Author's Note: Well, this final chapter has been a long time coming, my apologies, I actually finished it in October of 2021, including the author's note at the end. It was interesting to re-read the chapter and the ending author's note, which I had completely forgotten about.

At that time I was still very much into writing for the characters and I admit that my current focus has shifted to more important, real life things and non-fiction writing, when I do find time to write. I am not sure whether I will continue writing new material or stories, although I still have completed chapters and stories on my iPad that just need proof-reading. Never say never, I guess. I think the majority of my readers have also moved on to other interests, which means I do not feel overly-inspired to continue writing fanfiction in general.

In real life, I am excited that after two postponements, I am finally getting ready to leave in a couple weeks for my trip to Paris that was originally planned for last July. Currently, I have also been enjoying a visit from my Australian mother.

Anyway, I hope this final chapter delivers a fitting end to this second honeymoon story for those of you who are still reading my work. Hope to hear from you!

Blessings!


Sherlock opened his eyes. Molly was still asleep, and he thought about how quickly the week seemed to have flown by, yet paradoxically, how slowly, as he savoured every moment of their alone time together. After their sight-seeing on Thursday, yesterday had been a more leisurely day where they had walked again to the ice cream shop to sample more of its delights.

Later, they had walked to Kara and Martin's cottage and had asked if they would like to share a pizza dinner and a couple games of Scrabble. Perhaps it was unusual to ask your hosts to join you, but Sherlock and Molly both felt a kinship with the couple, knowing they too were Christians.

To Sherlock's surprise, Kara had accepted the offer, but only if she and Martin could go out and buy the pizza, then bring it up to the B&B. Sherlock had been on the verge of refusing, when he remembered a conversation he'd had with Molly some time earlier. She had told him that it was important to accept offers with grace, because it gave the person doing the offering the blessing of having done something kind.

As a result, the two couples shared a pizza, a bottle of local wine and two lively games of Scrabble. Not surprisingly, Sherlock had won both, using his huge vocabulary to find some obscure words, and Molly had been second. Kara and Martin had cheerfully accepted their lower scores, content to put commonplace words without an aim to hit the special squares that offered bonus points.

After the games, Molly had invited the older couple to stay for their usual nightly FaceTime call. Sherlock was amused. He knew Molly just wanted to show off their daughters.

Victoria was excited that her parents would be coming home tomorrow, but Christina seemed completely oblivious, more focussed on trying to remove Grandpa's glasses than even look at the FaceTime screen. Out of sight, out of mind, thought Sherlock, feeling a little melancholy at his younger daughter's disinterest and suddenly anxious to return home to stake his fatherhood claim.

After the FaceTime call, both Kara and Martin exclaimed enthusiastically over how adorable the girls were, which had been very validating, of course.

Before Kara and Martin departed for the evening, Kara had promised them a good English breakfast for their last meal at the B&B.

Now, Sherlock looked over at the clock. It was almost eight, and Kara had said she would be on hand from eight o'clock to cook. He didn't want her to hang around too long, just waiting for them, when she had no other guests to worry about. He nudged Molly. "Time to get up, love."

Molly opened her eyes and blinked sleepily, then moved her body against his and kissed him. "Our last morning alone." She gave a half-smile. "It's probably just as well. If we are away any longer, I think Christina won't even know who we are."

Sherlock chuckled. "I thought the same. She was certainly not showing any sign of interest in us last night."

Molly gave an exaggerated sigh. "Supplanted by a pair of eyeglasses."

They dressed for the day and went downstairs. Sherlock sniffed appreciatively. He loved the smell of frying bacon.

Following their hearty meal, Kara took their plates and departed for the kitchen.

Molly gave a little groan. "I shouldn't have eaten so much. I think we will have to take a walk to work off our breakfast."

Sherlock smirked as he grasped Molly's hand to help her out of her chair. "I can think of a more enjoyable way to exercise."

"We have time for both, then we had best get our things packed."

They had not been concerned about getting things ready for their departure the evening before, because they were only planning to leave just before lunch to get something to eat and then head home.

"Very well." They walked through the French doors into the cool morning air. Sensing that Molly felt a little cold, he released her hand and slid an arm around her shoulders instead.

They walked to the tree line but did not venture into it this time, just turned and walked back to the B&B.

