It all started in bed Monday morning. I am not in any way a morning person and it being a Monday usually made it that extra bit harder to get out of bed. But not today. Today I work up naturally 20 minutes before my alarm feeling absolutely refreshed and well rested, which never happened to me. Taking advantage of the extra time I had, I actually chose a nice outfit, a pale pink blouse and a black pencil skirt, instead of throwing on whatever I grabbed first. I then applied some natural makeup and put up my hair into an elegant bun with a side parting, as well as my usual morning routine. However, despite these extra things, when I glanced at my watch I saw that I was still 15 minutes ahead of the time I usually left at. So taking advantage of this extra time again, I slipped on a medium pair of heels that I usually avoided considering my clumsiness in everything except cutting open dead people and walked to my favourite coffee shop near where I lived. It was usually packed to the brim, but today there was no queue and only a few customers about dotted about. I went and got my favourite hot Mocha and a breakfast muffin that I took my time eating, since I was usually late so never had time for breakfast. Resuming my walk to work at a nice leisurely pace I enjoyed the unusually pleasant weather for April. I arrived at Barts bang on time and said a cheerful good morning to everyone I passed, which considering my usual rushed and groggy greeting I usually gave, gave everyone quite a shock. I strolled into the morgue dumping my bag and coat in the office and donning my white lab coat, I strolled over to today's roster. I almost squealed in delight when I realised I only had 3 bodies today, all of which looked relativity easy.
By lunch time I had completed two bodies as well as the assigned paper work for each. This meant I actually had time for lunch which I usually had to skip due to my work load. I stopped off in my lab on the way up to drop off some samples that needed testing and bumped into Sherlock who was sitting at his preferred microscope. Usually I would stumble in, apologise for disturbing him and then get out as quickly as possible, but not today. This uncharacteristically good morning had given me a very rare burst of confidence.
"Good morning Sherlock. How are you?" I said striding confidently into the lab, despite the lack of response. I even decided to let lose my cheeky side.
"I'm good Sherlock, great, actually thanks for asking. You're so caring, it warms my heart." I ended sarcastically.
Despite not moving at all, he did reply with the usual "Molly..." In a warning tone.
"Not that I don't absolutely enjoy our one sided conversations, I am going to lunch. Would you like me to bring you something back?" By this point I was leaning on the other side of the bench Sherlock was working on, behind his microscope. I could see his eyes briefly flick up towards me before returning to work.
"No Molly." He replied in the same warning tone, as he stood up to grab some chemicals off the shelf.
"Well I'll be in the cafeteria if you need me." I said walking backwards towards the door. He turned to me and gave me a bewildered expression.
"Why would I need you?" He asked.
"Well you never know when a 'need' might pop 'up'" I said and couldn't help the completely obvious look to his crotch. It took a few seconds but he eventually got the innuendo and a faint blush covered his cheeks. I left quickly before I burst out laughing at his embarrassment.
During lunch my perfect day continued, the cafeteria was actually serving edible food instead of the usually wet cardboard they deemed to label lasagne. As I scanned the tables looking for a place to sit the really cute new Paediatrician, Jamie, was sat by himself with a coffee and waved me over when he saw me. We chatted for my entire lunch hour about how he was setting in to his new job, the journal article I was currently trying to get published and other random things. When I eventually noticed the time and told him that I was due back in the lab he offered to walk me back, how cute is that. I entered the lab and Sherlock was back to working at whatever it was he was doing. Jamie walked in after me and briefly glanced at Sherlock before returning his gaze to me.
"So Molly I was wondering if after work you'd..."
"I'd love to." I replied cutting him off.
"You don't know what I'm going to ask." He said smirking.
"Doesn't matter," I said, "I'm up for anything."
"That's great." Jamie replied his smile getting even wider. "I'll see you at 6 in reception."
"You bet you will." I said with a smirk, which Jamie copied as he started to lean forward to kiss me.
"Molly! I need your assistance." Sherlock shouted not looking up. I on purposely leant the rest of the way forward to kiss Jamie briefly before walking towards Sherlock.
"I'll see you later." Jamie said as he walked out. I walked over to Sherlock and leant next to him on the bench.
"So what wrong with him?" I asked before he could rattle off his deductions.
"He's a borderline alcoholic, too old to pull off that hair cut and moved here because of a messy, still fresh divorce, probably looking for a rebound. Apart of that he's fine, dull, boring!" Sherlock finished, finally looking at me. We were silent for a few moments before I shrugged my shoulders and replied "I can deal with that; he is really cute after all." Sherlock continued to stare at me as if I'd grown a second head before he huffed and returned to his work. There was silence for a few moments before I remembered he'd asked me for help.
