IV.
At last Holmes relents, and says to him as he is about to leave the next evening, "No need to go hide, Watson. If I see her tonight it'll be me leaving."
Watson turns back around at the door and says nothing at first, a little hesitant to believe him in case it is too good to be true.
"She said you gave her a very brilliant idea yesterday, you see," Holmes explains, "when you mentioned to her the convenient coincidence that she has a room at the Grand, which was the scene of a crime we are still working to solve."
"Convenient..." Watson echoes the word with a lost look on his face.
"Yes. Why couldn't I make a habit of visiting her there and just let others assume I must be returning to look for evidence?"
As the understanding settles, he just narrows his eyes at him. "Somehow I suspect your unsurpassable mind could have come to that idea yourself...and much sooner."
Holmes looks over at him with something a little humoring in his eyes as he sits down in the chair next to his. "Yes, you clearly know me too well," he says, saying the admission with not a little irony in his tone. "Perhaps my true reason is that I've found I can be a surprisingly jealous man, and I no longer feel secure in having her all to myself."
Watson breaks out into laughter. Holmes's mouth tightens into the subtlest smile as he looks to the side at him.
"You laugh," he says, sounding less serious than ever despite his expression staying mild, "but it's I who should laugh at you. You're a fool if you'renot in love with her."
"And you always stand to be made one because you are," Watson says, still lightly laughing a little. "Don't think I'd deny that she is certainly...well...an exceptional woman. And maybe I've seen a lot more of her than would usually be prudent to discourage attraction. But being a doctor, I have seen it all before, after all. Enough to be safely desensitized from her powerful influence, I think."
Holmes scoffs. "Oh, you've seen women before," he says as if he is almost offended by the statement, saying the word "women" as if their collective existence is the simplest and most boring concept he never dwells on. "But Irene Adler...She might as well be an entirely different sex than anything else that walks this earth. She is never to be underestimated."
"I believe that's what I've been trying to tell you," he says flatly, and then he sighs. "Perhaps one day when I have a woman I'll...almost understand."
"No, I doubt that," Holmes mumbles quickly as he gets up.
Looking at him with some annoyance, Watson thinks he understands after hearing that what his actual motivation is for finally letting him have his way. As he kept trying to avoid Irene as much as possible, Holmes must have decided that her presence was not worth his prolonged absences during all their free hours of the day. Anything that threatens to remove Watson as a mindless permanent fixture in his professional and domestic life is abhorrent to Holmes, and there is no telling what the unintended effects could be of him getting a little too much healthy and fresh air outside of this claustrophobic place they share, always sharing everything. Therefore, just like that, the woman is gone.
When Holmes is about to leave and get on his way to the hotel, Watson turns to him in his chair and stops him momentarily, telling him for probably the tenth time, "Keep her nose out of our business!"
"Of course."
"You won't talk with her about anything beyond the London weather. She is not to know where you're coming from when you get there or where you're going after you leave her."
"Of course."
Almost letting him finally go as he opens the door, Watson waits a moment and then looks back at him to add, "I don't even want you sleeping there! Ever! You talk in your sleep, are you aware of that?"
Holmes just gives him a slight smirk before he's out the door.
—————
Of course it is only a few days later that Watson finds himself having to go to the hotel himself and find their room after Holmes failed to be where he was supposed to be when he needed him. He aggressively raps his cane on the door several times before Irene finally comes to open it, dressed in a silk robe.
Seeing him, she slowly smiles and leans to one side of the door, just looking somehow very amused to see him here of all places.
"Well?" he says impatiently. "Is he here?"
"Do you have to take him away from me already?" she asks.
"I've a love letter for him," Watson says dryly. "An urgent one."
After hearing those words, Holmes appears behind her, quickly buttoning up his shirt. "Yes?" he asks in a rush. "What is it?"
Irene moves to the side to let Watson come in and shuts the door. Looking over at her briefly and obviously hesitating to say certain things, he just explains vaguely, "Our...subject has left the premises."
"Ah, good. We must hurry then."
"Yes, if we can even still get there fast enough. I already wasted some time going back home where you said to come find you."
Holmes looks over at Irene and says, "You, darling, could be quite useful coming with us."
She tilts her head to the side a little as if surprised.
"Holmes," Watson says, looking at him with much more shock. "What did we talk about?"
"We don't need to disclose any specifics about what we're doing in order for her to accompany us, do we? Besides, she'll only wait outside the whole time. I'm sure you can see how she could easily provide distraction should either of our subjects return before we're finished there."
"Subject!" Watson says. "Not more than one, as far as she's concerned! Why don't you just hand over all our notes to her while you're at it?"
Completely at ease, Irene ignores their conflict and finally says, "Just give me a moment."
She heads toward a screen standing at the other end of the room. Watson is much too concerned with more important matters to spare the attention to be uncomfortable this time when she lets the robe fall from her shoulders and he sees nothing but skin for a brief moment before her back side then disappears behind the screen, where she then starts changing into some clothes. Right away, he grabs Holmes by the arm and drags him as far from her as they can get by the opposite wall.
"What in the hell are you doing?" he says, trying to keep his voice down.
"It will be fine," Holmes just assures him.
"You've completely lost your head if you don't think all this will do is lead her straight to—"
"There's no time to take the necessary measures to completely evade her," Holmes explains quickly in a very low voice. "It's much better to have her with us where you can keep an eye on her than have her following us there, as I suspect she might do otherwise."
"Where I can keep an eye on her?"
"Yes. You'll leave the search for the item mostly up to me."
When she comes back out in a burgundy dress almost all ready to leave, Watson still looks very reluctant. While putting her boots on, she says to him, comfortably smiling as always, "Just remember this was never my idea."