There was no sign of Kara, and they headed back up to their bedroom.

Sherlock looked at Molly, whose cheeks were rosy from walking in the cooler air, and he reached a hand to stroke his thumb along one cheek. "Ready for my exercise of choice?"

Molly giggled, a sound that was cut off as his lips descended upon hers.

Some time later, having fulfilled both their wishes for exercise, Sherlock reluctantly loosened his hold on Molly. "I suppose we should get the packing done."

Molly turned her head to kiss his shoulder. "Yes, back to the real world, I guess. But oh, hasn't it been wonderful to just have this time alone together?"

He gave her an affectionate smile. "Indeed, it was probably the best idea you've ever had. I feel it has revitalised me, made me feel more positive for the future."

"That's what I was hoping for." She gave him a hopeful look. "Does that mean you will let me drive back to London?"

Oh, she was sneaky. She knew just how to play to his weaknesses. But he tried to act surprised. "Why do you wish to drive? Haven't you had fun driving around here?"

Molly pursed her lips and sat up in the bed. "You know very well that driving locally doesn't give anyone the opportunity to enjoy the feel of what a sports car is capable of."

"So you wish to test the speed on the M40?"

Molly folded her arms. "You got to do it on the way here. I saw the speedometer hitting eighty-five miles an hour on more than one occasion."

Sherlock raised himself on one elbow to look at her and grinned unrepentantly. He had indeed also wished to test how fast the car could go, but he had been careful not to get carried away. "I merely kept up with the flow of traffic, and it seemed most vehicles were exceeding the speed limit by even more than I was."

"So, can I drive?" persisted Molly, dropping back down onto her own elbow to look at him.

Sherlock heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Very well, but be it on your own head if you get us into an accident."

"Sherlock!" Molly smacked his arm a little harder than playfully, and he winced. He deserved it, but still...

"Ow! Spousal abuse, Molly." He gave her a reproving look.

She made a face at him. "Sorry. But that was a Bit Not Good thing to say."

"I'm sorry for teasing too, love." He pulled her close and kissed her. He liked any excuse to kiss his wife, whether it be to apologise after a conflict, to thank her for something, or to initiate a session of lovemaking.

They separated reluctantly and busied themselves with packing.

They had just sat down to look online to find a place to have a quick lunch, when Molly made an exclamation. "Oh! I almost forgot!"

Sherlock furrowed his brow. "Forgot what?"

"I wanted us to go back to that fudge shop we went to last time. We really need to get something for Martha to thank her for the use of her car, and she really enjoyed that vanilla clotted cream fudge we bought for her last time."

His lips quirked. "Not to mention the other fudge we bought for ourselves which was also delicious. I am sure you will be wishing to get some of that for us too."

Molly giggled. "Of course. And now we have two daughters who will also enjoy it."

"We can buy some fudge for my parents as well, as a thank you for babysitting all week," said Sherlock, realising that it would be a nice gesture to show their appreciation, even though he was sure his parents wouldn't be expecting anything.

Molly beamed. "Great idea! So we'll go there after lunch and then head back home." Her brows drew together. "But I can't for the life of me remember the name of the shop."

It only took Sherlock two seconds to access his mind palace for the name. "Roly's Fudge. It's on High Street."

"I'll never understand how you can access trivial things so easily. In fact, I'm surprised you didn't delete that piece of information."

His lips tilted upwards. "I deleted nothing from our honeymoon, mor will I delete anything from our second honeymoon."

She gave him a dazzling smile.

It was almost noon when they went downstairs with the suitcases to find Kara sitting at the desk in the front hall. Sherlock knew the next group of guests could arrive any time after midday. Normally, Sherlock and Molly would have needed to leave a little earlier to give Kara time to clean their bedroom, but she had told them that as they had been the only guests this last week, that they didn't need to rush.

Martin was also with Kara, and he looked at Sherlock and Molly. "I'll take your suitcases out for you. I hope you had an enjoyable visit."

"We did, indeed," Sherlock assured him.

"We'll definitely recommend this place to our friends if they ever want to visit Shakespeare's birthplace," said Molly.

"Or Warwick Castle," added Sherlock.

"Thank you. God bless you both," said Kara with a smile.

Sherlock and Molly echoed the same sentiment and followed Martin to the car as he carried the suitcases.