"Did you actually need me for something?"
"Hm? Oh yes pass me my phone, it's in my jacket." I could clearly see his phone sat next to the microscope on the desk, but just as I was about to tell him, I paused and thought 'let's see just how good I can make this day.'
"Of course Sherlock." I said standing behind and snaked my arm around him, pushing my front into his back. I rested my hand flat on the centre of his hard chest and then slowly dragged my hand across it towards the inside of his jacket. I felt Sherlock stiffen at my touch but he made no movement to stop me.
"Not in this one." I said in his ear. I got my other arm and did the same with his other pocket, slowly dragging my hand across him.
"Not in that on either." I whispered bringing both my hands back to the centre on his chest. Then a wicked thought crossed my mind and I couldn't help but smirk into his back.
"Maybe..." I whispered, "it's in your trousers." My hands slowly fell downwards towards his crotch. I briefly wondered how far he and/or I would let this go, my new found confidence from this perfect day would only get me so far before I'd turn back to mousey Molly under his gaze.
Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on how optimistic I was feeling) this wasn't a problem because the moment my hands started to separate on his thighs to dive into each of his pockets he jumped up and took cover on the other side of the bench, his breathing unusually unsteady, as if he'd just been running a long distance. I gazed up at his face and a new wave of confidence washed over me as I looked at his shockingly bright blush that stood out on his pale complexion.
We stared at each other over the bench, him panting slightly and me still wearing a smirk.
"Oh how silly of me Sherlock." Grabbing his phone from its spot beside the microscope. "It was on the bench the whole time." I said as I placed the phone in front of him on the bench. His eyes briefly flicked down to the phone before returning to me, he made no move to pick it up. I could tell that he didn't believe me although I couldn't care less, I'd probably never get a chance to touch him like that ever again.
"Well you know me," I said with a casual shrug." I'm not as observant as you." My eyes quickly glanced downwards to the area my hands had been so close to touching only moments ago, seeing the redirection of my gaze he pushed himself harder into the bench, his knuckles going white with the pressure he was putting on them, effectively hiding that area from my observations. My gaze returned to his and I could see the deductions flashing through his mind almost as if he was saying them aloud.
'Well rested (unusual), showered (took her time), wearing favourite perfume (only worn when in a good mood), attractive outfit (feeling confident), alert (had time for morning coffee...from favourite cafe), forward attitude (unusual confidence)...
The deductions continued to pass across his face but from the continuing look of confusion on Sherlock's face, he was no closer to understanding my unusual behaviour. Suddenly we were both interrupted from our staring contest by the beep of a machine on the other side of the lab.
"My samples are done." I said as I glanced at the machine before returning my gaze to Sherlock, the blush had faded from his cheeks and the bewildered look on his face had been replaced by one of annoyance. I pulled my self away from his gaze to collect my samples and the whole time I could feel him watching me. I had never had Sherlock's undivided attention before and to be honest it was quite unnerving, I had to consciously keep my hands from shaking under the heat of his stare.
"Why are you different?" He asked.
"Can't you deduce why?" I replied not looking at him.
"I have yet to collect enough data."
"You mean I've managed to confuse the great Sherlock Holmes, the words only consulting detective? Little old me?" I replied coyly as I turned to look at him, samples in hand.
"You haven't confused me!" He replied in denial. "I just have yet to collect enough satisfactory data to correctly hypothesis why your behaviour has changed. I am attempting to gather this addition data by verbally enquiring you."
"And how exactly has my behaviour changed?" I asked still ignoring his question.
"Molly, why are you asking me a question you already know the answer to?"
"On the contrary my dear Sherlock, I have no idea what behavioural changes you are enquiring about." I replied with an innocent smile.
"...well...the touch...the innue... Your hair is different?!" He finally came out with.
"That isn't exactly behavioural, is it Sherlock? Honestly I thought you were smarter than that." I said in mock disappointment.
"Argh! Your infuriating!" Sherlock exclaimed pushing himself away from bench having seemingly got control of himself, metaphorically of course.
"Now as fun as this conversation is, I still have one last body to attend too, which I intend to finish in time for my date." I said with a smile as I started to walk towards the door.
"You still intend to go out with that imbecile?!"
"Of course why wouldn't I?"
"Because he's dull!" Sherlock replied as if that was reason enough not to spend time with someone.
"It's ok, I can make my own excitement." I replied with on last smirk as I left the lab.
