Hello, I don't own anything except this idea I came up with.

I don't own the show, and I certainly don't own the characters.

Needing a break from her paperwork, Molly got up and stretched her stiff muscles then walked away to get a refill of coffee. As she stood awaiting the coffee to finish brewing, she remarked on how such a simple act led her thoughts to drift towards a certain consulting detective. Maybe it was because she was always quick to give him coffee whenever he came in, truthfully she easily let him have anything he wanted from her, but she knew the real reason was that she could not, in fact, ever stop thinking about him. That served to both hurt and heal her constantly bruised heart.

After everything that happened he had become much more friendly. She took joy in discovering that not only did she count and he trusted her, but he now regarded her as an actual friend. Of course she still wanted to be more to him and she chided herself for being greedy. She knew when it came to Sherlock, friends were just about the closest things he had, he didn't do any form of romantic entanglements and she was no exception no matter how much she wanted to be.

Although she never told him of her feelings, she was pretty sure he already knew, even if he never mentioned them. At times she imagined what would transpire should she actually outright tell him, usually it ended with her having a broken heart and dashed hopes. She knew that would be the reality, but sometimes she let her fantasies go crazy and allowed herself the happiness that came from imagining him returning those feelings.

She sighed when brought out of her thoughts and poured the freshly made steaming coffee into her cup and started back toward the lab to finish her paperwork. Her mind was still on the subject of Sherlock as she reached her desk, she knew she needed to stop thinking of him and return her focus to the work in front of her. Instead, to her frustration, she couldn't put him out of her head and it was running wild with thoughts of him that she couldn't rein in. Somehow they managed to shift toward memories of the past and zeroed in on those precious months that helped shape their change in dynamic.

For nearly six months after the fall he resided with her until going off on his own. During that time they had grown closer, so much so that he actually exposed his more vulnerable side to her. She knew it was due to the loss of his whole world outside of just her - well his brother Mycroft remained too, though he refused to acknowledge him for the most part- that caused him to seek comfort from her.

As easily as she provided him with everything else, she did the same at that time by giving him what comfort she could and tried to shield him from his pain. Of course he would never admit to it and she was never to speak of it, but it was a secret she shared with him and one she held dear.

During his stay, she came to know him much more than she had ever imagined she would, both the bad and the good. Let it be said that she no longer looked at Sherlock Holmes through rose colored glasses. She had seen all of what makes him uniquely him and at times it was maddening, especially when he got bored, and then when he began doing things to keep himself occupied.

Various experiments were done, she still had burns on many of the surfaces in her flat to prove it. He often demanded things from her like sneaking him body parts, which she was hardly ever able to do with the investigation of her work that came as a repercussion of working with Sherlock Holmes.

Luckily she kept her job, but that meant that those times she took home paperwork he would usually look it over, judge her work, and sometimes stumble upon things she missed or overlooked. Occasionally it turned out that the cause of death was not natural and he would get a special kind of glee from uncovering a murder.

Suspicions were definitely raised, especially from Lestrade, when she started suggesting some of her patients had actually been victims of murder. Sure she had often been able to find things like that out by herself, she was after all a noted pathologist, but with Sherlock's help, there was a lot more details and evidence.

It got increasingly worse, to the point that he took to disguising himself and came into the lab to look at the bodies himself. Then went about investigating the crime to later report his finding to her. This he did all in his spare time when not fulfilled by his other eccentric activities or when not looking for ways to destroy Moriarty's network.

This eventually led to him solving most of the cases, others would be left to be dealt with by the police. The only problem was he couldn't do anything about it when he solved a crime since, technically, he was dead. So he ended up making her reveal that knowledge to the police, usually to Lestrade because Sherlock believed everyone else relatively incompetent and thought they would not go on her word anyway, but knew Lestrade would. He was right, of course, many of the others she tried tended to scoff at her assumptions, which were actually Sherlock's but she couldn't tell them that.

So she ended up doing a lot more work with Greg, as well as John - who immediately took to the thrill of cases once again, even if it wasn't exactly the same without Sherlock - so much so that Greg, John, and her became close friends. It may have also had something to do with the fact that they were all tied together through Sherlock and had needed comfort after his demise, so jumped at the chance of all working together on the cases Molly would conveniently bring up.

John had also become suspicious of her sudden increase in crime solving abilities, but didn't do much other than make some comments on it, mostly remarking on how Sherlock really had made a big difference in all of their lives and changed everyone he knew. He had no idea how right that statement was and just how different her life had become, or just how much she had been changed because of Sherlock. Her whole world had changed again when he left on his own, and shifted once more when, about two years after he jumped off that rooftop, he returned and revealed his continued existed to the world.

She wasn't given the exact details, but Sherlock had went in depth about uncovering Richard Brooks as a fake and was able to convince everyone of his innocence as well as restore his credibility. Besides that, she was unclear about the rest of the evidence he had gathered that proved the rest of it, but she wasn't one of those that needed to be convinced, she had known the truth about him all along.

Her musing of the past events revolving around Sherlock were broken when the man himself came through the doors with his platonic life partner following along. She could immediately feel the rush that came from just seeing him and hoped to God he hadn't noticed her daydreaming about him or the look on her face as she was. She tried her best not to blush and to instead give a nice welcoming smile. Surprisingly, the corner of his lips upturned in a small smile as well while he glided toward her.

