I own nothing, nothing, nothing! I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, but I will make up for it tomorrow. The next one is much more fun!
Red Wine and Thai Food
And that was how Project Save Watson's Marriage began. At least that is what Molly had dubbed it. Of course Sherlock would have rolled his eyes at Molly's silliness had he known, but it did have the feel of a proper mission. The fact that he had enlisted Molly's help only proved to her that underneath that callous facade there existed quite a bit of sentiment. Of course, this was not the time to point this fact out to Sherlock. Besides, she really did want to help her friends.
So, with the putrid corpse of Mr Graham between them, Sherlock explained the dire state of John and Mary's marriage and when Molly pried Sherlock for more information, a reason why things went so wrong, be it extramarital affairs, money, addiction, he would not say. He only stated that he had done everything he could to convince John to not give up and John would have none of it.
"Sentiment is not my area, Molly. But you, why you are almost completely controlled by feelings-"
"That's not true! I have responsibilities that require detachment and logical reasoning." Molly asserted.
"Hm, Yes. Perhaps." He sounded completely unconvinced to Molly's frustration. "I meant it as a compliment, of course. I deduced that you would be the ideal person to help convince John to give Mary another chance."
There was one thing that had bothered her. "You've never cared much about John's relationships in the past. Why now?"
"I don't particularly. But John's emotional state is completely unacceptable right now. I can't have him moping around the flat. I find it extremely distracting and it affects my ability to work." Sherlock eyes left Molly and darted around looking at anything but her for a moment.
Oh you liar! Molly had thought and she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Your Best Man speech was practically a declaration of love for the man. She knew then that he really and truly wanted to help John and Mary.
"Alright, okay. I'll help, but what can I do?"
Molly and John arrived at her flat laden down with bags of take away from a little Thai restaurant that she liked, the bag of snack foods required for any self respecting girls night in and another bag with enough wine to inebriate an elephant.
Molly unlocked the door and let John in to set the food on her table while she went to the refrigerator to pop the wine in to chill.
"Boxed wine? That's pretty classy, Dr Hooper." John teased.
"Only the best for my friends, Dr Watson." Molly laughed.
The next thing Molly did was excuse herself for a moment telling John to make himself at home. She went into her room and changed in to her comfiest and least sexy clothing in her ward robe which consisted of drab gray baggy sweat pants and a giant shapeless white t shirt that hung to her knees and had a picture of Madonna (from her Lucky Star days, when she wore the big black bow in her teased hair) adorning the front of it. She had also taken a moment to remove her contact lenses and had replaced them with a pair of glasses.
When she joined John in the sitting room she found that he had set the open containers on the low table in front of her sofa. They had decided to do things proper and forgo the plates in favor of forking the food directly from the take away containers.
John looked up at Molly and did a double take at her change of clothing. He thought she always looked younger than her years, but with all traces of make up scrubbed away and her grubby at home clothes she looked like a child.
"I'm sorry I didn't bring a change of clothes. I didn't know it was a pajama party type of girls night. Or are we repainting your kitchen?"
"If I'm going to properly stuff myself with food and alcohol, I have to prepare." Molly explained. "It's like any sporting event. I've got the uniform and the equipment to do this the right way". She skipped over to the kitchen to grab some glasses and called over to John, "Red or White?"
"Surprise me." John's replied.
She handed him his glass where he sat on her sofa and Molly plopped herself down on a pile of cushions on the floor on other side of the table. Her cat Toby sauntered over and curled around her to receive some attention.
"Cheers." Molly clinked her glass to John's. And then they tucked into the food with great enthusiasm.
Having finished the meal, John leaned back, stretched his legs and gave contented sigh. The sleeves of his cable knit jumper were pushed up almost to his elbows.
"You know, this was a pretty good idea. If this is what a girls night is like, I support it wholeheartedly. But I don't think it's entirely different from a regular night out with mates."
"Well, I thought I would wait until after the meal before we started painting each others nails." Molly said feigning a serious tone. "Then it's on to comparing bra sizes and seeing who fancies sparkly vampires."
"Sparkly vampire? Is that what you're calling Sherlock these days?" John hooted.
Molly who was in the process of sipping her drink choked at that, spraying her mouthful of wine in the process. She was coughing so hard that John jumped up and thumped her on the back until she settled down.
