CAUTION: Contains spoilers for S3E1.

A/N: Just a short drabble of what I think Molly might be thinking/feeling after "The Empty Hearse." Hope you like :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Dedication: for lais89 after all the wonderful encouragement to still keep writing Sherlolly x

Sixes & Sevens

…
Fair moon, to thee I sing,
Bright regent of the heavens,
Say, why is everything
Either at sixes or at sevens?
Fair moon, to thee I sing,
Bright regent of the heavens
-'Fair Moon, To Thee I Sing,' HMS Pinafore (Gilbert & Sullivan)
…

"You really thought he was the one, didn't you? The love of your life."

"Because the one person he thought didn't matter at all to me, was the one person that mattered the most."

"I hope you'll be very happy, Molly Hooper. You deserve it."

"You made it all possible. But you can't do this again, can you?"

"I've moved on."

Snippets of conversations from the last couple of days flittered through Molly's mind as she lay in bed, staring into the darkness and absently fiddling with her engagement ring. After drinks at 221B she'd told Tom that she needed a bit of space to process everything and he'd generously given her the time she needed.

Just like that, without any suspicion of her inner turmoil.

But that was just how they were: everything with Tom was easy and sweet. When he had proposed, only a few weeks before, it had just seemed to make sense.

Then Sherlock had returned and suddenly nothing made sense any more.

She knew that he'd seen the ring the moment she took her gloves off, but the look on his face when he finally brought it up had broken her heart.

She'd thought that she was over him, that when he returned it wouldn't matter because she would just be his pathologist. Nothing more.

She wasn't expecting him to thank her, to kiss her and to tell her that she mattered (most, he'd actually said most) and that he wanted her to be happy.

And he had meant it.

No jokes, no belittling of his (or her) feelings, just a sincere expression of his gratitude and a hint of something more.

And it was the hint, more than anything, which had affected her.

A small part of her screamed that he had no right to come back into her life and tell her those things. Not now, maybe not ever.

But another part, the bigger part, wondered what she was going to do with that information.

She was positive that he hadn't meant to give so much away; that he was wasn't trying to influence her. In fact, he seemed to believe that all of his influence over her had gone.

But it wasn't, how could it be?

He was the great consulting detective, her great consulting detective, how could he not see that a part of her would always belong to him?

Molly's eyes filled with tears as she remembered that bittersweet moment when he'd kissed her cheek and wished her well.

He wanted her to be happy, but how could he think that she would ever be happy knowing that he wasn't?

How could she be happy without him?

Molly bit her lip at the treacherous thought and rolled onto her side, wondering if the timing of his return was the universe trying to tell her something.

She loved Tom, she really did and he loved her. And yet…she loved Sherlock more and it was just possible that he might love her too.

She bit back a sob; what was she going to do now?

...

A/N: I have left it sort of open at the end as I might continue this as the series progresses :)