#Mollovan

[mottlemoth]

Will you post your Molly/Sally story to AO3 please? It is very good and there is very little of this pair on AO3. Thank you very much.

As you wish.

Read ‘Hero’ on AO3.

[mollyhooopers]

doomsteady replied to your photoset: “could you just whisper what you said one more...

What is this pairing called? *thinks* Dooper? Solly? Mollovan?

I think Hoopervan is the agreed upon smush name at least that’s what I’ve been tagging it as

[azisaibek]

[No read more because phone, mental institute au, Sally/Molly ] The only person on this whole planet Sally can say she hates is Jim Moriarty. And she can't protect Molly from him. Like she wants to, wants to wrap Molly in cotton wool and save her from the terrible world they live in, one of doctors and pills. The one they didn't choose. And she can't protect Molly. She can't protect her because Jim Moriarty isn't real. He's her imaginations creation. Not real. And Sally hates him. Hates him for making Molly the way she is, but at the same time she can't help but feel grateful because if he didn't then Molly wouldn't be here with her. Molly Molly Molly It's the worst part of her day to let Molly think he's real, let her live in her own fantasy where she can be safe and happy, away from the frightening world, the terrible world full of doctors and pills. It makes her sad. Telling Molly the truth, seeing the hurt in her eyes, it wasn't worth it. Telling her lies was better. It made her smile. She likes it when Molly smiled. Molly Molly Molly Jim is bad. And Sally's knees ache again.

[mottlemoth]

‘Hero’

Mollovan (Sally Donovan/Molly Hooper) short story. Part I is here.

Tags: Peril and fluff.

Excuses: This GIF; @avidreader1979 and @green-violin-bow; my continuing need for restorative fluff after yesterday’s toxic angst-binge.

Part II

When Sally awoke, there was a hand holding hers.

At first, it was her only sensation; so much so that, for a while, she was that gentle touch and nothing more. She was a quiet melding of fingers. It was all she needed to be. 

After what felt like millennia, she reached an awareness that the fingers were stroking her palm - and through that quiet rhythm, she rediscovered her own breath and her pulse. She began to inhabit her body once more, moving through it slowly as each part came back to her - her breathing lungs, her beating hard - her head, propped against thick pillows - her ears, listening to the steady beep of a machine nearby. She coughed a little, rediscovering her throat. It felt raw and painful and ruined.

The fingers tightened around her own.

"Oh - ...!" gasped a voice.

Sally's heart thumped hard.

"Are you awake?"

With each blink, more of Sally's vision came back into being - fogged shapes, blurred shadows, hospital lights overhead. Slowly - painfully slowly - the fog formed itself into a person: a gentle face looking down at her, round-eyed and fearful - a mock-layer blue top and a mussy blonde ponytail.

"Can you see me?" Molly Hooper asked, tentatively.

Sally tried a smile. It hurt; everything hurt. 

"I can," she said. The sound ripped itself like velcro from the lining of her throat. She winced, groaning - which only hurt more. "Oh - God - ..."

"Don't," Molly begged. "Don't - don't try to talk. You... took a lot of smoke damage. I mean... the chemicals you inhaled, when you - ..." She squeezed Sally's hand, shaking a little. "Well, your throat will be sore - so - so don't speak. It's okay."

Sally swallowed, staring into her face. But I want to speak.

Molly's eyes shone as she looked down from Sally's bedside. She didn't seem to know whether to smile or cry.

"They said you came back to find me, after I... um, got hit by the door. It just slammed so fast and the alarm made me jump. I... don't remember much after that. Not until I woke up. And they told me what you did, and I... I wanted to be here when you came round."

She looked down at their fingers, suddenly embarrassed to find they were joined atop the sheets.

She let Sally's hand go, gently - curling her hand awkwardly back into her lap. Sally’s chest ached with the loss.

A tiny silence passed.

"You're Greg Lestrade's sergeant," Molly then said, with a faint smile.

Sally smiled, too. It was good just to listen to her - just to look at her. It had been that way for months now. She always loved coming to the labs, just to catch a glimpse of the awkward specialist registrar in her cardigans, who looked like she would sleep in your shirts. She looked like she was soft - like her hair would smell good.

