A/N: What if it was all a game, a fantasy concocted by the girl who doesn't matter? What if it was all a Holodeck simulation? What would happen, then?

Computer, End Program

Peering out of a window in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Molly Hooper sees Sherlock Holmes' body hit the pavement, and winces. Though she know none of it is real, well, there is an awful lot of blood. Bodies are usually cleaned up before they get to her.

She feels her eyes begin to water and wonders, not for the first time, why she'd ever let it get this far. It was fun at first, playing at being Sherlock's tag-along, romping around the twenty-first century. But she's gotten too emotionally involved in the game, and it isn't fun anymore. Still, she will keep playing. She owes it to the poor souls she's created.

Once she's gotten Sherlock comfortably situated, she splashes water on her face to make her mascara run and goes to the waiting room to give John the news. His face is already tear-stained and puffy. He looks up hopefully as she approaches.

She shakes her head. Forcing pain into her voice and discovering it wasn't that difficult, she says "I'm so sorry, John. By the time they got him into the hospital... well... there was nothing they could do."

John buries his face in his hands. "It's all my fault," he whispers.

"No, it's not! Of course it's not! Molly sits down, and winds her arm around his shoulders. "How could it possibly be your fault?"

John turns to gaze despondently at her."I shouldn't have left him. If I'd only stayed with him, this would never have happened."

"You couldn't have known! You thought Mrs. Hudson was hurt!" Molly freezes, mentally hitting herself. She isn't supposed to know why John left.

Luckily, John is too grief-stricken to notice her lapse. He covers his face again and starts to cry in earnest.

Suddenly, it all becomes too much for Molly. "Computer, freeze program," she says quietly, so John won't hear. He stops trembling, stops moving at all. Molly stands and walks away from his eerily still form, running her fingers through her hair. She wonders again why she let it get this far. All she wanted to do was have a bit of fun! And now, John is sobbing in her arms.

She regrets giving the computer control of the plot line. "Place the characters of Sherlock Holmes in the early 21st century, " she'd said, "and crate a story similar to – but different from – the canon." And she's gotten her wish. Isn't this just what happens in the original story?

How was she to know it would hurt this much?

A male voice breaks through her reverie. "Commander Cartwright to Lieutenant Hooper," it says.

Molly pulls out the comm badge she wears on a chain around her neck when she's in the Holodeck. "Hooper here," she says, "Go ahead!"

"Molly, they want you on the bridge. Something about Lieutenant Grover's shipment of Romulan Ale?"

Molly curses under her breath. "Tell 'em I'll be up in a minute, Alex. I've got to change."

"Sure. I hope I didn't interrupt anything. I know you were on the Holodeck."

"No," Molly sighs, "I was just about to quit, anyway. Computer, exit, please!" She glances one more time at John's huddled body, and says, clearly "Computer, end program!" The mortuary's waiting room dissolves into black squares and yellow lines as she walks out the door, preparing herself to face the real world once again.

A/N: I hope you liked it! And whether you did or not, let me know!