Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hello, what are you here for today?” She asked, only looking up from the computer for a short moment, steering a quick tightlipped smile at him.

The nurse who was currently sat working had long curly brunette hair, pulled up into a strained bun, falling out in many places, but doing the job to keep the hair out of her face. Her scrubs were a plain color of a deep burgundy, complementing her hair and skin nicely. She spoke with a soft Latina accent, most likely not as strong as it used to be, side effect of living in London for so long.

“Um, hi, I’m Doctor John Watson, the new hire for the Pediatric ward and I was wondering what you needed me to do before I got started?” John questioned.

He just needed to get a new start, leave the rocky past behind. If you can count any of his past to be just rocky. That is if being blown up, losing his job in the army, losing his girlfriend, and now living on his friends couch as just rocky, then John Watson is your guy.

The only good part of John’s life right now was the fact he somehow secured a job, thanks to Mike Stamford, who got him a spot at Harley Hospital. And maybe that he also let John sleep on his couch until he found a flat. God, he really needed to get on finding that flat didn’t he. But John focused on the good side of it all, getting to work in pediatrics, the field he had been hoping from since getting discharged from the army - which was really only a few months ago – and getting to work in damn near the middle of central London.

“Oh, perfect! Dr. Lestrade told me to be expecting you, I’m Mariana Ametxazurra, one of the fellow nurses on the pediatric wards. I can take you up to get ready for your first day, just follow me,” she said, getting up from the desk, guiding John around to nearby elevator.

“Oh thank god, this place is ginormous” John sighed out, following along and walking into the elevator with her, watching as she clicked the button to the fourth floor.

“I know! I still will get lost, and I’ve been here for almost 2 years now!” Mariana grinned, loosening the tightly wound knots of stress and anxiety out of John. “We won’t have you doing much today, mainly getting your ID card, meeting some of the fellow staff, and and doing a lot of paperwork,” Mariana explained, stepping out the elevator and walking him through the hallways and over to a nearby door that read ‘Staff Only’ in bright red ink.

“Before I take you over to Lestrade’s office, I’ll give you a quick tour, so once she lets you free, you won’t get too lost in here,” John hummed in response, immersing himself in all the new information she had to offer. “This is the basic staff lounge, or breakroom, mainly people take lunch breaks in here, and a lot of boring paperwork goes on, and over there,” She pointed over to the walls in the back of the room, two doors with a small label of ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ on them, “are the staff locker rooms, where most people keep a change of clothes and just basic needs.” Mariana continued to point out other simple things, like the fridge system, what mug was taken and what wasn’t, and how the coffee machine worked.

“You, safe to say, are a lifesaver, thank you so much, I can’t even tell you,” John said, delighted that he wasn’t just being thrown into his new work life.

“Don’t worry about it! Everyone is stressed on the first day, least I can do is show you where things are,” Mariana said, leading John back out into the main hallway and back over to the elevator, “But for now, I should get you to Lestrade before she starts asking where you have disappeared off too.” Marianna pushed the button, leading them up to Dr. Lestrade’s office.

They soon were at the floor which held Lestrade office, having no medical equipment and only more offices following along the hallways.

“This should be it for now! Once Lestrade sets you free, come find me again and I can help you get a badge. I’ll probably be in the pediatric ward doing round, or at the front desk.” With her closing note, she waved at John, walking away from him and the solid oak wood door reading ‘Gwen Lestrade, Chief Medical Officer.’

John took a deep breath, letting his nerves slide out of him with his breath, trickling down into the floor and gliding away from him. He slowly raised his hand to the door, knocking on the oak, vibrations passing around the door.

“Come in,” passed through the door, John reaching down and twisting the golden doorknob, welcoming in the sight of Dr. Lestrade sat at her desk, surrounded by papers and folders.

“Ah, Dr. Watson! I was about to call the front desk to ask if you had turned up,” she said, putting the paper she was currently working on down, turning and facing John fully. “Please, sit down, I’ll get you started with some of the quick paperwork and the basic rundown of Harley.”

“Sorry about my lateness, Marianna at the front took me on a short tour of the Pediatrics.” John said, sitting down in one of the two chairs she had set in front of her desk. The chairs were a simple and sleek wood, with a deep red color on the adjacent cushions. The desk was a matching wood, keeping a sleek design through the whole office, giving a commanding energy to the room.

“Oh no worries at all, Mariana tends to jump at new employees, god knows she wormed her way into the new CPS officer we hired,” Lestrade chimed, laughing at the memory, “So John, I’m sure you heard all about this hospital and what it might entail, but I thought I would give you a basic rundown of what your job will include.” Lestrade explained, pulling some papers out and passing them over to john to start filling out.

“This is just some basic starting paperwork we ask all new hires to fill out, but you don’t need to get that filled out until tomorrow when you will fully start, but for now let’s talk about what you are going to be doing here,” Lestrade explained, passing John a manilla folder to store the paperwork in.

“You’ll mainly be working with the pediatric ward here, doing basic checkups all the way to taking care of long term patients. For now, we will be keeping you on basic walk-in and checkups, and when a new long term patient comes around, they will be passed onto you to take care of. Does that make sense?” John nodded his head in response, still flipping through some of the loose paperwork, figuring out all the information he will be needing for said work.

“It most likely won’t be a while until you are put into the position of long term patients, but I thought you would appreciate the heads up. However, I do want to get you set up with an ID and badge, payroll and other little things”

☾

John finished up his run-through with Dr. Lestrade, making his way back to the elevator to find Mariana to complete his tour for the day. John hopped into the elevator, about to watch the doors clothes as a man quickly stopped it, causing the doors to open once again. The person who had halted the elevator was a tall man, dressed in too nice of a suit for a hospital, elegance weeping out the stitching. He stood, typing away on his phone at a rapid pace, not once taking into account the floor buttons or John, who was awkwardly stood staring at this man.

The elevator jolted, taking John apart from his thoughts with it. He went back to thinking about how he needed to get a new flat, because as nice as Stamford was, John needed to save his back from another night on a couch. The elevator jolted to a spot once again, dropping him off at floor four, also jolting the mysterious man with it. He walked out the elevator, never taking his eyes off his phone as far as John could see into until the doors closed back on to him.

John kept riding the elevator down into the main floor, doors opening wide and opening his view to the front desk, but more specifically, Mariana. He walked over, avoiding the swarm of people that had formed. John quickly spotted the back of her head, curls slowly dropping out the bun.

John walked over, weaving through the mass of people to grab her, and getting lead right back upstairs to the breakroom, so Mariana could take her early lunch break. She sat them at a table near the back corner of the room, munching on a salad and sharing her sandwich with John.

“So, how’s the day been so far? Anything remarkable?” Mariana asked, polishing off her salad, pushing the stray leaves around on her plate, avoiding eating the faded pieces.

“Not much, I’ve mainly just been doing paperwork in Lestrade’s office, trying to get set to actually do work tomorrow. She did say I’m free to go whenever I want, as long as I bring in the paperwork tomorrow for my first day.”

“That sounds exactly like my first day, not much goes on, just endless signatures and paper.” The door swung open, giving way to Mike Stamford.

“John! There you are! I’ve been looking for you all over, how’s it going?”

“Stammo!”

“How’s the first day going so far, any crazy things happen yet?”

“Not yet, just talking to Mariana about the paperwork and boringness of it all” Mariana nodded in agreement, looking over at Mike. Mike Stanford was one of the residential plastic surgeons, mostly working on intense trauma and reconstructive cases, but occasionally the more popular plastic surgeries.

