"'Lo, Johnny," Harry grunted from her spread-eagle position on the sofa. John gave her a small nod, hoping she was just smashed enough to not notice they had company. Unfortunately, she seemed sober, although with Harry it was difficult to tell until she reached the screaming part of her drunkenness. She sat up slowly, in the foggy manner of the perpetual partiers, before she focused her eyes on John and the slim figure behind him in the doorway. "Who's the friend?"
Before John could say anything, Sherlock swept forward, shaking her hand briskly. "Sherlock Holmes. By the way, you'd do better to take a full shower rather than just splashing on perfume. Your mum might ignore the obvious stench of marijuana but John and I can smell it from across the room, as will any copper worth his salt. Given that evidence, he'd be able to search you, and undoubtedly find the stash you've hidden in your right sneaker." Sherlock rattled off the facts quickly, looking Harry straight in the eye while still holding her hand in a pretense of greeting. John considered for a moment telling Sherlock off for being rude, but it simply felt too good to see Harry taken down a few pegs.
Harry, for her part, leveled a fierce glare at Sherlock before yanking her hand from his. "Johnny, someone called for you while you were out. Mic, Mike, something like that," Harry said as she settled back onto the couch. "Said to call him back."
John sighed. He'd been a rather bad friend to Mike recently, caught up in the whirlwind that was Sherlock Holmes. He stepped into the kitchen to give him a call where Harry couldn't hear. Sherlock started putting away the groceries –of course he'd noticed where all the food went when John had tried to hide it- while John dialed. Mike picked up a few rings in, and asked if John could come by to help him study for the chemistry exam the next week. John agreed, so long as Sherlock could come along. After all, Sherlock had probably forgotten more about chemistry than John and Mike had ever learned.
Sherlock called a cab, insisting that it'd only aggravate John's leg to walk so far. John only gave in so they could leave quicker, since Harry was beginning to move around in the sitting room and he really didn't want to be around when she was completely sobered up. Only fifteen minutes later they were walking in the front door of Mike's flat, waving at his mum and dad in the dining room as John led Sherlock back to Mike's room.
"Thank God you're here, John, I'm completely lost on hydrogen bonds," Mike said, looking up from the desk. "And Sherlock, brilliant, I know you've got this down." John smiled a bit in greeting and Sherlock nodded his head as they settled down on the edge of the bed and in a nearby chair, respectively. At first, John was the one who did most of the talking, but soon his knowledge was depleted. Sherlock took over masterfully, giving them the basics as he stared at the wall absently. As the night went on, Sherlock migrated over to the bed and started walking the boys through the basics of chemical bonding and calculations. By the time Mrs. Stamford came in to tell John and Sherlock they needed to go home, both Mike and John could feel impending headaches from the amount of knowledge they'd had shoved in their brains over the past few hours. John stood and stretched languidly, aware of Sherlock's eyes on him as he did so. Mike noticed, but tastefully looked away with only the tiniest grin showing on his face.
"Thank you, Sherlock. I might just pass this test," Mike said with a large smile, clapping a hand on Sherlock's back. "John, you've got to bring him around more often, my grades might just pick up!" he teased, and even Sherlock offered a terse smile at that. John made a noncommittal response and the pair left Mike's flat in a comfortable silence.
As the cab Sherlock hailed pulled up to the curve, Sherlock leaned down and gave John a small kiss. "I'm afraid this is where I leave you. Mycroft texted, I'm evidently needed at St. Bart's Hospital immediately," he said softly.
"Why?" John asked. He knew St. Bart's, it was a teaching hospital only a few blocks away from Mike's. What business did Sherlock have there?
"Something to do with Mummy, I suspect. No cause for alarm, John. No need to look at me like that," Sherlock scolded playfully. He gently guided John into the cab, closing the door firmly and handing some bills to the cabbie. John frowned as the cab pulled away from the kerb, but Sherlock knew how to contact him. If something was wrong, he would know.
