By the time Molly got home that night it was nearing midnight and she was craving her bed as her eyelids began to droop. Mycroft tactfully ignored her tiredness, content to sit in silence on the five-minute journey to Molly's flat. Molly herself was rather glad that she had accepted the offer of a lift from him as she realised as they reached the entrance of the hospital that in the time she had been in the morgue it had started to rain rather hard, raindrops splashing against the pavement outside quickly forming puddles. The car, Molly noticed, was luxuriously covered in smooth black leather with no sign of age or cracks visible. It was possibly the cleanest car she had even been in, more used to muddy floor mats and scuffed car doors that she used to be surrounded with when her father used to take her to his brother's farm for the weekend. The car soon pulled up in front of Molly's building, soundlessly stopping and waiting for her to go inside.
"Thank you for the lift, Mycroft, I would have been soaked walking home in this weather." Molly smiled sleepily at the man seated next to her. Mycroft returned her smile only fainter.
"You are very welcome Molly, would you like me to walk you to your door?" inquired Mycroft, his hand already reaching for his umbrella to shade them from the still falling rain.
"If it's no trouble." blushing Molly waited for Mycroft to collect her from the car as he nodded and walked around the other side to get her under the shelter of his umbrella. The pair walked quickly up the steps to Molly's apartment building, slamming the car door behind her, puddles splashing on their trousers despite trying to avoid the watery assault course that was the uneven pavement of central London. The pair stood uncomfortably on the narrow top step as Molly unlocked her front door, fumbling with the keys in the old lock that was in desperate need of oiling as it resisted against the key before final allowing Molly entrance to her home. Molly quietly thanked Mycroft again for bringing her home before watching him walk swiftly back to his car, shaking off his umbrella and waving briefly at her before closing the door and being driven off. Despite the lateness of her retiring to bed, Molly slept very well, Toby curling up at the foot of her bed like a guard-cat ready to attack anyone who should disturb his mistress' slumber.
By the next morning the rain had stopped and the puddles had lessened as the sun began to shine over London, Molly woke up feeling refreshed with her alarm and quickly readied herself for work grabbing a breakfast bar and travel cup full of tea before she left, not forgetting to change Toby's litter, food and water. Molly enjoyed the spring weather as she ambled to work, greeting the receptionist warmly as she strode in ad towards the stairs that led to the basement. The day was so lovely that Molly was considering calling a friend and seeing if they wanted to have lunch, John's wife Mary would probably agree since the pair had bonded in the last few months as Mary's stomach rounded with the new Watson on the way. Molly had always dreamt of having a family of her own since she was a child and her parents deaths had only strengthened that desire but now at twenty-nine she was beginning to realise that she may not get her dream as quickly as she had anticipated. It didn't matter of course, Molly was a responsible woman who knew that after the years it had taken to build up her career to the point it was now at she hadn't had much time for husband-hunting as her old school friend Amy used to call it when they went out drinking in their university years. Molly placed her things in her office and ate her breakfast quickly before shrugging on her lab coat and carrying her tea out with her to get some files from the morgue that she needed to finish completing before she started on anything else, especially cutting up corpses. Grabbing the correct files between sips of tea Molly relaxed into the familiarity of her job before returning to the office and sitting at her desk, pen already lying there ready for her use. Molly decided she would call Mary after all and so dug in her handbag for her mobile, placing the tea on the desk as she searched. She soon had her phone and had dialed Mary's number just as somebody knocked on the door of the office. She quickly told them to give her five minutes as Mary picked up the phone on the other end.
"Hey Molly how are you? I've been meaning to call you for days now." Mary's warm voice soothed Molly even more as she sank back into her chair.
"I'm great thanks, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out for lunch today since it's so nice? We could get some food and go to the park maybe or go to that little café we like?" offered Molly as she reached for her tea again, sipping it as she finished speaking.
"I'd love to yeah, I'll meet you at reception at half twelve and we'll go alright? It'll have to be a little impromptu picnic in the park though, I'm afraid I wont be able to fit in that little café much longer the way my little lady is growing." Mary laughed and Molly could tell from her voice that she was rubbing her belly.
"Oh honestly Mary, you aren't even that big and you still have a few months to go with that baby in your belly so you'd better get used to it." Molly laughed at Mary's complaining it wasn't the first time Mary had exaggerated about how massive she looked or felt in the five months of her pregnancy. In Molly's opinion she looked lovely and healthy but maybe that was the side of her that had the affinity with babies and children.
"You haven't seen me naked." Mary grumbled playing with a pen on her desk upstairs in paediatrics as she sat at the nurses' station.
