(no subject)
Title: Underneath
Fandom: Sherlock BBC
Pairing: John/Sherlock, John/OC
Warning: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not belonging to me in any shape or form
Description: A girl whose boyfriend came as one half of a crime-fighting duo discovers there are repercussions to dating Sherlock 's 'sidekick'. Or how Prudence Conway had flashbacks and came to a few realisations
It was a busy day in the park.
Prudence had never seen it so busy in all her weeks of coming through the area. She sighed as she slumped down on a gleaming park bench. It had not been a good day.
“Rough day, Miss?”
Sitting at the end of the bench was a man. A rather old man in appearance, in rather old and patched attire with a ragged beard and a glint in his eye that suggested he knew it all, but would rather hear the story from the horse’s mouth anyway. But a man all the same which meant that he may be intellectually wise but have all the emotional intelligence of a pair of …of…
Prudence bit her tongue .Her self control was slipping away today and he wasn’t the person she had the problems with anyway. She held out a hand and smiled rather determinedly at the man.
“Prudence Conway,” She shook his rather limp, soft hand as his mouth gaped open and then fell into a smile. They shook hands a good few moments more than they need to and then awkwardly broke apart.
“Ichabod Moore, at your service ma’am.” He gave a nod and winked at her. He seemed to mock her with his unforced good spirits. They sat a few moments in silence.
“So….” She muttered, under her breath, letting the word trail into the distance.
“So?” He said, one eyebrow raised in challenge, gazing at her calmly.
Prudence stared at him, wondering exactly when had she had lost her mind to even consider talking ….
“Well, I have a friend,” She blurted out unthinkingly and cringed bodily. Yes, it was confirmed that there wasn’t an original bone in her body. Prudence forged on blindly.
“she knew two complete” Prudence struggled to find a word both clean and descriptive of the two in question and failed in the quest “idiots who are the among the most blind, stupid, ignorant sods to grace the whole of London”. She gritted her teeth and looked unseeingly into the distance.” And between me and you, that’s beating a lot of competition at the moment.”
The seat vibrated and Prudence glanced over, blushing a bright red as the man took out a pipe and chuckled delightedly
“And this friend,” he emphasised as he deftly, with his pale white hands, put tobacco in the pipe setting it burning while Prudence watched fascinated as she somehow had never seen such a thing outside old movies. This act seemed to relax him as he had almost been sitting ramrod on the bench before.
“This friend” he repeated, settling back and puffing away, “did she give the names of the two men and how they came to figure so ignominiously in this story of misery and woe?” His eyes gave an abrupt look over which goaded her on.
“Well,” Prudence considered what to say for a moment as she closed her eyes and let the sun play on her face. It was a really a lovely spring day with moderate wind. The man stared at her as the sun glinted off the highlights in her brown hair.
Prudence sighed and levelled her head, squinting through the sunlight to look at the man. “The two idiots’ names are respectively John and Sherlock.” She spat. They both think they know everything but they couldn’t tell which way is up at times, especially about themselves”.
.
“Honestly, I should have known from the off, just from the way we all met and from their names….” She shrugged, helplessly.
“Their names? What’s wrong with their names?” The man said indignantly, though he looked at her with a laughing expression.
“Nothing…Ichabod” Prudence couldn’t help but laugh. “I suppose I’ll leave out the names from blame but everything else is totally their fault”. She frowned and Prudence swallowed as a big lump made itself known in her throat.
Ichabod, beside her, wrapped his hand around her hand lying on the bench and gave it a gentle squeeze. It felt warm and comforting. “Tell me all about it”.
Prudence looked up. “Do I know you from somewhere?” Looking into his brown eyes, they widened but didn’t look away. He squeezed her palm gently again.
“Tell me what’s wrong.”