Because I need this obsession to go away. Spoilers, obviously. This probably works best if you watch the series and then read this, because I won't write everything that happens in an episode (because you know those things already).

Storywise, the first chapter is a recap of A Study in Pink, the second chapter is my own, and the rest you'll just have to see for yourselves. I don't like recaps, really, but this fic kind of varies from canon to AU and back to canon again, so it's better.

Some chapters contain references to other TV shows. Can you spot them all?

I was trying something different in terms of style. I've been awake for 37 hours writing these. Time for bed.

Chapter 1

A Study in Pink

You know where to find me.

SH

As if the day hadn't been long enough already. Lestrade sighed. He knew he'd eventually bring the younger man in on the case, but eventually didn't mean right now.

Later at the office, Sally hurried after him. "You've got to stop him from doing that. He's making us look like idiots."

"If you can tell me how he does it, I'll stop it." Lestrade told her. He was growing annoyed with the fact that everyone at the precinct seemed to think he had some power over the consulting detective or whatever he was calling himself. He wondered if anyone did. Or could.

He then shook his head and concentrated on the case. Sherlock usually turned out to be right, and if he was saying the suicides had been murders (in a manner of speaking), he should at least see if that was even a viable option. He knew and Sherlock knew, absolutely everyone knew that there was something odd about the suicides, but the tricky part would be proving something else had taken place. He got out his headset and put his favorite song on. This would be a long night. He sang along as it usually cheered him up. "No, I won't sleep tonight.."

At 221B Baker Street, John had barely had the time to sit down at his new flat when he had already observed that Sherlock, while brilliant on his own, was looking for others' approval just as much as the next man. While he attempted to appear impartial as he questioned John's opinion on his website, his face visibly fell when he saw John's doubtful look. This made him seem a bit more human and not the superhuman he claimed to be. Living with the man would be interesting, to say the least, John smiled. As they chatted with Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock suddenly turned to the window.

John heard footsteps and a man in his late forties emerged through the door. He and Sherlock briefly discussed the terms of Sherlock going with him. The man didn't seem to realize it, but John could see Sherlock was simply pulling the man's leg with his act of reluctance. Sherlock soon gave up, as expected, and the man looked like he bowed to Sherlock as a thank you. The man then turned to leave. He glanced at Mrs. Hudson and John before going. When his eyes met John's, for a brief moment he seemed worried. This didn't last long, however. The man rushed down the stairs and was gone in under a second.

Sherlock waited patiently to hear the downstairs door close behind the man, although he couldn't stop himself from breaking out into a smile. When he heard the door clack, he then jumped in the air out of sheer joy and seemed immensely pleased by the turn of events. His words seemed to indicate he was simply glad to be included in the investigation, but John couldn't help but wonder if his outburst had something to do with the man that had just left. The man was apparently somehow affiliated with the police department. As Sherlock left, nearly dancing as he went, John looked at the newspaper and saw the man's photograph. Detective Inspector Lestrade.

Suddenly Sherlock returned and asked him to come along. John said yes, of course.

At the crime scene, John followed Sherlock but they were stopped by a woman. "Hello freak", the woman told Sherlock.

"I'm here to see Detective Inspector Lestrade", Sherlock announced. The woman didn't seem too impressed.

"Why?"

John was confused. For the crime that had just been committed. Why else would Sherlock want to see Lestrade? If they were friends, they could have met while not investigating a death.

"I was invited."

"Why?"

"I think he wants me to take a look", Sherlock said and smiled like the devil he was.

"Well you know what I think, don't you?" The woman smiled and for a brief moment John definitely felt something was up between Lestrade and Sherlock that noone had simply told him about. Oblivious to his thoughts, Sherlock proceeded to unveil the secret affair the woman, now identified as Donovan, was having with Anderson. She could definitely do better than that, John thought before he followed Sherlock inside.

They made their way to Lestrade. Lestrade eyed John. "Who's this?" "He's with me", Sherlock remarked. John wished the man would stop saying things like that, it was bad enough Mrs. Hudson had thought they were a couple. He didn't want that becoming a regular theme.