“Well I can tell you my first day sounded very similar, just paper and paper that I was never to hear of or see again.” Mike laughed, sitting down with his lunch, joining the table. “You going to head out soon, or no?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably leave soon, I want to get a jump on,” John was explaining, before being interrupted by Mariana’s pager blaring off throughout the otherwise quiet room.

“Sorry, that’s mine, I’ve got to head off, but I’ll catch up later!” She said, quickly getting up and rushing out the room leaving John and Mike behind.

“You were saying?” Mike asked, continuing Johns previous explanation.

“Just that I want to start looking for a new flat, I’m struggling to find a place nearby that offering roommates,” John sighed, remembering the long night before of scrolling all through the internet looking for a nearby flat share.

“You know, I might have someone in this very building that would be up for your offer,” Mike said, grinning at John.

“Oh yeah, and who is that,” John asked, rolling his eyes at Mikes actions.

☾

“Here is the man himself, Detective Sherlock Holmes!” Mike addressed, opening the door wide giving way to the elegant man who he had seen earlier, in the elevator. “This is Dr. John Watson.”

He was stood in a room, full of lab equipment and many little testing devices that John vaguely remembers from his short time at university. The mysterious man was currently moving in between a microscope and a machine that was spinning around quite fast.

“You must be the new hire for pediatrics, were going to be seeing each other a lot, as I work with CPS, and besides being flat mates and all that comes with that.” The Man, or by now Sherlock said.

“Did you tell him before hand or what,” John was saying, before getting interrupted by the loud beeping of Mikes pager.

“Sorry guys, I’ve got to head off, you guys get this all sorted,” Mike said, urgently trying to get out of the room and conversation.

“Goodbye Mike,” Sherlock said, stopping the spinning machine and pulling out what John guessed was a vile of blood.

“Yeah, bye Mike, see you later,” John said, distracted by watching Sherlock, “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting this blood ready to look at,” Sherlock said, sitting back down to place the thin glass pane, smeared with blood, underneath the microscope. “Where did you serve?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“In the army, where did you serve?”

“Ukraine… how did you know I was in the army? I’m sorry did Mike tell you anything about me before hand?”

“No, just that you were Dr. John Watson, though I don’t know how much of a proper doctor you are, based on the fact you completed your degree by being a medic doctor, don’t know how that translates over to pediatrics.” Sherlock quipped, putting on his jacket and walking over to the door. “I’m on lunch, let go look at the flat.”

“What? We’ve only just met, I don’t know a single thing about you, and you somehow know so much about me?” John sputtered, trying to understand where this man was getting all this information about him from.

“My name is Sherlock Holmes, I’m a consulting detective here working for the Social Services. I play the violin at night, I don’t sleep for days on end, or talk, for that matter.” Sherlock said, getting impatient about Johns questions, “We should know the worst about each other before we live together, shouldn’t we?”

“I have a dog.” John mumbled out.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I, uh, I have a dog, he’s with my mum right now, but I need to go fetch him soon, because I miss him and she’s over him.” John said, “His name is Archie, English Bulldog.”

“I like dogs,” Sherlock nodded, rolling Johns words over in his mind, forming them into different answers. “Now, are we going to go look at that flat or not?”

“I guess we can go now,” John said, pulling his jacket on, “Where is this flat anyway?”

“221B Baker Street, right near Regents Park, and right off central London.” Sherlock said, holding the door open for John as they walked out the lab and into the busy hospital hallway.

☾

“You really weren’t kidding when you said central, where you now,” John joked, huffing out a laugh while doing so, “I get why you needed a flat mate, a place like this could not be cheap!”

“Yes, it is quite central, why would I lie about that?” Sherlock said, questioning why John would even mention that “Would you like to see inside?”

“Yes please, lead the way, good sir.” John said, stepping in after Sherlock. He was greeted with a small narrow hallway.

The hallway led to a door with ‘221A’ printed on the front of it, and a tightened set of stairs, leading to what he guessed was 221B. The room had modest wallpaper with a simple wood paneling on the bottom half of the walls, stained in a rich, rubicund brown tone.

Sherlock climbed up the steep seventeen steps, opening the door to a slightly cluttered, but comfortable, living room and kitchen. The room was nicely lighted by a big almost floor to ceiling windows. The walls were covered in a nice pale green color, matching within the mix and match of furniture that cover the flat. The room was sparsely lit with many laps, that churned out various shades warm lighting, making John already feel at home and warm. Sherlock had also strung some Christmas lights around the flat, giving a soft glittery sparkle of the colors of the rainbow around the enveloped space. There were many pillows and blankets thrown around onto the couch and surrounding chairs.

“I’d of course be happy to make space for your items, as long as there isn’t an abnormal amount of them,” Sherlock said, kicking some smaller items on the floor out of the way so they could walk around the flat.

“No, this is perfect, really, I wouldn’t even have much to bring. Sold most of it before running off to the army,” John mused, “So, how much is rent?”

☾

“No mum, its fine I don’t mind, I’ve got a place now so I can take Archie back I swear,” John argued, trying to pack the final bit of clothing into his suitcase before leaving Stammo’s place and moving into Sherlock, and now his, flat.

“Are you sure John? I really don’t mind keeping him for a bit longer, he really isn’t a big bother!” Carol Watson, John’s mum had been watching Archie for the time that he was over seas during the army, and while he had been looking for a job out in London.

“Mum, we both know how much you hate his shit being all over the garden. Just get on a quick train ride to Paddington, and I can pick him up today, and you will be free of babysitting.” John argued, finally zipping up the suitcase which held all of his possessions that he deemed worth enough to be moved around place to place.

“Okay John, but just know, he was a delight to have even though he has his rough moments. Oh, you know who’s been going through a rough moment John? The Thompsons down the way! Eleanor was found out with another guy, all the while Todd was out on business trips, and I told Nancy,”

“Mum, don’t you need to get to Paddington soon? So I can pick up Archie?” John said, cutting off Carols endless jabbering because is John didn’t soon, then he would be here the whole time it took for him to carry his things to his new flat.

“Oh yes dear, Sorry about that, you know how I get,”

“Yes, I do mum,” John said exasperatedly, now holding his phone against his ear and starting to walk out the flat and onto the street, making the quick walk over to 221B. “But if you’re going to tell me about these things, at least to it as you head down to the station, I’d really like to see Archie sooner than later.”

“Oh yes, I’ll get you your little boy back soon, god knows how much he’s also missed you.” Carol said, laughing at the thought of Archie wiggling his little body around at the train station, at the sight of seeing John again, and how John will also be wiggling with anticipation to see Archie. She knows John will be sat at a nearby bench, bouncing his leg and checking his phone multiple times, anxious to get back to Archie.

“But John, the Tompsons aren’t going to get a divorce! They are going to try to work it out, or whatever that means” Carol said, continuing her early jabbering as John just sighed, ready to listen in to whatever the Tompsons had going on with their marriage. He walked down the streets, making few turns as the walk to Baker Street wasn’t far from where Mike had his current flat, as he was looking into moving in with his longtime girlfriend, Nadia. Carol kept blabbering on, and eventually John turned down the street to 221B and spotted a familiar set of scrubs he’d seen earlier that day.

“Mum, I’m sorry to cut you off, but I’m going to need to call you back, I think I see someone I know,”

“Oh don’t worry John, I’m just pulling up to the station now so I can just tell you later when I see you!”

“That sounds great mum, okay, I’ll see you later, goodbye,” John said, quickly hanging up before his mum tells him another thing and starts picking up his pace in order to greet the person at his door.

“Mariana? Is that you?” John asks, once he within distance of his door, which Mariana is currently balancing her bags with trained skill to get the keys into the door.

