#In the book Irene only appeared once. Sherlock did keep a picture of her but no romance ever occured between them as far as I know

[askaceattorney]

Dear J'Luc K. Star,

My lo-

Ms. Adler is not my love interest? She is a married opera singer that cheated on her husband. What are you blabbering about?

For god sakes, I've only met her once! I found her beautiful and respect her prowess, but we never saw each other since. She got away with her crime and that was all she wrote.

Quite embarrassing, really. Outwitted by an opera adultress. Dear Mikotoba never lets me hear the end of it.

- Herlock Sholmes

[mousedetective]

Children Of Light, Children Of Dark (12/?)

And here comes a dark horse in all of this…

Children Of Light, Children Of Dark - There are a series of murders going on that have a pattern, and Sherlock sees glimpses of it but can’t fathom it completely. But Molly realizes it’s reminiscent of an unsolved case her mentor had told her about, where the murders were based on a series of fantasy novels that Molly herself adores. Sherlock asks her to use her knowledge as a pathologist and a fan of the series to help him figure out both sets of murders, and in the process Molly gets quite a bit more than she bargained for.

Read Chapter 1 @ AO3 | Read Chapter 12 @ AO3 | Buy Me A Coffee? | Send Me A Prompt

She had another hard night sleeping and was not surprised to wake up in an empty bed with the smell of coffee permeating the air. She also was not surprised to hear muted conversation from the sitting room once she belted on her dressing gown and left the bedroom.

What did surprise her was to find that one of the voices belonged to Irene Adler.

“Don’t tell me you aren’t involved in this,” she was saying, not in an accusatory tone but rather a smug one. “I have my sources.”

“How many did you have tied up and gagged while you went through their phones?” Sherlock said in response, from what sounded like the kitchen.

“I don’t get my secrets that way anymore,” she said. “Not that I heard you compla–”

“Molly!” Sherlock said sharply when he turned with two cups of coffee. Irene stopped talking from her seat at the kitchen table, a rather smug smile on her face. She looked impeccable, as she usually had in pictures in the tabloids, with her hair pulled into a sleek knot at the nape of her neck and her makeup looking perfect. Molly took one look at her kitten pyjamas and imagined her hair looked a fright and began wishing she could crawl right back into bed and stay there until Irene was far, far away.

“Is one of those for me?” Molly asked.

Sherlock nodded. “I’ve been trying to get Irene to leave, so neither of these are hers.”

“Such a bad host,” Irene said, shaking her head. She stood up. “I won’t interrupt your morning any more than I have. But I know you’re involved, Sherlock. I can’t reach your brother but since I’m being dragged into this, make sure he keeps me safe.” She nodded to Molly. “Enjoy your coffee, Dr. Hooper.”

“Thank you,” she murmured as Sherlock came over with a cup for her, which she could tell had been made to her taste. She lifted it up and took a sip. When the door closed behind Irene she turned to Sherlock. “You and her…?”

He flushed, an unusual reaction from him. Not much embarrassed Sherlock, but apparently having to talk about this did. “Once, after I rescued her. Though I suppose one is being…unfair.”

She nodded, pursing her lips slightly. “Okay then.”

“I didn’t know how to bring it up,” he said. “It’s not exactly something I tend to think about on a regular basis. Most of the time I…forget it happened.”

She gave him a confused look. “But she’s a dominatrix,” she said.

“And it wasn’t exactly spectacular, at least to me,” he said. “Not like it is with you.”

Despite everything, she felt an extreme sense of pride at that statement. He thought a shag with her was better than a shag with Irene Adler. She might actually brag about this at some point. “I won’t find any other exes of any sort coming out of the woodwork before we get married, will I?” she asked.

“No, but unfortunately, this particular ex-paramour may have to stay close.” He nodded to an envelope Molly had looked over briefly when she arrived on the scene. It was identical to the one their totems had arrived in. “A snake with a crown.”

“Salmissra,” Molly said. “But why is she involved?”

“She wouldn’t say. She was more concerned about her safety, which I don’t blame her for, but I didn’t get anything useful out of our conversation before you came out.”

“Why did she want your brother to protect her?” she asked.

“She’s working for him in some capacity,” Sherlock said. “Perhaps it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, I don’t know, but she gathers information for Her Majesty now as opposed to her own benefit. I suppose it pays handsomely enough. She would demand that from my brother if she could.”

“Ah,” Molly said, having more of her coffee. “Salmissra played both sides in the first novels. She was neutral, in a way, but she had her fangs in things, so to speak. Maybe that’s a sign as to her intentions now?”

“Perhaps,” Sherlock conceded. “Though I think it’s information she has. Something she had learned in the past is going to come into play. Salmissra was the type to collect information, wasn’t she?”

“Not quite to the extent that Porenn did, but yes, she did,” Molly said with a nod. “Salmissra knew, at least when she was human, that there would be another girl who looked exactly like her ready to replace her when she stopped appearing like the original Salmissra. She used Sadi and…” She thought for a moment. “Issus, in the second series, to get information for her to use, though Issus was more interested in killing people, which as he was an assassin makes sense.”

Sherlock looked impressed. “Your knowledge of the series is rather impressive.”

“Well, I’ve only read the books nearly a hundred times each,” she said. “My father introduced me to the series when I was young, and when Fraser realized I knew it, we used to talk about the case. Sometimes I would read the books in the first series to see if I could glean anything to help come up with a new angle of thought.”

“Well, perhaps you’ll put that towards this case,” Sherlock said. Molly nodded and had some more of her coffee. If this morning was any indication of how her day was going to go, she would need more than just this one cup.