A/N: Thank you to all of the people who reviewed and either Favorited or followed this story. It means a lot to me to know that people like it so far. Sorry it took a bit more time for this chapter, I've been really busy. As usual I don't own Sherlock or any of the characters on the show. I hope you enjoy the new chapter, be sure to review and let me know what you think if you want to. Also, the quote used towards the end is from the Chuck Palahniuk novel 'Snuff' and I thought it was a perfect quote for these two.
Molly knew she shouldn't be surprised when she rolled over and found herself alone in her bed. She probably should have even expected it. Either way it didn't stop her from wanting to find Jim and strangle him. Even a psychopath had to know it was rude to run out on a girl in the middle of the night. Especially a genius psychopath, she added in her head angrily. She glanced over at her dresser, hoping to see his pants still folded there in his perfect OCD way, but instead saw they were missing also. A sure sign Jim had in fact most likely already left.
Groaning she climbed out of bed and stretched to help wake herself up. Her thighs ached in protest as she did, and if it wasn't for the sore spots on her body she probably would have thought she dreamed last night. It definitely wouldn't be the first time he had intruded on her dreams. The ache brought her back to last night and she couldn't help the stupid grin that plastered across her face.
There was none of the shy awkwardness she had grown accustomed to during sex with Tom. Jim knew exactly what he was doing and he did it extremely well. She had never had sex as amazing as last night in her entire life. Even when she had slept with Jim when he pretended to be her co-worker he had been sweet and gentle. Last night was completely different.
"At least Tom didn't disappear the next day" her familiar voice of reason chimed in her head, quick to dampen her mood again. Pushing the thought away, she decided she was in desperate need of some caffeine. As she passed her hamper she noticed all of the clothes she had been wearing yesterday were tossed into it. Leave it to Jim Moriarty, he might abandon you like a cheap one night stand but you better believe he'll clean your flat first. The man was literally a walking contradiction. "Good morning." Jim's voice sounded behind her and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She had been stirring sugar into her tea and the spoon dropped with a clink onto the counter. "What?" he gave her a confused look as he took in the steely glare she was shooting at him.
"Where have you been?" She brought her tea to her lips, blowing on it lightly. She knew he wasn't the type of guy to sneak out and grab her a breakfast sandwich or something to surprise her. She was honestly surprised he was even back again so early.
"Home?" he stared at her as if she had somehow reverted into a child. "It's not like I left and killed someone, I had to take a shower and get new clothes."
Molly's jaw actually dropped and she closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. 'It's not like I left and killed someone.' The words repeated in her head, sounding more and more ridiculous as they did until she dissolved into a fit of laughter. Clearly if she did continue to see Jim there would be no such thing as normal morning conversations. "Why are you laughing?" his voice was laced with obvious annoyance, "I don't appreciate people laughing at me Molly."
"Sorry." She tried to regain control of herself and bit her lip to keep from laughing any more. "Why did you have to go home and change clothes?" She attempted to get back to real conversation. He walked into the kitchen and leaned his hip against the counter next to her. "I said I'd take you to lunch. Did you forget?"
"You had a very nice suit here already, and you could have showered here. It's not like I would have minded."
She knew immediately that was the wrong answer by the look of disgust that passed over his face. "I wasn't going to wear the same suit two days in a row." He said it with genuine distaste, as if the thought horrified him.
"Seriously?" She knew better than to actually think he was kidding, but this was almost too much. "Do you really think you'd see anyone while we're out that would notice? Aren't you supposed to be hiding or something anyways? Maybe keeping a low profile?"
"I would notice. I don't wear the same suit two days in a row, end of story. Besides, that's why I'm wearing this." He motioned to his white v-neck, dark jeans and a dark navy cardigan. He also didn't have his hair slicked back like he had last night. She assumed that was what he used as his disguise so to speak, and to be honest he did look like a different person. A more normal person.
Molly put her hands up in defeat and sighed. She was never going to win in a debate with him about fashion, she was better off quitting while she was behind. "It was kind of rude just disappearing and not letting me know you were leaving don't you think?" She asked it timidly, uncertain of what his reaction would be.
