Sherlock Misses John
By KathyG
While attempting to solve the skeleton case in "The Empty Hearse," Molly and Lestrade notice that Sherlock is missing John. Thanks to besleybean, from the BBC Sherlock Fan Forum, for going over this story for me!
Gesturing, Sherlock said, "The—the—the corpse is—is six months old; it's dressed in a shoddy Victorian outfit from a museum." He pointed at the skeleton seated behind the basement desk.
Standing to its right, Molly took notes as he spoke. The mobile lights scattered around the basement shed their light over the room. The air felt cool as Lestrade listened attentively to the consulting detective. At Sherlock's request, Molly had been working with him on his cases for the last several hours since John was not there to do it.
"It's been displayed on a dummy for many years in a case facing south-east, judging from the fading of the fabric." Sherlock pointed at the clothes the skeleton was wearing. "It was sold off in a fire-damage sale—" He removed his mobile phone from inside his Belstaff coat as he spoke, and showed the screen to Greg. "—a week ago."
With a grimace, Lestrade, who was standing to the skeleton's left, scratched his head. "So the whole thing was a fake." He dropped his hand to his side as he spoke.
"Yes." Sherlock turned around and began to leave the basement, ascending the stairs.
Lestrade stepped away from the desk that the skeleton was sitting at, frowning. "Looked so promising."
Sherlock, who was already out of sight, said, "Facile."
"Why would someone go to all that trouble?" Molly asked, puzzled.
"Why, indeed, John?" came Sherlock's voice from up the stairs.
Molly gave Lestrade an awkward look, and then looked down at her notebook. "He misses John," she said in a low voice, and bit her lower lip. In a louder voice, she said, "Sherlock misses John." Lestrade nodded agreement. She slid her notebook and pen into her pocket and looked back at him. "This is the second time he's called me John today. And did you notice how he seemed to be hearing John inside his head?"
Greg sighed and circled the desk to approach her. "I sure did, Molly, and he certainly does." He looked at the door entrance for a long moment, troubled. "It appears that John did not take his—his resurrection well. This is very hard on Sherlock, and I suspect on John as well."
Molly nodded agreement. "I fear you're right." She stepped away from the skeleton, and she and Lestrade exchanged troubled looks.
"I just hope that John and Sherlock are able to work this out between them soon." The detective inspector looked back at the skeleton for a long moment, and then turned back to Molly, shaking his head. "I'll wait for now, before I do anything. It may be that they will soon manage to work this problem out. But if I see that this rift between them is lasting too long, I'm going to pay a visit to John." His gravelly voice was determined.
Molly smiled sadly. "I hope he will listen to you, Greg. We both know how stubborn John can be."
Greg grimaced again. "True."
Molly looked down at her watch and looked up at the stairs. "Well, Sherlock is waiting for me, so I'd better go."
"Yes, and so had I," Lestrade agreed, as he shut off the mobile lights, plunging the basement back into darkness. Leaving the basement where the skeleton had been found, the two of them went back up the stairs to re-join Sherlock.
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