*** The previous evening ***

The door opened and closed and Sherlock heard Joan's heels click across the Brownstone's wooden floor towards the kitchen. He himself was sat under the table thinking. Joan clicked across to the cupboard and removed a glass and left the kitchen, running up the stairs. She returned later – shoeless and with a bottle of wine in her hand. She poured a glass and leant against the kitchen side and sighed.

"Watson!" Sherlock called out and Joan almost dropped her glass of wine.

"Jesus Christ Sherlock you almost gave me a heart attack. What are you doing under the table?"

"Thinking" he replied somewhat mysteriously. She didn't question it as she was quite used to Sherlock's strange ways after many weeks living together. Clearly something was wrong. It would take a lot for Joan Watson to break her own rules of having no drugs in the house. So Sherlock crawled out to investigate.

"Date with Jimmy didn't go well then I take it?"

"I don't want to talk about it" she replied quietly and miserably. Sherlock wrinkled his face and wandered around the table following a groove in it. He often felt slightly unsure how to approach such social situations.

"So the wine..." he questioned further. Joan put down the glass firmly down on the side and finally looked up at Sherlock.

"I am sorry. But I have a bit of a secret stash in my room. I didn't want to leave it in the fridge to tempt you but this is a dire situation."

"'Secret stash?! Who's the junkie now?" Sherlock joked.

"I'll put it away; it's totally unprofessional of me."

"No, no, don't worry; do you want to... talk about Jimmy?"

Joan narrowed her eyes. Was Sherlock being sympathetic? She took off her coat and scarf and threw them on the back of a chair. They both sat down and Joan poured herself another glass of decidedly warm wine.

"So I thought as it was the third date I should tell him about my job. So I explained that I was a sober companion and lived with a client. He enquired as to your gender" she gestured towards Sherlock as she said this "and well he got more than a little bit tetchy when I told him. He said I told him I was a doctor. Well I WAS a Doctor; I guess he just interpreted that wrong. So he got a bit agitated and we had a bit of an argument. It got a little bit out of hand, the whole restaurant ended up hearing and then I stormed out. A few people even applauded." Sherlock detected a hint of pride in her last sentence and he couldn't contain it any longer, he started to laugh, laugh like he hadn't laughed in a long time. No- one had made him laugh like this since... since Irene. Joan looked at him and she too began to laugh and the pair of them laughed until tears rolled down their faces.

And a few more glasses of wine later Sherlock and Joan were dancing around the kitchen table to Duran Duran.

"Her name is Rioooooo and she dances on the saaaaand."

Joan left briefly to retrieve another bottle of wine from her room and before long she had forgotten all about her argument with Jimmy. They both felt mutually happy in each other's company, dancing around to 80s pop hand in hand, Sherlock spinning Joan until she almost fell over with dizziness.

"You're not what I thought you were Watson" Sherlock said when they had both returned to the table, somewhat exhausted.

"Oh yes? Why's that then?" Joan replied with a giggle.

"You're not stuffy at all. You're fun and a lovely person to be around. I thought getting a sober companion would be like having a chain and ball attached to my ankle. But I hope you know I consider you a fr..."

Before he could finish his sentence Joan Watson leant across and kissed Sherlock hard on the lips.