I do not own any of the character in this story

Chapter Four: Have dinner with me.

The blood droplet that he had placed under the microscope had been Holmes' point of concentration for the last 20minutes. And now it seemed to have given him what he wanted as he slammed his hands down at either side of where he sat.

"OH!"

"What!" Molly had almost dropped the two mugs of coffee that she was holding. Once again she had made coffee when it was his turn. She was far too soft on that arrogant git.

"Oh thank you Mr Laten!" the smile on his face was as bigger than the biggest smile a Cheshire cat could give.

"Wow your thanking a dead man. Are you going to thank me seen as I made coffee again?"

His face was blank for a second as he accepted the coffee she held out to him. "No."

"Sorry."

"I'm not going to say thank you. I'm going to thank you." 'Oh Molly, just as I thought, you've totally forgotten our little conversation.'

"I don't understand?"

'Where've I heard that before?' he smirked. "Molly will you have dinner with me?"

The brown haired pathologist almost choked on her mouthful of drink. Molly had heard John talked of Irene Adler and her asking Sherlock to 'dinner' and that was the first thing that came into her mine. "Dinner?"

"Yes Molly. Dinner." He push the stool away from the desk slightly and then spun on it to face her. "You and I having dinner in a restaurant."

She didn't mean to say it. She had regretted it as soon as she said it, but it just came out. "What's the catch Sherlock? You don't eat let alone go to dinner?"

Sherlock raised an eyebrow "Don't you want to?"

"No-no I didn't say that. I-I just can't believe you asked me?"

"Well?"

"Yes of cause…..so when then?"

Sherlock hummed he really hadn't thought it throw that far yet. When do people usually go out on 'dates'? "How about Friday night?" he leant forward. His hands clasped resting gently in the middle of his knees. "About 7:45?"

"Oookay. And where?"

"Not sure yet I'll text you that later on." He gave her on of his signature winks before turning his attentions back to his work again. He had been that focused on the copious amounts of blood samples that he had to compare that he had missed Molly saying good bye.

Molly woke up the next day with a sigh. It was her day off and the one thing she wanted to do was sleep and catch up on last night's episodes of CSI New York. The program had its moments of been completely in actuate, but she loved it anyway. Far better than watching EastEnders or Hollyoaks. But that would have to wait for tonight. She needed to book everything ready for Friday. Hair, nails, eyebrows, legs and bikini 'you never know what's going to happen when you're with Sherlock' she kidded to herself. And of cause she would need and new outfit and shoes.

She had had her eye on a dress in the window of Harvey Nichols for months. It was far too much for her to spend on a dress that she would only where once, but she was sure that if she bought it now she would fine a time to wear it again at some point. Maybe at baby Watson's christening?

But Harvey Nichols is not a place that Molly could ever feel completely at home in. The last time she went in there with her sister in-law she couldn't shake the feeling that every other woman in the shop was judging her even the ones that didn't work there seemed to be looking at her oddly. Which was rather depressing considering she had been complimented twice that day by two different men.

So there Molly sat in fount of her dressing table curling her hair into loose ringlet before pinning it up at the back. She put on her best heels and mid-length purple summer dress. Ready to go shopping. At first she felt like a fool, but when she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the shop windows that thought flew away. She looked great.

She loves her heels to pieces, there the best ones and her favourite ones, so she likes to keep them in good nick. Molly could walk in them all day and her feet would feel fine. Her friends where amazed at her the last time they saw her in them. Because she somehow managed to run at full speed for a good ten meters when they tried to catch their bus. Miss Hooper had decided that if she was going to go into one of the most expensive shops she knew, she wanted to look her best and knowing her luck she would end up scuffing those heel and walk in looking a mess instead.

As the taxi pulled up outside of the shop in Knightsbridge she couldn't see her dress. She paid the cabbie and then hopped out minding the gap between the car, the road and the path. Molly stud outside of the window where the dress had once been displayed. "Okay, don't panic Mols. It might still be inside." Molly took a deep breath and walked into the huge store. There were skinny women in six inch heels and tiny black skirts assisting even skinnier and more beautiful women in even higher heels on the purchasing. She felt practically obsess looking at the other ladies that filled the shop.

She quickly scanned the shop looking for anything that was close to what she had seen before. But she could find it. There was no other way but to venture into the dragons den. "Can I help you miss?"

"Oh!" she almost jumped right out of her skin. "Oh- I-I was….uhmm… looking for this dress." Molly held out her phone to the blonde twenty-something that stud to the side of her.

