Despite being so timid and shy, so awkward and unsure; Molly Hooper was fearless.
She couldn't bring herself to ask Sherlock Holmes out for coffee without practising the question seventeen times aloud in the ladies toilet. She couldn't look him in the eye without blushing and she couldn't bring herself to refuse him when he flirted and charmed her into giving him what he wanted.
That's what people saw. They noticed the way that she blurted out whatever was in her head and how she went to extraordinary lengths to get Sherlock to notice her and they saw how she couldn't stammer out a retort to combat his biting remarks.
What people didn't see however, what they overlooked; was all the other things she did. They somehow didn't realise that after finding out her boyfriend was a) a mass murdering criminal and b) only dating her to get to Sherlock, she didn't fall apart or cry, or even need to sleep with the light on. They somehow forgot that when Sherlock crossed the line even more than usual, she scolded him in front of everyone and called him out for being such a five-star dickhead. People, in their haze of seeing but not observing, also failed to see how she never changed the way she dressed in spite of all Sherlock's taunting. Unlike the famous Irene Adler who became whatever other people wanted her to be for them, Molly Hooper refused to change who she was just because a man told her she was flawed.
People could call her a mouse if they wanted to. They could tell her she was annoying and bland and dull if that's what they thought but that didn't mean she had to listen.
"It's doctor." She signed the form that the new guy in IT held out to her after he had finished replacing her hard drive.
"I'm sorry?" His dark eyes looked confused as he took the pen back and placed it behind his ear.
"You said 'Miss Hooper'" Molly clarified. "I have a medical degree and the work I do is just as important as any usual MD so, it's Doctor Hooper. If you don't mind."
He stared at her for a while. The corners of his mouth twitched up in a smirk before he took a step forward.
"How about you let me buy you a coffee and you can tell me all about that medical degree, Doctor Hooper?"
See; even the consultant criminal nearly overlooked the spark that people stubbornly maintained she didn't have.
It took courage to tell Sherlock about her father. His death still pained her and whilst she knew the story might help him seek the help she suspected he needed, it was still hard to open an old wound up to potential ridicule from a man who may not understand its significance.
It took courage to face Sherlock every day, to keep going back to the person that had burned her again and again, perhaps not intentionally, but still viciously.
So Molly Hooper waited and watched, ignoring the condescending remarks that were flicked her way, knowing that one day, when it counted; someone would see that she was fearless.
"You've always counted and I've always trusted you."
The words were spoken lowly, like a secret being shared. The empathetic doctor inside her could feel the pain and trepidation in his voice and she wanted nothing more than to soothe the hurt.
Like the fearless, compassionate, kind woman she was, she didn't hesitate.
"What do you need?"
I felt really bad about how insane I made Molly seem in my last story, so this was just something to even it out. She is after all, both fearless and invisible, and I love how she doesn't let Sherlock crush her completely.
Ta for reading,
Nixon.x
