The Adventure of the Civil Partnership - Chapter 1 Engagement
Sherlock and John are hunting a kidnapper who has been taking newlywed couples across the Greater London Area and Sherlock has the perfect way to flush him out. Warning: Pre-Slash/Slash of Sherlock/John Work in Progress - Very Slow Updates
Disclaimers: I certainly do not own Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s amazing creation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Hamish Watson. I also do not own Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, and the BBC’s adaptations of those works.
Spoiler Warnings: Series 1 and 2 of Sherlock
Ratings: M Warning Pre-Slash/Slash.
Beta Reader: The Amazing Ivory Winter - All mistakes are mine
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Chapter 1 Engagement
"John, we will be getting married tomorrow morning prior to your shift at the surgery."
"New case?" John asked after a moment, working very hard to maintain his composure and keep his thoughts private at this unexpected announcement from his eccentric flatmate. It helped that he was in his chair reading the London Evening Standard, and therefore had his face covered.
"Hmmm…" Sherlock responded from his thinking pose on the couch. John always felt inclined to snort at the self-proclaimed high functioning sociopath when he draped himself on the couch in this dramatic pose. That was when the position didn't make John want to inspect Sherlock’s arms for too many nicotine patches, or worse - although there had only been two danger nights since Sherlock had returned from being ‘dead’ eight months ago. When John was in less worried moods he thought Sherlock looked a bit like a swooning damsel from a previous era when the detective posed himself so theatrically on the couch.
"Sherlock, are you planning on enlightening me as to why we have apparently become engaged, or should I just make myself look like an idiot by attempting to deduce the reason?" John asked with more than a touch of sarcasm after a long moment when Sherlock didn't bother to continue.
Sherlock flashed him a quick grin, elevating John's heart rate, as he jumped up from the couch and strode over the table to the fireplace. "Do you remember Mr. Williams?"
"Yes of course. He came by, what, a little over a week ago hoping you could help him find his daughter. She and her husband had disappeared without a word three weeks ago. The police had told him that both his daughter and son-in-law had gone to start a new life in America. He didn't believe that they would leave without telling him, and if they had left they would have kept in touch," John answered. "I didn't realize you had decided to take the case. You didn't sound very…umm… enthusiastic when discussing it with Mr. Williams." John felt that description was putting it politely; Sherlock had been extremely dismissive of Mr. Williams, though not overtly rude.
"While missing persons cases are almost invariable dull, Mr. Williams’ description of his daughter’s disappearance reminded me of a case I had noted in the cold case files Lestrade allowed me to trawl though a few months ago when you threatened my experiments." Sherlock cast him a mildly irritated look at the memory. That had been a particularly bad week, John remembered. It had been several months after Sherlock’s return and Sherlock hadn't had a case in several weeks. His experiments and black moods had gotten progressively more dangerous and destructive. John had tried to reason with, cajole, order, and had finally threatened to destroy several of Sherlock's experiments to get him to find something to do and leave the flat. John had been desperate to prevent either Sherlock killing them all with his experiments or strangling Sherlock himself out of sheer frustration. D.I. Lestrade had been very sympathetic and had arranged for Sherlock to look through cold cases.
John had become much closer friends with Greg since The Fall (and yes, that deserved the capitals). Greg had appeared at John’s crappy flat about two weeks after John had left Baker Street. He had stopped John from slamming the door in his face with a blurted out apology for his part in Sherlock’s arrest and then with his belief in Sherlock’s innocence. Lestrade had been treated as a pariah at the Yard after Sherlock’s apparent death, and John suspected that Mycroft had been forced to step in behind the scenes to prevent him from being fired. John believed that Lestrade had been considering resignation and had been looking for a new job when Sherlock had finally returned. Sherlock had arranged for Greg to arrive at the right moment to arrest Moran, the final lynch pin in Moriarty’s remaining empire, almost absentmindedly restoring Lestrade’s reputation and redeeming him, as well as Sherlock, in the eyes of Lestrade’s superiors. Although, once Moran had been arrested and carted off in a police transport, Greg had blackened Sherlock’s left eye for him, right above the cut John had put on his cheekbone half a day earlier, for putting them all through the pain of believing he was dead.
