I am so so so so sorry this is late. I wrote it, then I forgot to save and lost it all! It has taken me this long to upload. I hope it won't take so long next time, but exam season is coming up and I am being forced to abandon fanfiction until it is over. I am hoping to get this fic done by the end of May though.

In other news I am now on AO3, so If you wanna follow me on there, you can!

Molly jolted awake. Gripping the table to support her weight, she hauled herself to her feet; barely taking in the fact the entire library was empty. Sherlock and the Doctor were a few metres away, talking, or rather arguing between themselves. Before she could interrupt, the Dream Lord was suddenly with them, hurrying over dressed in the scruffy outdated cloths of an old librarian. He was muttering and shaking his head at the piece of paper he was examining.

"No, no, no, this won't do. This paper is telling me that the earth goes around the sun" He looked directly at Sherlock, then at the Doctor. "But then you've always thought that the world and all the things in it revolve around you, Doctor"

It seemed like the world was intent on interrupting Molly today, because the Dream Lord continued to talk as she opened her mouth

"Now then, the plot line is this. If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality. Ask me what happens if you die in reality?"

Molly humoured him "What happens?"

"You die, stupid. That's why it's called reality."

Molly bristled, and she opened her mouth angrily, but before she could speak, Sherlock asked

"Have you met the Doctor before? Do you know him? Is that why you are intent on torturing us? What are you really? Some sort of Trickster?"

The Dream Lord tutted "So many questions. Have you lost your touch, Mr. Consulting Detective, from being domestic for too long?"

Sherlock stiffened and Molly put out a hand to his arm. He shook it off, and Molly's eyes filled with tears. She knew that she had been the one that had persuaded him to settle down. She had been the one that had wanted kids, even though she remembered from their childhood conversations that he wanted them too. Maybe he had imagined his children growing up in a world where he was still a Consulting Detective, not an ordinary person. She stoked her stomach. What if this was the dream? Was her baby really just a figment of her imagination?

They had already decided names. William John if a boy and Melody Locke if a girl. William was named for Sherlock himself, and Melody was named for their childhood friend.

"But never mind that." The Dream Lord waved his hand "You've got a world to choose. One reality was always too much for you, Doctor. Let's see if this is a puzzle worth solving for Mr Sherlock Holmes"

He vanished.

"Okay, I don't like him." Molly decided "Who is he?"

"I don't know. It's a big universe"

"Why is he doing this?" she asked

"Maybe because he has no physical form. That gets you down after a while, so he's taking it out on folk like us who can touch and eat and feel." The Doctor followed Sherlock, who had already begun to leave the library.

"What does he mean, deadly danger, though? Nothing deadly has happened here. I mean, a bit of natural wastage, obviously-" Molly was so busy talking she walked straight into the Doctor's back. "What?"

The Doctor stared around the library, as if seeing it for the first time. Sherlock had also stopped and was looking around with a look of terrified realisation.

"They've all gone. They've all gone."

"We have to get somewhere safe." Sherlock snapped "My office is just down the hall"

-oooo0000ooo-

Sherlock's office was smaller than average, but still had room to cram in a desk, a sofa and a large bookcase. Sherlock immediately sat down at his desk and entered his mind palace, while the Doctor went to the window overlooking the gardens and watched the student, Ethan, lead a tour group of primary pupils around. Molly perched herself on the sofa

"I don't know about you, but I wouldn't hire Ethan as a babysitter. What's he doing? What does he want?" the Doctor muttered

"Sorry, what?" Molly asked

"One of my tawdry quirks. Sniffing out things that aren't what they seem. So, come on, let's think. The mechanics of this reality split we're stuck in. Time asleep exactly matches time in our dream world, unlike in conventional dreams."

"And we're all dreaming the same dream at the same time." Sherlock interjected

"Yes, sort of communal trance. Very rare, very complicated. I'm sure there's a dream giveaway, a tell, but my mind isn't working because this town is so dull! I'm slowing down, like you two have!"

Ok, that was it. The Doctor had no idea the lengths Molly had gone through to make her life as it is. He needed to be taught a lesson.

Clutching her stomach, she groaned and scrunched up her face in pain.

"Ooo. Ow. Really. Ow! It's coming."

She relished in the way Sherlock's eyes flew open in a panic and he raced over to her, and how the Doctor looked like he had just been presented with an alien invasion.

"Okay, you're a doctor, help her!" he shouted at Sherlock

"Not that kind of Doctor! You're the Doctor, you do it!"

"It's okay, we're doctors." The Doctor reassured her. He squatted down in an attempt to catch the baby. Molly decided that would be enough.

"Okay, it's not coming." She said, straitening up.

"What?" there was disbelief etched on Sherlock's face. She was quite proud she had managed to fool him.

"This is my life now and it just turned you white as a sheet, so don't you call it dull again, ever. Okay?"

The Doctor had the decency to look ashamed

"Sorry."

"Good"

Just then the sound of birdsong filled the room.

"oh no, not again" Molly muttered as she slunk to the floor.