Battlefield Comrades
Come at once, if convenient. If inconvenient, come anyway.
Ridiculous, Watson thought to himself as he turned and walked away from the arrogant man with the umbrella. I've only known Sherlock Holmes for a single day and already my life has been turned upside down. But he couldn't deny that what the stranger had said was true. Every moment he had spent with the detective- consulting detective, he corrected himself- was like being at war all over again, and he felt more alive now than he had since his discharge.
When you're with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield…
"I'm to take you home," the young woman told him bemusedly, looking at her phone. "Address?"
"Baker Street, 221 B," he told her. "But I have to stop off somewhere first."
He wasn't put off at all by the heavy silence that filled the car on the drive to his old apartment, his thoughts full of strange men and Sherlock's derisive laugh, as well as the odd camaraderie that had developed between them. Trust issues, he scoffed to himself. If I have trust issues, then how on earth is all this happening?
The cold metal of his pistol felt familiar against his skin as he tucked it into the back of his pants. It was like a safety blanket, making him instantly breathe just a little easier about getting back into the car with that strange woman. (Of course, she didn't quite put him off enough to stop his weak attempt at flirting- he was a single, healthy man after all.)
"What are you doing?" His first words to Sherlock as he walked in the door were incredulous and not just a bit worried. He was hardly expecting the answer he got: nicotine patches.
Again he wondered, as Sherlock insulted his intelligence, got just a bit frustrated with him, and summoned him across London to send a text to the cell of a dead woman, why on earth he hadn't taken Sergeant Donovan's advice and stayed away.
"Sergeant Donovan," he said, thinking aloud. Sherlock turned in the doorway and looked at him inquisitively.
"Yes?"
"She said to stay away from you."
"And I said it was dangerous, yet here you are." With a grin, he swept out the door, leaving Watson wondering what had just happened, and if he should follow. However, he knew his mind had been made up before he even had a choice to make, and with a curse, he followed his new colleague and flatmate out into the night.
