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Molly absolutely looked forward to her girl’s days out with Mary and Lucinda Watson. It wasn’t as though there was much filling up her time outside of work these days. Ever since her engagement had ended and she’d finally felt ready to move on and begin dating again any man who showed her the slightest bit of attention was put under intense scrutiny by Mycroft Holmes, and either they failed to pass muster or they were scared off. And while she still had her friends, many had taken Tom’s side in things when she’d ended the engagement, and she knew they saw her as selfish and maybe uncaring, and that hurt. Either way, her social life these days was virtually nonexistent. She wished things could be different, but she doubted as long as Moriarty was a specter in the background she would not have many new people allowed in her life.
Thankfully despite her own shady background Mary had been allowed to stay in the picture instead of becoming the victim of some mysterious and tragic accident so there was at least one good friend whose life didn’t revolve around Scotland Yard in her life. Molly knew the truth, or as much at least as John and Sherlock had chosen to know. She’d been sore that Mary had shot Sherlock but since he seemed fine with it she realized there was no reason to hold a grudge and she and Mary had become better friends now, she thought. The all day brunch and tea and shopping dates had gotten to be the highlight of Molly’s week.
Today they were shopping at Harrods after a lovely brunch at Balthazar and Molly was examining a lovely purple flower dress. It had a V-neck with large purple flowers over it and a belt around the waist, with a burnished silver circle in the center. “It would be nice to have a place to wear this,” Molly said, running her fingers on the skirt as she pulled it closer.
“Yes, St. Bart’s is a bit impractical,” Mary said as she continued to make Lucinda a bottle. She closed the lid and gave it a shake before giving it to her daughter. Lucinda settled in and began to drink and then Mary moved closer. “And I suppose government interference in your social life is continuing to make it impossible for you to date?”
Molly rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Four days ago the barista who made my usual coffee before work made me the largest size they had and added my flavor shots for free and charged me for the smallest size, and he wrote his phone number on my cup and told me to give him a ring for dinner. I called on my break four hours later and the phone number had been disconnected, and when I went into the coffee shop the next day his coworkers said he went out for a smoke and didn’t come back. I asked Mycroft about it and he said the man had, and I quote ‘suspicious interests.’”
Mary’s eyebrow quirked up a bit. “That does seem a bit extreme.”
“And the worst part is it only seems to be happening to me. Greg still seems to be going out on a few dates a month. I don’t think the women he chats up are put through so much scrutiny.” She sighed. “I’ve just become a nun, it seems, and it’s all Mycroft Holmes’s fault.”
Mary moved her head side to side slightly, as though she was considering whether to say something or not. Finally she spoke. “Perhaps you’re blaming the wrong Holmes brother, love,” she said slowly. “Or rather, not suspecting the one you should be suspecting of being behind this all.”
“Why on earth would Sherlock want to kill any trace of my social life?” she asked Mary with a frown. “It’s not as though he fancies me. He’s not interested in me in that way. We’re friends, nothing more.”
“I’ve had friends who were attracted to me, Molly, and I would every so often catch them staring at me the way Sherlock stares at you,” Mary said. “Did you know that there’s this rather unique smile that crosses his face when you make an observation? John or Greg or I could say the exact thing and we might get a nod but you get this slow creeping grin which then manages to light up his face. And there’s more.”
“Oh?” Molly asked, curious. She’d caught the barest hints of smiles sometimes when he said something intelligent, but not a full on smile. And…if there was more, she should know, shouldn’t she?
Mary nodded, taking the dress off the rack to examine it closer. “John said a little while back during a case someone jokingly suggested Greg ask you out on a date and John happened to be looking at Sherlock and he said he looked panicked when Greg appeared to consider it. When John asked him about it later he changed the subject.” She held the dress in front of Molly. “When I teased Sherlock last week about maybe taking you to a nice dinner to thank you for all the extra help you’ve given him since Lucinda was born he nearly choked on his drink and I’d swear he stammered when he said he’d think about it.” She gave Molly a wide grin. “You should ask him out first, because if you wait for him to make a move you’ll be old and grey and it won’t be any fun anymore.”
Molly was shocked by what Mary was saying. Sherlock didn’t fancy anyone as far as she knew, male or female, because she’d asked him. He’d been quite open with her one night when she’d had a bit too much to drink and he’d broken into her flat because he said he couldn’t sleep and he had thought she might be awake and chatty. It hadn’t been what he’d wanted to talk about, but he’d answered every question she’d asked. She hadn’t asked about herself, though, because even with some alcohol in her system she was still a chicken shit when it came to Sherlock Holmes. Maybe she should have. “What if he says no?” she asked.