"That particular cold case hadn't seemed worth following up on at the time but I remembered a few details. I used Lestrade's access codes to review the case again after Mr. Williams left, and confirmed that there were indeed a few similarities.” John just sighed fondly and rolled his eyes at Sherlock's blatant disregard for Lestrade's privacy as Sherlock continued to expound, “A detailed examination of the cold case files turned up several similar missing persons cases, and at least one possibly related murder."
"What did Greg say when you brought the cases to him?" John asked.
Sherlock snorted, "Lestrade is on vacation with his kids in South Wales for at least another week and a half, and Dimmock wouldn't even consider my findings!"
"Alright, but I still don't see how that ends up with us becoming engaged."
"Ahh… that is where the case becomes interesting.” Sherlock replied, “All the missing persons were couples in their mid-thirties, married less than five months. Three other heterosexual couples like Williams' daughter and son-in-law, two male homosexual couples and one female homosexual couple. In all cases the police believed that evidence proved that the couple had emigrated from the country. In the murder, in their infinite wisdom, they determined that the husband had killed the wife and hidden the body before fleeing the country. The earliest case is more than five years old, and the cases are spread out over the greater London area. In all cases the most obvious similarity is that the couples had civil marriages, or in the cases of the homosexual couples, civil partnerships. None of them had a wedding ceremony held either before or after the civil ceremony, and all of the couples were estranged to some extent from their immediate families.”
John frowned. "The cases would certainly seem to be rather obviously tied together. Why wouldn't Dimmock look into them?"
"He believed the evidence that seemed to say the couples had emigrated, especially given that all of the couples had troubled relationships with their families," Sherlock scoffed. "As if the evidence couldn't be easily fabricated, and not one of the families had any contact once the couple disappeared. Statistically you would have predicted that at least one person in these couples would have contacted family or friends from their old life."
"I still don't see how you and I getting a civil partnership helps you figure out what's going on," said John.
"John!" Sherlock replied, obviously frustrated at his obtuseness. "Don't you see? All of the couples had civil marriages. That is not a coincidence."
"So you think someone at the registrar's office is what, kidnapping and or killing people with civil marriages?" John shook his head, "No, that doesn't make sense. People must get civil marriages all the time."
"You're correct, I checked. The couples had their civil ceremonies at several different government offices, and none of the personnel who worked at any of those offices, even those who worked at more than one of the offices, is a viable suspect. I do however think something about civil marriages and the lifestyles of the couples is triggering the kidnapper or placing them into contact with him. I intend to flush him out," Sherlock concluded happily.
"And the most efficient way to do that is to get married and put ourselves in the line of fire, huh?" John asked, slightly exasperated as he rubbed his hands over his face. "Why would this person even notice us among all the couples who get civil marriages?"
"Ahh… excellent question John," Sherlock said proudly, as if he were a teacher whose student had answered a question correctly. John always felt more patronized by that tone than by any of Sherlock's insults to his intelligence. Sherlock was bustling through the room at this point, digging through files, before dropping a sheet of paper in John's lap as he moved past him into the kitchen. It was a list of clubs and activities, apparently random to John's eye.
"So, this tells me what exactly?"
"Don't be deliberately obtuse, John," Sherlock scolded. "That is very clearly the activities that the couples who disappeared were involved in. I compiled it from the interviews in the case files of the missing couples friends and family. We are going to start visiting many of these places as newlyweds. There must be a connection in there somewhere."
Sherlock leaned over John's shoulder and stabbed at the paper. "Somewhere in hiding in this plethora of dull activities is a hunter. I fully intend to stalk unnoticed through these locations and find him." John's heart stuttered at the heat of Sherlock's body when he continued to lean over the back of the chair, pointing at the various clubs as he continued to elaborate. "The second and fourth couples were active members of the London Heathside, each couple participating in several road race events prior to their disappearances although training at different venues, and as nearly as I can determine, neither couple knew the other. The first couple was regularly found in several local pubs participating in pub quizzes with another couple. Two of the three homosexual couples and one of the heterosexual couples were known to go dancing regularly at nightclubs, although nothing risqué which would have raised alarms with the police. The third couple seems to have had no routine activities outside of work and home life. Mr. Williams’ daughter and son-in-law were in a bowling league," Sherlock finished, shuddering at the thought of a bowling league.
