It's Friday which means it's the weekend...yay! I have plans to write this weekend. As I forgot to mention it earlier in the week congrats to Ben for finally receiving his CBE from the queen, I've seen some lovely pics and gifs referring to him wearing a sheet last time he went or nicking an ashtray, very funny. If any of you want to find me on tumblr my name is the same as here so look me up.

Finally thank you for all your reviews as always. You can never send me too many.

Chapter 4

The rest of the evening passed off fairly uneventfully. The two couples chatted for an hour or so about their different jobs, universities they had attended. There was the typical oh I know such and such who lived in your home town/went to your university do you know them kind of questions. Molly was almost sure that Sherlock was making the names up for his own amusement but she didn't say anything.

With all the travelling though it had been a long day and Molly found herself growing more and more tired and knew she wasn't holding up her end of the conversation. After her third yawn Sherlock finally got the hint and they made their excuses and left promising to meet up at some point the next day.

The fire in their bedroom was almost out when they got back. Sherlock threw some smaller logs on to build it back up and deferred to Molly regarding the use of the bathroom. 'You go to bed, I'll stay up a bit longer. I need to think, catalogue everything I've learnt so far about the hotel and its occupants.'

'OK, good night Sherlock.' Molly hesitated a second but then went over to where he was sitting and placed a quick kiss on his cheek. 'Don't stay up too late and...I know it's a bit odd but I don't have an issue with you sharing the bed, in case you were thinking about being chivalrous.'

Sherlock snorted, 'Molly, when have you ever known me to be chivalrous. I never had any qualms about sharing the bed, it's a king size so plenty of room for both of us.'

Molly rolled her eyes behind his back and decided to leave him to it.

As she climbed into the bed a few minutes later and closed her eyes she found it calm and comforting hearing the crackle of the fire and knowing that, for once, she wasn't alone as she slept. It had been nearly six months since she had broken up with Tom and she hadn't been with anyone else in that time. She wasn't sure she ever would again, at least not seriously, not whilst she still felt how she did about Sherlock. What would be the point, involving herself with someone, leading them to believe they could be something serious when all the time she was in love with another man. She still remembered the hurt and pain on Tom's face when she had ended things, how could she consciously ever do that to someone again.

Slowly she slid a finger over her lips remembering the moment when Sherlock had kissed her earlier. She had thought her time away with Sherlock would be fun, a holiday. She hadn't considered how painful it would be to see him pretending to be in love with her. She could almost touch the dream; see how good they would be together. He was making her fall even deeper in love with him; something she hadn't thought was even possible. She was going to have to be careful.

MHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMH

Sherlock meanwhile was in his mind palace but he had long since finished his work on this trivial case. He already knew who the thief was it was just a question of how long he kept that information to himself.

Instead his mind was occupied with the small pathologist currently lying in the bed a few feet from him. She was the reason he was here and she was the reason he wouldn't end the case too early.

He went over their interactions since the morning and he was happy with how things were progressing. She obviously hadn't believed the soliloquy he had given to that couple, about how he had fallen in love, even though it had all been the truth but it had given him the perfect opportunity to kiss her. Granted it had only been very brief, given it had been under such a public scrutiny, but Sherlock had already given it pride of place in Molly's room. He hadn't realised her lips would be so soft, that the feeling of her yielding to him at that moment, her hand burning his thigh, would have been so sexually stimulating. He would have to engineer a reason for them to kiss again and soon.

His mind now flicked to the bed, he could tell by her breathing that she had fallen asleep. Although he had been honest earlier about not being bothered about sharing a bed with her he was suddenly feeling...he tried to pin down the emotion. Recognising feelings in himself was not something he often did, was he nervous, scared? He frowned; fear was not something he liked to see in himself. He shook himself out of his reverie and forced himself to get ready for bed. He needed to just do rather than think.

The bed was warm when he slid between the covers; he'd forgotten how welcoming a bed could be when there was another warm body in it. He settled himself lying on his back with his arm above his head excruciatingly conscious of Molly lying inches from him. He wasn't sure he would sleep at all that night...

The next morning Sherlock woke to find himself wrapped around Molly with her back pressed up against his chest and his hand on her breast over her nightshirt.

He almost, almost squeaked, in a very unmanly fashion, but instead slowly edged backwards out of the bed so he and his quite obvious erection could go and hide in the bathroom. He was just glad that Molly had not woken up and realised what had happened.

As he quietly closed the door to the bathroom Molly opened her eyes and bit her lip as she rolled onto her back and looked at the bathroom door.

She had awoken about five minutes before and had quickly realised that they had become entangled in the night. She could feel Sherlock's hand on her breast and his erection pressed against her leg. She had just been contemplating what to do when he had come too and quickly started to leave the bed. He was obviously mortified or more probably disgusted that they had ended up like that. No wonder he'd made every effort not to wake her. For Molly though it was just another thing for her fantasy bank, another action which made it harder for her not to want him and God did she want him, more so at this moment than ever.

SHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH

Sherlock felt better after the shower, if not a little guilty about using Molly's image to assist him in the elimination of his hard on. He watched the news headlines on the small television whilst he waited for Molly to get ready. He was already missing his phone and his laptop, how on earth had anybody kept up to date with anything without technology. He felt as though he were missing his right arm without it.

He was momentarily distracted when Molly came out of the bathroom wrapped in nothing but a towel, wet hair dripping onto her bare shoulders.

'Sorry, just forgot my...erm...some of my things.'

She rummaged in one of the drawers before extracting a plum coloured bra which she tried to hide by her side as she made her way back into the bathroom. Sherlock shifted uncomfortably in his seat, the jeans which he currently wore feeling a little tighter all of a sudden. He hadn't considered that Molly would wear such strong coloured underwear. He'd always imagined her in whites and creams, maybe a pale pink or a pastel blue. Now all of a sudden he had images of Molly in reds, blacks, purples and bright blues.

He groaned and tried to think about something else.

'Are you OK Sherlock?'

His eyes snapped open to find Molly stepping out of the bathroom fully dressed and rubbing her wet hair with another towel.

'What, yes, of course. I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?' He regretted snapping at her as soon as he had finished.

'Sorry, you just looked a little flushed that's all. Did you sleep alright?'

'Yes, fine.' He closed down the conversation by telling Molly he would meet her downstairs for breakfast. 'I want to see if they've got a newspaper, something, anything to relieve the boredom. I honestly don't see why I can't have my laptop, this is ridiculous.'

He banged his way out of the room and left Molly to dry her hair.

When she found him in the dining room he was drinking a black coffee and reading what looked like a two day old Daily Mail. He grunted when she sat down with her tea and ignored her as she picked up the menu.

Caroline, the owner, came over to take Molly's order. 'I'm sorry again Mr Hooper about the lack of a current newspaper.' She turned to Molly when Sherlock didn't respond, 'it's the snow you see, I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't snowed in. Alf's going to go out to check the road soon but, unsurprisingly, we haven't had either a newspaper or any other delivery this morning. Don't you worry though, we're used to this, it won't be the first year it's happened. We have plenty of provisions although we might have to rely on UHT milk in a day or so if we are snowed in.'

Molly took advantage of someone else cooking to order a full English breakfast. By the time it arrived Sherlock seemed a bit more cheerful. He threw the newspaper down on the chair at the side of him and absentmindedly nicked a slice of bacon off Molly's plate whilst he chatted to her about some of the other guests in the hotel.

Molly tried not to stab his hand with her fork as he stole the bacon order your own bacon... andlistened to his deductions.

'The chap on his own, pretending to be here to walk but he's no walker. Gay, American, here for another reason but I don't have enough information yet so don't know if he's relevant.'

He went to take Molly's sausage but this time he did get his hand slapped. Molly called Caroline over and ordered some food for him.

Sherlock just rolled his eyes and carried on, 'the two elderly couples. The woman with the bad dye job hates her husband, she should have divorced him ten years ago. She keeps making eyes at the walker, not knowing he's gay though, so pointless. The husband meanwhile is flirting with the woman in the other couple. They're still in love though...'

His plate of food arrived and he picked up his knife and fork.

'What about the woman on her own?' Asked Molly. She seemed a little familiar but Molly couldn't place her.

'The writer, Angela Smith, trashy crime novels, no real plot. The ones I have read I solved within a few pages. She knows Caroline, they appear to be friends. I suspect she comes here to write given the ink stain on her thumb and the fact she isn't engaging with any other guests.'

'The three business people are fun. The dark haired guy is on drugs, heroin, new to the addiction so the signs are subtle. If we are snowed in and he has no supply he will start to get withdrawal symptoms.

The other two are trying to carry on a secret affair. She's married and just found out she's pregnant, she doesn't know if it's her husbands or not.'

Molly sat looking at Sherlock, feeling a bit shocked. 'God does everyone have some kind of secret? At least Andy and Claire seemed normal last night.'

Sherlock just looked at her and raised an eyebrow. 'Do you observe nothing Molly? Honestly you're as bad as John.' He wanted to ask her how she always saw him, knew him so well, but he knew why.

'What, tell me.'

'Andy had an affair. They've come here to try to salvage their relationship. Claire is struggling to accept what happened and in all likelihood will end the relationship when they return home.'

'How...how did you get that from our conversation with them last night?'

'Andy was overly chatty, desperate to keep the conversation light and happy...too desperate. She was quiet, withdrawn, wouldn't look him in the eye. Plus when I explained how I fell in love with you she almost started to cry.'

Molly knew she was holding her cutlery a little too tightly after he mentioned falling in love with her. She had to consciously relax her hands. She would give anything to believe it were true. She figured if he saw her reaction he probably had no idea what he had said or done to cause it.

It was at that moment that Andy and Claire walked in.

Sorry if it feels like a bit of a filler chapter, things will start to hot up soon (in more ways than one). Next update will be on Sunday. Have a great weekend.