A/N: Hello my darling reader!
This is it. The Epilogue. Did I ever think I'd get here? Lesbihonest: no. I didn't even think I'd get past part 5, but here we are!
I'd like to thank everyone who has read and thank you to those who reviewed. I've really appreciated every comment left on the story. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have continued.
As I have said before (I think it was a few chapters ago, but I'm not quite sure), I've decided to finish off what I can by the end of this year. Of course, this story is complete. I don't think I'll finish the librarian one, though. I'll do my best and write when I can, but I didn't know where it'd be going, so it won't be done by the end of 2014. I'll take it over to AO3 (accio-me-some-feels). The Ermergerd-Lock Better-Homes series will be under another pseud on AO3 and you'll be able to search for that during January and find the first chapter of Study in Pink.
Like the beginning of this year, I plan on doing another 30 Day OTP Challenge and that'll be on A03 and here so that I started and ended with a thirty day challenge. For the Vine, ya know. Haha!
One final thing: now that we've finished the story, I really think the name should change. If anyone has any suggestions, PM me or put a message in the comment section! I'll change the name, and if i post it on AO3 (unlikely), I'll have that title there as well. Gracias, mis amores!
Alright, enough authors note. Here we go.
Thank you so much for reading. I love you! X
(Happy Holidays, merry Christmas, Happy New Year! xx)
If you asked Doctor Hooper three months ago if she could be a dominatrix, she'd laugh in your face.
If you asked Irene Adler three months ago if she could be a pathologist and lived as a menial, insignificant person, she'd whip you harder.
In reflection of their time as another person, the duo felt they had a better grasp and acceptance for their lives. Despite having difficulties in their lives, they saw the positives by being someone else.
Irene Adler appreciated her lifestyle, her status, and her people more, especially Kate. Molly Hooper felt she was a more confident woman who could take on new challenges and who had a new insight to life and the way others live.
Had they not seen their lives and other lives from a new perspective, they may have continued to fall down a spiral. Without the unusual experience, who knew what type of person they would have become.
Molly Hooper was having another usual day. She had gotten ready for work and was walking towards St. Bart's. She had practiced what she'd say when she saw Sherlock that morning. If he tried anything, she was ready.
'Morning, Sherlock. Before you ask, I'm not telling you anything about my private life and I'm not going to tell you about Irene Adler, so don't ask!'
'Morning, Sherlock. No, I'm not talking about Irene Adler today. No, it's none of your business. If you're only here to talk about that, you may as well leave right now.'
As she walked towards the tube, someone approached her.
"Good morning, Molly," the woman said.
Molly looked at her and smiled. "Kate! Hi, how are you?"
She raised an eyebrow and her lips lifted up a little. "Come with me."
Without hesitating, Molly followed Kate through a coffee shop and out the back. There was a car parked at the back and the door opened. Kate got in and Molly followed suit. The car took off and zoomed through London. They arrived at a house unfamiliar to Molly. The car pulled up behind it and the duo walked into the house through the back door.
Molly couldn't help the half smirk that rested on her face. Irene Adler sat with a glass of white wine on a lavish leather loungechair. The rest of the house was dingy and didn't match the chair, not the woman sitting in it. She looked as glamorous as usual, if not more. Then again, it may have been the environment that made her seem as gorgeous as ever.
"Good morning, Irene Alcoholic," Molly said, crossing her arms. "It's not even ten am."
Kate frowned at Molly and sat next to Irene.
"Well, darling, if you don't go to sleep, I think you're entitled to drink whenever you want. Or am I wrong? Should I stop putting vodka into my wine?" Irene said, a bit of a slur in her voice.
"I-I don't think that's healthy at all."
Irene shrugged and lifted the glass up to Molly. "I'll drink to that." She took a swig and poured some more vodka into it. "Besides, I know what you did three weeks ago!" she giggled and winked at Molly.
"Am I here to watch you drink, or is there something else?" Molly asked, glancing at her watch.
Giggling, Irene put her hand on Kate's knee. She looked over at her assistant and said, "We should've bought her a glass! Had a drinking competition!"
Molly rolled her eyes. "I've got to go to work."
"How's Sherlock?" Irene asked with a gasp.
Shrugging and glancing again at her watch, Molly said, "Hassling me about you."
"Yes, but is he behaving?" Irene asked.
