again. So I stepped away like I was told but when you crashed again I went a bit mental and Geraint's brother kept saying it was his fault so I sort of shouted at him. Then they took you to theatre and I got pulled away by the Major and told I was in deep shit for disobeying a direct order but that I might have gotten away with it because I saved your life if I hadn't lost control and been unprofessional."

"So you'll get unprofessionalism?"

"Or Disobeying a direct order, or both."

"You are so fucking stupid!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes you fucking are because now with skipping decompression and going AWOL, you could lose your position!"

"I don't give a shit! As long as you're ok! I wasn't gonna go off on a fucking holiday to fucking Cyprus while you were fighting for your life!"

"You better hope they have some compassion."

"Liam said that."

"Thank you though, for being above and beyond as a sister." He smiled and squeezed my hand.

"You'd have done the same." I grinned and he nodded.

"What were you arguing with Liam about?"

"He was saying that Molly could get disciplined."

"What the fuck for?"

"She left Brize without permission and came up here when she should have gone to Barracks with them although I think they are all here anyway."

"Why did she fucking do that?"

"Why do you think?"

"Why do you women feel the need to break the rules all the time!?"

"Because we care about you!" I sighed. "Anyway, I told him that if he takes it to disciplinary then I would tell them that I told her she could do it and she trusted my authority as a Lieutenant."

"Then you would definitely lose your job!"

"But she wouldn't lose hers and let's face it, mines down the shitter anyway!"

"I don't like that expression!" A familiar voice said from behind and I turned round to see my mum and dad at the door. My mother looked at me disapprovingly. "I don't like what the army's done to you two."

"Well, it's the only place that we feel like we belong, Mum." I told her and she shook her head.

"Except I'm never going to serve again and she's thrown her career away trying to clean up my mess." Charles pointed out and my mother seemed a little pleased.

"So you won't be deployed again?" She beamed.

"Let's just focus on what's happening now!" My dad said putting his arm round my shoulders. "Sam said you'd had an argument with Liam."

"Well, there's nothing new there." My mum remarked and I couldn't help but agree.

"It seems like all we ever do is fight." I sighed.

"You know, if you want to leave him, we are 100% behind you!"

"Mum! You have to let them try!" Charles protested.

"He makes her miserable!" My mum retorted and he shook his head.

"I've seen first-hand how much he loves her."

"Well I've yet to witness it." My mum commented and sank into a chair pulling Sam onto her knee. "Who is the Molly Dawes girl? Your dad thought you'd mentioned her before."

"Molly?" Charles asked looking at me for help. "Molly is…"

"Molly is one of my friends, from the army." I lied. "She's a medic and I helped her out when she first came to Bastion because this one was knocking her confidence a bit."

"Totally justified because she turned out to be an excellent medic. Worked wonders with my blisters!"

"And she saved your life!"

"There is that." Charles laughed and my mum smiled.

"It was good of her to come and see you."

"Yeah." My dad laughed and winked as I caught his eye. I looked from Charles to my dad and back again realising that my mum and Sam were the only ones in the dark about Molly's true role in our lives. I leant against my dad's chest and he pulled me close into a loving embrace. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Liam put his head round the door. My mum folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips at him. My dad tapped my shoulder and I turned round to look at him.

"Hope you get on your feet again soon, Charles." Liam smiled, Charles nodded indifferently and my husband turned to me. "See you at Barracks, Philippa. I take it your mum and dad are taking you down."

"I already fucking told you I'm not going to fucking Barracks! I'll see you when I see you…hopefully never." I said trailing off at the end but he still heard. My mum looked at me and nodded and Liam scoffed angrily.

"Go fuck yourself." He mouthed and I laughed before giving him the middle finger as he stormed off.

"What was that?" My mum asked as I covered my face with my hands.

"He said 'Go fuck yourself'." Charles explained and she gasped. I undid the chain around my neck that had my rings on and tossed it in the bin.

"Not gonna need them anymore." I sighed and headed towards the door. "I'm getting some coffee, anyone want anything?"

"I'll come with you!" My dad said and I smiled gratefully. I had known deep down that my marriage would break down eventually because we couldn't agree on anything for love nor money but I did love him and I hadn't expected it to be so soon. My mum decided she would come too, I think she realised that I was upset. The three of us and Sam wandered to the café and sat down, I had a cappuccino in front of me that I barely touched, my mum went through three cups of tea, Sam had a fruit shoot but he didn't drink it – he was an observant child and seemed to know that I was upset so he sat with his arms around my waist and his head on my chest. My dad too didn't touch his drink he was trying to come up with something to say that would make it better but it didn't work. I was lost to the world.