NINE: Molly Cooper

Sherlock paced the length of his flat, listening to the music playing next door as he replayed each time he ever visited the police station. All of the same faces... At some point, he saw the name plate "Detective Inspector Alex Colt." He didn't look at the plate long enough to get a good look at the name. Inwardly, he groaned as his mysterious neighbor replayed one of those songs.

Think... Who has he met once before? Who has he met once before who could potentially be the greatest detective in the U.K... Aside from himself of course. Who could he possibly ask who has met Alex? Not John, of course, because he hasn't met him.

Maybe Lestrade? No. He's asked him already. He would be caught dead asking Anderson... Donovan would just ignore him. Maybe shoot a snappy remark in his direction that he would promptly ignore. There was that new intern, Daniel who seemed to know everything already...

Oh, it was so painfully obvious of who he could ask. Molly. Molly would tell him what he wanted to know. That sounded like a good plan. Who was this Alex Colt, and had he met him before. With a little encouraging, she would spill everything. It was just like Molly.

Sherlock threw on his coat and scarf and he ran down the stairs and out the door and hailed a taxi. John was out, probably grocery shopping, so there was no need to worry about him. Next door, Crystal seemed to be doing fine all by herself, singing to some Nickelback song. It's not like she cared where he went. Or who he was for that matter. Or why he was on the face of the Earth.

As the tall man who lived next door left, heading for the hospital, the female neighbor looked out the window. She smiled. It was all going smoothly, but of course the complicated stuff hadn't even started yet.

Now that he really thought about it, she really didn't like him. It wasn't like him with his joking banter, she honestly hated him. She seemed to wish he didn't even exist. Maybe she was at least grateful that it was because of him that she and John met. At least.

Something about Crystal made him keep coming back for more. Every time he talked to her, he thought it was so much fun to talk to her. She was... cute. She insulted him so smoothly, it was like it was natural for her, but when he saw her with John, she didn't insult him in the least. When she did, she was obviously joking, but with him... He just couldn't get enough.

However, even though he thought he was cute, she was very annoying in way which was a bit contradictory, but she was a very contradicting girl. Every time he saw her, he wanted to annoy her, and even when they were apart, he thought of various ways to annoy her. It was all he could think about on some days. Crystal Greene... How can I possibly annoy her. What is there that would provoke her enough? Why was this so fun?

Almost too soon, he arrived at St. Bart's hospital. He breezed through the door and headed down the hall to see Molly. Today, he noticed, she was wearing a flattering green dress. She should wear that more often. Of course, she may not wear it again. It did take her five tries to choose that dress. And that lipstick. Only twice for the hair, though.

She didn't even look up as the man with the dark coat and the sexy smirk swept into the morgue. Alone. As expected. Ah, what did he want today? He would ask for something, she would deny access, he would compliment her, and she would pull a few strings and show him the gruesome murder victim. But... there hadn't been any. She was expecting that visit. She fought a smile. Stay in character, Molly, she told herself, It has to happen this way. Let's see if she was right.

"Molly, I need your help." Sherlock said.

"With what?" she looked up.

"Well, strictly speaking, it's not... work related." Holy crap, she was right! Molly thought.

"Oh? How so?" Molly set down the paperwork she was doing.

"It's about... a detective."

"No detectives died recently."

"No, not a dead one. An alive one."

"What do you mean?"

"Detective Alex Colt."

"Ah, I don't know much. Nothing worth mentioning, really."

"I think I know him, but I just can't remember."

"What do you want me to tell you?"

"Who is he?"

"I probably shouldn't tell you." Molly turned away. Sherlock went through his very slim compliment vocabulary before he found the perfect one.

"Your lipstick is the perfect shade. It makes your lips look... pretty."

"Well..." Molly turned, How did she know that he would say that? "He's fantastic, really. Quite inspiring. He's very attractive, if I do say so," Not really a lie... Even Molly thought she was pretty. "He's ridiculously smart... Black hair... Very black. Raven black and these eyes that you could just drown in." Molly followed instructions and gazed off, pretending to daydream, "He comes here to talk to me a lot. He's nice. I like him, at least."

"Raven black hair..." Sherlock trailed off, "What color eyes did you say?"

"Ah, a beautiful green-gold. Like... what the light looks like when the sun is shining through the leaves in the forest." Molly sighed. She couldn't believe herself. She was pretending one of her best friends was a man and she was fawning over her... him.

Sherlock searched his memory for someone with raven black hair and green-gold eyes. So, far, there was no one. Day one... no one. There was that little girl... no... she was four and she still couldn't correctly pronounce over half of the words in her vocabulary. There was that fourteen year old boy who looked like he couldn't spell his own name...

"Do you know when he comes to work?" Sherlock asked.

"Well, he's currently on sick leave. He was in a terrible explosion and Detective Inspector Lestrade insisted that he took a few weeks off to recover."

"So you know where he is?"

"No... No I don't."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I have no idea where he is."

As Sherlock swept out of the morgue, Molly couldn't help but to smile. She was right. Damn it, Alexandria was right. Earlier, about two hours before Sherlock come to see her, Alexandria came to visit.

