*As usual, that friendly reminder, English isn't my native language. Some mistakes may occur. Please, don't be very upset with me because of them.


John Watson was about to tell his wife about his involvement with the woman he met on the bus, when they both received a text message from Sherlock Holmes. The couple decided they could leave the conversation for later, got up and made their way towards the front door. However, they abruptly interrupted the walk.

"Well, no, we can't just go," said Mary.

"Rosie" remarked John.

"Yeah"

"Uh, you go" John reached into his jeans pocket for his mobile phone.

"No!" opposed Mary.

"I'll, um, come as soon as I've found someone. Mrs Hudson."

"Corfu 'til Saturday," Mary wailed. "Molly."

"Uh, yeah, I'll try." He began typing a message into the phone.

"Well, we should both stay and wait for her," pondered his wife.

"You know that's not gonna happen." John looked at Mary. "If there's more to this case, you're the one who needs to see it."

"Yeah, okay. You win." Mary moved toward the door while John turned his attention back to his mobile phone as he finished typing a message.

(…)
"Sorry about the hour, Molly." John apologised while opening the door for his friend.

"No problem." She smiled.

"Sherlock usually ignores these details, but I preferred she went to meet him instead of waiting," explained John, walking outside. "Mary is more involved with this case than I am."

Molly looked at her friend without understanding what he meant, but didn't want to ask for an explanation because of the hurry in which he was leaving. She could talk directly to Mary later.

"Rosie is in her room sleeping. She won't give you any trouble," John said from the outside. "Thanks again."

"No need to thank me, John."

He closed the door, leaving Molly in the dimly lit room, wondering what she had just heard.

(…)
A long time passed before things were back to normal and the wounds sufficiently healed for Molly to consider the time appropriate to clarify what she had heard. Saddened by her friend's death, and unwilling to upset John by asking questions about his wife's relationship with a police investigation, it took over 6 months before Molly finally discovered the mysteries surrounding Mary Watson's past.

Sherlock, John and Rosie were in the living room of the flat when they heard a noise at the door.

"There's someone downstairs," said John. "You said you wouldn't be receiving any more clients today" he wasn't comfortable with his daughter being present while his friend welcomed potentially dangerous people into the room.

"It's not a client, it's Molly," he smiled. "She texted me asking if you were here with Rosie."

"Why?" John saw a smile light up his friend's face and looked in the same direction, also smiling at his friend when he saw her entering the room holding the carrier box with her cat inside.

Molly greeted the three of them, who smiled back as they heard their names, including the baby on her father's lap, who was visibly excited about her godmother's arrival.

"I brought a little friend to see you," she announced, placing the box on the arm of the armchair Sherlock was sitting in so he could take the cat out of it.

"Toby!" Rosie shouted when she saw him.

"Is he sick again?" the man reached forward and stretched his arms so his goddaughter could touch the cat.

"No," Molly replied, leaving the box on the floor. "I just took him to the vet for a routine check-up."

"Good," he smiled, holding Toby as Rosie stroked the fur between the cat's ears.

"Has your cat been sick?" John asked curiously.

"Someone poisoned him a few months ago. That's when..." Molly realised that choosing words to describe the event was difficult.

"When my sister tortured us in Sherrinford," Sherlock stated bluntly.

Although he tried to appear to be over it, both Molly and John could see the guilt he still felt over everything the younger Holmes had caused.

"I'm sure that's exactly what happened," the detective suddenly declared, watching the expression on his friend's face.

"You can't be sure," insisted Molly.

"Of course I can!" he stared at her. "That little pot full of rodent poison, mixed with wet cat food of the same brand you give Toby, camouflaged in your backyard, just tells me that someone had everything calculated on that purpose."

"It doesn't mean it's related to what Eurus did," she added.

"Molly, who could have anything against you to want to poison your cat?" Sherlock was growing impatient.

"I don't know" the despair at being debating that subject yet again without being able to change his mind showed in her voice. "Maybe a neighbour who doesn't like animals..."

Sherlock sighed.

"You told me you left before dawn to take him to the vet and didn't come home until the end of the day. That was enough time to break in and install the cameras without risking being interrupted by you if they had, for example, done it during the night." It wasn't the first time Sherlock explained that to her. "The intention, since the beginning, was never to kill him, but to get you out of the house. Obviously they wouldn't have minded if it had ended this way."

The three of them remained in silence, thinking about the facts as they looked at Rosie and Toby interacting with each other, unaware of what was going on.

"Anyway, you need to stop blaming yourself for what you can't control," Molly declared, breaking the silence. "Even if it has something to do with you."

"Molly is right," John supported. "But I have a lot of responsibility for your behaviour. Once again I ask you to forgive me for blaming you for what happened to Mary."

Hearing her mother's name, Rosie looked at her father and smiled, receiving the same gesture from him before turning her attention back to the cat.

"John, I already told you to forget this."

"I will not forget as long as it keeps affecting you like this."

Sherlock rolled his eyes and sighed loudly.

"John," Molly finally saw the moment she had been waiting for since the night her friend had died.

