- Clients –
As soon as she stepped out of the TARDIS doors, Amy's eyes were drawn straight to Holmes. Against the backdrop of rich burgundies and dark browns that made up 221B, Holmes was ensconced in shades of blue – light blue pyjamas, a dark blue robe, his pale blue eyes staring at Amy as though he'd never expected to see her again. He was older but he was still gorgeous, with the same high cheekbones, smooth, pale skin and lean body.
She hadn't expected to be so happy to see him again, but she couldn't hide her smile.
"I told you I'd come back," she said in greeting.
Holmes didn't reply. He merely held her gaze steadily for a moment before walking around the police phone box, scraping his eyes up and down the wood panelling and taking in every small detail.
"Sorry, who are you?"
Amy turned her head to see a shorter blonde man standing in the doorway of the kitchen. His jacket was the same dark green colour as the wall of the room behind him, at his feet there was a mess of shattered china and spilt tea, and in his hands he held a handgun, pointed straight at the Doctor.
The unintimidated time lord took it upon himself to make the introductions. He stepped across the room in two huge strides and clasped the man's hands in both of his own, ignoring the gun completely and shaking them vigorously. "Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is my friend Amy. Sorry to just drop in on you like this, but Amy wanted to come see her old friend…"
"Old friend?" the man questioned, glancing between Amy and Holmes, who was now peering intently at the instructions written on the door of the TARDIS.
In that millisecond of distraction, the Doctor grabbed the gun out of his grip, emptied the cartridge and tossed the now useless weapon onto the couch and the bullets onto the ground.
"I wouldn't say friends, exactly - " Amy began to disagree, hiding how impressed she was with the Doctor's quick reflexes.
At the same time Holmes seemed to snap out of a trance, and he waved a hand at Amy but kept his eyes on the blonde man, who was staring at the Doctor in shock. "John, this is Amelia Pond. Amelia Pond, meet Doctor John Watson – and you must be the Doctor."
He focused on the time lord, taking in the eccentric outfit of a tweed jacket, red bow tie and braces, black trousers and boots. Amy watched as her best friend came face to face with the world's only consulting detective. The two stared each other down, and the room went silent as a battle for dominance was waged.
Then the Doctor smiled and shook Holmes' hand. "Sherlock Holmes, great to meet you. I'm a huge fan of your work."
"Fan?" Amy and John asked at the same time.
"Oh yeah," the Doctor said breezily, walking over to the mantle and picking up the skull sitting there. "I've read all of your blog entries."
"You – you've read my blog," John repeated, sounding dumbstruck.
Amy shook her head. "But you only just found the blog…"
"Fast reader." The Doctor tapped his forehead with the skull and then grimaced, presumably because it was harder than he'd expected. He scowled at the skeletal face and then placed it back above the fireplace. "Besides, there's not many entries. How long have you two been together?"
"Together? No, no, we're not together," John said firmly.
The Doctor blinked at him, brunette fringe flopping over his forehead and adding to his air of befuddlement. "But the blog -"
"Why does everyone assume we're together?" John asked exasperatedly, looking skyward.
Amy giggled, and Holmes shot her a glare that she readily returned. She explained, "He means, how long have you been solving crimes together?"
"Oh," John said, and then his light green eyes widened as realisation sunk in. "Oh. Yes. Of course he does."
"How does it work?" Holmes asked of the blue box still sitting in the middle of their flat, cutting across anything that John would have said next.
"The TARDIS?" The Doctor dropped down into one of the armchairs, long limbs bending as he settled into the soft, maroon cushions. "It's very complicated, human minds can't really comprehend it."
"Try me." Holmes' eyes were like ice and his tone was sharp enough to cut as he loomed over the Doctor, hands in the pockets of his dressing gown and dark hair curling against the collar.
An inexplicable expression crossed the Doctor's face, and then his lips twitched into a smirk. Amy knew instantly that he didn't believe for a second that Holmes would be able to understand how the ship worked, but because he'd pushed the Doctor was going to explain it anyway – which would embarrass Holmes, inflate the Doctor's ego and lead to a huge argument.
Thankfully, John spoke up and stopped that scenario occurring. "Wait, human minds? What do you mean, human minds?"
"I mean exactly what I said – human minds," the Doctor repeated. "What else could I mean? It's a pretty specific phrase, I don't think I left much room for misinterpretation."
John laughed shortly, "But that makes it sound like – like you're not human."
