It's the Thought That Counts
A/N: This is in answer to AlessNox Christmas challenge A Sherlock Christmas in Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen forum – Go read our stuff! This is a little Christmas fluff story I started a while ago based in my AU Oververse. It's set between Far From Over and Kill All Assassins - you don't have to read either of them. You should know that Mary Morstan is a former assassin and Sherlock met her when she was trying to kill Mycroft about five years before TRF. And she is Canadian, because she is just that cool.
I am dedicating this to jack63kids, because jack! I haven't written a story for you yet!
Sherlock was running out of time. And patience. He had been searching all afternoon and even he, with all of his considerable intellect and powers of reasoning, could not find what he was looking for. He simply could not find a gift for Mary for Christmas. He was close to going home and putting on his pajamas and thinking. John would tell him he was sulking. He did not sulk.
John would not be pleased if he came home empty handed.
"You are going to get her a gift, Sherlock. Just think about it. She's hasn't had a proper Christmas for years, she doesn't have family besides us and she's far from home. Be nice and get her something pretty. Put some thought into it!" John had folded his arms and given Sherlock that look! So Sherlock had huffed and grabbed his coat and scarf and swirled out of the flat. He had to come home with something today. It was the 24th and he didn't think he'd be allowed back in the flat if he didn't have at least a token gift.
The problem was Sherlock didn't really want to give Marya token gift. He prided himself on being able to pick out the perfect gift for someone, when he bothered that is, simply by observing the individual in question. He had deduced she usually had dreadful taste in music preferring something called Alternative Rock. She did have a liking for Celtic music, mostly from the east coast of Canada and some of that was almost acceptable. He understood intrinsically that it reminded her of home, but she had a lot of it and he didn't want to give her more of what she already had. He couldn't buy her clothes. She wasn't one for dressing up much and she had a simple but tasteful dress for when she needed to be more presentable. Gloves, scarves, hats; they were too impersonal.
Sherlock sighed. This was intolerable.
And then he noticed, on a little side street, an antique shop that might provide possibilities. The sign on the shop read Unusual Finds. He entered the shop and proceeded to browse. The proprietor came over and mentioned that all of the pieces in the shop came with interesting personal history. And within 15 minutes he found what he considered to be the perfect gift.
oOo
The next morning Sherlock waited with a strange feeling of excitement for Mary to open her gift. He was a little surprised at this. He was using all of his considerable powers to appear indifferent, but he suspected that John wasn't buying it.
Mary unwrapped the present and opened the long, narrow velvet box. Her face lit up. She pulled a long strand of green and blue semi-precious stones closed with a silver clasp. The necklace was in the Art Deco style of the late '20s, early '30's. John leaned over to have a look and he let out an appreciative whistle.
"What are you trying to do, Sherlock? Make me look bad?" John teased.
"Don't be ridiculous John. I actually purchased the necklace at a very reasonable price, given its unsavory history," Sherlock sniffed.
There was a very pregnant pause.
Mary and John turned looked at each other in astonishment. Mary shrugged as if to say Well what did you expect. She looked at Sherlock with an encouraging smile on her face.
"Tell me about it Sherlock."
"The necklace was once owned by a certain Marianne Cousins. She was an up and coming socialite from new money." John and Mary grinned at each other at the slight hint of disdain in Sherlock's voice when he said new money. He occasionally looked down his nose at certain elements of the upper class. Posh upbringing. Sherlock continued.
"She made the unfortunate mistake of having an affair with a very wealthy Lord Pears who was married to an extremely jealous and unstable woman, also, of course, from the upper class. Pears had presented this particular gift to his mistress in a very public way and naturally the wife found out about it. The wife stormed over to the mistress' house, proceeded to argue with the other woman. Miss Cousins had made the unwise choice to be wearing the necklace procured for her by her lover and flaunted the gift. In a jealous rage the wife grabbed the necklace and strangled Miss Cousins to death."
He sat there with a pleased smile on his face, waiting for an acknowledgement that he had indeed purchased the perfect present.
John's mouth fell open and he proceeded to do a fine imitation of a fish. He turned to Mary and was surprised to see that instead of looking shocked or frightened, which he knew would have been the case for anyone of his former girlfriends, she looked at Sherlock with delight. John was relieved to note that there was a small smile hovering around her mouth and that her eyes were twinkling with the humour of the situation.
"Thank you Sherlock," Mary said, not a false note in her voice. "This is perfect. It is a very thoughtful gift and I will treasure it always."
Sherlock looked at her. "You do understand the significance of the gift."
"I can tell you put a lot of thought into this and that you had specific reasons for purchasing this. It is exquisite." And Sherlock nodded, pleased.
"Well, will somebody bloody well fill me in, then?" asked John, confusion and frustration evident in his voice. Sherlock gave John that Do keep up look. Mary looked at him and back to Sherlock, quirking an eyebrow at him, daring him to tell John the story behind the gift.
"Really John," Sherlock admonished. "It's quite simple. I picked it out for several reasons. One, the name of the owner was Marianne, which is a variation of Mary's name. Two, green and blue are her favourite colours. I have simply observed that she tends to wear those colours the most. As part of that sentiment, they are also the same shade as her eyes and yours of course. Three, it was used as a murder weapon and has an intriguing history and should make for an interesting conversation piece if the need were to arise. Four, I am acknowledging her former profession as an assassin and a necklace that could possibly double as a weapon would prove useful. Not only that it is an additional mode of protection considering the life we lead. And finally it's appealing, and will look pleasing against Mary's skin.
Sherlock beamed at them both. Mary smiled fondly at him. He could tell that even if she had not deduced all of the reasons why he had purchased the gift, she had surmised at least a few of them. It was surprising, in a way, to have someone understand so much. John was the only one who had ever come closest and even he didn't always comprehend everything. There was hope for Mary if she was this insightful. Sherlock noted the bemused look on John's face. No, he really didn't fathom it at all.
"Sherlock is it ok if I don't wear it around my neck? If I wear it as a bracelet instead? Because wearing it around my neck would seem a bit…" Mary hesitated as if it might hurt his feelings.
"Disturbing?" quipped John.
"Well there is that, but I was thinking it would be like tempting fate. And really if I ever needed to use it, it might be handier around my wrist."
John just stared at her and then rolled his eyes.
"But of course. That seems entirely sensible. Well, not the superstitious part, but the second part." Sherlock was very pleased with himself and felt he had provided an outstanding gift.
Mary proceeded to wrap the necklace around her wrist. After that she only ever took it off in the shower or doing dishes. John insisted she not wear it to bed, because he found it slightly unnerving.
Sherlock, however, was left in a bit of a bother because now he only had four months until Mary's birthday. He couldn't waste any time.
It was going to be difficult to surpass his Christmas gift.