Devils in the Details

Chapter Thirteen // Omniescent Regime

OUTSIDE MOLLY HOOPER'S HOME

After leaving Molly behind, Will decided to head straight for 221B Baker Street. Typically he would've been going to Molly in order to leave the case behind, but now he was leaving her behind and going to work on the case as much as he could. He needed something, anything, to get his mind of her and everything he'd done to her.

Of course, Sherlock would likely find a way to see precisely what happened just by glancing at him for a moment. Then he would have to explain how he pressured Molly into leaving him, and how he had to get away from all of it in a single fell swoop. He was sick of having to explain things to Sherlock as it always ended up seemingly being messed up.

John, on the other hand, might understand. From what Will was aware of, he was having troubles as well. The details of this were more than a little foggy, but it appeared it had something to with his wife, Mary. Maybe he'd be able to sympathasize with Will in one way or another. But, then again, that would require fixating his mind back on Molly and back on that experience.

He hadn't even made his way back to the street before he found himself regretting the decision he had just made. No, Will didn't even allow himself to look back once. He tried to make everything seem better by thinking that in reality he was protecting her, but he was never convinced. There was just too much controversy over it within his own mind.

He knew that if he had glanced behind himself and looked over to the hurt in Molly's eyes, he'd never have been able to find a way to leave. Will was never able to forget just how much his empathy affected him - it riddled his mind every moment of every day. But when it came to someone he cared about as much as Molly, he didn't know how much her pain would end up translating over to him.

That's why he couldn't look back. That's why he couldn't go back, knowing it would just end up in more mutual pain.

Instead of dwelling on it, Will hailed a cab to head over to Baker Street. He never would've thought a case where he felt he might've been responsible for gruesome murders would end up being something he'd use in order to get his mind off of things, but sure enough that was precisely what happened. Several minutes later, he was being greeted at the front door by John, being led into the flat that was gradually becoming more and more familiar.

Will walked into 221B to find a familiar scene. John sat down in a chair while Sherlock was spralwed out across the couch, attempting to remain within the depths of his mind palace where he could think freely. Of course, with so many other stimulants in the room this ended up being difficult to pull off. This in turn made him feel irritated.

When Sherlock got irritated he would tend to take it out on other people without truly realising it. It wasn't as if he would care even if he did realise it, of course. But this began with his deductions, things that could easily be used in a cruel manner depending on how they were phrased.

His eyes ran over Will, trying to identify what had changed in the man's life since the last time they had seen one another. Sherlock ended up letting out a melodramatic sigh as he saw just how upset Will was at the moment.

"Precisely what I need," Sherlock said. "Another man all worked up over one thing or another. When will you ordinary people understand that these things are unimportant?"

Will followed his normal suit of immediately looking over to John for some sort of explanation. This method never failed him in the past, and he fully expected it to turn out in a similar manner once again. What he got in response wasn't exactly what he believed would be the case, but it certainly wasn't a bad thing.

"I don't think you can call what's going on with me unimportant," John said. "And since you likely haven't a clue what's happened with Will, you can't say that what he's going through is unimportant either."