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simplyshelbs16xoxo · 3 years

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‘This Love Came Back to Me’ Chapter 2: This is London

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Being in London again, amongst the bustling streets and busy lives, had Molly in a state of wistfulness. She had been homesick since the day she left and her stomach knotted with deep-seated guilt and regret. It mystified her how this city seemed to scream his name. When she thought of London, she didn’t think of the usual things—the Thames, Buckingham Palace, Trafalger Square, or even Big Ben with its comforting chimes—but she always thought of Sherlock Holmes. He was forever connected to this place much more intimately than anything or anyone else she could think of. And connected to him was the sense of home. She had felt her heart leap in joy when she stepped off the plane.

And now, looking up at the street sign, Molly let out a shaky breath. She had once promised herself she would never grace this very pavement if she ever lost him. And yet she found herself on Baker Street once more. In her hands were the results of their findings, and she sincerely hoped he would be cordial with her, though she knew she didn’t deserve such a kindness. 221B stared down at her as if daring her to cross the threshold, to recall her memories here, to once again face the man who lived in it, and at one time with her.

Molly took each step with trepidation. She wished to not upset him any further, but it couldn’t be helped. Never did she think her actions would have hurt him, for she hadn’t thought he truly felt for her what she felt for him. Her presence was difficult for him and Molly hadn’t a clue how to steer clear. Being put on a case together had made matters complicated. One deep breath and she knocked lightly against the worn wood. She made out a couple of voices including his own. He must have been with a client. Turning on her foot to leave, the door was yanked open, causing her to turn back towards it, towards him.

“Oh,” he frowned, disappointment clear on his face. “It’s just you.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. His callousness tore at her rapidly beating heart. “I brought some of the results for you to look over. You’ll find that there is a particular feature of interest that may turn out to be a lead.”

Sherlock studied her with curious eyes that narrowed when he met hers. He removed the report from her hands and looked it over. “Very good, then. It looks like Mike is no longer in need of your services.”

Molly opened her mouth to protest, stepping forward to follow him inside, but he had quite firmly slammed the door in her face before she could utter a syllable.

When Sherlock turned his back to the slamming door, he was met with Mary Watson’s chiding expression, an eyebrow raised high. “Was it really necessary to do that?”

“She’s the one who decided to leave,” he replied like a five year old.

“Yes, well, that may be true, Sherlock, but I thought you wanted an explanation from her, hmm?” Mary crossed her arms, tapping her foot with impatience. “I don’t agree with how she handled things, but I hardly think it necessary to act like children.” She briefly recalled hearing about their argument in the morgue the day before.

“I’ll stop when she does.” Sherlock was in no mood. He hadn’t seen her in years until yesterday. Molly Hooper broke his heart, betrayed his trust. He told her he loved her, and she ran away. “I once thought she loved me—but, I see now that I was wrong.”

“She did love you, Sherlock,” Mary argued.

“Could’ve fooled me,” he huffed. It wasn’t as if she had said the words back.

“I think you and Molly can work things out—you’re both stubborn, and that causes a lot of damage with situations like yours. One of you needs to be the bigger person,” Mary advised. “I know you’re hurting, but this week could change things. Try to make the best of it.”

Sherlock sighed. “I won’t make any promises, but I’ll try.”

It was official: Molly Hooper hated herself for what she did to Sherlock. If she could, she knew she would go back when things were okay and do things right. Instead of listening to her doubts and allowing herself to be persuaded into leaving, Molly would have said the words back. She would have told him what she had feared. They would have talked through it and they would still be together now. She was sure of it. He could no longer stand the sight of her. The man who held high disregard of emotions—and for good reason—gave her his heart, and she ruined him.

The next five days in London would be torture, but she had it coming to her. This was the universe biting her back in the arse for what she had done. Molly, upon returning to her hotel room, decided to take a soak in a bubble bath to calm her nerves. Hair up in a messy bun, she sank down into the warm sudsy water, leaning her head back with her eyes closed, unable to keep herself from remembering how it used to be.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered in his ear. Sherlock had drifted off, but he still held her tightly in his arms. It was as if he was afraid to let go. Molly could still feel the ghost of his love all over her body, through her, inside her. In truth, she had never been so happy. But then, why did she feel so scared?

