Mr Holmes and Miss Hooper - a Sherlolly Story

Chapter 25

Sherlock did as he had promised and took an exciting case the next weekend. He had explained it all to Molly and she had to admit it did sound interesting. It was something to do with attempted assassinations on VIPs but the would-be killer kept deliberately missing their target. Sherlock said John had deemed it 'the collateral damage killer' for his infamous blog since the sniper would take out the target's second in command instead, but Sherlock thought it was more than that. He said that the intricacies of this case made it a 9 on his scale, and that was really good apparently. He had kissed Molly goodbye on the Friday after school and promised to be back by Sunday evening. Loo had taunted him about his confidence in his ability to solve the case in that short of a time period but Sherlock had just winked at her and whisked out the door. Molly never doubted he would solve it in that time, he was her brilliant boyfriend after all. However, she also never thought she would be running through the hallways of St Barts hospital in the early hours of a Sunday morning with her heart hammering in her chest as she was still digesting the words John had spoken into her ear on the phone.

She had been confused when John Watson's name flashed up on her screen at nearly 1 am. She rubbed her eyes groggily as her ringtone had awoken her. Of course, she liked the man and they had fallen into an odd friendship because of Sherlock but it was so early and Molly almost didn't answer. Maybe it was a butt dial or something? It was fresh from a Saturday night after all. In her deliberating, the phone rang out. Molly shrugged and prepared herself to lay back down when her phone buzzed again. She was a bit more awake now and remembering Sherlock and John being out on a dangerous case was like a bucket of cold water. John's breathing was ragged when she answered his call and she could immediately sense something was wrong.

"John? Are you okay? Has something happened?" Her voice was already laced with worry.

"Molly, it's Sherlock. He- he's been shot." Molly couldn't speak, "Molly? Are you there?"

She could only let out a cracked hum in response, her head was spinning. Her heart was in her feet and she felt like she was about to be sick.

"We're at St Barts, the ICU."

"I'm on my way."

She had never gotten dressed so quickly, without even brushing it she wrapped her hair into a messy bun on the top of her head. She hadn't even registered what she'd thrown onto her body which turned out to be black leggings and an oversized jumper. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she ran to get her shoes. She looked physically ill. Her eyes were dark and her skin pale. She looked lost in her jumper and her hair was all over the place. She didn't care though, she had to know he was okay. She ran out of the house, shoes only half on, and jumped into her car starting the engine as fast as she could. She realised as she was pulling her seatbelt on that she hadn't told Loo what was going on. No matter, she'd text her later. No point in upsetting her sleeping sister at 1 am, especially when Molly herself didn't know what was going on.

She didn't quite know how she'd managed to drive and park at the hospital without crashing but she had made it in one piece. And now she was running through the corridors to the ICU and she thought her heart might actually break one of her ribs as she gasped for breath. She managed to stop at the nurses' desk to ask which room he was in but before she could get the words out she heard John shout her name and she was running again. Mary appeared at his side and stood in her path, blocking the door. Mary grabbed her by the shoulders and held her at bay as Molly tried to push her way past.

"Molly, Molly." Mary's grip was tight but gentle on her arms and Molly stopped and held her breath, looking into her friend's blue eyes as tears fell from her own. "Breathe, love, breathe."

Molly did as she was told, taking a deep breath in and shuddering as the air left her body again. "Is he-is he okay?" She could feel the hot tears on her cheeks but she didn't care.