Chapter 10

"Sherlock? Hello?" John waved a lazy hand in front of his face. "Yes?" John could swore that Sherlock had almost hissed. "Lestrade's been calling your name for a bit now." He pointed in the direction of where the DI was standing, now talking to Anderson. Sherlock strode over to Lestrade "What do you want?" He didn't beat around the bushes at all. Slightly taken back by Sherlock's tone he said "You need to take a look at the body for me. Maybe you could get a feeling of the character of our suspect."

"But you see, you are wrong there Lestrade." Sherlock said his name with a slight sneer "I don't need to do anything for you. You want me too." Sherlock's eyes narrowed to mere slits "You and I both know that you wouldn't be a detective inspector today, if it wasn't for all the cases I solved under your name." And with a swirl of his coat, Sherlock sauntered of towards the latest crime scene, leaving John, Lestrade and Donovan completely astonished. "I am... so sorry about him, Greg." John apologized sincerely to him about darting off after Sherlock. "But, Sir, you can't possibly let him talk to you like that. You are in charge of him!" Donovan said extremely outraged. Lestrade shook his head "You're right," Donovan smiled "but he is too. I do need him and sometimes I don't appreciate him as much as I truly should."

"What was all that about?" John asked, genuinely shocked at Sherlock's behavior. "Lestrade takes advantage of the fact that I help him." Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Don't try and lay it out that way Sherlock." John warned harshly, making Sherlock do a double take. "You know that you gain just as much as Lestrade does from solving all these cases and you've never asked for them to go under your name." John huffed as he finished his rant. "That's right. Support him." Sherlock said, eager to have the last word.

"Victim is 30 years old. No, not 30, she's 35. She lives in around the Devon area-" Sherlock was cut off by Donovan's echoing voice which boomed out "Wrong, freak." Sherlock spun around on his heels to face her. "What?" He cocked his head to the side.

"I said you're wrong," Donovan walked over to the dead woman and bent down to remove her oyster card from her pocket. "Oyster card, in Devon? I just had it checked up, she lived in Finsbury Park and worked near London Bridge." Donovan smiled an devious grin "Every weekday she got the Victoria line to Euston station and changed onto the Northern line to London Bridge."

Sherlock look horrified. "You're right." He barely whispered "Oh but of course. Look at the sole of her shoes, she walked from the station to the cafe where she worked."

"I think you're finally losing it, freak."

...

"Alright, what happened?" John asked quietly as they sat in the back of a taxi back to Baker Street "Ever since you came from Esme's house, you've been on edge. So what happened?" Sherlock sighed, realizing that it would probably be best to get it off his chest.

"I went to her house and she was having a party and invited me in." He started off tentatively. "Ok, then what?" John pressed. "I gave Esme her birthday present, a gold necklace with diamonds on it, which she and her friends loved." Sherlock continued to replay the day's events. "Good, but?"

"We danced together for a while, which was fine." Sherlock nodded to himself stared vacantly ahead. "Until?" John sensed that something was going to come up. "We kissed."

"Ahh. I see." John had a strange image of Sherlock kissing Esme, but it seemed oddly right.

"Then Lestrade ordered me to the crime scene." Sherlock continued. "That would explain your sudden anger towards him."

"Then I ran away. Quite literally, with barely a word I ran out and got a taxi." Sherlock sighed and gazed out of the window. "Sherlock..." John started, but then he went on. "I saw her sitting on the steps to her house crying as the taxi drove off."

This time John said nothing and choose to continue listening instead.

"You know how you told me not to mess around what me and Esme had?" John nodded, almost knowing what was coming.

"Well, I think that in the space of an evening I've managed to completely screw it up."

...

There was a knock on the door. Seeing as Sherlock had been in a near comatose state on his couch for about the past week now, John assumed that he wasn't about to answer the door now. "Don't burden yourself Sherlock, I'll get it!" No reply. John sighed, but was not at all surprised. Sherlock hadn't moved, since they had got back from the impromptu crime scene last week, let alone eaten or spoken. John was getting extremely worried that his body was going to shut down from serious malnutrition. Sherlock was even managing to look paler than usual.

"Oh, well hello Esme." John coughed at the awkwardness of his situation. Sherlock now stood bolt straight in the living room.

"Hello John!" Esme said nonchalantly, smiling comfortably. "Would you mind giving these to Sherlock when you see him?" She handed him Sherlock's shirt that she had been wearing the last time she was at the flat and a gold necklace.

"No need." Sherlock said smoothly over John's shoulder, who swiftly handed the items back to Esme, decided that his presence was unwanted and left upstairs to his room. "Sherlock." Esme said calmly, the smile on her face had now vanished.

Sherlock turned and returned deep into the living room, forcing Esme to follow after him. "Here." She dumped the pile onto the coffee table and turned away to leave but then Sherlock picked up the necklace. "Why are you giving this to me? This is yours." Sherlock attempted to put the chain back around her neck but she bat his hand away. "I don't need your fanciful gifts Sherlock."

"Esme, I am really sorry." Sherlock said softly. "Yeah, I know. You said that already." Esme stared at the wall behind him, not able to look at Sherlock himself. "When...we kissed, I was confused, surprised, scared I don't know. But I do know that I didn't mean to hurt you." He said with complete honesty.

"Well then you failed miserably because you did hurt me Holmes." Sherlock cringed at her use of his last name. "I kissed you because I wanted to show you how I felt, how much I cared for you. Obviously that isn't reciprocated seeing as you quite literally left me."

"I left because I was worried. I'm not exactly low maintenance, I might not talk for days, I might ignore you and I'll probably be rude most of the time but I can't change that." Sherlock sighed then continued "Then there's my job. They are a dozens of people out there just waiting for a chink to appear in my armour." Sherlock turned to look directly at her. "I don't want you to be that chink. I don't want you to go into something with me without fully understanding the implications, ok?"

"I understand." Esme let out a breath and threw her head back. "Why does everything with you have to be so damn complicated?"

"Because, this is me we're talking about." Esme started to chuckling against herself and Sherlock joined in. "I don't like arguing with you." Esme revealed quietly. "Neither do I." Realizing what Sherlock had said, Esme started to laugh again. "You're just full of jokes today, aren't you Sherlock?"

Sherlock didn't reply but instead took a step closer to Esme. "And just what do you think you're doing?" She asked cautiously.

"I'm using my second chance to show you how I feel." Sherlock said slowly, taking another step forward. "And who said that you had a second chance?" Esme near whispered, already breathless at Sherlock's close proximity.

"I did." Sherlock and Esme's lips met once again, and Sherlock wrapped his arms softly around her waist as she cupped the side of Sherlock's face. The taste of whiskey cascaded around her mouth, smoky and earthy. As they both pulled away slowly, Sherlock nuzzled his head into Esme's shoulder, taking in the floral scent of her shampoo.

"I really am sorry." He said mostly into her hair. "I know you are." He lifted his head up slightly and whispered into her ear:

"I didn't mean to upset my beautiful girlfriend."

Tada! Hope you liked it and Merry Christmas everyone and a magnificently happy new year :)

Thanks to Bookworm4000, TheDoctorsMistress, mundy, unknown, JessiicaFox, Bookwormiie and Alex455 for reviewing, it's much appreciated :)

Ta now x