"More or less. Not what you predicted, though. I recall you saying he would be eating out of my hand. Never have you been so wrong."
"Well," Irene spat, "I tried. Besides, it's hard to predict the actions of Holmes'. Mycroft has turned my security status down by three notches. I'm at level 3. That doesn't really seem alright to me. If you knew why I was at that rating, you'd be asking for it to be turned up. But I had to think about you and Kate and had to do better and- blah! No, I'm done. How are you?"
Molly shrugged. "I'm alright, considering I've been taken from my way to work to an undisclosed location to see a drunk dominatrix drabble on."
"But really, Molly, how are you?" Irene asked, putting her drink on the ground and lying on the couch.
"I'm fine. I've had to fix up your dodgy work and- ugh! The paperwork." Molly shook her head. "Don't get me started on the paperwork! You did pretty badly at that."
Irene laughed. "Yeah. There were all these words! I got a bit bored. Like, yay, paperwork, but it got tedious. What can I say?"
Glancing at her watch again, Molly sighed. "I have to get going. I need to be at the morgue in ten minutes. It was great to see you again, Irene. Would you like to come over some other time when you're sober? We can have tea and cake?"
The dominatrix shrugged. "That seems like a decision for a sober mind. Thanks nonetheless. Oh, and you'll find some money transferred from my bank to yours as a thank you."
Molly frowned. "For what?"
"Ya know, looking after Kate, letting me do what I did, looking after me," she waved her hand about. "Stuff."
"B-but the flat is completely renovated. I can't accept your money," Molly tried to argue.
Irene shrugged as best she could while lying down. "I don't care. Mkay. I'll see you another time, then."
Kate walked over to Molly and guided her back to the car that waited. Once Molly had climbed in, the door closed and the car took off, leaving Kate and Irene at the house.
When Molly was down the driveway, Kate returned to Irene who smiled up at her.
"Can we have this couch returned? Real talk- it's kind of tacky," Irene said as she started to get up.
"Real talk, it cost a few thousand pounds," Kate muttered back before helping Irene to their own car.
The next and last time the two women met was on Molly's birthday. One of her friends from the hospital had thrown a party for Molly, inviting all the people Molly interacted with. Despite having a small number of friends, dozens of people arrived to celebrate the party.
As the guests started to get drunk, a woman approached Molly, blonde hair and bright red lips. The host smiled meekly at the unfamiliar guest and glanced around at the other party-goers.
"Happy birthday, Molly Hooper. You're such a wonderful person. I hope everything works out for you," the woman said.
Her voice was so familiar but Molly couldn't put a name to the face and voice. Molly frowned as the woman pressed her lips against Molly's cheek and started to walk away.
"Irene?" Molly called out as the woman made her way to the front door.
Snapping out of her little world, Molly started to rush towards the uninvited guest. Molly was half way to the door when the woman walked out, leaving the party behind her. The door closed, the sound masked by the talking and music in the flat. Molly threw the door open to reveal a deserted hallway. She looked up and down the hallway, desperate to see Irene once more.
The dominatrix had hidden herself into another room. She had done her research and knew no-one was home. Kate was helping her change as Molly opened her apartment door. The noise flooded the hallway and seeped into the flat Irene and Kate occupied. The door closed again and the music dimmed.
"I'm going to miss her," Irene confessed to Kate who shrugged.
"You'll be alright," she said while changing Irene's wig. "Besides, you'll surely see her again soon."
Irene shook her head. "I don't think I'll be back in London for a very long time. Poor Molly will have to deal with the Holmes Brothers alone."
"As much as I'd love to have this conversation, you've got a plane to catch in ten minutes and we have to hurry up."
Irene nodded and got back to changing disguises.
There wasn't a day that went past that Irene didn't think about Kate and Molly. A few times she had thought she had seen the women, but she brushed it off straight away. What would they do here in America?
Molly worried about Irene on a daily basis. Every time someone came into the morgue matching the same description of the dominatrix, she worried that perhaps Irene had tangled in crime once more and had delved too deep. Every month, Kate would send her a text with the word 'okay', meaning that Irene was safe. While it was a temporary relief to know, Molly knew Kate would say that every month, even if it wasn't okay.
No-one would have thought that these two women would have such an effect on the other. And yet, here they were.