“Oh John! What are you doing here?” She asked, finally pushing the door open.

“Oh I, um, I live here,”

“Did someone here moveout? I thought all the flats were filled?”

“I’m actually living with Sherlock Holmes. Upstairs, in 221B.” John said, awkwardly shifting back and forth on two feet.

“Oh that’s great John! He’s always needed someone in his life, I’m glad you two found each other!” Mariana said, smiling at John as she brought her bags into the front entry, placing them in front of her doors. “So how long have you two been dating?”

“I’m sorry, what?” John said, sputtering out in confusion.

“Are you guys, not, together?”

“No, I’m his flat mate, not boyfriend.”

“Oh my god, I am so sorry, Sherlock has never mentioned looking for a flat mate, and he seemed happy to live alone, so I thought that was the only way someone was gonna live with him. I’m so sorry John, truly.” She apologized, face turning red from her assumption at John’s relationship status.

“It’s all okay Mariana, just a simple mix-up, don’t worry,” John assured, huffing out a small laugh, “I don’t fly that way even, so no harm, no fowl.”

“Oh god, okay, I’m going to go inside now, save myself from anymore embarrassment, welcome to Baker Street, I guess we will be seeing more of each other!” and with that, they waved, and John walked up the steps to his new flat, opening the door and being greeted with a smell of chemicals, and the sight of his new flat mate, to see him dipping a tie, with a print of swirling yellows on a blue background, into said chemicals.

“Sherlock?” John asked, cautiously walking his way up to Sherlock and the table, “What are you doing with that shoelace?”

“I’m seeing how the material will melt within this hydrochloric acid, it’s for my case, at the hospital, that we both work at.” Sherlock said, saying all this as if John should’ve known this.

“Why aren’t you doing it at the hospital?”

“They don’t like me doing this there, say I ‘get in the way of proper medical testing’”

“What exactly is your job at the hospital, because it doesn’t seem like you are a doctor, or have much medical knowledge, because you’re playing with highly dangerous acids with no gloves, eye protection or even something protecting your skin for god’s sake Sherlock,” John said, grabbing a simple zip up of Sherlock’s off a chair nearby, handing it over to Sherlock so he could cover himself in some mild form of protection.

“Thank you, Watson.” Sherlock commended, putting the zip up on, after setting his tongs holding the tie down.

“Nope, we are not going to be doing any of this ‘Watson’ stuff, please mate, call me John, we are living together now, I cannot have you calling me Watson while we share a living space.”

“But that is your name, is it not Watson?” Sherlock said, slight smirk falling on his face.

“Yes, it is, but not to you, you know what, I’m not doing this right now, I have to get to unpacked and then head to Kings Crossing, to pick up the final flat mate, Archie, so if you excuse me, I’m going to my room, and you will call me John”

“That is fine by me, Watson,” Sherlock taunted as John turned down the hallway to unpack his rather small suitcase.

He opened the door to his room, seeing a simple bed, desk and closet. The room gave a slight smell of mildew, most likely from not being used in a while, and had dust wafting throughout the sunshine of the nearby window.

The bed set was simple, a blue duvet and simple white sheets underneath, complete with two lighter blue pillows completing the look. John looked down at the floor, noticing the hardwood carried on into his room, but having a rug placed slightly under the bed, spreading out through the room, never daring to reach the edges.

John lifted his suitcase up, heaving it onto the bed and quickly got to unpacking his bag, setting his things away in the closet, and a few sentimental photos on his nightstand. One of his parents at their wedding, a simple picture from the night of both of them looking at each other, love being caried out through their eyes and into the picture. Another photo of John and his dad at a football game, Johns first game at age 6, where he quickly learned his love for the game.

The final photo, a picture of him holding a little baby bulldog, Archie. It had been from the day when he first adopted him, holding him tightly as Archie licked his face, a habit he still carried on to this day.

John smiled at all the photos, setting them down gently and going back to unpacking his bag.

☾

John walks onto Paddington station, sitting down onto a bench and checks the time, seeing how long until he can be back with Archie. Just to his luck, he’s still got another ten minutes to burn until his mums train arrives. He decided to start curating his shopping list, wanting to get enough to last him until next week when he can properly go out for shopping. So far, his list contains of little, just a case of beer, bread, meat, cheese, yogurt and Archie’s food. He can’t think of much else that he can get from the corner shop to keep him satisfied until later, but this will have to do. Hopefully Sherlock will be willing to share some of his food, and not let John starve to death.

After a while of bouncing his foot up and down multiple times, he heard the howling cry of the train pulling into the station, thundering to a stop and doors opening, slowly giving way to his mum and his beloved dog.

“Archie!” John cried out, bending down onto his knees to greet the dog. Archie was wiggling around, trying to jump up and lick John’s face as his own greeting, as John let him, giggling throughout it.

“Oi! Where’s my happy welcome!” Carol teased, laughing at her son who was completely enamored by his little bulldog.

“I just talked to you mum, I haven’t seen Archie in forever, let me look at him for a little,” John said, as if he hadn’t demanded facetiming his mother just so he could talk to Archie and get to yell random phrases at the bulldog. Archie had never been able to recognize that it was John talking in the phone, so Carol would just hold a treat near the phone so that it looked like Archie was looking at John and gave John the same impression as if he was looking at John.

Once John had finished his long awaited welcome party with Archie (rewrite that fucking sentence that ass), he pulled Carol in for a hug and caught up with her while the waited the short amount of time for her next train to arrive. Most the catching up involved Carol telling John about the neighborhood drama, but John pretended to be interested while playing with Archie during most of it. But eventually, Carols train arrived, and john said goodbye with his promise to call more often and headed back to Baker Street.

After getting his groceries, John walked back into Baker Street, seeing Sherlock was in the exact same spot he was before he had left.

“Did you even move while I was gone, mate?” John asked, dropping his bags and unleashing Archie to run free, getting used to the new flat.

“Yes, multiple times actually, I’ve just gone back to this spot.”

“Well, you might want to get up now as I’ve got someone for you to meet,” John said, extending his arms to Archie, and wiggling his fingers for a sense of pizzazz. Sherlock however did not look impressed.

“Hello Archie.”

“Come on mate, at least pretend to be excited to meet him!” John said, exasperated.

“I am excited! He seems very nice,” Sherlock said, struggling to hold back the more he had to say on Archie.

“What else,” John sighed at Sherlocks poor

“He’s a bit, I don’t know, small? I was expecting a bigger dog, you seem like the type to get a big dog!”

“What does that mean!”

“It doesn’t mean anything! It just means you seem like the type to get a big dog, not a bulldog,” Sherlock explained.

“Right, okay, anyway, meet Archie, the small bulldog and enjoy his presence, he will make it very known with his snoring.” John said, ending the small scuffle and going back to putting his groceries away. “And for the record, my childhood dog was a golden retriever!”

“I don’t put it past you,” Sherlock dismissed. They eventually dismissed the small feud, deciding to ignore each other as John went through the motions of winding down for bed, landing him at 12:30 at night, on the brink of sleep when he heard the sharp thrill of a violin, spring to life in the dark of night. It seemed as if Sherlock was going through scales as a quick warm up, before breaking into a quick flight of a song.

John sighed at the sound, bringing him out of his sleepy endeavors and pushing him back to getting on his phone, to wait out Sherlocks erratic playing.

This soon put John at one o’clock in the night, Sherlock still playing the same, fast and unrelenting song, whirling through the flat and into John’s ears. John laid back down, giving up scrolling on his phone and tried to go to sleep, even as Sherlock continued the intense playing.

