I do not own Sherlock or The Cat Who Walked By Himself.
He had been expecting her knock earlier, after their time spent waiting for the police to come and get them in the basement, but it had been a week and they'd solved another case before she came to their door.
"I want to borrow John."
"You can't we're in the middle of a case. Faked murder suicides of married couples, very important. Could be another any day now."
"You mean the one you solved last night?" Sherlock scowled at Sophia's question. She responded by holding up her phone with John's blog open on it and his scowl deepened.
"Will I be needing my coat?" John asked placidly, wondering if it would be something in her flat or somewhere else. She nodded and he moved to get his things, looking up when Sherlock seemed to move into his way. "We made an agreement Sherlock, or more correctly you did. About me. If anyone has a right to be upset about it then it's me, and I'm not, so you're just going to have to put up with it." He used his reasonable tone, the same one he used to try and get Sherlock to be nice to the victim's relatives. Sherlock finally relented.
"So, where are we going?" He asked, expecting her to hail a cab but instead she linked arms with him and he felt a slight increase in weight in his coat pocket.
"The Beehive."
"The pub down the street?" John asked, surprised, he wondered what they were going there for... "Is there anything in particular I'm supposed to be doing while we're there? Keeping an eye out for someone?"
"Nothing in specific. Just pay for everything from the wallet I just added to your pocket, be your usual charming self and enjoy a nice evening. There's someone who has been a little too persistent and I need him to think I have a boyfriend. Aside from which, you could probably use a little time away from Sherlock every once in a while, not too often but enough." She shrugged.
"So I'm your fake boyfriend? Just... uh... just how... convincing... do you want me to be?" He asked awkwardly. The closeness as they strolled down the street, the scent of her perfume, he couldn't help but feel a little curiosity just how far she wanted him to take things. Though part of him felt slightly dirty that she was using him as a cover another part was guiltily excited by the idea. It had been some time since Sherlock had scared his last girlfriend away and he hadn't tried meeting anyone since so spending time with an attractive young woman was not exactly a hardship. Then again nobody had ever accused John of being less than a gentleman and he didn't want to push things further than she would be comfortable with.
"He only knows Sophia the Air Hostess, not the international woman of mystery. I'll follow your lead Dr Watson, I wouldn't want to put you in an uncomfortable position. Perhaps some hand holding a few pecks on the cheek, feeding each other desert, little things." She raised an eyebrow and he wondered if something had shown on his face. "Unless you want to do more that is?" There was a teasing edge to her tone.
"Uh, no, no that sounds manageable." He wasn't sure if he was disappointed or relieved, but still it was an answer.
It was comfortable talking over dinner, of course Sherlock came up rather more than John would have hoped on most 'dates' but then he didn't feel like he had to avoid any particular topic. They could just chat, even if he wasn't sure how honest she was being. It wasn't until they were halfway through desert, just after he had fed her a bite of apple crumble from his spoon that he asked her something he had been bothering him for a while.
"Why the interest in 221C? In spending time with me? I mean according to Mycroft he gave you diplomatic immunity for helping him, goodness only knows what you could have gotten from someone else for the kind of skills you have. I saw the size of the jewels you were wearing before, you must have more than enough money to buy a place a lot better than 221C."
"Why do you spend so much of your time following Sherlock around? You could have found another flatmate, one who doesn't shoot walls or keep body parts in the fridge, one who was normal, boring. But you're not normal, as much as everyone seems to think you are. You were strapped to a bomb and nearly assassinated to get to him and yet you don't leave. Because you love him."
"Despite what everyone seems to assume I'm not actually gay." John protested irritably, every time, every damn time people seemed to think he was in a relationship with Sherlock.
"Never said you were, I'd figured Bi with a strong preference for women if I'm honest, but I don't like to assume." Sophia responded calmly, clearly it was something that people had brought up before, but seeing how Sherlock and John were around each other that was no surprise. People often assumed that a connection of that depth would be sexual to some extent. "That being said, there are many kinds of love. To put things simply, I wanted 221C because I wanted to observe the pair of you more closely. I am interested in Sherlock because of you, because of your blog, because of Mycroft and his affectionate disdain, because of his mind. I am interested in you because of Sherlock, because of the way you care about him, write about him, follow him to the edge of death and the way it shapes your life. Together you are more than the sum of your parts, and that fascinates me, I was never even slightly tempted to attach myself so much to another human being, so much that my very identity was shaped by..." she was cut off by a soft exclamation from John.
"Bugger." He breathed, seeing Sarah come into the bar, his ex and his boss and here he was sitting rather close to Sophia... not that there was anything wrong with it, they weren't together any more, but it still felt wrong... Sophia's eyes followed his gaze.
"Ex?" He nodded, she shuffled a little closer to John, fingers trailing along his thigh to cause his eyes to dart to her in surprise. "Concentration John, keep your focus on me." Though she withdrew her hand her point had been made. "She will either notice you or not but she doesn't need to know you give one hoot either way that she's here, that can be our little secret." She teased gently, her tone friendly but with enough of a flirty undertone to cause John to shift slightly, awkwardly. "It's all up to you John, we can leave if you want? We made my point, but if you want to stay and step things up a little for her benefit then that is perfectly fine with me." He was tempted, but he had to work with Sarah, not very often these days as he only filled in for other doctors, but still, indulging in childish urges to make her jealous wouldn't help anyone. But he didn't have time to say so.
