Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.

A/N Just a little something. Hope you enjoy

The wall of the flat was once again covered in notes, pictures, maps and everything else that was related to the latest case. John couldn't remember how long they had been stood looking at it but he noticed now that Lestrade was checking his watch and Sherlock had stopped his rather frantic pacing to shrug off his jacket.

'I'll have to get back to the Yard.' Lestrade announced breaking the silence.

'We'll let you know if anything...happens,' John said as he gave a nod of the head in Sherlock's direction. Lestrade understood what he meant. They had got to the point where they were all just waiting for Sherlock's brain to connect the last few dots.

'Right, thanks, I...Sherlock, is that four patches?' Lestrade gestured to the detectives arm as he rolled up his sleeves.

'Oh good, you can count,' Sherlock replied condescendingly.

'Four? Sherlock, I told you...' John began but he was interrupted by a slightly horrified sounding Lestrade;

'Sherlock, you haven't.'

'What?' John was confused but then he saw it; Lestrade was staring at Sherlock's other arm which was covered in fresh bruising and what could only be marks left from a needle. John's stomach turned.

'Haven't what?' Sherlock turned to face the two other men in the room, the look in his eyes clearly telling them that he wasn't really in the mood for answering questions.

'Your arm, Sherlock.' John said quietly.

'My arm? Look, I hardly think one more patch is...' Sherlock paused as he realised it wasn't that arm that was being referred to. He sighed in annoyance. 'I'm not doing drugs. I just needed blood.'

Both Lestrade and John let go of breath they hadn't noticed they had been holding. Not drugs. That was good. That was a relief. However after a moment they both started to process what Sherlock had actually told them.

'You needed blood?' John asked.

'Hmm. For an experiment.' Sherlock's attention had returned to the wall.

'So you took your own?'

'You weren't home.'

John was shaking his head and Lestrade could tell that the doctor was probably wondering whether he should just go ahead and punch the sociopath. He knew that feeling well. He watched though as John finally decided that he was going to grab Sherlock's offending arm making sure he had the detective's full attention.

'Sherlock, you've made a right mess.'

'I'm just a little out of practice.' Sherlock yanked his arm back in irritation. What did his arm matter when there was still a case to solve?

'Out of practice?' John was incredulous. He rubbed his hands across his face and then fixed a serious glare on Sherlock, 'Sherlock, just so you know, if you ever cause yourself serious injury because of one of your stupid bloody experiments, I won't be dealing with the consequences, ok?'

'And if you ever kill yourself, I won't be dealing with that.' Lestrade decided to add firmly.

Sherlock rolled his eyes. 'Honestly, do you have to be so dramatic? And it's not...Oh. OH!' He clasped his hands together and almost did a jump backwards, 'It's going to be at the car dealership!'

The sudden change in topic took John and Lestrade by surprise until they were both reminded by a cry of 'the next murder!' from Sherlock what they had previously been focused on. It seemed an intervention regarding the detective's stupidity would have to be put on hold because his genius had kicked in.

'Sherlock Holmes definitely keeps life interesting,' John thought as he and Lestrade listened to the detective explain another solved puzzle.

...