Another stand-alone... someone is embarrassed to be dating someone else
Sherlock made his way down the hallway. Hearing John talking to the curator of the daycare saying he would be along to collect a sick Rosie soon.
He walked in and sad a quick bye to John and told him not to worry and that Molly was going to bring him some parts he needed for his experiment and John just waved him off before leaving and saying he will tell him if he could make it tomorrow depending on Rosie.
Sherlock waited until John caught a cab to move for his phone to tell Molly they had dinner plans tonight and to get to Baker Street as soon as she was off work.
She didn't respond until an hour later saying she was on her way, and asking what dinner was. He ignored the question and made sure Angelo delivered their favorites just 5 minutes before she turned up.
"Evening Sherlock." He turned when she entered the kitchen and smiled before leaning down and kissing her and pulling her in close. "Oh I love it when you order my favorite." She pulled back when she got a good whiff of the food and she went to wash her hands and then followed him into the sitting room and they ate side by side on the couch as he heard about her work load for the day.
"Well John got a call from the crèche and Rosie was running a fever so he might not be by tomorrow." Sherlock told her as they finished and he leaned back and raised his hand to skim the side of her neck. It made her shiver like always.
"Ah so you haven't told him yet." Molly nodded and tried not to shiver at his light touch but the softer he did it the more alive her body started to feel.
"Why would I tell him?" Sherlock knew why, but he didn't want Molly to think he did. She was almost certain they could go years without people knowing about them, and Sherlock wouldn't have a care in the world. And while she just figured he didn't like PDA and things like that, she was now thinking he was embarrassed to be with her.
"Because then we wouldn't have to wait for him to leave for me to come over and have dinner. You know sometimes he doesn't leave until late and I'm starving. If he knew we had a date he wouldn't stick around so long." Molly started eating her dinner, getting a pit in her stomach thinking about how this was going to end.
Either she was going to be embarrassed she thought so little of him... or she was going to be an emotional mess saying sorry that she doubted him.
"John doesn't need to know- no one for that matter needs to know we're dating." Sherlock corrected himself and he huffed a laugh. "Dating... I wouldn't even call it that." He muttered to himself and Molly chewed her bite and swallowed slowly.
"Then what would you call it Sherlock? Slumming? Down grading your standards? A pity relationship?" Molly asked and saw the way his eyes darted around as he shoved food in his face. "I want to know what you think this is Sherlock. I want to know why to call you. Boyfriend? Friends with benefits? What should I call you Sherlock?"
"By my name, just as I call you Molly. I'm not going to introduce you as my girlfriend Molly, we don't work that way." He laughed and went in for another bite only to have Molly's food and drink splashed on him.
"I'm glad I got to know what this was like Sherlock. I really do. Now I'm sure I deserve better than pining after you when you're just embarrassed to be seen with me. I wish you the best in your future endeavors Sherlock. Have fun and I hope next time you see me you keep your rude deductions to yourself." Molly grabbed her thing, trying to keep as much dignity as possible as she stumbled over her bag and jacket before stomping down the stairs and out of 221B.
She was walking along when a black Sudan paused just in front of her and a woman opened the door and smiled at her. "Please come with me Dr. Hooper." She ushered and Molly took a moment, hating that a Mycroft was doing this today of all days, but she got in the car.
She sat quietly and waited for the car to stop and park, and when she stepped out she was in front of a big house that was not Mycroft but she kept walking in.
"You don't embarrass him." Molly paused at the woman's voice and she turned and saw a woman, red lipstick, black dress and red heels to match her lips. Not a subconscious decision.
"Well he doesn't love me." Molly knew who she was. That was the Adler woman who whipped Sherlock and loved him too.
"Yes he does. He just doesn't like to share." Irene stood and walked closer. "I pride myself on beating people and winning, but... I know when I've been beaten and in all fairness it was like I wasn't even playing at all. Sherlock just needs to see what he's going to be missing if he doesn't want to lose you to his own fears." Irene started to stand, and she moved closer and circled Molly until she came back to face her. "Are you up for it?"
"For what exactly?"
"A make over. A complete makeover to make him notice you, make him step in the right direction. Might even push him over the edge and make him lose his control." Irene nodded as if Molly had already agreed and then she smiled.
"A makeover? Just my clothes-"
"Clothes, hair, shoes, makeup... the works. It has to be what he thinks is a complete upgrade so it seems like you're truly moving on and trying for someone else." Irene smiles wide when she saw Molly was going to agree and she held out her hand. "If this doesn't work I'll give you anything you want."
"What would I want?" Molly asked and sighed knowing all she wanted was Sherlock to be something that he wasn't.
"Name it after it had gone wrong and it will be yours... but this will work." Irene insistence was what drove Molly to shake her hand, make the deal, and then for the next two days a blur of things happened.
Her hair was now to just under her chin, her makeup was done in steps and always looked flawless, her baggy pants and bad jumpers turned into bright and colorful dresses that were also tight and showed off her figure... and her shoes added height and a slice of elegance, or that's what Irene told her.
She walked into Barts with a new attitude thanks to Irene, and she was being respected, asked to help a bit more, asked opinions, all on the first day. Well, really the first two hours of being back after a vacation day.
Two days in and Sherlock finally shows up, for a case not for her. She was sitting at her desk when she got the call that Greg was sending in a body and Sherlock would be there for the initial findings.
She got up and moved to collect the paperwork and the instruments for it all before hearing Sherlock and John talking. She turned as they entered the mortuary and while John whistles Sherlock didn't look at her yet.
"What are you- Molly! What are you wearing?" Sherlock asked seeing what John was looking at now and Molly just looked at her outfit. She was wearing a black pencil skirt that sinched her waist, a low cut grey button up. Not to mention the four inch heels that Irene had given her.