Throughout the night, John drifted in and out of sleep with Sherlock's violin, his sleep patterns following along with the resonating sound of the strings. Every time the strings started to wail their song louder, John would wake to the wailing like a parent to child, springing up at the sound.

Towards morning, John found himself giving up on the nights rest, and listened to the sound of Sherlock, puttering around the flat. John followed suit, deciding to accompany Sherlock in his morning routine. He walked out of his room, down the small hallway to find the man standing up from the table, which held his laptop, and heading to the kettle, filling it up to make himself some tea. John followed his lead, rifling through cupboards to find where Sherlock kept the mugs.

“Cabinet to your right, and the shelf above has the tea, help yourself.” Sherlock guided, pointing at the cabinet while getting the kettle set up.

“Oh, thanks,” John said, reaching over and grabbing two mugs, one with a simple blue background with bees, and another with the Union Jack flag on it. He set them down, going to reach and get the tea, struggling to reach to the boxes in the back.

“Mate, were going to need to find a new spot for the tea boxes, I cannot reach half the ones in the back,” John said, moving over to look at Sherlock, “What tea do you keep anyway?”

“Earl, Mint, Lavender and sleepy time teas. If you want something different, I’m sure Mariana downstairs keeps more flavors.” Sherlock said, reaching into the cabinet and grabbing all the boxes of teas and moving them down to the counter for John to look at.

“No that’s fine, I usually drink Earl.” John grabbed one of the tea bags and set it in his cup, looking for the sugar and milk now.

“Mate, where do you keep the sugar, this place is still a mad house to me.”

“I should be in the cabinet on your left,” John grabbed the sugar and set it on the counter, now opening the fridge to get the milk.

“Sherlock, do you not have any milk?” John asked, turning to look at the man.

“No, I usually take my tea straight.”

“Mate, that is disgusting!”

“How is that gross!”

“It just is! You don’t like any sweetness? Just plain boring tea?”

“Sometimes I use milk, but not in the mornings, just plain tea.”

“Well, do you Marianas home? And does she have any milk?”

“She should be, but you going to have to catch her, she about to leave for work.”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s written on the whiteboard in the staff lounge at Harley, really John did you not see that on your grand tour?”

“Must slipped past me, I’m going to go see now,” with that, John put on his slippers, running down the steps, holding his mug and knocking on the door to Mariana’s.

“One second!” Mariana yelled out, soon opening the door up. She was wearing a pair of scrubs, the top having a simple pattern of flowers, and the bottoms being green. It looked like she was halfway through putting on her makeup, as she had some dots of unblended blush and foundation on her face.

“Oh John, hi!” Mariana said, looking at him further and noticing the coffee mug and pajamas. “Rough night?”

“You could say that again, speaking of, do you have any milk? Sherlock up there doesn’t keep any and I didn’t get any yet.” John asked, explaining the odd position he was in at Marianas doorstep.

“Of course, come on in and you can grab it, I’m just getting ready for work,” She said, stepping aside to let John in, “Your lucky, you don’t have to head in for a few hours,”

“You could say that again, really glad about that considering the night I just had.” John chuckled, grabbing the milk out the fridge and pouring a splash into the cup.

“Was he loud? He tends to do that at night when he’s going through a funk.” Mariana said, taking a sip out of her own tea.

“What funk is he going through?”

“Something new, he doesn’t handle it the best.”

“What’s new?”

“You John, you’re a whole new thing to him and its thrown him off, so he’s going to do whatever he can to get it away from him and go back to old.”

“So he’s trying to get me to leave his flat? Mariana, he asked for a flat mate, it’s not my fault I’m here,”

“Yes John, he knows that too, he knows that he chose to have a flat mate, because he knows it’s good for him, but he’s going to hate the beginning of it, and getting used to all this new stuff.” Mariana explained, starting to rummage through her drawers in the kitchen.

“It’s like going to the gym for the first time in a while, you’re going to hate every minute of it, and you know it’s good for you, but it really sucks. But once you’re done with that first few days of going to the gym, it becomes second nature, and you feel amazing, and start loving the gym! So just give him some time to adjust, he’s going to try everything he knows to get you out that flat for a couple of days, but after a while, it will go a lot more smoothly John, I promise.” She said, looking up at a dumbstruck John.

“Just take these earplugs, you’re going to need them for this week,” she said, holding out a pair of simple black ear plugs, and giving them to John. “Trust me, it sucked that first week when I moved in and tried to immediately be his friend, but it took time and now we have dinner together every week! It’s just going to take time John, but trust me, Sherlock’s a nice guy, he just struggles at the beginning.”

“I think, you might be right,” John said, mind drawing to a blank at what Mariana had told him. Sherlock had seemed a little weird last night, and not in a ‘we just met and are now living together’ weird. But in a way that made John question if Sherlock even likes people.

“I am, John, just be nice and you’ll figure it out.” Mariana reached out and set her hand on Johns, “And if it gets too loud, I have a pullout sofa that is welcome,” she said, getting a laugh out of John.

“Oh shit, I’ve got to get going or I’m going to be late.” Looking up at the clock, John also noticed how close the clock was getting to Mariana’s shift.

“Watson! Can you see if Mariana has the biscuits I like?” Sherlock voice came, echoing and bouncing off the walls of the stairs and into Marianas flat. John looked at her with a slightly confused face, which Mariana sighed and reached into a cabinet, pulling out a sleeve of biscuits.

“I know what he’s talking about. Here, just take the whole thing, there’s not that many left anyway.”

“Thanks, I better get headed back up there before he gets too hungry now,” John joked, saying goodbye to Mariana before she went off to work, reminding John that he also didn’t have long before leaving.

“I have got the biscuits you called for,” John said, walking into his flat to see Sherlock at the table, scrolling on his laptop at what John guessed was the news, and drinking his tea.

“Ah, thank you, Watson” he said, grabbing some of the biscuits and munching away at them.

“So, violin at night going to be a common appearance or just a once in a while thing?” John asked, pouring the now slightly cooled water into his mug and setting it away to steep.

“So you did hear last night,”

“Yeah, kind of hard not to.”

“What did you think?”

“What did I think?”

“Yes, any thoughts?”

“Well, I thought you were quite good, and I thought that it was a tad on the loud side,” John said, picking up his tea, deciding that he had waited long enough for it to steep and taking a sip. “What was it you were playing? Sounded familiar,”

“Flight of the Bumblebee, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, one of my favorite pieces,”

“Oh yeah? And whys that?”

“Well, bumblebees are quite an interesting animal, so are all bees, and I thought that the piece quite well captures the life of pollinators, as they are the backbone of most if not all growing organelles! They go out, collecting all this pollen, and then must spread it out onto other plants. That doesn’t even include the process of making honey, which is even more fascinating,” Sherlock explained, continuing to snack on his biscuits.

“Wow, guess you like bees then,” John said, now noticing that Sherlock was in fact using a mug that had bee’s on it. Huh, he probably should’ve picked up on that a bit quicker.

“Yes, you could say that.”

“Well, I think I have a movie that we will need to watch soon,” John said, checking the time again and realizing he probably needed to get ready for work soon. “What time are you heading into work today? Maybe we can go together,” John offered to Sherlock.

“I’m not going today, all my work can be done from here, so why would I go in, they only care if the work gets done, so I’d rather stay here in the peace and comfort of my flat.” Sherlock explained. John could agree with this, knowing that he would much rather get to sit on the couch, not having to deal with the small and meniscal things at work.

“Well, if you’re going to be home today, please keep an eye on Archie, I don’t think he will do much, but I won’t hurt.” John said, “I’m going to get ready, and maybe if I have time, I’ll watch TV.” John walked back into his room, rummaging through to find a good pair of scrubs, wanting to try and watch mindless TV before leaving for the long first day of work.

