A/N: Hi!
I was listening to Travelin' Soldier by the Dixie Chicks and the damn plot bunny started bugging me to write a story based on it. Originally the idea was to write about John getting deployed and writing letters to Sherlock but then I got the ideas in this fic and, well...here we go.
DISCLAIMER: Moffat, Gatiss, the Dixie Chicks, and Sir ACD own everything, I do not and am not making any money off of this. Please don't sue me.
Two days past eighteen
He was waitin' for the bus in his army green
Sat down in a booth, in a cafe there
Gave his order to a girl with a bow in her hair
He's a little shy so she give him a smile
And he says 'would you mind sittin' down for a while,
and talkin' to me? I'm feelin' a little low.'
She said 'I'm off in an hour and I know where we can go.'
"Molly, I think I'm going to die."
What on Earth is he talking about? Die?
Her eyes searched his face for a sign he was joking or just manipulating her. She felt her stomach clench when she found nothing. Molly Hooper forced her voice into steadiness.
"What do you need?"
His eyes narrowed slightly and scanned over her quickly, likely deducing everything she'd done since they'd last spoken. When he spoke, it was in a low, urgent voice.
"If I wasn't everything that you think I am...everything that I think I am...would you still want to help me?" She almost laughed then, the question seemed ridiculous. Instead, she repeated her question in a quiet voice.
"What do you need?"
And Sherlock Holmes spoke the word she never thought she'd hear in her life:
"You."
So they made a plan, a rather simple one really. It was nearly foolproof but Molly still felt her heart leap with relief when Sherlock slipped into the morgue, shaking all over like a frightened animal.
She bit her lip and opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly interrupted when she heard the detective sobbing. Her own eyes pricked with tears as she knelt next to him and put a cautious hand on his shoulder. "Sherlock?" He looked at her through watery eyes. "Molly, he thinks I'm dead," he whispered.
Her heart broke twice: once for John Watson, and once for Sherlock Holmes. And in an uncharacteristically bold move, she wrapped her arms around him and rocked him back and forth gently, like a child. "But you'll come back to him, back to all of them. And you'll be a hero, Sherlock Holmes. Because you'll be the one who defeated Jim Moriarty."
As she spoke, the words seemed truer than Molly had expected. She smiled through the tears.
The day he left was a day not unlike the others. The second she walked into her flat after her shift though, she knew. The text just confirmed it.
I've just left London. Thank you Molly. For everything. I'll keep in touch. -SH
And then Molly was sobbing on her knees and she wasn't quite sure why. Maybe it was because he was gone. Maybe it was because he thanked her. Or maybe it was because this man; this stupid, brilliant, beautiful man was going to stay in contact.
It was at that moment that Molly gave thanks to whatever deity was working its magic for allowing her this small miracle.
A/N: Expect a first chapter soon-ish guys.
Thanks to Ariana DeVere for her transcript of TRF, parts of which are in the beginning of this chapter!