It had been a couple weeks since Sherlock's five minute exile and subsequent return to England. And since the nationwide message seemingly from Moriarty, there had been very little activity or evidence to suggest he was alive or even that anyone else had taken his place. Sherlock had of course been looking out for any signs that things were not as they seemed. And he'd begun cataloging carefully in his mind all the possible explanations for this message heard round the country. The possibility that Moriarty was in fact alive, that he had planned ahead for this in the case of his death, that another criminal was using him as a disguise of identity. And about ten other less likely options as well.

So Sherlock was busy. He was once again a precious commodity in the eyes of England. They couldn't do without him, even for five minutes. And even though there wasn't an active case involving "Moriarty" at the moment, the whole country was biting their nails in nervous anticipation of the what-ifs. That meant that he was also back in the good graces of the police force. Lestrade was more than happy to begin including him on cases again almost immediately. Greg Lestrade had been horribly disappointed when he'd learned of Sherlock being sent away forever. He not only considered Sherlock a friend by now, but also was well aware that they couldn't function properly without him anymore. He wasn't even ashamed to admit it. So when he heard Sherlock was back in commission, he didn't miss a beat. He was keeping Sherlock busy with standard cases as well as the ongoing investigation involving the appearance of Moriarty's message. Sherlock was not at all bored.

Molly Hooper, on the other hand, was not so busy. Her life had slowed remarkably. She had now been the victim of a broken engagement for a couple months. This of course had freed her of lots of social activity and time sent with other people. Not just Tom, but also his friends. Some of which she had become close to during their relationship. There were a few other couples they saw regularly and Molly had enjoyed the company of the wives/girlfriends. They got along and she felt they would continue to be friends no matter what happened with her and Tom.

She had been wrong though. The couples they were friendly with had known Tom first, and so felt some sort of loyalty to him. So when they learned that Molly had broken the engagement, they one by one had informed her that they were so very sorry, but it wouldn't be appropriate to continue any association. She had lost friends as well as her fiancé. She had her job of course, and that kept her occupied forty hours a week, but other than that she had been terribly lonely.

On top of that, Molly was now mad. She was really mad. The day that Sherlock was to be sent away forever, she had come home to her apartment and found a small scrap of paper that had been pushed under the door. It simply said,

GOODBYE MOLLY. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.

~SHERLOCK

Upon seeing this she had panicked. This was a man who had not so long ago faked his own death by jumping from a hospital roof top. And then most recently had shot a man point blank. These facts didn't instill confidence in Molly that he wouldn't do something truly crazy. He already bordered on crazy as it was. She had also just witnessed the message apparently from Moriarty. All these things combined, she was pretty afraid that something had happened or was going to happen to Sherlock.

She had tried with no success to get ahold of someone who could tell her something helpful. She called Lestrade, John, Mrs. Hudson, and even Mycroft. None of them answered. And of course she tried to call Sherlock. He didn't answer. She sent texts which he didn't reply to. She had finally given up and figured there was nothing more she could do and she'd just have to wait and see what came of this.

The next day she had indeed gotten a couple calls back from those she had left messages for. John and Lestrade had both called and told her the same thing. Sherlock wasn't gone. He had been going away, but was back now. This still didn't give her a whole lot to go on. She had also gotten a text from the detective himself. And it said,

I AM FINE. YOU MAY DISREGARD MY NOTE. -SH

This had confused her as well. Why had he left the note in the first place? And suddenly she was to disregard it? She could see that things were apparently back to normal, whatever they had been before. She just wished she wasn't so very much in the dark. A few days later Sherlock had waltzed into the morgue again as if nothing out of the ordinary had every happened. He needed a couple experiments done. He acted as he always acts and spoke as he always spoke. Things were... normal. She could only conclude that she had somehow blown things up in her Molly mind and was making something out of nothing.

She didn't feel that way anymore about a week after though. John came in to analyze some samples and he was kind and politely chatty as usual. What he said absolutely horrified her.

"Nice to have Sherlock back eh?" he asked casually.

"Um, sure. Yeah...he wasn't gone for long though was he?"

"Well no. Matter of minutes really. Good thing for Moriarty, though I never thought I'd say that!"

"Oh, so he didn't go away because of the Moriarty thing?"

"Well yeah, he was allowed to come back because of it."

Molly began to feel there were a few things she didn't understand. And she had a feeling they weren't good. But there was no way she was going to miss this opportunity to get some real answers.

"So, I'm sorry, John, but what do you mean when you say...he was allowed to come back?"

John looked up from the microscope at Molly and recognized the look of confusion on her features. He started to look a bit uncomfortable as he realized what it was she didn't know.

"Well, I thought you would be aware Sherlock wasn't just going away. He was being sent away. Exiled really. Because of killing Magnison. He was put on assignment in Eastern Europe. It was undercover. He told me that it was for six months."

"Oh. So six months of exile. Well I guess that would explain the note..."

"Well actually," John continued. "It was just the job itself that was six months. But...Sherlock wasn't coming back. Not ever. "

Molly froze a little and then opened her mouth a couple times to try to respond. But she couldn't really. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. She stood there frowning a bit and processing this information. And all she could see in her mind's eye was the little scrap of paper with a scribble of Sherlock's writing on it. A tiny little scrap. That was it.

"Molly?" John said cautiously. "Did you know any of this?"

Molly tried to put on a casual expression and answer evenly. "Well, they weren't really covering his trial on the telly. So I'm sure most people didn't know he was being exiled." She felt her cheeks start to redden and tried to start cleaning up on the lab table.

John, being the kind and normal and un-Sherlock man that he was, stopped what he was doing and came over closer to Molly.

"But you're not most people, Molly," he said gently. "And I thought Sherlock would have told you. I mean, my God, there were times you knew things that I didn't! Big things! So, I only assumed he would have said goodbye." John place a hand on Molly's arm briefly.

"Well, he sort of did." She wondered why she would be defending him right then as she continued. "He did leave a little note under the door of my flat...it said goodbye. And thank you for everything."

John hung his head a little. He said nothing. And Molly knew full well that John was disappointed in his friend. Because when she uttered the words of the note aloud, it did sound just awful.

"Ah, Molly..." John began, but the words didn't form into a sentence.

"It's Sherlock. What can I expect, you know?" she said, trying to brush it off.

But the truth was, she was really upset by this. She knew full well that Sherlock had never had any romantic feelings for her. She had come to terms with that. It was alright. But the reason it was alright was because she had felt that he at least trusted, and respected her. And she was his friend. They were friends if nothing else. John was right. There had been things at times that he shared with nobody but her. Things involving life and death. She had thought that meant she mattered. He had TOLD her it meant she mattered.

John had clearly felt embarrassed about what he had disclosed and the fact that it was all new to Molly. He said he was sorry before leaving that day. Molly wasn't mad at him of course. It wasn't John's fault that his best friend was a miserable excuse for a friend and a man. This was about the description Molly was using for Sherlock in her head by the end of her shift that day. Along with some additional choice words. She had really reached her threshold of tolerance for Sherlock's disregard. It was putting her in a terribly bad mood.

And she wished that this hadn't happened only days before her mother and sister were expected for a two week visit.