He closed the last jar of honey tightly and put it in the last box. Holding the box between his wrinkled but strong hands, he walked to his car and put the box next to the others and closed the trunk door then stopped and breathed deeply, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the gentle wind that held the aroma of his garden in the beginning of the morning.
A smile touched his lips when his eyes landed on her reflex from the window of their country house while she prepared the dining table for breakfast, as he moved toward the house to join her before he headed to the town to sell this season's outcome.
"Will you meet John at the market?" She asked him while they sat in the terrace drinking their morning tea after breakfast.
"No, I'll pick him up; Mary is taking the car for another book club today"
Her eyes widened "Oh, good you reminded me, we were going to meet there."
"I can take you with me and you two have a carpool together." He offered while leaning to pick one of her fresh baked cookies.
"Thank you sweetie, by the way, have you heard recently from Greg?"
"Who?" He asked frowning.
She rolled her eyes, "Lestrade, Sherlock, it's been a long time since we heard from him, I feel awful for not asking about him all this past time, he was such a good friend."
"I'll try to call him and see where he lives now, I heard he moved out few months ago." He answered with no much care for the topic.
"You know, I knew by coincidence that he lives near this book club I'm going to attend, maybe we can call and pass by, taking one or two of honey jars with us," she suggested.
He twisted his mouth in uncertainty "let's make it the next weekend, selling this season's outcome will take the whole day and I'll be exhausted by the night."
"Do you miss it?" His cup of tea stopped on the half way hearing her question, he looked at the seat in front of him where she sat to find her smiling and narrowing her eyes, showing the wrinkles That showed up through the years, recording all the memories they collected together the past fifteen years, he wasn't complaining though, she looked more beautiful and angelic with every single day passing by.
"I beg your pardon?" Sherlock asked frowning.
"Do you miss it?" Molly repeated her question, tilting her head to the side, "your old life".
They left London few years ago after retiring, moving to the country in a small house, allowing Sherlock to finally practice and work on his old obsession of beekeeping, which was disappointing at first specially when they got nothing in the first year, but in the end he mastered the craft and even made a good business out of the product they got.
"Nope," He answered simply.
She only acted to his answer with eyes full of doubt.
He rolled his eyes and retreated "Alright, maybe some days when I have a hard time to stand the whole day to extract the honey, or getting tired and out of breath after holding two sets of heavy boxes, I miss the old days when I could hunt a murderer all over London just for fun." He looked for a moment as he was recalling a glimpse of these days, feeling nostalgic.
"But," he continued, pulling himself away from whatever he was thinking about, "waking every single morning and finding you by the other side of the bed, I wouldn't exchange this life with the entire world."
Her eyes went softer as he finished his words and got up walking toward him and put a kiss on his cheek.
"I will be ready in ten minutes." She said moving inside the house to their bedroom while Sherlock followed her with his kind eyes and sweet smile till she disappeared, then suddenly the smile vanished following by worry shown in every feature he had and a nervous sigh.
"She knows," Sherlock grumbled while he closed the car's door with unnecessary force, making John flinching a bit.
"I honestly don't think she does," John twisted his mouth with a smirk full with disbelief.
Sherlock huffed heavily while moving to the trunk, getting one of the jars out of a box.
"I'm telling you," he said slamming the trunk's door nervously, "something is wrong," he murmured walking to the front door of the house they parked in front of it and rang the bell.
"It's all in your funny head," John tried to calm him down.
"She's at least suspecting something!" he whined with wide eyes while he rang the bell for the third time.
Before John could answer, the door got open.
"Why the hell aren't you both answering my calls," the man -with whiter than chalk- face and horrified eyes whispered trying to stand between them and the entrance, but they ignored him and walked in even when he tried to go and stop them murmuring "wait" and "just listen".
"Seems like you getting older makes you more paranoid too, There's no way she could ever …" John smirked but stopped suddenly with open mouth and unfinished sentence when he laid his eyes on who were sitting in the office they entered.
"Oh sweetie, you bet we do!" Mary smiled sweetly putting the cup of tea between her hands on the table in front of her, while Molly only looked to her husband putting her left knees on the right.
"Do you have something to say to us?" Molly asked the two grown up men with motherly tone as she was talking to two guilty children just been caught with their hands inside the cookie jar, which was how they perfectly looked in this moment.