Sherlock opened the boot, and Martin stowed them inside, then extended a hand to Sherlock. "Have a safe journey back to London. We'll be watching the papers to see if you get back into any high profile cases."

Sherlock smiled. "God-willing, I will have the opportunity to exercise my powers of observation and help people more often as the country tries to return to normal."

Sherlock was about to go to the passenger door to open it for Molly, when he remembered he had said Molly could drive, so he walked around to the driver's side and opened that for her instead.

Molly drove to Mida Cafe Bar & Mediterranean Restaurant, the pace they had selected to have lunch. Afterwards, seeing that the café was close to High Street, they walked the short distance to Roly's Fudge.

The offerings on display looked just as appetising as last time. Sherlock was tempted to once again buy the honeycomb fudge, but Molly suggested they try different flavours, so he decided to try the coffee and cream fudge. Molly selected peanut butter. They chose the vanilla clotted cream again for Martha and then opted to get regular chocolate fudge for Sherlock's parents and also the same to share with the girls. Obviously, coffee and cream was not a flavour they'd want to share with Victoria and Christina, although Sherlock was sure they would also enjoy the peanut butter fudge.

After they paid for their purchases, Sherlock and Molly returned to the car.

Sherlock had to admit, he was quite impressed with Molly's driving skill on the M40. She was always careful to check her rear vision mirror and blind spot before changing lanes. Yes, he noticed she too kept up with traffic to an extent, driving at around 80 mph at times, but she didn't try to compete with the occasional car that exceeded that speed.

They didn't talk much on the way home, preferring to listen to music. As they neared London, Sherlock broke the amicable silence between them as he turned off the music and said, "I'm going to call my parents to let them know we will be home soon."

Molly nodded, and he called his mother.

After the usual pleasantries of greeting, Sherlock said, "We should be home in about half an hour, if traffic isn't too heavy."

"Oh, lovely. Victoria has been very excited that she will see you soon."

Sherlock's mouth tilted up in a half smile. "I presume Christina remains entirely disinterested."

His mother chuckled. "She is too young to understand the passage of time, but I am sure she too will be delighted to see both of you." Her tone changed suddenly. "I hope you are not speaking on the phone at the same time as driving."

Sherlock rolled his eyes at that. "Of course not, Mummy. I allowed Molly to drive home. She wanted to enjoy the feel of a sports car on the motorway."

His mother's tone was almost wistful as she said, "I imagine that would be quite fun. I've never driven a sports car myself." Then her voice changed again to one of cheerfulness as she said, "Well, we will see you soon. Goodbye, Sherlock."

"Goodbye, Mummy."

Sherlock disconnected the call and said, "We will have to get the Aston Martin back to Martha later on tonight. Perhaps I can do that while you get the girls ready for bed."

Molly glanced at him briefly before returning her attention to the road. "But then you need to get back home again."

"I'll just take a taxi."

"I guess so. I was hoping we could put the girls to bed together tonight, though, seeing as they haven't seen us for a week."

Sherlock considered this. "Perhaps I could just leave immediately after dinner, in that case. We'll figure something out."

Molly nodded. "Alright."

When they arrived home a short time later, after stopping to fill the petrol tank, Molly found the spot in front of the house vacant. Their own car was a couple spaces ahead. Apparently, somebody had had a need to drive it while they had been gone, and Sherlock supposed it had been used for a shopping trip.

Although this might have also been the case, as soon as they unlocked and opened the door, Sherlock realised it was quite possible the car had been used recently to pick up a certain former landlady.

There was Martha, coming to the door to greet them with Christina at her hip, followed by an eager Victoria who pushed past her to wrap her arms around one leg each of Sherlock and Molly. "Mummy! Daddy!"

Sherlock's parents appeared then as well, and there were many hugs exchanged, even as Sherlock dropped the suitcases to scoop Victoria up into his arms and kiss her cheek. "Hello, princess." A rush of overwhelming affection came upon him. How he had missed his girls! Christina was reaching for Molly, who took her from Martha.

"How was your trip? Did you have a nice time?" asked Martha, as everyone except Sherlock moved toward the front room. He wanted to take the suitcases upstairs.

"I'll let Molly tell you all about it," he said, setting Victoria down and picking up the suitcases again.

