A/N: A bit of a short update, sorry. I hope every had a great Thanksgiving, to those who celebrate it. :o)

Mary fumbled in her pocket for the keys until they fell out onto the floor. "Dammit," she muttered. After finally opening the door, she called out, "Harold!" The spider, of course. It did ended up being named Harold, much to Molly's discontent.

The creature greeted her with nothing but spidery silence, quietly resting in its clear, box that was supposed to be an aquarium.

She went and flicked the lights on to the living room of her flat as it was getting dark already. The clouds outside blanketing the sky, and consequently the sun, didn't help, either.

Her flat felt oddly cold as well, yet she was sure the heater was left on. In fact, it was cold enough that every breath could be seen as it turned to white mist. Mary huffed with annoyance and stifled a shiver as she went to check the radiator. It was off, as she had guessed. "That's weird... maybe there was a short power outage or something."

"Ah, much better." The effect of the heat was immediately felt.

Hot coffee sounds rather nice right about now, so Mary plugged the coffeemaker into the outlet. If nothing else, it'd at least warm her up a bit.

Unfortunately, there was nothing but instant coffee at her flat, and not the quality brands, either. However much she liked to hide it, Mary Morstan was not in a financial position to be able to dole out extraneous amounts of money towards expensive coffee beans. Being a nurse might sound like a well-respected career, but it certainly wasn't a well-paid one. There just wasn't much pocket money at the end of the month after covering all the bills.

She wasn't a stranger to this type of lifestyle, having grown used to it from childhood, but that doesn't mean she was fond of it.

Growing up was supposed to make things better, like all those around her had said. She certainly didn't expect it to stay so much of the same, the usual blandness. A part of it was her own fault, she had to admit. She grew older expecting things to become better, thus putting little effort in making it actually so. All the adults were sure keen enough in telling kids that they were great just the way they are and that all will work out. Nobody informed her that you had to put in effort.

Needless to say, she was bitter. Seeing Sherlock today only reinforced that feeling. How was he able to stay so calm, even believing that he has a deadly disease that will cause an early, inevitable death. The memory of their conversation made her frown.

All this reminiscence employed all of her attention, so it was a while before she noticed a slight burning odor.

"What the hell?" Mary muttered. "Is... is my outlet sparking?!"

Sherlock stood at the door of Molly's flat with a box of doughnuts. He had just returned after staying for two hours at Scotland Yard, working on two separate cases with Lestrade and the others. Along the way, as he was strolling back towards Baker Street, an idea came upon him that would definitely make the situation with him and Mary Morstan more interesting. And more fair, if one were to think of the whole thing as a game.

Of course, in order to move forth with his new plan, he had to recruit Molly, and the doughnuts from before was a very convenient ticket.

Although he wished not to admit it, some concealed pieces of him was glad for this opportunity. After the lengthy "heart-to-heart" with Lestrade (which mostly consisted of the two of them arguing about whether Sherlock was at fault or not), it made him realise that perhaps, just perhaps, he shouldn't be so emotionally reclusive.

He knocked.

There was some fumbling inside the flat and a shout of, "Hold on!" Some more sounds of arguing, then footsteps.

A few seconds later, the lock clicked as someone turned it, and the door opened. Molly was standing with hair that seemed messier than usual, a sweatshirt with the word "Oxford" printed on it, and pajama pants. "Oh, hey there, why are you here?"

"Who is it?" An irritated voice behind her uttered.

"Mary Morstan?" Sherlock frowned, taken aback at her presence.

The woman appeared at the doorway wearing an annoyed expression, "Why are you here? I'll have you know I'm not in the best of moods right now, so don't try not to be obnoxious. Molly, do you have any Advil I can take?"

"Yeah, medicine cabinet, top shelf." Molly said absentmindedly with a wave of her hand. Mary disappeared to search for the pills. She turned back to Sherlock and folded her arms. "So why are you here? I thought you had some super serious stuff to attend to, with that phone call and all."

"Doughnuts." Sherlock held the box out towards her.

She eyed the box suspiciously, "Doughnuts?"

"Yes, doughnuts." He affirmed.

"Is this a euphemism for something? Is there a catch?" Molly took the box and peeked inside. A look of surprise grew on her face as she realised that there were actually doughnuts inside.

Sherlock chuckled quietly, "Is it possible for a friend to gift another with a box of doughnuts without having his motives questioned?"

"Well, not with you."

"Okay, as a matter of fact, I do have issues to discuss with you. In private." He eyed inside her flat, but Mary did not reappeared. However, he was not reassured that they were out of the vicinity enough. "It'll take less than a minute, I promise. You'll be able to return to your irritated friend soon enough."

Molly sighed, "Yeah, sure." They stepped out together and continued until they were out of the building and on the sidewalk outside. It was as cold as ever. "So what?"

"So, judging by the fact that Mary is staying at your flat, I'm certain that you know what I've done?"

"Yes," she pursed her lips. "You blew up her circuit! Wasn't that a bit excessive? I mean, she's probably going to be blamed for it and fined." The woman had called Molly an hour and a half before, completely flustered and irate at the unfortunate circumstance. After explaining everything, and how none of the electronics would turn on, including the heater, she asked for Molly's hospitality for a few days. Which she gave, of course, because she was aware of how tight Mary was with money which discouraged her from getting a hotel room or something of the sort.

"Don't worry, I'm here to give her a compensation present, so you should thank me." He adjusted his scarf and smiled, as if pleased with himself. "Tell Ms. Morstan that I was the one who perpetrated the event, don't leave anything out. In fact, make her aware of this whole state of affairs. Just be sure to leave this conversation of ours out of the equation."