Lestrade questioned Sherlock about him a bit further but Sherlock didn't give in. John didn't particularly enjoy being argued over while he was in the same room so he was glad when Lestrade gave up and started telling them about the crime scene.

While an experienced army doctor, John still felt a bit queezy looking at the body. After a moment of silence, Sherlock turned to look at Lestrade. "Shut up."

Lestrade looked genuinely surprised. "I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking. It's annoying."

John all but suppressed a smile. Harry and Clara had been just like that. Despite the poor state of their relationship, John had visited Harry once. They had played some boardgames and while Harry was pondering on which was the best strategy, Clara's mere thought process had bothered her to no end. It was a small miracle Clara hadn't left her first, now that one thought about it. Clara had been too kind for her own good.

John's thoughts drifted back into the present and while he watched Sherlock work his magic, he turned to look at Lestrade. The man had a kind of a half-smile on his face. His eyes were fixed on Sherlock, which was understandable considering the situation, but John still felt there was something off about the man. John had always been rather reluctant to try deciphering body language, as for example the DI's position (hands behind his back) could either be interpreted as having nothing to hide, or specifically having something to hide. John would have to ask Sherlock about it later, maybe he would have some input on the matter.

Once Sherlock was finished, he asked for John's opinion, which again provoked Lestrade. John saw that Sherlock took pride in the fact that he could make the man do whatever he wanted. For instance, the way he ended their current argument with a simple 'Yes, because you need me'.

Sherlock emphasized his words with an intense stare that he shot at Lestrade, who returned the favor. John half-expected for Lestrade to argue him, but to his surprise the man agreed. "Yes I do." The DI then looked away, an expression of shame making its way to his face. "God help me."

Lestrade now put in his place, Sherlock told John to examine the body. John looked at Lestrade, unsure what to do. The older man, slightly ticked off, told him to do whatever 'he' wanted and left.

"What am I doing here?"

"Helping me make a point." Sherlock's faint smile and a brief glance targeted at the now closed door slightly unnerved John. To say the two men seemed to have a complicated relationship would have been an understatement.

He heard Lestrade return as he started going through the body. After Sherlock had dazzled them both with his conclusions, he had run off and left John to get down the stairs by himself. Outside, he met with Sally, who told him to keep his distance from Sherlock. Towards the end of the conversation, she suddenly added: "It's bad enough one of our own has been taken by him. I at least want to avoid civilian casualties." She motioned him goodbye and walked away, leaving John stupefied. "What?"

Later on, at the restaurant, John tried to get to know Sherlock a bit more, just to see where was the man coming from, if there was something to explain him being the way he was. Of course, his attempt at 'subtle' was easily interpreted as 'flirting'.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" He immediately knew he'd said the wrong thing when Sherlock turned to look at him. "-Which is fine by the way." How was that better?

"I know it's fine." Sherlock looked pained. Either by his blogger's limited mind or something else.

"So you got a boyfriend?"

"No."

John tried to salvage what he could, but he just made it worse. After some rambling, he finally just stopped talking, which he deemed the better choice. Ever since he'd met Sherlock, he'd felt just a tad more intelligent than a cockroach. This seemed to be the popular mindset among Sherlock's acquaintances.

Sherlock looked uncomfortable. "John, erm..I think you should know I consider myself married to my work, and while I'm flattered by your-"

"-No!" John remarked.

"-interest, I'm really not looking for anything.."

"No! I'm not asking.. No. I'm just saying..It's all fine."

"Good. Thank you."

After a quick chase around the streets of London, they finally stopped and John asked to see the badge Sherlock had flashed to the Americans. "It's Detective Inspector Lestrade's."

"Yeah, I pick-pocket him when he's annoying. You can keep that one, I've got plenty at the flat."

John wondered exactly how much power Sherlock held over the DI. Sherlock invaded his crime scenes, brought guests, stole from him..how come Lestrade hadn't arrested him yet? Sherlock's earlier words came back to him. Married to my work...

At the flat, they were met with a distraught Mrs. Hudson. They hurried upstairs, where John could only think 'Payback's a bitch, even with these two'.

