He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

The Reactionary Phase

"She's great." John decided, giving one last wave to Mrs. Hudson before closing the door and leaning against it, taking a deep breath and smiling to himself.
"Do you love him daddy?" Hamish wondered with a curious little face. John just looked down at the ground, nodding the smallest of nods.
"Ya Hamish, I think I do." John agreed. "I think I do." He muttered again, mostly to himself, as confirmation.
"Did you kiss him?" Hamish wondered. John just laughed, straightening up and shaking his head.
"It was just the first date Hamish; I don't want to rush things." John assured, walking into the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea to settle down after such an exciting night.
"Did you want to?" Hamish wondered, skipping after him.
"Hamish there are some things that people want to keep to themselves, as much as I'd love you going around screaming about my relationship status sometimes I want a little bit of privacy." John insisted.
"So that's a yes then?" Hamish guessed.
"Since when did you become intelligent?" John sighed, pouring water into the kettle to heat up on the stove. Hamish just laughed evilly and sat on one of the stools next to the counter, his little feet swinging. John was just turning on the stove when the doorbell rang, and he couldn't help but sigh. The last thing he needed was another visitor. Oh well, it was probably just Mrs. Hudson here to collect something she had forgotten, or Sherlock come to give him an official goodbye kiss. Preferably the latter. But when John opened the door he was ambushed for the second time that night, this time by a brown blob that smelled like lavender shampoo.
"OH MY GOSH HOW'D IT GO?" Molly's voice screamed frantically in his ear, releasing John from that captive embrace and holding him at arm's length, as if trying to find noticeable differences in his appearance after he had gone on a date.
"It was amazing, absolutely amazing." John admitted in a breath. Molly smiled excitedly, kicking the door open and walking into the house without an invitation. Well, I guess this will be tea for two.
"I always imagined a date with Sherlock to be amazing, but I never actually imagined I'd know how one would turn out. I always thought that I'd either be the one on the date or hate the other person with a burning passion." Molly decided.
"So you hate me then?" John guessed, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
"No, no of course not, you're awesome!" Molly assured.
"Hi Molly!" Hamish said happily, munching on some goldfish that he had found tucked away in the cabinets.
"Hi Hamish." Molly said with a smile.
"Hamish go up and get ready for bed, it's almost ten." John insisted, shooing his son out of the room. Hamish groaned, but slid of his chair and lumbered up the stairs, obviously upset he wasn't going to hear their grown up conversation.
"Alright, alright, so tell me everything that happened, start to finish." Molly insisted, pulling up a stool and leaning on her elbows.
"Start to finish?" John clarified, leaning on the counter next to the stove.
"Everything." Molly agreed, and John just laughed, shaking his head and trying to think back to the beginning of the date. It felt like ages ago when in reality it hadn't even been five hours. Funny how time flies when you're falling in love. So John went through the whole story, everything from getting lost to the wine bottle to holding hands in the park. Ever little detail John said Molly got excited, squealing when something cute happened (and in her mind, everything was cute) and sighing in happiness when John described how Sherlock looked in the candle light or the love in his eyes that was evident even when he was looking down at his feet. When John was finally finished the kettle screamed, and at first John had thought it was Molly's reaction to the whole thing, but then he realized that the water was boiling and poured two cups of tea, adding bags and sugar as recommended.
"So it was amazing then?" Molly asked, dipping her tea bag in her tea numerous times to get the flavor mixed in.
"Yes, of course it was amazing, I'm pretty sure I happened to stumble across the most perfect man on earth." John agreed. Molly sighed in agreement, a dreamily little smile on her face as she thought about the gardener.
"Honestly John, you've made my life." She decided.
"Your life? Really? That's pretty good considering I stole your crush right from under your nose." John pointed out.
"Oh who cares about that, he's flaming gay, I had no chance. But this is great, it's just...you're so great, and he's so perfect, and we're all friends and you're together and..." Molly sighed, obviously not knowing what to say, but there was the biggest smile on her face. "I just love it." she decided.
"Well that's good, I'm happy I have your approval." John nodded. Molly just laughed evilly, as if remembering something that could be rather game changing.
"Oh just you wait John, wait until you meet his family. If you think he's weird wait until you meet his brother." Molly pointed out with a laugh.
"What's wrong with his brother?" John wondered, rather nervous to hear the truth.
"He's a complete sociopath, the driest, most boring person you'll ever meet and he seems to have this gigantic ego, he thinks he's just the greatest. He's awful, his name is Mycroft." Molly muttered with a bitter frown.
"Mycroft? That's an odd name." John decided.
"What, and Sherlock isn't?" Molly wondered with a laugh.
"Sherlock isn't actually his real name. His name is William, which is so normal it's almost laughable." John pointed out, and Molly's mouth dropped, as if this was the biggest scandal she's heard all night.
"No way?" she muttered.
"Yes way, he told me himself." John agreed. Molly sipped her tea thoughtfully, as if everything she knew in the world had been changed.
"Interesting." She muttered, making a mental note to black mail Sherlock later. They spent the rest of their night chatting about nothing in particular, and eventually Sherlock's name would come up and they would both get all dreamy, talking about how beautiful he was and how perfect he was like two star struck teenaged girls. In the end their tea was drained and John was really starting to get tired, his eye lids were drooping and he wished for nothing except some peace and quiet. He's had basically all of the neighborhood over at his house, and it was time for some solitude, some time to really process what had happened on that date and accept it as the truth. Eventually Molly got the message, and she made some excuse about going to feed her cats or something. So with a rather sleepy goodbye Molly left the house, letting John hike up the stairs and get ready for bed, brushing his teeth and staring at himself in the mirror. Had that all really just happened? Was he actually on a date with Sherlock Holmes? John just smiled to himself, telling himself that it was real. He had been on a date with Sherlock Holmes, and he was in love all over again.