When Meeting as Equals - Ch.2 part 2
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
John left the hospital only an hour later, having been teased mercilessly by his sister and her wife. He was walking to the tube station when a big black car pulled up to the curb beside him. He hardly took any notice of it.
“Captain Watson.” He heard a voice call.
He turned and saw an attractive brunette woman standing next to the open car door.
“Please get into the car Captain.” She said pleasantly enough.
“I’m sorry, but who are you?”
“I’m the one asking you nicely to get in the car. You won’t like the not nice option.” This was said pleasantly with a touch of ice.
He got into the car. The woman slid in beside him.
“Where are we going?”
This got a pleasantly bland smile and a headshake. After that he kept silent and mentally prepared himself for anything.
Anything turned out to be an empty car park and a man in a three piece suit holding an umbrella.
“Good evening, Captain Watson.”
“Is it? I wouldn’t think that mysterious meetings in ominous locations tend to lead to good evenings.”
“Quite, we will get straight to business then. What is your connection to Sherlock Holmes?” The man’s voice went from blandly pleasant to supremely flat.
“What business is it of yours?” John would not back down without having a reason to do so.
“Sherlock is my business. I worry about him… constantly. Now answer the question.” All was said in that creepily flat tone.
“I’m dating him.” John couldn’t quite help his incredulous tone. This was surreal.
“I question that a previously completely straight man won’t betray Sherlock for the first pair of breasts to walk by.”
“It is really none of your business, but if I didn’t think I had a chance at something fantastic with him I never would have agreed to the first date.” John’s frustration at the situation was trying to turn to anger but he was still managing to hold onto the humor of how ridiculously cliché it was.
“I will pay you five million pounds to never speak to Sherlock again.”
“What the fucking hell!” His anger went from in check to boiling hot. “Go screw yourself, or better yet why don’t you put that five million to better use paying someone to do it for you. With a personality like yours it must be the only way you ever get a leg over.” With that he turned and began to walk away.
That same flat voice called out again. “Ten million.” John let his hand gesture speak for him as he kept walking. What the man would have done next would forever be a mystery as Sherlock burst from a stairwell.
“Mycroft stop it! You weren’t supposed to do this. This is why I never come to you for help; you always make things that much worse. I don’t want you to scare him off.” Sherlock stalked forward until he was staring Mycroft down from only a few feet away.
“Then you will be happy to know that I was unable to. You didn’t actually expect me to make the kind of arrangements you want me to make without testing his intentions did you?” The flat voice was gone to be replaced by a fondly chiding tone.
“Sherlock, who the hell is he?” John questioned, having spun around and walked back towards them.
“John, meet my older brother Mycroft. Mycroft I believe you’ve made John’s acquaintance?” Sherlock said with a mockery of manners.
“Yes, we’ve met.” John said sarcastically. “What arrangements are the two of you talking about?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Sherlock said dismissively.
“I may not have your massive intellect Sherlock but I’m not stupid. Stop trying to dodge the question.” John demanded.
Sherlock looked away sheepishly and gestured at Mycroft to have him explain.
“Sherlock texted me and asked that I have you transferred to London on some kind of pretext. I’m afraid that when I heard that he had become so attached to you so quickly, I determined that I must find out your intentions. As it happens, you passed with flying colors so I have no objections to the connection and I will arrange for your transfer without delay.”
“I take it neither of you seem to think I get any say in this? Or that I might have a plan of my own for dealing with not being separated from Sherlock?” He said furiously.
Both Holmes brothers looked slightly taken aback, but Sherlock ventured the question.
“What is your plan then?”
“I was thinking, even before I met Sherlock, that it might be time for me to leave military service.” John smirked as both men did their own very refined version of gaping incredulously at him.
“If you want to put to use whatever influence you were going to use to ensure my transfer into smoothing my exit into civilian life I would not object to you doing so.”
John walked forward and pulled Sherlock down into a brief kiss.
“Give me a call tomorrow Sherlock and we’ll arrange that third date. With the kind of high handed tactics you tried to pull to get your way I wouldn’t expect to be getting into my trousers any time soon if I were you.”
With that parting remark he walked back to the waiting car that immediately left once he was in, leaving the Holmes brothers to contemplate the change in plans.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
“I can see why you picked him.” Mycroft said thoughtfully. “I do have a word of warning for you though Sherlock. Don’t mess this or him up. I will pick up the pieces and put him back together, but afterward I get to keep him. You aren’t the only one who can appreciate a good thing when he sees it.” Mycroft skillfully hid his amusement at the growl Sherlock gave him in reply. The truth was that Mycroft wasn’t kidding in the least. If Sherlock completely screwed this relationship up beyond fixing, Mycroft would step in and sweep John Watson off of his feet. He would however respect the fact that Sherlock had found him first and keep his admiration of the good doctor to himself… mostly. It was always fun to have something to needle Sherlock with.
“Do run along Sherlock. I will see to Captain Watson’s expeditious release from military service.”
“You heed my word of warning then Mycroft, I will know if you try any deliberate sabotage, and if you do, I will make your life as miserable as it can possibly be.”
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Sherlock knew that he couldn’t possibly let John be that irritated with him for long. He didn’t want to take the chance that it could in any way turn John away from him. The locks hadn’t been changed since the first time he picked them. That could practically be construed as an invitation to come in.
It wasn’t very late and so he found John sitting in the same room they had their first date in. He wasn’t quiet coming in and John was expecting him as he entered the room.
“Sit down Sherlock. We need to have a talk.”
Shit. Hadn’t he heard somewhere that those words were the death knell of relationships? He sat.
“I had a lot of fun today, a fun evening with my family, then the surrealistic part of the evening with Mycroft, and now we have the part of the day where we have a serious talk about where our relationship is going to go. “ John ran his hands through his hair. “You have no idea how odd it is to be having this conversation right now. I’ve only known you for a little over a full day. Things are moving so fast I’m almost losing my footing.”
Sherlock was doing his best to keep the panic locked away. He was getting broken up with and John was right it had barely been thirty hours.
“The only way that I know to keep my balance when I start to lose it is to just keep going forward until you regain it or you fall. What I need to do though is set some ground rules so I’m not knocked so off balance I fall.”
“You mean you aren’t breaking up with me?” Sherlock blurted.
“If I value my sanity I should, but I’m pretty sure that sanity is overrated.” They shared a quick grin though Sherlock’s was mostly one of relief. He was getting a second chance.
“So, now we need to set out the ground rules. I only have two. My first rule is when you have a concern about something you have to come to me to discuss it first before you take any action and you have to let me voice any concerns I have and listen to me. I have one more ironclad rule, for as long as we are together there won’t be anybody else. There are no second chances on this one; any infidelity and we are done. So that’s it on my end, as long as we follow rule one and communicate and rule two not to be unfaithful I can work with anything else that comes up. Can you?”
“I can, I absolutely can.” Sherlock moved as he spoke joining John on the sofa and pulling him into a kiss. After a moment John started to resist, pulling back and saying, “Sherlock we still need to talk.”
“We can talk more tomorrow. Please, I just need to touch you.” He pleaded. He didn’t even try to hide his desperate need to be reassured.
John responded by pushing Sherlock away and standing up, then he took Sherlock’s hand and pulled him up too and started to tug him from the room.
“Come on then, you can sleep with me tonight. Just sleep, then we can talk some more over breakfast in the morning.”
So much thanks goes to my beta, Becca, who makes this a much better story.