Disclaimer: I own nothing. Boo-hoo right? If I did, Sherlock/Molly would be canon. Like hardcore canon.
Pairing: Sherlock/Molly, (past)Molly/OC, John/Mary
Summary: Three years after the Fall and everything is back to normal. Until it isn't. Molly Hooper's past decides to rear its ugly head and she's going to need all the help she can get to stop the man who wants her dead.
Authors Note at the bottom along with shoutouts! Love you all. You're amazing. I apologize for any mistakes!
Free Falling into the Unknown
Chapter 4
The first time Nate Johnson sees Molly Hooper, she's thirteen years old and broken. Her eyes are haunted and she doesn't say much. She stays cooped up in the spare bedroom and sometimes even her father can't coax her out of it. Nate doesn't know a lot of the details, just that Frank Hooper is his dad's best friend and he was part of a secret British organization that apparently, if Molly is anything to go by, completely fucked them over.
So, when Frank pulls him aside one day (exactly fourteen days, nine hours and thirty-six minutes after they move in) and tells him quietly, with a cup of tea, about what happened and practically pleads with him to look out for Molly, Nate doesn't hesitate to say yes. There's something about the brown haired, doe-eyed girl that Nate is ultimately sure will bring him to his knees. He tries to talk to her. He tries to get her to go to the beach. During the first few months, she only talks to him a handful of times and most of them along the lines of "leave me alone please."
Then one day, it changes.
It's late at night and the house is quiet and Nate can't sleep. He almost gives up and plans to sneak to the beach for a swim but then he hears noises. Little whimpering noises that claw at his gut. He's fifteen and already a decent fighter (his father demands nothing less.) Then he realizes the little whimpering noises that claw at his gut are coming from Molly's room. He doesn't hesitate to go in (Nate will find that he'll never hesitate when it comes to Molly) and finds her curled into a ball and crying. Or trying not to cry. She has her hands on top of her mouth trying to muffle the sobs but Nate heard them. (Nate will always hear Molly.)
"Molly?" He asks quietly, gently shutting her door and making his way into the darkened room. "Is everything okay?" Well, that was a stupid question. Of course it's not okay. She's crying, you moron.
She shakes her head but stays on her side and doesn't answer him.
He wants to hug her. He wants to comfort her. Most of all, he wants to fix her. He has a twisted need to help the helpless. He knows however, that she probably wouldn't appreciate a practical stranger climbing into bed with her and holding her, so he walks over the side where she's curled up and slides onto the floor, his back braced against the bed. "I'm here." He says. "I'm here and I won't leave you. I'll…I'll protect you. You're told me what happened and I promise that as long as I'm alive he won't ever hurt you. I can help you. Please Molly, please let me help you."
She says nothing just hiccups through her sobs and he sighs and settles himself in for a long night on the floor. He won't leave her. Not like this. Not ever, really, because there's something about Molly Hooper that connects her to him. Maybe it's the fact that she's taken refuge in his house, or maybe it's because she's alone, but Nate knows it's deeper than that.
She sniffles and hesitantly reaches out her hand. He grabs it and gives it a squeeze. She squeezes back, interlaces their fingers and doesn't let go.
(This is the moment that will change the both of them. This is the moment where they'll come to depend on each other for so much, it will sometimes, literally take his breath away.)
From that day on, they're inseparable. He coaxes her out of her shell bit by bit and isn't surprised to find that she's still shy around people, but not around him. Never around Nate. They fight, of course they do. They're teenagers, it's ingrained in them to fight. He keeps to his word and protects her. At school, she gets teased sometimes and it doesn't bother her as much as it bothers him. She has an accent and she's incredibly smart, if not a little bit morbid, but that's what he likes about her. She's different.
He joins the Navy when he's eighteen and it's not a surprise to anyone. Navy is in his blood; he's been groomed for this since he was kid. He always knew he would go into it. Which is why he doesn't know why it hurts when he realizes that he'll have to leave Molly.