"Top of the afternoon, Molly!" She'd said, breezing into the room and bringing a good mood with her.

"Good afternoon to you as well." Molly smiled.

"How are you?" Alexandria hugged Molly, "It's been far too long."

"It has. You need to come by more often."

"We need to talk."

"About..."

"I need you to do something for me. See, later today, Sherlock Holmes is going to visit and he's going to say 'Molly, I need your help.'"

"What?"

"That line specifically." Alexandria said.

Then, she did something amazing. Alexandria scripted the conversation that Molly would have with Sherlock, and dammit, she was spot on. Molly was quite impressed. If Alexandria would have been Alexander, Molly would be in love with him instead of Sherlock. Instead, Sherlock captured her heart, and she was determined to win him over.

As Sherlock left, leaving Molly to hope he was just a bit jealous, Molly's assistants brought in a body that had been found in St. James park. He had been shot in the head and he was found with a broken microphone and speaker. There was no evidence that another person had been anywhere near him until he was found at six-thirty in the morning by someone named Veronica.

Molly unziped his body bag and gasped. She recognized him. He worked with Alexandria. He kept her posted on the inside. Jordon Malakay. Behind his ear was a tattoo of a word in Korean. It was still a bit scabbed as if it was very new. Something even Molly recognized. 미녀.

Molly panicked, but didn't call Sherlock back into the room. Instead, Molly pulled out her phone and called Alexandria. Molly listened to Alex's sad voice as she explained that she was present when her colleague was killed, but was so in shock that she didn't report it. That, and Lestrade couldn't know that she knew about the 미녀.

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Alex knew that someone was probably going to die as she spilled everything to Molly. Alex's voice was choked, but she couldn't help it.

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Sherlock swept out of the hospital. He felt as if he was going crazy. Sherlock was beginning to doubt that is Detective Alex was even a person. If he was a person, he was probably dead. Molly didn't seem sad... besides, there was a card going around for him. And he had his own office.

His office.

Sherlock get in a taxi and got out at Scotland Yard. He into the building and he ran upstairs, taking two at a time. He ran past Lestrade's office and looked for Alex Colt's office. He saw it and dove in, not bothering to look too long at the name plate on the door. "Detective Inspector Alexander Colt" he hoped it read.

He looked over the desk for pictures, and he looked through the drawers and turned on the computer. There was nothing that would tell him who the hell this detective was. Was there even a decent lead? No, not really. No pictures, the password to his computer was obviously standard military, maybe mixed with something personal, but Sherlock couldn't guess it. That just pissed him off more.

Sherlock practically stormed out of the police station, not bothering to look for that color of eyes that Molly described. Where was he supposed to look now? There was nothing helpful at the hospital, there was nothing at his office, no one would tell him anything. What was he supposed to do?

Behind him, the green eyed, black haired person he was looking for stepped into their office to fix everything that Sherlock had disturbed, knowing he had previously been there.

If Sherlock knew this, it would only vex him more, and that was the fun that Alex loved dearly.

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Nicolas Colt hummed to himself as he wiped off tables, waiting for someone to come in the door. It was a slow day today, so there were only two waiters working. That sexy new girl that just got the job last night, and himself. He kept meaning to ask her out, but chances are that Alex got there first. Not his cousin, but another waiter who liked to beat him to the punch for everything. It wouldn't surprise Nicky if he did.

It was nice to see Alex, his cousin, yesterday. They don't see each other as much anymore, and it was nice to see her again. Though... it was a bit weird she seemed to really like the guy she was on a date with, but she was using her fake name. She was leading two lives. It must be really hard to keep both of them up without either one knowing about each other. What about the legal paperwork? Maybe the police station took care of all of that. She was working for them, so I assume that they take care of everything. If her I.D's get mixed up, then she has her police badge.

Nicolas went on rants like that far too often. When her father died, he worried about her. He knew she was old enough, and she could take care of herself, but he couldn't help it. It had become habit. He didn't intend on breaking it now that the anniversary of his death was sneaking up upon them. Nicky was probably going to visit the grave with the family. Maria, Alexandria, and Nancy Colt would need his help. Besides, it was his uncle, too, so he wanted to go pay his respects as well.

"Hey, Nicky." said Annie, the other waitress, who was cleaning off the table next to him.

"Oh, hi, Annie." Nicky was surprised that she was even talking to him.

"Hey, I actually wanted to talk to you." she turned to him.

"Me? Why?"

"There's something I saw outside earlier that I thought you would like." she smiled, "I wanted to show you."

"Me? Are you sure you're not looking for Xander."

"Positive."

"What if it's not there?"

"It's there. I promise."

"How do you know?"

"I just checked."

"What is it?"

"Well... it's... It's hard to explain. Just come on."

Annie took Nicky's hand and pulled him through back through the kitchen and out the back into the alley. Nicky started getting a bit doubtful as she pulled them farther and farther away from the restaurant.

"Annie?"

"One more corner."

Around the corner, there were five or six figures in black robes, standing there looking intimidating. Nicky looked over at Annie who smiled at him like there weren't people standing there.

"Um, welcome to the Thai Palace?" Nicky asked.

And that was the last thing he remembered.

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