Molly remained motionless, as did Sherlock, while she tried to understand what, or rather who, had befallen her. One minute she had been trying to stay out of the way of her footman and somehow she had ended in a rather compromising situation. Dear Lord, it hadn't even been twenty-four hours and already she was taken by two men.

Sherlock meanwhile listened intently to how the queen's heart rate elevated and how she had started to tremble. Not arousal, he concluded, but fear. Having never even been with a woman, much less than touched one if he could help it, Sherlock stood stalk still as if any sudden movement would send the creature into a spiraling panic attack.

"Could y-you possibly move t-to s-somewhere else?" Molly stammered, her voice a reaching a higher pitch than Sherlock though humanly possible. Without a word, the foot man stood, staring at anything other than Molly, whether out of respect for her privacy or his own, and dusted away invisible dirt from his shoulders. Molly fixed her dressing gown to hide anything that might have been showing, and stood shakily on her feet.

"I think that will be all for now, thank you." Molly spoke softly, not meeting Sherlock's gaze, only barely seeing him nod before walking stiffly to the door. He might have made it too, if Mrs. Hudson hadn't chosen that moment to open the door with breakfast in hand. Sherlock crumpled to the floor, his hands cradling his nose as guttural moans of pain escaped his parted lips.

Molly sighed inwardly, the day was going to be just bloody fantastic, and it wasn't even past nine in the morning.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"You do realize that you deserved this, right? After being such a wanker, are you trying to get us kicked out the kingdom?" John huffed as Sherlock winced and hissed under his experienced hands. After getting over the initial pain and shock of his wound and the fact that Mrs. Hudson had apologized innumerable amounts of times, Sherlock retreated downstairs to the servant's quarters where he was thoroughly chewed out by John.

Sherlock made no reply except a low growl and a white knuckled clench on his pants. "We promised, Mycroft," John continued, his touch gentler as he applied his fingers to the cleansed wound, "that we would keep the queen safe and an eye on the devil Moriarty. Close your eyes." Sherlock squeezed his eyes shut as John muttered a few words under his breath and a warm sensation flowed through his fingers and into Sherlock's tender skin. The cartilage snapped together once more and the bruising faded as blood dissipated into the blood stream.

Sherlock sighed as John removed his hands and opened his eyes. "Thank you." Sherlock murmured before standing and rubbing the slightly pink skin on his angular nose. John only snorted, but his eyes had softened into a warm brown color and the frown lines had disappeared around his mouth.

"Bugger," John smirked before crouching and changed into a hedgehog and climbing into Sherlock's waiting hands.

"I don't suppose you could have chosen something without quills?" Sherlock grimaced and cradled the creature into his pocket, the hedgehog huffed and squeaked in annoyance, but Sherlock swore he saw a smile curve into its furred features.

Walking into the dining hall and was met with the stares of his co-workers.

"Nice to see you finally joined us." A dark haired man spoke behind his cup of coffee. Sherlock instantly zeroed in on him and studied as if he were a specimen of great importance. Nicotine under the trimmed nails said smoker, hair and face clean and immaculate, not to mention posture precise and legs crossed.

"Queer." He smirked and watched as the man stiffened and paled.

"What did you say?" His voice not quite as confident as before, John nipped at his collar bone.

"Oh dear, I didn't see the time. Is that coffee brewing? Smells lovely." Sherlock was all smiles as he sat down and the dark haired man relaxed slightly, though his fingers trembled slightly.

"Yes, and I'm Anderson, you've met Thomas already." An oily, small built man stood from his chair and walked up to Sherlock looking him right in the eye before offering his hand. Mid thirties, affair with one of the female soldiers, annoying, small IQ and heavy drinker. All in all another idiot to forgrt and leave out of his mind palace. Sherlock nodded but offered no hand for the taking.

"Holmes, Sherlock Holmes." He brushed passed a stunned Anderson and sat down next to a petite young woman with ginger eyes, hair, and porcelain complexion except for the mole that donned her left cheek who watched the affair with great interest. Gossip lover, sleeps with whoever offers, mildly attracted to me (dull), sly but obvious, not to be trusted.

"Kitty Riley, since you never asked." She purred and leaned closer to Sherlock who inched away. His lip curled in disgust, "That's because I never was considering it." Kitty pouted and pulled away, much to Sherlock's relief.

"Alright, dears, we have work to do so chop, chop!" Mrs. Hudson bustled in, her hands filled with trays of dirty dishes. For Sherlock, the day couldn't be over soon enough…

I am SO sorry for the delay! I've been dealing with girls camp and weight loss crap and then I got a wolf spider bite on my ankle which has swollen my leg to the size of California, so here is a peace offering. Again thank you to the reviews and favs, it truly makes my life a heaven. I am also working on a long Sherlolly one shot AU with a robot Sherlock, so yeah. It's angsty! ANyhoo, fave, review, love.

God Bless,

DM