Sherlock and Molly lay back on their pillows, panting hard and flushed from head to toe. Sherlock's hair was disheveled, and Molly had a pretty purple love bite below her collarbone. Molly holds the sheet up to her breasts, covering her body, and Sherlock pulling his half to his belly button, both of them relishing in the afterglow of their fantastic lovemaking.
Molly moans softly and rolls onto her side, looking him over with loving eyes. Sherlock reciprocates and turns towards her, smiling handsomely and reaching out to stroke her cheek. "I love you."
"I love you", Molly murmurs airily, scooting closer to meet him in the middle of the bed as he snakes his arms around her smaller frame. Sherlock nuzzles her neck and peppers soft kisses up in, stopping near her ear.
"Thank You."
"For sex?", Molly giggles. "I can assure you, it was my pleasure."
Sherlock snorts and nudges her. "No. Well not /just/ that. Thank you for making me a better man. A good one, as Greg puts it. He's right I suppose, I could have become as great as I wanted, but that still wouldn't have made me a good man. But you…you, Molly Hooper, you made me a good man."
Molly blushes softly and takes his curls, running them through her fingers gently before placing her hand on his cheek. "Sherlock I always believed that you were a good man, you were just suppressing yourself all those years and we finally know why. You were able to break out of that traumatic shell and become who you were always meant to be. All the while still being the brilliant consulting detective that London knows and loves as well."
"You believed in me when nobody else, did. Even when I was terrible to you, even when you didn't deserve how despicable my words were. Why?"
"I told you why…because I saw the man you were underneath all the hurt. I knew you were locking your true self inside in order to go against all those horrible criminals. I knew you were special and that if I just waited long enough, I'd get to see this side of you. Whether you wanted me like this or not, that would have been a gift enough."
Sherlock sighs and holds her close against him. "You're one incredible woman. One I don't deserve but I am more than lucky to have. I have a lifetime to prove to you how lucky I consider myself to have a chance at this life with you, Molly."
Molly kisses him passionately, bringing them back into a heated snog before they pull away for air. She murmurs. "I suppose you were right once. Damn breathing."
Sherlock smirks and chuckles breathlessly. "Breathing's boring. Especially when I could be snogging you instead."
She grins and sits up softly, stretching and tousling his curls. Getting back to speaking of our lovely future together…I think we should choose a date for our wedding. Even though it's a small one we should choose a date so we can tell everybody we want to come. Which is basically mostly people who will be attending the Christmas party."
Sherlock sits up and nods, wrapping an arm around her as she looks at the calendar on her phone, before covering it gently. Molly furrows her brow and looks at him. "What're you doing?"
He swallows thickly and looks like a nervous child. "Why not tomorrow? Everyone will be here, I'm sure I can get the priest you like to officiate since he knew your father. I want to marry you as soon as possible. We can have a small one, then maybe a larger wedding in the spring? That way if we have a ceremony in the spring my parents can be there, and Meena can be your bridesmaid and it can be like you dreamed. I promise. But I…I'd love to marry you as soon as I can."
Molly tears up and puts her forehead on his. I'd love to marry you tomorrow. I'd marry you any day, Sherlock. And I think the ceremony idea for the spring sounds lovely as well. If you can get my priest to come here tomorrow, it could work."
"Yeah?", he beams excitedly.
"Yes", she giggles and hugs him tightly, holding him close.
Sherlock gently strokes his fingers down her spine and breathes her in, his nose buried into the side of her neck as he holds her bare body against his. "Molly?", he murmurs.
"Yes, Sherlock?"
"I promise I will do everything in my power to keep you safe from the risks of my profession. I promise I won't let a hair on your head be touched or so help me I'll go absolutely mad."
"I know you'll protect me Sherlock, but I can also protect myself. It comes with risk, but as I told you before, I already knew that when I fell in love with you. Besides, the benefits far outweigh the risks, every time. I'd choose you. Over and over again, I would choose you." She brings her hands up to cradle his face, drinking in his vivid ocean whirled eyes with awe. "I'll always choose you."
He looks back into her warm, honey-dipped brown ones with love and smiles genuinely, knowing that he has made the right choice despite what anyone believes of him, even Mycroft. This is where he is supposed to be.
Out of all the paths his twisted life could have taken him, his trials of trauma, murder, terrorism, loneliness, frenzy, drugs, death, and losing it all, it took him to Molly Hooper. At every turn, at every point when she was needed for him even when he didn't know it, Molly Hooper was there.
As a newbie detective, just starting off and coming off the drugs, she was there. In his most lonely times on Montague Street, even if he was an utter rude annoyance, she was there. When he met John and dove deeper, getting involved with Moriarty, she was there. When he needed to fake his death, she was the only person who could have helped him possibly pull it off successfully, and she was there. When he lost his entire identity, reputation, and friend group, she was there. When he came back from Serbia with horrific nightmares and infected whip wounds, she was there, even in the middle of the night. When John shut him out, she was there. When he was hyped up on the drugs and felt he had nowhere to turn, she was there to detox him. When John moved out and he needed another to complain to, she as there. Despite being engaged to Tom, she was there. When he was shot and in hospital, she was there, even if she believed him to be asleep. When Mary died, and he was inconsolable, she was always there; not only for him, but for John and Rosie too. When he nearly overdosed from the guilt, pain, and grief, she was there to save him again. When all of his traumas came to light in the form of Sherrinford, and she should have shut him out forever, she didn't; she listened, and she was there.
Molly Hooper being there, led Sherlock Holmes to be here. And he wouldn't have it any other way. Not anymore. Molly Hooper taught him the meaning of love not only in those three little words that had always been true, but in every single action she had toward him from the moment they met. That is the kind of love Sherlock Holmes needed, and the kind that Molly always deserved, and if he has to spend the rest of his life making that up to her, he is prepared to do just that. Because though he didn't know enough to put a word to his gratefulness before, he now knows. Sherlock Holmes loves Molly Hooper, and always had deep within his heart.