John groaned in anticipated frustration and used the emotion as an excuse to force himself to stand up, moving away from Sherlock's tantalizing aroma before he gave himself away. "Sherlock, please tell me you don't mean for us to do all these activities."
"Of course, John. How will we find this man if we don't explore these people's lives?" He was visibly surprised at John's reluctance.
"You do realize that joining the London Heathside and making it believable will require you to run on a regular schedule, not just because you are chasing a criminal?" John grimaced and ran a hand through his hair as other thoughts occurred to him. "And I can't imagine you enjoying a nightclub. Have you ever even bowled? I can't even bring myself to think about the pub quiz. It would drive you batty. You realize the questions they ask are the same as they as on Q.I.? And that show irritates you because you think most of the information to be completely irrelevant."
Sherlock flapped a hand at John's concerns. "It's just for a short time for the case. It shouldn't take more than a few weeks to flush this person out." John snorted in disbelief at Sherlock's casual dismissal. He couldn't imagine the man being polite to quiz participants for one whole evening much less several evenings, and the man would be like catnip to women and men alike in a night club.
"I still don't understand why we actually need to get married to explore these places. Couldn't we just go undercover and pretend to be a married couple?" John asked, "Also, if you use your real name don't you think you might risk scaring this guy off, not to mention our witnesses? You’re even more famous now with the whole returning from the dead thing and the restoration of your reputation."
"No, no, in fact I think my real name might draw the man out. In the third couple’s case, the husband was a trainee constable for the police force. I would be a challenge for the kidnapper," said Sherlock, dismissing John's concern. "Plus it is likely that we are going to have to look for this person for several weeks. It is much easier to hide our search within the bounds of our day-to-day lives and activities, rather than having to create and remember an entire cover story. You have many talents John, but I doubt that you are an accomplished enough liar to fool anyone with a fake life for weeks at a time. With this option, we have to change very little about our day-to-day lives. As for people recognizing us, I suspect we can use that to our advantage."
"And you don't think people will think it is odd that we are suddenly getting married? We aren't even dating!" John said, his voice rising in frustration. "Not to mention, how are you going to explain our sudden joining of these activities? They aren’t actually part of our typical routines. You don't think we will be acting obviously out of character?"
"First, most of the Yarders have believed we were shagging since I brought you on the Pink case, as you are well aware. I know Donavon even warned you that you were risking your life by dumping me to date Sarah and your other girlfriends," Sherlock replied.
"How in the world could you have possible deduced that bit of information?" John asked in shock. That had been a very uncomfortable episode early in their friendship, of which John wasn't particularly proud. He had dressed Sally down about interfering in and assuming things about others' private lives with all the ferocity of a drill Sergeant dressing down a new recruit. "You weren't even in the building when she said that to me!"
Sherlock laughed. "I didn't actually. Lestrade told me a week or two after it happened. He was highly amused, and impressed, by your dressing down of Sally." John joined in his laughter, somewhat ruefully as Sherlock continued, "The gossip has gotten even more prominent since my return, especially since you have been having what I believe is termed a ‘dry spell’ for dating. You didn’t even mention your few dates with Mary several months ago on your blog, so I doubt anyone other than us is even aware that they occured. The betting pool about when we are finally going to come out has gotten quite large. Many of your bloggers also seem to think we are together, based on the comments you receive."
John just shook his head as Sherlock continued. "As far as your objections to our new activities, I have explanations for everything. We are joining Heathside, as part of some recommended ongoing rehabilitation for your injuries. As for bowling and pub quizzes, we are testing those on the advice of your therapist, who suggested that our relationship would benefit from a more lively social lifestyle, and we each picked one activity that we will try for several weeks. And of course since we can't travel for a honeymoon due to a doctor’s busy work schedule, we are celebrating our marriage by going out to enjoy London's nightlife."