Mary pressed the dress closer to Molly. “Wear this and I doubt the idea of saying no will even cross his mind.”
“Do you really think so?” Molly asked.
“I think he quite fancies you, even if he’s not entirely sure about how to deal with it,” she said. “But if you wait for him to use that gigantic brain to figure it out you’ll be waiting on him for an awfully long time. It’s best for both of you if you take the reins on this.”
“I suppose I could,” Molly said thoughtfully, taking the dress from Mary and flattening it against herself. After a moment she put it back on the rack and began looking for one in her own size, determined to do it. There was always the chance Sherlock would reject her once again, say they were simply friends and that was all they would ever be. But it would be worth the risk to find out once and for all, wouldn’t it? To absolutely know for sure that there would never be any romantic involvement between them? She thought it would be.
She found a dress in her size and went to try it on. She looked quite nice in it, she thought, and Mary said it was smashing. Lucinda even clapped a bit so Molly knew then she should buy it. They got some accessories to go with it, a small clutch and some cute shoes and a necklace and bracelet set, and after looking around some more Mary encouraged Molly to arrange to see Sherlock that evening. They moved to their favorite tea shoppe for tea and scones and after they were settled and Molly had worked up her nerve she pulled out her mobile and pulled up his contact, hesitating for only a moment before dialing him. It rang twice when he answered. “Molly. Just the person I needed,” Sherlock said.
“Oh?” she asked, surprised. “What did you need me for, Sherlock?”
“There is a situation I can’t quite puzzle out and I was hoping you could give me your insight on it,” he said. “I realize today you’re out with Mary and Lucinda, but…”
“Oh, Mary won’t mind if I cut our girl’s day short,” she said. Mary gave her a thumbs up and a questioning look. Molly gave her a slight frown and Mary tilted her thumb to the side. “What type of situation is it?”
“One of a delicate personal nature,” he said.
“Ah,” Molly said. Mary moved her thumb back up and Molly shook her head, and Mary frowned. “Well, I’ll come over to help. I can be there in maybe a half hour to forty minutes.”
“Have you eaten recently?” he asked.
“I had brunch at eleven, but nothing recently other than the scone I just had with my tea.”
“I’ll have something here for you as an early supper, then,” he said. “Are you in the mood for Thai?”
“Thai sounds fine,” she said.
“I’ll have your usual waiting for you, in that case.”
“All right. I’ll see you soon, Sherlock.” She ended the call and looked at Mary. “He needs my expertise with a personal matter.”
“Could be interesting. Maybe not the best occasion to wow him with that dress, however,” Mary said. “But it could still be a good opportunity to ask him on a date.”
“Let’s see what the personal matter is first,” she said, standing up. She began to gather her things. “I should probably get going. Traffic this time of day is a bloody nightmare and if I want to get to Baker Street even remotely when I said I would I should go now.” She gave Mary a quick kiss on the cheek as Mary did the same to her and then she kissed Lucinda’s forehead. “Be good for your mum, Lucy.”
"She will be. It’s her dad you should tell her to be good for,” Mary said with a laugh. “Good luck, love.”
“Thanks,” Molly said as she turned and headed out of the tea shoppe. She went to the curb and managed to snag the first cab that came by. Thanks to an accident it took slightly longer than she expected but she arrived outside of 221B Baker Street fifty minutes later. Sherlock was waiting outside and as soon as the cab stopped he came over. “Waiting for me?” she asked when he opened the door.
“There’s been a change in plans,” he said. “I may have had a small accident with an experiment. The flat needs to air out. But it did solve a case.”
“Well, that’s good,” she said, moving over in the backseat of the cab.
“I’ll cover the entire cab fare, including your trip here,” he said as he got in.
“Well, where should we go?” she asked.
“How do you feel about Italian food?” he asked.
“That would be nice,” she said.
He leaned forward and gave the driver an address. If she remembered correctly, John had said there was an Italian restaurant in the area where Sherlock knew the owner, and they’d spent part of their first case together there. She’d never been there so it would be interesting. When the cab pulled away from the curb he looked at her. “I apologize for things not going according to plan. I was working on the experiment all day and I hadn’t expected it to end the way it did. But it did eliminate 85% of the pool of suspects in my current case. The reaction was much larger than anticipated.”
“That explains the slight whiff of sulfur I keep smelling,” she said with a smile.
He frowned. “I had hoped I didn’t smell that bad,” he said with a sigh.
“It’s really not that bad, Sherlock. Honest. I can barely smell it.”