Chapter Text

The first few weeks of working at the hospital hadn’t been as bad as John had expected it to be. Sure, there was a lot of colds, simple coughs and other things that didn’t need to be examined at a hospital, but John took them in stride. He tried to have a calm and warm tone for all the parents who came in, most of them stressed out about the health of their child.

So John was a lot more lenient for a simple fever that had spiked a little too high for comfort, even though the kid was eating, drinking and playing just fine. He would come in with comforting words, telling them when is best to come back and offering for them to call the hospital for simple questions, and making sure when to know if they really needed the ER, or just a trip to the local doctor.

He was also able to get to know a few of the nurses he sees often. The most common one Was Mariana, as she barely took night shifts trying to keep a normal schedule. She was right about when they had first meet, that they would be working together a lot. She was almost always seen helping John with the more difficult cases that took a second set of hands, or more energy.

The person who he didn’t expect to be seeing a lot of was Sherlock. The man had told him they would be seeing each other a lot, with Sherlock consulting with pediatric cases a lot, but it had turned out that Sherlock and John's offices were just across the hall from each other. This let John slowly worm his way into Sherlocks day, each lunch break at a time. John had been going and eating lunch with Sherlock, whether he was invited or not. Most the time, he would walk into Sherlocks office, holding his lunch that he had packed in a rush to not be late, set it down loudly on Sherlocks desk, and get to eating. They wouldn’t chat much, usually resulting in work talk or what groceries they needed.

Sherlocks office wasn’t all that special, the only thing standing out to John was the giant wall he had covered in many pictures from past cases. Some of them were new cases that he was working on, over lapping other pictures drawing the connections between them. Some of them were old, ones that he hadn’t bothered to take down.

The other main piece of furniture was the giant whiteboard he kept with him, random pieces of information scrabbled onto it, smudged and in Sherlocks handwriting which was a weird cross between cursive and regular. He kept many different colors of markers, never having a certain system behind the colors. He said the different number of colors made for a “pleasing colorful arrange,” whatever that had meant when John had asked about it.

This time however, during the lunch time rituals that John had created, Mariana had walked into Sherlocks office to drop off a new case for Sherlock. She was acquainted with the sight of John sat in a chair opposing Sherlocks desk, feet propped up on the man’s desk, John’s lab jacket thrown on the back of the chair. He was eating a bag of crisps, lunch already had been eaten, and scrolling on his phone.

Sherlock, was sat in his plush chair, swaying the chair slightly back and forth in a light stim, while typing away on his computer, most likely writing a report on his most recent case which he had finished this morning. Mariana had heard very well about it when the man tracked them down in the medicine room doing inventory. He proceeded to spew his thoughts out to Mariana, plucking the thoughts into the place they belonged for the solution, while she tuned him out being used to these antics.

“Oh, hello Mariana, would you care to join us for lunch?” Sherlock said, lifting his head away from his computer and turning Johns bag of crisps to Mariana in an offering way.

“Hey, I was eating those, mate, those aren’t yours!” John said, pulling the crisps back.

“Don’t worry about it guys, I don’t even like that flavor, but Sherlock, I’ve got a new case for you. Guessed you would want one after you finished your case this morning.” Mariana said, throwing the file over John’s extended legs and onto Sherlocks desk.

“Finish that case already? Jesus mate, just last night you were storming around the flat with all your thinking. What popped the weasel on this one?”

“Popped the weasel?”

“You know, popped the weasel? Popped the lid off the case?”

“Watson, I’m afraid I’m not following, what do you mean by ‘popped?’”

“He means what cracked the case and got you the answer.” Mariana explained.

“Oh, thank you. I didn’t take much, I just noticed Archie playing with one of Johns socks that he had left around, which reminded me that I needed to get my robe out the wash. While getting it, I spotted the fabric softener that John uses, doesn’t do much to the actual clothing except giving it a nice smell,”

“Hey, just the other day I saw you using it on that very robe.”

“I never said that it’s bad Watson, just that it only adds smell, and nothing more. But, a lot of fabric softeners can create human skin irritation, and introduced to some other chemicals, which I haven’t been able to figure out, can cause chemical burns.” Sherlock explained, flailing his hands in wild gestures while talking.

“Is that why you started jumping up and down by the wash yesterday? I thought you were just really excited that the washer finally worked for once. That machine never does its job right and keeps leaving the clothes damp and,” John complained, soon being cut off by Sherlock.

“Watson, it’s because you keep setting it to small wash, while jamming a full load.”

“Yeah, but that is small load! I don’t put much in there!”

“No, you still the washer up halfway, which means it’s no longer a small load, so you need to set it as regular.”

“That cannot be the issue,”

“No, I think I agree with Sherlock on this one, if you’re filling it up more than halfway, that’s definitely not a small load.” Marianna said, laughing slightly at the ridiculousness of the argument. “But back to the more important topic, you’ve got a new case, Lestrade asked that you do it quick, and try and not drag it out like all your other case.” Mariana said.

“Yeah mate, you have been known to drag some of the endings of your cases out just for dramatic flair at times,” John said, forgetting about the previous argument and going back to eating his lunch, “just last week you were prattling about the flat yelling about your case,”

“That’s while I’m thinking john, completely different,”

“Well, Lestrade wants it done quick and easy, so no messing around with this one.” Mariana said, walking out the office, “Oh, and I was thinking about going to the pub tonight, are you guys down?”

“I’m down,” John said, agreeing quickly, “Sherlock? You down?” Sherlock nodded, skimming the file and flipping through the many photos of the new case.

“Well that settles it, I’ll see you around 6 shall we say?” Mariana asked, leaning on the doorframe.

“That should work, I get off at 4 and Sherlock here should be out same as me, as we have to do grocery shopping.” Sherlock groaned, obviously having forgot about the shopping that needed to be completed for the next week at the flat.

“I don’t like it either mate, but your impossible to shop for right now as nothing seems to please the mighty king,”

“I’m going to go before you guys start having a full blown argument about what food you need, because unlike you two, I have patients to see,” Mariana chided.

“That’s not fair! I also have patients!” John shouted out to Mariana who was now walking away and headed to do her rounds. “I’m new, I haven’t gotten any long-term patients, she’s got like, twelve! I’ve only been here a few weeks, she’s been here for ages with the way she tells her stories,” John complained, it had been slow start to working, no long term patients to be see that don’t require a doctor who specializes in something. It’s not that John wanted to see awfully sick kids, but he wanted some part of his job that made him feel like he was actually making connections and not just talking to the people that were in the waiting room

John kept prattling on while Sherlock tuned him out, turning to his computer to start googling random questions that would somehow be relevant to his case.

“John, your pager.” Sherlock said, noticing the red flashing at Johns waist.

“Oh shit,” John cursed, sitting up and packing his lunch that he had spread out onto Sherlocks desk taking up too much space in Sherlocks humble opinion. He needed that space to spread his cases out. John pulled out his phone, reading aloud the brief rundown that he had been sent.

“They’re saying they need me for a possible x-ray, they think it’s a fracture, but it could be broken.” John explained, more to himself rather than Sherlock, who was still typing away on his computer.

“Right, I probably won’t see you again until it’s time to leave, so be ready to go when it is, I don’t want to wait forever for you to pack up all your little things because were on a time crunch today,” John blathered, “So be ready by 4, please,” and with a small wave goodbye from Sherlock, John was headed to the exam room, getting ready to look at the kids arm.

