A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long to update this story. I made the mistake of letting a brilliant writer's suggestion to scrap the whole story to heart and had my writing confidence crushed to dust.

I think the other fics I started after this helped me get the courage to dust this chapter off and finally publish it. So here goes….

*whispers* If it makes a difference, I made it twice as long.

Molly stared at the phone in surprise. Mary had hung up so fast that she hadn't been able to ask for more details. It seemed that everyone was cutting her off today; but she couldn't bring herself to be irritated though, not with the unexpected but welcome opportunity to see her celebrity crush live! Molly continued to hum in delight for the rest of the afternoon.

On occasion she had wondered if Sherlock had solved his case. He never did return after his hasty exit with John. It wasn't unusual of him to act out, so she chose not to dwell on it and focus on her work. By the end of her shift she had labeled that day as the most delightful paperwork session she ever had.

She flexed her sore wrist as she walked to the locker room. She hadn't run into another soul on her way there. Once again, she was the last to leave for home. However, it was a small price to pay to have free weekends. She was shrugging off her white when she sensed another presence in the room.

"You really must feel no shame coming into the women's locker room." Molly turned around to smile at Sherlock, who stood shrouded in the darkness by the corner. Honestly, was he away just how histrionic he was? Probably not, Molly thought to herself.

"Why would I be ashamed about coming here? There's no one else here."

She raised her eyebrows at him. She was in a good enough mood to tease him and he was making it too easy. In her most scandalized voice, Molly asked.

"Unless you're trying to sneak a peek?"

It wasn't nearly as crass as her 'quite a lot of sex' and so half-expected a distasteful scoff or offensive comeback for her troubles. It was much to her surprise when he didn't respond at all, and appeared to be...well dumbfounded.

"Sherlock?"

She couldn't see his face clearly. The locker room was dimly lit, and he hadn't quite stepped away from the corner. She took a step forward to wave a hand in front of his face. He wasn't upset was he? There was no reason he would be upset. He was probably feeling awkward, she thought. Sherlock always did balk at the mention of intimate subjects.

"N-nothing. I wasn't paying attention."

Did he just stutter? Molly mused as she peered closer towards him and was startled when he jumped back.

"Are you all right?" She was getting alarmed. He was blinking back at her furiously.

"Yeah I'm just...distracted."

Okay, she thought. Not quite the reaction she was expecting.

"So, why are you here?"

Her question seemed to jump-start something in him. "Oh right," he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I uh-need to use your place as a bolt hole tonight."

Molly blinked up furiously at him.

"What?" He asked somewhat defensively.

"You've never asked my permission before."

He threw her confused look and was about to argue when she clarified. "Well you tend to just show up, you don't even knock."

"I do knock," he said slowly. He tried to sound confident but she could tell he was uncertain.

"The headboard doesn't count. Do you realize how weird it is to be woken up like that?"

She folded her arms in an attempt to look annoyed. Sherlock looked slightly abashed for a moment before he huffed indignantly at her.

"Wait, you've never mentioned that before!"

"Yes, I have," she explained slowly. "But you never seem to do anything about it."

She leaned back on the lockers, eyes lit up with amusement as his reactions progressed from disbelief to fierce concentration, and finally to embarrassing realization.

"Oh."

Molly finally let out her grin. It was so much fun watching him think when he wasn't being rude. She turned back to her locker to gather her things and was surprised to find Sherlock still standing there. She had expected him to leave ahead of her.

"Did you need something else?"

"Of course not," he said rather harshly. Molly's smile faltered. Wow she had underestimated how much his words could influence her mood. She chalked his touchy words to whatever case was distracting him.

"Okay, let's go."

Despite the little mood stumble in the locker room, Molly was still relatively happy about her day. The unusually warm night distracted her to wonder whether there would be good weather on Saturday. She was in the middle of revising her planned outfit when Sherlock suddenly spoke up.

"You're in a good mood."

She looked up at him, surprised that he had spoken. Shouldn't he working in his mind palace?

"Well you've never walked me home before," she said, not willing to let him damper her excitement to see a celebrity. Celebrity fangirl was a secret indulgence she did not want near any of Sherlock's criticisms. No, it would be best to steer the conversation away from that.