If he were to ever wake up one day and realise this wasn’t what he wanted, Molly promised herself she’d never walk Baker Street again. Hell, she probably wouldn’t be able to stomach staying in London if he ever walked away. Or if, God forbid, she ever did. She couldn’t keep her eyes off him, his expression one of complete serenity. It made him look ten years younger. Molly pressed her lips to his neck, leaving a trail of soft, warm kisses for him. She heard him moan quietly in his sleep, and it made her smile. God, she loved him so much, her heart ached. What was it about those eight letters that were so overwhelming, so daunting? Maybe one day she’d be brave enough to say them.

The visions in her head never stopped. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t think about him, about their love, magical as it was. For the first time since she arrived back in London, Molly allowed herself to cry; to grieve for them, for the man she had hurt. All she wanted to do was take away his pain, but he’d never allow her close enough to do that. Never again.

After a brief conversation with Mike the next day outside the morgue, Sherlock, she noticed, was fast approaching her. Molly braced herself for his scathing remarks, her whole body tensing up as if his words caused her physical pain. Instead, he shoved the manila envelope toward her, insisting she take them back. “Were my findings not to your liking then?” she asked, somewhat feeling put-out.

“On the contrary, Doctor Hooper,” he replied, taking a moment to swallow his pride, “what you discovered is most fascinating.”

Taken aback at the change of attitude, Molly questioned him with her eyes, her mouth slightly agape. “Yes, well, it seemed odd that our murderer went through all of the trouble of making a bloody mess of his victims when his real M.O. was a nearly undetectable poisoning.”

Sherlock nodded. “He’s trying to keep us from profiling him correctly. He’s clever, but not as clever as you.” He felt his face flush, mentally cursing his traitorous body.

Her eyes met his in a brief remembrance of the love they once shared. My clever Molly, he had taken to saying whenever her intellect shone through like a bright star. The man who had once admired her was still there somewhere deep down. She hoped so, anyways. As soon as the spark was there, it was gone, the air somehow colder than it had been. “If that’s all you came here for…I believe you have a murderer to catch.”

“Wait,” he began, taking a small step forward. “It has come to my attention that I’ve been, for lack of a better word, an arse. We should be able to at least be cordial whilst working this case together.” Sherlock had a hard time meeting her eyes. “I’m…I apologise. You really are the best for the job.”

Never had Molly felt more uncomfortable and undeserving of an apology. She gazed at him with soft, sorrowful eyes. “Thank you,” she uttered in a small voice. If he hadn’t looked so uncomfortable, himself, she wasn’t sure if she could’ve found the strength to reply. She wanted to apologise for leaving him, beg him for his forgiveness, but fear—a different kind; one of rejection—stopped her. The awkward silence was deafening and she was thankful when Greg interrupted them.

“There’s been another body, Sherlock. Here’s your chance to go to the scene and—Molly? That you?” Greg grinned happily, going in for a hug.

“It’s been an age,” Molly told him, her guilt eating her up inside. At least he didn’t appear to be angry with her.

Sherlock stood by with his hands behind his back, jealousy rearing its ugly head, his stomach knotting tightly. He watched as Greg gave her a quick peck on the cheek and it took all his strength not to lash out. There was no way he could deny his feelings any longer—he still cared for Molly, still loved her despite everything, but it was clear she had moved on. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he only caught the tail end of Lestrade’s question.

“—with us?”

“Oh, I—well, I don’t think I should,” Molly answered, glancing at Sherlock. “It’s probably best I stay behind.”

Greg knew things were strained between them—he had even been on the receiving end of her lack of communication. He nodded in understanding, not wanting to push her into it. “Suit yourself. How long are you here for?”

“Just until the end of the week, then back to Galway,” she informed him. The words tasted bitter on her tongue.

Galway, Sherlock thought. So that’s where she ran off to. It was where her grandmother was from—her father’s mother. It should have been blaringly obvious, but he had kept himself from thinking too much about it.

“Well, do us all a favor, and phone us once in a while…yeah?” He clapped Sherlock on his back, including him in that statement.

She nodded. “Of course.” Her eyes met Sherlock’s briefly. Never did she want to let him down again. “You have my word.”

#sherlolly #this love came back to me #my fanfiction

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stan-denbrough · 4 years

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@kaspbrakeddie

@stan-denbrough ok 1. Book/miniseries canon doesn’t apply to the movies. 2. Subtext can be interpreted in many ways so that’s not the same as canon. 3. All I said is that he’s not closer to Richie than any of the others. They’re all his best friends! I’m just tired of people saying he’s the most valid best friend

I really don’t know what you’re trying to get at? Like, people in all fandoms have drawn from various sources to inspire their headcanons, it’s nothing new here! And if you take that attitude you have to tell reddies who like to quote and draw fanart of “You’re so cute!” that they’re wrong because that’s only in the book, not in the movies! Like, Stan doesn’t exist in my head as 100% Andy Bean/Wyatt Oleff. There’s no “definitive” version of Stan or any character.