The Doctor peered up at him and asked, "Yes, and?"
John's laugh turned into a choke. "You – You're not human?"
"Nope," the Doctor told him, leaning back and crossing one leg over the other. "I'm an alien. Well, to you I'm an alien. To me, you're the aliens."
"You look human though!" John exclaimed. His eyes had grown so wide that his eyebrows were now almost at his hair line.
"You look Time Lord, thank you," the Doctor rebutted, and Amy rolled her eyes. "We came first."
"You're a Time Lord." Holmes continued staring down at the stranger who was sitting comfortably in his armchair. "If you're an alien, what are you doing here?"
"I told you, Amy wanted us to come and visit -"
"Wait, how do you two know each other? Sherlock, did you know about this?" John was getting more and more flustered as each new piece of information was revealed.
"I had heard of the Doctor, John, but I didn't believe it," Holmes answered his second question and ignored the first.
"Oh, that's right," Amy said dryly, sitting on the arm of the Doctor's chair, "You didn't believe me when I told you about him, but you believed those other people's stories."
"The more people you have purporting the same story, the more likely there is to be a grain of truth in it," Holmes snapped.
He was standing close to her now, so close that if she'd reached out her arms she could have enveloped him in a hug, pulled him close and – and she felt a blush rising along her cheeks at just the thought. She leant back into the Doctor, reassuring herself of his presence and putting slightly more distance between herself and Holmes.
"Okay, so you're an alien -" John pointed at the Doctor, "and you… are too?" he asked Amy.
"No, no, I'm human," Amy replied.
"He crash landed his ship in her backyard when she was seven," Holmes elaborated, "only to leave. And then he came back to her when she was nineteen. Oh, you left again, though, didn't you – but you obviously returned once more."
The Doctor suddenly looked incredibly sheepish. "It was an accident, it was supposed to just be a short trip into the future -"
"Are we talking about time travel now?" John gaped.
"Oh yes!" The Doctor jumped up and wandered over to the blue police box. He leant against the door and said proudly, "This is my TARDIS; stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Travels anywhere and anywhen in the universe, and sometimes outside it, although that's never really a good thing."
John blinked, shook his head and then rubbed his eyes. "You want me to believe that that – that box is a space ship?"
"And time ship, don't forget the time travel," Amy said helpfully.
"It's not a ship of any sort, it's just a police phone box," John protested.
"No no no, it just looks like a police phone box from the 1960s. The Chameleon Circuit's broken," the Doctor explained thoughtfully, "I've been meaning to fix that; haven't quite gotten round to it…"
"So it's got a feature that allows it to camouflage with its surroundings," Holmes stated. "But you've broken it."
Amy clasped her hands together in a nervous attempt to stop them from shaking as he swept his gaze over the Doctor and on to her. His blue eyes held hers and ignited memories of the last time they'd been together. Her hand instinctively rose to her neck, where his dark blue scarf had been when they'd said goodbye. She wondered if he really had given up hope of ever seeing her again.
"No, I didn't break it," the Doctor retorted, clearly offended. "It just sort of… broke…" His sentence trailed off and he skewed his mouth contemplatively.
"I still don't understand." John stepped forward and finally got a good look at the TARDIS for himself, frowning deeply.
"Don't worry," Amy said, standing up and lazily folding her arms over her stomach; She was a strong believer in faking confidence until she felt it for real. "It's a lot to take in."
John made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. "Yeah, it is a bit. Where did you come from? You just sort of… appeared, in the middle of our lounge!"
"Nifty, isn't it?" The Doctor grinned idiotically and swung himself around to face the kitchen. "Do you have any jammy dodgers?"
"Jammy-? – No, I don't think we have any jammy dodgers," John answered, shaking his head.
The Doctor sighed deeply at the news, looking downcast; and then was hit with a sudden burst of enthusiasm. He clapped his hands together and looked expectantly at Amy. "So, Pond – shall we be getting on then?"
Amy couldn't hide her surprise at his sudden change in tone. "Leave? Already?"
"This wasn't just a quick visit?" the Time Lord asked, eyes sparkling. She got the distinct impression that he had a hidden agenda, but she didn't have a clue what it could be.
"Uh – I guess," she answered slowly, glancing sideways to see Holmes' reaction.
He'd tensed up, shoulders rigid underneath his dressing gown, but she couldn't see his face. She looked at John, who was gaping at them in disbelief.
