A/N:

OK, for anyone who has read 'The Case of the Academic Abduction', first of all, thanks! (And I'm glad it didn't put you off reading more of my stories!) If you liked Ida and co then you might be interested in Unfinished Business, a sort of sister story to this one which is at the same time a sequel to Academic Abduction. (The author's note at the beginning of that story explains a little better what I'm trying to do). Otherwise, Distractions is a stand alone story in its own right, and I hope that it turns out OK…

The door opened and sunlight flooded into the room.

'Damn!'

'What?...Why is it so dark in here? Holmes?'

The young man stood up from the desk and tore the red shade from the wall mounted oil lamp, saying

'Photography, Morris…'

'Oh...'

'Open the curtains. It's no good now.'

'Sorry...You could have put a sign on the door or something, you know…'

'I thought you were out…' he said, tetchily, pushing thick glass bottles full of liquid towards the back of his desk, adding sardonically, 'with Edwina.'

'I was,' said Morris. He strode to the window and drew the thick black curtains, then threw open the window to let in the summer air.

'It can't be healthy, spending all day in the dark, Holmes…'

'…thankyou for your concern, Morris, but…'

'…I know, I know, you're pushing back the boundaries of chemistry whilst I'm frittering away my life punting on the Isis. I didn't come here to exchange the same old clichés…'

'Then why?' said Holmes, in a slightly less abrasive tone, 'did you come? Cigarette?' He proffered a silver case.

'Thanks,' said Morris, taking one. He perched himself on the windowsill, drew out a book of matches from the inside pocket of his jacket and tapped it absent mindedly against his knee.

'How do you fancy a holiday?'

Holmes stared at him for a moment

'A…holiday?'

Morris laughed tersely, 'you'd think I'd suggested we rob a bank!' he exclaimed, placing the cigarette in his mouth. He lit a match and, shielding it from the breeze from the window with his hand, held the flame to the paper tube. Inhaling deeply, he shook the match out and dropped the wooden stump out of the window.

'Well?' he asked with half his mouth.

Holmes snorted and went to sit on the battered armchair that occupied the corner of his small study that was perpetually in shadow, even on the brightest days.

'I haven't got time for holidays.'

'Holmes, you could write the exam questions for your course, you don't need to revise. And besides, finals aren't for 5 weeks.'

'Over confidence in one's abilities is but a few steps away from a fatal error of judgement…'

'Yes, and working every hour of the day is but a step away from a total breakdown. Take the word of a medical student, alright?'

'Oh, you're still calling yourself that?'

Morris laughed, but there was a slightly pleading note to his voice when he next spoke

'Please, Sherlock. It's only for a fortnight. Edwina…'

'Oho! So this is Edwina's influence!'

'Edwina's aunt has a house in Venice…well…sounds like more of a palace the way Edwina describes it…and…'

'Venice,' said Holmes, holding up a finger, 'spiritual home of romantic poets, beloved of artists, eulogised by countless writers over the centuries... And yourself,' he raised another finger, 'quite possibly the Casanova of Christchurch College…'

'…now steady on,' complained Morris,

'and' continued Holmes, raising a third finger, 'the lovely Edwina Trelawney… Now, tell me if I've missed something, but I fail to see how my presence can possibly be of assistance…'

'Edwina said I should bring a friend from college…And…and damn it, Holmes, you are my best friend here, for all your odd habits…and…I thought you might enjoy it…'

Holmes made a non committal noise

'Well, I apologise for having interrupted your experiment,' said Morris, standing up quickly, 'and I apologise for my error of judgement in even contemplating this idea, I can't think what came over me. Thanks for the cigarette.' His tone was clipped and emotionless, and he walked stiffly to the door.

'Wait, Morris,' said Holmes, suddenly contrite. 'Two weeks, did you say?'

'That's right,' said Morris, ' are you planning to tell my tutor about all the work I'll miss?'

Holmes sighed heavily and lent back languidly in the chair. Observing his friend down the bridge of his nose with narrowed eyes, he asked, casually

'When do we leave?'

Morris started in surprise, saying

'What?'

'Well…you know…' Holmes bent his elbows and clasped his hands behind his head, 'I am pretty…competent at Chemistry.'

'And?'

'And there might be room for a little culture.'

'Really?'

'Just for two weeks.'

'Isn't this just perfectly charming?!' shouted Edwina for what seemed to Holmes to be the fifth time. He turned to face her, and nodded politely just like he had every other time. Her hair was coming undone from its complicated arrangement of curls and ribbons and whipping against her eyes in the strong wind, and her face was pale and damp with the water's spray, but a toothy smile persisted beneath her too flat nose and too widely spaced eyes.

'Do you think we might go back inside and see how Morris is doing?' he shouted in his turn

'And miss our first sight of Venice!' she exclaimed, 'Morris did choose the worst time to be seasick…'

'I hardly think he chose to be seasick…' Holmes muttered beneath the roar of the wind, drawing his coat closer around himself. How could it be that for the last two days of solid train travel the sun had beaten down relentlessly, turning the carriages into furnaces, yet today, as they finally neared their destination, the sky was a sulky grey? He screwed up his eyes and looked keenly at the mist before them, saying

'I can't see anything yet.'

'What?'

'I said I can't see anything yet!'

'Oh…wait! Wait! What's that?'

'What?'

'I thought I saw a tower!'

'Wonderful.'