"Fool me once..."
He'd been staring at the wall for a day and a half when the phrase "familial obligation" came to mind. At first he was confused, thinking it was something to do with Moriarty, the first nebulous tendrils of a lead. But then he realized it was his father and the fact — the fact — that he would never consent to additional treatment if it were not a matter of life or death for the family name. If his father knew just exactly what this matter was, he would not still be in this house but would have already been binned to a facility with considerably more security and discretion than Hemdale. He knew now that Watson would not lie to a client. A paying client, that is. So.
She didn't flinch when he came up on her in the library, but she didn't make eye contact either. She pretended to keep reading for a moment and then let her hand rest on the page.
"What," she said, closing her eyes.
He said nothing, feeling the anger warm him, convection waves of it, imagining the floor glowing red beneath his feet.
She kept her eyes closed, breaths coming slow and steady but he could see the pulse leaping at her neck and looking down, the tiny tremors of her heartbeat where her fingertips vibrated against the paper.
A minute passed. Another. He was counting them. She lasted six.
"It was a judgment call. You needed me here. I nee-"
"I don't need a sitter. I don't need deceptions, or coddling, and if you think you could stop me..."
"-I needed to be here," she continued, barely audible.
"Why? What is it you think you can do? Nothing! There's nothing. Nothing I need from you." He fought the urge to pace, wanting to garner the energy, let that explosive reagent surge through his brain.
"I can be the early warning system for the police the next time you're driven to kill." Eyes open now, gaze steady on him. He wondered if she could sense the effect his fury was having on him. Apparently.
He clamped his lips tightly, jaw working. "Why stay at all? Why not tell my father the truth and be done with it, let him take care of me." He bit off the word "care" so that it sounded jagged and harsh.
"No. I. That wouldn't be helpful. I didn't see how that could help things. Anything."
"What, then? What is this?"
"I don't know!" She shouted, startling herself it seemed, almost as much as him. "I don't know. How this will work. But for now, just now, I could see that I could... That you... It wasn't right. This thing with Moran, M, Moriarty. We were done, and now we're not done. I still have work here. With you."
"But I don't have to let you stay."
"No, but..." She hesitated. "No."
"No," he said.