The wind cut through Molly's coat, she was glad that she had decided to change into scrubs at work. They never provided much protection during the colder months. She was grateful that the wind provided some distraction from her thoughts. She couldn't get Jim out of her head. After their autopsy last month, she thought he would show up again but she never heard from him. They had gone back to her apartment and ordered take out. She managed to resist the urge to do much else, but they still had kissed for a long time. She blushed a little thinking about it. She didn't even know why she thought about it as "their" autopsy. It was really just a regular autopsy. Besides it hadn't even been signed out yet. Histology was short staffed as usual and was taking their time getting the slides out. She almost regretted telling him that he shouldn't pressure them. But every time she thought about it she felt guilty. She hadn't even told Sherlock or John what had happened. A part of her felt that they wouldn't understand and after all she had let him follow her home. She tried to push the thoughts out of her head as she opened the door to her office. It didn't matter anyway she thought. Jim hadn't contacted her since that night.

As she opened the door, she gasped a little. There was a bouquet of vibrant tulips on her desk. She checked for a note, but couldn't find one. Maybe they were from Sherlock, she found herself hoping. The alternative wasn't very pleasant to think about. She started straightening up her papers and went to check her mailbox. To her surprise the slides from their case were ready. She gathered everything up and brought it back to her office. She started opening the slide trays when a note fell out of the second one. Her stomach dropped as she picked it up, instantly recognizing the elaborate cursive on the front of the envelope, "To my dearest Molly" it read. She knew it was from Jim. A part of her felt like she should just throw it away, but something deep inside her pushed her to open it.

What's the harm in reading it? She opened the note hesitantly and began reading it slowly, "Dearest Molly, I hope you don't mind but I noticed histology was being awfully slow in getting these out to you. I promise I didn't threaten them too much. I'm looking forward to reading your report. xx JM." More guilt washed over Molly; maybe she shouldn't have wished that histology was faster and that Jim would threaten them. She immediately called down to histology, hoping that everything was okay. Nothing seemed amiss over the phone, but she would pay more careful attention the next time she was talking to them.

"Well I guess I should start looking at the case," Molly thought out loud. She started organizing the slides based on organ systems. Her personal goal was to get through at least the first tray. She wanted to save the renal tumor for when she was feeling more rested and less frazzled. The lungs didn't show much, a small bit of pneumonia, but what she expected for someone recently hospitalized. The findings in the heart were also what she suspected. That's exactly how Molly liked her cases, without surprises. In fact, now that she was thinking about it that's how she liked most things. Maybe that's what she found so enticing about Jim. He was always full of surprises. She glanced over at the flowers wondering what he had in store. How had he even known that she hadn't gotten the slides yet? She hoped he wasn't watching her. The rest of her day went as she had expected. No new autopsies and just the usual cases to look through- some biopsies and resections. Thankfully nothing had to get immunostains or follow-up on so she could spend the rest of the night thinking about the events with Jim and their case.

When Molly got home she poured herself a large glass of wine. She had a chocolate pie in the fridge, but decided to eat a more sensible dinner. She wasn't going to let Jim's antics completely ruin her evening or appetite. She settled into her couch with Toby curled up next to her and turned on her TV. Nothing was on that interested her, but she wanted the background noise to distract her from her conflicting feelings of guilt, excitement, and eager anticipation. She hoped that she wouldn't run into Jim again. She could handle the notes from afar, but she couldn't trust herself around him. It was only a matter of time before she gave into her inner desire. Molly sipped the last drops of wine from her glass when she heard it. Some sort of noise was coming from her bedroom. Toby was already up and in a corner so she knew it was real. Glancing around she saw her copy of Rosai opened on the table. She grabbed the first volume hoping it was heavy enough to knock out whoever was in her bedroom. Her heart was beating so fast that she couldn't tell if her exhilaration was from the adrenaline or the glass of wine. Either way she planned on using it to her advantage as she quickly opened the door.