The exam rooms weren’t the most comforting things, they were sterile, had an exam bed and the usual cabinets where simple medical supplies were held. The room had smelt of bleach and disinfectant, standing for a clean environment, rather than a safe warm space for the kid in front of him.

From the quick glance he had taken at the file, the kid, Jake, was 8, had gotten a recent concussion from a football game, and was a frequent visitor from an anxious parent by the looks of it. He had been here for simple colds that had run a little too long and was here every year for a flu shot.

John quickly got to work talking to the kid and his dad, feeling him arm and looking at the simple swelling and bruising around it.

“So, I can’t confirm it, but I do think that this is only a fracture, and thankfully not a full break, but I’m going to get us in for an x-ray.” John said, to the dad who had the kid sitting on his lap as the kid had refused to let go, complete with big tears falling down his face.

“How long is that going to take?” the dad asked, having already been here for over an hour.

“Going by how busy it’s been today, not that long, only 30 minutes max and once we confirm the fracture, we will get the cast on, and you can be on your way!” John said cheerfully, filling out a room request on the laptop.
“But for now, if you want to come with me, I’ll get him prepared, and you can be in the nearby room watching. Jake was easy to convince, hopping off his dads lap and following John out the room with his dad nearby as John explained everything that was about to happen.

They soon made it over to the room, and John got Jake sitting on the x-ray table, pointing out all the different devices and what they all do.

“So this one is super cool, and it’s going to take a picture of your arm, but it’s going to act like Superman and see into your arm, and show me the bones so I can tell what type of treatment you’re going to need, okay?” John said, getting the machines booted up. Jake nodded, looking over at his dad in the nearby room, who quickly gave him a thumbs up and smiled.

“The last thing I need you to do is take off your jacket, so I can get the best picture possible of your arm, okay? I’ll put it on this chair by you so you can put it back on right when we are done.” Jake started shimming off his jacket with the help of John due to his arm, when John quickly noticed the different amounts of bruises that went on the kids arms.

“You play a lot of football I heard?” John asked, trying to find out how there could be this many.

“Not right now,” Jake said, shaking his head, “I get to play again in the spring.”

“Any siblings at home?”

“No, it’s just me and my dad and Emma.”

“Who’s Emma?” John asked, getting the machine in place and ready to scan.

“She’s my dad’s girlfriend, I don’t really like her, but she lets me stay up late and eat ice cream when dad isn’t home,” Jake said.

“Okay I think that’s enough questions for now, so I’m going to go into that room really quick, press a button and that machine will take the picture and I’ll be right back to help you back to the exam room while I look at the picture.” Jake nodded again.

John quickly walked back into the room, pulling out his phone and opening his messaged with Sherlock.

John: Meet me in X-ray room. Possible abuse case I want you to see.

The reply back was quick, a simple thumbs up as John took the x-ray, and headed back to Jake, taking him and his dad back to an exam room to wait on the results. By time John was back in the x-ray room, Sherlock was sat on a nearby stool, scrolling on his phone waiting for John.

The standoff x-ray rooms were also plainly dressed, only housing the controls for the x-ray machine and a simple lightbox station to exam and stare for long period of time at the x-rays. The room kept a few rolling stools, and was dimly lit.

“Oh perfect, you’re here,” John said, breathing out a large sigh filled with relief.

“What’s the issue,” Sherlock asking, pulling a nearby stool to the desktop, watching as John pulled out his laptop and pulling up the x-ray picture.

“I think this kid is being abused by someone at home, my best guess is his stepmom as he doesn’t seem to like her, and he keeps clinging to his dad.”

“Is she here?”

“No, he told me that he doesn’t like her, and that she lets him stay up and eat junk food,” John said, looking at the x-ray and quickly spotting the fracture. “Yup, look at that, classic textbook fracture, what did I say!” John said, quickly circling the fracture to show to Jakes dad later.

“What does the fracture have to do with the abuse?”

“Oh nothing, he fractured it while climbing in a tree at the park with his dad,” John said, printing off the x-ray.

“Then why am I here!” Sherlock said, not getting why John bothered inviting him to look at the fractured arm.

“I don’t know! Isn’t this your job! To stop the abuse and figure out what’s going on!” John cried out, grabbing the x-rays and walking to the door, “I’m sorry for yelling, just come talk to the kid with me and see if you can figure out what’s going on!” and with that final thought from John, the pair quickly left the room and headed back to Jake and his dad.

“And I’m back! I’m a man of my word and promised it wouldn’t take long!” John exclaimed, walking into the room and bringing Sherlock in with him. “This is my friend, Mr. Holmes, and he was going to talk to Jake really quick while I talked to you,” John said, addressing Jakes dad.

“Is everything okay?” Jakes dad, who John just remembered after looking at the file was named Mark, asked John, worry panning across his face.

“Nothing, just standard procedure!” John said, taking him out into the hallway and leaving Sherlock to ask Jake some questions about Emma while they played with some toys John grabbed out of his office.

“So, the x-ray confirmed it was a simple textbook fracture, and we will get a cast on that in just a moment, but I wanted to ask you a few questions about Jake,” John said, putting on his more serious face rather than the warm face he had on telling Mark about the results.

“Go ahead,” Mark said, hesitantly.

“While doing the x-ray, I noticed Jake had some severe bruises on his arms, which lead me to believe he could be in danger,” John said. “Now, I haven’t gathered any reason to believe it’s you from this whole trip, but I wanted to ask if anyone might be of suspicion.” John reached out his arm, trying to give a piece of comfort from him to Mark at the news that his kid was being hurt.

“Well, um, the only one that comes to mind is my new girlfriend? Jake hasn’t been a big fan of her, but I just chalked that up to him struggling with change and, well shit,” Mark said, his breathing starting to quicken, “I mean, Emma never really liked Jake either, but I thought she was just hesitant about me having kids- oh God, oh my God, this can’t be real.” Mark was now on the verge of a panic attack, getting John to quickly move him to the nearby chairs.

“You’re fine Mark, just breathe, in through your mouth and out,” John said, exaggerate his breathing to show and quickly guiding Mark through his. It didn’t take long for him to calm down.

“Are you okay to continue now?” John asked hesitantly, making sure the man wasn’t about to throw himself into another panic attack.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Mark said, rubbing his hands together in a soothing way.

“I am required to alert the police of this, and that may require Jake being relocated, do you have anyone that he can stay with nearby as of right now? I don’t want this to be sprung on you, so I’ll try and take as much information right now.” John said, pulling out the small notebook he kept in his lab jacket pocket.

“His grandma lives near here,”

“Okay, I’ll make sure to tell them that, why don’t we head back in with your son. Mr. Holmes has been in there talking to him about this and trying to get as much information to help you. I do want to get picture and a quick wellness exam before he leaves however.” John said, guiding the man back up and into the room.

“Yes please, anything that will help.” John nodded, paging Mariana to help him do the cast, exam and pictures.

“Hello Mr. Holmes and Jake! So Jake, the x-rays showed that you did indeed fracture your arm and are gonna need a cast. But the good thing is, you’ll only need it for 6-8 weeks, and you’ll be back in action ready for football!” John said, cheering, he slowly started pulling out the needed materials for the cast while talking to Jake.

“I’ve got a lovely nurse on the way to help me out with putting your cast on, and once we are done with that, we are going to give you a quick look over and take some pictures of you so we can see how much you’ve grown once you get your cast off!”

“Mr. Johnson, may I speak to you in the hallway? It shouldn’t be that long.” Sherlock said, motioning to the door. Mark nodded, solemnly going back out into the hallway to now doubt talk about the possibly abuse his child was facing. At that moment Mariana walked in after them, holding the needed supplies for the casting. They quickly got to work wrapping Jakes arm and leaving him to pick an electric green colored cast.

