A/N: I know Mary Morstan hasn't appeard yet, but I already ship them. And good news for the Sherlock/John shippers in my version they are not going to get married, yet, but don't worry it won't be too fluffy, I hope.

||H o p e F o r T h e H o p e l e s s||

John Watson was arguing with the unmanned checkout machine at the supermarket again, or maybe not arguing; John wasn't yelling at the machine this time, he was too tired, he didn't sleep well.

INSERT CREDIT CARD, the machine said with a robot voice. John tried to insert the card again, it didn't work. CARD NOT AUTHORISED, the robot voice said. The whole queue behind him sighed.

John tried again. CARD NOT AUTHORISED, the machine said again. Now the queue started to grow even more impatient.

"Hey, insert your card or get out!" The man behind him said, he was an American with tattoos that imagined guns and a bomb.

John didn't answer but tried to insert the card once more. CARD NOT AUTHORISED, it said again.

"Ok, enough's enough!" The man with the tattoos said, "Get out!"

When John didn't seem to move, the man pushed him against another checkout machine, John dropped his credit card on the ground. If John was himself he would have hit back, but he didn't. He just stood there.

"I said: get out!" The man said, he was about to push again when a woman stopped him.

"What is going on here?" The woman seemed to be working in the supermarket.

She had big brown eyes, black hair and olive brown skin. Indian, John thought, but Indian but without a notable accent.

"This jerk, refuse to move," the man with the tattoos claimed.

The woman turned to look at John.

"Do you have anything to say to that?" She asked, her voice sounded like a police officer that confronted a thief.

John shrugged.

"See! He's admitting it!" The man yelled and tried to hit John.

Mary stopped his hand. "Now it is enough, get out," she said, her voice was calm, but strict.

"Fine," the man said and dropped his grocery bag on the ground, "last time I'm buying anything here, oh, by the way last week I found a mark in one your apples."

He walked out of the store with a big grin and almost the whole queue followed him, complaining about the store's food quality. John followed too as empty handed as he was when he came in.

He was just about to get a cab when the woman from the store ran towards him with a bag of groceries.

"Hey! You forgot your groceries and your credit card," she said slightly out of breath after running from the store.

She handed him his credit card and the bag of groceries. John looked numb on the bag of groceries.

"I didn't pay," he said tired, he wanted to get home and just get to bed.

"No worries," she said, "I did."

John didn't notice before now that she smelled like jasmine. He shook his head.

"I can't accept it," he said even more exhausted.

"You can as well take it," the woman said a little impatient, looked like he wasn't the only one tired, "I can't return it."

Like a sleepwalker he reached after the bag.

"Thank you," he said, meaning it, "Mary."

Her eyes widened.

"How did you-" She noticed her name tag, "Oh, I thought you did something cool."

"I did," John said gave signs for a cab to stop, "I observed it."

She laughed, her breath smelled like mint.

"It was cool," she smiled to him and he smiled back, the first smile for months that wasn't fake.

"I got to get back to work," she said and smiled an apologizing smile.

She turned and walked towards the supermarket.

"Wait!" John yelled, not sure why he did.

She turned to look at him with a surprised expression.

"Do you want to, err take a coffee sometime?" John asked not meeting her eyes.

"I would love too," she said and looked at her watch," I'm done in twenty minutes if you want to wait."

"I'm going to wait," John said and gave signs for the cab to wait for a while.

"Do that," she said, "see you soon Mr Watson."

"How did you-" John started.

"I saw you in a newspaper," she said and winked.

She disappeared into the supermarket again.

John wasn't sure he was happy or sad.

A/N: Believe it or not this is going to be collection of one shots or this one will maybe be a two shot because of the coffee date. I know seeing John moving on without Sherlock can be painful, but to watch John lonely just break my heart. Oh, some of you may be surprised to see Mary as an Indian but in the original she lived in India for a while, it seemed kind of cool.