Two chapters in two days, I'm on a roll! Hopefully I can keep this pace up but I seem to have a bad track record with that. This wasn't the chapter that I originally wanted to write but it still fits in nicely.
I had originally wanted to keep this all in Lestrade's point of view but somehow Molly managed to slip in there, so now i'll be alternating back and forth.
The next time they run into each other, they actually run into each other. He had gotten back from Dorset the same day that he arrived and went immediately home. The house was exactly as he had left it but it felt emptier in a way. Everything was put away exactly in its place, blankets folded pristinely over the backs of couches, photos hung on the wall spaced exactly the same distance. Everything was spotless and only just now did he realize that this may have been their house, but it had never been their home. This was simply a place where two people lived together and nothing more, maybe it had always been like that and he had just chosen to ignore that too. He slept on the couch that night.
The next morning he decided to go into work. He wasn't scheduled but paperwork had been piling up on his desk and he couldn't stand to be alone in the house any longer. He packed up his laptop and some files that he had taken home earlier that week and was placing them in the back seat when he saw Molly's clothes. Her shoes and dress lay thrown across the back seat of his car and he felt his face get hot when he thought once again to that night. He ran inside quickly and grabbed a paper bag to keep her things in until he could return them.
It was just after 10 and the hospital was silent. Only a few nurses and the security guards remained awake beside herself. She had returned early from her time with her family, even she had her limits and you can be asked 'so when are you going to meet a nice boy and settle down' or 'when are you going to quit that horrid job in the morgue for something nicer' so many times. She had successfully evaded any questions pertaining to her relationship but the more her family asked the more she could feel herself blush at the memory of her and Greg. It wasn't that it was bad, in fact considering everything it had been one of the better Christmas memories of her adult life. It was just that, well, he was married. His wife was a serial cheater and he was obviously unhappy but that was no excuse. So when she could take no more interrogation she faked a call from the hospital and said that she needed to come in for an emergency.
The silence of the morgue was comforting. Most people thought that it was creepy down here but she didn't mind it. Down here in the quiet she could breath, there was no one judging her or making fun of her for something she said and there was certainly no one to tell her that she should get a better job, go back to school and become a 'real doctor'. It was just her and her work, work that she could lose herself in making a difference, not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless. When she arrived there were two new bodies waiting that the other examiner had had time to log in but not examine. She pulled one out of storage, a pretty female about her age, and started doing what she does best.
Normally when she works she has no problem concentrating but tonight her mind kept wandering. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about Greg, replaying everything that had happened between them. The car ride, the pub, the sex. She had never thought of him in a romantic way before, she had marked that as strictly taboo. He had always just been Detective Inspector Lestrade, he had always been nice to her and they had always gotten on well enough but there had never been anything other than friendship between them. There had never been an opportunity. She hadn't missed the way that he looked at her in the dress, it had made her feel good but at the time she kept wishing that it was Sherlock who was doing the gawking. As they got to know each other more over the drinks she began to realize that he was a good man as well as a nice one. He put so much into his work for such a little return and the same was true for his marriage. It seemed that he was always willing to give a hundred percent of himself when the world was only prepared to give him ten. She recognized a lot of herself in him, they each wanted so much for themselves only to get stepped on. The sadness in his eyes was one that she saw every day in the mirror. Maybe that was why they had been draw to each other, why they found comfort in each others arms after being dealt a harsh blow. The way that he had kissed her was passionate but also needy, wanting of some form of real emotion in return. The first kiss had been hesitant but after that they both had leapt into the fire and there was no holding back, it was all desire and passion. At the memory of how he kissed her just below her ear, trailing kisses down onto her shoulder her stomach did a flip, still able to feel the pressure from his lips, and she had to look away from the slide under the microscope and remind herself of what she was supposed to be doing.
Then there were the texts: 'Last night was a mistake'. Well there's no contesting that! You're married and I am far from over Sherlock. But then 'I don't regret it'. Was he just saying that so she wouldn't worry as much? Too late for that. Or could he have been sincere? No, it was a complete mistake… one I that I would be happy to make again. The sudden realization startled her but it was the truth, she would be more than willing to sleep with Greg Lestrade again.
Oh god, I'm a bad person. He's married, he cheated on his wife with me and i'm thinking about doing the whole thing over again. But there's no way that he'll let it happen again, the only reason that it happened in the first place was because we drank a bottle of tequila. Besides, if it did happen again it wouldn't be like that. Greg would do it proper, ask me to dinner and all that. The thought of her and Greg on a proper date brought a hesitant smile to her lips and she let her mind wander to what a date with him would be like as she finished and cleaned up. It was nearly midnight when she finished.
We need to talk, she thought to herself as she made her way from the morgue to the locker room. She was just rounding the last corner when she crashed into someone. She almost fell but an arm wrapped around her and held her up before any injury could occur.
"I am so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," she stammered backing away before looking up to see that it was Greg that she had run into, "Greg! I thought that you were in Dorset?"
He ran a hand through his hair and she couldn't help but notice that his wedding ring was not on his finger, "Well I was but Elaine and I… we got into a row, biggest one we've ever had, and I left."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."
He looked at the floor and put his hands into his coat pocket, "I told her about us."
"Oh!" she was shocked to hear that, though it only made sense, he wouldn't want to keep a secret like that. He would want to get it out and apologize.
"I- I didn't say your name or anything, I just told her that I slept with someone," he was running his hand through his hair again. It must be a nervous habit of his.
"How did she take it?"
"She threw a clock at my head," there was a bit of an uncomfortable silence between them until he spoke again, "We're getting a divorce."
She felt her heart race for a second and the thought that it was her fault danced across her mind, "Because of-" she couldn't finished so she settled for pointing between the two of them.
"No! No not at all," he tried to reassure her that none of it was because of her and she let out a sigh of relief, "It's been a long time coming I think. I just realized that I was done fighting a losing battle so I left. I'm going to file the papers once the holidays are over."
"I'm glad," she said before she thought and quickly tried to recover, "It's just that, you know it wasn't healthy and all and it's not because of us, not that there is an us I just meant what happened between us and it's not a big deal, it was just sex, I mean unless you want it to be a big deal but it totally doesn't have to be I just thought that… I'm rambling." She was blushing and he had a look somewhere between absolute confusion and adoration, "So what are you doing here," she asked to quickly change the subject.
"Oh," he bent down and picked up a brown paper bag that he must have dropped when they ran into each other, "You left your things in my car, I was returning them. I didn't think that you would be here."
"Well there's only so much family you can handle, I came in to get some peace and quiet," she explained and took the bag from him.
"Okay, I uh, I better get going," he said eyeing the exit down the hall, "But um, are we okay? I mean, nothing awkward between us?"
"Not at all, back to friends, the way it was," she said but still a part of her was hoping for something more. He was halfway down the hall before she got the courage to ask him the question that had been burning on her mind all day, "Greg!" He stopped and turned to face her, the harsh hospital lights dancing off of his silver hair and making him look worn out. His long black pea coat hugged his body and she realized how attractive he was. "About the texts, did you mean it? That you don't regret it I mean."
"Of course I meant it."
As always reviews are greatly appreciated!
