#salcroft

A little shippy Salcroft that I thought was so sweet.

No Longer Cold As Ice - The second time they spoke to each other she asked "Can I touch you?" The statement has evolved but is still prevalent in their relationship.

READ @ AO3 | SERIES PAGE

The second time she ever spoke to him, after watching a (she suspected) Sherlock in withdrawal punch him across the face were “Can I touch you?”

She’d heard from Greg all about Sherlock’s elder brother, how he had a personality cold as ice to the world but if you knew him, you knew how deeply he cared and all. She recognized him from an incident when she was a sergeant and so she’d approached Mycroft cautiously while Greg had shuttled Sherlock out of the room with a few not so gentle shoves, leaving her and The Ice Man alone with him having a cut under his eye. When she asked her question, he’d seemed so surprised and simply nodded. It was obvious he didn't remember her, and she honestly hadn't expected him to, drunk as he had been at the time.

No other words were said that day. She got out the first aid kit under Greg’s top drawer, cleaned Mycroft’s cut and attempted to put a small butterfly bandage on and getting a shake of the head in response. And then he nodded, gave her the smallest of small smiles, and left the office to go...who knew where.

Now, though, things were different. Now she would listen to him talk about the things he could as they puttered around the kitchen that used to resemble a cave in his home, now filled with warm light and food and laughter. Now she would rest her head on his chest and doze while he stayed up late to go over whatever crisis the government and the country needed to be saved from.

And now, every time they were alone, he would ask “Can I kiss you?” in a way that made her smile brightly, a smile that hadn’t been on her face often in those intervening years between their first encounter and now, a smile she would wear as she nodded and he leaned in to kiss her in so many different ways.

BBC Sherlock Fic Series

Mycroft Holmes/Molly Hooper

The One Who Stepped In - Their relationship starts when everyone forgets Molly's fortieth birthday, and Mycroft goes out of his way to make her feel special that day. It gets complicated, however, when a few weeks later Molly realizes she's pregnant with Tom's child. Tom wants nothing to do with the baby or the pregnancy, but Mycroft wants Molly and her baby in his life however he can get them, leading Molly to believe, rightly so, that moving on to Mycroft Holmes was the best choice she could ever have made.

Set in an AU that starts between "The Sign of Three" and "His Last Vow," where Molly's fortieth birthday falls in between those two episodes, just a week or two after her engagement to Tom ends. It goes AU before "His Last Vow," but that episode and "The Abominable Bride" play out mostly the same, with Sherlock in the doss house and Molly slapping him, and Christmas playing out the same way. In this AU, Sherlock knows Mycroft and Molly have started dating by December and that Molly is pregnant by then. Series 04 doesn't happen, and Sherlock goes off to find the root of the "virus" that is Moriarty and arrives back just in time for Molly to give birth to her son, so for her pregnancy it's mostly Mycroft, John, Mary and Mrs. Hudson by her side.

Endgame ships are primarily Mycroft/Molly but with background John/Mary and a demisexual!Sherlock who is in a long-distance relationship with Irene (for most of the series, at least).

Mycroft Holmes/Sally Donovan

The Copper & The Bureaucrat - They meet when he's still making a name for himself in the government and she's a patrol copper, and not in the best of ways. Little does Sally know that, as time goes on, he'll be the most important man in her life, the one she will love and cherish or the rest of her days…

So the series is generally going to be Sally/Mycroft-centric, but I couldn't resist dropping this Sally & Sherlock friendship fic here. enjoy the fluff!

Sherlock, The Adorable Drunk - Sally attempts to rally Sherlock to go see his fiancee since he misses her and she misses him. But a drunken Sherlock is rather like a small child, and just as much of an adorable handful.

READ @ AO3 | SERIES PAGE

Sally looked down at the drunken pile that was her boyfriend’s brother. It was his stag night, just like it was Molly’s hen night, but he’d been miserable without molly and Sally had volunteered to arrange a meeting between the two of them and pick the drunken sod up.

Silly git, she thought to herself with a smile as she knelt next to him. “Oi! Molly wants to see you,” she said, pushing him gently and hoping he’d sit up so she could maneuver him into the waiting car.

“Beautiful Sally, my favorite avenging angel,” he said when he opened his eyes. “Come to rescue me.”

She flushed slightly at Sherlock calling her beautiful, but mercifully he sat up, draping his long arms over his knees. “Can you stand up?”

“Mycroft is a lucky man, Sals. If I didn’t have Molly, you’d be my choice. Beautiful, smart, practical Sally.”

