Standard Disclaimer applies. Just some oneshots when the inspiration strikes. Still thinking on Chapter two of TCSWardrobe. But it will come.

Enjoy.

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Let down your hair. [Rapunzel!lock]

"Why do you even stay there?" Molly Hooper suppressed a growl and whimper. It's been the seventh day. And however amused she might be in the first two days, she was getting exasperated. "Given that you are hiding various herbs and specimens inside that tower of yours. There is no way that you could've dragged such cadavers up there when you haven't even stepped out that window. Doesn't it stink inside there? Liver?"

The first day the strange man arrived in her tower's clearing, he took one look of the tower and called out impolitely to 'whoever resides inside that dingy tower to show himself'. When Molly showed herself with curiosity brimming within her, he scowled.

Molly had thought that finally this was the man who would save her.

She was utterly wrong. And she had never felt a greater urge to throw a liver at him. She considered herself a good shot, even heights above. "I believe sir you only come here to find someone to talk to. You sound sad, does no one want to talk to such a bright mind as you?"

No answer. She struck a nerve. "And you come here since I would have no choice but listen. Though I do love to hear your insight. I've been alone for so long."

She's been inside the tower for 25 years., a little window and every corner memorized. The only faces she knew were that of her captor and benefactor and caretaker and teacher. Captor: Sebastian Moran, taken her from home when she was six. Benefactor: James Moriarty, one who paid for her capture, for what she has no idea. Though he had said that they were betrothed. He often visited her. Caretaker: Irene Adler, when the former one died. And her teacher: Mike Stamford. He was gone, killed when she had bested him with his very work. Cutting up organs and concocting poisons.

"How did you come to those organs anyway?" He called out. She sighed. She wouldn't get any work done so she dropped everything and cleaned her hands. Dragging herself to the small window of her tower, she slumped and looked out, not down, not to him. All she will see would be a mop of dark hair and tall stature. What she held onto was his voice, so sure and deep and unwavering.

"Supplied to me."

"I thought you would be gone the first day. I did tell you there is a secret passage there." She felt her throat close up. "You're a strong woman, you could go anywhere."

"Except that I do not know anywhere."

"Nonsense. You have the means to leave." Her back ached in protest as she curled up by the window.

"I know." A whisper he didn't hear.

"Your captors?" She whimpered. She doubted he would hear. "I've deduced them all already. Your caretaker, even your suppliers. A woman and two men. The woman visits more frequent."

Silence. Molly was curled fatally now by the window, her fist stuck in her mouth to muffle her sobs. Her eyes closed as she tried to banish the image of Irene being beaten in front of her because she had tried to slip away from her watch. Irene was a considerate woman under her cold exterior and seeing her break in front of her wrecked her with guilt. Banishing Moriarty's words of warning if ever she tried again.

"Molly!?" She forced herself calm. "I disappointed you."

"No. You merely missed some things."

"There's always something."

"Some things, Sherlock." Her voice broke when she said his name.

"What?" She couldn't see but the man at the base of her tower was now looking up at her window, hands in fists. "What Molly!?"

Sherlock felt himself shaking. He wasn't daft. He knew who her captors are. The days before his arrival to the tower were of surveillance, he had followed through his immediate plan to use Molly as a bait and accessory in capturing Moriarty since she seemed to be one of his greatest assets. His goal was to determine the pattern of his visits or at least her caretaker's but none. Even Molly has no idea, or so she told.

That was a week ago. Each day he would come to the tower early in the morning waiting to know if Moriarty had made a visit. Each day he would ask. Each day this Molly would slip his guard and bare his emotions without even seeing his expressions. She who had successfully returned every insult of his into something rendering him speechless. She who he made cry yet still welcomes him the next day. She who had argues one moment and stuttered the next. She who was the strongest woman he has the grace of meeting.

Yes there was a secret passage. Yes, he had deduced every inch of her tower the first day. Yes, he had asked her the question why she stayed every single day. She would always say the same answer of where she would go if she did. And he would always tell her it was nonsense.

There was definitely something different today. Why only now did she point out that he missed some things? Why?

"Molly!" He shouted now battling himself to not tear the wall down and rush to her. Focus Sherlock. A whimper was all he heard. His control snapped. Picking up his sword he moved and demolished the secret entrance of the tower and rushed up the stairs.

He should have come up sooner.

There by the window was Molly, curled up and crying. Her arms were filled with bruises and her feet were shackled to a wall with length enough to roam the place. Long locks of hair were scattered on the floor, meters of them. There were patched of dried blood on the floor and some traces of dark hair/

He should've come up sooner.

"No. No. He'll hurt you too!" Molly. He snapped away from his deductions. "Leave. He'll know… I… I can't leave…"

He marched his way her and he was trying not to let the red on the edges of his gaze consume him. If there was anything he couldn't tolerate, it was hurting women. He remembered throwing some intruders to his home when they'd hurt Madam Hudson. No. Not Molly. He gathered her in his arms and checked for more injuries, any broken bones or the like. He should've brought John with him. He would've known the things he missed. The Doctor's virtues would have forced him to get up sooner.

"I can't leave." She was sobbing. Her mid back length hair unevenly cut.

"You will." He had never heard his very own voice shake and crack.

"I don't have anywhere." She was trying to pull away from him. He would never let her.

"You have me. You will have me. I'll do anything, but you couldn't and wouldn't stay here any longer." He was shaking. He couldn't take the shock in her eyes mingling with pain. Couldn't take that she was still denying this. Couldn't take that he was so desperate. That the strong woman he had deduced her to be was so right that he never deduced she was broken. "Molly!You will have me. You can and you will have me. For as long as you want and even then I will pester you for more."

"I can't. He'll hurt her! I cannot. He would kill Irene. She.. Oh lord she was kind to me… she."

"Then I will save her, but please let me take you away from here."

She did.

—-

He had punched a wall until his fist bled. He had paced outside the infirmary as John and Mary kicked him out for pacing inside while muttering what he would do to Moriarty. He had begged, yes begged, Mycroft to protect her in whatever means necessary and asked him to be ready to welcome a former criminal woman. He might not know but he had realized that his words to Molly were a vow. A promise he was determined to keep, spur of the moment it might be. He had asked freedom to kill Sebastian Moran and James Moriarty.

"Be thankful that I am asking." It was granted anyway.

Sherlock wasn't seen for two weeks after. He had staged his plan inside Molly's tower and waited for Moriarty's arrival there.

Another two weeks a blood soaked Sherlock returned with Irene Adler, bruised and worse for wear but alive. Molly Hooper welcomed them, tumbling away from John and Mary's side. The two women engulfed each other in a hug, relieved tears running down their cheeks and Sherlock saw Irene Adler's mask washed away.

He was too tired to catch on that Molly was already in front of him until she hugged him, blood and all.

He only felt he had succeeded by then. All his weariness faded and he slumped to her, wrapping his arms around her with a fierceness of a thirsty traveler. "It's done." He chanted to her ear.

"Thank you." She chanted back, tears making her eyes shine like gems. "Would you have me?"

He kissed her. "Forever as you have me."

FIN