"No." He stated it so matter of fact that she locked her wide eyes on his and just stared. He rolled his eyes and grabbed her cup of tea from the counter, taking a long sip and grimacing almost immediately. "Ugh" he complained, "I hate sugar in my tea."
"Good, because that's my tea." She snatched it back from him, eliciting a satisfied smirk. It was truly unfair that no matter what face he made he always looked attractive. "You're like one of those poisonous frogs."
"How nice that you think of me as being poisonous." He deadpanned, but she had a feeling he liked the comparison. "Because you're beautiful, but deadly and dangerous." She explained, laughing as he made an appreciative face. "So when should we do lunch miss Hooper?"
"I have work at two, so I'll need to be at the hospital by then."
"Lucky for you, I tend to make my own schedule. As far as I know I don't need to help anyone murder someone before two, so we can go whenever you'd like." Molly set her cup of tea back down on the counter and gave him an cross look. "Jim, here's a new rule. No more talking about murder until I've at least finished one cup of tea in the morning."
He smiled at her thoughtfully and nodded. "If you insist."
"I'll go shower and get ready to go." Molly finished her last sip of tea and Jim smiled mischievously. "If you had to choose would you rather kill someone through incineration or freezing them to death? Hypothetically of course." He tacked on not too convincingly.
"You're hilarious." Molly scowled and chose to ignore his question. When Molly was done getting ready for lunch, she found Jim in her living room with his back to her. His posture was relaxed and he had one hand holding his cell to his ear, the other in his pocket. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" his posture was immediately rigid and even Molly jumped at his sudden rage. "Good, because it would be awful if you overdosed on your insulin." Calm again, his words were coated with malice.
He hung up and turned around, surprised to see Molly in the doorway. "Business associates can be such a hassle." He shrugged.
Molly forced a smile and nodded, "Sounds dreadful."
"Are you ready for lunch?"
"Yeah, where are we going to go? Isn't it hard for you to go about in public. I mean, won't people recognize you after seeing your face all over the television?" She couldn't help but wonder if she had made a mistake last night by admitting she still had feelings for him despite everything. She really did though, feelings that had lingered even after years of not talking to him. But could she really be with someone who did the things he did?
"Don't worry about things like that." He brushed away her concern, "People don't remember things very well. The best place to hide is in plain sight after all." He held out his hand and she took it, her usual butterflies coming back at the gentle way he laced his fingers with hers.
Jim hailed a cab and rattled off an address for wherever he was taking her, she wasn't familiar with the address and he hadn't told her the name. Halfway through the drive Jim surprised her and turned her face to his, kissing her softly at first but deepening it as his tongue parted her lips. Though normally she wasn't one for public displays of affection she had no desire to stop the kiss. All it took was a brush of his lips to send her heart beating into overdrive.
The cab pulled to a stop and Jim nipped at her bottom lip before pulling away and passing a generous amount of money to the cab driver. Molly looked up at the restaurant and shook her head. "Jim, this isn't necessary." She had heard some of the doctors at work talk about Basile and she knew they were expensive.
Jim ignored her and pulled her in behind him motioning for the maitre d to take them to a table for two. Molly admired the gorgeous restaurant as he led them and made sure to smile and thank him when he finally sat them in a private area. She picked up the menu and Jim gently set it back on the table, holding it there with one finger. "Not one word about the prices, and if you purposely order the least expensive item I'll make sure they bring you the most expensive." She frowned but nodded, "I wouldn't have done that." She lied, remembering his words from before 'don't lie to a liar.'
He looked amused but didn't call her on it, which she appreciated. "Hello, welcome to Basile." A waitress made her way up to the table and smiled at them, "My name is Mona and I'll be your server today." Molly noticed her eyes drift over to Jim more than once and saw the subtle way her body language shifted towards him as she spoke. It didn't take Sherlock Holmes to read that she was attracted to him. "Can I get you anything to drink?" she spoke first to Jim and then snapped a smile back on her face, "Can I get either of you a drink?" She corrected apologetically.
"Just a water with lemon for me." Molly answered politely. "A Vieux Carre" Jim ordered and she nodded eagerly. "I'll have them out immediately." She hurried away to get the drinks and Jim turned his attention back to Molly. "You could get a drink."
