"Sherlock."

Sally's voice came out a little sharper - a little more frantic, even - than she must have meant it to, and both she and Sherlock noticed. When the cab pulled up to the curb, Sherlock waved it on and turned back to her, still attentive, but knowing that his eyes were a bit sharper; he couldn't help it, that was what happened when he deduced people. He saw an edge of panic in her dark eyes, and more than a little uncertainty.

But why?

"Is something wrong, Sergeant Donavan?" he asked carefully.

She flinched, requesting uncertainly - almost sheepishly, not that the adjective would everhave been applied to her in his mind. "Can you not… call me that? At least not right now?"

"Alright… Sally. What's on your mind?"

A very long pause preceded a word whispered so softly that Sherlock almost didn't catch it. "You." And then she began to stumble over her words in what he assumed was a desperate attempt to make him understand what she meant. "Us. This. What we're doing here. This date. Another date? Talking to you. Being with you. Liking you. Kissing you. Not knowing how I feel about you - about this. About us. You implied Friday at my house that you like me, and I don't know what to do with that. I don't know how I feel about that. I don't know how I feel about you. I-"

Sherlock abruptly cut her off, kissing her suddenly, swallowing her gasp of surprise before he pulled back and asked, "Does that help you decide?"

It took her a second to recover her wits, but after a moment Sally asked, "Decide what?"

"If you want to… pursue something… with me?"

"That," Sally answered just a bit tartly, tone softened by the nervous smile flitting carefully about the edges of her lips. "Is what I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted. I don't know for sure what this is that I feel for you, Sherlock Holmes, but I wouldn't be here tonight if I wasn't willing to give this a try. I knew that coming here - that I was going to see how tonight went and make something of a decision based on that."

"So tonight was an experiment then?" he asked curiously, a thread of pleasure popping up in him at the idea of her thinking so.

"Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way."

"I already was," he admitted. She grinned, and he returned the gesture, taking the moment to gather his courage enough to ask - nervous in his own right, "And how did tonight go, in your opinion?"

Sally's grin brightened, but she didn't answer yet, asking instead, "What is your opinion, Freeeaaaak?"

Sherlock swallowed, his nervousness increasing as the old put-down fell, albeit rather teasingly, from her tongue, and he shifted from foot to foot before deciding to be brutally honest. "I know what I think, and - maybe even for once in my life - what I feel. I like you; I have even before Friday, and I meant what I said then. If you're willing to give me a chance, I'm willing to do what is admittedly my very meager best romantically to win your affections." He took a deep breath, turning it back onto her as he added, "But that's of no use unless you're in agreement with the idea. I enjoyed our time both Friday and tonight, but you never answered me Friday when I brought up the idea of a relationship. I find that, considering how these past couple of days have gone, that leaves me rather…" Sally could not possibly understand how much it pained him to use this word, no matter how fitting it was. "Confused… and anxious, as well."

"I never did answer you Friday, did I?" Sherlock shook his head mutely and Sally crossed her arms over her chest, saying, "I guess that's because I didn't want it to seem like I'd made a snap decision - but I guess I still did. I didn't realize it until just now, but I did. I'm… sorry… that you've been so nervous, but, if it makes you feel any better, I've been just as nervous since we set up this date."

Sherlock's eyebrows drew together and he asked, "Why would that make me feel better?" before he realized that he'd interrupted her. "Sorry, go on."

Sally grinned at him for some reason and obediently continued, "But I guess I knew even Friday how this would turn out on my end, and I was just so shocked with myself that I forgot to pass on the information to you." Here she took a deep breath, steeling herself before she revealed the verdict that Sherlock had been waiting for. "If you're really as willing to try this as I am, then I guess we'd better give it a shot."

Sherlock grinned happily, intertwining his fingers with hers and giving her a chaste kiss. When his eyes met hers, he caught a flicker of something in their depths, and he called her out on it.

"I'm glad you agree… even if it is despite yourself."

Sally ducked her head, saying, "Yeah," but when her eyes shot back up to his, they were flashing with an imitation of the haughtiness that he was used to from her as she pointed out, "But I'm not the only one, am I, Mr. Holmes?"

Sherlock blinked, surprised at being caught, but not objecting to what they both knew was the truth. "No," Sherlock agreed, feeling unusually tongue-tied by the words coming out of his mouth. "Despite both of ourselves, we may just possibly, maybe be…"

The words in his head very nearly couldn't come out of his mouth, but Sally sensed what they were and supplied them with a little more ease than he could, an admittedly pretty flush coming into her cheeks. "… Falling… for one another."

"Possibly," Sherlock replied, feeling rather out of his comfort zone.

"Well," Sally said, turning away for just as long as it took to hail a cab. "Come on then, boyfriend, let's go find out."