Molly for her part sits on his bed quietly and watches while he packs. He's doesn't leave for a couple of days but he's always been an early packer. She's in the middle of his bed (her favorite spot) and sitting with her legs tucked underneath her. They've been in this position before. She's sixteen and he's eighteen and they've stolen kisses in his room. In her room. She's hesitant and shy and so utterly Molly. He finds it unbelievable cute.
Today though, today is different. Their fathers aren't in the house and it's the middle of the day, the sun shining brilliantly. She tugs at his hand and he looks at her. She biting her lip and she nods lightly. He gulps (it's not like he hasn't done this before but she's Molly and he's Nate and it seems wrong on some sort of level) but then she interlaces their fingers and suddenly it feels right.
(It hurts for her and she lets a few tears slip down her cheeks. He kisses them away. He kisses her pain away until they're both moving and soaring and fucking flying. She's exhilarating. He loves her. He tries to deny it. He's been trying to deny it but not anymore.)
(She hates goodbyes so they don't say it. Instead, they settle on forever and always, surpassing even eternity because Molly is in his head. She's in his blood. She's in his heart. Forever. Always.)
God, he's so fucked.
He meets Glenn on his first day at Camp. They bond instantly and Nate knows that Glenn would love Molly because once someone gets past her shy exterior; they'll find that she's funny and so fucking smart. He tells Glenn about her and Glenn shakes his head and says he's lucky he's got such a great girlfriend.
(Nate doesn't bother correcting him.)
When he goes home, they fall into the same pattern, exchanging I've missed you, I love you, and oh God, please until it all feels like its coming from the same person. It always breaks him just a little more to leave her.
She's eighteen and he's back home when she tells him that she and her father are moving back to London. His heart stops. He doesn't tell her no. Doesn't tell her she can't go. He'd never do that to her. So, instead he just shrugs and smiles at her, "I've always wanted to see Big Ben."
She laughs and tackles him and they fall into the same pattern. (And if he's a little bit more desperate, a little bit more attentive, well, neither of them mentions it.)
He's right. Glenn and Molly get along well. So well that they sometimes gang up on him. They're a little team, the three of them. ("The Three Musketeers," "The Three Amigos," "The Three Blind Mice!"…"No, Glenn, just…no.")
He'll always see her after a mission, he and Glenn are Navy SEALs by now and they're both outrageously proud of it, sometimes Glenn will come, sometimes he won't. He and Glenn go to her graduation though. She's done and he's so fucking proud of her. She's a pathologist and got a job before she even finished her studies, not many can boast that, she doesn't but Nate does (Glenn does too.)
(Her father is sick and isn't able to attend the ceremony but Nate tapes it all for him.)
When her father does die, he leaves, with permission, in the dead of the night and flies to London. He's there for the funeral. He's there to watch her fall apart and he's there to put her back together. They've gotten through everything else, they can get through this.
(He's known about O'Doyle since he was fifteen and with her losing her father, he promises himself that he'll be around more often. It doesn't matter if the bastard is rotting in prison, he won't ever, ever get to Molly.)
Molly meets men. They come and go and Nate has never been bothered by them. He's met women and they come and go and she's never been bothered by them either because they keep going back to each other.
Then Molly meets Sherlock Holmes.
And Nate loses a game he didn't even know he was playing.
(He hates Sherlock on principle.)
He surprises her one Christmas. She's wearing an amazing dress that shows off all the curves he knows she has. He hasn't touched her in any way in three years and he's okay with it, he finds that he craves Molly more than he craves her body (it doesn't make any sense, Glenn constantly tells him it doesn't make any sense, but it makes sense to him). Then she sees him and bursts into tears, sobbing out the entire story and yeah, he was right, he hates Sherlock.
He cracks that night as he unzips her dress and worships her body. For those blissful hours, she's his and he's hers and Sherlock fucking Holmes doesn't exist.