While John and Mariana were doing the quick exam and taking pictures, Mark walked back in, quickly explaining to Jake that his grandma was going to pick him up and that he was going to sleep over there. Soon Jake had left, leaving just John, Sherlock and Mark to start filing the needed paperwork. Mariana had left to go back to taking care of her patients, reminding them of there after work plans.

By time all the paperwork had been completed, it was 3:30 and John counted that close enough to leave work, heading to his office and slowly packing up his things, then making the short walk across the hallway to Sherlocks office, so they could get going.

“You ready mate?” John asked, leaning on the doorframe, watching as Sherlock was back at his desk, clacking away on his keyboard.

“Almost, just uploading all the paperwork from today,” Sherlock said, trailing off near the end of his sentence.

“Alright, and how long should I expect that to take?”

“Not long, only around ten minutes max.”

“Great, hand me a sticky note and I’ll get a start on our shopping list.” John said, pulling out his pen as Sherlock pulled out his sticky notes from his desk. He quickly got to working listing out the things he needed with Sherlock occasionally pointing out other things that they needed, or that he felt like getting that week.

Before John knew it, Sherlock had finished filing the paperwork and was packing up his bag, sending John up and out of his chair to watch Sherlock lock his office, and reminding John that he should probably do the same. John just sighed, walking over and locking his also to please Sherlock.

“There, is that better?” John said, sighing and putting his keys back into his bag.

“Quite so, Watson.” Sherlock said, pleased at his action and lead them to the elevator, swiftly hopping on and off and leaving the building for the rest of the night.

☾

John and Sherlock entered 221B, both their arms full with grocery bags of their needed things for the week, when Archie came sprinting full force, aiming himself for Johns legs. John quickly jumped away, sending the bulldog out into the hallway so he’ll turn around and attempt the move again, but after John set the bags down.

“I don’t get why you let him do that, Watson.” Sherlock said, starting to shed his outside garments and put them onto the coat rack. He held out his arm to take Johns, watching as the man was getting headbutted by his dog while attempting to remove his jack and work bag.

“Well, he’s done it since he was a puppy, and I suppose I never really minded, it was nice to get a welcome home greeting each time I came back I suppose,” John thought out loud, thinking back on when Archie was still a little puppy, and he would barely cause any harm to John. Now he was able to knock John off his feet if he wasn’t ready for it, which has happened quite a few times.

“Weren’t you living with someone who could’ve given you a proper greeting?”

“Yeah, but that’s beside the point, Archie here is cute, and I like when he does it, don’t I buddy,” John said, leaning down and picking up the bulldog, letting him lick his face as John smothered him in kisses.

“Look at his cute face and tell me you wouldn’t want to be greeted with a nice headbutt,” John held Archie out to Sherlock, pushing him closer to his face so Archie could attempt to lick him.

“Yes Watson, I get it, you love him and didn’t care enough to train the behavior out of him. Also your sentimental and love all his puppy traits, and commonly point them out to me,” Sherlock said, now packing away the groceries while John was now on all fours playing with Archie in the living room.

Sherlock turned to watch as John was now up and chasing Archie around the flat to ‘get his city wiggles out’ as John was still holding regret for keeping him inside more than he was used to.

“Okay, I think I’m going to take a quick shower, then we can head down to the pub and get drunk, because I don’t work tomorrow and I would like to have fun,” John said, packing the last of the food into the fridge and cabinets with Sherlock.

“You shouldn’t get drunk, just because you don’t work tomorrow,” Sherlock mused.

“Oh hush, your just jealous that you have to go in,” John said, walking away to the bathroom.

☾

“Mariana! Over here!” John yelled out, waving his arms so Mariana could notice them in the busy pub. John and Sherlock had already been in the pub a while, John nursing his second beer, and Sherlock still sipping on a glass of red wine. John had also ordered some crisps for them that the pair of them had slowly been munching away at, Sherlock more than John, to the man’s surprise.

“I would’ve ordered you a drink, but I didn’t know if you had a preference or anything,” John said, pushing the basket of fries to her seat. They were sat at a round high-top table, spacing them all out equally from each other and making it easy to see everything going on. Sherlock insisted on sitting facing the door, that way he could people watch, as he often got bored of whatever John and Mariana were talking about if it didn’t seem interesting, or if it was pop culture.

“Oh don’t worry about it, I wanted to look over the menu and see if they had any fun specials tonight anyway,” Mariana assured, grabbing the drink menu and skimming through it before quickly ordering it and coming back, drink in hand.

“So, tell us about your drink,” John prompted, nodding his head towards Mariana’s.

“It is called a hurricane, and is rum, passion and orange fruit juice, and some grenadine!” Mariana explained, holding up the drink for the boys to see. John ooo’ed and ahh’ed, clapping softly for the presentation.

“Sherlock, you’re next, run through your drink!” Mariana said, pointing over at his glass.

“Not much to it, simple red wine with hints of cherry to it,” he said, holding up the glass.

“Boo! Lame presentation!” John called out.

“You’re not much better John! You just got a glass of Guinness! Where’s the fun in that?” Mariana called him out.

“Hey! This is a classic and timeless drink!” John defended, “Now leave me alone and we can all cheers and get to complaining about work,” John said, holding up his drink and being met with the others.

“Well, I think I might be the winner of the best story from today,” Mariana said, taking a sip of her drink.

“Oh really, what possibly could beat the fact that I pulled a bead out of a kids nose? Because I did that today,” John bragged.

“My ex came in,” she said, smugly.

“Oh, yeah, that definitely beats mine,”

“And you won’t believe what it was for!”

“Got his dick stuck in something?” John asked.

“Watson, your maturity is spectacular.” Sherlock remarked, laughing.

“Ew gross John, no, guess something better.” She spoke.

“Was it something to do with a fight?” Sherlock asked

“You guys are no fun, I’ll just tell you,” She groaned, setting her drink down and getting into story mode. “Okay, background on this guy, he was the worst, fully self-obsessed, I don’t even know why I ended up dating him, it only lasted like three months.” She said, shuddering at the memories of him.

“But basically, he’s loaded,” She started saying before getting cut off by John.

“Oh Mariana’s a gold digger huh?” John said, laughing at her.

“Watson,” Sherlock chided, looking to Mariana to continue.

“Thank you, Sherlock. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted,” she said, glaring over at John, “He’s loaded, always buying these big fancy and important things. So he comes in, blood is practically gushing out his head, and he’s acting as if this is a normal day for him,” She explained waving her hands around in the actions of what she was saying.

“He comes in, saying he’d been mugged in the street, which needed a police statement so as I’m stitching him up, I’m listening to what the cops tell him and oh my God he is the most stupid man in the world!” Mariana groaned, remembering all the parts of the story.

“Okay, okay, so he said that he was in a parking garage, walking to his car, which is a very nice Lamborghini, which he babies and doesn’t let anyone come in harm’s way with it. A guy pops out, seeming sketchy and tries chatting him up, saying all these weird things. But he’s a fucking idiot and lets the guy keep following him while he’s talking, taking him straight to his car.”

“I think I can tell where this is going Mariana,” John said, groaning at how cliché the story is.

“You’re probably right, he goes to get in his car, and BAM! He’s on the floor, knocked out cold from this guy. He steals everything on him, watch, phone, wallet and drives off in his car.” Mariana scoffs, “I mean, who just leads someone sketchy like that right to their car!”

“Mariana, how is this guy your ex!” John said, laughing at the absurdity of the story.

“Don’t laugh, he’s really fucking good in bed,” she said, face turning slightly red.