Unwilling to let him out of her sight, Victoria followed Sherlock up the stairs as he took the suitcases to the bedroom.

He then picked her up and carried her back downstairs into the front room, unable to resist kissing her cheek once again.

"...such a nice surprise to see you here, Martha," Molly was saying as he entered the room.

"Your in-laws kindly invited me to dinner and picked me up so that I can just drive my car back home again afterwards," explained Martha.

Sherlock looked over at his father, who gave him a small nod and smile. He smiled back, knowing his father would accept the gesture as his thanks for doing something so thoughtful.

Molly and Sherlock sat together, and Molly whispered, "Did you bring in the fudge?"

That was when Sherlock remembered the bag of fudge still on the floor of the car. "Oh, I forgot. I'll get it." Molly was still holding Christina, and he thought he'd have to take her after he brought in the fudge. He hadn't even had a cuddle with her yet.

He still had the keys to the Aston Martin in his pocket, so he went out to retrieve the bag. "We got you some fudge like last time," he said, reaching into the bag and then handing Martha a small package.

She beamed. "You didn't need to do that."

"We wanted to." He glanced at Molly who smiled, content for him to take the credit.

"And Mummy, Daddy, we brought you some fudge as well."

He pulled out a package of chocolate fudge from the bag. "For you, Mummy and Daddy."

"Chocolate!" exclaimed Victoria, as she saw the fudge through the clear plastic as Sherlock presented it to his mother.

He ruffled her hair. "Don't worry, princess. We bought some to share with you as well."

Sherlock let Molly carry the flow of conversation as she talked about their time away and how they had visited Holy Trinity Church as well as Warwick Castle. Sherlock was rather glad they had something to relate aside from the more intimate details of their trip.

Sherlock finally got to hold Christina, but he was not amused when he was subjected to a not-so-fragrant smell a short while later. Fortunately, Molly saw his nose wrinkle. "I'll change her, Sherlock, I've had a week off from nappy-changing duty, so I'm ready to get back to it."

He gave her a grateful smile and handed over their daughter. Molly knew how much he detested changing nappies, particularly dirty ones. He still found it difficult to change them without holding his breath, even though he had done it many times by now, thanks to being the stay-at-home dad for the majority of the previous year.

Sherlock was surprised by how quickly the rest of the day went. The roast beef his mother prepared, with the assistance of Martha and Molly, was delicious. And there was no beating Violet Holmes when it came to making the perfect Yorkshire pudding.

To Sherlock's surprise, there was even a chocolate cake for dessert.

Martha left soon after dinner, saying she preferred not to drive in the dark.

Sherlock's parents would be coming to church with them in the morning and departing for home in the early afternoon. Arrangements had already been made with Mycroft for the use of his town car for this purpose.

Sherlock and Molly went upstairs to give the girls their bath while his parents sat in armchairs later that evening and watched the telly. Sherlock enjoyed getting back to the routine of spending this time with the girls, despite their habit of splashing in the tub and causing sprinkles of water to fall onto his shirt like raindrops.

Sherlock and Molly made the customary bubble beards on their daughters' faces, and he told a story of two princesses who had a curse put upon them by an evil fairy that they would grow permanent beards. Luckily, a fairy godmother turned up who promised to remove the curse from them after the princesses proved themselves worthy. This "proving" was to tell their parents "I missed you" and "I love you, Mummy and Daddy". Fortunately, Sherlock said, only one princess had to perform this task for the curse to be broken.

Victoria raised her arms in the air and reached over to place her wet body against Sherlock's to hug him, then Molly. "I missed you! I love you Mummy and Daddy!."

After this, Sherlock wiped Victoria's face to remove the beard as Molly did the same with Christina.

"Oh, you broke the spell!" said Molly, chiming in for the first time.

It was a very jolly time.

After their bath, Sherlock and Molly did their usual routine of reading a story to Victoria and having her kiss Christina goodnight, before they settled Christina into her cot in her room.

"At least Christina was ready to sleep. I hope Victoria will fall asleep too," said Molly, as they exited Christina's room. Sherlock had also noticed that Victoria, although she closed her eyes obediently, did not seem very tired.

"She probably will, soon enough," he said, as they went back downstairs.

