He wasn't lying when he told her she did count; he'd just never realized it before, and that was half the reason why Moriarty didn't get it in the first place.
That was Moriarty's sole mistake, the one that proved to be the undoing of his carefully crafted plan. He wouldn't have managed to fake his death without her help, and that only meant he would have had to take his own life for real.
She mattered, always had in spite of the fact he hadn't been able to see it.
Even more so now that John had moved on with his life.
"You look sad," she murmured as they left the wedding reception. "You miss him, don't you?"
He stopped in the middle of the street, staring at her in surprise. Molly was by no means as smart as he was, but she did have a gift for empathizing with other human beings – a quality that he envied her sometimes.
"I'm okay," he replied, though he knew he wouldn't be able to fool her.
"You don't have to be alone. I'm not great company, but it's still better than nothing."
For a moment there he was about to tell her he was fine – didn't need her company, didn't need anything at all. That would have been a lie though, and lying was getting tiresome of late.
"Okay," he said eventually. She smiled that sad smile of hers, and led the way to her flat.
Later on they were half asleep on the sofa, pretending to watch a TV show neither of them really cared about. Her head was rested against his shoulder, and she was struggling to keep her eyes open.
"Thank you, Molly," he muttered under his breath, placing a small peck at the corner of her mouth.
Her eyes widened as she dragged in a shaky breath, then tilted her head to meet his lips.
The rational part of his mind told him to stop this silliness, but for once he just didn't listen. However, he instinctively pulled back when her fingers started to play with the collar of his shirt.
"This isn't – I'm not – I've never," he tried to explain, at loss for words for what was probably the first time in his life.
She looked him in the eyes for a silent moment, as if reading his mind. "I'll be gentle with you," she whispered at length.
This time, he didn't pull back.