Post ILY fall-out meta

 (Sherlock meta by mychakk)

 I’ve stumbled upon a couple of fics where the author chooses to kind of gloss over the post-ILY months aka Sherlock and Molly decided to just ignore it, pretend it didn’t happen, etc. It doesn’t seem right to me so it got me thinking and here is the result.

There is this basic group formation/evolution theory that outlines a simple formula:

1.  A group is formed 
2.  The group’s bonds strengthen 
3.  A crisis arrives 
4.  The crisis is resolved 
5.  The group either becomes stronger than before or disintegrate. 

This formula can be also applied to relationship (friendship, workship, siblings, etc). And of course the crisises appear regularly (not necessarily frequently, just that they are not a one time thing - unless the group disintegrate).

So I think the ILY scene was the crisis/milestone for Sherlolly to overcome in S4. Afterwards either they move forward or go separate ways. It needs a resolution if some kind and it needs it pretty much. If it’s not solved then the relationship (however we define it) will simply dissolve and stop to be.

There can be a couple of outcomes with the crisis of s4:

1. Sherlock and Molly talk, they clear the air and move forward as friends, lovers etc. 
2.  Sherlock avoids Molly or Molly avoids Sherlock, they ignore it, they fall apart and essencially their relationship is destroyed 
3.  They talk and realise they are at different pages in their hopes toward the relationship which at this point is quite fractured; ultimatley they separate and the friendship ends - the crisis is solved but it brought an ending. 

I believe, that since Molly showed her cards, was forced to come out clean about her feelings, she got freed from her burden, liberated from harbouring her feelings. And this means, that if Sherlock doesn’t give her any kind of indication about his feelings, she’s ready to truly move on (and probably away). The talk about their feelings toward each other must have taken place because with that one camera shot of Molly entering 221B BS, the show clearly indicates the solution no 1 took place. Sherlock and Molly must have a resolution to their crisis, and moved together forward. How deep the connection between them is at this point it’s up to our interpratation. Sherlock could have finally denied any possibility for them being together, but I don’t think Molly would heave beamed so widely and headed toward him in that short shot of her if this was the case, so the other logical conclusion is, they moved forward in the romantic sense.

[This little meta made me realize that for me personally, any post season 4 fic will feel ooc if Sherlock and Molly are not together or slowly on their way to get there. (it can be either Sherlock’s need to sort out his feelings, his drug abuse etc, to slow down the process, or it can be Molly’s need to process it all - read a wonderful little one-shot of Sherlock waiting and wooing Molly subtlety in order to make her believe his feelings were true and it took him almost a year.). It just doesn’t feel right anymore to have them separated with their relationship status still unresloved like it could have been being done after every of previous seasons].