I get that a lot of people think it might be pretentious to prefer to create character chimeras from several different incarnations, but I haven’t seen any It fans come across as pretentiously saying “My interpretations are better because I read the book,” so we’re not trying to do that. That’s just how I engage with this character, mostly because I feel like the movies didn’t do him enough justice! Literally no one in this fandom cares about canon, people proudly announce that they disregard canon.

But like listen... reddie is the most popular ship by a considerable margin.

There is just shit that everyone assumes to be the shared headcanon of the fandom, and it wasn’t Stan’s little army of stans that made the “Stan and Richie are best friends” thing ubiquitous. It was reddie shippers. I’m not saying you can’t have Stan be your fave and also hardcore ship reddie, but that’s not something I can relate to. The point is... some stuff is just popular in a fandom space. This is one of those times. And it’s weird that I see people objecting to it just because it happens to not center Eddie and Richie this one time.

Plus we never said “Stan and Richie are best friends” was canon anyway. I haven’t seen any posts of people saying everyone has to assume Richie and Stan are bestest buds, people just write posts already assuming that, but very few people are saying it’s “canon.” The most I’ve seen is people refuting the claim made by others that Stan doesn’t like Richie and that they’re not friends. I’m always willing to cop to the fact that I haven’t encountered shit other people are referencing, so granted.

But I know for a fact you said in your tags that you accept that “of course Stan and Richie are friends,” so the people who say “Nu-uh Stan and Richie are so close they love each other they’re besties!” are refuting both a) haters who say Stan hates Richie or people who just think that’s a funny character trait and play it up in their fics (the anti “Stan is a mega bitch” crowd), and b) genuine criticism that Chapter One really didn’t do a great job of making the Losers act with believable affection toward each other.

To be fair, I agree with both sides? The first movie did not do a good job with Richie and Stan’s relationship, at least compared to the miniseries. But I don’t accept the interpretation that Stan didn’t like any of his friends or Richie especially. So I’m in complete agreement with you there! I’m just saying that people are drawing from other equally “canon” sources to supplement the relationship between Richie and Stan they felt we deserved to see on the big screen.

What it boils down to is personal preference, and maybe I’m being a nosy bitch, but I thought I’d explain the general consensus on why people are increasingly claiming Stan and Richie had a special relationship. All the Losers are each other’s best friends, but canon acknowledges that Bev wanted something more with Bill and vice versa. And reddies acknowledge that Richie and Eddie have a special relationship. With the way most of them write their fics, they clearly aren’t concerned with making all the Losers best friends, it’s just reddie while the other 5 wave in the background.

The other camp is reddies who like Stan so they want to give his character more credit than the dirt they pay Mike and Ben (and the active hate they project onto Bill), so they usually have Stan be the third wheel, Richie’s best friend who gives his blessing for Eddie to date someone he cares about so much. And maybe they give him his own dating subplot or have him be jealous and petty toward Eddie for stealing his best friend away.

And I saw another point you brought up, if Stan isn’t outwardly affectionate toward Richie isn’t it kind of shitty to imply that he actually does care about him underneath his bitchy exterior? And I say, no, not really? Like, people display different degrees of emotion. But on top of that. No one has a problem with Eddie and Richie actively arguing with each other way more than showing affection to each other, and they ship them romantically!

So like, at the end of the day, do you, truly! You don’t have to love Stan, you don’t have to like stozier as a ship or friendship. But I can’t just accept “Well all the cool good things about stozier you guys like is from the book and miniseries so it doesn’t count,” because... what?

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nancykali · 5 years

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Oh so we can trash El and Max and Nancy but we can’t talk about sexism in season 3′s writing? How nearly every single main male character was written as blatantly sexist without actual repercussions or change at the end of their arcs? Except Steve. Who got his magical transformation into a good guy and fan favorite at the expense of Nancy and Jonathan’s characters, in seasons 2 and 3; especially Jonathan, who’s gotten sidelined to the point most of the fandom would prefer he was killed off.

But no, instead the fans can’t take off their misogynist goggles long enough to see they’re bashing female characters who were written poorly as a result of sexist writing. Learn how to criticize writing and see the flaws of a character in a Doylist sense instead of hating on female characters. Everyone was written with less depth (except for Steve and Robin), and all the sexism surrounding most of the main characters made nearly all the male characters OOC.

