Chapter Text
Just a bit more, Molly girl, and this whole thing will be over.
That was the mantra that kept running through her mind, pushing her to get past being drenched from head to toe because her umbrella was stolen during the Tube ride home and had been forced to walk even more than usual because the train broke down one station before her usual stop. It seem like the Universe had conspired against her all day, and she needed a break.
When she finally reached her apartment, Molly let out a sigh of relief, she was at last safe and hidden from all the disaster her day had been. She scratched Toby the cat in the head, not caring about the puddles she was leaving all over the floor, meanwhile she decided that because she had survived such a day, she needed to treat herself, which meant one thing: Disney movies.
After taking a hot bath, changing into her comfiest jumper and jogging bottoms, and putting the kettle on to brew some tea, she popped in the first DVD she reached for and pressed play, letting the movie menu start while she finished making that glorious cup of tea she had been looking forward for the most of the day.
"Seriously, Molly. A respectable pathologist wouldnt be caught watching Disney cartoons on her spare time" remarked a deep baritone voice, that came from her couch.
"Sherlock!" Molly said, startled so much by the presence of the world famous Consulting Detective, that her teacup slipped from her hands and landed on the floor. Thank goodness I didnt start to strip down in the living room! , her only thought while she reached for a towel to mop up the mess in the kitchen.
"I needed some peace and quiet, and your flat was the only place with decent heating. Mrs. Hudson was going on and on with Mary about this party they want to throw, which is of no interest to me, plus I was bored." Sherlock remarked, walking towards the kitchen, and grabbing the mop, and then proceeding to hand it over to Molly.
For a second, Molly had thought that Sherlock was going to be kind enough to start mopping up the mess himself, seeing that he had been the one responsible for her dropping the cup in the first place, which was her favorite one, the yellow one with a single red rose painted on the handle, a gift that her dad had given her years ago.
"Do you want me to throw this cup away, Molly? It is broken and therefore, useless now"
"No! Dont throw it! It's fine, Sherlock. Look!, it is only a little chip and I dont really mind having a chipped mug. Would you like a cup of tea, Sherlock?" She said, while putting the kettle on again, after finishing cleaning up the prior mess, but received no response.
At last, with a fresh cup of tea in hand, along with a bowl of popcorn she decided to make at the last second, Molly sat down on the couch. To her surprise, a hand reached out to remove the bowl of popcorn from her lap, only to be replaced by Sherlock's head, who immediately assumed what she called his Mind Palace position.
"What is this nonsense you are making me suffer?" Sherlock said after a while, hoping that Molly would turn it off and let him think in peace. "You know I dont really like fairy tales, they serve no purpose at all. They only distract"
"Sherlock, I had a rotten day today, at least let me enjoy my favorite princess story" Molly said quietly, while focusing on the story. "It's called Beauty and the Beast, for your information"
To say that Beauty and the Beast was Molly's favorite Disney story was putting it lightly. Ever since the movie had been released, her dad had called Molly his little Belle, because, similar to the girl in the story, Molly was beautiful and all the boys wanted to be with her but she preferred to read rather than to hang out with other kids. And when her mom had passed away, she had devoted her time to take care of her dad, and would had given anything to be able to save him. Also, her favorite color was yellow, and had always dreamed of meeting her prince in disguise, or have her own massive library, whichever came first.
For a while, everything went silent, which made Molly grateful, because it meant that there was a chance to enjoy a bit of down time, and didnt even notice when she started gently stroking the soft dark curls on Sherlock's head.
What Molly didnt notice was that Sherlock, who at first tried to ignore the movie, actually became engrossed in the story, but mostly, on watching Molly's reactions, and how her eyes sparkled during certain scenes. He even noticed the tears that Molly attempted to hide towards the end of the movie. Sentiment, pure nonsense , he thought.
"Good night Molly, I think I had enough sappy princess stuff to last me a lifetime" Sherlock said, after getting up from the couch, reaching for his coat and walking out of her flat.
"Good night, Sherlock" Molly whispered.
Molly was excited, her favorite season had arrived, and with a full swing. Fall was here. She loved it for the changing leaves, the cool air, but mostly because it meant that her birthday was close since it landed on the best day ever, October 31th, Halloween.
As a child, her dad always threw her a costume birthday party, since it was the perfect excuse to be able to dress up on her birthday, but the last couple of years she had to leave the costumes and the parties to the little kids, and just settle with having a drink at home, resting after work, not really in the mood for a party.
