Author's note:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To be completely honest, I was not expecting such a reaction to the last chapter's announcement. I really wanted to give you the "what happened" chapter today, but I fear this might be very anticlimactic, but it is what I imagine occurred. Hopefully you won't be too disappointed. Please let me know what you think!

My most sincere thanks to: Crimson and Chrome 42, Renaissancebooklover108, NicoleJacobs, Xaraphis, Crooney83, Rocking the Redhead, Arcoiris, Mrspencil and SammKatz for their reviews.

I wish you all a wonderful 2014

Feral

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One day, 11:45

"Don't go. Please." Sherlock had looked at her.

Oh, he seemed so earnest…

Molly didn't know what to do.

"I…I am supposed to leave in fifteen minutes." She muttered absently, walking to the other side of the room just to put some distance between them. Just to…to think.

"Don't." He said softly, his piercing eyes never leaving her.

Fifteen minutes. That was no way near enough time.

"Why now?" She asked, her troubled eyes searching the ceiling, as if all this were its fault. "Why wait to the last minute?"

"I was on a case…"

Molly laughed bitterly. Good. She needed this. She needed to remember why she had to leave. "Of course. A case."

Sherlock frowned slightly. "It's what I do, Molly."

"I know!" She nodded. "It is what you do… It's all you ever do, Sherlock: it's always about the case, the mystery, the puzzle. Everything else is secondary. I understand. That's why I can't stay."

Sherlock opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head.

"It's true and you know it, Sherlock. I could never hope to be a priority… I would never come first."

Sherlock stood, perfectly still, in the middle of the room.

He looked so…alone.

She couldn't hold his gaze, it confused her too much.

"As much as I love helping you, Sherlock, I can't go on like this."

Molly's eyes clenched.

"I don't want to spend my life as a…An afterthought."

"You're not."

Her eyes opened at the tone in his voice. It had lowered, thickened.

"You know me, you know what I'm like, but you've never been just and afterthought…"

Sherlock's eyes met hers. She felt weak.

"…And I'll prove it if I must."

Something in his demeanour made her catch her breath.

Molly took a step back.

"You might just be lying to me right now…"

"I might be…But I'm not." He stepped towards her.

"It would be good for my career."

"It would." Another step closer.

"My life could be normal."

"It could." Closer.

"I..I should go."

"You should." He conceded, his eyes boring into her.

"Don't."

Molly could barely breathe as he loomed over her.

He cupped her cheek with his hand, gently tilting her face upwards.

Sherlock moved in closer.

She felt his fingers in her hair, pulling her to him.

Molly closed her eyes…

"I've got to go."

The hands were gone. He was almost running to the door.

"Sherlock!"

"Wait here, Molly. Just…Wait right here. I've got to go."

He turned for a moment to look at her.

"Wait. Here. I'll be back, I promise." He said one more time. The heat was gone, and he was back to the Sherlock she knew so well.

The one that left her behind.

He was gone.

Molly stood, alone in the lab.

Her eyes went to the clock on the wall.

11:55

Blank and silent, she picked up the suitcase and walked out of the room without looking back.

Had she turned around, she would have noticed something that wasn't there 10 minutes before:

Out of the window, on the building on the other side of the street, 3 giant, solitary letters stood in plain sight for Sherlock to see.

And he had.

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Molly's face burned with the humiliation she felt that day. Sherlock avoided her gaze, and she knew he remembered, too.

"Let me explain…"

"I'm sure you had a very good reason, Sherlock. You always do." Molly attempted a smile.

She didn't want to hear it.

She didn't want to fall for it.

Not again.

Her eyes met his. She knew he could see the hurt in her eyes, but she didn't care.

"Don't accuse me of leaving you, Sherlock…I was never the one to leave: you were."

She turned her back to him.

"I'll have the test results ready as soon as I can."

The pathologist got to work, and the door softly closed behind her.