"Anterograde amnesia," Ethan was saying. Explaining. Describing.

John has a vague idea of what it was, but didn't know if Sherlock did.

Yes, apparently.

"No new memories," Sherlock said flatly.

Ethan nodded. "Working memory is retained, which in your case is about 30 minutes, which is extremely impressive, but short term memories can no longer be formed. The part of the brain that does that, the hippocampus, has been damaged, probably as a result of the hypoxia rather than the head injury."

Sherlock only looked at him.

One small part of that kept repeating itself over and over in John's head. 30 minutes. 30 minutes. 30 minutes. No matter how impressive that is, it's still only 30 minutes. What will become of us? Of his work? Of his life?

"Will he ever be able to regain the ability to make new memories?" John asked.

Ethan looked away before answering, and that was the only answer John needed. "It's not likely. In all the other patients I've seen and read about, they never regained that ability. Of course, Sherlock is rather unique in many ways, and there is no way of telling."

John could feel Sherlock puff up almost imperceptibly with pride at that statement. That was all he needed. Someone telling Sherlock he was special. He was, but Sherlock already had a high enough opinion of himself that it didn't need to be encouraged any more.

Of course he'd forget about it in 30 minutes or so.

John would have preferred a Sherlock with an inflated ego rather than one with a leak that would soon deflate.

He realized Ethan had asked him a question. "Sorry?"

"I asked if you would be there as his main caretaker."

John shifted in his seat. "Well, I'll still be his flatmate, and I suppose it'll be a lot like it was before." John glanced over at Sherlock who seemed rather uncomfortable with the entire thing. "I wouldn't think he'd need a caretaker. At least, not anymore than he did before."

Sherlock rolled his eyes at that.

"Once he gets a system that works for him, no he won't, but until then, things are going to be very confusing and messy. He's not going to remember what he was doing, why he was doing it, or even that the accident has happened. That part will come, but the others won't."

"Which, coupled with his penchance to conducting explosive and time sensitive experiments, is one hell of a mess."

Ethan smiled and nodded. "I'd imagine so."

Sherlock sighed loudly, indicating he was done with this little chat.

"Oh calm down," John scolded. "Thank you again," he said to Ethan, standing up and reaching a hand out for him to shake.

"Oh, it's no problem at all. I'm flattered you asked me to be involved in Sherlock's care."

"Still up for that pint?"

"Of course. You've got my number now," he noted, gesturing to the business card still clutched in Sherlock's hand.

"It'll probably be a couple of weeks unless I can find someone to babysit him."

Sherlock huffed and rolled his eyes loudly.

Ethan only laughed. "And he has a follow up appointment made?"

John nodded. "Thank you. Again."

Ethan nodded.

"John, what are we doing here?" Sherlock asked loudly, arms crossed as he stood behind the chair.

John sighed, and Ethan looked at him knowingly.

"We're going home. Come on," he said, pushing Sherlock lightly towards the door.

He grumbled, but allowed John to push him.

John looked at Ethan one last time before leaving the room, and he was looking at the pair of them with a sad smile that John knew all too well.

He very much didn't like it being used on them.

When Sherlock was out of the doorway, John closed it behind them.

"Are we here to go to the morgue?" Sherlock asked, with the excitement of a small child being told they were to have a bouncy castle at their birthday.

"We just came from there. We're going home now."

Sherlock frowned. "You're lying. We weren't at the morgue."

"Maybe I am. But we're leaving now, so march."

Sherlock scowled all the way back to Baker Street until he forgot why he was scowling.

Of course, when John shot down an experiment to test how explosive flesh was, the scowl returned.

Until he forgot again and discovered the Doctor Who marathon on the telly.