When they arrive at the hospital, for the second time in one day for John, the doctor is left to pay and thankful that he has money with him, as the detective hops out and strides for the doors. Of course that puts John in a hurry, because as much as he used to know his way around St. Bart's he doesn't know if things have changed or not. He hurries up behind Sherlock in a sort of half-jog, shaking his head a little. "Would it kill you to wait for me for a moment?" he asks as he steps in the door behind the taller man.
"Obviously not, that's a ridiculous notion, John." Sherlock says with a frown at the other man, speaking in a somewhat scolding tone. "There are possibly, and likely, to be two criminals out there. Time is of the essence, surely even you should know that." he points out condescendingly, never stopping his forward progress, mercurial mood having shifted again on the quiet ride to the hospital. It isn't long before they go through the doors for the stairs, heading downward since apparently the detective thinks it's faster and there is something far too interesting for him to have to do something as mundane as wait.
Following faithfully, John smirks a little and shakes his head. "I need a bloody notebook to make notes in." he says as he thinks about it and hurries down the stairs behind his friend, shaking his head a little at the ridiculousness of everything, and he quickly resolves to buy himself a notebook the next time the pass by anything resembling a stationary store.
Again being completely clueless to some things, Sherlock pauses when he gets to the basement level, opening the door and looking back at John. "Why would you need to make notes?" he asks as he looks back at the soldier. "I will give Scotland Yard any pertinent information." he says with a shake of his head, having no idea why John would want to keep notes for his memories or any other purpose.
"You know, for a genius you can be amazingly stupid, Sherlock." John says as he removes his gloves and stuffs them in his pockets. "Either that or you're digging for compliments in the most subtle way ever." he mutters, slightly amused though as he looks around and examines the stark white walls, washed out by the fluorescent lights above. "I want to take notes because no matter how good my memory is, I'll never accurately remember your brilliant deductions, so I could take notes to jog my memories, maybe write things up in a diary or something." he says with a small shrug as he looks at Sherlock. "And I do want to remember this, Sherlock, make no mistake."
Apparently the consulting detective doesn't really know how to deal with that because he remains silent, a small frown on his face as he obviously tries to work out what John told him, make it fit into his view of the world. He's silent until they get to the swinging doors marked 'Morgue', which he pushes through without regard for anything, his own gloves making their way to his pockets and jacket being unbuttoned during their little journey. "Ah, Molly. Do you have the body ready for us?" He asks bluntly as he looks at the technician.
Catching the door which of course was not held for him, John shakes his head as he lets it swing closed behind him, looking at the mousy girl in front of them who jumped, startled by the sudden appearance of the two men.
"Oh! Sherlock.. it's you. I.. I wasn't expecting you so soon." Molly Hooper says, tucking her hair back self-consciously and smoothing it down a little to try and improve her appearance. "Us?" She asks as that suddenly registers, and she looks over at John. A bit of jealousy crosses her face for a moment, but mostly confusion. "Who.. who's this? I'm not supposed to let anyone else in here." She says nervously.
"Don't worry, he's a doctor." Sherlock says by way of explanation, seeing the body already on a slab and he moves over, pulling out his magnifying glass to start examining the body, pulling the sheet down to the man's waist to look at him.
Sighing a little, John looks at Molly and smiles. "Sorry. I'm trying to get him to work on his manners!" He says the last bit louder to try and catch the lanky man's attention but of course it doesn't work. "I'm John Watson, and I am a medical doctor. Trained here at St. Bart's, actually." He explains, holding out his hand. "I'm a friend of Sherlock's." he explains casually.
Taking his hand nervously and giving him a very limp fish type of handshake, Molly ohs a little and smiles tentatively. "Oh.. so.. so you know eachother well, then? He's never mentioned you.." She says in confusion, and perhaps a little maliciously since she's got a hardcore crush and is still under the impression that she might have a chance with the detective.
"Well he wouldn't, would he?" John asks, not bothered by the fact that he wasn't mentioned. "It's not important in the scheme of his Work, so unless it was, I wouldn't expect him to." Feeling like he has to keep an eye on Sherlock, the doctor looks over at him for a few moments, recognizing Molly's jealousy and feeling a little a little bad for her since he knows it's unlikely she will ever be noticed by her crush. "It's a pleasure to meet you though.. Molly, was it?" he says with a little smile as he looks back at the technician. "We've only known eachother, oh.. bout a year and a half now? I'm also an army Captain, so this is the first time I've gotten leave to come and visit." he says casually and a little vaguely, not wanting to get into details with this woman who Sherlock obviously has chosen not to give details of his life to.