"I've seen you come into the lab before," Molly went on, and Sally's heart jumped a little. "John told me your name's Sally..." Molly blushed, looking down at her knees. "So - thank you for coming back for me, Sally. The fire team don't think they would have found me in time. You saved my life. Um, I got you a card - it's... in with the others, somewhere..."

A sizeable forest of cards had already grown across the the bedside cabinet.

"And Greg's flight gets back from Tenerife in - ..." Molly checked her phone. "... three hours, so... so you'll have lots of people to fuss over you. You deserve it. You're - really brave. I can't believe you did that for me. I - can't believe anyone did that for me."

Sally opened her mouth to speak, her chest twinging; Molly stopped her with a little grin.

"It's okay," she said. "You - don't have to - ... I know it's embarrassing. Um, so - I owe you a drink - a big one - when you're feeling better."

She nervously glanced across at the clock on the wall. It was coming up to eight AM. Sally didn't even know what day it was, or how long she'd been unconscious. 

She just knew it was almost eight AM on one of the best days of her life.

"I have to get off in a minute - I've got my check-up. I had my mask on when the fire started, so I didn't get nearly as much as you, but - … well, better safe than sorry…" She hesitated, with a little laugh that Sally wished she could put in a locket and keep forever. "I guess you don't go in for that, though. Rushing into burning buildings. You're - … God, you're so brave. You carried me all that way. And you don't even know me."

Let me, Sally thought. Let me know the hell out of you.

Molly nervously picked up her bag. She stood from her chair, fiddling a little with the tiny green alien charm that dangled from the strap.

"So... you get lots of rest," she said. "And thank you - and - I'll come visit again, I promise. So I can thank you properly. Greg’s said he'll come straight to see you when his flight lands."

To kill me, Sally thought. Funnily enough, she now felt like she'd die happy.

"Bye..." Molly said to her, tentatively, as she drew away from the bed. "Thank you for... being my hero."

Sally swallowed.

"Bye," she croaked, tearing her throat open anew.

Molly grinned, paused in the door to wave, then quietly left. Her sneakers squeaked along the corridor after her. She was gone.

Sally let her head fall back into the pillows with a flump. She closed her eyes, drawing purified hospital air slowly into the tattered wreckage of her lungs. She let it clean her. She let it start to settle her racing pulse. 

I’ll come visit again, I promise. So I can thank you properly.

Of all the bad decisions she'd ever made, Sally thought... this one might just turn out to have been the best.

[mottlemoth]

Hero #10 #11 Please!

Someone has actually read Hero??? :D

10. Why did you choose this particular pairing for this story?

Ooh. That’s a good one.

I’d wanted to try some Mollovan (Molly/Sally) for a while. I don’t know why - I just liked the idea of putting them in the same place and seeing what happened. And I kinda wanted to try a Slightly Bad-Ass Sally. 

She’s really not explored much in the show. So far she’s just been set up as a difficulty for Sherlock, without much explanation, and that’s a shame. (That bit in Episode One where she tells Greg, “He’s just a lunatic, and he’ll always let you down…” - I remember watching that and thinking, ooh, I can’t wait until they reveal how he let Sally down! Still happily waiting.)

And I feel bad for Molly, too. She turns up when she’s useful, then gets shuffled off again. Her boyfriends are presented as hilarious failures. We’re invited to laugh at that. I wanted to run the idea that someone unexpected could sweep in, and sweep her off her feet, like she maybe deserves. (John and Sherlock would clearly have left her to burn. Seriously.)

11. What do you like best about this fic?

I kinda like the idea of where it might go! I purposely left it as just a little pre-story… just a spark. It’s not often I do that. My natural tendency is to go soooo deeeeeeep into something that I emerge several hundred thousand words later, fundamentally changed and gasping for air. 

It was nice just to dip a foot in the water.

[azisaibek]

So this was meant to be Sally and Molly. It didn't come out the way I wanted it to. I guess that's what you for get for drawing with a touch pad, I suppose.  I ship this now. 

For you, Liv, after you insisted on giving me those feels.