verucasalt123 | FIC - Company (wishlist 9/12)

Title: Company
Author: verucasalt123
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Summary: Prompt/Prompter:

alecto_chan’s prompt: < Mycroft and Molly are stuck spending Christmas together. It's all Sherlock's fault-- somehow.
Rating: G
Warnings: awkward meeting, Mycroft being nice
Disclaimer: ALL LIES
Notes: I don’t know how close I came to the actual prompt here, but I did the best I could with characters I don’t have much experience writing. I hope the prompter will like it 

Mycroft congratulated himself again on being the one who escaped the annual Christmas pilgrimage to his mother’s house this time. Sherlock almost always managed to back out first, leaving Mycroft obligated to go, because what kind of son leaves his mother to spend Christmas alone (well, accompanied only by the cook, the maid, the groundskeeper and other household staff)? Not this year. Mycroft had informed his brother and their mother on Labor Day weekend that a work obligation would have him out of the country for the last half of December. Sherlock, of course, knew it was a lie, but would never say as much in mixed company. And what did Sherlock have to complain about, really? He could bring John along, so it wouldn’t just be the two of them, having the same conversations and telling the same stories as every single other holiday. Mycroft didn’t have any friends close enough to bring home for Christmas dinner, so there was never a buffer, or another source of conversation.

No, there was no business trip. Mycroft was curled under a blanket in his recliner, starting up the next episode in the queue of Orange Is The New Black. Though he couldn’t be certain, it was highly unlikely that any emergency situations would arise on Christmas day, leaving him to watch trash telly, have as many cookies as he liked, and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Half an hour later, though, there was an urgent-sounding and insistent knock at his door. Mycroft was immediately suspicious, as his life didn’t really include the possibility of a pal stopping in to say hello unannounced, and anything related to work would have involved a phone call, not a personal visit.

Getting up and warily looking through the peephole, he saw Dr. Hooper from Bart’s standing there precariously balancing several containers in her arms. Before he could think of what would bring her to his door, he opened it immediately; his natural suspicion overtaken by his equally natural instinct to assist the clearly struggling young woman. As soon as the door was open, Mycroft reached out to take some of the containers she was holding and moved to the side so she could come in out of the cold.

While he stood there trying to figure out exactly what was happening here, Molly simply asked, “Kitchen?” Still bewildered, he simply led the way and they both set their packages on the table.

Taking off her scarf and coat, she smiled brightly at Mycroft. “I do hope you’re doing all right. Sherlock sounded so concerned about you being all alone for Christmas, and I told him of course I would come right over. Not like I’ve got anyone to…” she trailed off as she got a closer look at him, then the bright smile faded and was replaced by an expression that he couldn’t really place, not knowing the woman well enough to decipher her outward reactions.

Realizing he still hadn’t spoken a word, Mycroft took the opportunity to say, “What is it, Ms. Hooper? You’re…upset?”

“That bastard. You didn’t know I was coming, did you?”

“Well, no, but-”

As quickly as she’d started to shed her layers, she gathered them back up again. “I am so sorry. I’m sure if you’re spending the day alone it’s by design. I don’t know why I let myself believe otherwise.”

“Maybe because Sherlock told you otherwise, and he’s got a knack for making people think he’s telling the truth even when he’s not?” When Molly refused to meet his eyes and just continued to wrap back up in her coat, he continued, “Look, you’re already here and you put off whatever other holiday plans you could have made to be here, so there’s no harm in you staying.” He didn’t mean it, of course. Mycroft barely knew this woman and he hadn’t wanted to be disturbed today, but clearly she’d been told something entirely different.

Her next words came out softly, very quiet, as her hands stilled on the buttons of her coat. “I didn’t have any other holiday plans. No family here, no boyfriend, no friends that don’t already have Christmas all figured out for themselves…”

Ahhhh. Here was Sherlock, from afar, doing what he thought was the right thing, in his usual completely insensitive and ridiculous way. “Right, ah, me too. I mean, I haven’t really got friends, I’m not involved with anyone, and I backed out of going to my mother’s for Christmas mainly because I wanted to force Sherlock to actually show up there for once. So. What have you brought with you, Molly?” He gave her what he hoped was a genuine smile, because maybe she didn’t want to spend the holiday with him, specifically, but she certainly didn’t want to spend it alone.

“Oh, just – just some food, and…honestly, I can go, it’s all right-”

“No, absolutely not. Let’s just stick with Sherlock’s plan and enjoy each other’s company, what do you say?”

Molly started looking a bit happier then, and Mycroft figured he’d said the right thing.

As it turned out, spending the day eating from plastic containers on the coffee table and sharing commentary on the latest television series that they both liked wasn’t a bad way to pass the time on Christmas. They agreed that they’d both give Sherlock an absolutely ruthless time about it when he got back into town, though.