Sherlock gulped, which was not a very regular occurrence for the man, quite rare John Watson thought silently. He'd only ever done it when they had both been in the presence of Moriaty himself. That was not a night that John often liked to remember, but nonetheless the images of the red laser lights and the mocking eyes of Moriaty flashed through John's mind. He blinked and shook his head to get the images of out his head and again looked at Sherlock's face as he gasped for air. Sherlock was on another case much like the wild goose chases Moriaty led Sherlock on. This case was testing him and the evidence was showing clear as day on the consulting detective's face. John sighed and walked behind him to check on him working. Resourceful as ever he had his phone out and was surfing Lestraud's reports as well as having another tab on the suburban crime Internet hotspots.
"John!" Sherlock mutters urgently. I lean in close to him to check his screen. "John, I have a question for you" he says softly, not in that urgent rushed tone he had before. "John when was the last time you saw Sarah?" John's eyes widened in surprise, Sherlock had never said her name before. He had never referred to her before ever. If she was in the room he just changed the tone of his voice, which made it evident he was talking to her, if he ever talked to her at all.
"Err a few weeks ago… Why Sherlock? Is something wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing John" he mutters quickly and waves his hand away.
"You sure you're alright Sherlock?" John asks again.
"Yes John I was just curious" he sighs and relaxes back into his chair. John frowned and slowly lowered his gaze to his feet and turned around slowly and started to head towards the stairs to his bedroom. He took one last look at the man at work and continued his flight of stairs.
"John!" Sherlock's voice suddenly comes echoing up the first few steps. John turns around again and leaps down the stairs.
"Yes?"
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Whenever you leave me in a room why do you always look back?" John relaxes again and walks over to Sherlock who was now facing John in his wheelchair with a look of desperation and that familiar sparkle of curiosity and inquisitiveness.
"That's because…well…I worry about you. You don't ever open up to people. Not that you have to…actually I can't really imagine you opening up to Lestraud or worst case scenario Andersen." John chuckled to himself and looked back at Sherlock who was still staring intently into John's eyes. John shrugged it off "Anyway I just want to say…what I'm meaning to say is that if something is troubling you then you could…well talk to me about it… I mean we're room mates and you know I know it's hard for anyone of your intellect to lower yourself down to someone else's level but if it's me… *sighs* I mean…Look if you want to you can talk to me even if it's hard for you, you'll probably be better off letting it out." John finished a bit flustered from his last burst. He sighed again and turned to the staircase.
"John"
"Yes Sherlock"
"Thank you" Sherlock muttered softly only just loud enough for John to hear it. He turned around and smiled.
"Anytime Sherlock, anytime remember that."