It wasn't much longer before Sherlock's parents, who had both been struggling to stay awake, by the way their heads kept nodding, announced they would head off to bed.

"We'll see you in the morning. What time is church, dear?" asked Sherlock's mother. "I hope we will have time to pack before we get picked up."

"You will have plenty of time to pack before church. It's only at ten-thirty," he assured her.

He and Molly watched as his parents made their way slowly up the two flights of stairs to the spare bedroom.

"It amazes me how well your dad manages to go up the stairs, even though he has COPD," noted Molly.

"Well, he was diagnosed with it in its early stages, and it has been well-managed, according to Mummy. She told me that the life expectancy of a person with this disease is often only about five years, particularly when it is not caught early. But Daddy followed his doctor's advice and immediately quit smoking. He'd already reduced it to two or three a day by then."

Molly gave him a look of surprise, and he realised this was something he'd never thought to tell her. "Your dad was a smoker?"

"You'd never know it, would you? In fact, it was his diagnosis that prompted me to quit smoking myself."

"I'm glad you quit before we met. If there's one thing I can't stand, it is the smell of cigarette smoke." She wrinkled her nose.

His mouth turned up into a wry smile. "When we met, I was still controlling the addiction with nicotine patches. It took me several months to wean myself off those. Without the aid of the cigarettes as a stimulant, I used the patches to provide that nicotine rush instead. But I did eventually kick the habit completely. It was soon after my first case with John."

Molly's brow furrowed. "'A Study in Pink', John called that one, didn't he, on his blog?

"That's the one."

They settled back onto the sofa and continued their conversation. "I still remember thinking how brilliant you were when you had your own website, that science of deduction one."

His brows raised. "I know you have commented to me about my analysis of the two hundred and forty-three types of ash I discussed on my website, but I didn't know you were particularly interested in it."

She smirked."Well, I was. As soon as we met at the hospital, I wanted to know everything about you, so I kind of did a search for your name, and I found your website." Her lips curved upwards. "I was even tempted to make up a pseudonym and leave comments, but I was too shy, and I was worried you'd rebuff me."

He leaned back on the sofa, thinking. "Just imagine, Molly. I could have been talking with you at the hospital and through my website. With your intelligence, I have no doubt you would have intrigued me. I wonder if I could have started falling for you because of that, even as I started noticing you more at the hospital. Would I have been attracted to your intellect or your beauty?"

She giggled. "Probably neither. You would have been oblivious to any kind of sentiment back then."

"Perhaps so, but perhaps not. It is an interesting thing to contemplate. You were the first woman I worked with at the hospital who I felt was competent, and I admired that. Is it possible to fall in love with someone without ever seeing them, but falling in love with their mind?"

Molly smiled. "I know someone who fell in love online with a man she'd never met, and she's still happily married more than twenty years later."

Sherlock was puzzled. To his knowledge, he didn't know of any of their friends who had a long-standing relationship that had started online. "Who?"

My fanfiction friend, Violetta, you know. GoodShipSherlollipop. She met her husband online and they fell in love before they met. She told me their shared Christian faith was the most important thing to them, and that meeting him was just the icing on the cake, the affirmation of what they already knew in their hearts."

"Ah yes, I remember reading in her profile that she was Australian, and her husband is American. That is quite a love story."

"Yep," said Molly. "So true love can happen that way. I think the core of it is to have similar values and ideologies."

"It highlights to me that the success of our relationship is surely because I became a Christian, although I think instinctively I had similar ideas on other things as well even before that."

Molly linked her fingers with his. "That's because God was preparing you all that time for what He knew would happen, that you would become a believer."

"I have no doubt about that." He bent to brush his lips against hers. "Should we retire to bed now? I am feeling a singular need to express my continuing devotion."

"I have no objection to that."

In their bedroom, they undressed and slipped beneath the duvet.

Sherlock pulled Molly close and began to kiss her passionately as his hands roamed her body.

Things were just getting a little...intense, when Sherlock was startled by a voice. "Mummy? Is something wong? I can't sleep."

Sherlock felt Molly's body stiffen, and she quickly drew away from him, pulling the duvet over herself. Fortunately, the room was unlit, save for the digital clock radio and the video monitors, one of which displayed a sleeping Christina and the other, an empty bed. Apparently, Victoria had figured out how to open doors. It had only been a matter of time.