For some reason, hearing the fact that John will be leaving again brightens Molly's demeanor and she ohs a little with a small smile. "Oh. Oh, well, it makes sense you would visit for Christmas. Shame that you've gotten dragged along on one of Sherlock's cases." She says with an affectionately scolding tone in her voice as she looks over at the detective longingly. "Still, where are you deployed to? I guess with you being a doctor it's probably somewhere more dangerous, huh?" She asks with a little too much hope in her tone, fidgeting with the arms of her lab coat nervously.
"Molly, where are your findings? You already opened him back up, this stitching is different from what I saw at the crime scene. I need your report, I'm sure you've gotten it ready by now." Sherlock demands as he looks over at the woman, having been blocking out most of the conversation, but something about her seemingly wishing ill on John did not endear him to her at all.
John nods a little. "Yeah, it's a bit dangerous, but that's where I can do the most good. And I don't mind working with Sherlock on his case. It's interesting to see him work." he says with a nod of his head, being a little modest but he doesn't want to start gushing or anything like that.
Flustered a little when Sherlock starts talking to her, Molly jumps slightly as she looks over at him. "Oh, yes. Detective Inspector Lestrade wanted it as soon as possible." She says uncertainly as she watches him, then she goes over to her desk. "It's right over here.." She says as she collects the report and brings it over, holding out the folder to the taller man with a slightly shaking hand. "You were right about him being prepared for burial.." She says as she stands close to the taller man, hoping for some sort of attention.
"Obviously." Sherlock says in reply as he takes the report and looks it over, frowning a little for a few moments, moving away from the young woman dismissively as he moves down the man's body a little, leaning over to examine his side for a few moments, then he looks back at the folder. "Well done, Molly, you've missed almost everything that is remotely interesting or important about this corpse." he says as he holds out the folder to Molly with a sharp turn of his wrist. "He received a beating before the head injury, you can still see the lingering bruises along the sides of his body. Look at the x-rays, you can see one of his ribs is fractured!" he says in annoyance and frustration, putting on some gloves and going to get some tweezers. "You also failed to see that there is a trace of the weapon in the head wound that apparently the first ME missed as well. Amazing that any crimes get solved with such incompetence." he says as he leans over and pulls the sliver of something out of the wound.
"You.. you're not supposed to.. to touch it, Sherlock. You can look but not touch, remember?" Molly says in a flustered way as she goes over to him and flutters her hands about for a few moments, trying to remain some sort of control.
John crosses his arms over his chest as he moves over and listens to the interplay between the two, examining the body visually for a few moments, dropping his head down a little and shaking it when Sherlock is so cruel to the mousy young woman. "If he was cleaned and ready to be buried, and whoever moved him was not careful.. there might be fingerprints left on the body... especially on the arms or under it, since he was redressed." he says thoughtfully in an offhand manner as he thinks about everything, glancing up after a moment to see if either was paying attention as he realizes hey, that might be important.
Stopping what he's doing for a moment, Sherlock looks up at John sharply. "John. Yes, of course!" He says before he turns to Molly. "Did you search for any anomalous marks or fingerprints?" he demands as he looks at the young woman.
"Well.. no.. no, I was just doing an autopsy, again.. I didn't.. I didn't know to look for anything like that.." Molly says in surprise, taking the dish from Sherlock that has the fragment in it, frowning as she puts it on a tray near the folder she just put down, then she puts on a pair of gloves and pulls over some lights. "I can look, but you both need to step away from the body, especially you, Dr. Watson." She says as she points to a spot away from the body.
Glad that he could at least help out a little, John steps back a little from the body and nods. "Right, of course. Sorry." He says as he looks at Sherlock. "I think I still remember where the coffee machine is, you want anything, Sherlock?" he asks as he looks at the man.
"Black, two sugars, thank you, John." Sherlock says in an off-handed tone, not paying any attention to Molly as he continues to look over the body for any fingerprints or any other marks that could identify who moved and positioned the body.
John nods quietly again and then smiles. "Right, then. I'll be right back." He says with a small nod of his head before he walks toward the door, for some reason feeling a little uneasy about leaving Molly alone with Sherlock, although partially because he's afraid of what Sherlock might say to Molly. But at the same time he just can't stand there being useless, so he exits the Morgue to go find a coffee machine.
And here we meet Molly! She doesn't know Sherlock quite as well yet. Poor girl thinks she's special, still. And ok, she's a little different than in the series but, yeah.. this is what came out. hehee. I hope you guys liked it, there will be more to do with the case in the next chapter!
Comments/Reviews welcome, and thank you so much for the wonderful ones so far, on every chapter!