Then he finds out that O'Doyle escaped prison and is hell-bent on revenge. Then Glenn finds out Moriarty is O'Doyle's nephew and Molly is in danger. Then he finds out the Consulting Detective is dead (but not really). Then he finds out that the not-so-dead Consulting Detective is sleeping in Molly's bed.
Then he comes face-to-face with O'Doyle and gets stabbed.
(God, he's so fucked.)
Sherlock makes Molly cry. Seeing Molly cry is the worst thing in the world for Nate. Nate really really wanted to shoot Sherlock but Molly got in the way, so he didn't. He wishes he did. Especially now.
Because the Consulting Detective is staring at him in the face and all Nate wants to do is blow his head off. He's not even that pissed that Molly has fallen out of love with him and in love with Sherlock, it hurts, of course it does, but he always saw this day coming, he's just pissed that she's decided to give her heart to a complete and utter fucking douche bag.
Glenn sighs and Molly fidgets. John Watson is looking at everyone but the people in the room and Mycroft Holmes is leaning against an umbrella. It's not even raining. Must be a British thing then.
"You need my help." Sherlock says, his voice deep, "don't deny it. I'm the best."
"Modest too." Glenn spits out spitefully.
Sherlock blinks. "Why would I be modest? It's the truth."
"What my brother means to say," Mycroft cuts in, his voice softer than his brother's, "is that it's imperative we catch Mr. O'Doyle before anyone else ends up dead."
Glenn clenches his fists (he knows all about Glenn's history with O'Doyle too and Nate wants to kill him for making his two best friends miserable) and Molly closes her eyes, as if trying to shield herself from the pain.
"Since he's after Molly," Sherlock cuts in, "I'll stay with her-"
Nate's up before he knows it, pinning Sherlock to the wall, forearm against his throat. "Like hell you will." He snarls and he sees Glenn get up too. "You stay the fuck away from her. You wanna help, fine, help. I don't care how, I don't care when or anything like that, but Molly's protection is between Glenn and me. No one else."
"You are allowing sentiment to cloud-" Sherlock's eyes are fierce with a challenge and Nate really really wants to shoot him.
"It's fine." Molly interrupts. "Glenn and Nate, they know what they're doing. I'll be safe with them. You can…you can come to lab…check in…whatever you see fit, but Nate and Glenn are staying with me. You don't…you don't have to bother yourself with me. I know you're only doing this because Mycroft's asked you and because O'Doyle really does need to go back to prison but…I'll be fine."
Nate is the only one who sees it because he's the only one in Sherlock's face but his bright blue eyes fall with an emotion and desperation that Nate is all too familiar with. Sherlock looks at Molly with a little bit of disbelief and an indefinite amount of hurt before he slams his walls back up again and shrugs Nate's hands off of him. "As you wish. Leave. Now. All of you."
Nate and Glenn usher Molly out but not before they hear the telltale music of a violin. It's haunting, sad, desperate and utterly and completely Sherlock Holmes.
It's been a week since the impromptu meeting at 221b Baker Street. Either Glenn or Nate are with Molly in the lab or in morgue but they're both with her at night. Unless Glenn has a date.
Nothing happens. There are no updates and Sherlock is getting agitated and cranky and he's being an even bigger asshole than Nate originally thought he was.
Today though…today is different. He doesn't know why. Doesn't know how but today is...different. It's in the air; it's almost electric, clinging to his every nerve. He doesn't say anything, doesn't want to frighten Molly who is having trouble sleeping and Nate finds himself sitting on the floor, clutching her hand more than once.
They're in the morgue today, the sun is starting to go down and Molly is sewing up a dead woman's body (heart-attack). "Molly…why?..." how can he put this lightly? "Why Sherlock Holmes?"
She pauses and looks up at him. She's silent as she studies him and then her eyes take on a sad look and he knows that underneath her mask, she's smiling sadly at him. "Because he's brilliant and even though he doesn't show it, he does care. He's complex and hard to understand but he's…he's Sherlock."
