A/N Princelivy Thank you! Don't worry. Dinner is coming. LOL!
Lovesagoodstory19 That will be quite tricky to write. I'm not sure which way I'll go yet. But, Sherlock will end up on drugs. He will end up in the hospital because I need that to happen to trigger something else. Though I agree Mary would normally not ask such a thing... She also knows it's the only thing that will ultimately reunite the two friends. And, for better or worse, they do need each other.
Katt9 If I could, I would keep him myself!
DreamonAlina Yeah I really like the two. They are really good friends.
SSS
Kyrie shook her head, smiling at the memory. That was a fun day. Mary was absolutely wonderful and a great addition to their little – slightly dysfunctional – family. She turned her attention back to Sherlock, who was still in the middle of telling the story about 'The Bloody Guardsman'.
He told the guests how he had sneaked past the guards, using one of their fur bearskin caps, because the sergeant wouldn't let him see his new client. Inside the barracks, he was able to find Major Reed. When the duty sergeant was sent to get Bainbridge, he quickly came back to inform him that Bainbridge was dead.
At first, Major Reed wanted to pin the death on Sherlock. But Sherlock pointed out that Bainbridge had been found in the shower with a stab wound. When they were brought to him, he was still wet, still had shampoo in his hair. He was stabbed when he got into the shower. When he was found, the cubicle was locked from the inside. It had been broken open to get to Bainbridge. It couldn't have been a suicide either, because no weapon had been found. The killer had taken it with him.
So, a man had been stabbed to death. No murder weapon to be found. Door locked from the inside. Only one way in or out of there. And that's when they found out. Well, that's when John found out... that Bainbridge wasn't dead... he was still alive!
"Private Bainbridge had just come off guard duty. He'd stood there for hours, plenty of people watching, nothing apparently wrong," Sherlock recapped what he had told so far. "He came off duty and within minutes was nearly dead from a wound in his stomach, but there was no weapon. Where did it go? Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to consider this... a murderer who can walk through walls, a weapon that can vanish – but in all of this there is only one element which can be said to be truly remarkable. Would anyone like to make a guess?"
Sherlock looked at the guests in quiet anticipation. No one there felt the need to venture a guess. Who would even dare in his presence? Some of the guests fidgeted in their seats and sent each other slightly awkward looks.
"Come on, come on, there is actually an element of Q and A to all of this," Sherlock tried to get the guests a bit more involved. He cleared his throat, still no one offered a suggestion.
"Scotland Yard, have you got a theory?" Sherlock directed his attention to Greg.
Kyrie smiled seeing the blank look on his face. He was a great detective, really capable at his job, no matter how condescending Sherlock might act towards him, but this... playing Sherlock's game? No, he was not equipped for that.
"Yeah, you. You're a detective – broadly speaking. Got a theory?"
"Er, um, if the... uh, if the, if-if-if, if the blade was, er... propelled through the, um..." Greg stammered. He then paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "... grating in the air vent... maybe a-a ballista or a – or a – or a catapult," Greg continued courageously. "Erm, somebody tiny could-could crawl in there."
Greg drew in a sharp breath of air. "So, yeah, we're loo... we're looking for a-a-a-a dwarf."
Kyrie tried to stifle a giggle when she noticed the blank look on Sherlock's face. He blinked. "Brilliant."
"Really?" Greg asked and he visibly perked up.
"No."
Greg lowered his head. He seemed to feel a bit embarrassed.
"Next!"
Kyrie noticed Tom leaning in to Molly, whispering something to her.
"Hello? Who was that?" Sherlock suddenly asked.
Tom looked up, his eyes wide.
"Tom," Sherlock said, inviting him to contribute his thoughts.
Molly's fiancé grimaced a bit, before he slowly stood up.
"Got a theory?" Sherlock asked him.
Kyrie pulled a face. He was a good guy, honestly. Happy-go-lucky, just a bit naive... and not too bright. He was going to make a spectacle of himself.
In the meantime, Tom swayed a bit on his feet, looking terrified. "Um... attempted suicide, with a blade made of compacted blood and bone," he started slowly. "It broke after piercing his abdomen... like a meat... dagger."
Kyrie clasped her hand in front of her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. A meat dagger? She was not the only one who found his remark amusing. Some of the guests started to snigger. Poor Molly though, she looked absolutely mortified. Kyrie hoped she would not reconsider her marriage options... Chances were she'd latch on to Sherlock again and... well... he was taken.
"A meat... dagger..." Sherlock repeated him slowly and precisely.
"Yes," poor Tom said, looking really awkward.
Though Kyrie could not hear her over the distance, Kyrie noticed how Molly ordered her fiancé to sit back down through clenched teeth.
"No," Sherlock told Tom and waited till he sat back down. He turned back to the guests. "There was one feature, and only one feature, of interest in the whole of this baffling case, and quite frankly it was the usual. John Watson – who, while I was trying to solve the murder – instead saved a life."
Kyrie beamed up at him and Mary laughed happily. John looked down a bit, looking slightly embarrassed, but smiled anyway.
"There are mysteries worth solving and stories worth telling," Sherlock said, looking down at John. "The best and bravest man I know – and on top of that he actually knows how to do stuff."
Poor John, he was not used to all this praise. Certainly not by Sherlock, whose only praise seemed to be to not overly insult him like he did with others. He lowered his head again and chuckled a bit.
"... except wedding planning and serviettes – he's rubbish at those," Sherlock said wryly.
"True!" John admitted with a grin.
"Sweetie, John has you for that," Kyrie told Sherlock and immediately looked down, slightly embarrassed the endearment had just slipped out again. His next words made her look up at him, her lips parted in surprise.
