Molly Hooper sat upon the hospital bed after getting her wound cleaned and taken care of. A bullet grazed her shoulder whilst she was on a case with him. Once the nurse left, Sherlock was ready to unleash his thoughts on her.

"Molly, how could you? You could have been killed!" he exclaimed.

"I was trying to save your life, but do I get a thank you? No, of course not," Molly argued.

"I'm not going to thank you for deciding your own life is worth saving mine," Sherlock continued. "I'm supposed to be protecting you. Don't you ever pull a stunt like that again, Molly."

"Don't tell me what to do!" she shouted. "If I want to take a bullet for you, I will!"

"No," he spoke firmly.

"Why not?" she asked, her voice lowering a bit.

"Because I'm not worth it!" Sherlock he yelled. Molly was taken aback by his statement. "I'm not worth your life. I'm not even worth a quarter of it."

"How could you think such a thing?" her voice trembled. "Sherlock, I would do anything for you; anything to keep you safe."

"That's what scares me," he admitted, sitting on the bed beside her.

"Hey," she said gently, turning his face toward her. "Darling, it's okay. Why are you scared?" His cerulean eyes were a darker shade of blue, almost like the skies during a storm.

"Because I don't want to lose you," Sherlock answered quietly. "I can't imagine my life without you, Molly, and I don't want to." He took a shaky breath. "Mary sacrificed herself for me, and that was too much to bear. If her loss broke my heart, imagine what it would do to me to lose you; the woman I am very much in love with. It's a miracle that John has been healing from it."

"Sherlock, I'm so sorry," Molly told him, her hand caressing his cheek with her thumb wiping his tears away. "It was an automatic reaction to seeing you in danger. I just wanted to protect you."

"I know," he told her.

"Would it make you feel better to know that it was a calculated risk?" she asked. He looked at her questioningly. "With our height difference, I knew if I stepped in front of you, the bullet would graze my shoulder though the aim was for your heart. I knew what I was doing."

"You knew that you would live," Sherlock realized. Then he chuckled softly in disbelief. "Molly Hooper, you may just be even more clever than me."

"And don't you forget it, mister," she smiled, pressing her lips to his tenderly.