Last of the insomnia ficlets! Rated T for suggestive language.

grinningdarling said: Ooohh lolol one word? Okk MASTER….. If it's short it must be smut lol

And I say: Welll, it's smut-ish...hope you like!


"Why are the feminine versions of words so much more sexually charged than the masculine?"

Sherlock raised an eyebrow at the frustrated tone in Molly's voice, turning on his lab stool to face her. She was standing up at the far end of the counter, leaning over paperwork and frowning at it. "Which word in particular has you so knotted up?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Mistress," she replied promptly, looking directly at him. "It's the antonym for 'master' but that word generally means a young man or someone in charge. Whereas 'mistress' most people think of as a woman who's shagging someone else's husband." She gestured at the forms below her. "The police report calls this poor woman the man's mistress...but the only evidence they have for that is the fact that she was living in a flat he paid for! And you can practically hear the contempt in the officer's voice...er, writing," she added, scowling down at the form as if it personally offended her.

Which, obviously, it did. "Hmm, let me take a look," Sherlock said, standing up and leaning over her. He took note of the small shiver that shook her petite frame as he did so, and smiled to himself. He loved the effect he had on Molly when he invaded her personal space like this, how her pupils expanded and her breathing went ragged and her heart rate...did he dare take her pulse? No, not this time.

He turned his attention to the ostensible reason for him to be crowded up against her, rather than imagining how delightful her backside would feel if he pressed his hips forward so they were fully touching. "Yes, I see what you mean," he said after a moment. He reached forward, brushing his arm against hers and pretending not to notice her second shiver as he pointed at the paper and tapped it. "That assumption's put them on the wrong track; she's not his mistress, she's his illegitimate daughter. He wants their relationship kept quiet because his wife doesn't know he fathered a daughter when he cheated on her eighteen years ago, so he's not bothered to correct the officer's assumption. If he thinks that will keep him from being found out as the murderer - which he is, as the daughter was threatening to tell the wife about their relationship - he's even more stupid than I thought he was."

Molly had turned her head and was staring up at him in frank admiration. "You got all that just from the way the officer filled out this form?"

He gave her a cheeky grin and a wink as he straightened up - but remained otherwise exactly where he'd been. "No, I discovered all that by interviewing the father two hours ago. Lestrade has him in custody and you'll be receiving an amended report within a few days, I should think."

Molly, instead of being annoyed with him, grinned. "Well, I guess this just proves that you're still the master of detecting!"

He lowered his voice deliberately as he replied, "Oh, I'm the master of much more than that, Molly. Would you care to find out what sorts of things playing the violin has taught me to do with my hands?"

Needless to say, her response was an enthusiastic yes, and when she joined him at Baker Street at the end of her shift, he demonstrated his mastery of fingering (among other talents), much to their mutual delight.