BUFFERING AT TERMINAL C

Synopsis: Sherlock is used to dodging adoring fans left and right, however after coming back from a case in another country with Molly Hooper he is floored to find out that his pathologist has found a following of her own.

This one is dedicated to sinnerwoman86 on tumblr, for all her awesome airport stories. Considering I spent a whole day in one I finally revisited this little idea of mines. It is tiny, but I do have plans to write alt versions with other pairings. The other one I mentioned was KASTLE so hey, that one will get up at some point.

For now here's this one.

Hope you like it.

much love,

day

Molly tried not to laugh at the sudden feel of Sherlock's hand circling around her wrist upon exiting the tunnel that led out into the open airport. The amount of people that this change brought always made the detective feel overloaded. It was understandable but she found his need to have contact with her entirely too humorous for her rather jet-lagged state.

In turn she kept moving forward as her way of keeping up this little charade of normalcy. She really wanted a coffee before they got into any car to head back to their homes but before she could even think of doing such a thing she was stopped by a group of four - three young men and young woman who couldn't be more than twenty one. She had nearly expected them to attack her counterpart but she found a familiar cover of an issue of one of the lesser known medical journals being put into her line of sight.

"You're Doctor Molly Hooper, aren't you?" Started the woman who had a set of specs on her face, they were brighter than the redness of her hair.

Molly blinked, caught off guard but smiling kindly at the group. "Uh, yeah. You're in uni?" She deduced whilst feeling the slight pad of Sherlock's fingers slipping down wrist. He was trying to calm her and check her pulse at the same time. She had noticed that he did it when he was trying to work through something himself, too.

Sherlock shouldn't have been too surprised to find that Molly had admirers in the university setting. He had poured over her many articles for the various journals she had submitted to over the decade that they had known each other. He just never imagined that he'd see that in a place so chaotic as an airport.

The tabloids had a knack of catching wind of famous persons being spotted places. He had all but ignored any written about himself. He didn't understand why anyone cared about where he was. He had a job to do and the press usually got in the way.

This was harmless. This was kinder. It was making a tug at his cupid's bow as he listened to Molly shyly talk to each of the kids individual as if this was the most important thing she was going to do today. They were certainly inquisitive enough to have found this particular article in addition to finding a way to track her down weeks after it's publication.

Sherlock's small bubble of pride was sliced through when he felt a rather intrusive gaze from somewhere beyond. He carefully removed his hand from Molly's person to have a better look around. A man in a suit, toting an umbrella looking rather amused was spotted rather quickly.

Instead of pulling Molly away from her interaction he instead began to walk towards his brother. "Well aren't we impatient, brother." Sherlock mumbled in greeting as he turned so that he would still be able to face Molly while he spoke to his eldest brother.

"I didn't rush her. Your itinerary did say you would land fifteen minutes ago however. Punctuality still isn't your strongest suit, brother mine."

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "How would have pegged that Molly had fans?"

"Her latest work has been linked on a major science related website that you also happen to subscribe to. It isn't that far fetched."

Sherlock said nothing for a beat. "I didn't do that."

"Oh of course not. We can blame that one on our dearest sister. She found it fascinated. It's all she could talk about last week while you two were gone solving that case in Athens."

"You let her use the internet?" He arched a brow, curiously.

"No. We get them printed for her. She merely mentioned that it should be in a bigger platform. Anthea did the rest."

"Anthea did what?" Molly's voice made both Holmes' brothers flinch as they had completely missed the small pathologist biding the group of university students farewell and making her way over to them.

"Hello once again Miss Hooper." Mycroft gave her a wry smile at her unexpectedness.

"Mycroft." She paused. "What were you talking about?"

"Brother apparently got your latest medical article onto one of the biggest websites in the field. He's enamored by it."

Mycroft shot his brother a scathing look but did nod. "I suppose he is partially correct." He sounded uncomfortable but that was not rare for Molly to see.

"I appreciate that. I know it was Eurus however." Molly mumbled before walking away.

"How could you know?" Sherlock took off after her. Mycroft followed at a leisure pace.

"She sends me letters." Was all she said before she order a tall coffee.

Mycroft appeared alarmed when his brother wheeled on him. "I didn't know."

"She's sweeter than I imagined. After the whole fiasco last year. Tell her thanks next time you go visit." She mumbled after she took a long sip of her coffee.

"You are a rare specimen, Molly Hooper." Sherlock chuckled before taking her arm. They really needed to get going now.

"I do try to be different. I meant it however. Her last letter was quite enlightening." She paused as she took another pull from her cup. "No, you can't read them."

She ignored his pout.

Mycroft laughed. The girl was growing on him exponentially.