A/N: The long hiatus has ended! Please enjoy.
Chapter Seven - Empty Hear-Say
The ordeal was almost over. Not, not the blows from the trivial, nameless flunky who was doing his best impression of a torture-based interrogation. That was nothing more than surface-level irritation (which Mycroft really could have stopped at least eleven minutes earlier, despite the protestations he would undoubtedly give later). No, it was the separation from John; that ordeal. It had been surprisingly...difficult, these past few months. Sherlock rather...missed him, all truth be told. Missed the cheeky remarks, missed the constant presence, missed the way that Sherlock's own brain seemed to process and fire so much more quickly (for whatever reason) when he'd been around.
True, he'd kept all his memories of John safe in his Mind Palace, and he could've accessed him there at his leisure. But somehow, it didn't feel quite right. There was something about the real, physical John that made all the difference, some indefinable quality that Sherlock somehow could not explain. And yet it affected him nonetheless.
There were times when, perhaps, a small part of him feared that his resolve might fail him, should he ever enter and see once more what he was missing. At other times, the knowledge of what he was protected made his resolve all the stronger. Either way, he couldn't chance that the memories of John would affect his performance in the present moments (though he would certainly never admit such a thing aloud, especially if Mycroft was around). His actions now would ensure that John was never put in danger again from any of Moriarty's network. Once John was safe, then and only then, would he allow himself the privilege of seeing John again.
But, finally, all that waiting was about to become a disregarded relic of the past. Soon he would be off to see John, the real John, in person, as constant and unchanged as Sherlock's memories had kept him...
Except that awful mustache. Good gracious, what had John been thinking? Clearly, he had suffered from the lack of Sherlock's influence and good advice. Thankfully, that was an easy remedy.
Sherlock set up the encounter perfectly. A nice restaurant, perfect for a long-lost reunion (even if their taste in wine was slightly unrefined), John's date away from the table (they never amounted to anything serious anyway), and Sherlock's own superficial disguise in place (his mustache far more temporary than John's); yes, everything was working out excellently...except for the part where John failed to actually see him. Despite Sherlock's helpful hints. Sherlock wouldn't say that he felt peeved, but...well...it was rather annoying. He'd thought he'd made progress teaching John the skills of observation, but they had obviously vanished in Sherlock's absence. He might have anticipated some stagnation, but this was ridiculous.
However, even John couldn't remain oblivious forever, and John finally looked up and really saw him. A gamut of emotions ran across his face, some of which Sherlock had anticipated: disbelief, shock, a bit of anger...but how would John react? The one thing he'd always enjoyed about John was the unpredictability of his actions.
Of course, no matter what happened, Sherlock would explain, and then John would be happy, yes? (John always loved Sherlock's explanations.)
Maybe. Or not.
But at least Sherlock had apologized...well, after the second tackle and the headbutt, anyway. Didn't that count for something?
Maybe he should say sorry again.
It didn't work.
This was most inconvenient. And annoying.
He decided to go and solve some cases, get his head back in the game, re-learn the smells and flow of London.
Except John wouldn't leave him alone. Oh, the real John did; in fact, he quite flatly refused to have anything to do with him, but the John in his Mind Palace struck the opposite extreme. He'd always kept that John safe in his special section of the Mind Palace, but ever since he'd seen the real John, the one in his mind had taken it upon himself to roam through Sherlock's head quite freely.
And it was driving him to distraction.
Mind Palace John kept butting in with old snarky remarks at odd moments. And it wasn't just on the small cases, either. He also couldn't hold his focus on the big 'underground terrorist network' plot that Mycroft insisted that he needed to stop. There were things, big things, obvious clues that he felt he should have been seeing, but his mind kept deviating from the proper paths...and diverging back to John.
It was intolerable. And could not continue. He would put a stop to it when he saw John again...and then Mary arrived, with a coded message saying that John was in danger, and suddenly Sherlock's mind snapped into a clarity of focus like never before. He flew into action, his brain working at breakneck speed to map out the fastest and most direct route to John.
He made it in just the nick of time, pulling him out of the middle of a bonfire started by oblivious onlookers. Sherlock ignored their gasps and shock, focused only on the dazed (and only barely singed) man in front of him.
John came by the flat later, and Sherlock had never been so grateful for an interruption before: saved from dreadful conversation with his parents...his ordinary parents, as even John noticed. Though of course, he would also notice the fact that they, too, had known the secret of Sherlock's non-death.
Sherlock didn't see why that bothered him so much. Couldn't he understand the significance of what Sherlock had done?
John seemed to think that Sherlock not telling him was a sign of his unimportance. But how could he not see that it was, in fact, quite the opposite? John was the only one who mattered. That Mycroft and the others knew the truth was irrelevant to them. Their lives changed not a whit. No one watching would notice anything different about them. But John...if he hadn't truly believed that Sherlock was dead, it would have been obvious to anyone with half a brain. And until Moriarty's network had been disabled completely, John's belief about Sherlock's death was all that had kept him safe.
(And it rather bothered Sherlock, that as soon as he'd returned, John's life had been immediately put in jeopardy again.)
But, to focus on the matter at hand, Sherlock knew that somewhere, deep down, John actually had to be happy to see him. (He couldn't have changed that much, could he? Despite the mustache, which thankfully, was quite gone.) He would just have to find a way to prove it, and make John see it.
Because now that John was here, his mind had begun to process things properly again.
It didn't take long, once Sherlock knew what to look for, to find the bomb that had been planted in a rail carriage underneath Westminster. As he and John trekked through the abandoned tunnels, he curtailed John's attempt to call the police. Sherlock had been waiting for this moment for two years. He wasn't about to share it with a bunch of oblivious noisemakers. (At least, not right away. He did condescend to let them arrive later.)
Sherlock felt a slight shiver of apprehension when the bomb started counting down. Though he had a myriad of skills stored away in his Mind Palace, bomb diffusion wasn't one of them, despite John's assumptions.
However, he did have enough knowledge to realize that there must be an accessible 'Off' switch. And to find it took only a few seconds of examination.
But John didn't know he knew that.
This was is it, Sherlock's moment. He would finally get John to admit the truth!
John resisted. But, at the very last second, he finally spoke the words that Sherlock knew he truly believed and merely needed to be reminded of.
You were the best and wisest man that I have ever known. Yes, of course, I forgive you.
And just like that, normality was restored.
The police arrived, the villain was arrested, and Sherlock even condescended to wear the dreaded...Hat...again when he gave his interview to the press later. He really hoped that John appreciated the sacrifice that he was making.
A/N: So, I do apologize for the delay. Life has been extremely unfavorable for writing lately. And even though the chapter is pretty short, it still took a while for me to decide how it should flow (and also to re-watch the episode itself). But it feels good to post again, so let's hope that the next chapter won't take nearly so long!
