Hey guys... remember me? :/

I'm so sorry it's been so long! Life has just been a bit bonkers at the moment and to be honest, I've had some writers block (or lack of motivation) and the bonkers life thing hasn't really helped... However, I am back now! I can't promise that the updates will be as quick as they used to be but I will definitely try not to wait this long again. I really can't apologise enough.

However, here is the next chapter, I hope you like it! It's shorter but full of stuff happening!

(Also, sorry about the weird jumps in the past chapters between character POV. I have wrote in a '*' to seperate sections and the document manager seems to delete them... I'll watch out for this more) ENJOY! :D

"Moran?" John's voice seemed to bounce off the walls and filled the tension between all of the people standing in the room. Norman, or Nathanial's presence, had certainly changed the atmosphere and everyone, including Irene, seemed on edge. "Moran, as in -?"

"Lord Moran's brother." Mary finished, her eyes not leaving Nathanial's. She couldn't believe that he was here, that she had been so blind as to miss him entirely the whole time they had been around him.

"Lord Moran? The man that tried to blow up Parliament?" Lestrade asked, earning a sneer from the man in question's brother.

"He would never have pulled it off. Even without you and you're detective friend chasing after him." Nathanial replied, now directing his gaze at John and ignoring Lestrade completely. "My brother is good with words and charming people. He should have left the practical stuff to me. I'm better at it."

"Better at killing people you mean?" John asked, his eyebrows raised and Nathanial turned his head to look him straight in the face, his eyes cold.

"Why don't you ask you're wife? She knows." He replied and John couldn't help but let his eyes flicker over to his wife, the feeling of curiosity fighting with his decision to stay oblivious to her past.

"Why now? Why find me now Nathanial?" Mary asked, ignoring his last comment and avoiding John's gaze.

"I was head-hunted by someone, someone who had connections to you. It was too good an opportunity to miss."

"Moriarty. He hired you." Mary continued and Nathanial nodded, taking another step towards her and making John feel on edge.

"Be grateful for that because if it weren't for him, I'd shoot you dead right now." He hissed menacingly, causing John to move from his spot and walk towards him.

"Alright, that's enough now." He said, his voice lined with anger but Mary held out a hand and stopped him.

"John." She warned and he looked at her for a moment before sighing and taking a step away from them. "So why does Moriarty not want me dead? Does he care all of a sudden?"

"He wants Sherlock to choose who is going to die." Everyone's head turned back to where Molly was standing as they heard her answer Mary's question, her arms hanging by her side and touching at her stripy cardigan. "That's Moriarty's next plan. Sherlock has to choose."

"Well, that's a bit stupid for Moriarty isn't it?" John replied, his eyes back on Nathanial and his face far more serious than his tone of voice. "Sherlock wouldn't choose out of his friends."

"Really?" Irene asked from across the room, her eyebrow raised to show her skepticism. "You think Sherlock wouldn't choose? Why is that John? What makes you believe that Sherlock is such a good man? And while you're at it, what makes you think he even thinks of you all as friends?"

"All right, shut it." Lestrade retorted, obviously annoyed and also nervous at the situation he found himself in. "He won't choose, of course he won't. Who in their right mind would?"

"Sherlock would." Molly piped, her voice quiet after the loud tones of the previous speakers in the conversation. "You're telling me that Sherlock wouldn't treat this like any other case?" She looked carefully around the room, her eyes focusing on each person as she spoke. "He'll analyse each option carefully and probably within a matter of seconds conclude who would be the most suitable person to die."

"No Molly. He's not that inhuman." John argued, not wanting to believe Molly's words but the fight in his voice seemed a little forced.

"Isn't he?" Mary whispered, her eyes catching John's briefly before the look he gave her made her drop them to the floor.

"He won't choose." He said, adamant.

"Of course he will." Molly replied. "And I know who he'll choose." She paused and glanced around the room again before sighing. "He'll choose me."

As the words left her mouth, John, Mary and Greg started to protest as Irene stepped backwards away from them and leant on the wall. Molly shook her hands at them to stop them from talking.

"I'm just thinking how Sherlock thinks." She interrupted before looking at them one by one. "Mary, you're pregnant and you mean a lot to John so he won't choose you. John, you're Sherlock's best friend, he needs you. Greg, you're his link to the police, no-one else will work with him so without you cooperation is limited and Irene, I'm sure, knows people. People that can help Sherlock in the future. And then there's me."

"Yes, you, who has helped him on countless occasions." Mary responded.

"You were the person he trusted to tell his plan to when he faked his death. He didn't even tell me Molly." John added, his voice softer than before. "Without you, he wouldn't have been able to solve half of the cases he has done."

"Of course he would. He would have just had to sweet talk his way past another worker to get into the lab. He's good at charming people when he needs to." Molly replied, her voice quiet as she looked at her feet, the lack of confidence that she usually seemed to portray even more prominent. "All I am to Sherlock is access to a lab."

Silence met her words as no-one seemed to know how to reply. John's brow furrowed and he shook his head as if trying to disagree with her wordlessly.

"He won't choose." He said again, this time quietly, but the atmosphere in the room seemed to show that no-one believed him.