"Yes," he looked at her, smiling.

"I'm sorry if I'm being too nosy." A slight smile appeared on her face. "And you don't have to answer me if you don't want to."

Molly exchanged a quick glance with Sherlock, trying to figure out if he had already deduced what the question was going to be, but she couldn't tell if he knew.

"I'm getting curious." John still had a smile on his face.

"What were you referring to when you said 'Mary is more involved with this case than I am', before you went to meet her and Sherlock?"

The smile immediately vanished from his face and Molly felt bad when she realised it.

"Ah, John, I'm sorry," she apologised. "Look, never mind. You don't have to answer."

"No, Molly," John changed Rosie's position on his lap. "You're my friend. You were Mary's friend and you're our daughter's godmother. Maybe she would have told you herself one day, or maybe she would rather keep it a secret. But since she is no longer here, the decision is now in my hands and I think it's okay for you to know."

Even though John agreeing to reveal what that meant, Molly slightly regretted for asking. She imagined that Mary's involvement was something less significant, perhaps because she was helping Sherlock with the case like she had done so many times before, but she immediately realised that it went far beyond that.

"Sherlock," John said, sure that his friend knew what he wanted.

"Rosie, let's take Toby to visit Mrs Hudson?" he invited the little girl, confirming that he had understood what he needed to do.

"Yes!"

The infant stretched out her little hands to Sherlock, who welcomed her with one arm while held the cat with the other. As the trio left the room, Molly sat on the black armchair in front of John.

"I don't want to tarnish the memory you have of Mary," the widower vented. "Everything she did was on trying to have a normal life. She calculated her actions accurately to avoid worse damage; however controversial they may seem."

"What do you mean, John? I don't understand," Molly smiled at her friend.

"Mary had secrets. A past that ended up coming after her." He drew a deep breath. "It wasn't an accidental shot fired by Vivian Norbury that killed my wife as we spread. That bullet was heading in Sherlock's direction, and if it hadn't been for her, he was the one who wouldn't be here today."

The only fact John didn't reveal from the entire story to Molly was that the guilty of Charles Augustus Magnussen's murder was Sherlock. Not only it was irrelevant for her to understand all about Mary, but Mycroft had rid his brother of the blame and deserved that compensation.

Molly covered the mouth with her hands in shock to learn that Mary had fired the shot that hit Sherlock and nearly killed him, but John explained that he only survived because his wife was a skilled shooter and also called for help before fleeing the scene. He didn't forget to mention that his friend was the one that made this deduction, and he was in complete agreement.

"Shortly after our wedding, the truth about Mary's past finally came out. She was pregnant and really trying to change," John stated. "So I forgave her and received her back into my life and heart," he smiled shyly. "I have never regretted it."

"You loved her," Molly also smiled modestly.

"I still love her," John admitted. "Her death brought out the worst in me and I deeply regret it," he lowered down his head and looked at his feet. "When I finally realised that Rosie had already lost her mother and didn't deserve to lose her father too, I found the strength and the reason to recover. By the way, once again, thank you very much for taking care of my daughter when I wasn't able to..." he thanked looking into Molly's eyes.

"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't help you when you needed me the most?" she replied, smiling. "I'm sorry Mary couldn't get rid of the past mistakes, but her act was selfless and very brave. You haven't tarnished the memory I have of her. In fact, I am even more proud to have been her friend."

"Deep down I think Mary realised we would never be safe with her around and gave Rosie and I the best chance we had to live in peace."

"Giving up a life that she had dreamt of after giving up who she was," Molly declared. "I'm sure she loved you as much as you love her, John."

"But that doesn't make it any less painful" John felt a lump in his throat and held back the tears. "It's quite the opposite..." he whispered.

He still felt his heart squeeze as he recalled everything that had happened since he had first met Mary. The blast of encouragement the woman had been in his life after he'd seen his best friend throw himself off the top of a building, the joy when she became part of the group after Sherlock's return by befriending him. And definitely, the way Mary could see the best in him, when John himself couldn't recognise it.

"I really wish I had something to say to you, but I think only time will ease the pain you feel." Molly slid forward in her armchair, reached for John's left hand and squeezed it for a few seconds. "The only thing I can assure is that we will be here with you."

"Thank you" John just moved his lips without saying a word.

The tears that he had been holding back finally came down his face and wet his smile. Molly also let a few tears fall, moved by everything she had just heard. Her two friends' love story was far more beautiful and tragic than she had ever imagined. Deep in her heart, Molly wished John could find another woman who loved him as much as Mary had loved him.


Author's note: This is the last, at least for now, with stories before the arrival of the memoryless woman from "Memórias Anônimas". Along with "Molly Hooper's Best Worst Day" and "You always see me", it completes my little trilogy. They are not essential to understanding my longfic, but they are part of the same universe.

Do you agree that even knowing everything that happened, Molly would still hold fond memories of her friend? What about Toby? Do you agree with Sherlock that he was part of Eurus' plan so she could get Molly out of the house and have someone installing the cameras?