“You're drunk!” she said with a laugh, sitting down on the ground and looking at him. Sherlock would date her if she wasn’t with his brother? Not in a million years!

“Yes, I'm drunk. And you're beautiful. And tomorrow morning I'll be sober…but you'll still be beautiful.” He reached over and bopped her nose. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what, Sherlock?” she asked, giving up on getting him up until he said his peace and sitting on the ground across from him, criss-crossing her legs.

“You deserved better than how I treated you. You’re smart! And you’re a good listener, and a good friend to Molly. I treated you like shite. And you’re not mad anymore.”

“Well, I treated you like shite in return,” she said, tilting her head to study him. “But you grew up, Sherlock, and so did I. And we’re friends now.”

“Good friends?” he asked, looking as though he’d start crying if she disagreed with him.

“Very good friends. But I love Mycroft, and you love Molly. And you’re getting married to her! In three days!” She reached over and grasped his shoulders, one hand on each shoulder to steady him. “If I marry your brother, you can be my man of honor, and Molly can be his best woman.”

Now tears were edging Sherlock’s eyes. “You mean that?”

“I absolutely do. Or you can be the man of honor and the best man, and Molly can be the best woman and my matron of honor. You can switch sides in the middle of the ceremony. Spice things up.”

“Okay,” Sherlock said, beaming widely at her. “Do I have to wear a dress?”

“Only if you don’t outshine me,” she said, “Now, can you get up? Molly misses you, too. And she’d love to see you sappy and happy.”

“Okay,” he said. She let go of his shoulders and stood up, bracing herself before offering him a hand. Wobbly as he was walking he didn’t seem to feel ill or wobble too much, and soon enough they were at the car where Molly was waiting. “Home, Sally?”

A little bit of pre-ship Christmas fluff for you all! Plus this is the beginning of a Salcroft series.

The Bearer Of Happy Tidings (A “The Copper & The Bureaucrat” Story)  - Sally is at home decorating for the holidays when Mycroft Holmes comes to visit, bringing good news.

READ @ AO3 | SERIES PAGE

“Baby all I want for Christmas is you,” Sally sang along with the song playing on “Love Actually” as she waited for her popcorn to finish popping. It wasn’t for consumption; she had decided she was going to string together a popcorn chain for her Christmas tree, hunger be damned. It was the first year she’d put one up in a while, even if it was just a miniature tree on a tall stand. She’s waited too long to get a big one, but she’d been out of the country on a cross-jurisdictional case with Greg and just gotten back, two nights before Christmas.

The time in New York had been productive. She’d solved the case and made the arrest, and Greg said it was looking good that she’d get a promotion in the next round of them. Being a DI meant a pay grade increase and more duties, but the only downside would be not working with Greg anymore. They had a bond, a close friendship, and it would be an adjustment to have her own DS under her and be responsible for training them. But Greg knew it was what she wanted, what she needed, and he’d let her shine on the cross-jurisdictional case. She’d gotten time to enjoy some holiday things while she was there for two weeks, too. She’d gone to Rockefeller Center and seen the Rockettes, and the last night she joined the consultants and the cops and Greg for some ice skating in Central Park. She never thought she’d have such a good time around her own ilk.

But now she was home, alone, decorating a small tree and hoping to get the last of her gift shopping done tomorrow. It would be Christmas Eve Day and the stores would be packed, but she’d brave it nonetheless. Sherlock and Molly were having a Christmas party at Baker Street and she’d been invited this year, so she wanted to come bearing gifts for everyone in her newish found family. Since the ice had melted between her and Sherlock they’d actually gotten along remarkably well. Molly was definitely a good influence on him.

Just as her popcorn slowed to a few pops every few seconds there was a knock at her door. She turned off the microwave and then wiped her hands and went to the door, opening it to find Sherlock’s brother at her doorstep. Mycroft was...an enigma, she supposed. But she liked him. There was something about him that didn’t fit in with the world that she related to.

“Sergeant Donovan. Or should I say, Detective Inspector Donovan?”

“Promotions don’t come around for another few weeks,” she said, her eyes wide.

“I put some pressure on Scotland Yard on Lestrade’s behalf. You’ll get the official announcement tomorrow, but I thought you should know now.”

“That’s wonderful,” she said, her surprised expression melting into a warm smile. “Come on in. I was just decorating my sad excuse for a tree.”

“Do I smell popcorn?” he asked, coming inside. He laid his umbrella tip down by the door and shed out of his coat.

“I was going to make a popcorn chain, but I can share it if you’re hungry.”

“It would ruin my diet,” he said.

“You? On a diet? You’re just the right weight,” she said, closing the door after him. “You probably give Rosie Watson excellent hugs.”