The cold air hit her like a wall as Molly's eyes adjusted to the darkness. At first nothing seemed out of place. She turned on the light to find that her bedroom window was open. She threw open the closet door but there wasn't anything hiding. As she began to close her window making sure the lock was secure, she saw out of the corner of her eye a piece of paper on her bed. Her hands shook as she unfolded it, "Tsk tsk Molls, getting a bit lazy with your reports. I was expecting you to finish it quickly, especially with all the trouble I went to for the slides. Don't disappoint me tomorrow. –JM." He must be watching me she thought or maybe he hacked into my computer and was waiting for the report to be signed out. She decided to try and sleep so she could wake up early and concentrate on getting the autopsy finished tomorrow. Her rest was fitful and images of Jim filled her dreams.

The blaring of her alarm filled the room. Molly groaned as she woke up from yet another nightmare. It was still dark outside but she knew she had to get to work. She didn't know what Jim had planned for her if she didn't finish the report but she definitely did not want to find out. Groping through the darkness for the alarm she hit Toby and he mewed. "Sorry Toby, I'll try to get home early tonight." Molly got dressed quickly and skipped breakfast opting for a granola bar to take to work. She walked swiftly to work and found herself alone in the morgue. Her least favorite part of coming to work early was how dead everything felt. She fumbled with her keys in the dark hallway and opened up her door to find a fresh steaming cup of coffee on her desk. "Hello?" Molly called out to the emptiness. No one responded and she breathed a sigh of relief.

After coming up with numerous semi-plausible scenarios for how a fresh cup of coffee could get on her desk this early, she breathed a sigh of relief that there hadn't been any other surprises in the morgue. She fished out the second tray of slides from her stack of pending cases and began looking through the rest of the organs. The cup of coffee was almost finished when she reached the ones she had taken of the kidney. Sliding the cool glass across the microscope stage she anticipated what she would see. The clear cells with varied nuclei reassured her that her initial suspicion had been correct. Molly clicked through the objectives to get to a higher power and began adjusting the focus. Suddenly she felt a hand brush over hers.

Molly began to let out a scream when she felt a second hand over her mouth. She pulled her eyes away from the eyepieces to see Jim standing behind her grinning mischievously. "Did you like my notes, dear?" he said in a sing-songy tone. "No and I wish you wouldn't scare me like that," Molly lied hoping he wouldn't notice. She felt her chair rotate until she was face to face with Jim. He put his hands on either side of her resting them on her desk. She glanced towards her closed office door as the sinking sensation that she was trapped set in. His face drew closer to her as she felt his breath against her ear, "Don't lie to me Molly. I know you liked the notes. I saw how many times you read them. You should know better than to lie to me. After all I can get into your apartment and who knows what I'm capable of."

Molly's heart began beating faster as she tried to think of ways to get out of this situation without betraying her true feelings towards him. "When are you going to finish this report Molly? I went through all that trouble getting the slides to you. I thought you would appreciate my gift," Jim continued shifting his weight so that his knee was resting on the chair next to her thighs. "Well- I was working on it when you so rudely interrupted. I really was trying to finish it, but the notes made me flustered and I couldn't focus," Molly said exasperatingly fidgeting with her scrubs as she hoped that her partial honesty would at least get Jim to move. Her plan failed miserably as he moved his face so that he was looking directly into her eyes. He didn't say anything for what seemed like 20 minutes as she fidgeted more in the chair hoping to get back to the case and get rid of any excuse to see him. The anticipation of what he was thinking made her more anxious. Her breath grew quicker as the realization set in that Jim wasn't going anywhere.

Suddenly she felt his lips against hers. He was much rougher than the last time as one of his hands moved behind her head the other shifting to pin her further into the chair. Molly could feel her desire welling up inside. She couldn't help herself this time. She had tried feigning innocence and indifference towards him, but this was too much. Jim's unbridled passion towards her pushed her over the edge. Her hands moved up instinctively into his hair pulling him closer. She began kissing him back while nibbling softly on his lips. Jim grunted in surprise, breaking away from her. "Now now Molls, let's not get carried away. You still have work to do," he said standing up while adjusting his navy blue suit.