Lestrade was waiting for Sherlock on the sofa, now with a nice work suit. As on their previous encounters, John noticed now, the pair didn't bother with civil greetings like 'hello' or 'goodbye', they knew each other well enough not to bother. "What are you doing?" Sherlock questioned the man, who seemed amused.

"Well I knew you'd find the case, I'm not stupid." Sherlock seemed to think everyone was below him on an intellectual level, and while that was usually the case, for John it was still humorous to see someone actually take him down a notch while using that exact argument.

Sherlock, on his part, was not amused. "You can't just break into my flat."

Lestrade had the same look on his face as earlier when Sherlock had told him to shut up. Genuine surprise. "You can't withhold evidence. And I didn't break into your flat." While he and Sherlock didn't think twice about pissing each other off with whatever crap they could think of, a DI couldn't just admit to unethical conduct.

"Well what do you call this, then?" Sherlock argued.

Lestrade looked around him. "It's a drugs bust." He grinned. This would be fun.

John laughed. "Seriously? A junkie? This guy–have you met him?"

"John.." Sherlock quietly told him as he turned around to move to the man's side. John saw Lestrade's face fall and misinterpreted it.

"I'm pretty sure you can search this flat all day and you wouldn't find anything you could call recreational."

He continued again until he realized he had just blown it once again. Sherlock Holmes, a junkie? He saw Lestrade look at him in a new way. Before, most of his glances had been those of worry or irritation. Now the DI looked amused and his smile was genuine. Perhaps the man was glad to know John didn't know Sherlock all that well. But why would that be?

"This is childish", Sherlock hissed as he passed the DI.

Lestrade stood his ground and firmly rebuked Sherlock. "Well I'm dealing with a child. It's our case. I'm letting you in, but you do not go off on your own! Clear?"

"Or what? So you, you set up a pretend drugs bust to bully me?"

"It stops being pretend if we find anything", Lestrade replied and his expression told John that he wasn't entirely sure if they would or wouldn't. John could detect a hint of actual worry in his voice.

"I am clean!"

"Is your flat? All of it?" Lestrade asked him.

"For God's sake, I don't even smoke", Sherlock snapped and showed his patched arm. What struck John as interesting was that when Lestrade showed his arm in his turn, the patch he was wearing was exactly the same. A coincidence? There were several nicotine patch companies, but there were only so many designs for a patch. He chocked it to coincidence. What else could it be? Lestrade gives Holmes nicotine patches and is then surprised that he uses them? Actually, that sounded pretty believable, at least the last part, but why would Lestrade be giving out nicotine patches to Holmes? Definitely a coincidence.

After they had realized Sherlock had just gone on a date with a serial killer, John was simply furious with the man. Of course the idiot just went by himself with a maniac who'd already killed four people.

Sally came up to Lestrade. She said quite a number of things, but what John found interesting was what she said while looking at Lestrade. "He's always going to let you down. He's wasting your time." For one fleeting moment, her expression was almost tender and Lestrade looked apologetic. She stormed off and left John and Lestrade think.

Lestrade seemed at a loss over Sherlock's recent reckless behavior. "Why did he do that, why did he have to leave?"

"You know him better than I do."

"I've know him for five years, and no, I don't."

"Why do you put up with him?"

"Because I'm desperate, that's why." John was a bit stunned by his words, as they left a lot to be interpreted. Lestrade was about to leave, but at the last minute turned to say one last thing.

"Because Sherlock Holmes is a great man. And I think one day, if we're very, very lucky, he might even be a good one." John could just about detect a warm smile on the DI's lips before the man left.

What happened after that was pretty straight forward. John went after Sherlock, because that was his function. His role. To save Sherlock from Sherlock. When it was all over, he waited for the man to be let off. He saw Lestrade go up to Sherlock, who had just been covered with a blanket once again. Lestrade briefly looked around him to see if anyone was watching, then placed his right hand on the nape of Sherlock's neck to caress him. This didn't go on for long, as Sherlock got up, breaking the contact. John could hear Sherlock start going through the case again, and Lestrade smiled. Sherlock went on and John heard him shout 'Sherlock!', a little more conversation that John couldn't quite make out and then Sherlock came to him. John shot one last look at Lestrade who grinned before turning around and starting to order people around to wrap up the case.