“How did you…?” he asked, tilting his head slightly in confusion.

She tapped the side of her nose. “I’m not a Detective Inspector for nothing. Besides, that little girl has us all wrapped around her finger.” She paused. “You gave her back her mum. I’m sure that’s netted you the title ‘Uncle Mycroft, most huggable uncle after Sherlock.’”

“It was nothing,” he said.

“No, it was a big deal. Her past was a minefield, but you gave her a future by helping her fake her death. Sherlock told me the details.”

“He would.”

“Well, I think it was a good thing to do. After her death, John just went off the deep end, and so did Sherlock. I’d get calls from Molly where she was watching Rosie and worrying about Sherlock and John and she wasn’t sure she could cope.” Impulsively she hugged Mycroft and he embraced her back after stiffening for a moment, melting into the embrace. “See? Good hugger.”

Mycroft gave her a faint smile and sat on her sofa. “You do have an extraordinary sense of people, Donovan.”

“You can call my Sally if I can call you Mycroft,” she said, getting the popcorn and bringing it to the sofa, opening the bag, and setting it between them. “Want to watch a movie? I have some Christmas ones and some classic black and white films, so you have a choice.” She paused. “If you’re in the mood for Christmas movies, we could watch ‘It’s A Wonderful Life.’”

“I think I would like that,” he said with a nod. “And...you may call me Mycroft.”

Just A Little Nudge (AO3)

Jam Session (12/12) - NEW CHAPTER

And here is the final chapter, with happy endings for all. This lovely fic that was originally written for @chitarra10 and @justatrashpanda with art by the lovely @manonsoubeyran​​. 

I hope all of you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! And if you enjoyed the art for this and “My Chosen Queen, To Rule By My Side” as much as I did, drop by and let @manonsoubeyran know! She worked hard on it all and deserves some love too. You can also follow her at AO3 here and FFN here.

Jam Session - Molly Hooper is known for making some of the best baked goods in all of England, and no one knows what her secret is. Her most popular dish is her Jam Tartlets, and it’s a recipe she shares with absolutely no one, not even those who work in her shop. When a new resident arrives in the village, an apiarist named Sherlock Holmes, they begin an exchange: some of her special jams in exchange for his honey. But what starts as a simple trade of sweet foodstuffs becomes so much more when Molly’s shop is broken into and ransacked by someone looking for the secret recipe

.READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 12 | HELP ME SURVIVE? | COMMISSION ME? | BUY ME A KOFI?

One Year Later

She looked around Sherlock’s cottage and saw that her additions to it fit in rather well. She had never thought she’d leave her small home behind the shop, but after the court cases had been settled and the hoopla around James Moriarty’s criminal cases had settled, they’d realized they needed a bigger shop. Rather than move from the location they’d been at since she was a child, she was having the shop expanded back to where her home was.

Or rather, had been. It had been torn down last week to make the ground ready to expand the kitchens and put in a proper office and break room and some other things, now that there were more employees than just herself and Mary and Sally. They now had another baker on staff who helped with everything other than the Jam Tartlets, which were still made by the three of them, and two teenagers who worked part-time on the register and packaging up mail orders.

She’d moved in with Sherlock two weeks earlier, and as of today, they were baking at a temporary location while the construction was going on. But they had taken a break to attend the wedding between Sally and Mycroft in London, and it had been a wonderfully lavish affair. Sally had pulled her and Mary aside and told them she was pregnant, so Molly had congratulated her while in her head trying to sort out how to work things out so Sally could spend more time at the second shop they had opened in London so she could be closer to her now-husband. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to find another partner for the London shop and share the Jam Tartlets recipe with them…

But for now, she was enjoying the afterglow of such a lovely event, and business was the last thing on her mind right now as Sherlock embraced her from behind, resting his chin on her head. “So I’ll be an uncle in a few months,” he said.

“Yes,” Molly said. “I think you’ll be a good uncle at that.”

“And a father?” he asked.

She pulled out of his embrace and looked at him, eyes wide. “How did you…?”

“We’ve spent more time together than not,” he said with a soft chuckle. “But you are pregnant, aren’t you?”

“Well, this wasn’t how I wanted you to find out, but yes.” She tilted her head. “Are you happy?”

“I am,” he said. “I can’t think of anyone I’d want to have a child or a long life with.”

“So we’ll tell them all later?” she asked, moving towards him again to hug him.

He nodded. “About the pregnancy, the engagement, all of it. Let Sally and my brother have the limelight for a bit. We can wait. We’re patient.”

