You Didn't Observe
This was written in response to the SherlockChallenge August prompt: Height Difference
John stood off to the side in the kitchen listening as Lestrade spoke with the homeowner. When the conversation began to turn more personal and not that relevant to the crime Sherlock was called there for, he wandered into the study to see what the detective had found.
Sherlock was crouched on his hands and knees, his face almost pressed into the floor, looking at the carpet in front of a bookcase with his magnifying glass.
Not wanting to block the light coming in from the floor to ceiling windows, John made his way to the left side of Sherlock. "So, Greg said…"
Sherlock jumped up and put a hand out. "No need to say anything. I already know who did it."
"Of course you do," John said, unsurprised since Sherlock had been in the room for about three minutes. Now that Sherlock wasn't looking at the carpet, he walked over to the bookcase and looked down to see what had caught the detective's attention. He couldn't see anything.
"Before I go spouting, as you would call it, my findings, take a look at the top shelf of the bookcase. What do you see?" Sherlock turned and looked at the desk next to him as he put the magnifying glass in his coat pocket.
The solid oak bookcase took the length of half of the room, was almost eight feet tall with six shelves, and held books and various knickknacks. John eyed the bookcase then looked to Sherlock.
In the ensuing silence, Sherlock turned around and found John looking at him with an incredulous look on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. "What?"
John raised an eyebrow. "Really? Do you think my jacket is a magical cape and I can fly up to see the shelf?" He flapped the sides of his jacket.
"I don't…"
"To quote you, Sherlock, you see but you do not observe."
Sherlock looked from John to the bookcase. Even standing on the tips of his toes, there was no way John would be able to see the entire depth of the shelf. He, himself, had to stand on his tip toes. Sherlock turned back to John with a blush beginning to creep up his face.
John put his hands in his pockets and smirked. "You forgot about our height difference didn't you?"
"I…" Sherlock looked away. He picked up a paperweight from the desk and began playing with it.
"Sherlock?" John asked with a huge grin.
Sherlock gently placed the paperweight back down on the desk and glanced at John. "I need to talk with Lestrade." He twirled around and quickly left the room.
John outright laughed. "Don't think I won't forget this, Sherlock," he yelled out towards the hallway as he followed Sherlock into the kitchen. He couldn't wait to get home and put this on his blog.
