Disclaimer – Characters and settings as depicted in the BBC series not mine. No money being made. Plot is mine.
Warning – established relationship (John/Sherlock). Random cute animal.
The one with the Gerbil in the Bath
John eased the front door shut, well aware that Mrs Hudson would not be best pleased if they woke her at two in the morning – again – and trudged up the stairs after his lover. They'd just been from their usual post-case-meal-out and were now headed for a last cup of tea and then John was going to bed. Sherlock would probably stay up for another few hours before joining him, that post case energy keeping the curly haired man awake and restless.
John went into the kitchen and put the kettle on while Sherlock went towards the bathroom. A quick glance in the front room showed that the gerbil – so aptly named Houdini despite Sherlock's distaste for the obvious – was once more free of his palatial enclosure. John had a vague suspicion that when it was just Sherlock and the gerbil it had another name altogether, but he wasn't too keen on figuring that particular mystery out.
"Sherlock, Houdini is out," John called and went back to his tea making. The little rodent had a habit of turning up in the most unexpected places, which made life more interesting that John thought necessary. There was no response from Sherlock, who either didn't hear John, or heard but couldn't be bothered to reply. Either way, John sipped his newly made tea and wandered out to their shared desk, putting the tea down and opening his laptop to check his email. Once he logged on, though, he paused, looking up.
The silence in the flat seemed rather pointed.
Frowning, John got up and headed towards the bathroom. Sherlock had been complaining about needing to wash his hands and face after their meal: John wasn't sure why. The door to the bathroom was ajar and John pushed it open, stepping inside.
Sherlock was standing in the middle of the small room, staring fixedly into the bath. John couldn't see what was in the bath from where he stood so he manoeuvred around his partner; one hand on the rigid mans back and glanced down.
Houdini was in the bottom of the bath, completely still and looking slightly rigid. John sighed and bent to have a closer look before reaching for the facecloth Sherlock had used to remove his makeup with last week. The action seemed to trigger his partner, who unfroze and whirled out of the room, the door to their bedroom slamming shut moments later.
Houdini was still and cold, but John carried the little thing into the front room and fished out his stethoscope from the emergency kit he carried with him from time to time. There was a heartbeat, albeit a very slow one, so John wrapped the tiny creature in the facecloth more securely and went to get some foil from the kitchen and bedding from the bottom of Houdini's cage. He fashioned a quick bowl from the foil, lined it and put Houdini in, placing the whole arrangement on the desk next to his tea and then turned the desk lamp on and lowered its extendable neck so the bulb – which put out a shocking amount of heat and wasn't at all environmentally sound – was closer to his lovers pet.
When Houdini had first arrived, courtesy of Mycroft's bizarre sense of humour, John had looked up some tips on gerbil first aid. One of the things he'd discovered was that animals this size had been known to go into a sort of hibernation when they were exposed to cold for long periods of time. The enamel of the bath had been quite cold and the bathroom itself was usually the coolest room in the house, so it was possible that Houdini had, after falling into the bath, shut down to preserve his strength.
John went into the kitchen once more to fetch some food for the gerbil, along with a clean pipette and a glass of water, which he dissolved a teaspoon of sugar with. The bedroom door was positively radiating 'go away' vibes, so John left Sherlock to it, preferring not to get his lovers hopes up. There was always the option of taking Houdini to a vet, but John felt it was a bit ridiculous to wake a vet at this time of night to deal with a hibernating gerbil.
John surfed the net, checked his email and updated his blog while Houdini rested in his own gerbil sized heat bath. He took some sugared water when it was offered from the pipette after an hour or so, which John felt was a good sign, and became a little restless around five in the morning. John offered him some food, stroked the dark grey fur with a finger and went back to ordering his groceries on-line when it became apparent that a nap was in order for the recuperating rodent.
By six thirty Houdini was awake, had eaten well and climbed John's sleeve to sit on his shoulder. John turned the desk lamp off, nearly burning his fingers in the process and shut down the laptop. He offered another of those shredded wheat squares Houdini liked so much and went to brave his brooding lover.
Sherlock was sitting up against the headboard, knees to chest, wearing his best 'unfeeling sociopath' mask. He refused to look at John when he entered; staring at the tops of his knees instead and John ran a hand gently through curly locks, rubbing his thumb at the base of Sherlock's skull. Houdini ran down that arm and hopped onto Sherlock's shoulder, pressing his little front paws to the nearest stubbly cheek.
Watching Sherlock's mask melt was like watching the sun come out and John smiled, pleased to see it.
"John," Sherlock breathed, "You genius. How did you…"
"Mmhmm," John stroked his hand over his lovers curls once more and then pulled away as Sherlock gathered Houdini in his hands and examined him anxiously, "You're the deductive mastermind. You figure it out."
That earned him a mild glance – Sherlock was too happy to properly scowl or glare at the teasing – and John went back out to the kitchen to rinse his tea mug. He located the towel they used when Sherlock's experimental body parts got the better of him and made a horrific mess and cut a strip off the length, taking it to the bathroom and tying it firmly around one of the spigots, leaving the majority trailing in the bath. John didn't bother to try and work out how the gerbil got into the bath in the first place – there were all sorts of things in the room that he could have scaled and then walked across to get to a higher or lower level. The bath was slick and the sides were steep so once he fell in Houdini would have been completely unable to get back out. Hence the towel strip come escape ladder.
He washed up, performed his usual going to bed routines and then dragged himself back into the bedroom, thoroughly exhausted now. Sherlock was out in the front room and John tumbled into bed, pleased to be horizontal.
He woke in the middle of the afternoon to find Houdini on his chest, watching him with bright eyes.
"Sherlock, no pets in bed," John called; sure his lover was somewhere nearby. He'd insisted on the rule from the very start and enforced it by refusing to join Sherlock if Houdini was anywhere in evidence. Two nights without John's company and a third where John left once he discovered where Houdini was being hidden soon cemented that rule in Sherlock's mind.
"He just wanted to check on you John," Sherlock protested from the kitchen, "After all, you saved his life."
John sighed, scooped the rodent up and headed out to see what Sherlock was doing.
"Good idea by the way, with the towel," Sherlock added as John deposited the gerbil on the counter top and looked over the contents of the kitchen table. Sherlock was performing what he called 'domestic chemistry' and the rest of the world called 'cooking'. They were having pikelets for tea apparently and John grinned. Sherlock left his concocting long enough to give his lover a thorough kiss, crowding him against the counter and holding on tightly for a long moment before letting go and returning to his batter.
"You're welcome," John muttered and put the kettle on, fishing Houdini out of his tea mug as he did.
END
AN – you didn't think I'd kill the rodent did you? Based on a true event (a colleague resurrected the classroom hamster when the heating in school went off over a cold weekend by putting it in a frying pan and heating the pan slowly in the school oven.)