They had a bit of a dilemma. Neither was clothed. Sherlock thought it was just as well they hadn't quite made it to the "main event" yet. Victoria would most certainly have been scarred for life.

He thought quickly. "Mummy, ah…she just has a bit of a...tummy ache. Why don't you go back to bed and I'll tuck you in again and sing you a lullaby?"

"Okay, Daddy." Thank God, crisis averted, thought Sherlock as Victoria left the room, leaving the door ajar.

"Good thinking, Sherlock," whispered Molly, sounding relieved. "I guess we need to start locking the door from now on."

His lips quirked. "I guess so. I'm going to put on my boxers and a dressing gown. You just stay in bed. I'll sing to Victoria and wait this time until she is ready for sleep."

"Thanks, honey."

"Don't fall asleep on me now," he warned, getting out of bed and opening his drawer to extract a fresh pair of boxers.

He sensed, rather than saw her smile as she said, "After you got me all hot and bothered? I think not. I can wait."

Fifteen minutes later, Sherlock returned to the bedroom, satisfied that this time Victoria was asleep, and he carefully locked the door.

"Still awake?" he asked softly, as he removed his dressing gown.

"Of course. I enjoyed listening to you sing in the monitor and the impromptu narration of 'Sleeping Beauty'."

Boxers removed, Sherlock slid into bed again to resume what they had begun, more successfully this time.

Afterwards, as he spooned with Molly, his hand drifted down to her belly, and he wondered briefly about what they had discussed some time earlier about the possibility of Molly conceiving again while they were on holiday. Would God give them the gift of another child? He suddenly realised that the week away had truly served to make him feel better. He was prepared to accept whatever God had in store for him, not only in regard to future children, but also detective work. He was blessed.

Then, he couldn't help thinking about the man he had been years earlier, the one who abhorred sentiment, and he wondered again about the conversation he'd had with Molly earlier about love. Could he have had the capacity to fall in love with a person before meeting them in person? He pondered what pseudonym Molly could have used, and his memory returned to a time shortly after their marriage, when they had unknowingly both been playing the same Pokémon Go game on their phones, and had found themselves rivals. He remembered Molly had called herself "Bartland", a rather clever little play on words that incorporated her love of the romance novels written by Barbara Cartland as well as St. Bart's being her workplace.

And, for the first time in quite some time, his thoughts manifested themselves into a dream where he found his feelings conflicted between the real Molly and an intriguing, yet faceless person whose intelligence he admired due to conversations exchanged through his website that transferred to email correspondence.


Author's note (written in October 2021): Phew, the end of another story! I was getting a little worried about the proposed length of this one when the first three chapters only reached to the end of the first day of the second honeymoon! So yes, I ended up doing a couple little time jumps to move things along. I've been very aware that my chronological timeline is getting further in arrears, instead of publishing in "real-time" with my Journey version of Sherlock and Molly. I apologize and hope you are not too discombobulated by the changing timelines of stories that I publish.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to this story. I have literally been planning the second honeymoon story for over 2 years, and it is even mentioned in my 2027 timeline story I published in 2019, A Journey through Loss. Major spoilers for the future of my characters if you read that one.

This story also helped me connect some information that I talked about in my 2027 story which talks of Sherlock's father's COPD, a condition my own father-in-law struggled with before his own passing in August of 2019. That difficult loss led to me writing A Journey through Loss as I explored how Christians grieve the loss of a loved one.

I had a bit of fun "breaking the fourth wall" in this chapter again as I've done on a couple of other occasions. Yes, those are absolutely true facts about me, GoodShipSherlollipop (although Violetta is a pseudonym).

And finally, for quite some time now I have been pondering a storyline where Sherlock would fall for an anonymous "fan" of his work, and how it would affect his relationship with the real Molly. I am intrigued to think how I'd be able to accomplish the integration of his feelings and eventual realization that his mysterious admirer is none other than Molly, the woman whom he admires as well. What do you think? Is it a story you'd want to read? Right now it is just a plot bunny, and I know I have other stories to write, including other dreams I've referred to in other stories. And, of course, I plan to keep telling the story of my "real" Sherlock and Molly.

Please be kind. Your follows, favourites and feedback are invaluable to me.