Walking back to the morgue I couldn't help but laugh at my encounter with Sherlock. I had never known messing with him could be so fun, although I may have gone a bit over board with the searching for his phone bit. However, I would never be able to bring my self to ever regret doing what I did.
Like with the previous two bodies, my last one was relatively easy and the relevant paper work took no time at all to complete. By the time I was done it was only 4:30, which gave me an hour and half until I agreed to meet Jamie. This meant that I had plenty of time to nip back home and put on something a bit more date like. As I was walking home I passed one of the many designer boutiques that you see all over London, although this one had a sign advertising a sale was on. So being as I had plenty of time to kill I though I'd have a look inside. I was barley in the shop a minute before I spotted to most perfect dress. It was a deep emerald green, a colour everyone always said went well with my naturally strawberry brown hair colour. It was a modest length, stopping just above my knee. The skirt puffed out slightly as was the fashion at the moment and the neck was high, sweeping across my shoulders which emphasised the slope of my chest making my breasts look bigger than they were. Finally, the back was almost completely non-existent just a thin layer of lace connected the two sides of the dress. It was the type of dress that looked like it was made for me with a designer label to match. The day just got better when I looked down at the tag and saw that it was reduced from £230 to just £60! Not wanting to question my terrific luck I immediately brought it, although I did immediately guilty about it. When I got home I got changed into my new dress (which of course fit perfectly), restyled my hair into a plaited side do and replied my make up for a more dramatic look. I then headed back to Barts to meet up with Jamie. When I arrived I was a bit early so I couldn't help but head over to the lab just to see if Sherlock was still there so I could tease him some more, but unfortunately he had already gone and so I headed back to reception.
I was barely there five minutes before Jamie arrived, his eyes obviously raking over me as he approached.
"Wow Molly, you look great. I'm afraid I'll look horrendously underdressed next to you." He was of course just flattering me as under his white lab coat that he had been wearing earlier, he wore a crisp dark blue dress shirt and smart black trousers that he had now paired with a matching blazer. He was the perfect stereotype of the type of doctor every mother wants their daughter to marry.
"It doesn't matter," I said loping my arm through his as we walked towards the door. "With me on your arm, no one will be looking at you." There was a brief second of silence as I smiled condescendingly at Jamie, before we both immediately burst out laughing. By the time we had calmed down we'd made it down to the street and Jamie stuck his hand out to hail a taxi. I couldn't help but notice that he didn't do it nearly as well as Sherlock did. I was beginning to think that either him or his brother paid a taxi just to follow him around just so he didn't have to stand on the pavement looking like a twat, like the rest of us. When we eventually got a taxi Jamie whispered the address to the driver before settling into the back seat with me, his hand resting a little to high on my leg than I thought appropriate given this was our first date.
"So where are you taking me?" I asked, trying to keep his attention on my face rather than my leg.
"Well I obviously need to take you some where very busy and public so I can show you off and watch every other man stare at me in envy." He chuckled slightly but I personally thought that it was a bit of back handed compliment, although I was the one that brought up the arm candy joke in the first place, so I let it slide. I just smiled and turned my gaze to the window and noticed that we were passing into the West End, driving through Piccadilly Circus. A few moments later the taxi stopped and I got out while Jamie paid and I couldn't believe it, we were outside the Ivy. It was a one of the oldest and most well regarded restaurants in London. It had under gone a recent remodel and I been wanting to go see it for months but had lacked a special enough occasion to go.
"How did you manage to get us a table?" I asked, turning to Jamie who had just gotten out of the taxi.
"The soux chefs husband is a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to their six-year-old daughter. The slightest cough or sneeze and he insists that they take her to see me. We've become quite good friends over our many appointments." Jamie said before leading me along the busy street towards the entrance.
Jamie gave his name to the maître'd who lead us to our table. The restaurant itself had a warm and friendly atmosphere, almost like a traditional English pub, but with a lot more class.
"So are you happy with my choice of restaurant." Jamie asked after they had given their drink orders to the waiter.
"Yes, very much so. The food here looks amazing." My eyes scanning the menu.
"I'm glad, I think this should earn me a favour later tonight." My eyes halted on the menu in front of me, had he really just said that? I glanced up at him over the top of my menu but his face was already buried in his own.
Some time later after I had finished my first large glass of wine I had decided to forgive Jamie for his assumption that we would end up sleeping together tonight, after all I may have been a bit more forward than I would usually be. But no matter how good my mood was or how much confidence the day had given me I was not about to compromise my morals by sleeping with a guy on the first date.