“I doubt you’ll want to stay anywhere near me at all this evening,” he said sourly.
She gave him a perplexed look. “Did you want me to stay close to you tonight, Sherlock?” she asked quietly after a moment’s silence.
He looked at her and then nodded slowly. “The personal matter has to do with us. With you and I. But I don’t really need your opinion on anything, more like your…” He paused. “I just wanted a reason to have you over for dinner without actually having to ask you on a…date.” He said the last word rather quietly, as though it was a bad word of some sort. “It’s why I’ve asked you to come over more frequently.”
Molly stared at him, her mouth hanging open slightly for a moment. “So all the times you’ve had me over to chat about cases, or ask my opinion on things, or have my help on experiments and we’ve ended up sharing a meal…are you telling me you considered those dates?” she asked.
He nodded, looking down. “Yes.”
She thought back to how long it had been going on. Nearly a month and a half now he’d invited her over two or three times a week and there had been food there. “Are you telling me you’ve thought we’ve been dating for nearly a month and a half now and you never actually asked me out? And you were just going to let it continue?”
“Do you know how hard it was for me to actually come up with trying to ask you to come over tonight?” he asked quietly. “I should have asked you out on a proper date, I realize that now, but it’s hard. It’s incredibly hard because I genuinely care about you and…”
He was afraid she would turn him down. Sherlock Holmes was afraid she would reject him if he asked her out on a good and proper date, she realized. And so he’d been letting them have dates without having them actually be dates, but somehow he realized he needed to ask. That’s what he’d planned to do tonight. “Were you afraid I would turn you down if you actually asked?” she asked after a few moments silence. She should have been creeped out by it or at least a little angrier than she was, but if he had been genuinely afraid she would reject him she at least understood where he was coming from.
“Yes, I was,” he said.
“Is that why you’ve had your brother ruin any chance I had of anyone else dating me? So you would be the only man left?” she asked.
His head snapped up. “I didn’t ask Mycroft to do anything of the sort,” he said with a frown. “Though…now something he told me makes sense.”
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He said that I’m not the only man in the world with designs on your time, and if I wanted it to actually mean something I should tell you sooner rather than later,” he said. “I had planned on saying something today, but nothing’s gone the way I’d hoped.”
She leaned back in her seat, thinking about things. She supposed it was typical that a relationship with Sherlock Holmes would not start out in a normal way, considering the not-so-normal way their friendship had worked out. She should distance herself, take some time to see if she really wanted to be in a relationship with someone who had considered them as dating without consulting her first. But, truth be told, she knew she’d end up choosing to date him anyway because really, she did care about him greatly, so why create a delay? “Those meals weren’t dates,” she said slowly, looking at him. “And this is not a date unless you properly ask me.”
He looked at her face a moment, studying her, as though he couldn’t believe what she was saying. “Molly, would you like to have dinner with me tonight as more than just two friends sharing a meal?” he asked with a hint of hesitation.
“I would,” she said with a nod. “But from now on, Sherlock, any time you want to go out on a date you have to actually ask unless you surprise me. Then you just need to make sure I’m not busy and I’m in a decent mood.”
He nodded slowly, relaxing. “And I suppose if this leads to a relationship than today would be our anniversary?”
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “Not whatever date you think we started dating.”
“All right,” he said with a nod. He was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke again. “Was Mycroft really sabotaging your social life?”
“He attacked it with a nuclear warhead,” she said with a wry smile. “Hopefully he likes you because I’ll be quite cross if you end up in another country.”
He tentatively reached over for her hand and she grasped it firmly. “Somehow I don’t think you’ll have to worry about me being exiled for showing an interest in you,” he said. “I get the feeling Mycroft was simply making sure I didn’t have any competition.”
“Yes, well, I think he and I need to have a chat about personal boundaries,” she said. “And there needs to be some attempt to make things up to those blokes whose lives got upended because they attempted to get my attention.”
“I think that would be an interesting conversation to observe,” he said with a small grin.
“And I also think it needs to be made up to me as well,” she said. “I was living the life of a nun in a convent, more or less. I was a spinster, and that wasn’t fair to me.”
“I promise I will do everything I can to make it up to you,” he said solemnly, running his thumb over her knuckles. “Even if it wasn’t entirely my fault.”
“All right,” she said, squeezing his hand and giving him a smile. “I’ll hold you to that.” His own smile got wider and she knew then that she had made the right decision to give him a chance despite the questionable beginnings to this relationship. If nothing else if they ever got serious enough it would make for an interesting story to share with others. But for now they would take things one date at a time and see where they led.