"Well then," the Doctor said cheerily, "We'll be off. Thanks for having us. Shame about the jammy dodgers, every house should have a packet."
He walked towards the TARDIS and held his palm out, ready to push the wooden doors open. Amy lingered behind him, warring with her desire to stay and have a proper conversation with Holmes. The Doctor put his hand against the door, and just as she was about to tell him to stop, ask if they could stay just a little while longer, surely it wouldn't hurt to wait twenty minutes for the next adventure – two things caused the Doctor to stop in his tracks.
The first - and most noticeable to Amy - was that Holmes himself said, "Stop." It wasn't a question, it was a statement, said quietly but firmly. When Amy heard it her heart almost seemed to skip a beat, because it seemed that Holmes did want her to stay. It was probably more likely that he just wanted to know about the TARDIS and the Doctor and wasn't actually interested in her at all – but, then again, the way he looked at her at that moment made her think twice.
The second thing was the appearance of a woman at the door of the flat. She looked to be in her fifties or sixties, with a kind face and dressed in a dark purple, knee-length dress.
"Boys," she was saying, still glancing over her shoulder back down the stairs that led to the main door, "Have you seen the news? There's terrible flooding going on -" She finally noticed the TARDIS, and her eyes went wide. She stared at Amy and the Doctor in some degree of horror and said, "Oh, I didn't realise that you had clients in. Is this a part of a new case?"
"Yes, Mrs Hudson," John answered way too quickly to be casual. Amy guessed that he didn't want to startle the woman by even attempting to explain the truth.
"You boys are working some strange cases lately," Mrs Hudson tutted. Her demeanour changed to a motherly one as she made her way to Amy and shook her hand. "Lovely to meet you dear, I'll go get some tea and snacks. You look like you could use some nice biscuits."
"I was just saying some jammy dodgers would be nice," the Doctor said, flashing her his most charming smile.
"I'll go get some my dear," she said, smiling back. "Don't mind me, interrupting your case work. I didn't even hear you come in!"
"Before you do," the time lord said, stopping her as she went to go, "what were you saying about flooding?"
"Oh, it's just terrible," she told him, suddenly sombre. "The coast is flooding – global warming, they say. They think it might even cause the Thames to overflow. Climate change and all that, it's awful."
"Flooding the Thames…" the Doctor said, scratching his chin.
Mrs Hudson was distracted by John's smashed cup, however, and quickly changed the topic, exclaiming, "Oh, what happened here? You've made such a mess! I'll have to clean that up; wait here, I'll go and get the biscuits and my broom. Be careful not to step on the china."
"Lovely house keeper you've got," the Doctor said brightly as she left to go back downstairs.
"I'm not the house keeper, I'm the land lady!" Mrs Hudson yelled back.
Holmes' lips twitched into a smile and John seemed to relax for the first time since their arrival. The Doctor stepped away from the phone box and repositioned himself back in the burgundy armchair, settling down and smiling at a confused Amy.
"Didn't you just say we were going?" she questioned, pointing to the TARDIS.
He waved a hand dismissively and said, "Didn't you hear? Mrs Hudson's gone to get us some biscuits. We can't leave now. John, could you put the kettle on? Can't have biscuits without tea!"
Amy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"So you're staying now?" John asked, double-checking just what was going on.
"Apparently we are," she replied, giving him a friendly smile.
Holmes raised an eyebrow at her and sank into the black leather chair opposite the Doctor. He wrapped his robe around himself with a dramatic flourish and said, "John, get our new clients some tea, would you?"
a.n. blergh this was hard. a lot of personalities to introduce to each other. sherlock is uncharacteristically quiet because the doctor is something completely new and he's trying to suss out as much about him as he can. john asks a lot of questions because what else would you do if a phone box appeared in your living room? amy is also a bit quieter than usual because she's nervous about seeing sherlock again. and the doctor is the doctor. i hope that all came across clearly in the chapter itself and my explanation was totally unnecessary. now that introductions are done their characters will be a lot more clearly defined over the next few adventurous chapters.
as always, thank you so much for reading! alerts and favourites are great but my reviewers are my favourites. also i'm loving all the asks i'm getting about this story on my tumblr, if you have any questions or anything at all you want to discuss feel free to send me an ask (the link is on my profile). and if anyone wants to make some fanart for this story that would be totally awesome too! thanks for being such amazing readers.