This scene is set after the season 3 finale and it sort of starts the 4th season. Enjoy reading!
Miss me? Miss me? Miss me?
Everywhere. The two words were simply everywhere. You looked out of the window and an advertisement on the wall would read it. You turned on the television and the words would greet you accompanied by Moriarty's face – smiling like the maniac he was. The newspapers were full of it, politicians talked about nothing else and it felt like all the world screamed his name... Moriarty!What did it mean? What was his plan?
Of course it was no imposter having taken Moriarty's identity, because Moriarty wasn't even dead. Sherlock had known it all along. As if Moriarty would kill himself before making sure Sherlock did the same! As if he wouldn't think of him planning an escape and a way to survive! As if he himself wouldn't think of a thousand possibilities and casualties things could go and still have an escape plan himself. Moriarty was his counterpart. He was his other half. But one question remained: How had he done it?
Sherlock sat in his chair, legs crossed, hands triangularly folded under his nose – just his usual thinking posture. Only today he couldn't think properly. His head was as empty as those of the people surrounding him daily and it was maddening. He thought he had told Glen? Gert? ... Anyway... Lestrade something similar once... What must it be like in those funny little heads of yours? It must be boring! He now related to those words on a new level. He sighed and rose from his chair deciding that walking around would maybe help him think better. It couldn't be that difficult. He just had to remember everything that had happened on that roof. What had led them both there, what they had talked about and what came afterwards...
As a consequence of his boredom and utter insanity Moriarty had accomplished it to let the whole nation believe he was innocent and Sherlock was the bad guy, which had lead to him having to die to save his friends (or rather the people he cared about more then he was used to concerning humans) by jumping of said roof. To avoid dying he had thought of several plans to safe himself but not one had primarily involved Moriarty killing himself. Only ever killing him had been the plan. Of course after he had done so there was only a limited amount of possibilities left to get off that roof alive and everyone staying out of harm's reach.
He decided on jumping after calling John, because with calling John he activated one special option of saving him – an only for that occasion prepared lorry with a catching and cushion net in it's trailer. In case Moriarty had been still alive Sherlock would have jumped and Moriarty would have assumed it was final only noticing the lorry when it was already to late to change his orders, giving Mycroft's men enough time to interfere. Namely kill Moriarty or his men before either could give or get new orders. And Sherlock was certain that Moriarty would have let everyone live once he jumped, only changing his mind, if at all, months later, because they didn't matter to him as much as he did. But for he had killed himself Sherlock had to jump to show his sidekicks that they could stop their work and he was obeying Moriarty's last wish, because they wouldn't get any orders from him any more. So he jumped, hit the lorry while another one drove by taking the assassins in the building across the view of him. It was a very delicate undertaking in which every second counted. So he had to jump of the lorry as fast as possible get on the floor where Molly had already prepared a blood trail. It was the most inconspicuous part of the plan, because everyone would just assume she was a passer-by having been dragged into the scene. Some more men of Mycroft's initiated in the plan gathered around him and while apparently examining him added some more blood and bruises and saw to his pulse slowing down, so that John – who certainly was going to check it to see him dead for real – would feel none.
The whole ordeal had been easier done than he had imagined it in the beginning. Molly had already entered the morgue, because John wasn't supposed to see her and soon he was transported there, too, where she signed his death certificate and he prepared himself to go. The morgue was empty except for them and he used the privacy to talk to Molly one last time.
"You know you were amazing today Molly Hooper", he told her with a small smile.
Molly looked up from the sink where she just washed her hands clean from the fake blood: "Em... thanks Sherlock. No problem really. I... I help where I can."
"I know. Still you could have said no. Could have let me deal with it alone instead of confronting me and offering your help. I'm glad you did it, because you were indispensable today!"
She blushed and fidgeted with the sleeves of her overall: "No need to exaggerate... I'm glad it all worked out. You really had me worried the whole time... And now you will just go? Without telling John?"
"I have to. Moriarty's men think I'm dead and only as long as they think that you all will be safe... I'll track them down and stop them don't worry! When I'm done I shall be back and you shall be safe", he smiled at her again then, having cleaned up his dirty clothes and taken his bag of supplied he stood there ready to go.
Molly felt hollow inside: "You... Do you know when you'll be back? What about John? Shall I tell him everything?"
Sherlock's eyes widened and he stepped up close to her: "No way! Don't tell him a word, you hear me?" – he put his hands on her shoulders – "John can't know, his life depends on it. He has to act convinced of my death, you all have to! Otherwise this will have been a waste of time. You understand me Molly? Promise me that you won't tell him a word. Do me this one last favour!"
"I promise", Molly said with breaking voice and a tear escaping her eyes at last.
Sherlock raised his hand and wiped it away with his thumb: "There, there! No need to cry. I'll be back in no time. Thank you Molly Hooper!"
She was to baffled to react and just looked at him while he grabbed his things and left the morgue only turning around one last time to remind her: "Please, do not forget Moriarty up there on the roof and get his death certificate done, too. I really owe you Molly Hooper!" And this really were his last words to her with which he left the morgue, John and London behind for two full years.
So what did explain why Moriarty was still alive? How could he have escaped the consequences of a bullet fired through his head and afterwards the examination of a pathologist clearly stating he was dead. How? There was only one logical connection. One thing he and everyone else had overlooked and which too often not even got a sidewise glance nor any bigger notice at all. Shame on everyone and especially shame on Sherlock for not having seen this earlier and for failing his own words. It was time to speak with the one person again who counted and mattered the most.