"I have to work soon, I don't think they'd appreciate me drinking beforehand."
"It's not like you can do much harm, your patients are already dead."
Molly opened her mouth to say something in response but came up with nothing and instead just stared at him. "Yes, well some of us work jobs where people rely on us to do the right thing." She finally snapped, and Jim raised his eyebrows at her and smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere."
"What do you mean?"
"Last night you gave in rather easily all things considered. It was only a matter of time until reality set in for you and you asked yourself 'can I really be with someone all of my friends would disapprove of?'"
"It's not about whether my friends would approve." She felt her defenses coming back up. That was part of it, but it wasn't the part that bothered her. "You hurt people. But it's not just that, you enjoy hurting people." She lowered her voice and looked around to make sure nobody was around them as she spoke. Jim held up one finger to her as the waitress returned with their drinks.
"Are you ready to order?" Jim asked her and when she nodded he gestured for her to go ahead.
"Just the Chateaubriand for me." Molly handed the menu over to the waitress who nodded and tucked it under her arm. "We'll also have the roast scallops with white port and garlic appetizer. I'll have the Surf and Turf, and we'll share a side of the lobster mac and cheese." He finished ordering and the waitress gave him a lingering smile before hurrying off again.
"Well someone fancies me." He laughed and then his face turned serious again as he focused. "Yes, I do enjoy my line of work. People hurt other people every day, why shouldn't I use that to my advantage. The fact of the matter is that I'm brilliant, and I just found a way to profit off of everyone else's need to hurt people."
He described it almost clinically, as if he was an innocent participant and not the one who thought of the different ways to kill someone and not get caught, or how to do any of the other criminal things she knew he organized that she could never even imagine. The truth was she had no idea just how vast his network was, she only knew the tiny bits Sherlock had mentioned when he needed her help. She doubted anyone besides Jim knew how vast it was, and was sure even imagining what he did would never compare to what he actually did and could do.
"Carl Powers?" Molly muttered the question and Jim smiled a chilling grin and nodded.
"I see Sherlock mentioned that one to you?" When she nodded he shrugged. "Carl Powers laughed at me, I stopped his laughing. I won." Molly took a deep breath and remembered his comment about her laughing at him earlier, and it clicked. "He bullied you then?"
"He bullied the wrong person."
"Clearly." She hated that she felt bad when she saw the flash of hurt pass in his eyes, once again giving her a glimpse into the fact that Jim Moriarty wasn't as unfeeling as he pretended to be. She hated even more that she understood it.
"The damaged love the damaged." Jim replied, reading her like a book. Molly let him take her hand in his. She was sure he was quoting something, and she had to admit it was a perfect summation of the two of them. "Molly you know what I do. You know what I am, Sherlock has told you plenty. You need to decide if that's something you could deal with."
"It's not like that's an easy thing to decide." She pulled her hand away from his and took a drink of her water.
"Sure it is."
"What?" She honestly had no idea how he could think that even for a second.
"You know whether you can or can't. You just won't admit it to yourself."
A suit clad waiter dropped off their appetizer and made sure everything looked okay. There were three flat seashells on the plate, each one with a large scallop in the middle of it and a delicious looking sauce poured over the scallop. Jim plucked a seashell off the serving plate and placed it on a small dish before passing it to Molly. "Thank you." Her voice was quiet and he nodded in response.
He finished his scallop and was still uncharacteristically silent. Finally he grimaced as if what he was going to say physically hurt him. "Just know that I am sincere in my feelings for you."
"That's why you just made that face?" Molly shook her head slowly and sighed, "Does it physically pain you to admit that you care about me?"
"It might as well. Caring about people is not a feeling I'm used to." And there it was, Molly knew that before he said it but it was the way he said it that shined a new light on what he meant. Caring about people wasn't something he was used to, but being cared about by someone was just as foreign a feeling to him. Molly knew the feeling, though she was sure she didn't know it quite as intimately as Jim. When her parents would get in a mood she at least always had her Aunt Jessa to turn to.
