Molly goes through the day as if nothing's gone wrong. She spends time with her friends, laughs, smiles, jokes around, as if everything's perfect. Internally, however, she's terrified, and doing whatever she can to both keep from going home and also keep from angering her father. When she got home, there wasn't a repeat of the night before, which was an incredible relief, but the things that were said… she couldn't even think them. She knew she was worthless. She knew she didn't matter and that she didn't count. She knew nobody would ever love her. She knew she was a big mistake. She knew she'd just ruined everyone's lives. She knew. So why was she being reminded, again and again and again? That night, before bed, she curled up tight around herself and cried once more. She felt so weak and broken. She felt like… her whole existence was a mistake. She felt like she deserved to die. Not for the first time, Molly Hooper went to sleep wishing that one day, her father would snap completely, and in the midst of it all, he would kill her.

Sherlock goes through the day wondering and thinking about Molly. The facts were as such:

Molly Hooper had a bruise in the shape of a finger on her shoulder.

Molly Hooper ran away crying when the bruise was brought up.

Molly Hooper had locked herself into a closet and was sobbing.

Therefore, it could be concluded, Molly Hooper was being abused somehow. Whether it was the first time or not, he didn't know for sure, as she'd never made any sort of indication that anything had ever been wrong before, but he did know that somebody was hurting her. He knew for sure that somebody was hurting Molly, and in doing so, this person had scarred her, had terrified her. But how was he going to narrow down who the person was? He'd not gotten a proper look at the bruise. It was reddish, so not incredibly traumatizing, but it was painful, and he could tell that underneath, she was hurting as well. So she was grabbed and possibly pushed. Based on how large the bruise was, he could also deduce that the perpetrator was a male, probably older. Who could fit that description? A boyfriend? Her father? A Teacher? A Friend? He recalls that Molly had a boyfriend a few months ago, Jim something-Moriarty. Jim Moriarty had dated her. But would he hurt Molly? He definitely was a bully, and had picked on plenty of kids, boys and girls alike. Moriarty was incredibly high up on his suspect list. She had broken up with him as it was, so there was motive. Now the question was… how does he find out for sure?

John went through the day as he did most, just more worried. Something was definitely wrong with Molly, and there were clear signs that she'd been incredibly upset. Perhaps things weren't right at home. He figured that was the case, because Molly was usually such a happy, lovely girl, and she got along with everyone. His girlfriend, Mary, talked about her a lot. They'd been best friends since primary school. He'd come to know that Molly actually never got upset quickly. He'd noticed she loved the dissections they did in Biology. He'd even seen that she was on good terms with all her exes, including the douche, James something. There was nothing else to it. Molly seemed rather reluctant to talk about it, but based on the events of the past day, he was sure that it wasn't anything good. He talked to Mary, and they both decided to talk to her, to see if she would tell. If not, they would hope and pray and do their very best to help her however they could.

A/N: Sorry for the late update! I've been INCREDIBLY busy today. I'm booked every day this week, so the next few days, updates will be around this time, if that's all right. I know, I have another fic to work on, but I want to focus on this one for the time being. This is an incredibly difficult story to write, if I'm being honest, but I need to do this.

I'm very grateful for the reception this has received though, and I love all of you, those that have followed the story, favorited it, left reviews, etc. THANK YOU.

Take care, and have a wonderful day/night/evening/afternoon/etc.

xP