But things did change when in the mail, a couple of days later, she got an invitation to a party, the same one that Sherlock had mentioned, and the best thing, is that it was a costume party. Now, if only I had a good costume to wear, she thought, thinking of what was in her wardrobe that could count as a costume.
While working on an autopsy later that day, Molly remembered the yellow dress she had worn to John and Mary's wedding, and thought that maybe she could transform it into a bee costume,"Oh yes, that will work perfectly!" she spoke to herself, when all of a sudden the morgue doors swung open, John and Sherlock coming in.
"Hello Molly, how are..." John had begun to say.
"John, we know Molly is fine, since she decided to actually do her hair today, which she doesn't do unless she is in a happy mood and is currently thinking about that silly party your wife and my landlady are throwing, she is actually excited about it as you can tell by her posture. Now, Molly, I need to see the body of Mrs. Arnold"
"Hello boys!, Sure, Sherlock... give me a second here" Molly said, letting the mean comments Sherlock had just made slide, mostly because indeed, she was really happy about the party since it allowed her the perfect excuse to actually do something fun on her birthday and not just sit alone.
"Sherlock, you dont have to be so rude. My apologies, Molly, you know how he gets when he is in the middle of a case..."
"Yes, the Beast comes out!" Molly said, giggling at the idea, to which Sherlock just shoot them both with the nastiest look he could muster, and then proceeding to storm out of the morgue, with John following suit.
Giggling still at the silly way Sherlock had reacted, Molly proceeded to finish up with Mrs. Arnold's autopsy, and making a mental note to send a copy of her file to Sherlock, just in case.
After a couple of hours, Molly had finished cleaning up her area when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, something that hadnt been there before, a single red rose inside a bell jar with a note that simply said "For Belle".
She walked up to the counter where the flower stood, and took it out of the jar, wondering how it got there, since other people had come in and out the room, a couple more bodies had arrived, and even her boss, Mike Stamford, had been in the room for a while. Did she had a secret admirer? Wow, it is so pretty, but you are letting your imagination get carried away, fairy tales arent real, people always think you are way too odd, Molly thought.
Her mind was brought back to reality when her mobile started ringing, flashing the name Mary Watson on the display. "Molly dear... I am soooooooooooo sorry!" Mary said, as fast and sincere as she could, "I didnt knew Matt was going to be such a jerk and stood you up. Next time I see him, I WILL kill him, I swear.... Again, Molly, I'm so sorry about this".
Molly's mind was taken back to that horrible day, the day that she had accepted a blind date set up by her newest best friend, thinking she could finally put Tom, her ex-fiance behind and have another go at dating, only to get stood up. "It's okay, Mary, I know you meant well, but I think I do have to take a break from dating... I think the Universe hates me at the moment”, Molly admited.
"Molly, dont be such a downer... I know your prince is out there, but he must be a bit slow, or maybe he is stuck up a tree trying to get phone reception so he can call you so he can be saved. Dont give up now!" Mary sighed, thinking that Molly might be rolling her eyes on the other side of the phone, mostly for the ridiculous scenario, but she couldn't help it, it was fun to make her laugh with things that made no sense and that were guaranteed to bring a smile out of her friend.
“Mary, at this point, I think my supposed prince might have caught a glimpse at me and decided to pursue other options or simply ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction, but thank you for trying. For now, I think I will settle for making Toby the only man in my life. Agreed?” Molly said, laughing at the idea of a regal prince running away with a panicked face. “Ok... but I want to make it known that I'm backing down only because you are asking, but I'm not making any promises, I really would love to play Cupid for once!”.
Molly thought for a second about asking Mary if she knew something about that rose, but decided that it was better to hold that information to herself, because she suspected that if Mary got ahold of it, it would only fuel her idea that someone out there had feelings for Molly, and she didnt really want to be dealing with that added pressure, the blind date set up was enough as it is, so she only gave her goodbyes to Mary, promising to get together sometime to discuss how Molly could help with the party, and maybe also grab a bite to eat.
Immediately, she reached again for the rose that been lying in front of her for the whole duration of that phone call and turning it over, maybe she had missed a clue about who had sent it or something, but her search yielded no results, or at least not the ones she expected, so instead walked towards the sink, grabbed a beaker and filled it with water and put the rose in it, carried it back to her desk and got back to the mountain of paperwork still in need of processing.