Her aunt had been a pathologist also, and she was the one who would take Molly to work with her once she finally talked her boss into it. Most kids probably would have preferred to be riding bikes and practicing kissing boys but Molly much preferred the company of her aunt and the various corpses in the morgue. After being belittled at home and bullied at school she preferred the silence her aunt's work allowed her. That's how she found out what she wanted to do with her life. She found a place where she could help people like she had always wanted and not have to worry about the popularity contest that came with every other aspect of life. Dead people were hardly in any position to be picky about who did their post mortems.
Molly's train of thought was interrupted by their entrees and she appreciated the distraction for a moment. "Make sure you have some lobster mac and cheese, it's incredible." Jim pushed the dish of it towards her gently. She tried a forkful and couldn't believe how good it was. She would have been happy with just that. "Wow." She muttered and he looked pleased. "I told you." She took in his easy smile and relaxed eyes and felt stomach twist nervously in response.
It wasn't right what Jim did, and she couldn't excuse it under any circumstance. And maybe Jim Moriarty was a monster, but she didn't think so. When she looked into his eyes, she didn't see a monster. "I can deal with it." The words escaped her lips without a second thought and Jim snapped his attention back to her. He had been tracing his finger along the rim of his glass with a bored expression, but his gaze was fixed on her now.
"Why?"
"Because I don't believe you're a monster." She answered him honestly, "I think what you do is horrible, and I don't want to have to hear about it. But I don't think you're a monster at heart."
"Don't be naive. I am a monster, you only know a tiny portion of what I do, but you know that."
"Yeah, and I obviously don't know you that well. But I want to, and I've seen portions of the real you besides the monster you use as a defense mechanism. The damaged love the damaged." She repeated the quote he had used. "I can't lie and say I fully understand what could have made you who you are now. But you said it last night, you can be someone else with me. The real you."
"You want to take that chance on me?"
Molly nodded shyly and Jim broke into a large grin and laughed. "I really never can fully peg you down. What would Sherlock Holmes say if he knew?" She knew he was teasing but she frowned anyways.
"Sherlock, John, Greg, they're all important to me. They're all my friends Jim. Don't think I'm ever going to betray them for you. If that's your endgame you can drop the act now. I'll always care about them."
"That's not my endgame. I'm also not going to lie to you and tell you that I won't pester Sherlock again. He's the only worthwhile foe I have."
"I won't forgive you if you kill one of my friends."
"I know." 'And so the battle lines are drawn' Molly thought with a sigh. Not every relationship had to start with battle lines, but she didn't care. Jim motioned for the waitress to return. "Wrap this up please, and this should cover the check." He slipped her what looked like a few hundred dollar bills and Molly tried not to think about how much the bill could have been. She knew her steak alone was over sixty dollars. The waitress took the money and hesitated, "Sorry to bother you but you look really familiar? Have you been in something?" Molly felt herself freeze up nervously, but Jim didn't even flinch. "I was on a children's show actually. It's on DVD, you must have seen it." "That must be it, I'm sure it's great." She smiled warmly, trying her hardest to flirt with him, before taking away the plates to wrap them up.
"Are you two brother and sister?" The waitress asked once she returned with their takeout meals. Jim instantly smirked, and Molly couldn't help being surprised by her boldness. Or maybe it wasn't so much boldness as hopeful desperation. "I sure hope not, otherwise the things I did to her last night are probably illegal." He answered with a devilish grin. Molly knew her face was scarlet as the waitress's jaw dropped and she eyed Molly in surprise. Jim took her hand and lead her after him, flagging a cab down once they reached the street.
"I won't be over tonight or for up to a week most likely. I've got some out of town business to attend to." Jim held open the door for her, "But I'll call you."
"Okay." She nodded, unsure of what to say besides that. "I'll stop by though while you're at work and put these leftovers in your fridge for you. Goodbye my dear, have a good night at work." Such ordinary words almost sounded absurd coming from his lips and Molly had to hold down laughter as he leaned in and kissed her. "Thanks, uhm, bye." She climbed into the cab and Jim closed the door behind her. He was instantly on his cell phone as the cab pulled away, and she couldn't help but be glad she was heading to her familiar job. Jim could say whatever he wanted about it, but Molly was okay with having a bit of dull routine in her life.