Prologue

You've always counted and I've always trusted you. The words echoed in Molly Hooper's head, like a broken record. She was conflicted over how she felt about the words, but they refused to go away until she made a decision, much like a broken record would keep playing until the listener could decide whether they would keep it for sentiment, a useless momento, or toss it as rubbish, having decided to move on and play a new song. To move on or not. Part of her yelled 'yes.' All those years, he had ignored her, treated her as if she was a silly, naive girl, too stuck within her own idealisms to see the world in its true form. The other part of her, the part that admired him, the part of her that felt a flurry of butterflies in her stomach when he entered the room and stumbled on her words when they spoke, that part of her was not as loud as its rival. It started as a low whisper but steadily grew louder, calling out in all its hopefulness that Sherlock had meant every word that he said. That he had always trusted her and perhaps she just hadn't seen it.

Chapter 1

"I win!" Molly proclaimed proudly. At twelve years old, winning a footrace to the top of the hill was a grand achievement for her.

"Sherlock? I won!"

Sherlock ambled up the hill, trying to disguise the fact that he was out of breath by putting on the facade of nonchalance.

"Oh? I wasn't trying my best anyways."

"You always try your best, Sherlock," Molly objected. "That's why you're so good at everything."

Sherlock shrugged, missing the obvious comment that Molly had given him.

"Mycroft says you're precocious."

"Did he mean that as a compliment?"

"I think it's a compliment." It wasn't an answer to Sherlock's question, just an unintentional demonstration of Molly's general admiration for Sherlock's intelligence. It was an expression of awe that she usually tried not to show too blatantly; if she did, it would certainly get to Sherlock's big ego, but being only twelve, keeping the awe in check was sometimes difficult.

"Thanks," Sherlock replied. Though I'm sure Mycroft didn't mean it as a compliment. Why do you suppose he's so annoying?"

Molly shrugged. She personally didn't find Mycroft annoying, but then again, feeling annoyance wasn't in her nature. Rivalries and jealousy, she didn't spend too much time thinking about those things, to her, they were like the falling leaves of autumn, present, but too common for her to take much notice of. "I don't think Mycroft is very annoying…" She glanced over at Sherlock to see him with a distant expression on his face.

"Sherlock?"

"Yes?"

"Were you listening?"

"Umm, no." He added a quick "sorry" as an afterthought.

Molly nodded, accepting his apology. She had the acute ability to forgive easily, it stemmed partly from the simple kindness that was common in children and partly from her friendship were Sherlock.

"Sherlock?"

"Yes?"

"What were you thinking about?" It was amusing for Molly to hear about Sherlock's thoughts, most of which involved puzzles and codes, which she found fascinating, even if most of the things that Sherlock said were near incomprehensible to any twelve year old who wasn't as precocious as him.

"Puzzles," he answered with a distracted wave of his hand. "A riddle Mycroft told me yesterday."

"Is that what you're going to do when you grow up? Solve riddles?"

Sherlock gave Molly a puzzled look, as if what she had just said was silly. In his mind, he was already grown up. "Maybe. But I can't see what I could do solving riddles."

"You could be a detective."

"For who? The police would need my help. I remember the time Redbeard got lost in the woods, they needed my help to bring him home."

Molly giggled to herself. She had been there for the event and found it funny that Sherlock had neglected to say it was more Mycroft's help they needed. "But the police don't usually go to private detectives for help."

"Well, they'd ask me. They'd need to, with all the mistakes they're always making. But, I can't call myself a private detective."

"A consulting detective. You could call yourself a consulting detective."

A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for checking out this story! I hope you enjoyed it and please review and let me what you thought because I would love to hear all your opinions! Thank you again!
-sevenimpossiblethings