Mike and Lucas were sexist and by the end they still didn’t understand what they’d said about their girlfriends was wrong. Will’s sexism continues to be unaddressed (girls can’t play video games or go to science camp, and all El was to him was a stupid girl ruining his friendships). Mike never apologized for lying to El, only for monopolizing her time (which still makes no sense because El was an equal participant). Hopper manipulating Mike and El for his own benefit was not addressed as bad (when his lying to El in s2 at least was partially addressed), Hopper lied to Joyce (again) - that was never addressed, and Hopper’s horrible treatment of Joyce was only played for comedy.

El should have apologized for spying on Mike in the same scene that Mike should have apologized for not telling the truth about what Hopper did to manipulate them from the beginning, but instead the writers decided El and Max should make light of El’s spying. Because somehow the conflict was about Mike’s one-sided possessiveness of El (that was not shown; we’re shown El wanting to be around him just as much), instead of El’s chafing against the restrictions of these implied rules she still lives under, and the lack of trust between El and Mike. Mike’s reasoning from “I have to lie to El to please Hopper” to “El is conspiring against me and is another species and I don’t deserve this” made no sense whatsoever, not even if you factor in a fear of Hopper, which he didn’t even have in season 2. They dropped the conflict between Mike and Hopper that deserved development after season 2, to further develop Mike, Hopper, and El’s characters, to instead have petty teen drama (and even worse parenting from Hopper) that made no sense for the characters. The entire Mileven arc was OOC and focused on the wrong issues, selling every character short.

Nancy ending her relationship with Steve is still a reason to hate her character (and say her and Robin can’t get along) because people still refuse to understand she didn’t lead him on or cheat on him. Nancy’s journalism career was completely dropped and her relationship with Jonathan gets zero development after the apology scene in the elevator. And that apology between them only addressed Nancy being wrong about comparing Jonathan to their misogynistic employers, and Jonathan being wrong to disregard her degradation under them (“Real life sucks. Deal with it like the rest of us.” – yes, Jonathan and his family are poor, but that was a shit thing to say). The elevator conversation completely ignored their economic disparity. And even though Nancy addressed that with Karen and knew she was wrong not to consider their economic differences before, the later apology scene did a disservice to both Nancy and Jonathan by ignoring half of their conflict with each other.

And the fandom is wrong to cast blame on Nancy for being “so selfish” in her privilege that she got them fired—Jonathan decided to go with her and support her in pursuing the case. She was willing to go alone, pursue it alone. Him saying during their argument that he told her to drop the case, implying it’s her fault he doesn’t have the job anymore, ignores the fact that he made the decision to help her, to involve himself in her case and put his job on the line. Just because it was Nancy’s idea to pursue the case doesn’t mean Nancy forced him to be further involved. He chose to get involved. So I don’t understand why the fandom thinks Nancy is this self-centered person who sabotaged Jonathan’s livelihood with her decision to pursue a case – a case that she gave Jonathan the choice not to involve himself with.

And finally, Max’s friendship with El was used solely to create drama between Mike and El and made both the Mileven relationship and the Elmax friendship shallower - Max had no character outside of making El do things Mike didn’t like (and giving fodder for Mileven haters to argue that Mike and El don’t belong together), and arguing with Mike about El. Oh and suddenly having a bond with Billy that made no sense after the events of season 2.

El had no character outside of being upset with Mike, having fun with Max getting back at Mike, and being upset about 2 major things: 1) losing her powers, and 2) Hopper’s death. Mike and El’s relationship had no emotional depth, they didn’t even have a full serious conversation outside their arguments and expositional dialogue. Their devotion to each other was turned into a mutual clinginess that was solely blamed on Mike for an inexplicable reason. El’s friendship with Max was used to show her breaking the rules (which we’re never shown the need for – what sort of danger was El still in? What exactly was the risk if she broke the rules?), which included spying on Mike, and even El’s love confession was based around eavesdropping and was met with another lie on Mike’s part.

It’s like the writers decided that in order to have any emotional plots in season 3, they had to throw characterization out the window and invent a bunch of petty drama to drive the main characters’ storylines, instead of using any of the characterization that had been built in the first two seasons – especially in season 2 with regards to El, Max, Nancy, and Joyce. This show used to revolve around the strength of the characters’ friendships and the intelligence and resilience of its main female characters. All of that was tossed in season 3.

#stranger things 3 #el hopper #mike wheeler #nancy wheeler #max mayfield #fandom misogyny #discourse #doofus discourse #my meta #my s3 meta #reposting with some edits and additions

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