It took a few days for Sherlock to convince the hospital to discharge him. But finally they did. And when they finally did, Molly got flowers, chocolates, and a card...for the hospital staff.

She had been thrilled to get Sherlock back to 221B Baker Street and had been shocked when Sherlock made no complaints about her offer to come take care of him at every opportunity when she didn't have to work. He still had some difficulty getting around, and was in enough pain to need occasional meds. So it made sense that someone should be there when possible. But she hardly expected him to agree to frequent monitoring.

He hadn't been overly affectionate or expressive of feelings, but Molly had noticed a change in him. He simply expected her presence now. He barely flinched when she offered to bring dinner over, or come do some laundry, or make him some tea in the morning before she went to work. These were exactly the kind of "relationship" things that Molly had always imagined being impossible in the case of Sherlock. She had then started offering to do things and take liberties that she normally wouldn't dare to. Simply to test the limits!

"Sherlock, what if I come over after work and bring a DVD I've been wanting to watch? It's a romantic comedy."

"That'll be fine."

"Sherlock, it's looking a bit dusty in here. Why don't I vacuum next time I'm here?"

"If you'd like."

"Sherlock, can I come over and bring some file folders to organize your papers?"

"Just don't lose anything."

That last one really alerted her. She'd never known Sherlock to let anyone mess with his work related things. Maybe John sometimes, but only for the purpose of working on a case. Certainly never for the sake of neatening up!

Not long after, she asked John to come meet her for lunch at the hospital. Molly fiddled with the corner of her lab coat as John stared at her perplexed.

"So, let me get this straight..you're worried because Sherlock is letting you do whatever you want? I admit it is miraculous but, Molly, I don't think I'd be worried."

She shook her head though. "John, the last thing I want is for him to feel like he has to change for me. What if he ends up resenting me?! Maybe he wont mind for some months, or even a year or two! But eventually he'll look at me and say 'why did I let you change my life?'"

"Molly I think he's just in- I mean I think he- Look, it's fine I think. Maybe you need to talk to him about seem to have him eating out of your hand right now, so why don't you just make him tell you why he's being so horribly...accommodating."

Molly sighed. "You're right. I just wondered if he'd said anything to you. I'm just not sure why he's so...nice. I guess this is the kind of thing you have to worry about when you're Sherlock Holmes girlfriend."

Molly sent Sherlock a message and let him know she'd be bringing some food over tonight and hoped to have a quiet night in. He of course said that was fine.

She sat there on the couch with him later after they'd eaten and she watched some television while keeping an eye on Sherlock next to her who was reading John's latest blog on his phone. She reached over and laced her fingers into his, and he responded by locking his as well and squeezing her hand. But she then immediately pulled her hand away and turned to face him while shutting the TV off.

"Ok, what's going on Sherlock?" she demanded.

He narrowed his gaze and looked around the room confusedly, then back to her. "Sorry, what?"

"You're acting like a...normal boyfriend! You let me clean, you let me feed you, you watch movies you don't like with me, and now you're just sitting with me and holding my hand?! Have I done something? Did I make some sort of demands I'm unaware of?...Or are you taking more pain meds than you're allowed, Sherlock Holmes?!" She pointed an accusing finger at him at the last question.

Sherlock raised his eyebrows in shock and set his phone down. He sat back and studied Molly for a moment. "You are worried because I'm acting too normal?"

"Well...yes. I'm afraid if you change too much for me, you'll end up hating me one day." She looked a little embarrassed.

Sherlock sat up again and moved in closer to Molly. "First of all Molly, there's no possibility in all the world that I'd end up hating you. Second, I am out of work right now if you'll recall. And I'm home "recovering" doing very little. It's extremely boring! And you...aren't."

She stared back at him in awe. "Im...I'm not?"

"No. You're incredibly interesting Molly. You're beautiful, and smart, and fascinating, and funny, and adorable. And lots of other words that I'm not used to using in description of another human being. And the truth is that I haven't cared one bit what you were doing here, so long as you were here. I just wanted you here with me. The thought of dying and leaving you when I was shot was..." He looked down at his hands pressed together in his lap.

Molly watched him and felt like her heart was about to absolutely explode in her chest. He just wanted her around. He needed her around. He needed her. Not to give him something, not to help him with some sort of project or errand, just to be with him. And this was different than him enjoying the occasional kiss at Bart's, or even here at 221B. He just wanted her presence. She wanted to kiss him right then, but something made her hold back. She didn't want to stop him from talking right now. She thought...hoped...he had something more to say.

