Four
John was awoken by the sunlight streaming through the window and onto his face. He stretched and tried to massage the stiffness out of his neck from sleeping in his chair. He looked around the room and noticed that Sherlock was nowhere to be seen. John vaguely wondered where his genius flatmate could be as he shuffled down the hall and into the bathroom.
"Oh, jesus Sherlock, learn to lock the bloody door!" John shielded his eyes as he saw Sherlock just out of the shower, dripping wet and clad in only a towel. "you had better not pee with the door unlocked!"
"No, that would be weird." Sherlock answered, no hint of sarcasm or irony in his voice as he began to towel dry his hair and walk out of the room past the gawking doctor.
John shrugged out of his robe, rolling his shoulder and rubbing the war scar absent-mindedly before climbing into the shower himself and letting the hot water wash away the early morning aches. After a few minutes, he thought he could smell bacon and eggs cooking, so he quickly got out of the shower in the hopes that Mrs. Hudson had come and made them breakfast – even though she was "not their housekeeper". He went into his room, dried off, dressed in pants, a shirt and his favourite cream jumper and headed towards the kitchen.
"Good morning, John. I trust you like your eggs over-easy and ketchup on your crisply-cooked bacon as opposed to brown sauce" Sherlock said, placing a plate down on the table in front of a speechless John. "What? A man can't make another man breakfast any more?" Sherlock grinned then sat down opposite him. "Oh, and be quick with that, we've got to meet Lestrade at a crime scene in about half an hour. A double murder – oh goody!" His face lit up with glee as he floated from the room and opened up John's laptop, hacked his password and went on the internet to research the area that his latest game was being played.
John merely shook his head and ate his breakfast.
Some time later that afternoon – after the detective had once again ruffled the feathers of Anderson and Donovan but proved endlessly helpful to the case – the pair strolled out of the crime scene in Islington and towards a main road to get a taxi. The cold October wind blew furiously and turned their ears and noses pink within seconds. John shivered, Sherlock seemed to pay no mind to the biting cold.
"Sherlock!" Lestrade shouted after him. Sherlock slowed his pace and eventually stopped, turning on his heels to face the detective who had called after him. Lestrade began to walk quickly towards them hands in pockets and head bowed against the wind.
"Yes?" Sherlock said, exasperatedly, pulling his gloves on whilst paying little attention to Lestrade. John stopped also, hands thrust deep into his pockets, the collar of his coat turned up against the bitter cold. Lestrade finally caught them both up and paused. "Well, what do you want?" Sherlock looked down at the detective briefly, before looking up and analysing the surroundings.
"Are you really just going to walk out on a double murder? I need you here, as much as I hate to admit it, you're brilliant at solving stuff like this" Lestrade looked at them both with pleading in his eyes. Sherlock looked resigned to go home, and proved such by rolling his eyes, making up some excuse about going to see a man about a cat and turning once more towards the main road. John looked apologetically at Lestrade and followed his flatmate, leaving Lestrade standing in the middle of an Islington back road, alone.
"Investigate the wife's sister. If she has a letter opener in her drawer, arrest her." Sherlock shouted back over his shoulder as he and his flatmate walked briskly towards a taxi and impending warmth.
Donovan joined Lestrade in the middle of the road, watching them both go."Look at that freak, I bet he'll get to that poor sod sooner or later. Look how close they are already, it's almost as if they're-"
Lestrade held up a hand to cut her off. "Freak or not, psychopath or sociopath, we need him. And if he needs John, then so be it." Lestrade turned and walked back towards the crime scene, Donovan in tow.