John felt uneasy, something was definitely off. This is not like him, Sherlock doesnt text me more than once, even if the situation is dire. Come over, ASAP – SH, that had been the message that had been delivered to John's mobile three times in the last 20 minutes, making him think of the worst case scenario and made him run as fast as he could to reach Baker Street.
Once there, John could hear the last few strains of a lovely song being played on a violin, which made him breathe with a little more ease, but still wary about the reason of such urgency. At last he reached for the door to Sherlock's flat, only to find him sitting on his usual seat, sipping on a cup of tea, the violin by his side on the floor. “Ok Sherlock, I'm here... What is it? Is everyone ok? Are your parents missing? Mycroft? Is Mary in labor and unable to reach me?”
“John, I didnt expect your arrival so soon, I was planning on asking you to pick up something on your way here, but never mind, I can have someone from my homeless network do that. Mycroft is currently attending a World Summit in Monaco along with his assistant, but in reality, he is actually eloping with Anthea. My parents, along with Anthea's parents are on their way to Monaco to surprise my brother and my future sister in law at the ceremony, that's my wedding gift for them. As for Mary, you should know more, you actually saw her before leaving, and were speaking with her on the phone less than 10 minutes ago, judging for the fact that your phone is on the left pocket of your jacket instead of your trouser pocket, like you usually carry. “
“So why the BLOODY HELL did you text me several times to come here as soon as I could? Huh? What could be so important?”
“Oh yes, Mrs. Hudson was being her usual annoying self and I needed you to drag her away from my flat. Fortunately, she left about 5 minutes before you arrived. We do have a couple of important things to do, and a case, Gordon just texted me.”
“Gordon? Do you mean Greg Lestrade?”
“Gordon, Geoff, George, Greg, it is all the same, is not something that I would find useful anytime soon, so I prefer to delete it. Now follow suit, there is something far more crucial that needs to be done than a simple stabbing we are being summoned to solve“ Said Sherlock, while putting on his coat and scarf before heading out.
Molly, I need you – SH
Molly's heart started to flutter for a second after reading the latest text message that had arrived at her phone, when a couple seconds later, another message arrived.
Never entrust John with acurate texting capabilities while riding a cab. I still need you to wait on starting the autopsy on Mr. Ferguson until we arrive - SH
How Sherlock had figured out that the next autopsy on her list was the one for Mr. Ferguson was still a mystery, but she knew that it was better to comply to his request, simply because she wasnt in the mood to deal with a temperamental person, at least not when her day was going so well, daydreaming of a secret admirer and that red rose.
Sherlock had strode in to the mortuary, already making demands. “Molly, I need to see Mr. Ferguson nose, and can you please hand me that rose, the one sitting in your desk”
“Wh.. Why? That was a gift, plus, it's already wilting”
“I just need the pollen, I suspect that someone caused Mr. Ferguson's death by making him have an anaphylactict reaction to a certain kind of flower, and I suspect that it is similar, if not the same as the rose in your desk, and not from the stabbing wounds, which did not actually hit any major artery.”
As Molly walked out of the morgue towards her desk, John noticed Sherlock texting away on his mobile, while muttering to himself about someone not being fast enough and that they where screwing it all “They will screw up what, Sherlock? Is there something you aren't telling me?”
“No, this has nothing to do with this particular case, so never you mind. Ah Molly! Thanks”
Molly watched as Sherlock carefully extracted the pollen out of her rose with the utmost care, like if he was handling a crystal flower, and handed it back to her, similar to handing a baby back to the mother, and for a tiny moment, she thought Sherlock had a tender side. “Molly, you should throw that flower away, its use has long passed, plus assigning sentiment to an inanimate object is rather childish gesture.”
She decided to ignore his remarks and simply return the flower to her desk, because althought it was indeed wilting and losing petals, it still had beauty in it, plus, it had been a gift, and she wasnt good with letting gifts go, so she planned to dry the rose and add it to her treasure box, where she kept those gifts more valuable to her, amid the movie ticket stub from her very first date to the candy wrapper of the last candy her dad had bought her, the things she valued most.
Upon reaching her desk, a glint caught her eye, and cautiosly approached her desk, fearing that someone might be hiding or worst, her fears still alive from the time she saw the video of her ex-boyfriend Moriarty playing on her computer monitor. Thankfully, the Moriarty situation had been long since been resolved by Sherlock, but an inkling of fear remained inside Molly. Once she calmed herself down and confirmed that no one, besides her, was in the office, she froze, upon seeing more closely what was left in her desk.
A delicate gold necklace with a pendant of a red rose, an exact replica of the first one.