"Let's keep it that way, I'll see you later, bye." laughing Molly put the phone down at Mary's promises to meet her later. It didn't take long for Molly to complete her paperwork and submit it to the correct files or send it to the necessary parties who had requested the paperwork. Walking into the lab Molly met the student doctors who had chosen to specialize in her area dissecting some human hearts that were used for practice so that the students could learn to identify issues that may have caused death in a person or damage done to the organ that could have hurried the death of the person along. When they were done and had diagnosed what they needed to they had to identify the person's folder from the ones laid out on the table from what they had found in their specimens. These exercises often amused Molly who remembered doing them herself and the feeling of pride that came with a proper diagnosis and correct file that corresponded entirely with what you had predicted. She also got to see who was coming along in the precision of their dissections in comparison to all of the other students. This batch had been somewhat average so far but this exercise seemed to show their best side as they all excelled at it. Before she knew it, the time had got to twenty past twelve and she had to get ready to meet Mary. Dismissing the students for their lunch Molly removed her latex gloves and put them in the medical waste bin before removing her lab coat and getting her handbag from the office and setting off upstairs to the entrance of the hospital where Mary was already waiting for her in one of the plastic chairs provided for patients waiting to be picked up. Mary embraced her friend as soon as she saw her and the two entered into relaxed conversation on their way to Marks and Spencer to get some food for their lunch. The pair had a lovely lunch by the duck pond in the local park, the sun shining down on the pair as they enjoyed their food.
"You'll be here with the baby in a few years, feeding the ducks." Molly smiled across the bench at her friend. Mary rolled her eyes.
"God forbid, that is more your area than mine friend so I think it will be Auntie Molly who does all that duck-feeding and zoo-going crap. I'm a city girl, you're the nature one." Mary winked at her friend as she placed their rubbish in a nearby bin.
"Well I for one am looking forward to it so if you need a babysitter I'm your girl, don't even bother asking Sherlock he'd probably experiment on the little lady." Molly offered smoothing a hand over Mary's belly and feeling the baby flip over at her touch.
"I think my girl approves of that plan. Oh I meant to ask now you mention Sherlock, what's all this about you slicing at him with a scalpel. His death was faked remember Molls?" Mary teased as she turned to face Molly properly.
"Oh god he want around to your house to sulk about it last night didn't he? He didn't wake you up did he?" Molly bit her lip guiltily.
"Oh I didn't even get up, John got the door and sat listening to him whine for about an hour before throwing him out. All I know is that he had to have seven stitches and it was your fault. So tell me the story because trust me I don't blame you for finally taking a swipe at him but its sort of illegal." And so Molly told the story of how Sherlock had laid waiting in a body bag as she spoke to his brother and shocked her so much when she went to dissect his 'dead' body that her scalpel had slipped him her hand as she jumped in shock. Mary laughed at the tale asking for parts to be retold again so she could remember them to tell John when she got home so that he knew the whole funny story.
"Enough of me anyway, have you guys got any names in the running for baby Watson?" Molly waved off Mary's attention and listened attentively to Mary's options she had so far for her daughter's name as the pair ambled back to the hospital.
"Well I think I want something modern so I was thinking something along the lines of Emerald or Harmony but I really like Zuri so far, its unique and lets be honest how many kids will be called that." Mary listed excitedly; Molly mulled the names over as the approached St Bart's.
"I like it, I really like it actually. Zuri Watson sounds cute. I wouldn't call my child it but for you it's perfect, just quirky enough like her wonderful mother." Molly hugged her friend as they reached the entrance of the hospital and went their own ways back to their departments. Molly entered the morgue humming some pop song she had heard on the radio that morning as she was getting dressed for work. Today was proving to be a lovely day for her, especially when her afternoon seemed to fly by with an interesting case being brought in of a woman who had died with no cause of death being apparent from primary testing. It was a complex case that took Molly the entire afternoon since she had to investigate every avenue and she still had work to do the following day to finish it up and try to find a firm cause of death.
Molly had a bounce in her step on her way home, almost swinging her bag as she let her long hair float in the breeze around her, the weather rather pleasant as opposed to the rain the previous night. She took her time getting home since the weather was so nice and was in for a surprise when she reached her apartment to see a familiar black Sedan with blacked out windows parked outside on the road. Gathering all of her courage from her good mood Molly moved forward and knocked lightly on the car window. Mycroft rolled the window down with a half-smile, surprised that she had taken him by surprise.
"Would you like to come inside for some tea, Mycroft?" Molly smiled placidly, hoping he would agree and she hadn't just made an idiot of herself.
"That would be lovely thank you." Mycroft slipped out of his car smoothly and followed Molly up the steps and into her cozy apartment, a meeting on her terms.
Mycroft closed the door behind him and followed her down the hall.