Hey all! Thanks for the follows/favorites/reviews once again! I know I say that everytime but I really do appreciate them! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Little less angst and a bit of humor. Without further ado...here's Chapter 10.
Chapter 10
"Oh god!" Addie groaned when she came out of her alcohol induced coma. "Feel like I've been hit by a bus!"
"Close. More like half your weight in alcohol," said a voice above her.
"How is that close?"
"It's not," the voice said amused.
"Ugh, don't try to joke. I might throw up on you,"
"Wouldn't be the first time. In 24 hours I might add."
Addie looked up and saw Sherlock's smug face looming over her.
"What happened last night?" she asked covering her eyes from the harsh lights.
"Would you like the long version or the short version?" Sherlock asked.
"Short."
"You got completely and utterly piss drunk," Sherlock said with the hint of smile.
"Glad you find my position so amusing," Addie replied snarkily.
"I do actually. It was very entertaining. Right, John?" Sherlock said, addressing John who was in the kitchen reading the paper.
"Leave me out of this!"
"Oh but you're forgetting who was partly responsible for said drunkenness, hmm. Do the words "toss it back" and "chug!" ring any bells?"
There was silence from the kitchen. Addie's brain was too sluggish to keep up or she would have been angry at John. But for right now, her brain was fuzzy and could only focus on one thing at a time.
"Was Mycroft here?" she asked.
"Yes. He left about an hour ago. Went to get his car cleaned. Which Lestrade will be paying for," Sherlock said, sitting down in his armchair with a cup of coffee.
"Lestrade?"
"Yes. You made a bit of a mess actually. He'll be regretting his free drink offer very soon I'd imagine."
"You said I threw up on you?" Addie asked as she slowly sat up.
"Yes. On my shoes and my trousers. Which will need dry cleaning by the way. Oh and my shirt too since I had to carry you up the stairs with your wet jeans soaking into my sleeve," Sherlock stated matter-of-factly. "Shall I leave the bill with you then?"
"My wet…" her eyes widened. "Oh god! I didn't!"
"Oh yes, dear sister, you did. But don't worry, accidents happen sometimes," he said giving her a condescendingly sympathetic look.
"Really gives meaning to the term 'piss drunk' doesn't it?" John said from the next room, failing to hide his laughter.
Sherlock snorted into his coffee and nearly choked.
"Don't think you're off the hook John. I'll find out what part you played in this and I'll pay you back for it," Addie threatened, trying to sound intimidating but sounding pathetic instead given the scratchy voice and slight slur of her words.
"Oh, no! What will she do? Pee on my favorite jumper?" John teased.
Sherlock didn't even try to hide his laugh at that point.
Addie looked less than amused.
"Oh come on Addie, don't be so grumpy, we're just taking the piss," Sherlock said smirking.
They could hear the sound of John choking on his breakfast in the kitchen.
Addie scowled and worked on rising from the couch to go to her room. "I'm so glad I can provide so much comic relief for you two. Now if you're quite finished, I'm in desperate need of a shower and some new clothes. I'm filthy! Seems someone, who calls himself my big brother, didn't see fit to help me last night!"
"You're perfectly capable of getting yourself fixed up. It hasn't been my job since you were about 3 or 4," Sherlock replied cheekily.
Addie stuck her tongue out and slowly stood up. "Brat. I'm off to get clean and take as many aspirin as humanly possible for my awful headache."
"When you're done come in and have some breakfast," Sherlock said.
"I'm not hungry at all!" she said
"Ah, but we made your favorite: bacon wrapped sausage with pancakes smothered in syrup and gravy," he replied.
Addie's face went, quite literally, green and she moaned before dashing off to the loo to be sick.
John howled with laughter right along with Sherlock as they sat at the table sipping their drinks.
When Addie was getting herself cleaned up John addressed Sherlock about what had happened the night before.
"So," he began warily.
"So…?" Sherlock prompted.