John snorted and rolled his eyes. "And you honestly think anyone will believe that you would be willing to follow the advice of a therapist? And don't think I haven't noticed that all the activities you will actively dislike are being blamed on me."
"It's true love, John. Of course I would do whatever is needed for my husband’s mental and physical health. How dare you suggest otherwise?" Sherlock asked wide-eyed, before he broke down and smirked, making John chuckle again. He was so totally screwed. He never managed to stay mad at this crazy man, much less stop himself from doing whatever he demanded. Shaking his head John wandered into the kitchen deciding that he needed a cup of tea if he was going to finish this conversation and actually consider this insane request. Who was he kidding? Of course he would do whatever the mad man requested.
Several minutes later, he returned with a comforting cup of earl grey and settled back into his chair with a sigh. "So if I am following the plan, tomorrow we are going down to the registrar's office to complete our civil partnership." He frowned, a thought occurring to him. "Don't you have to file paperwork for this prior to actually going the registrar's office to exchange vows? And what are we going to do about the witnesses?"
"Oh, I filled out the paperwork with the registrar's office last week," Sherlock said dismissively.
John choked and spat Earl Grey all over his jumper front. "Last week! Sherlock!" John scolded. "How long have you been working on this case?" he continued exasperatedly, shaking his head yet again. "In the future, would you kindly inform me before you finalize life altering plans for me? Seeing as I am your fiancé it would be only considered polite. Manners are important you know."
"Manners. Manners are boring. To finish answering your pointless questions, Mycroft and Mrs. Hudson have agreed to be our witnesses."
"Please tell me you at least informed our landlady that this is for a case?" John asked without looking up, knowing that he didn't want to hear the answer. Mycroft would have deduced that this was for a case before Sherlock had even finished the sentence asking him. Mrs. Hudson on the other hand would be even worse than the yarders. She always knew about John’s dates but especially after Sherlock had returned and John had moved back to Baker Street, John could tell that she not so secretly hoped that they would enter into a relationship.
"Of course not. Mrs. Hudson is a terrible liar. Her giddy reaction when I invited her to be our witness indicates that her belief in our relationship which could only add veracity to our story."
"Fine, but you get to explain everything to Mrs. Hudson once the case is over. So after the registrar’s office, I take it we are just supposed to act like newlyweds and start going out to these places. Basically I will be acting as arm candy to cover your snooping," John summarized.
"Arm candy, John? Where do you pick up these phrases? They must come from those horrible American dramas in which you indulge," Sherlock scoffed. "Although I deplore your slander of the English language, your meaning is essentially correct. And of course given the history of this kidnapper, your other, less advertised skills may come in handy." John nodded gravely at Sherlock's statement.
"Mr. Williams’ daughter and son-in-law are dead aren't they?" John finally asked the consulting detective after spending a long moment considering the case.
Sherlock hesitated for a while before answering, "I believe so. They have been missing for close to three weeks. It is statistically unlikely that either one is still alive." Sherlock would never be sympathetic to most people's emotions and responses to situations, but ever since John's kidnapping by Moriarty to The Pool, Sherlock had been at least more cautious of his friend’s feelings about the victims involved in their cases. In fact ever since Sherlock's Return, his occasional use of John as a way to judge his behavior against acceptable norms had become considerably more common. He didn't always follow John's subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, hints about acceptable behavior, but John was honored that the genius considered John’s opinion worth checking.
John nodded and deciding that he had had enough for the evening, started heading for his room. "Alright, I will see you in the morning. Is seven early enough to be getting up, or do I need to get up earlier to make our appointment?"
"Seven should be fine. Mycroft will be here at eight, to drive us and Mrs. Hudson to the registrar's office. I had your suit cleaned and pressed. It's hanging in your closet."
"Night Sherlock."
"Hmm… Night John," Sherlock replied, clearly already falling back into his thoughts and plans to hunt this serial kidnapper.