"John, I uh, I wasn't expecting to see you here. Malcolm lives just down the road at number 67..." She commented, more information than was needed in an attempt to clarify that their meeting was, in fact, a coincidence...
"We live the other direction at 221." Sophia commented with a smile, breaking the uncomfortable silence, but making the tension worse with her use of 'we' it was deliberately ambiguous.
"With Sherlock?" Sarah asked, surprise and shock in her tone, she couldn't imagine John leaving Sherlock or vice versa. The woman living with the pair of them, putting up with the consulting detective and his demands on John's time was nearly as impossible to visualise.
"Yes, they're always running off on cases together, it's kind of sweet." Again Sophia left it open to interpretation, and John felt mildly guilty but was wondering how far Sarah's assumptions could be stretched.
"You might want to be careful, John is a wonderful guy but Sherlock has a nasty habit of getting the people around him into... sticky situations." Sarah warned her in a somewhat sour tone. "I was nearly killed on a date with John that Sherlock involved himself in."
"You were kidnapped too?" The casual and curious tone caused Sarah's eyes to bug out even more and Malcolm was looking decidedly out of his depth at the direction the conversation had taken. "I suppose that was why you broke up?" She looked between Sarah and John with eyes that little bit too wide and innocent, and John struggled to keep a straight face, he should probably stop this...
"Uh, Sophia, this is Sarah, as you can tell she's my ex, she's also my boss at the doctor's practice where I fill in sometimes when they need extra staff. Sarah this is Sophia, she lives in 221C, downstairs..."
"I work for British Airways as a flight attendant." Sophia added, extending her hand to the other woman. John was glad she had said it for him, he was no good at lying. "I just got back from Milan and there was nothing tempting in the cupboards, besides which I'm a terrible cook, but I hate dining out by myself, don't you? John was kind enough to come with me, he's such a gentleman." Her soft smile and the hand resting briefly on his shoulder was flirtatious but not dramatically so, neither overly familiar nor uninterested, a perfect balance. "I guess I just must not scare so easy, or I would have moved out by now... but then I worked a flight the day after those hi-jackings in America, boy was everyone on edge. Then there was that one time there was a malfunction and we had to land in the Republic of the Congo..." He had to admire the ditzy act she was putting on, it seemed like something she'd done before and was very different from what he'd seen of her so far. "Oh but gosh, I had something I planned to do this evening, and look it's gone nine, which means my friend in Washington D.C. will be going home soon. I'll have head off if I want to catch them at the office. Thank you so much John, you can stay here if you want, I'll walk myself home if you want to talk with your friends?"
"No, it's fine, I'll see Sarah on Saturday anyway, I'm covering for Dr Blake, just let me pay for this and I'll be right back."
"You don't have to..." She paused, appearing to read his face, though mostly he was hoping to hide the thought that it was her money anyway and that she had told him to pay for them using it... "Thanks." The affection and appreciation in her tone causing him to look down awkwardly before hurrying off. It wasn't long before they were strolling back to 221, laughing companionably about Sarah's reactions.
"So why a flight attendant?" He asked.
"Because on occasion I actually do work as one, much the same as you work as a Doctor when we both know it's something you do sometimes not who you are, not any more. You're Sherlock's blogger. Which actually seems to be more about being a bodyguard, minder, muse and PR rep than your standard blogger. Speaking of being a Doctor, and a flight attendant, could you get me some diazepam? Quite a bit of it actually. I'm off to Moscow next Thursday and I need it for the return trip."
"You're joking right?" There was a pause. "You're not joking... you actually... and you want me to get you valium? Are you... are you going to drug someone?" John asked incredulously.
"Yes, much better than trying to use a gun on an plane, ricochets and explosive decompression both being possibilities. Problem?" Her lips tipped up in a smirk. "Oh and some flumazenil, in case I accidentally use too much, I won't but it's better to be safe than sorry right?" She raised an eyebrow waiting for his reaction.
"Erm..." He took a deep breath, letting it out sharply. "Fine." He wasn't sure how he felt about procuring it for her, it was a restricted substance after all. But if he didn't... he didn't think that she'd think twice about procuring it on the black market, at least this way it would be clean and of a set concentration.
"Thanks." She said as he opened the door, only to hear Sherlock stomping down the stairs.
"Are you finished now?" He demanded of Sophia grumpily.
"Sherlock, we were only gone for..." John looked at his watch. "Two and a half hours. I've gone on holiday without you noticing before, what's all this about? Did Lestrade call?"
"No." Sherlock continued to glare at Sophia.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him." John apologised, he always seemed to be apologising for Sherlock's behaviour.
"It's quite all-right, and very interesting. I can't help but hypothesise about what the reasons might be." She winked at Sherlock, making him scowl even more. "Goodnight John, I'll see you later, if you could remember what I asked you for?" She had a soft knowing smile that John didn't really like but he simply nodded.