Once she was able, she said, "Okay then I will put down that we are both fans of sparkly vampires." She pretended to be writing it down with an invisible pencil on an invisible note pad.
John had his own fit of coughing that sounded suspiciously like the words Not Gay. "Fine, but I warn you, pink clashes with my complexion. It makes me look sallow." John batted his eyelids dramatically.
They giggled and for a moment they really did sound like a couple of school girls. Then Molly started gathering up the food containers and closing the lids to put the leftovers in the fridge. John stood up to help her.
"So do men talk about their feelings regarding their love lives then, when they get together?" After packing away the food she rinsed her hands under the tap of her kitchen sink and turned to dry them on a dish towel.
"Right. Well, I can't actually speak for the entire male population, can I?" John shrugged. "But considering that I live with Mr. Spock I would have to say no, generally we don't."
"Well this is girls night, so for tonight yes, yes we do." Molly replied sagely.
"Then we're definitely going to need more drinks." John refilled their glasses and they made their way back to the sitting room.
She was really beginning to feel the affects of the wine. She usually limited her intake, but tonight she was throwing caution to the wind in the name of friendship. And she had to admit it made her bold enough to carry on with her mission.
But before she could try to bring up the topic again John surprised her by beating her to it.
"Right then." He said as if making up his mind to do something quite unsavory. "Did you ever know someone who turned out to be just completely different from who you thought they were?" John seemed to be speaking into his glass. His voice was quiet but she could hear the emotion in his tone.
"I would like to point out that we have Sherlock in our lives. He's constantly surprising us, isn't he?" Molly rearranged her cushions to make a comfortable seat on the floor.
John smiled a bit at this. "Hm, but lately he's more of a good kind of surprising. I mean drug relapse aside, yeah?" His brow furrowed as he continued. "But what if ah, you thought a person was good and decent and kind and sweet hmm, but it's like a mask. Just a cover and it's all a lie, just . . ." His voice became gruffer, struggling to get the words out. His eyes seemed unnaturally bright and he blinked several times while trying to maintain some control. He was looking at the ceiling and was actively avoiding meeting Molly's eyes.
Oh God, the man was so broken, Molly felt her insides hurt for him. She got up on her knees and reached across the table and took John's hand. "John, I refuse to believe that Mary is some whole different person. I don't care what she did! She's still Mary, the woman you fell in love with, right?"
"Still Mary." John laughed that bitter laugh again. "Well that's the question, right? Because I really don't know who she is now." He squeezed her hand briefly before pulling it away.
Molly sighed. This was going to be tougher than she had thought but she remained resolute in her purpose. At least he was opening up. That had to be a good sign! "Okay. So she's not quite what you expected. But don't you think it might be possible to get to know this new Mary? Don't you think you should try? She's the mother of your child. Isn't it worth the effort?" She thought she sounded a bit over the top, but the drinks were making it easier for her to be direct.
"I know your right, Molly. But every time I see her, it's just so damn hard. I don't know what to say without sounding angry. I just don't know how to fix this!" He looked desperate and grabbed his glass and chugged the remainder of it's contents.
"It's okay to be angry, John. Whatever happened, it's okay to feel the way you feel. But there comes a time to start moving past it, isn't there? The question is can you move on?"
"That's exactly my point. I don't know if I can. I want to. For Mary. For our baby girl. I just can't find my way through this bloody anger!" He slammed his cup down hard enough that it broke. "Oh damn it, sorry Molly!" He looked shamefully at the damage.
"It's okay John. Don't worry. Did you hurt yourself?" She looked at his hand and there was a tiny cut on the pad of his thumb. Small beads of blood seeped from the wound. Molly retrieved her first aid kit and had the wound bandaged in no time. They cleaned up the broken glass together.
"Maybe we could change the topic for a bit?" He was almost begging her. What could she do but agree. She would let it go for awhile. But they would come back to this before the night was through.
"And Molly?"
"Yes."
"What should we have for dessert?"
Hope the dialogue wasn't too awkward. I'm okay with silly, but it's hard writing serious. Do people really talk so directly about there emotions? I guess in fiction they do! I need a girls night, I think, lol! Poor John! Thanks for reading! Maybe leave a review, if you have a moment?