"I'm sorry miss but the last dress of that type was bought last night about an hour before we closed." The girl did look genuinely sorry for her and did try to offer her a similar dress in green but Molly declined say that it was the navy blue one she had had her eye on for weeks and that it was her own fault for not coming in sooner. Molly thanked the girl anyway and left rather disheartened.

As Molly stepped out of the store she bumped into a woman who was coming in. Of cause she apologised for it, but the other woman just looked at her. "Maybe if you look where you're going you won't bump into people." She said with a slight snarl. That woman seemed to sum up everything she hated about woman with far too much money and far too much of an easy life. You could tell that from just looking at her. Her perfect silk like black hair tied up in a fifties style. Her ice blue eyes and bright red lips. And not to mention her size eight waistline and blood red nails on her fingertips.

"Good morning Miss Adler."

'You have got to be kidding me!' Molly's mind went blank. That bitch was The Woman? How on earth did Sherlock fall for her?

Irene Adler plagued the pathologist's mind all the way home. She couldn't find the shoes she wanted in town so the ones she was wearing would have to do. "Thank you."

As soon as she got into her flat she slumped on the sofa and kicked off her heels. Toby jumped up onto her stomach were she lay. Usually she would have pushed him off her because of her dress but right now she had other things on her mind. "Oh Toby. What am I going to do now ehy? The dress has been bought and there's no more of them. I didn't find the shoes and to top of a crap day I have just met Irene Adler. Oh Toby she was perfect, an angel for god sake! A bitch, but a beautiful one."

Toby just nudged her nose. He was hunger. Of cause he was hunger, Toby is always hunger. "Fine. I guess I should get something too yeah."

"Mew"

…

The next evening, after she had spent hours at the salon, Molly spent another hour and a half searching through her wardrobe looking for a dress to wear for her date the next day. She couldn't find a single thing. All the ones she had where either day dresses that where covered in flowers or ones he'd already seen and commented on. But just before the tears fell from her eyes the text alert noise came from her phone.

HELP ME. PLEASE. BAKER STREET. QUICK. – SH

And she was straight out of the door. It didn't cross her mind to wonder why he had text her and not John with something that sounded so important.

….

Molly ran up the stairs of 221B thank god she had a spare key after what happened to Mrs Hudson last Christmas. She jogged throw the door to the living room only to be greeted by a Sherlock Holmes standing in front of the window in a suit that from behind seemed to look twice as expensive as any of his other designer ones.

"Ah, Molly perfect. Which do you think?"

"WHAT!" she said a little out of breath. And with a red flush beginning to cover her face.

"Ties. Which one do you think goes better? I hate both but it was these or a dickey-bow and seen as the last time I wore one of those I ended up been mistaken for a waiter. Admittedly that was rather the point but I don't want to be serving soup when I'm meant to be having dinner with you. So which one?"

She let out a huff and a smile. She had known him for seven years now and he still found ways to surprise her. "You'll have to put each one on so I can compare."

He sighed and she grinned as she put her bag down. "You look as if you've been running. That's not your normal blush. It's much deeper and is covering your whole face and neck too."

"Yes I did run from the end of the street and up those bloody stairs because I thought something was wrong from your text." A few minutes after she had made him try both on twice as punishment for making her worried she finally had an answer for him. "Yeah defiantly the second one. The first is too wide. It's more of a John sort of tie." She winked at him.

"I knew it would be better to get you to decide. Here sit down would you?" he draped the two ties over the desk chair and hung his suit jacket up on its hanger that was hocked around the window lock.

"So come on then which restaurant are you treating me to?"

"Never mind that. I Have something far more important that needs addressing." He went behind his chair to the cabinet and pulled out a large rectangular shaped silver cardboard box. "Here you are." He placed it on her knees.

"What is it?"

"Open it and find out."

Molly gently lifted the lid of the box and pulled back to find the navy blue and black draped broderie anglaise Nina Ricci dress that she had wanted from Harvey Nichols. Her mouth dropped open and Sherlock couldn't help but laugh. "Sherlock this cost a fortune you shouldn't have. And anyway how did you know I wanted it. Jesus Christ Sherlock this is even my size."

"£1,285.00 to be exact. The blonde girl that works there told me that she had seen you a few times looking at it in the window, but never going in. She assured me it was your size when I asked…." Molly raised her eyebrow. "…Fine I knew it was your size….."

"Thank you, Sherlock. You have no idea how upset I was to see it had gone."

"Yeah Billy told me."

"Billy?"

"Homeless network. They really are indispensable."