Her eyes fluttered and face faltered as he came to a stop right in front of her only to look down at her.

Why had he come so close?

Her mind wondered as he took to looking her over and analyzing her.

No pen in hand, discarded on the desk - meaning not currently working on the paperwork in front of her; and, judging from the start she gave when we entered, was distracted by something else on her mind -is holding a coffee mug instead. Fresh coffee, still hot. Leaning back in chair, trying to be comfortable, back hurts again probably.

She shifted a bit in her chair as his intense gaze swept over her. Realizing he was just standing there staring at her, she immediately thought she should talk to him, he must want something.

Had a body come in?

She was sure she would have known if one had, but she had finished up the last autopsy already and had to settle for paperwork. Maybe it was one of the already finished bodies he wanted to look at. A possible murder, otherwise John wouldn't have come along, he didn't like to hang around much for Sherlock's experiments.

He talked first, probably because she hadn't said anything as he came in or as she allowed him to just stand and stare at her.

"Hello Molly, trying to relax after working on your paperwork for so long?" Although it came out as a question she knew he already had the answer, she responded anyway.

"Hello Sherlock. Yes, just took a short break is all."

"Needed more coffee to keep you going for the long shift you've been on. Ran out of corpses that needed autopsies done on, now forced to do the paperwork for the ones you did. Leaning over for prolonged period of time causing the ache in your back and stiffness in your neck and shoulders, as well as that pinch in your forehead you get when you are in pain."

Damn he was brilliant and got it spot on. She had been thinking about taking a pain reliever with her coffee, but thought against it since she needed to eat still and taking medication on an empty stomach was not such a good idea.

Which upon thinking about those things, Sherlock, as if he could read her mind, deciphered it.

"Why have you not taken something to get rid of the pain? Ah, haven't eaten yet, wouldn't risk it on an empty stomach. Oh and you were distracted by something else, but not about your work. Daydreaming during your breaks again, hmm Molly?"

A sly grin spread across his face as he gauged her reaction.

Now embarrassed being caught daydreaming by the subject of those very same dreams, Molly couldn't fight the slight blush that crept over her face.

"I , um, yes. Well, I mean that I was going to take a pain reliever, but I need to get some food in me first. Which is what I think I should go do, yes I think I will just go do that then."

As she started to stand up, he placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her from doing so. Her eyes widened, he didn't often touch her so it was always a surprise when he did. After he removed his hand, her face took on an inquisitive look.

"We can get you food later." He waved off her still questioning look.

"Okay, so what do you need?" It was obvious that he required something from her, why else would he not let her leave.

"I need you."

It was the same question and answer they seemed to use a lot more, it was almost like a secret joke between the two of them, except it never held a joking tone only a serious one. She nodded at him as her acceptance of it.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw John leaning on the side of one of the lab tables - the one Sherlock used whenever he needed it - his arms were folded across his chest. He had been watching them talking, and after hearing the conversations direction he became more alert and listened closer. At the moment, Molly could see John eyeing Sherlock uneasily with a suspicious look as if he believed him to be up to something, but unsure of just what it was.

Drawing her attention back to the man still unusually close to her, she continued down along the path with the familiar dialogue.

"What do you need from me?"

John continued to watch the conversation unfold in front of him. He stood off to the side waiting, not knowing what the plan was, Sherlock had neglected to tell him, or maybe it was on purpose. Then a thought dawned on him.

Oh no, he's not going to- the thought was interrupted as his hunch was confirmed. It was too late, Sherlock was already saying the words that John had hoped to stop him from.

Sherlock, not realizing the damage that would be done, or what repercussions it would have, responded to Molly's question with these words.

"I need you to marry me Molly."

Behind him, he heard John mutter a swear.

It was a statement more than a question, but the significance of what he said still struck her and words seemed to fail her. To her credit, she tried desperately to form a sentence, only to end up fumbling her words.

"M-marry… you-you … me?"

Her voice squeaked at the end of her question, not believing he would ever want her, especially her. Why her? Why here and now? Was he in love with her? When would that have happened and why wouldn't she have noticed before if he was? Questions seemed to race in her mind, at the same time her mind felt muddled and unable to comprehend what was happening, what she believed couldn't possibly be happening.

In Sherlock fashion, he didn't understand the true implications of the words he had spoken, but recognized her confusion on the matter and took to talking to her as if she were a small child that he was trying to make understand.

"Yes Molly, that is what I just said, you marry me, do you understand?"

At which point she was rendered entirely speechless, couldn't quite process what she was hearing. She looked as if she were in shock while confusion still swam in her eyes.

Confused by her lack of understanding such a simple thing, he looked back at John for guidance only to see him covering his face with his hand and slightly shaking his head, a sign that something he had done would be considered not good, but he didn't know what.

This is me trying my hand at writing fan fiction so if you liked it and think I should continue, please let me know. Any feedback is welcome. I tried to keep true to the characters and hope that came across. I do plan to continue this, it doesn't end there in my head, in fact that is not even where everything started. I have a lot planned for this that I am hoping everyone likes.