Work Text:
Jim's body simply disappears one day about two days after Jim died. Molly doesn't go looking for it. Sebastian doesn't go looking for it. If either of them are seen showing too much interest it could be dangerous. Molly does a bit of poking around until she's handed some very official papers that show that some family member had come out of the woodwork to claim Mr. Brooke's body. Molly knows it a lie, but she doesn't question it. She does photocopy the paper she's handed one too many times (which she's done before and normally just shreds the extras) so that she can keep them. It's as close as either her or Sebastian will get to knowing what really will happen to his body.
Molly comes home about a month after Jim died to find Sebastian cleaning his riffle whilst sitting on her sofa. "Colonel," she said, smiling a bit. She hadn't seen him in three weeks. He told her he needed to take care of a few things with Jim's business. It wasn't an unusually long amount of time not to see him, but knowing that Jim was dead just made it all much lonelier.
"Do you think it's not real sometimes?" Sebastian asked, not looking up from his work.
"What's not real?" she asked.
"You know… the life we had?" he asked.
"Yes," she said instantly. "I go to work every day… and it's just… I feel like how I did before I met Jim. I'm overlooked, unvalued, that piece that fits in the cogs so that the work gets done, and no one cares about until it's not around. Yesterday… I wondered if maybe I hadn't dreamed Jim and the whole mess completely."
"I got drunk last night," Sebastian said, starting to pack his riffle up. "The sun rose and they had to throw me out to get me to leave." He turned to look at her and he had dark circles under his eyes. "I haven't been that drunk since Jim hired me… I never, never want to be that drunk ever again."
"Oh, Seb." She stopped, hesitating because she'd slipped and said his name. Sebastian smiled though.
"No… I… I rather like it when you call me by my name, Ms. Hooper," he said.
Molly blushed. The way she could so formally say his name could sound so erotic. She moved to sit down next to him. "Seb… Sebastian?" she asked, blushing more and looking down at her hands.
"Molly," he said and she froze, blushing even more. "Will you… will you look at me?"
She looked up, stunned when she dead. She rarely not to see Sebastian blush, but he was now. He looked every bit as unsure as she felt. She never felt so awkward or unsure with Jim, not to her memory. Jim made her feel empowered, which she liked. But Sebastian made her feel shy, her natural reaction to men she liked… but she could actually talk to him, he actually wanted her to speak to him… and more, she made him shy too.
"There was… something I wanted to do tomorrow… if you don't mind. Will you go with me?" Molly blurted out suddenly.
"Oh, yeah, sure," Sebastian said.
"Will you stay tonight?" She asked, smiling shyly.
"Yeah," he said with a tired and weak twitch of the lips to force a bit of humor on his face. "The couch has been missing me, I suppose."
"Yeah," she said, deflating a bit. She'd hoped that he would want to come to bed with her, just to sleep at least. She sighed and shook that off. He called her by her name. She'd take that. "Um… Sebastian?" she asked, blushing again. She saw him smile, for real even though it was small. That made her feel bold. "How did work go?"
"Awful," Sebastian said. "I missed you so much… I was just so terrible," he said. He reached out, suddenly dragging her into his arms, into his lap.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, wrapping her arms around him. She melted to give him what he needed: affection, safety, care.
"I don't think I can keep this up for very long. I don't think I want to," he said. "I'll just take what I can and bow out. I made enough, I don't have to keep working."
"What will you do?"
"I… don't know really," Sebastian said, sitting back a bit, thinking. "You don't leave Jim's employment; you either die or are executed. Those are the options… I don't know…" he said, trailing off.
"You don't have to decide today," she said, leaning in and kissing his cheek. "But you're not falling off the wagon again. I'll kick your ass if you start screwing up again, I swear to god I will," she said, crawling out of his lap.
Sebastian grinned. "Jim rubbed off on you."
"I like to think of it as I rubbed off on him," she said, shooting him a very Jim-like smirk over her shoulder. He heisted and then burst into laughter. She smiled, a bit of sadness behind her smile. When was the last time Sebastian had actually laughed? "Come on, help me get the sofa made."
"So, where are we going exactly?" Sebastian asked, shifting a bit uncomfortably as they crossed the grounds of the cemetery. Molly seemed intent on a mission. He figured out what it was when they suddenly stopped in front of the grave of Sherlock Holmes.
"Please," Sebastian said through gritted teeth. "Tell me that you did not drag me out here so I could see this."
"No," Molly said. "But I think Jim would like to be buried near Sherlock, so he could taunt him for all eternity." She'd gone to Sherlock's funeral. She cried, but she cried for Jim, knowing very well that Sherlock was alive and fine and probably experimenting on one of her corpses.
"Buried?" Sebastian asked.
"I don't know if they ever are even going to bury Jim, do you?" she asked, and Sebastian shook his head. She pulled the papers she'd gotten, the very official papers, the actual papers proclaiming that Richard Brooke had been gotten by his family. She pulled those papers out of her purse. "We'll bury him here," she said.
She knelt down the grave of Sherlock Holmes, pulling things out of her bag: a trowel, a plate, a stone, wet wipes. Sebastian knelt down next to her, picking up the stone. Two letters, J and M where carved into the rock. Sebastian too the trowel, starting to dig next to the headstone of Sherlock Holmes. Molly settled the papers on the plate and lit them on fire.
It didn't take them very long. The paper burned very quickly, and Sebastian easy dug down to about his own arm length fairly easily. Molly poured the ashes into the hole. She kissed the stone and offered it to Sebastian, who kissed it as well. She dropped it in and they both poured the dirt back into the hole. Sebastian replaced the top mound of dirt that had the grass still attached. They washed their hands with the wet wipes and headed off.
"I think he would like this," Sebastian said, letting out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding for a month. Not burying Jim, not being able to do anything for Jim had been bothering him. That was why he'd gone out to drink: guilt. Guilt for surviving, guilt for not protecting him, guilt for being unable to do even a last thing for the man who had saved his life. He didn't know if Molly saw this, but he knew on thing for certain. "I love you, Molly Hooper."
"That's nice to hear," Molly said, looking away. Sebastian felt the stab in his heart… oh well. He couldn't go back to bed with her, and she couldn't love him. Maybe it would change… but not yet.