Chapter Three

'An Unexpected Surprise'

She stirs, some strange chill working its way through the levels of her exhausted mind, rousing her from her fitful slumber. Her body registers its complaints, aches and prickling tingles from where she's slept far too long in a position it was not healthy to adopt.

Not her usual resting place, this painfully hard desk of hers, but she hadn't meant to fall asleep here. She vaguely remembers the words on her report becoming more and more blurry, but that moment of falling asleep is obscured. It had been one hell of a night, and hopefully she wouldn't have to face it again any time soon. A brand new sparkling corpse, literally sparkling (apparently someone thought it was a viable method to choke someone in a vat of glitter, the damn stuff was never going to get out of her morgue), which none of her co-workers were on call to handle which meant she had to work on her day off. To make matters worse she'd been stood up for a date before being called in, so she wasn't exactly in the best of moods. But the icing on the cake had been the bloody screaming match Donovan and Holmes got into in her morgue, one that she couldn't mediate, only listen to as they bickered over her corpse.

It had been the epitome of a long day, and she'd ended up crashing at her desk.

She blinks blearily, trying to bring the world back into focus and she freezes.

There's a mug sitting on her desk.

It's a cute mug, with tumbling kittens and bright colours. Exactly the type of mug that she would own. Except it wasn't hers.

It contains something hot, she can see the spirals of steam dancing merrily above the edge of the cup, unaware of the fact that they shouldn't exist. She blinks again, half convinced that she's merely dreaming, and when that fails to make the vision vanish she raises her head from her arms. Something slides off of her shoulders, bunching at her back as she straightened up. A quick glance showed her it was her blanket, the one she kept in her office for occasions just like this. Except she hadn't grabbed it before she went to sleep, having not intended to fall asleep at her desk.

She can smell the contents of the mug. A powerful rich scent, a promise of luxurious coffee that had no doubt been the cause of her awakening. If she's right, and she usually is, it's a very fine Italian coffee. One of her very few vices. Certainly not a coffee that was widely available in the Hospital.

Her fingers itched to pick it up, to embrace the warmth of the cup and let the coffee shake her brain awake. But an association with Sherlock Holmes had taught her caution in randomly accepting drinks. Not that she thought there was any reason anyone wanted to hurt her.

There was a note, cursive curling script scrawled across a spare sheet of paper.

'Molly,

Sleeping at one's desk is terrible for one's health. As a doctor you should be aware of that.

Have the coffee before you try to drive home.

It's safe.

SH'

A soft grin spread across her face, Sherlock Holmes had brought her coffee. She recognised the handwriting, having become painfully aware of the graceful loops and arches on anything he signed. He had made her coffee, something she wasn't sure he'd ever done for John. She was reasonably sure he hadn't poisoned it, after all he may flatter her or cut her with sharp words, but he didn't lie to her.

Whatever his motivations were, this was nice. With the way her days seemed to be going a little bit of niceness was exactly what she needed. The fact that it came from the one person she never expected niceness from made it all the more special.

Wait…

When had Sherlock seen her coffee order? She always got him coffee, and he was never around her enough to notice it.

How…Curious.

Authors note: Greetings :)

This weeks offering is a little short, and i apologize for that. There is a LOT of reading for my Masters that i'm expected to do, which is...daunting to say the least.

Oh...I might be reworking the description, so if it suddenly changes, then i did :D

Anyway, please let me know what you think so far :D

I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day,

Ta ta for now,

~MadamRed