Disclaimer: I own nothing of Sherlock BBC.
"I had chosen quite a nice little spot, did I not? And yes, the coffin was empty; it did not felt right to place a Jane Doe in it. In a way, said person never existed and the grave should reflect that." The cemetery in the afternoon projected a sense of tranquillity.
"To me, you do exist. Be it Molly Hooper or Louise Hayes." Yet the words uttered by Mycroft Holmes succeeded in creating a ripple among the calmness.
"I decided to travel around the world. I had been to many places before but never for leisure." Louise declared for no particular reason. It was what she always wanted to do and time was no longer on her side.
"Perhaps I should join you. It was also my dream to travel widely and like you, I never had the chance to do it in the name of leisure. You would be the right partner for me." Mycroft talked about it as if they were discussing the weather when so many things were at stake.
"What about being the British Government? What about Sherlock?" Louise thought he was simply patronizing her and questioned him in a joking manner.
"I dedicated most of my adulthood to Great Britain and believed that I had done my part for the country so from now on, I want to live for myself and to kick start, I had already submitted my resignation. As for Sherlock, he is a grown man and long time for him to take care of himself." Taken aback, Louise whirled to him and looking into Mycroft's eyes, she could tell that he was serious about it.
"I don't even know how much time I got left, Mycroft." If he was shocked by her revelation, Mycroft certainly did not show it. Instead he took her hand and tenderly kissed it.
"Then we shall make the best of it, my love." To prove his point and show his determination, Mycroft proceeded to kiss Louise's forehead, eyes, nose and finally her mouth. Every kiss was a promise to her that every moment they spent together would be treasured and most importantly, to have no regrets.
Six years later, Christmas Eve
221B was at its full swing of celebration and even Sherlock was secretly enjoying it. The kids were enjoying themselves while the adults sat down for 'Christmas drinkies' like what Molly used to say. Without her and even Mycroft, every gathering of the Baker Street family felt incomplete but it's been six years since they left London and yet still no news of them.
Three rapid knocks were sounded. Seeing that Sherlock was immersed in playing his violin, John went to answer the door and thinking to himself that it was probably Greg able to make it for the party at the last minute.
"Mycroft? Where have you been all these bloody years? Where's…" John's question broke off when he realized that Mycroft was holding the hand of a little girl wearing a pink coat, looking like a miniature Molly except for her auburn hair.
"May we come in, John?" The doctor sobered and hurriedly stepped away from the door to let the pair enter. The flat quieten down upon sight of the new arrivals. Mycroft began to introduce the adults present in the room to the little girl.
"Luna, this is Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock's landlady but was always treated like a maid by him. Don't follow his bad manners. That man who very kindly opened the door for us is John Watson, your godfather but he does not know that until now and the lady walking towards us is his wife, Mary Watson, your godmother."
Mary stopped right in front of Luna and squatted down, stroking her cheeks fondly. "Hello, Luna. I'm sorry that I only met you now but I promise that we would see each other much more often, alright sweetheart? Do you know that you looked just like your mother?"
Luna wiped the tears away albeit clumsy from Mary's face. "Daddy always says that too. Don't cry, Mummy would not like it." Then she moved on to Sherlock who had stopped playing the violin the moment they arrived and was now staring intently at her.
"You must be Uncle Locky. Mummy said that you are very tall, almost as tall as Daddy but has dark curly hair instead and you may be rude sometimes but actually you are quite nice."
Sherlock crouched to her eye level and 'scanned' the little girl. "You are left-handed. Your favourite drink is hot chocolate. You love pink, obviously and hate vegetables, understandable. You are musically inclined, like me of course and you inherited your hair colour from your father but luckily the rest from your mother so you would be as smart, kind and beautiful as her, Luna." He finished off his deduction with a kiss on her forehead which Luna giggled and also made a deduction of her own. "You're funny, Uncle Locky."
In Sherlock's mind palace, a room named Luna Holmes (he assumed his niece took their name) was created right beside the one labelled 'Molly Hooper/Louise Hayes' and every detail about the little girl was carefully catalogued, organized and stored with plenty of room for future information to be included for compilation.
Sherlock also updated his mental family photo with Luna sitting in between her grandparents and the rest of them stood behind. His parents, Louise and Luna all had ridiculous bright smiles on their faces whereas the brothers were trying hard to pretend that they were enjoying the photo-taking session but deep down wanted it to be over this instant.
Sensing the slightly sad atmosphere, the children stopped their playing and stood in one corner, looking at the newcomers with deep interest. Before Mary could introduce Luna to the kids, Molly Watson took it upon herself. "Hi, I'm Molly. This is Stella, my elder sister, William my twin brother and Eric, Uncle Sherlock's latest protégé." Molly beamed as she successfully enunciate the very difficult last word.
"Hello, Molly. I'm Luna. Nice to meet you!" Just like that, the two girls became instant friends. "Do you want to play hide-and-seek?" Luna turned and looked at her father for permission. "Go on, poppet." Mycroft smiled in encouragement, glad that his daughter was able to settle down in an unfamiliar environment fast. Sometimes, children do much better than adults at some things. Molly grabbed Luna's hand and ran to one of the rooms. The other kids immediately followed them with choruses of "Wait for me!"
"So, this is permanent then?" Mary asked when bringing a drink to Mycroft, preferring for Luna to stay not too far away from them.