"My new clothes." She blinked and walked away, turning her hair so they could see her hair as well.
"Nice hair Molls. It looks good." John told her and she smiled at him before grabbing the papers as the entryway buzzed loudly signaling the corner van pulling in.
"Thanks John. Feels good to change." Molly told him as she handed over papers for chain of custody and then signed theirs before pushing at the body until John offered to do it for her.
Sherlock was glaring, and quiet, and she made sure not to make eye contact because she knew he was deducing.
"Looks like a couple needle marks here on the neck. Any needles at the scene?" She asked as she pushed her hands into gloves and started to push and pull at the skin that was already exposed.
"I didn't see any." John told her after it was quiet for a moment. She grabbed the bags she laid out, and siscors and cut off the clothes layer by layer until he was bare and on the table and she examines his skin, feeling lumps almost on his legs and his arms like he has dermal lumps on purpose. "Something wrong?" John asked as he cleared his throat and focused on her hands gliding up the mans thighs over and over.
"Can you tell me if these feel like cysts or dermals to you." She offered a box of gloves and he slipped one on before copying her movements. "They almost feel disintegrated." She swiped her hand up and tried to find how far they went before they heard a curse and she looked up finally and saw Sherlock glaring.
"I'm sure they're not dermals or cysts. We're going to have to open him up to see what they are." John told her and she nodded, moving to her a mask and a face shield on before a scalpel and taking the soft approach and just cutting until they got to what they were.
"John... go tell Lestrade I know who killed him." Sherlock ordered and moved closer as Molly took out the second and followed quickly by the third growth.
"You're not coming along then?" John asked as he stripped the gloves off.
"No, I need to run a test to prove it." Sherlock told him and Molly kept digging into the mans left leg until she got all 12 lumps out. She bagged the side of the can she was dumping them in to make them all settle before she screwed it tight and then moved to write her initials , put it in a bag and moved to hand it over to Sherlock until he grabbed her wrist and held it.
"Stop it." Molly tugged her hand back and Sherlock turned his lip up in a sneer and he seemed to inhale her perfume.
"Who are you all dressed up for Molly? A date?"
"None of your business is it Sherlock? You don't want me as a girlfriend. I'm not a piece of meat you can have when you get the craving. I am a person, a woman, and if I am using my funds for a new wardrobe and a new hair cut and new things... it has nothing to do with a man, at least anymore. I'm done trying to please you. I am done hiding from other men so they don't notice me-"
"Molly-"
"No Sherlock! I am done being your doormat. I'm a woman who has needs and you're not even willing to try what I want or need from you so it's over." She shouted and pulled her hand from his once and for all but they heard the morgue doors open and there was Greg and John looking mighty confused but 'innocent' as well.
"What's over?" John asked and Molly squared her shoulder and looked over to Sherlock to see if he would at least admit to them he had hidden her, kept her as her dirty secret for the past 4 months.
"Sherlock and I had been dating. He didn't want to tell anyone so like I said... it's over." Molly told them and pulled away, getting her mask on again, getting a wrap on her front, and when she went to grab her face shield again she felt Sherlock tearing at her mask and he pulled her close and kissed her until she was against the empty table and dizzy from lack of oxygen.
"Is that what you wanted Molly? To embarrass myself with my lack of control around you? To make you mess up your work? To delay an autopsy because I would rather snog and shag you than let you do work? When we didn't tell anyone it was easier for me to put up rules in my head, telling myself I can't do something because we haven't moved that far..." Sherlock Holmes was breathing hard, apparently it was his turn to be angry over this.
"You don't communicate with me Sherlock. You don't even call me your girlfriend. What else would I be?"
"I don't bloody know what to call you. We're not married so I can't call you my wife, you're not my friend nor a girl so girlfriend isn't enough, and you're not living with me so I can't call you my domestic partner. I don't know what to call you!" Sherlock shouted and then realized he was shouting and he sighed and looked around.
"You two have been dating for months and we didn't know?" John asked pointing at him and Greg before he realized he had seen a couple signs. Molly's scarf was in the flat one afternoon, he commented on it, and Sherlock said she left it there that morning but John just now remembered the night before when he left Sherlock said Molly was dropping in.
"You told me in small ways." John muttered and his mind went a mile a second trying to find other instances.
"What's he talking about?" Molly asked and Sherlock sigh, rubbed his temples before looking at her and relaxing his face.
"I didn't want to tell them, but I didn't keep or hide it from them. I assumed, wrong, that they would figure it out and it wouldn't have to be a thing. I didn't want you to be teased when it was announced and I didn't want to hear jokes about it either." Sherlock admitted and then looked over her face before settling on her lips. "What- wait." He looked at the darker shade of red and then narrowed his eyes.
"Irene sends her regards. She helped me with my change." Molly held out her hands and John laughed lightly and then Sherlock narrowed his eyes.
"She made you cut your hair?"
"No. She suggested it and I did it." Molly told them and smiled. "She asked to have dinner with me at her place tonight and after all she's done-"
"No. You're lot going to dinner with her." Sherlock Holmes was pale in the face and be shook his head and held up his hands. "She might say she's in love with me Molly but she swings for the other team."
"So? She is nice Sherlock. It's just dinner. I told her I would go and I am. You don't control me."
"Well... then I'm going to and if she's naked when we get there I'll say I told you so." Sherlock saw the blush forming on her cheek and smiled inwardly. She was still his Molly despite everything new. He was going to suggest getting the funny jumpers back, the hair was nice, and he would miss the long stands, but this way it framed her face perfectly.
He should be embarrassed at how hard he was in his pants, but he chose to pull her in tight before they left and let her feel it as he kissed her goodbye in front of the guys. He wasn't embarrassed of her, and he knew she wasn't of him either.