"Molly, I won't be home recovering forever. I will go back to running around the city, and texting till 3am, and doing experiments on my kitchen table. But even when I do...I don't want everything to go back exactly to the way things were."

"You don't?" she said, trying to control her voice.

"No. I'd like you to keep coming over, and doing ridiculous things to take care of me, and sitting here, and holding my hand for no reason. I'm not sure I can live without those things. Now that I know what it's like. I'm used to it...and it makes me happy. You make me happy Molly." He reached over slowly and wrapped his hand around hers. She felt her heart pounding in her throat.

"You make me happy too," she said in a quiet voice, but still wanting him to go on.

"You asked me years ago what I needed, and I said I needed you. But I didn't realize that was quite literally true. I actually need you now. And I'm pretty sure I'm never going to stop needing you. So, I'd like to keep you Molly Hooper, if I could do that...because..." And he examined her hand in his, seeming a little nervous.

"Yes?" she whispered, trying to encourage the words to come out.

He connected his eyes to hers again, and they smiled at her even though his face was serious. "Because I love you, Molly. I'm in love with you."

The flood of emotions she had been holding back broke forth. She took her free hand and covered her eyes as the tears began falling. And her whole body shook in ridiculous sobs that she tried to control. She had often fantasized about Sherlock Holmes proclaiming his love for her, but she had never included ugly crying in those scenarios. She wished she could stop, but it was a release that was the very end of a very very long wait. And she hadn't realized how emotionally exhausted she had been till the weight was finally lifted. She attempted to remove her hand from her eyes, but her eyes were so clouded with tears that Sherlock was a blur sitting next to her. This now made her add laughter into the perfect storm of emotions.

Sherlock cleared his throat a little and looked from her, back to her hand in his lap. He was a little taken aback at the level of reaction his declaration of love had caused. He was only glad that he had ended up doing this here in the comfort of his flat instead of a nice restaurant like John had suggested.

"I haven't had much experience with this," he began cautiously "but is this the typical reaction to an expression of love?"

Molly took her arm and wrapped it around his neck placing her forehead onto his shoulder. She sighed against his shirt and felt her body calm a little. She sat back up and threaded her fingers into his hair as she spoke. "It is when you're the one expressing it, Sherlock. It is when it's something I've wanted to hear for five years, but never truly believed I would. I've loved you for years, Sherlock. Sometimes I loved you so much it hurt!"

Her expression seemed to touch him. He frowned a little and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her face forward to press a kiss to her lips. And she was almost certain she felt his lips shaking against hers. Then he rested his forehead against hers.

"Forgive me," he whispered. "All those years, I hurt you so much. And can't ever take that back."

"I wouldn't change a thing Sherlock. This moment means more to me now than it would have so many years ago. Because with each day I saw you I loved you more. It's the dream of this moment that kept me hanging on, even when there was no chance. I still held out hope. Foolishly, by all accounts, but I did all the same. And now I feel like it was all worth it...because you love me. And that's all I ever wanted."

"You're an extremely patient woman, Molly Hooper. I will never understand how you didn't got bored waiting around for me come to my senses."

She smiled. "Because there's nothing boring about you, Sherlock Holmes. If you weren't pretending to flirt with me, or asking me for body parts to experiment on, or insulting me with your deductions of my appearance and that of my idiot (and sometimes psychopathic) boyfriends, you were asking me to fake your untimely suicide...Time flies when you're having fun right?" she said in her signature bright cheery voice.

He shook his head while drawing in a deep breath. "God, I love you," he breathed out, and loved how the words made her smile and her cheeks flush all over again.

"I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing you say that...Love you too." She touched a kiss just to the corner of his lips.

He took another deep breath and ran his hands over his face before smiling back at her.

"How is it that a psychopathic criminal mastermind is no match for me, but you can render me completely useless with one little kiss?"

"Because it's different...I'm not up here so much, Sherlock." She touched his head. "I'm in here." She laid her hand on the smooth fabric of his white shirt on top of his heart, feeling it beating hard.

He could only nod in response. Of course the actual scientific truth that he fully realized, was that human emotions existed only in the mind. Not in the actual organ named the heart. He knew that his brain was what housed his love for Molly, just like all the other facts and events and information he had cataloged away safely. But somehow in that moment this was the best, most logical, and beautiful deduction he could think of...

He may be the ruler in the palace of his mind...but Molly Hooper was unquestionably now, the ruler of his heart.

The End