"How is that a reason to be happy?"

He sounded doubtful but Molly wasn't prepared to let him burst her bubble, so she chose to improvise. She sighed dramatically and looked up at him with woeful eyes. "What can I say, I'm a deprived friend. "

Molly smiled widely when he scoffed at her theatrics. It turns out it wasn't difficult to avoid a topic with Sherlock. For good measure, she chose to latch on to ask about something she had vaguely been wondering about since the locker room.

"By the way, why are you doing this?" Molly peered up to look at him and was amused to find he was hiding half his face under his collars. Does he normally do that?

"Doing what?" he asked, glancing at her. She silently gestured between them and towards the road. He stared down at her as if she had grown another head.

"Obviously because we're heading to the same destination."

Molly rolled her eyes. "Like I said before, you don't usually ask if you want to drop by, let alone accompany me home." Several seconds passed by with no response from him. Puzzled, Molly turned to check if he was paying attention when he replied.

"It was…convenient."

She shook her head at his comment. Why was she even surprised? She supposed it made sense to the consulting detective. But would it hurt to say he was trying to be nice?

They continued to walk in comfortable silence after that, much to Molly's relief. Just when she thought he would drop the subject, he relented.

"You were somewhat elated about something earlier when I was at the lab as well. Should I also believe that was also thanks to my friendly company?"

She turned to look up at him in confusion. Okay, it was one thing for him to suspect something, but it wasn't Sherlock's style to act so roundabout.

"What?"he peaked over his collars. "I'm trying the conversation...thing."

Oh. Oh.

Molly cursed her luck. Of all the things he wanted to chat about, he chose to ask about the one thing she would be unwilling to talk about? She briefly considered throwing back his insults about her inadequate conversation skills when she realized he would see she was avoiding the subject. And so settled on telling the truth she was comfortable admitting.

"Mary and I set up a date to hang out at her place this Saturday. I guess I was kind of looking forward to it."

He stopped walking to stare at her. "With Mary, Mary Watson?"

She stared back at him with confusion. Since when did he ask redundant questions?

"Uh, yes?"

He progressed to examine her closely as if cross-examining her. She was sure he would see through her and braced herself for the embarrassing deduction when he said, "I'm assuming your plans got cancelled then?"

"What?"

"Your date. With Mary."

Okay, not what she had been expecting. Wait how does he know her plans got changed but not what they actually are? Molly chose not to push her luck and went along with it.

"Er-you can say that. She called later to say we couldn't do it together." After a few seconds of intense scrutiny Sherlock nodded in approval and they resumed their walk. While she was thankful for his misinterpretation, she couldn't help thinking at the back of her mind that he was being weird. He was known to make mistakes, but that was a serious blunder.

Sherlock never thought there would come a day where he literally wanted to smack himself in the face. Mary most certainly playing games with him. He had barely contained his surprise when she clarified whom her 'date' was. Then what was the purpose of this Ben person? he wondered to himself. Sherlock noticed that Molly didn't bring him up. She was obviously embarrassed about something surrounding Ben. Was he a mutual friend she was interested in and Mary had been playing matchmaker? She could just be avoiding the subject to hide her disappointment for the plans falling out.

He could sense that something about his assumptions were clouding him from logically thinking through it, but he couldn't quite get his head around it. Whatever it was, it hung over like a cloud to his thinking. In fact, his head has been muddled all day thanks to that damned character.

John's annoying advice from earlier was playing through his head. 'Why don't you ask her, you know like a normal person?' He had meant to, back at the locker room, but then he over visualized he taunt and couldn't coherently think long enough to follow up. Instead he went on about needing to use her flat as a bolt hole.

Bravo, said a consciousness that sounded too much like his brother. The looming anonymity of Ben had been holding him back. He had always ridiculed it before, but the fear of rejection was a force to be reckoned with.

Normally he would have already deduced something disastrous about her potential suitor, but this time it was different. He had learned the hard way that when he did, she got upset with him; when he didn't, she almost got married to an idiot. Just the memory of the 'meat dagger' was enough to make him bristle.