"Go back to London and stay there. Luna needs her grandparents, uncle and godparents. They would also help you bring up her. We had fond memories there too. I want Luna to know the place where we met and fell in love." Louise knew her time here was coming to an end. When that happens, she did not want Mycroft to be alone in facing it but he would be fine, he has Luna now.
"Yes, she wanted us to stay close to where you all are." Everyone picked up of how Mycroft spoke of Louise in past tense. Mary nodded and turned the other way with her eyes looking up at the ceiling, not wanting to cry again at this supposedly festive occasion. Being a mother did make her soft as predicated by Louise six years ago, damn her.
It was a long night for Mycroft as he wearily walked up the stairs after sending Luna to her own room, telling her to change into her pyjamas and brush her teeth before going to sleep with the promise to later come and tuck her into bed.
In the past, Mycroft never felt that his bedroom was too big for him but it was now, empty even. Suddenly overwhelmed by the intense emotion of missing her, he opened the drawer and took out a ring box.
"Marry me, my dear." Mycroft with an earnest expression, opened the box and reveal a ring to her. Louise cupped his cheeks and kissed him deeply but slowly shook her head.
"I don't want you to be a widower because of me, Mycroft. When I'm gone, I need you to move on, not held back by me. Besides, our love does not need a paper to verify its existence."
Over the years, Mycroft popped the question for so many times he had lost count. During breakfast, lunch or dinner, during their walks, during their birthdays, during Easter, Christmas or New Year's Day, when Louise told him that she's pregnant, when they went for the first and subsequent ultrasounds, when Luna was born, during their daughter's birthdays.
The answer Louise gave him was always the same. With every rejection, Mycroft would smile and fondly scold her, "What a stubborn woman you are, my love." where Louise would always respond with "The same could be said of you, Mr Holmes." And the process would repeat itself some time again.
The last time Mycroft asked Louise to marry him was the day she passed away. Louise did not reject it and instead asked Mycroft to keep this ring for their daughter, passing it down as a family heirloom which he questioned, "How could the ring be one when it was never worn by you?" Mycroft then took out the ring from the box and slid it on Louise's left ring finger. "There, problem's solved."
Looking at the ring on her finger, Louise did not say anything nor attempt to remove it but snuggled her head onto Mycroft's shoulder and he smiled brightly at her silent consent. Louise was still wearing the ring when she died peacefully on that night with Mycroft and Luna by her side.
Reminding himself that Luna was waiting for him to kiss her goodnight, Mycroft carefully put the ring back into the box and closed the drawer. He entered her room to see her reading a book with full concentration. "What storybook are you reading, poppet? I had never seen this before."
Luna looked up and smiled at her father. "They are recipes of Daddy's favourite cakes, biscuits and muffins! Mummy said each recipe in this book is my birthday present from her for each year and she gave all of it to me in advance first. Then when it's your birthday, I could choose one and bake it for you and that would be our birthday present for you Daddy, from Mummy and me! I just hope I could bake as well as her…"
"No matter what you make, Daddy would love and finish every bit of it." Mycroft wrapped his arm around Luna's tiny shoulders and tucked her head under his neck, hiding the tears from his daughter. "That's what Mummy said too." Luna replied, amazed that her Mummy was right about it.
"Of course, your Mummy knows best. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow morning we would go visit Grandpa and Grandma. They would be thrilled to see you. Good night, poppet. I love you and remember, Mummy also loves you very much even though she's…not here with us anymore."
Mycroft placed the book on the side table, pulled the covers right up to Luna's chin and bent down to kiss her. Excited at the prospects of finally being able to see her grandparents, Luna shut her eyes tightly and hoped for tomorrow to come quickly but not before saying, "Good night and I love you too, Daddy and Mummy."
Walking back to his room, Mycroft was tired but did not think that he could sleep right now. He promised Louise that he would keep only two of her belongings because she was afraid that he would not be able to walk out of her passing which was fine with Mycroft since he had a photographic memory anyway. One was the ring and the other was the evening gown he brought for her when they went for the ball years ago which felt like yesterday.
When Molly Hooper 'died', Louise took nothing away but the dress because, "It contained too precious a memory with you to just leave it there." Unzipping the garment bag, Mycroft caressed the gown that also evoked many sweet and bitter ones for him and a small box tumbled out of the bag, landing softly on the carpet. He picked it up, move to the bed and sat down before opening it, not sure what to expect from Louise this time round.
Mycroft smiled indulgently at the gold cufflinks shaped like umbrellas and ran his fingers over them but frowned when he felt what seemed to be dots on its surface. Braille. His mind swiftly provided the answer and started to automatically translate the words.
I am sorry
"There is nothing to be sorry about, my dear. I actually have a little confession to make. Six years ago I lied, my dream never was to travel, it was to be with you. I would take good care of our daughter so until then do wait for me." Mycroft whispered as the first snow of this year fell and landed on the ground soundlessly, a sign that Christmas had arrived at last.
Author's note: Firstly, I played hide-and-seek with my younger cousins in our house and we had heaps of fun, I even got my pants wet (don't ask me how) hence I chose this game for the 2nd generation to play on Christmas Eve.
Secondly, I'm not sure if Braille could be printed on materials other than paper and I tried to copy and paste the characters but FF for some reason could not show it (the other website I posted could though) and I apologize for it.
Lastly, every story I wrote was a JOY and this is no exception! For all the readers that followed me till its end, I'm very grateful to you all :D