Lo Stesso Tempo (Sherlolly)

Chapter Eighteen

Present

"We Wish You A Merry Christmas" lightened the mood about the flat as the small Christmas party began. Sherlock paced the flat, playing and wondering just how long it would take for them all to decide they were drunk enough to go to bed and leave him in peace. Few cabs bustled outside in the snow as most were home and getting cozy with people they loved and people they pretended to love. He sighed and glanced at the fingerboard of his violin.

Mrs. Hudson grinned up at him as he finished and brought both instrument and bow down unceremoniously. She clapped. "Lovely, Sherlock. That was lovely! I wish you could have worn the antlers." She giggled.

He smiled fondly. "Some things are best left to the imagination, Mrs. Hudson."

He turned as John's girlfriend brought a plate of snacks. "Oh, no thank you Sarah."

Her smile fell and she turned away as John hurried to salvage the situation. "No, no, no he's not good with names."

Oh not Sarah... "No, no, no, I can get this. No Sarah was the doctor and then there was the one... with the spots. And then the one with the nose and then who was after the boring teacher?"

The woman folded her arms. "Nobody."

"Jeanette!" He beamed. "Ah, process of elimination." John led her away and Molly joined the party, all smiles and gifts. "Oh, dear lord..." He muttered.

"Hello, everyone! Uh it said on the door just to come up?"

They all greeted her and once and Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Everybody saying hello to each other. How wonderful." They ignored him, all attention rather focused on Molly as she shrugged out of her coat and scarf. Sherlock turned away, rather disinterested in whatever ghastly outfit she'd worn today.

"Holy Mary..." John muttered. He tuned them out, effectively ignoring the feeling of Molly waiting for him to notice her. Something rather more interesting was going on actually.

"John. The count on your blog. Still says one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five."

John sighed. "Oh no, Christmas is cancelled."

"And you've got a photo of me wearing that hat?!" That bloody hat, he was tempted to burn the damn thing.

"People like the hat."

"No they don't. What people?" He tuned back in just in time to hear Molly make a comment about post-mortems. He sighed. "Don't make jokes, Molly." He turned after having appropriately upset the rest of them. Turning, he finally took stock of the situation...

Only to find it really wasn't that much of a situation.

He covered his staring well, using the guise of making a deduction to let the image of her clad in that black dress with her makeup and hair for once impeccably done to sear its way into his mind. "I see you've got a new boyfriend, Molly, and you're serious about him."

"Sorry, what?" She sipped her wine and shook her head, confused.

"And you're seeing him this very night and giving him a gift!" He raised his brows, wondering just which gift she was likely preparing to give the man upset him more.

John and Lestrade shared a look, both endeavoring to distract him.

"Oh, come on. Surely you've all seen the present at the top of the bag - perfectly wrapped with a bow. All the others are slapdash at best. It's for someone special, then." He picked up the small present, judging the weight and trying to discover what was inside. "The shade of red echoes her lipstick," a nice shade in fact but he didn't mention that bit, "either an unconscious association or one that she's deliberately trying to encourage. Either way, Miss Hooper has love on her mind. The fact that she's serious about him is clear from the fact she's giving him a gift at all."