"It was Sherlock's idea" and "We just moved by to give Gavin some honey as you suggested" were what came out fast of their mouths simultaneously before they looked to each other with a frown on their faces.
The wives only raised their brows.
Sherlock sighed and tightened his hold more on the jar of honey as for support.
"When Lestrade opened this private investigation agency he asked me for help so as the good friend I am, I offered him my advice to be able to stand o his feet at first," than he laughed, "Only till he can manage this new business" he said innocently.
"See? It's only temporary for few months to help a dear friend, it's not like we are going out running around London and catching criminals" John said with sarcastic tone and the two gentlemen laughed dramatically.
The ladies didn't join them, Mary looked back and extended her arm and took one of the cards on the desk behind her and started reading.
"The mind palace investigation agency, since 2034, wasn't that two years ago, dear?" She looked to Molly.
Molly only frowned "I guess so Mary, but after all senile and Alzheimer are common problems at this age we are in, so I'm not hundred percent sure." Then they both looked to their husbands waiting for an honest answer who looked worn out and out of tricks at this moment.
Sherlock moved to the chair near him putting the honey jar on the table next to him and sighed while John followed him, there was no escape out of this situation, he thought.
"It started first as helping a friend as I said, then it's not a total lie," he defended himself but continued fast, "However, after solving a decent number of cases without being caught it seemed hard to stop" he looked guiltier with each word getting out of his lips.
"We love what we have with you and the life that we are blessed with, but sometimes …" John tried to find a word that wouldn't put him in a worse situation than he already was in.
"You get bored." Mary completed his sentence, receiving only guilt silence.
"I'm extremely disappointed of you, Sherlock." Molly said in her motherly tone, the tone she knew very well how to attack with.
"How could you run back to such stressful crazy life" Sherlock couldn't bear it any longer, the feeling he had knowing he failed his loveable honeybee was intolerant.
"I'm going to stop immediately" and "Without making me join you" were heard in the room by the two sweet spouses.
The looks on the two husbands face were priceless while the two wives only smirked.
"You got bored too" Sherlock finally made the first right deduction since he entered the office.
"Don't get me wrong" Mary started to speak, "having a calm quiet life is really relaxing"
"And not having some sort of psychopath trying to kill you is one of the benefits" Molly continued adding a valid point.
"And the book club gals" Mary said in awe.
"Oh salt of earth, and the recipes they share," Molly responded with excitement.
"In one word divine, but you see," Mary continued.
"It's turning a little bit," Molly said.
"Sort of," Mary twisted her mouth.
"Deadly dull." they completed the sentence together looking to their husbands who stood speechless and shocked.
"We decided to consider forgiving you two." Mary said with humble voice.
"You only need to consider involving us in the cases you solve." Molly suggested as a logical consolation.
Before the men had a chance to answer, Greg entered the room with hesitating steps.
"I know you're in the middle of an argument, and it's been really lovely to see you ladies, but the client is already out there and I can't keep her waiting more than this" Greg said with a kind but determined voice, after all this was a workplace, not marriage consultant office.
"Sure, dear, just let her come in," Molly smiled.
Lestrade didn't lose a second and ran outside.
"Of course you don't mean you're going to start from today!" John asked with shock while Sherlock only stood with face empty of expressions still trying to process what exactly was happening around him.
Before the girls could answer, a lady in her fifties entered from the door holding wet tissue in her hand, with teary eyes and red nose.
Molly stood up offering her chair to the woman and moved to the chair behind the desk.
Mary took the tissue box and offered her one, which she took it gratefully.
"Don't worry, you came to the right place, we will do our best to find your missing son." She said assuring her.
"How did you .."The woman asked in surprise.
"That's our job, deducing the untold, and that's how you know your case is between good hands." Molly talked as she owned the place.
"I thought Mr. Watson and Mr. Holmes were the ones who run this agency." The woman wondered after noticing the two men with meeting eye brows and open mouths by the corner of the room.
"Dear god, no!" Marry chuckled a little bit.
"They are only the commercial face of the agency cause as you can see they are cute with a mysterious appearance, but if you want the job done it's us who you want to hire." Molly said with tone that changed from sweet mockery to endearment and ended with seriousness.
"Protest with one single word and I'll punch your nose, I'm too old to sleep on the couch," John whispered to Sherlock warning him.
"Are you joking?" Sherlock whispered back with disbelief written all over his face, "it's a dream coming true." He chuckled with excitement keeping his voice down.