Just a bit of fluff and sisterhood love! Been a bit down lately and bless my friends for lifting my spirits!
Big thanks to MizJoely for betaing this little story, though any mistakes you might find are all mine! Also needed a bit of Brit help from MrsMcrieff (I still don't understand the whole stone thing... means something completely different over here... LOL)
I own nothing. Enjoy! ~Lil~
Molly sat sipping hot cocoa and re-reading Issac Asimov's The Gods Themselves for the third time when she heard someone walking up the steps of 221B. She knew it wasn't Sherlock; he and John were busy chasing down yet another lead while she was safely ensconced in Baker Street. Besides, the footsteps were too slow and a bit too heavy. Molly felt well protected with multiple government agents stationed in various locations around the building.
The door to the flat opened up and a very pregnant and slightly wary looking Mary Watson walked in. "Hey Molls. How you holding up?" she asked.
Molly sat down her book and cup. "I'm good. Have you heard from John? Is everything okay?"
Mary deposited her bag and removed her heavy overcoat then took the seat next to Molly. "Yeah, yeah. Heard from him about three hours ago. They haven't found anything. Sherlock's driving my husband mad, but otherwise everything's fine."
She studied her friends face. After years of dealing with the one and only Sherlock Holmes, Molly thought she could read people pretty well. So she thought she could see a couple of things in Mary's expression: apprehension, fear and perhaps guilt? She's finally going to explain everything, Molly thought.
"Listen Molly, I don't have many friends- real friends," Mary started. "But you, Sherlock, Mrs. H..." She cleared her throat.
"Would you like something to drink?" Molly asked. She knew this was going to be difficult and as much as she wanted it out in the open, once and for all, she also wanted to make this as easy as possible for the former assassin.
"Yeah, if you don't mind. Water, please."
Molly went to the kitchen and got her friend a glass of water. "Here you go. Now what is it that you wanted to tell me?" she said taking her seat once again.
Mary took a large drink. "Well, it's just... having friends, I'm a bit rusty at it. But if it were me, if the situation were reversed, I'd want to know."
Molly nodded, fully aware of what was coming. It had been quite hard to take in; all the details of the Magnussen debacle, but Sherlock had explained everything and told her that both he and John had forgiven Mary for what she had done. She had been protecting her family, that much Molly could understand.
Mary seemed to be thinking for a moment. She was struggling, Molly could tell. So she decided to let her off the hook. "Mary, I know. It's okay. I figured it out, he didn't tell me." She tried to give Mary a reassuring smile.
Mary looked completely shocked. "You know?"
Molly nodded. "I asked him about it the first night I was here. He confirmed it. It's okay, Mary."
"And? Then what?" Mary asked, a bit aghast.
"Like I said, he confirmed it. We talked. I had questions, of course. Once he explained everything, I felt much better. Nothing has to change, Mary," Molly said taking her friend's hand.
Mary shook her head and looked around the room for a moment. "Wait! Maybe it's my hormones but why would nothing change? Now you know. You're living here, at least for the moment. I don't pretend to understand how your relationship with Sherlock Holmes works, I haven't been here for the majority of it, but now that you know he's in love with you... why wouldn't things change?" She gasped. "Unless you're not in love with him anymore?"
Molly stared at the blond woman in front of her and let go of her hand, not quite believing what she was hearing. "What in God's name are you talking about?"
Mary's eyes grew wider. "What were you talking about?"
"I... was talking about the fact that you shot Sherlock," Molly spit out.
"Oh," Mary said almost sheepishly.
"Yes, OH!"
"Figured that out, did you?" Mary said.
Molly suddenly stood up and paced across the room. "I'm not an idiot you know. I have spent the last five years working with the World's only consulting detective, I've picked up on some things."
Mary, with much effort, got up and joined the visibly shaken pathologist. "But you just said you weren't mad."
"No! I'm not. If Sherlock's forgiven you and John's forgiven you then I'm prepared to forgive you as well. And I'm not concerned with your past either, for the record." She took Mary by the shoulders. "But listen to me very closely. I went to great lengths to keep that man alive. Risked everything, both personally and professionally, to make sure he could live and protect the people he cared most about in this world. If anything should happen to him, I would be cross- more than cross. I'd be livid. I'm small, Mary but I'm wiry."
Mary smiled. "I would be more than cross should anything happen to Sherlock as well, Molly. Don't worry."
Molly dropped her hands and looked around the room. "Right, so... let's talk about the silly thing you said."
Mary cocked her head to the said. "It's not silly, Molly. It's the truth. I know for a fact."
The pathologist jerked her head up. "How would you know something like that?"
"He asked John and I for a favor before his exile."
"What sort of favor?"
"He asked us to not let you marry the wrong man. He asked me, personally, to gather information on anyone you were to date and contact Mycroft, have him run a background check. He was practically begging. I agreed on one condition." She paused. "I asked him to tell me why."
Molly looked at her friend with tears in her eyes. "What did he say?" she whispered.
"He said, 'because I won't be here to protect her, so I'm leaving her in your hands.'"
Molly swallowed and sighed knowing that didn't mean anything. He had always been overprotective, especially when it came to her boyfriends. He simply didn't trust her judgment.
"'And,'" Mary continued. "'Because I love her and she'll never know.'"