He's Sherlock and she's Molly and she helped him when no one else could. The fact of the matter is that Sherlock chose her.
"You know I love you." She says suddenly. "No one, nothing is ever going to change that. You've been there for me and you've done everything for me. It doesn't matter who comes or who goes, I love you and nothing will ever change that. Besides, you die, I die, remember?" God, he does remember. Promises made late at night, whispering and holding each other tightly from the comedown of sweet euphoria. (They're morbid at heart, the both of them.)
Then he lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Good, because I love you too." (He's never stopped; he just needs to learn to let go.)
Her phone rings. "Hello? Oh, Doctor MacKenzie! Yes…yes…not with me no, I took it home to go over it…No, I've never heard of him…interesting, well, yes, I suppose I could…oh, it's no problem, it's just at my flat. I'll run over and get it…won't be but thirty minutes. Yes…no, it's no problem. See you soon." She hangs up and looks at him. "I've got to run to my flat and get a report."
His phone chimes and he looks at it, gut suddenly churning. "It's Holmes. Says he's got news about O'Doyle."
"Go." She says. "I'll take one of janitors with me."
"Call Glenn."
"He's probably meeting you there, remember? I'll take three of them if that will make you feel better."
"It won't. I'll go with you and then we can-"
"Nate. It's been a week and nothing's happened. I'll take three of your very expertly trained people. It's a half hour, round trip. I'll be fine. Let's just get him, yeah?"
He's hesitating but Molly is ushering him out the door and Nate points to three of his men. "Eyes vigilant and do not let anyone close to her." He orders. He looks at Molly, the pain intensifying in his chest and gut. "I love you Mo."
"Forever and always." She promises.
"Surpassing even eternity."
Everything has been fine. It's been a week.
But today…today…is different.
He makes it into 221b and hears commotion before he sees anything.
"I assure you I did not send a message." He hears Sherlock's haughty voice.
"Listen, you prick," Glenn snaps, "I got a message from Nate telling me that you sent him a message saying that you had information. So, stop being such a fucking asshole and tell me what you've got."
"Nate." John sighs in relief as soon as he spots him, "please tell them that Sherlock did not send you a message."
"You did." Nate answers slowly, dread building in her entire body. Oh God. "You sent me a message saying you had information about O'Doyle." He turns and looks at Glenn, "but I didn't send you a message."
It takes a second; just a second and he can see that Sherlock comes to the same conclusion at the same time Nate does.
Then Nate's stomach does a twist and turn and he feels like he's going to be sick. "Molly."
Then he runs.
Bit of a long chapter but Nate really wanted a chapter dedicated to him. So, here it is. LOL. A little bit of back story between Nate and Molly and Nate, Nate, Nate, you naughty naughty boy, you always told Molly to listen to her instincts, why not listen to yours? Tsk-tsk. Next chapter we meet O'Doyle, the little psychopath he is and it yes, there will be quite the confrontation between Sherlock and Nate in the next chapter. Honestly, did you expect anything less from the two of them?
I want to give a HUGE SHOUTOUT TO MY AWESOME REVIEWERS: MorbidbyDefault, personofnoconcern3000, Rocking the Redhead, Guest, susieqsis, coloradoandcolorado1, Lono, Adi Who is Also Mou, magicstrikes and Zora Arian. If I missed anyone let me know. You guys are awesome and I love you. So so so much. Also HUGE SHOUTOUT to everyone who has read/alerted/subscribed/favorited you guys make me weak in the knees!
And I've got to do this because I love Inception and I love Sherlock and the two of them are so completely awesome but together, they are awesome'er. You guys need to check out actressen fic Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Sleepwalkers. And it has Arthur/Ari. GUYS ARTHUR/ARI. Okay, that is it that is all.
Seriously though, you guys are amazing. You really know how make a girl feel loved especially when I'm feeling as shitty as I am today. God I hate the cold. And being sick. I'm such a baby.
Thanks again and much love!
