A/N: Well, here's what you've all been waiting for! I hope…

A thousand THANK YOU's to all my readers and reviewers. I have gotten 20,000- some hits on this story and I am chuffed to bits! Happy, happy. I will try to start responding individually to reviews, but please be patient with me.

I started a new grad school class today, so there may be some longer waits for updates, but I'll try to update once a day. Got a 95 in my first class, yay! Well, enough of me, it's all about the Sherlolly!

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"Oh, yes?" she replied, trying not to focus on the fact that he was THISclose to her. She rarely got to be THISclose to him. Only when he had apologized to her, or told her he needed her, or thanked her for saving him…

Oh, God. What was about to happen!

"Why don't we sit down," Sherlock suggested, noticing she'd suddenly turned a bit pale.

Molly nodded, following him to the sofa. He waited until she sat down then sat next to her.

Right next to her.

THISclose next to her.

Oh, God.

"What's happening?" she blurted out.

"Molly, calm down."

"You're sitting next to me. Right next to me."

"Your deductive skills amaze me," he said, but his tone was… teasing? Not caustic? Not sarcastic?

She drew a deep breath. "I don't understand this, Sherlock."

"And you won't, if you don't allow me to speak," he replied with a slight smile.

"Right." She took another deep breath, exhaled slowly, and waited.

He stood up and paced a bit. Finally he turned back to face her.

"I know you're wondering what's going on. And I don't blame you. Our interactions haven't always been the most…well. Let's just say I've not treated you the way you deserve to be treated."

Oh. After all she'd done, and then getting attacked, he felt bad about his behavior. Well, she'd figured it was something like that, hadn't she? She blamed him for being a git, but not for her being attacked. Surely he knew that? "Sherlock…"

"Please, Molly, let me continue."

She nodded. He seemed to be thinking of how to say what he wanted to say. After a pause he went on.

"Despite my remarkable skills at deduction, I've usually been at a loss to understand… sentiment. I was able to keep my feelings separate, put away, not to be examined. Until Moriarty came along."

"When he strapped Semtex to John, it hurt. When I thought of the gunmen killing John, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade, I experienced it again. Faking my death, the things I said… more. You being attacked… well, you get the idea. But my "death," and everything leading up to it, everything that came after it… it's changed me, Molly. And I wish I could say it hadn't. Because it frightens me and I don't like it."

Molly was too stunned to say anything at that moment. Sherlock, admitting to feelings? To her? Had they dosed her with something they'd forgotten to mention before she left hospital? She had to be imagining it.

"It's made me realize things, Molly. And one of those things is… how I feel about you."

Molly blinked. "I'm sorry, how you… what... did you say?"

He smiled a brief burst of a smile. "Yes, Molly. That's what I said."

"Erm…"

"I couldn't understand it at first, why I kept thinking about you, wondering how you were, what you were doing. I'm not entirely sure of when I did understand. I think it was when you were attacked. And even when I did, I didn't want that feeling, either. But I couldn't stop it."

He looked away from her, then back again. "Didn't you wonder, when I said you've always counted? Didn't you wonder why I let you see me look sad?"

She eyes widened. "I… I thought it was…"

"And so did I, at the time," Sherlock said softly. "But now I know it wasn't."

He sat beside her again. "You've changed me, Molly. You've shown me sides of humanity-of you-that I never understood. I'm still not entirely sure I do. But for the first time... I feel as though I could."

She sat motionless, staring at him, eyes wide. He couldn't decipher her expression.

"When you sang for me… it was like everything clicked. All the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I… I felt… whole, somehow. Like something that had been ripped out of me had been replaced. And I'm mad for wanting to keep it, but I do."

He took her hands in his. "So, Molly Hooper. Would you do me the honor of going out with me, on a proper date, tomorrow night, one that involves me taking you somewhere nice and hopefully not being too much of an ass?"