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An hour later, John was lying in his bed in the dark staring at the ceiling, still trying to decide how to deal with this new twist in his life. After more than a year of thinking, or more accurately brooding, about it John wasn't sure if he had fallen for his flatmate shortly after meeting him without realizing it, or if he had fallen for him slowly. He wasn't even sure if it mattered. He hadn't yet realized it while dating Sarah, Jeanette, and the others. John sometimes wondered if Sarah had suspected his feelings for Sherlock before John had even begun to suspect them himself. He knew his other girlfriends had, it wasn't like it was normal for a man to run out of a date to chase their flatmate across the city, or to sleep on the couch of the girl you are trying to date after clearly having what Mrs. Hudson referred to as a "domestic". Looking back, it was pretty obvious that he headed over to his girlfriends’ homes more often because of a fight with his dramatic flatmate than seeking their company. That behavior still made him feel slightly guilty in retrospect.
Then had come The Woman, Irene Adler. John still couldn't believe how thick he had been about his response to her. He had counted her text messages to Sherlock and demanded to know if Sherlock had replied to her. John had been barely aware that he was asking right in front of his current girlfriend. The pain and shock he had felt when he realized that Irene was flirting with his friend should have told him. He still remembered the unexpected shock that had run through him when she had announced that they were a couple. He hadn't admitted it until later, but the shock and pain had been because Irene was wrong, they weren't a couple. Although he was in Sherlock's words, his only friend, Sherlock didn't love him the way John had slowly realized that he loved Sherlock.
John had finally admitted it to himself shortly before Moriarty’s disastrous trial, before Sherlock had ‘died’. At the time John had believed he was lucky that Sherlock had been distracted by the trial while he pondered his feelings and his behavior. He suspected it really should have frightened him how quickly he accepted the fact that he had completely fallen for his male sociopathic genius flatmate. John had been sure at the time that he had been well and truly buggered and honestly was amazed at just how long it had taken him to notice his feelings for Sherlock. In his defense, he had never been attracted to another man before, so the thought that he found Sherlock attractive, much less had fallen in love, had never occurred to him. He hadn't been lying to Sherlock at Angelo's that first night. He really had just been trying to find out more about his new flatmate. John hadn’t had time before Sherlock’s apparent suicide to really worry if Sherlock would notice, and apparently he had done a half way decent job of not changing his behavior since Sherlock’s return. If he had noticed, the detective hadn't said anything or changed his behavior toward John.
John had briefly considered leaving several times over the last eight months since Sherlock’s return. It was never more than a momentary thought because deep in his soul, he knew that doing so would destroy him. And god help him if Sherlock ever found out about that particular sentiment. He was sure his intellect would be treated to a sarcastic dressing down similar to what Anderson's received at every crime scene they worked with the hapless forensic scientist. Even John considered the thought to be pathetically maudlin, an emotion worthy of a teenager, not a 38-year-old former army doctor. However, John knew he had come back from the war broken and Sherlock had fixed him. Unfortunately he now knew that without him he would break again and shatter into a million pieces, just like John had when Sherlock ‘died’. And he really wasn't sure he could survive that again. Oh John had continued to walk, talk, go to work, see patients, eat and drink while Sherlock was ‘dead’ but he hadn’t been alive. He had been a robot barely going through the motions and if he lost Sherlock, he would be once again.
When Sherlock had returned, it had been like the spring after an ice age. The world became real again, and John stopped going through the motions and started living. John had figured out several weeks after Sherlock had jumped that Moriarty must have held the destruction of something frighteningly important over Sherlock to force him to jump even after Moriarty had killed himself. Perhaps the murder of Mrs. Hudson or Mycroft, or even a large bomb in central London; the provocative madman had been inordinately fond of blowing things up. John had the pleasure of surprising Sherlock on his return when John had asked, while he was cleaning the cut he had put on Sherlock’s face with his fist, if the threat that had forced Sherlock to fake his death had been dealt with. Sherlock had stared at him open mouthed for a moment before responding that the capture of one Sebastian Moran would finally eliminate the threat and finish off the last of Moriarty’s empire. John hadn’t realized until almost a day later that they had never gotten around to discussing the specific threat Moriarty had used to force Sherlock’s hand due to time constraints they had been under when Sherlock returned, and for some reason John had never brought it back up.
