Molly Hooper woke up to find the police car had crashed into a lightpost, and there was a dry, nasty taste in her mouth, Toby was yowling, and none of the police officers were conscious. Worse, all of the police officers were beaten to within an inch of their lives, and by her aching arms, legs and head, she was the cause.
Much as she'd like to leave the scene screaming and crying, she knows she can't do that. Already the paparazzi that had followed the police car she was in are starting to pull up to the crash site. "You're a big girl," she tells herself in sternly, her shaky voice only a hint at her inner hysteria. "You can handle this." She gulps in a few breaths, then opened the car doors and shoved the "officers" who chloroformed her out, using their own handcuffs on them, and yelled at the paparazzi. "Call 999!" she said. "Tell them that there are fake cops left on," she looked around, "where am I and what street is this?" A middle-aged man with a camera shouted, "Essex Road in Gravesend!" She repeated that, then waited patiently as they called not just the cops, but their own "media" outlets as well. Then she put on a bravado that she barely felt and grinned, or tried to, but ended up baring her teeth just the same. "And tell Irene Adler that if she really and truly wants to be Sherlock Holmes' fiancée, this is the kind of life she'll have: not glitz and glamour, but kidnapping attempts, death threats by people like James Moriarty, and having to do stupid things like drive a police car because you've lost your Oyster card. If she can handle that, then she is welcome to try and marry Sherlock!"
Then she jumped back into the car, repositioned Toby's cat carrier, and tried to calm him down, even as her own nerves were jangling. "Okay, baby," she cooed, "Mommy's going to try to drive this thing. Only problem is Mommy hasn't driven a car in ages." She'd only started because her father was teaching her, but they'd barely gotten past the inner workings of the car to actually driving it when he had to fight cancer. She swallowed the sudden sadness tightening her throat, and turned the key. "Oh, come on," she wailed, "the engine's intact. Why isn't it moving?" Then she remembered the clutch and sighed deeply.
And proceeded to strip the gears of the police car, even as the gears in her head were turning, causing some of the bystanders and paparazzi to wince, but they got out of the way as she pulled off the sidewalk and back onto the street. She didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that those cops weren't real, or that they were probably working for Moriarty, and that they'd intended to use her against Sherlock. Also, they'd taken her purse and phone prior to chloroforming her, which was rather stupid on their part, but she supposed they were trying to scare her. It did, a little, especially since she didn't know where they'd tossed it and if someone was using her credit card. Then again, she didn't have much money in her wallet, so that wasn't too bad. But they had all her ID cards! Those would be a pain to replace! And she would have to get the numbers of all her coworkers again, not to mention Lestrade and the others! And she had her keys in her purse, too!
"Oh, Toby," she sighed, "it's too bad the big scary men were evil enough to leave Mommy without her purse or her mobile. It's not fun when the only things she has are you and a police car!" Then a thought occurred to her. "No, that's not the only things. Mommy has friends. And you know what?" she said brightly. "You can always count on friends to help you out!"
So she drove through London, doing her best to keep the car moving when it had to, and ignoring the honking and waved fingers in her direction. She had to get to the hospital, she just had to!
