Birthday Dates
Sherlock,
PG
No warnings
Sherlock ain't mine bro.
Birthdays have always been somewhat of interesting concept in human history. Each really holds special meaning only to a certain few; to others it’s just another day on the calendar, another span of hours gone by, another day waiting in the wings. In truth the date of birthdays is rather unimportant. They hold no meaning at all; they have no effect on the day ahead. No date make a day.
It’s how you react to the day is really what makes it special.
Gregory Lestrade’s birthday has always been in the middle of the fall, when the incoming chill of winter is already sneaking its way through the air, when the leaves fall and when for some reason work seems to pile up to his eyeballs. Lestrade really has never found a reason why criminals decide to cause a mass crime spree in the middle of fall at all times, but he assumed it was because most of them wanted to get all their jobs done before the cold of winter.
Creeping on rooftops to break in is much harder in snow, after all.
On September 13th on the other hand, Lestrade is not in the office. His phone is on vibrate, an auto reply set in place saying “Unless you’re dying it’s my birthday. Call Gregerson. Sherlock, dying of boredom doesn’t count.”
Lestrade spends the day with his wife, a lovely women named Sophia who works at a computer company and is a bloody genius. On the days when he gets cases over his head, he always talks to her about them before calling Sherlock to make sure he isn’t missing something that doesn’t take a mad genius to catch. On the days when Sherlock makes him feel even more stupid than usual, she points out that Greg in no way is an idiot. Perhaps a bit dense at times when it came to him realizing that his beautiful, smart, friend would gladly marry him, but otherwise a sharp guy. His birthday isn’t one of those days; in fact crime is pretty far from his mind set by bounds.
To Sherlock’s credit he only texts once and after the auto reply doesn’t try again. The same can’t be said for the next day when Lestrade wakes up to find at least 20 texts of bored and one from John saying ‘save me.”
He decides to wait a bit before helping the two out. He‘s rather fine with staying in bed for five more minutes.
On October 23d Sally Donovan expects very little for her birthday. In fact, all she really wants is a nice warm shower and to get out the gunk in her hair from swimming in the Thames. Chases are always fun, but while Sally doesn’t mind getting dirty it doesn’t mean she wants to.
So when she walks into her apartment to find a nice meal set up for her, rolls fresh out of the oven, a cake and some subtly hidden takeout boxes all she does is smile and pull back her damp hair.
“I love the thought David, but it’s not a good time.” Anderson smiles from the chair he’s been sitting in in her apartment, holding out a wrapped box.
“Can I at least give you your present? Figured it would cheer you up after chasing after the freak all day.”
Sally sighs in defeat, picking up the box and ripping off the cover in one movement. Her eyes grow wide as she read the papers inside and she looks up at Anderson in shock. He just shrugs.
“I’m surprised I was able to keep it a surprise this long without Holmes outing me. But I thought you might like to know the papers went through and she’s off in Paris with her new lover.” There was no bitterness as he says this, to Sally’s surprise. She had been getting used to his lingering pain of his cheating wife.
Well now ex-wife.
She grins grabbing the labels of his work outfit and pulling him close for a kiss, letting the done-deal divorce papers hit the ground. David looks a little shocked at first and soon pulls her closer as well.
Neither of them mind the smell of the Thames.
On January 3d, Dimmock doesn’t plan of celebrating his birthday at all really, at least until Lestrade tells him to learn from his own mistakes and get out of the office. He walks a few steps really around Bart’s thinking about possible ways to get work done off the clock when he accidently knocks into the mortician he had met a few days prior. She has her hair up in a pretty pony tail and she had accidently spills coffee on the ground from the impact. They both scramble to the floor trying to get the messed cleaned up, and after a heaping of paper towels manage the job.
“I’m sorry.” They both stutter and then grow pink. Dimmock can’t help but notice the girl is rather pretty, and didn’t he hear she was single?
“No problem,” She says, Ms. Hooper right? “Too bad though, that was my last cup I could buy. Left my wallet at home.” She grows red as she says this, obviously embarrassed.
“How about I make it up to you?” Dimmock says, holding up his wallet. “It’s my fault after all, Ms. Hooper.”
The women smiles, grabbing the wallet out of his hands with a wink and starts to saunter towards the doors. “Call me Molly.”
Dimmock starts to think he might have found a solid birthday gift.
A few hours later, after a wonderful conversation over coffee, a lecture on not working too hard, an adventure across town, a beat down of a few muggers who apparently has started taking martial arts after a ‘nasty’ ex-boyfriend, and some kiss, Dimmock is sure he found the perfect birthday gift.
He makes sure to thank Lestrade in the morning for making him take off.
Molly Hooper spends August 19th by watching Glee, calling Sally for advice on how to deal with the fact her ex-boyfriend is a criminal mastermind. She’s a little surprised when a few hours later, there’s a new card with her presents for self-defense lessons. The first lesson is that day.
Molly ends up going, leaving her cat Toby to watch the rest of the movie. While watching Rachel and Finn get together is rather exciting, Molly discovers that watching her opponent go down is much more. Especially when she pictures it’s Moriarty she’s knocking down.
A few months later with an alley of muggers and one handsome officer watching in awe, she decides she owes Sally something very special for her birthday.
Athena, well really Megan to a select few, spends her birthday the same every year, really. After hours of constantly being in her blackberry she gets to drive home, pulling up her plain old car to her flat. She makes sure to send a reminder text to Mycroft if her calls her she won’t be happy and steps into the door, letting the scent of Christmas pine fill her nose. Her girlfriend sits on the sofa, red hair up in a ponytail, her met uniform still on smiling up at her.
“I see you made it home again, Meg.” She says cheerfully. “I thought you might beat me home this year. Gregerson wanted me to do overtime. Got a call from higher up to let me off for Christmas. He even remembered my first name for once. You wouldn’t have anything to do with that would you?”
“That’s ridiculous,” Athena says, rolling her eyes to plop next to her girlfriend, Aria on the sofa. She makes a mental note to text Mycroft thanks later.
Much later, she adds as she notices the mistletoe hanging above them.
Mycroft spends April 1st by changing all the lights to red as his brother makes his way to the yard. Sherlock is an hour late as a result.
He later gets a text from his brother saying, “Alright, Happy Birthday- SH” Sherlock gets a streak of green lights on the way home.
Mycroft always found that this method worked best for acknowledgement. It’s a lot like training a dog.
Sherlock would not bother celebrating his birthday on January 6 if it wasn’t for the fact Mycroft happened to let John know. So is forced to sit and eat a nice helping of cake as John watches, telling him to rest. His gift is a promise of a few cold cases to keep him busy from Lestrade, a guide on quiting habits with a nicotine patch stuck inside from Mycroft, and a working model of the solar system from John.
The fact he has a broken leg might contribute to the fact he doesn’t complain against being held against his will but from the fact he never says bored throughout the entire proceeding says its own story.
July 7th for John is spent on the down low. John has never liked grand gestures of attention and he makes sure to hide his sister’s presents from Sherlock so he won’t find out. He does pretty well he thinks since most of the day Sherlock takes him around London running after a thief.
He keeps up this mind set until Sherlock takes him to a pub for ‘the case’ only to find the yard, his sister and a few mates from word waiting for him. There’s a cake that Molly made for him on the table and Sherlock smiles smugly.
Only later in the evening does he find that Sherlock planned the whole affair. He tries to act as surprised as the yard expects him to be, but he deduced that on his own a while back.
If Sherlock was going to go to a party, it would have to be one he planned himself.
Birthdays really are rather dull on their own. It’s the people you celebrate them with that makes the difference.