Sherlock had returned to both London and John after seven months to try and close a trap on Sebastian Moran. Moran, Sherlock had explained, was a former MI-6 black operative, who had turned traitor and joined Moriarty as one of his top lieutenants, and John had willingly allowed himself to be dragged immediately in to help in his capture. It had turned out that as well as being an excellent shot, Moran had also been trained as a computer hacker by MI-6, originally used to infiltrate cyberterrorists, but later put to use by Moriarty in an untold number of ways including creating Richard Brooke. Sherlock had managed to create a lure for Moran that the consulting detective had correctly predicted he couldn't resist. His capture alive and the proof of Moriarty's guilt that Sherlock and Mycroft had obtained together had been enough not only to clear Sherlock's name, but also to make him more famous than ever.
John had stayed in his flat for a week after Sherlock's return before caving to Sherlock's offer to be flatmates again. Ostensibly John claimed he moved back in because he hated the flat he had been staying in, which was true. The real reason however was that he couldn't stand being that far away from his friend, not being able to confirm that he wasn't imagining it, that Sherlock really was alive. Even now, eight months later, John still occasionally woke in the middle of the night and had to get up and go downstairs to check that Sherlock was here in Baker Street and not just a figment of John's imagination. Sherlock had never commented on John's sudden late night appearances in the living room, which had happened nightly during the first month, or even peeking into Sherlock's room if by some miracle the consulting detective happened to be sleeping, but John did not delude himself that Sherlock was unaware of the reason. For the first several weeks, Sherlock had just distracted John from his fears by answering all his questions about his undercover work eliminating Moriarty’s empire. If most of the information hadn’t been classified as State Secrets, something Mycroft made very sure John was aware of, John felt that Sherlock’s life undercover could have been written up and sold as a true crime best seller.
John had not given up his locum work at Sarah's surgery after Sherlock's Return. Sarah had appeared a month after Sherlock's 'death' when John had just been starting to get desperate for work, no one would hire the partner of such a famous fake, and offered John his job back. She had flat out called Sherlock an arrogant arse, but said that anyone who had actually met him should have no trouble believing that he was real. The job had saved him, given him a reason for getting up, and had allowed him to convince his therapist that he was healing a little, although John had known he would never heal. Now the job gave him a place to be away from his flatmate, something he occasionally desperately needed no matter how much he loved the mad genius, and provided him a safety net if something went wrong, and John had to leave Baker Street again.
A month after Sherlock’s return John had tried dating Mary after Sherlock had helped her. John had started asking her out both as a cover for his feelings and because she was genuinely wonderful, and he thought he might be able to fall for her given enough time, forcing himself to get over Sherlock. Mary had come to Sherlock when she started receiving odd gifts of pearls that she believed had something to do with her father who had disappeared after the First Gulf War. Sherlock had eventually uncovered a convoluted plot involving a stolen Kuwaiti fortune, four convicted soldiers and two prison guards.
Mary had been a delightful woman, a teacher, and John had broken it off after three dates when he realized that he couldn’t use her as a cover for his feelings. She was kind, intelligent and thoughtful, she deserved someone who could put her first in their heart and perhaps if he had never met Sherlock, he could have seen himself spending his life with her. John knew he would eventually need to try again, but he hadn't even mentioned the dates in his blog when he wrote up the case. He couldn't decide if he was glad about that now, or irritated with himself for not mentioning it. If he had indicated in his blog that he had gone on a few dates with Mary, perhaps the yarders wouldn't assume quite so easily that he and Sherlock were a couple, and Sherlock would have considered alternative approaches to this case.