Jam Session (9/12) - NEW CHAPTER

Moriarty brings them all together in this chapter, including Mycroft an a friendly pro bono lawyer for the cause, Anthea. This lovely fic that was originally written for @chitarra10 and @justatrashpanda with art by the lovely @manonsoubeyran​​

Jam Session - Molly Hooper is known for making some of the best baked goods in all of England, and no one knows what her secret is. Her most popular dish is her Jam Tartlets, and it’s a recipe she shares with absolutely no one, not even those who work in her shop. When a new resident arrives in the village, an apiarist named Sherlock Holmes, they begin an exchange: some of her special jams in exchange for his honey. But what starts as a simple trade of sweet foodstuffs becomes so much more when Molly’s shop is broken into and ransacked by someone looking for the secret recipe

.READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 9 | HELP ME SURVIVE? | COMMISSION ME? | BUY ME A KOFI?

She hadn’t realized just how large Sherlock’s cottage was until the evening meeting. There was ample room for Sherlock, his brother, the three of them and a woman who was introduced to her as Anthea Thompkins, a lawyer who was friends with Mycroft. The mood was tense, and Molly kept herself busy by helping Sherlock set up dinner as they spoke.

“It seems he’s trying to bury you in legal manuevers if the flurry of activity in London’s courts was anything to go on,” Anthea said. “You’ll get notices tomorrow, most likely, but he’s trying to file that the premises where the food is made is unsanitary, that there is price gouging, the mail orders are not just food and the worst of it all, that the Jam Tartlets recipe was stolen from one of his employees who you apparently went to culinary school with, Molly.”

“Bloody hell,” Molly said, hanging her head. “I don’t have enough money to fight all that in court. I mean, the premises charge...we were just checked out a month ago, both at my home and at the shop.”

“I think that’s probably just a public relations scare,” Sally said. “Or at least I think if that charge got out, that would be the one that could hurt the business the most.”

“I’m of the same mind,” Mycroft said with a nod. He was exactly what Molly had expected: tall, regal looking, in a sharp suit and speaking with a more stiff demeanor. But he sat by Sally and every once in awhile reached out to touch her hand in a comforting way, so it definitely seemed as though he was softening. “Anthea will work for you pro-bono, as she is a friend of the family and a fan of your sweets.”

“Not the Jam Tartlets, but your millionaire bars are the best I’ve ever had,” Anthea said with a smile. “We’ll consult you for everything and we’ll do nothing without your say-so, but we can handle public relations, and I believe Sherlock has volunteered to go back to old habits for a bit?”

Sherlock nodded. “I’ll contact my old contacts in London and get all the information on Moriarty I can. I know some people in his upper echelon of associates that owe me favours. I think it’s time to collect.”

“But what about us?” Mary asked. “I mean, should we worry?”

“I think the store should continue as it has been,” Mycroft said. “But I can extend the offer of surveillance at your properties as well if it would make you feel better. Not quite as sophisticated as the one at the shop or at Molly’s home, but still better than what you might have already.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Sally said, turning to give him a smile.

“Me too,” Mary said with a nod.

“Do you have the message from Moriarty still?” Anthea asked Molly. “And were there any witnesses to your meeting with him?”

“I have the message, but there wasn’t anyone out with us when he implied the threat,” she said.

“Let me get a copy of it, and make sure if he shows up on the premises again someone is with you,” Anthea said. “We’ll get an order to keep him away, or anyone under his employ. The press I can’t do anything about, but if they have questions about these legal issues, refer them to me and I will handle it.”

Molly nodded as the dinner finished and the conversation lapsed into more normal things, like plans for the shop and Mary poking Mycroft and Sherlock for information about the two of them. Anthea provided a bit too and even though the mood had started somberly, it lightened considerably for a while.

Eventually, everyone other than Molly left, and Sherlock and she took a cup of coffee each outside to sit at the seating there, sharing some of the raspberry Jam Tartlets between them. “You can stay here if you don’t feel safe in your home,” Sherlock said after a time.

“I appreciate that, but I’m not going to let him win,” Molly said, reaching over to grasp his hand. She squeezed it when he grasped her hand tightly, and the two stayed like that for a moment. “But you could always stay with me? I have a guest bedroom.”

“I may consider that,” he said, pulling her hand to his lips and kissing the back of her hand. She smiled at him.

“Thank you, for everything you’ve done. I didn’t realize that these Jam Tartlets would be so...problematic,” she said.

“It’s just because Jim Moriarty is a prat and an unscrupulous businessman. He goes after small businesses and tries to get what he can and then bastardize whatever it is he can take. And I won’t let that happen to you.”