The time past with excellent food and …ok company to say the least. It became increasing obvious through out our meal that outside of work we had little, if anything else in common. When I talked about some of my favourite books, he said that he never had the patience for them and found them pointless. When he started talking about his desire to rocking climbing in Utah I had to physically stop myself from yawning as he told me about why the centre type of rock made it an even bigger challenge to climb. However, after our main had been taken away and I finished my third glass of wine and Jamie his fifth, the conversation flowed a lot easier.
"So then, my mate Kevin-"
"Pardon my interruption sir, madam," the maitre'd suddenly appeared at the side of their table. "But there is a gentleman at the door who says he needs to speak with the lady as a matter of urgency. Would you like me to escort him to your table?"
I stretched myself up on my chair trying to see if I could see the door, but unfortunately I was too short to see over the bar. However, I had a pretty good guess who it might be.
"Yes please show him over please." I told the maitre'd.
"Of course madam." The maitre'd said before he left the table and quickly returned with a very grumpy looking Sherlock in tow.
"Hello Sherlock, what ca-" I began to say.
"Your presence is required at the morgue immediately." Sherlock interrupted, completely ignoring Jamie.
"Oh my, is someone dead?" I asked in mock shock, which caused Jamie and I to burst out laughing.
"Oh…Molly…" Jamie gasped in-between fits of laughter. "That was hilarious. Oi mate, did you not get it?" He asked a stony faced Sherlock, who didn't answer.
"Because Molly only works with dead people…because she works in morgue…where the dead people are. So of course someone's dead but its funny because Molly asked you if anyone was dead. Do you still not get the joke?" Jamie asked, before turning back to me and shrugging causing us both to start laughing.
"Hilarious Molly." Sherlock eventually said in a patronising voice. "Now please grab your things so we can go."
"I'm not going anywhere." I replied. Sherlock looked like he was about to argue but I cut him off.
"Sherlock, I'm drunk and in no fit state to go to work. So whatever emergency it is will either have to wait or you can go and get another pathologist." I finished. Sherlock and I had a stare off which probably would have gone on an embarrassingly long time if mine and Jamie's desserts hadn't arrived. The waiter had to politely ask Sherlock to move out the way so he could get to the table. I broke eye contact with Sherlock to thank the waiter as he set down my baked Alaska on the table. When I looked back up again, Sherlock was gone.
I did feel a bit bad about blowing Sherlock off but my point was valid, I was in no state to help in any kind of emergency at Barts, an emergency which I doubted existed. However, Sherlock's interruption had put a bit of a downer on the remainder of the date which only became more obvious when the waiter handed the check to Jamie.
"Wait this is wrong? Only half the stuff we ordered is on here." Jamie said trying to hand the check back to the waiter.
"Oh I assumed you knew, the gentleman that you were talking to earlier paid for the lady's meal and drinks on his way out." The waiter replied.
"What?!" Jamie and I both asked at the same time.
"Yes and he almost told me to tell you," he directed solely at me, "that a taxi is waiting outside to take you home when you are ready." The waiter finished before departing. An awkward silence descended between us, I could tell that Jamie was seething with anger as he quickly downed his seventh glass of wine. I couldn't help but think that that boarding alcoholic comment that Sherlock made was spot on.
"Ummm…" I eventually said just to fill the silence.
"Just go." Jamie said. "I bet you're going off to see him now anyway." Refusing to look at me.
I couldn't even be bothered to waste another breath on him so I just gathered up my stuff and left. As I excited a taxi driver walked over to me to confirm I was Mr Holmes' friend before holding the door open for me to get into his taxi. He dropped me off at home and confirmed that he had already been paid in advance and wished me a good night as I exited the car. I also noticed that the taxi remained until I was safely through my front door before driving away.
I collapsed exhausted on my bed and contemplated my day. It had started off amazing and whilst Jamie wasn't the perfect guy I hoped he would be the majority of our date was fun and I did enjoy myself. I smiled to myself as I drifted off to sleep and hoped that tomorrow would be just as good.
-x-
Beep Beep Beep Beep
"Ughhhh." I groaned rolling over to the far edge of my bed away from my alarm clock in an effort to block out the noise. When that didn't work I quickly rolled over and slammed the snooze button. Ahhhh blissful silence I thought as I fell back to sleep.
Beep Beep Beep Beep
"Go away." I mumbled, hitting the snooze again.
Beep Beep Beep Beep
"Five more minutes." I whispered to myself once again hitting the snooze button.
Bee-
My hand was ready and waiting on the snooze button.
Beep Beep Beep Beep
I finally lifted my head out my nest of pillows and actually looked at my alarm clock, 8:34am it read.
