It wasn't until he gave her that look that she realised how personal she'd just gotten with him. This wasn't the man she'd fallen in love with two years ago. This wasn't the man she'd made that tiny baby with. This John barely even knew her. But then, a voice reasoned in her head, she hadn't gotten anywhere by being shy with him the first go round, either. Maybe she did need a slightly bolder approach.
He needed someone to make him smile. That's what Martha had said and Mary was relatively certain she was right. But was it her? Florence was, by rights, single now. What if that's what John had wanted that whole time? He had made the two of them his family. What if he had no need for another? And why was this so difficult?
She just gave a little laugh. "Of course you do. You're not just some sidekick. You do know the books are written from your point of view, don't you? Why do you think that is, John?" She had her theories. How he was what would ground the reader. Sherlock Holmes was too out of the ordinary for the average person. They needed someone like John to show them the real world, to identify with. And to remind them that Sherlock Holmes, in the end, was only human. "He's not the same person without you. I don't think any of us are." She pulled back, then, giving him his personal space again.