The seventh time is after the breakup.
It's been three weeks since the wedding. John and Mary are likely packing for the trip home from their honeymoon; no one's heard from Sherlock for a while and Molly…well, God knows what she's up to now because Greg certainly doesn't.
Since the wedding she's cut herself off from practically everyone she knows. She won't even talk to Greg when before she could open up to him more than she could anyone. She doesn't even look him in the eye when he sees her at work. When he asks her what's up, she'll always answer with "This isn't a good time," or "I just need time to think." He doesn't blame her. Anyone would need some space and time to think after cheating on their fiancé. He's almost certain that even Carol took the time to think after the first time she cheated on him. Hell, even he took the time to think after he first slept with Molly.
He understands and he doesn't pry, pressure or push her into opening up the way she did before, but three weeks was pushing it.
He thinks a lot about it too when he has the time to. Every now and then he'll be found at the pub staring into his pint of lager in deep thought. Sometimes he'll stare for hours and be pressured by a waitress or bartender to leave for closing time. If he finds another pub open he'll drink there. If not, too bad. He's not usually the type to vent about his love life to strangers at the bar or anyone, for that matter, but now and then he'll find a friendly face in the pub to talk to.
His grievances don't go unnoticed. Sherlock, of course, deduces what happened almost immediately after John and Mary leave for the honeymoon and leaves him to it. He hasn't had one day at work without someone asking him what's up since the wedding. Even Meg notices it the next time he sees her for lunch.
"It's just that you look like I smashed your Depeche Mode record all over again," she says. "It's a woman, isn't it? Or is it a bloke?"
"Woman," he explains. "Her name's Molly Hooper and she works in the morgue at St. Bart's."
Meg nods, but doesn't smile. He knows that the divorce has been hard on her and the idea of her parents seeing other people scares the shit out of her. He's had to bail her out thrice because of it. Greg looks at his daughter and takes her hand.
"Hey," he says. "You're still my girl. You know that, right?"
She nods again. It takes a minute for her to hold her father's hand in return.
After lunch Meg waves goodbye with the closest thing to a smile that she's capable of. Greg waves back and watches her until she disappears into the crowd. He feels like he's watching her walk to her first day of school all over again.
On his way home there's a couple at a café that catches his eye, having coffee and engaging in what looks like a very deep and very emotional conversation. The woman, who turns out to be Molly Hooper, wipes away a tear as the man, whom he's never seen before, holds her hand in a gesture of comfort. For a moment, Greg feels a pang of jealousy, but a closer look stops that feeling when he notices the man's familiar mannerism and profile. When Molly drinks what looks like a kind of herbal tea, the man sitting with her is offered his second serving of an iced mochaccino topped with a cloud of whipped cream and caramel and the biggest and fattest brownie that Greg has ever seen.
Recovering alcoholics tend to pick up a sweet tooth.
Greg smiles weakly. He doesn't need to be as clever as Sherlock to know who this man is.
It rains the next time he sees her. She's just walked block after block in the pouring rain with a birdcage umbrella just to see him. She knocks on the door and smiles when he opens it.
"Hi," he says, surprised to see her.
"Hello."
There's an awkward silence. No sound but the rain.
"You look well," he says.
"I am."
"Good."
Awkward silence.
"Can I come in?"
"Yeah, of course."
He opens the door for her and offers her tea.
"No, thanks. I just wanted to…well, I thought…maybe we could…catch up?"
"Sure."
Another awkward silence.
"How are things?" he asks.
"Good. Things are good. Well, good as they can be anyway."
As she says this, Molly takes off her gloves. Greg half expects a white gleam to shine from her finger, but he finds it bare. There isn't even a tan-line where the ring used to be.
"Oh," he says. "I see."
Molly barely smiles and shows him her left hand. "Yeah," she says. "Turns out some things aren't meant to be, I guess."
"Molly."
Greg steps forwards to hug her as a way of comfort, but she doesn't cry. She's just glad to feel him holding her again. She always did love the way he hugged her. She leans into his shoulder and sighs peacefully when he strokes her hair.
"Are you okay?" he asks. "Because it's okay if you're not."
"I'm fine," she says and she means it. "I'm over it. Didn't take me long to."
"When did you split up, if you don't mind me asking?"
"About a week ago. We discussed it over tea and agreed that we just weren't working and that we were better off as friends. Anyway, he was awful in bed."
Greg lightly chuckles as he parts from Molly and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I'm sorry you had to do that, Molls."
"Actually, Tom ended it."
"He did? Why?"
"Because of you."
Greg's eyes widen to hear this. "Me?"
"Yeah. You. Not that he didn't like you, or anything, far from it, he thought you were lovely. But he saw you at the wedding and how close we were and…well, he said that I seemed more comfortable with you than with him and that I didn't seem to love him as much as I said or as much as he loved me, so he ended it."
"Huh."
Perhaps Tom wasn't half the idiot Greg thought him to be.
"Wow, I, uh…I'm sorry."
But Molly squints with a sardonic smile that reminds him of Meg when she's suspicious of something. "You're not really, are you?"
Greg thinks for a moment and shakes his head. They both laugh. He never did like Tom and seeing Molly as free as the wind is probably the best thing that's happened all month.
"It's okay, Greg, I know you've never liked him."
"Well…"
"Greg?"
Greg takes a deep breath and finally agrees to let it out: "I couldn't stand the fucker, Molls! I mean, honestly, meat dagger? What the hell did you see in him? The man had the wit and intelligence of a cheese sandwich and was just as compelling!"
Molly laughs heartily as Greg continues his rant on her ex's intelligence (or lack thereof, according to Greg), tastelessness, tedium and whatever other flaw he can think of. Eventually, Molly stops laughing, but Greg continues to rant until Molly stops his mouth with a kiss. It takes him by surprise, but he responds. It's a more playful kiss than all the others they've shared. Their arms wrap around each other as tightly as ropes. His forehead stays on hers when they part with wide and warm smiles.
"Better?"
He nods. "Better."
He kisses her again and again until her fingers are in his hair.
"Greg," she says. "As silly as Tom could be sometimes, I think he was right about something."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I didn't love him the way I said I did and I was more comfortable with you than I was with him. I was on that amazing night after the wedding and I was those other times and…I don't want us to be friends with benefits, Greg. I want you."
Hearing all this, Greg thinks he must look like a complete idiot with the way he grins from ear to ear, but for the moment he doesn't care.
"Maybe we could…start over? From the top?"
He nods, beaming. "I'd like that."
Greg kisses Molly deeply. So deeply it makes them both weak. Her tongue plunges through his lips and invades his mouth and makes him grunt. His body presses closer against hers and makes her gasp when she finds that he's just as hard as she is wet.
"Well," she says. "We don't have to start from the very top."
Greg chuckles again and agrees. They snog and grope their way into the bedroom and leave a trail of clothes behind them.
When they fall back on the bed, naked and writhing, it's different from the other times. Greg is tender with Molly and doesn't care to pleasure himself as well as he does to pleasure her, even when she touches him and sucks him off. He wants to please her and he does. He obeys her every command and asks for nothing in return. He kisses her, touches her, tastes her and makes her come several times. It hits him when he's close:
"I love you, Molly."
When he comes he leaves a trail of messy kisses from her lips to her neck and collapses next to her. When she has her breath back she moves to rest in his arms, listening to his heartbeat. She places a playful kiss to his chest.
"I love you too."
Greg smiles and kisses the top of her head.
"So," he says. "About this whole 'starting over' thing…what are you doing this Saturday?"