John wasn't sure if this new case offered him a small taste of heaven or was going to condemn him to a lifetime of loneliness. He was worried that he would accidentally do something that would tip Sherlock off that his flatmate was madly, hopelessly, and irrevocably in love with him. John also didn’t know if he was he supposed to change his public behavior toward Sherlock during this case to make their marriage more believable? Were they going to need to touch more, either something simple like a hand on the back, or heaven help him, Sherlock kissing him as part of the cover? He wasn't sure what exactly would happen if Sherlock figured it out, but he was sure that it would end up more than a little badly for himself. He figured Sherlock would give him a variation of the ‘flattered by your interest’ speech again, perhaps treating him like he had Molly. Although Sherlock had been treating Molly much better since his return, partially John thought because of her help with faking Sherlock’s suicide, and partially because Molly appeared to have gotten over her crush and now mostly treated Sherlock as a respected colleague or perhaps an honored mentor.
Alternatively, John worried that Sherlock would laugh uncontrollably before ripping John's intelligence to shreds when he discovered John’s feelings. In his worst nightmares, Sherlock was embarrassed and uncomfortable, not knowing how to react to his only friend’s emotions. No matter how Sherlock reacted, John was sure that his feelings being uncovered would result in the end their friendship and John would have to move out, and deal with the loss of Sherlock again. The only improvement this time would be that at least John would know Sherlock was alive and hopefully thriving in some part of the world.
John knew, and enjoyed, that he was closer to Sherlock than anyone except perhaps Mummy and, for all their fighting, Mycroft, and that Sherlock still considered him his one true friend. He also knew that Sherlock just didn't have those feelings or desires about others. In fact Mycroft had seemed to imply in the conversation at the palace that Sherlock was a virgin. The genius just didn't view the world as everyone else did, and John really did understand. He had been watching Sherlock closely since they had met, even before he realized how buggered he was, and the closest Sherlock had come to displaying attraction to someone had been in his response to Irene Adler. That thought had driven him almost insane with jealousy, even after Irene had died. When John had thought about it later after Sherlock's 'death' he wasn't surprised that Irene had fascinated Sherlock; the woman had been almost as intelligent as Sherlock, and could think quickly on her feet. John could never decide if Sherlock's fascination had included physical, not to mention romantic, attraction. He suspected Sherlock might actually be asexual, and despite Irene's taking it as a compliment that Sherlock had noticed her measurements, John didn't really find that to be proof. Considering how much of the world Sherlock noticed consciously and unconsciously, John suspected Sherlock might know the measurements of almost everyone he met. John did hope that in the future if Sherlock met another woman or man who could keep up with the genius and attract his attention, that the person would actually be worthy of it, and not just someone out to get everything they could for themselves.
Whether or not Sherlock was capable of or interested in falling in love, John knew that Sherlock was far from emotionless. He knew that Sherlock valued his friendship greatly and loved Mrs. Hudson as one would a grandmother, something he had known long before Sherlock had half killed the CIA agent who had dared to hurt her. John forced himself to be satisfied with friendship, because he never wanted to hurt or make his friend uncomfortable. It wasn't Sherlock's fault that John was a romantic moron who tried reaching for the moon. And if Sherlock did ever meet another person worthy of his attention, John would soldier on and do everything in his power to make sure that the genius was as happy as possible, even if John's damaged heart would finally shatter.
After tossing and turning for a while longer, John came to a decision. He was a soldier and it was time to stop brooding and just keep going forward. He would continue to treat Sherlock as he normally did. Apparently that was enough to convince the unobservant that they were a couple, so why risk anything by changing his behavior or worrying? If Sherlock decided they needed more obvious displays of affection in public, he would try following Sherlock's lead on how much was required in any situation. And he would store up for the future any and every touch and intimate moment that came about because of this case, even if the emotions were faked. With his plan decided on, John rolled over and went to sleep.
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FanFiction Writer Notes: I want to apologize to all my readers for starting redoing the story but I couldn’t resist making it series 2 compliant. I know that so many people loved the original version of this story, but I honestly think I will only improve the overall story by making it series 2 compliant, so I hope you will all forgive me and continue to enjoy John and Sherlock’s adventures
Last warning, I am a still frighteningly slow writer so updates will be slow.
Once again I want to thank my wonderful Beta Ivory Winter who is already making this a better story. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
I would love constructive criticism, but no flames for the slash please. So what do you think more or STOP please you’re burning my eyes out with this terrible story.
Thanks Rairakku
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