“Oh Mariana! You didn’t need to actually tell us!” John yelled out, not expecting that truthful of a story.

“Watson, you say this as if you haven’t done this also,” Sherlock said.

“Oh alright mate, have you done it? If we are gonna go around accusing people of slutting around here!” John cried out, throwing his hands up in the air. Sherlock's face turned slightly red as he started to busy himself by taking a drink out of his wine. After taking his sip he looked over at John with a cocky look on his face.

“No!” Mariana yelled out.

“Sherlock!” John laughed out. He didn’t imagine Sherlock as the type to be with someone for the sole reason of a good fuck. John didn’t really imagine Sherlock as the person to be with someone period!

“It was in Uni,” Sherlock admitted, still with a grin on his face.

“Who was it?” John quickly asked, wanting it find out as much as possible about Sherlocks past romances.

“Why do you care? You won’t know them,” Sherlock said.

“That’s not the point Sherlock, we want to know about your past lovers!” Mariana said.

“Yeah! Who know you could be a slut!”

“John!” Mariana said, smacking him on the arm.

“Yes John, it’s not polite to slut shame!” Sherlock said, sticking his tongue out.

“Oh yeah, real mature dickhead,” John scoffed, “But tell us about this, I want to know!”

“Yeah Sherlock, we want to know!”

“It was in uni, it was just a simple relationship, something to get my mind off life and school.” Sherlock said, “Nothing special, little romance.”

“Oh come on, give us more than that!” John complained.

“I’m telling you it was a boring relationship! The interesting one was with a different guy,”

“Then tell us about- wait did you say guy?” John said, cutting himself off.

“Yes? I sure hope that’s not a problem.” Sherlock said, tensing up for a moment.

“No, of course it’s not a problem why would it be a problem?” John said, looking at Sherlock as if he was stupid.

“John, did you not know Sherlock was gay?” Mariana asks, grin across her face.

“No! How was I supposed to! He’s not exactly going around flaunting it!” John said, defending himself.

“Watson, I have a pride flag on my desk in my office!” Sherlock mentioned.

“I just thought you were an ally!”

“Let’s move on from this! I want to know about this guy!” Mariana said, ending the argument leaving John to mutter about ‘how he was supposed to know.’

“Nothing that bad happened, it just took me down a route in life that I rather regret.” Sherlock said, going back original calm demeanor.

“Wait John, you got us off track here, we were talking about you being with people for the sex!” Mariana pointed out. Johns face went red at the mention of being caught.

“Umm well, it’s like Sherlock said, it was during uni, and I was pretty stupid, and meet a lot of people, and got with them after a long night, and I don’t do that anymore! The army wasn’t much help with that either,” he explained all fidgeting with anything he could put his hands on.

“John, did you do things, in the army?” Mariana said, confused on what John was implying.

“NO!” he shouted out, frantically waving his hands around. “I didn’t do anything weird like that, just that it got me used to not seeing the same people, and I got used to not expecting long term relationships,”

“It’s fine if you did John, you were in the army where people discover a lot about themselves due to the high stress,” Sherlock said, looking sincerely over to John.

“I didn’t sleep with dudes, if that’s what you’re implying.” He said, narrowing his eyes at the both of them. “But I settled down, put that part of my life away and I had a long term girlfriend! We dated for like 3 whole years and lasted through most the pandemic!” John said, getting hesitant looks from both of them.

“You don’t believe me!” John cried out.

“I’m sorry John! It’s just a weird story!” Mariana said, getting Sherlock to agree with her.

“Look, I’ve got this old tattoo removed, that’s from her,” he said, pulling up his sleeve to show off the shitty tattoo removal he had gotten during the height of the breakup. Their mouths dropped slightly, spotting the tattoo.

“And Archie for God’s sake! He’s from that past relationship! Why do you think I’m living here in London of all places! I’m having a weird quarter life crisis!” John exclaimed, getting worked up over this small thing.

“John, it’s okay, we believe, don’t worry, right Sherlock?” Mariana comforted, reaching over and grabbing Johns hand. Sherlock nodded, choosing to stay silent during this.

“Why don’t we take a break from relationship talk, and talk about other things, like stupid things our parents do.” Mariana suggested, changing the topic.

“Mariana, that is worse than whatever John could bring up next.” Sherlock voiced.

“Sorry,” John muttered from where he had his head laid on the table, “It’s just been a long day, and the kid at work didn’t help,” he said defeatedly.

“Why don’t we call it a night, it’s getting late and both me and Sherlock have work in the morning.” Mariana offered, hopping off her chair and throwing her coat and bag on.

“Better idea, we go get a treat next door, they’re open late and have amazing cake,” Sherlock suggested, remembering how John had pointed out wanting to try the place out on one of their walks to work earlier that week.

“That’s actually not a bad idea Sherlock,” John said, perking up and hopping off his seat and quickly finishing his beer and packing his things up.

“Well now we know for next time how to make him feel better,” Mariana said to Sherlock, watching John leave the pub leaving Sherlock and Mariana to catch up.

☾

It was a few nights later, and John and Sherlock were at their flat, cake in their stomachs and lounged out on the couch. Neither of them wanting to commit to the act of going to bed, deciding to put on an old episode of Top Gear, which John occasionally chuckled at. He didn’t put much thought into the show, mainly flipping through his mental filing cabinet, going through his past cases that week.

He landed on the case of Jake and Mark, wondering what they were doing with the crazy wrench thrown in their lives. John thought about what the process for getting the girlfriend in court and behind some type of bars would be. He hoped it would go smooth, flying by easily with the amount of evidence him and Mariana were able to collect during his quick exam.

It was in that moment that John remembered that Sherlock had talked to Jake and Mark, and John never asked Sherlock what had happened. Had he been able to figure it out? Did everything smooth over? Were they going to have a long court battle in front of them.

“Sherlock, can I ask you a question?”

“Go ahead,”

“What did Jake say while you were talking to him?” John asked, looking over at Sherlock who was engrossed in his book, which from the cover appeared to be on the history of the common cold.

“He admitted to the abuse, I got it on voice recording, I then played it for his father, turned it in with the police report and it should make everything go very smooth John, so stop worrying about it.” Sherlock said, putting down his book and looking over at John.

“I can’t stop! It’s just every time I think of something else, my mind loops back around to him! I just hope he’s safe, and that he’s out of harms way.”

“He will be John, we just made sure of it. If it helps ease your brain, he’s been booked for his cast removal under your name, so you’ll get to check on the kid, I made sure of it.”

“I guess it helps, but I can’t stop thinking about it!” John groaned, sliding down his chair, going limp in the arms, legs and torso, letting all his strength flow out of him.

“Then let’s talk about something else.” Sherlock said, putting his book down and preparing to find a way to distract John.

“Like what,”

“Your ex, for a start,” John whipped his head over to Sherlock, giving him a ridiculous look, wondering why he would want to bring her up now. It had been a little since that night at the pub, leading John to believe that Sherlock had forgotten about it, or at least gave the impression of that.

“Not much happened there, mate, she was just a bitch once we moved in together, broke it off, and went off to the army, got blown up, and here we are,” John said, dismissing Sherlock.

“How about we play a game, grab the scrabble,” Sherlock said, taking the hint that he should probably shut up, standing up and dragging the coffee table back into the middle, “It should be in the cabinet.” John got up, grabbing the board game and heading to the kitchen to make them tea.

When John walked back into the living room, scrabble had been set up, ready to go as John sat down their mugs, grabbing a couch cushion to sit on, and get ready to be destroy by Sherlock, ending the night on a pleasant note, if John could say so himself