Chapter 2

It started with a few late nights finishing up the patient records at the clinic, and those late nights turned into a few weeks chatting in small cafés during lunch breaks. Bliss was a near perfect description of all their time spent together. John and Mary often took strolls together at the park talking about anything ranging from their favourite type of music to their worst idiosyncrasies. Mary found herself liking John more and more with each time they met. She wasn't the sort who sought to have a date, but rather wanted one serious relationship with the special one. John Watson was her special one, she was certain of it. To be his wife, her Doctor Watson. To celebrate their time three months together, Mary wanted to visit the museum since they were having a combined exhibition on featuring new artefacts on Rome and Greece, a personal favourite of theirs. Only a select few knew of John's liking toward Roman and Greek culture, not even Sherlock knew of it. Mary was privilaged to that information, though hardly crucial to life, he just wanted to keep a few secrets from his best friend, well, not that Sherlock would care to know about Greeks and Romans 'd probably dismiss the information the same way he did with the solar system knowledge..."What does it matter that the earth goes around the sun..."

At the mention of the solar system, John's mind wandered to thoughts of a disheveled Sherlock clad in his rag-tag blue dressing gown pacing the ledge of the hospital rooftop ranting about something trivial to him via mobile. "No, just don't. Stop it. Don't think about it anymore. You have Mary now, you've have to move on. Begin again." John blinked a few times trying to clear his head and control his breathing.

"Doctor? Are you alright?" She said holding his hand tightly ignoring the array of Roman artifacts behind the glass. "Looks as though you're in pain. Is your leg troubling you now?"

Giving his Mary a quick kiss on her forehead he replied softly hoping to direct the attention to anything but himself at the present moment, "I'll be fine. Don't worry. Let's continue looking around, shall we?"

"If you insisted, but don't, but on a brave face for me Doctor. Don't forget who you're with." Mary warned with a smile that seemed to make her eyes glimmer.

"How could I every forget?" he responded in a caring sarcastic tone.

They continued along the guided tour listening to the pre-recorded guide inside the tiny screen explain the daily life of a typical family living in ancient Greece.

"In a quick overview of this section you will discover that Grecians were in many ways living similar lives as you and I do...Ordinary people living an ordinary life going about their own business. Here shown are a few of this family's possessions..notice the harpoon arrows, a varietly of them have been found with this family suggesting this was a family that made its living by catching food from the ocean..." The recording droned on and on, but John found it hard to focus again.

"You went on the Tube like that?!

"None of the cabs would take me."

He didn't want to ruin Mary's enjoyment of the exhibition with his reminiscence about his late friend.

"Doctor, really. You must tell me now. I insist. You are distracted from the presentation. It must be your leg hurting from all this walking. Come have a seat." Mary spoke in a soft concerned voice leading John to the bench off in the corner of the room.

"Only because you insisted, just for a few minuets." John took a seat next to her and continued, "I want to finish looking around. We're nearly done with the tour. Please don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'm enjoying the exhibition. Afterall it is Rome and Greece, my favourite.

Mary wasn't going to let her off the hook that easy, she was one determined lady when she chose to be set with an expression of discussing the topic until she was satisfied with his answers, "Doctor. The exhibition can wait. It's not going anywhere for the next couple of months. If you're truly fine then give me an explanation of why you're massaging your knee. Hmmm?"

John gasped in a hushed tone and looked at where his hand was resting. It was exactly where Mary said it had been, rubbing his left knee in circles. His knee wasn't even in pain so great so that it needed massaging. He even prided himself for climbing the stairs multiple time without having use a death grip on banister for assistance. Mary was right though, they had been wandering up and down the halls of the museum for a few of hours, so who's to say his leg shouldn't hurt be it from wound or from the mind? "Suppose it's just a subconscious act to distract myself from my own thinking," John thought. He really didn't want to bring up everything related Sherlock at a time like this; it was too complicated a mess, and far too noisy with all the museum visitors milling around the place. Simply not appropriate for this setting, it would have to wait.

What should he tell Mary though, he would never lie to her even if it was half-true; which by his book was still a lie.

A-N: Thanks for reading and following this story, be sure to leave your comments and ideas about what John's and Mary's time might have been like during Sherlock'x absence.

Don't forget about the sequel entitled "In Whose Eyes?" which is also being updated along with this story.

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