TheDarkestShinobi: I liked this one so much more than I thought I would so I hope you enjoy it! I put Molly in her element and let her shine, because we all know she's a smartie but the show didn't really show it.
Prompt: Legs
Pairing Sherlolly
Although, to be truthful the real prompt for this was the line from Maroon 5: So damn dysfunctional we start keeping score I was listening to it while trying to fill the prompt.
…
Molly stops the recording device as she hears quick footsteps coming down the hall. She zips the bag of fingernails and turns to the doors as she places it down next to the bag of pubic hair-which she had to pluck!
"I am a pathologist, you know." Molly softly interjects as Sherlock throws open the doors. "Determining the cause of death is the most important part of an autopsy." She smiles as he makes his way to the body between them. "The most interesting part too." He lifts a corner of his mouth in understanding before it flattens.
"Well, if you were better, you'd already be able to tell me why he died then."
"The only way I could already know if he told me himself." Sherlock looks to her with narrowed eyes. "It was a joke, about a movie. Never mind it." Sherlock moves to lift an arm and Molly stomps her foot.
"Gloves, Sherlock!" Normally she's very good with letting him do whatever, but he's around so much she has to start enforcing some things for him. "Or I'll have to report you as a suspect, with all of the DNA you leave on the body." Sherlock smirks.
"Sally would have a field day with that." He grabs the pair of gloves she hands him. "She'd have me in handcuffs."
"I'd like to see that!" She blushes instantly as Sherlock turns his gaze to her. "I mean, as a, to watch, watch you get out of them of course." She breathes out and looks down as Sherlock narrows his eyes and tilts his head slightly.
John is married, and in Sherlock's newfound solitude, Molly finds that she has once again become the observer to Sherlock's brilliance. Sherlock finds himself leaning to Molly the way he used to, only she's different. It's all Tom's fault. Molly never truly liked Tom, but he liked her enough that her confidence increased. Molly somehow discovered a self-worth that she had lacked and carried it with her. It made her more interesting, less usable for him but infinitely more valuable. For one, Molly is no longer too timid to voice her opinions to him, especially when she's right. She has studied some of these subjects far longer than he had.
"What can you tell me?" Sherlock starts. "You are down one." Molly shakes her head as she smiles widely. They have been keeping score about who's right about the COD first. She hates to admit that he is in the lead because this is her job! Sherlock takes losing well, better than he would have before John was around at least.
"The location made it hard to thermally discover cause of death." She starts, looking at the body, placing her hand on the body's leg. Sherlock narrows on the spot but says nothing. "But using Rigor, it was easier to determine the time of death." She smiles. "How long do you think the body was dead?"
"I did say you first."
"But I know." She smiles. "I want to hear you guess."
"I'd say no more than 30 hours." He nods and she grins.
"Forty is much closer." Molly loves the way Sherlock studies her as if to absorb all of her knowledge with a look. He hates being bested but loves learning.
"Rigor Mortis, it's the contraction and relaxation of the muscles in the body. Our chemicals change as we die, as I'm sure you know." She nervously locks eyes with him but he doesn't respond. He's committing her to memory, using her words to learn a subject he'll apply to hundreds of cases in the future. She blushes and stammers before continuing. "It starts in the smaller muscles of the neck and face first and will work its way down the body. This occurs in the first 36 to 48 hours after death." She taps the spot her hand landed on before. "It's already made its way to bigger muscles of his legs." She shrugs. "I'll know more once I test the lividity but I just got the body," she looks to the clock on the wall but Sherlock interrupts.
"His watch stopped." Sherlock prompts.
"I saw that." She shakes her head. "Odd timing."
"Cause of death," Sherlock starts, having absorbed enough information to start spitting back. "Happened 40 hours ago, but the watch stopped 36 hours ago. Meaning the killer tossed the body four hours after they killed him."
"Why wait?" Molly looks over the body as Sherlock starts walking towards the head.
"No marks." He moves the head to both sides. "And yet no odd spots on the face. He lived with someone but not someone who would notice he's missing?" He puts his hands together and Molly jolts as he brings them up to rest against his chin. She will sing to the body, sure, but she wouldn't rub her face on it. "Either the living partner is also dead, out of town," he points his gloved index fingers to the body, "or the murderer."
"But how?" Sherlock wouldn't get a point for the person; it needed to be the cause. Sherlock circles the body and Molly moves to continue to label the bags. She can't do more without turning the recorder on or cut him open without an assistant so she just looks over the surface of the skin, tries to see what Sherlock does.
"That's a dead leg." She blurts suddenly. Usually, when one of them has figured it out, they give the other a hail Mary, but Molly doesn't even realize it until she's said it out loud. Sherlock blinks and she turns the recorder on to start talking. Sherlock watches as she details the process and her findings. It's an odd experience for him, to not be the brilliant one but to observe the brilliance. He watches her fingers probe both legs and listens to her technical babble. A Quadricepts Contusion does sound like something that would make Anderson blink twice and stare. He'll have to remember that. He finds his eyes following her motion as his hands settle behind his back. She states that she's sure the impact killed him, especially since the wound is relatively fresh but she'll need to cut open the body to verify.
When she takes off the gloves and turns the recorder off she smiles at him and Sherlock shakes his head as he returns it "I should take you out sometime." Molly turns red. Sherlock hesitates; almost mutters. "On the cases."
"O-of course." She lets out a nervous laugh. "Since John's gone you'll be needed a new partner." She's telling herself more than him but her words cause Sherlock to pause.
A new partner.
Yes.
In everything.
"And then to dinner." Sherlock turns away from her and walks to the door. "Nothing makes for better dinner conversations than murder." He winks as he closes the door. Molly sways back and forth a little as she tries to hold back a smile. Her breath leaves her in the smile and she clasps her hands in front of her chest.
"Don't think I'm not still going to keep score, Sherlock Holmes." She says as she, maybe preemptively, corrects the count in her phone. Then she smiles into it. "My consulting detective."