"So, are you going to talk to her about last night?" John asked.
"Isn't that what we just did?"
"No. I mean about the nightmares," John said impatiently. "See if we can get her to elaborate, or open up more about it."
"That's highly unlikely John," Sherlock replied. "Addie is stubborn. She won't open up about it. And no amount of coaxing is going to change that."
"But isn't it worth a try at least?"
"Nope," Sherlock said.
John sighed and gave it up. He would just try his own approach if Sherlock wasn't going to cooperate.
Addie eventually stumbled back into the kitchen and plopped down on a chair. She accepted the mug of tea from Sherlock but didn't take a sip of it. Her stomach was still churning and she really didn't want the entire contents of it to appear on the table.
"Drink it Addie, it'll make you feel better," Sherlock prodded.
"I highly doubt that," she answered.
"I mixed in some pain killers and some ginger ale to help settle your stomach," Sherlock said.
Addie still looked warily at the cup and eyed Sherlock to see if he was lying or "taking the piss" again. She tentatively lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip. Suddenly her face contorted in disgust and it took all she had not to spit it out on the table.
"UGH! What the hell Sherlock? That's disgusting!"
"I never said it tasted good. I said it would make you feel better," Sherlock said.
"Not if I throw it up," Addie said.
"Oh well, suit yourself," he shrugged. Addie grudgingly decided to gag her way through the tea, deciding it was better than a full day of misery.
John took advantage of her silence and complacency to approach the subject of her nightmares from the night before.
"So, uh, Addie," he began. "What do you remember about last night?"
"Practically nothing. I remember going to the pub and ordering some wine. Then I guess, no thanks to you and Lestrade, I had a bit more alcohol than I could handle."
"A bit?" scoffed Sherlock.
"And I vaguely remember being in a car. Or was it a roller coaster? And Mycroft was here." Addie said.
"Oh…anything else? Like being upset about anything?" John asked.
"Not really. But I imagine I was a bit upset given the fact that I threw up everywhere and pissed myself."
"Right. Right, yeah," John said. "So no weird dreams or anything?"
Addie stopped cold, mug half-way to her lips, and sat frozen and wide-eyed. She turned to look at John.
"Wh…what? What do you mean?" she asked in a panic.
"You're subtlety is impressive John," Sherlock snarked.
"It's just…well you had a few…nightmares last night when you were still drunk…and they sounded…they sounded horrible." John stammered nervously.
Addie was silent and staring into the contents of her mug. Her eyes were shifting nervously and she was breathing funny.
"Did I…uh…say anything…significant?" she asked.
"No. Not really. Just a lot of, um, begging, pleading, yelling. And such," John answered. "Do you…you know…want to, er, talk about it?"
Addie's face was white and she looked ready to be sick again. Then suddenly she schooled her features and appeared normal and unfazed. "Thanks for the offer John, but I can assure you, I am just fine," she smiled tightly at him.
"Oh alright. Just wondering. Because, you know, I'm always here…me and Sherlock, are always here to talk…if you want," John said.
"I'm fine John, really."
"Yeah, ok. Just you seemed really upset and scared, so I thought I'd offer-"
"I said I'm FINE!" Addie yelled and cut him off.
John sat speechless and Sherlock actually looked up from his microscope at her outburst. She was heaving in deep breaths and her hands were shaking. She slowly rose from her chair and walked out of the room without another word. They could hear her footsteps down the hall and her door slam shut.
John let out a breath and put his head in his hands.
"That went well," Sherlock said.
John leveled him with a glare, "Shut up Sherlock!"
Sherlock went back to his microscope without another word.
"I feel like I should go apologize or something," John said.
"Don't. It will just make things worse," Sherlock replied.
John decided to heed Sherlock's advice and finished his breakfast silently before going to update his blog.
All was strangely quiet at 221B for a few hours with each occupant lost in their own worlds. Only when Sherlock and Addie got a text from Lestrade, did they come together again.