Molly put the smile back on her face, as butterflies went mad in her belly. "Jim. Um, hi, come in." She said, opening the door wider. The last thing she needed was for the entirety of London to see England's most notorious mass murderer standing on her doorstep. He walked in, straightening his tie and wearing that devilish smile like he always did.
He looked around the flat, which was relatively nice. The blue floral wallpaper in the living room gave way to bright yellow paint in the kitchen, in which sat a gas stove and a fridge that may have very well been from the '80s. The stairs had some kind of stained brown carpet on them that Molly had intentions to replace in the near future. His eyes stopped on Jane, bouncing along as she watched the characters on the telly.
"Oh, are you babysitting for someone?" He asked, as he sat on the cream-colored settee. "She's a cutie." He added.
"Um, no, actually. She- she's mine. Now, anyways." She stammered, still confused at this sudden turn of events. Her life was changing quickly enough as it was without this new surprise. Not that she would have minded if he had come back if she didn't have Jane; on the contrary, she might have celebrated. But she was responsible for another life now, and Moriarty wasn't the type to appreciate that kind of limitation.
"Oh." Jim seemed taken aback. It was a normal reaction, when you found out that your former lover and partner in crime (or at least partner in covering up crime) suddenly had a two year old. No doubt that Jim had kept tabs on her while he was gone; that was just how he did things. She was sure that he had watched John, Lestrade, and maybe even Mrs. Hudson, as well. But apparently he had missed the whole custody thing. Easy to do when James' disappearance was swept under the rug so quickly. "Well. Isn't that lovely." He said, after a pause. Molly couldn't read him, was he being genuine or playing the game?
"Yes, yes it is." Molly agreed, as she finished cutting the chicken and added it to the boiling water.
"So uh, you're married then." Molly could tell his voice had deflated. "Who's the lucky guy?" He asked, looking around the flat once more.
"No, not married." She quickly replied. "Haven't even been on a date in nearly a year." She commented, mostly to herself. "Jane was just a, uh. A happy accident." Well, it was mostly true. Though the post-partum depression had definitely taken its tole, she knew that Jane wasn't just a mistake. Everything happened for a reason. She just hadn't figured out the reason yet. Toby, Molly's cat, came inside the pet door and gave her a dubious look, before proceeding to hiss loudly at Jim. Molly threw him a few bits of kitty kibble. "Oh, be quiet, Toby." She scolded him.
Jane suddenly started to cry, but before Molly could put down her spatula and calm the screaming baby, Jim was in the playpen with her, bouncing her gently on his lap and shhh-ing her. Molly's eyebrows raised. For one, she had never seen Moriarty sit on anything but immaculate furniture in his suit. Secondly, who knew he had any knowledge of babies? He seemed to notice her look, and smiled. "I, uh, I basically raised my sister. My mom had her when I was nine, and then never came back..." He said, the smile fading. Molly's heart broke for him. No wonder he had problems. His mother was probably some common crack whore, out running the streets, or worse, dead. Molly had seen too many of the poor women come through her morgue. She allowed herself to smile at the scene in front of her, though Jane never did completely stop crying.
"I think Janie needs a new diaper." She suggested, as she walked over and took her off of Jim's lap. She carried the small girl up to the nursery, and after five minutes of fiddling with baby wipes and awful Velcro fasteners, she had successfully undiapered, cleaned, recleaned (because she had not learned before now just how bad baby poop smelled,) and rediapered her daughter. Proud of herself and how motherly she was being, Molly took Jane back downstairs and put her in the high chair. She spread out tiny Goldfish and teddy-bear shaped graham crackers on the tray, and left Janie to her lunch.
"So, um, what are you doing back?" Molly asked Jim, who had begun feeding the baby tiny bites, using the old "here comes the plane" trick. She really never would have guessed that the self-proclaimed terrorist was so good with one-year-olds. She pulled her lunch off of the stove and served it onto two plates.
"Well I couldn't stay gone forever. Haven't made my grand entrance yet, though. Don't want to be overshadowed when Sherlock Holmes-" his voice took on a mocking tone as he said the other man's name,"- comes back." He explained. Molly could understand that, but it still didn't answer her question.
"Jim, you're wanted by Scotland Yard, the FBI, the Kremlin, Interpol, and a thousand other agencies." She said. She didn't know the names of all of the law enforcement that had a bounty on his head, but she knew that there were at least ten. Jim Moriarty was worth a pretty penny, dead or alive. He had to know that.
"Well I would hope so - otherwise Lestrade really would be slipping." Jim said, giggling a little bit. He coughed and put on a serious face. "But they're never going to make the charges stick anyways." he said, a hint of humor still in his voice. Molly gave him what she wanted to be a stern look, but with that smile she couldn't stay mad at him. Though his sudden coming back was a shock, she found she didn't mind it as much as she had thought she would. "But uh, I sort of need a place to stay. You know, until I make my big entrance." He added, the way that he said it scared Molly a little bit. He had made himself quite the exit, and she didn't want to think about what he had planned for his reentrance.
"I suppose you can stay here, if you want to that is." She added the last part quickly, not wanting to seem too eager. She had read once in a magazine that men didn't like women that were overly eager to please, though in her experience it had been much the opposite. "I don't have a guest bedroom, but I can make you a cot here in the sitting room. You know, just temporarily." She said.
"Oh, can I? That would be great." Jim said, smiling. Molly returned his smile, but one small part of her brain nagged at her, wondering what she had just gotten herself into.