They first meet at St. Bart's, she is introduced as the new pathologist and he is less than impressed. It was quite obvious with the way her pupils dilated and her breathing increased that she was attracted to him, on a physical aspect. He can't fathom how such a position in St. Bart's was given to a less than competent girl, but instead he disguises his disgust and he puts on a charming smile and introduces himself as Sherlock Holmes, world's only consulting detective.
He deletes their first meeting right after.
He doesn't remember Molly Hooper very much; just that he exploits her in any way possible so he can use the lab, finish the case, etc. But he remembers glimpses of smiles and shining eyes, so he deletes those memories too.
She is far too sentimental, Doctor Molly Hooper.
He truly starts to keep his memories of her when he is hit by her brilliance. He observes her doing her autopsy, while he is just using the lab for an experiment. She deduces a cause of death by just a glimpse of the insides – died from a brain aneurysm, from the observation of; a paralysis of one side of the face, drooping eyelid, abnormally narrow aorta, and cerebral arteriovenous malformation – and after she is finished she smiles at him and tells him that the fingers he wanted are at the freezer.
He reassess the file he has for her in his mind palace.
He spends the first two weeks of his death at Molly Hooper's. He underestimates her, he expects her to be those people who drink wine and read romance novels, that her fashion decisions are due to her quirky personality, that she has a weird sense of humour. But he is pleasantly surprised to be wrong about all those things. She drinks hard liquor and thinks that wine stains your teeth. Romance novels, she tells him, are fantasies for the younger folk. She wears such fashion atrocities because the morgue is too bland. She has a very dark morbid sense of humour, which is applauded to being exposed to dead bodies. She is stubborn, hardworking, and is quite scary when needed. Sherlock Holmes learns all of Molly Hooper and Molly Hooper learns all of Sherlock Holmes.
He does not erase any of these moments.
He misses 221B Baker St. He misses Mrs. Hudson's tea. He misses John's comforting presence. He misses Lestrade's shouting. He misses Molly Hooper and her kind smiles. And, dare he say it, he misses Mycroft's antagonizing existence.
It is these memories which keep him from falling apart.
He returns to London on a cold, dark day. He expects everything to be the same as he left them.
He is wrong.
A/N – this is actually just a mess, inspired by Flaignhan – Schoolgirl Crush & Full Circle