So he faced a conundrum. He would either have to deduce something disastrous and have her shut him out or worse, meet and marry the idiotic Ben. Either way, he see how bringing up Ben would be beneficial to him in courting her. He was so lost in thought about it that he didn't realize when they had arrived at her doorstep.

"Are you still coming in?" Molly asked. He nodded distractedly and stepped into her flat.

Sentiment was irrational and inefficient, yet it was the reason he wanted to stay with her regardless of his mess. Mary knew that, and was exploiting it to make him pay for some righteous reason he couldn't fathom.

'Don't forget, Molly's free to see whomever she likes. If you want a chance then you better ask her out on that dinner soon.'

Now that he thought about it, Sherlock saw no problem with her advice. Asking her out would free him from whatever plan she has, or had for him. It was what he was going to do anyway;simple and efficient. He needed to stop making things complicated.

"I-think-I'm-hungry-fancy-some-dinner?"

He cursed himself for blurting it out so rapidly and was about to reiterate when she asked.

"Aren't you working on a case?"

That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. Why would she think it was a case? Oh, right. That's what he normally used her bolt hole for.

"No," Sherlock answered cautiously.

She stopped short by the door to gawk at him. "And you still came here?"

"Yes."

He could tell Molly was trying to figure him out. Personally he thought he was being quite obvious about it. If he didn't have a case then he would obviously be here to spend time with her.

"What, because you're hungry?"

He hesitated before responding. Technically it was true, so he nodded in agreement. "And I'd like your company" he added for good measure.

Molly stared at him for much longer than should have been necessary. At least, that's what Sherlock thought; otherwise he didn't know what to make of her reaction.

"Is this why you walked me home?" she asked with an irritation Sherlock didn't understand was there for. He nodded once more, not sure of what he was supposed to say next.

"Figures, " Molly mumbled as she walked indignantly out of the room, leaving a very confused Sherlock staring at her wake.

John and Mary were enjoying peaceful slumber when their respective dreams were interrupted by John's phone. He swore softly before digging further into his pillow, hoping to get back into his dream. Several texts punctured through their refuted attempts to sleep until Mary couldn't stand it anymore.

"John," she groaned, "check on your man-child,"

"I thought he was our man-child," he whined back.

"You're the one who didn't turn off the mobile baby monitor."

Two notifications later, he finally sat up and reached out to turn on the lamp beside him. John grumbled out threats as he squinted around to find his phone. It took a few moments to be able to read the screen, however by the time he was done reading, he wasn't so mad at being so rudely woken up anymore.

"Well you must be doing something right," he said grinning. "He's cursing at us."

Mary perked up from the sheets. "For what?"

"He accuses me of, I quote: 'carelessly complicating my plans to start a relationship with my pathologist.' "

"And what does he say about me?"

"He says you have manipulated him into a tedious mental warfare and demands an explanation tomorrow."

Mary chuckled at that. "Such a drama queen. He either didn't ask her out or didn't do it properly. The latter would be funnier though."

Another text arrived. "Bingo." John updated. "He says Molly mistook his attempt to ask her out as a manipulative power move to get her to feed him." Mary burst into a fit of laughter beside him. John shook his head at her delight.

"Wait, did you know he was going to botch it?"

"I didn't."she chuckled out. He eyed her suspiciously.

"Okay, " she relented "I counted on him being emotional for a while. Jealousy will deter him from thinking things through properly. Make sure you get every detail of how he did it when you see him tomorrow."

"I thought I had to give Molly the tickets."

Mary threw him an annoyed look. "Can't you multitask?"

"And if he finds out?"

"Then don't let him find out."

He gave her a disapproving look. "You know he's going to find out." Mary just shrugged at his dilemma.

"I thought you liked a little danger in your life" she winked.

He gave her an endearing kiss. "You're a terrible person."

"I love you too. Now please turn off your phone and go unplug the home phone. Your ladies need their beauty sleep and Sherlock needs to stew by himself."

A/N: It's hard to tell but I think there are one-two chapters left. It's Wednesday night in the story so I can only delay the 'big day' for so long lol. Again, I'm really, really sorry for the delay. Forgive me? *hands out virtual cookies*