Of Course You Do

Molly arrives at Baker Street nervous, her hands fidgeting with the hem of her flowery top and her eyes wandering back and forth over the absence of her engagement ring. She knows Sherlock was high when he had harshly pointed out the lack of it the other day in the lab, and the Magnussen case had taken its toll on him. Dear God, she slapped him. Not even once, but a few times. Regret immediately set in for losing her temper that way, but she can't stand to see him ruining himself voluntarily when he now has a huge support system he could rather lean on. Knowing he is going through a lot of emotions right now, she thought it best to visit him, instead of waiting for him to visit her. He deserves an apology for her abuse; the anger of the situation and her own repressed stress had come to an ugly head in that moment. Molly has spent too long disregarding, hiding, pushing down, and avoiding her feelings. It's time for the truth, and nothing but.

After dodging most of Mrs. Hudson's questions (Lord help her she just wasn't in the mood for them), she makes her way slowly up the stairs to 221B, seeing the door open as it usually is when Sherlock is in. Taking a deep breath, she walks up, seeing a curly mop of hair from behind, and gently raps on the paint-chipped door.

Sherlock whirls around and his face hardens a bit. "Molly."

"Erm...hello Sherlock. Can we...talk?"

Sherlock looks over her, noticing her fiddling with her bare ring finger. Probably force of habit from when there was in fact, a ring there. "You can see I'm a bit busy", he motions to his open laptop.

"Well...yes...uh, right. Shall I come back another time then?"

He sighs heavily. "No, come in."

Nodding slowly, she walks a few feet into the flat and sets her purse down beside the sofa quietly. "I just wanted to say sorry to you..."

Sherlock furrows his brow and stands up straight, spinning on his heel to turn towards her. "What? Wh-...why?"

Molly looks up at him guiltily. "For slapping you the other day. It wasn't right. Nobody should ever lay a hand on anyone else. It's wrong and I...I lost control of my emotions and I'm really sorry. You didn't deserve that type of assault."

He nods slowly, a confused twinkle still in his eye. "That "type" of assault?", he questions, a teasing undertone to his deep voice.

She chews her lip a bit. "You know that you deserved a stern talking to at least. That's all I meant."

"It was for a case, I thought I explained th-"

"I don't care what it was for, Sherlock! I may be sorry for slapping you, but what I said still rings true, and I'm still upset that you would rather damage your mind and your health than lean on any one of us to come up with another plan."

Sherlock smirks slightly and Molly sets her jaw and crosses her arms. "I know I don't always make the right decisions and I put myself at risk too much. But in my defense, the Magnussen case was of national importance, as Mycroft would have said if he had realized it was. So much for him being the 'smart one'. It was of course, of personal importance too, with Mary and John being involved as well. I'm sure you've gotten the run-down from Mary. Let me guess, you're here to give me a verbal lashing for killing a man and not being affected too I assume?"

"No. Because you may have fooled yourself into thinking it doesn't affect you, but I know you better than that. You put on a pretty stony front, but on the inside, you feel just as much as any other human being. You see it as a weakness, and admittedly, yes...sometimes emotions can make you feel weak. But most times strength gets built off of perceived weakness. So...feeling something about it, despite him being a horrid person, is normal and strong actually."