Molly felt her face grow hot with embarrassment. She immediately regretted how she had reciprocated his advances. Jim sensing the regret flashed a smile that instantly melted her heart, "Sorry dear, why don't you show me what you were looking at before I bothered you?" Molly pulled up another chair for him across from her scope so he could look through the extra head. She pointed out the clear cells and moved on to the next slide of the white area they had seen in the autopsy. The atypical large spindled cells confirmed her previous suspicion of sarcomatoid areas. She glanced over the opposite of her scope to gauge Jim's interest. He caught her eyes and flashed her another smile, "Very interesting, Molly. I can't believe you can guess all of that from just looking at the organ. Sherlock is very wrong about you. You are observant, just of different things." Molly felt grateful that Jim was trying to cheer her up, but couldn't help feeling that he was overdoing it a little.

"Really, Jim you don't have to stay and look at the rest of these slides with me," she softly said pulling out bladder and prostate slides. "Fine, but remember that I'm watching you. I worked for IT in this hospital and don't think for one second that I can't worm my way into the pathology records. I'll be waiting for your report to be signed out today," Jim stated firmly. Molly tried to maintain her composure without looking up at him. "Unless of course you want me to punish you," he smirked. "N-no. I'm going to finish it today," Molly stuttered as Jim slinked out of her office.

For the first few minutes, she sat in shock trying to comprehend what had just happened. Did she really give into him? Did she really show him slides? Not even Sherlock seemed terribly interested by the histology aspect of the cases. She had to admit it did make her feel more desired. The idea of telling Sherlock crossed her mind, but she quickly extinguished any of those thoughts. No, she would simply finish the report. Then Jim wouldn't have any reason to contact her again she hoped. A part of her wondered what he would do if she didn't finish it by the end of the day, but she knew better than to entertain those thoughts. "Enough," she said to herself, "Focus, Molly. Focus."

The rest of the report was easy to write. She was pleased with herself that she had at least written part of it the day before. The hard part was writing the clinicopathologic correlation, but at this point in her career she had a bunch of templates squirreled away. She mindlessly copy and pasted the one she had saved for MI (heart attack) related complications. Molly stretched in her chair as she began to proofread the report. When she got to the template portion, she noticed something was strange about it. Molly's stomach dropped as she saw it. There it was in the middle of her template, "Good girl, I knew you would get it done quickly with the right motivation. Looking forward to reading over it with you later." She quickly deleted it from the report before signing it out. She slouched in her chair massaging her temples trying to relax. A few minutes later her pager went off. It was too early for a clinician to be paging her. She knew who it was without even pulling the pager out. A text page read "Did you like my little message? Very impressed with your turn around time. xx JM." There was no doubting it. Jim was not done with her yet.

The rest of her day went by quickly. She stopped by the store before heading home. There would be no excuses for avoiding making dinner. She stumbled into her flat and fumbled with the lock in the darkness. She flicked on the lights and dropped her groceries in shock. Jim dressed smartly in his navy suit from the morning was lounging on her sofa. "It took you long enough to get home. I thought you would have been back at least an hour ago," he said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "Well I wasn't aware that I should be expecting company," Molly replied feeling a bit more confident in herself.

Jim got up quickly from the couch and sauntered towards her kicking the grocery bags to the side. Without even letting her think, she felt him pressing her against the door. His face was millimeters from hers. She could almost taste his breath. "Well Molly now is your chance, if you don't want me here scream. Or better yet call your precious Sherlock for help," he whispered while kissing her face softly. She could feel her breath grow quicker as she kissed him. His lips tasted sweet and his breath tasted minty. She felt herself melting into him as she felt his tongue slip into her mouth. Molly could feel his hand under her shirt stroking her back so close to her bra band. She started to unbutton his shirt caressing his chest. Slowly he moved his hand to cup her breast. She moaned slightly and Jim broke away from her. Still keeping his face close to hers, "So you've accepted your feelings then, Molly?" She nodded breathlessly. "Good because I plan on visiting you later this week," he said as he unlocked the door behind her and slipped out into the night. Molly collapsed on the floor with her back against the door drowning in her emotions. She knew she couldn't hide her feelings from him anymore, but didn't know what she was going to do about his hatred of Sherlock. She sat against the door for what seemed like an hour finally coming to the conclusion that she would simply separate those parts of her life. Sherlock and Jim would have to exist in different parts of her life. It would be easy. After all that's what she did everyday with work and personal life. Molly had become quite adept at compartmentalizing parts of her life from others.