"Well, either way. Someone is going to die." Nathanial said after a moment, his voice an unwelcome sound in the empty room. "And if he doesn't choose, I will." He finished, looking at Mary who turned to face him.

"You'd shoot a pregnant woman?" She challenged and Nathanial turned to face her also.

"After what you did? I wouldn't hesitate."

"Well then, you'll have to go through me." John said forcefully, putting himself in between them, his face full of hatred as he looked at the man threatening his wife.

"Not a problem." Nathanial replied, a faint sound of a mobile ringing in the background not distracting the two men from their glares to each other.

"I would kill you, you know. Don't think I wouldn't." John hissed but Moran merely laughed.

"You wouldn't be alive long enough to try."

"When you two have done with the childish threats." Irene's voice called from where she was standing. "There's a phone call that I think we all want to hear." She continued, her hand holding a phone up so that everyone could see. As everyone's attention turned to her, she touched the screen of the phone with her finger and a voice came from it, filling the space of the room.

"You know, I could probably leave you all to it in there and you'd probably end up just killing each other." Moriarty's tones made everyone stop, their breathing quieter as they waited for what he was going to say. "But that's not as fun as my plan, which I have been informed by the lovely Ms Adler that you have all figured out." Silence met his words for a moment until he spoke again. "I'll take that as a yes then. At least it'll save me explaining. Well then Sherlock, you know what to do so off you go." Silence met his words again as everyone waited with baited breath for Sherlock's reply.

"You want me to choose who will die?" They heard Sherlock's voice say over the phone after a moment.

"Yes, that is the point." Moriarty replied.

"And how do I know that it won't matter who I choose? How do I know that you won't just kill anyone or even everyone, no matter who I say?" Sherlock's voice was harsh and cold and John could feel his stomach drop to the floor. It was the tone that he used when he needed to be professional. When he needed to think only with logic. When he needed to not care.

"Because Sherlock, then the game would be over." Moriarty responded. "Believe me, I am going to destroy everyone you care about one by one but it won't happen right away. I'm going to give you the chance to stop me." Everyone in the room looked at each other as they heard his words, nerves beginning to grow as they thought about his plan. "This will be our new game and it will be fun! But of course, for it to work, I need your cooperation so..." Moriarty's voice slid upwards in pitch at the last word and he paused briefly before finishing. "Time to choose."

John held his breath during the silence whilst also holding onto the belief that his friend wasn't going to betray them, that he couldn't possibly choose who would die out of the people that cared for him most. But there was the small voice in the back of his head reminding him of Sherlock's words in the past.

'Heroes don't exist, and if they did I wouldn't be one of them.'

As John let his thoughts run away, he didn't register that Irene had begun to move slowly towards Molly, her hand behind her back until she reached out towards her for a brief second.

"Tick tock. We haven't got all day." Moriarty said, his voice piercing through John's ears from the phone speakers.

"Oh do shut up." Sherlock snapped before an audible sigh could be heard from him over the phone. "And Moran will choose Mary if I don't choose someone?"

"After the naughty thing she did, I would say that's a definite. Oh Mary, you are a naughty girl. That's something you might want to ask you're wife about John. Just a bit of advice there." Moriarty replied and John resisted the urge to meet his wife's gaze. He couldn't let himself worry about Mary's past at that moment. "And you're not going to let a pregnant woman die are you Sherlock? All because you couldn't make up you're mind?" Moriarty continued and another silence filled the room just as Irene stepped away from Molly once more, her hand now in front of her, empty.

"Then I have to choose." Sherlock said, his voice cold and clinical and John put his hand over his face in disappointment and began to shake his head.

"No, no, no. Don't be stupid Sherlock!" He yelled to the phone, angry at losing a bit of faith that he had regained for his friend.

"I'm not being stupid John. I'm saving your wife." Sherlock replied shortly and John couldn't find the words in him to reply. Sherlock was trying to protect his best friend by saving the woman John loved. How could he scold him for that, even if this wasn't the way John would like?

"There is only one logical choice." Sherlock continued just as Molly took a couple of steps away from everyone in the room.

"Don't do it Sherlock. I can't let you go back to being the heartless, cold man you used to be. You've come too far for that." She said, her voice trembling.

"Molly?" Sherlock asked over the phone, his voice less harsh and laced with a hint of surprise.

"I can't let you make this decision. I care about you too much and I know what it would do to you." She replied, tears now spilling over her eyes and as John looked closer at her, he could see that her body was shaking too.

"Molly..." Sherlock tried again.

"So I'm going to make it for you."

"Molly no." Sherlock ordered, the urgency in his voice sinking into John and making him realise what Molly was about to do. It was only then that he noticed what she was holding in her hand.

"Goodbye Sherlock." Molly whispered before putting the gun that she now possessed in her mouth. Screams filled the room but before anyone could even try to stop her, she pulled the trigger and slumped to the floor, crimson liquid spilling from under her hair as her eyes fluttered shut.

So...? Molly! Molly, Molly, Molly! Oh, selfless Molly! Please tell me what you think! I would love to know that you guys are still interested in this story! Sorry for the break again but I promise I will finish this! :)