"Shit!" I shouted as I flung myself out of bed, suddenly very awake. I had 26 minutes to get to work or I'd be late. Rushing to the bathroom I wanted to kill myself when I looked into the mirror and realised that I had forgot to take last night's make-up off or let my hair lose. As a result, a black, smudgy face with a crazed birds nest on top of it looked back at me. After scrubbing my face raw and painfully raking a brush though my hair tiring it up in its usual high ponytail, I grabbed something from my wardrobe and was out the door. I realised a bit latter that what I had grabbed turned out to be a Christmas jumper with a massive reindeer on the front. Let me just remind you of the fact that it was April.
I rushed through the door of Barts, arriving at 9:07am. Still late, but manageably late. However, as I started walking towards the lab I noticed Jamie was waiting for me. He didn't look like he even recognised me and when he eventually did realise, he clearly wasn't impressed with what he saw.
"Molly? You look…different." He eventually said, horrible was the word he wanted to say.
"Hi Jamie, listen I'm running late. Could we maybe talk another time?" I said as I tried to step round him.
"I'll be quick." He said blocking my path. "I'm sorry about last night, I lost my cool a bit at the end. But thinking about it now…" He trailed off, looking me up and down and clearly not being impressed at what he saw. "It might have been for the best. I don't think we'd work out. No hard feeling?" He asked.
"Yeah, fine, whatever." I said rushing round him. I wasn't broken up about him, I decided even before the whole Sherlock incident that I wasn't going to see him again, so it was no great loss to me. I didn't even spare him a backward glance as I rushed towards my lab.
I burst through the door and immediately halted when I saw Sherlock, still at his preferred microscope. My confidence from yesterday was no were to be found and I could feel my shyness come over me like a rash.
"H-h-h-hi Sherlock." I stuttered, quickly walking past him to deposit my bag and coat on the side. He didn't reply, but then I didn't expect him to. Even though I was dreadfully late for beginning my work I realised that there was something that needed to be said.
"Thank you." I managed to say without stuttering.
silence
"For last night." I clarified.
silence
"For paying for my meal… and the taxi home. You didn't need to do that. And thinking about it I think I should pay you back. We live in an age of equality and it's not right for a man to have to pay for my food, especially a man I wasn't even on a date with."
silence
"I can afford it, if that's what you're worried about. I know the restaurant was a bit pricey but I can pay you back."
silence
"Sherlock, please. Can you tell me know much I owe you."
"You're saving up." Sherlock suddenly said looking up from his microscope and standing up from his chair so he was facing me. "You want to visit your brother in Australia, the flights alone are eating up your what's left of your wages once you've paid rent, utilities and food. But you are also refusing to impose on your brother and his family by staying with them and so are also saving up for the hotel room you will be needing, not to mention the money you will need to spend while your there. Having to pay for that meal would have made all your budgeting and saving over the last two weeks pointless. Especially since you already brought that new dress for yourself."
"How…" I hadn't mentioned any of that to Sherlock, not my trip, not my saving, not even the fact that I had a brother.
"You left up an airline website on your computer a few weeks ago and a note pad with a series of calculations you were making about your spending habits. The rest I figured out because I know you."
I couldn't think of anything to say, he was completely right of course, about everything.
"Thank you." I said eventually, overcome with emotion as I brought my hand up to clutch my chest. Unfortunately, this had the unintentional side effect of causing my jumper to suddenly start singing Jingle bells. The annoying happy tune filled the silent lab and I looked up mortified to see Sherlock chucking softly. When the stupid jumper eventually silenced, I had no idea what to say.
"I prefer this you." Sherlock suddenly said, taking a step towards me.
"The permanently in a rush Molly." Another step.
"The Molly who prefers that extra 20 minutes in bed rather plastering her face with make up." Another step.
"The Molly who wears jumpers everyday because for working in a morgue, its practical." He was only an arms length away.
"But still wants to bring the world a bit of happiness and so wears the most outrageously bright clothes she can find." He took another step towards me, invading my person space, not that I'm complaining though.
"The Molly that drives me crazy without even trying." He whispered before his lips were on mine in a passionate kiss. Time seemed to lose all meaning as he wrapped his arms around my back and I in turn wrapped mine around his neck, pulling him even closer, pressing myself against him. Unfortunately, I pressed too hard and jingles bells suddenly started up again, causing us to both pull away and start laughing.
"Yes," Sherlock said, almost to himself brushing a stray bit of my hair from my forehead. "I definitely prefer this Molly."
I laughed at his admission and resumed kissing him as jingle bells continued to serenade us. Now this is what I call a perfect day.
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