Molly stared at Mary for several moments, letting the words sink in. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't. "Like a friend, Mary. He loves me like he loves you and John. I've known that for a while," she said as a tear rolled down her cheek.
"No Molly. No. You're wrong." She moved closer taking Molly's hands in hers. "He loves you, just... love."
Molly shook her head. She didn't notice Mary pulling her mobile out of her pocket.
"What are you going to do?" Mary asked.
Molly finally looked Mary in the eyes once again. "What? Oh, ah... I don't know."
"You should think of something."
"Why?" Molly asked.
"The boys will be here soon," Mary said with a smirk, showing Molly the message on the screen.
Molly suddenly felt terrified. "What?"
"Here." She pulled her friend to the settee. "Sit. I'll make tea."
Molly sat there stunned. The night before Sherlock's exile started to replay her mind.
Molly was working late in the path lab when Sherlock came in followed by two agents. He spoke briefly with them and they went back out the door.
"Molly, may I speak with you for just a moment?" he asked.
"Of course." She stood up and walked over to him. She was a bit nervous, they hadn't seen much of each other since the infamous slaps.
"I, ah... I have to go away for... well I have to go," he said, taking off his gloves and tucking them in his pockets.
"Go as in..." she started.
"As in an assignment for Mycroft," he elaborated.
"Okay, I assume I'm not to know where."
His lips jerked up in the barest hint of a smile. "Afraid not."
"You'll be careful?"
"Always."
Molly nodded.
He stared at her. He suddenly looked older... worn. Something in his eyes told her she was truly saying goodbye to Sherlock Holmes. She started to cry.
He took her hand and smiled warmly at her. "Don't cry Molly. I was never worth crying over."
"You were to me."
After a moment he said,"Your heart's too big... and mine's too small." Then wiped away her tears.
She didn't quite know how to respond to that, so she just smiled.
He looked at her with those intense blue eyes, he seemed to be taking in even inch of her. Then he leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth. "Molly." He breathed her name more than spoke it. "Be happy."
And with that he turned and left. She stood wondering what on earth had just happened. Why was he going away? Where? Would she ever see him again? Why had he looked at her with such... regret?
Molly was pulled from her memories when Mary put a warm cup of tea in her hands. "Here ya go, this will help."
Molly sipped the hot liquid, not really tasting it as she stared at the cold fireplace. "Mary?" she asked as she turned to her friend who had taken the seat next to her. Mary had her tea in one hand other resting on her large belly.
"Yeah hun?"
"Are you sure- I mean are you sure that's what he meant?"
Mary smiled. "I wouldn't have said a thing if I wasn't."
Molly nodded and then she thought of something. "What made you decide to tell me?"
"Oh yes," she said putting her tea on the coffee table. "Well, I got tired of seeing Sherlock so miserable. You living here only made it worse. He was bad before all of this, but since his exile..."
"You knew before he told you?"
"He was pretty obvious, poor sap."
Molly looked at Mary as if she'd lost her mind.
"Frankly I figured it out before I'd met him."
"What?"
"Oh, come on! John told me about the Christmas party. 'Miss Hooper has luuuve on her mind.' Jealous git! And what 'married to his work, self proclaimed sociopath' talks about a woman's breasts and lips at such great lengths? One particular woman, no less!" She picked up her tea and took another sip. "Then he comes back, tells me and John that you, his brother and his merry band of tramps are the only ones who knew he faked his death. His brother: necessary, the homeless network: necessary... you? Don't you think Mycroft 'the Government' Holmes could've acquired a corpse and someone to sign a death certificate?"
Molly blinked repeatedly.
"Then there's his reaction to meeting Tom; he practically eye fucks you, then looks at the future Mr. Hooper and turned a lovely shade of green." Another sip. "The wedding was lots of fun too. When he wasn't solving crimes or giving the loveliest and simultaneously most horrific best man's speech in the history of matrimony, he was watching your every move. Flirting with Janine was quite frankly, tragically sad."
Molly blinked some more.
"The drugs test was also a dead giveaway. High, but not high enough to allow a five foot five, eight and a half stone woman slap him the shite out of him. He knew he deserved it. He let you down. Of course he couldn't get through the incident without mentioning your break-up. Though elated, it came out as an insult. He's still an arse, whatcha gonna do? Then there's the broadcast. The look on his face when he got back to the car and started firing off orders... he was terrified that something had happened to you." She paused and gave her friend an appraising look. "You were his first thought, Molly."
Just then the door to the flat opened up and John Watson walked in. "Well that was, once again, completely pointless," he said making his way to his very pregnant wife.
Seconds behind him Sherlock strode through. "Ridiculous! This is getting old. I need something sol..." he was cut off by Molly Hooper's lips. He didn't hesitate though. He gripped her hips tightly as she wrapped her arms around his neck and snogged the breath out of him.
John looked from the scene in front of him back to his wife. "You finally told her then?"
She smiled brightly, bit her lip and nodded.
"Well let's go. No need to stick around for the rest of the show," he said as he helped her gather her things. When they got to the door he looked back to the pair for a moment. "They're gonna have to breathe at some point."
Mary giggled as she waddled out of the room, feeling very proud of herself.
Let me know what you think, reviews make me smile! Thanks for reading! ~Lil~