She heard the loud bang ring through the air. A sickening echo through the rafters of the old warehouse. Before she could even realize that it had happened, she felt the small shell piece into her skin and tear through her muscle. She let out a yelp before crumbling to the ground. She found she didn't hit the ground but was instead caught and carefully lowered to the ground. She looked into the eyes of Mary Watson who wore the most terrified expression.
"Sherlock!" Mary called as she looked over her shoulder. Sherlock's head whipped around to reveal his teeth bared and eyes wild with violence. "Molly..." Sherlock's expression fell in response as he dropped the blunt object that he had beat the shooter upside the head with who was now unconscious on the floor. John let out a long strain of curses as he pulled out his phone and immediately phoned 999.
"Oh my god..." Sherlock breathed as he rushed over to Mary and his fiancé. He shed his Belstaff and passed it to Mary to cover Molly's body after she observed Molly's wound. He dropped to his knees and gently lifted Molly's head into his lap. His hands absentmindedly stroked her face where tears were silently falling.
"Sherlock?" she whispered.
"Molly Hooper... Don't. You will only cause more damage," he scolded with a ghost of a smirk that he hoped would erase some of the chaos yet his face reflected so many emotions that it overwhelmed her to stare too long into his piecing eyes.
"What if I die, Sherlock? The wedding-"
"Is still four and a half months away, Molly. You still have time to heal. You have time to recover..." Sherlock assured her as he ran his fingers through her hair. Molly heard Mary let out a shaky sigh which she knew was a result of her trying to conceal her tears to eliminate anymore pain. Molly let out a wail, one hand reaching up to take Sherlock's and the other searching for Mary's.
"Molly, control the pain. Remember? Don't succumb to the shock..." Sherlock instructed with a bit of a waiver in his voice. "I have done this before. Without you there in my mind, I would have died. And actually died..."
"Sorry about that again," Mary let out watery laugh as she attempted to keep up the spirits. Sherlock gave her a smile (though it took all over his remaining positive emotion to muster one) and looked back at Molly. The tears were falling and staining her cheeks in greater amounts and Sherlock couldn't help but feel his own eyes betray him and release their own tears.
"Molly, hang in there," John said as he joined them and placed his phone back in his pocket. "Two minutes. Can you wait two minutes for me?" Though she gave a small nod, she couldn't help but feel her body slowly go numb. Her grip on Sherlock and Mary's hands was slipping as she felt herself slip away. Sherlock let out a growl in response as she pressed his forehead to hers.
"Molly Hooper. Don't you dare leave me... Don't you dare," he rasped as her breathes became laboured. "I love you, Molly. I can't lose you." She grinned up at him as she closed her eyes, uttering only his name before the world around her went dark.
A/N: Hello my darlings... Please forgive my absence. Senior year of high school with five advanced classes, the role of Cinderella's stepmother in Into the Woods and five major solos on oboe for band becomes quite time consuming. I hope this doesn't depress too many of you... There is a second part. I promise... See? Doesn't say that it is complete. Still in progress. ;)