Chapter Three
My next encounter with Sherlock Holmes came much too soon for my liking. I came by to have lunch with Molly and walked in to see Sherlock and another shorter man with a kind- looking face and sandy colored hair in the room with Molly.
"Hello" I greeted, knocking on the open door to alert them of my presence.
"Hi!" Molly greeted me. She looked quite relieved to have me there now.
"Ah. Yes. Miss Hooper's new neighbor." Sherlock stated without looking up from his microscope.
"Alex." I corrected him.
"Oh you live next to Molly? Marvelous. Nice to meet you, Alex. I'm John. John Watson. I'm Sherlock's flatmate." the other man introduced himself, shaking my hand.
"Oh! John! It's nice to finally meet you- I've heard good things" I smiled. Very similar to Molly, something about John Watson made me want to smile. His smile was infectious and he seemed like such a nice, genuine person.
John grinned at Molly, "You're too kind."
"So you're his flatmate, huh? That must be interesting" I pointed out, glancing at Sherlock quickly, who paid me no attention.
"Well I'm never bored." John stated dryly, smiling.
Someone knocked on the door and we all turned to look- all except Sherlock who continued to stare intently into his microscope.
A man came in with another man and woman trailing close behind him. The man was pretty tall and was pretty attractive with salt and pepper hair, and as he entered I saw him look around at everyone in the room. His eyes seemed to linger on Molly a little longer than most. The other man had a very sharp face and dark hair. The woman had very curly hair and was fairly pretty but she gave me the opposite feeling Molly and John did when I first met them.
"Ah. Graham. You're here. Finally." Sherlock commented, still eyeing his work.
"It's Gre- nevermind. Have you found anything on the Lester case?"
"It was his hairdresser. Nobody noticed the watch." Sherlock stated matter-of-factly.
"Alright great…Sorry, who are you?" the man asked me politely.
"Oh I'm sorry! I'm Alex. Molly's neighbor." I smiled.
"Oh really? I didn't know Molly had a new neighbor" he looked over and smiled fondly at Molly.
"Yeah, I just moved here from New England last month." I smiled.
"Excellent" John grinned.
"Wonderful. Well it's a pleasure to meet you. Greg Lestrade" he shook my hand. "Welcome to London. This is Sally Donovan and Phillip Anderson."
"Oh it's so nice to finally meet you- I've heard good things" I grinned.
"Really? I'm assuming they weren't from Sherlock?" Greg joked, shooting Molly a grin.
"Ridiculous." Sherlock muttered.
I could see in the way that he looked at her that Greg Lestrade was interested in Molly. I grinned.
Lestrade and Anderson and Donovan went over to discuss the case with Sherlock and John, and shortly after they left except John. Molly winked at me and took off her coat and gloves and washed her hands so she could eat.
"Could I maybe join you ladies? Sherlock is being an insufferable bastard and told me not to come." John asked.
"Of course, John you're always welcome" Molly smiled.
We made our way down to the cafeteria and found a table to sit at.
"So how do you put up with Sherlock Holmes? Honestly."
"Another person he's got off on the wrong foot with, huh?" he sighed.
"He saw fit to announce that I had had a stalker and my fiance was murdered and I am not close with my family and have very few friends." I agreed.
John grimaced. "I'm so sorry. He really can be a good guy, he just….doesn't get people."
"Yeah, I noticed." I agreed dryly.
He looked at me sympathetically. "Hopefully you'll get to see his good side at some point. He really is more than just an genius asshole. Speaking of which…" his eyes flicked to Molly hopefully.
"I was hoping you might come join us for dinner tomorrow night. It's Mrs. Hudson's birthday and we're trying to get some people she knows to join us."
"Of course I'd love to come!" Molly assured him.
"Sounds good!" John sounded relieved.
After lunch Molly went back to work and I walked around for a bit and returned home, hopefully to write something if my brain would cooperate.