"Thank you... my dear," he said slowly, looking right her, as if he was contemplating the sound. Apparently, it was a term of endearment he could live with, as he smiled at her after he said it. Kyrie swallowed hard and felt her cheeks flush with heat.
He cleared his throat and turned his attention back to the guests. "The case itself remains the most ingenious and brilliantly-planned murder, or attempted murder, I've ever had the pleasure to encounter. The most perfect locked-room mystery of which I am aware. However, I'm not just here to praise John. I'm also here to embarrass him, so let's move on to some..."
Suddenly Greg interrupted him, "No-no, wait, so how was it... how was it done?" he asked curiously.
"How was what done?" Sherlock asked puzzled.
"The stabbing."
Sherlock briefly looked down in discomfort. "I'm afraid I don't know." He then admitted. "I didn't solve that one. That's..." he paused for a moment. "It can happen sometimes. It's very... very disappointing."
He had a reflective look on his face and just stared for a moment, then he took a breath and looked back at the guests again.
"Embarrassment leads me on to the stag night. Of course there's hours of material here, but I've cut it down to the really good bits."
Kyrie grinned. Oh Lord... Stag night...
Sherlock had dragged her along to Bart's, to Molly's lab, claiming he needed Molly's assistance with something. Kyrie had no idea why he wanted her to be there as well, until she realised that before... John would go with him whenever he had a crazy whim like this. She sighed, realising he just wanted the company. For him, the fact that Kyrie herself had like a thousand thing to do and organise was of little consequence.
Inside Molly's lab, Sherlock told Molly what he had planned for the stag night. Kyrie thought it was brilliant. Then again, she thought most of the stuff Sherlock did or said was brilliant. She shrugged her shoulders at the wayward thought. Molly, however, was less convinced.
"Murder scenes?" Molly asked him. She turned around to look at them. "Locations of... murders?" she repeated.
"Yeah, brilliant isn't it?" Kyrie said, feeling quite proud that Sherlock was really putting in some effort to make it a memorable stag night. Actually, she was proud he was organising a stag night, period! She never would have thought that Sherlock would consider it a worthy enough activity to waste his time on. She smiled. It proved just how important John really was to him.
"Mmm, pub crawl, themed," Sherlock said, a small smile gracing his lips.
"Yeah, but why-why can't you just do Underground stations?"
Both Kyrie and Sherlock wrinkled their noses in aversion. What a boring and bland idea!
"Lacks the personal touch. We're going to go for a drink in every street where we..."
"... every street where you found a corpse!" Molly, mumbled, finishing the sentence for him, "Delightful. Where do I come in?" she asked.
Kyrie looked up at Sherlock. That was a good question.
"Don't want to get ill. That would ruin it... spoil the mood."
Ah, Kyrie understood what he was getting at.
"You're a graduate chemist. Can't you just work it out?" Molly said a bit tersely.
"I lack the practical experience," he said, smiling boyishly at her.
It was true, Kyrie mused. Sherlock wasn't a great drinker. Of course, he wasn't averse to savouring a drink on the quiet evenings, when they were both sitting near the fire place, either talking about recent events or engaging in a discussion about various topics. Sherlock, apparently, considered it a bit of a sport to see if he could get her to change her mind on certain views.
"Meaning you think I like a drink," Molly said, her voice dropping at least half an octave.
"Occasionally," Sherlock agreed.
"That I'm a drunk."
"No. No!" Sherlock quickly said, trying to soothe her over.
Molly kept glaring at him, until Sherlock looked away from her. He shared a brief look with Kyrie. She just smiled up at him and patted his arm. He then looked back at Molly again.
"You look... well," he finally said in an attempt to distract her.
Molly smiled a bit, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I am."
"How's...?" He stopped abruptly and Kyrie bit her lip to keep from laughing. It felt so good, to no longer find herself in that awkward zone were he could not remember her name. Although, she did have a feeling he still sometimes just called her 'wife' so he would not have to go through the effort of recalling her name. She found she didn't mind at all.
"... Tom?" he finally offered a name. Clearly he wasn't very confident about the correctness of that name.
"Not a sociopath," she said with a smile.
"Still? Good." Sherlock tried to be amiable.
Molly smiled up at him, after casting a brief glance in Kyrie's direction. "And we're having quite a lot of sex."
Kyrie could feel Sherlock stiffen next to her. His mind briefly seemed to go offline at the mention of 'sex'.
Kyrie wasn't sure if it was because of the topic itself or that he really didn't want to imagine Molly and Tom having said sex, because Tom shared... certain... similarities with himself. Kyrie smirked when she saw him swallow away a lump, his eyes briefly flickering between her and basically anywhere else.
"Okay," he finally said, taking a large folder full of papers from his coat and putting it on the table. It was a clear indication that the previous topic was now over.
"I want you to calculate John's ideal intake, and mine, to remain in the sweet spot the whole evening."
Kyrie leaned around and grinned when she saw that the folder was full of his and John's medical records and quite a bit of other personal documentation.
"No Kyrie, you can't have the file," Sherlock said blasé.
She arched a brow at him. "Why not? She gets to read the file," she said, nodding her head at Molly.
He turned his head to look down at her. "That's different," he said to her, softly.
Kyrie grinned. "Aw, do you have some embarrassing statistics in there you don't want me to know about?"
Sherlock sighed in exasperation. "Light-headed, good..." he said, handing Molly a picture of Vitruvian Man with a picture of John's head stuck over the original one.
"Urinating in wardrobes, bad," Molly said, a bit tight-lipped.
"Hmm."
SSS
Sherlock surprised Kyrie by casting an adoring glance her way. "The idea was good, just not... executed to its full potential. In the future, I will leave the planning of 'parties'," he said, sounding a bit horrified at the thought, "... in the capable hands of this woman here. She managed to plan a way better party than I ever could."
Kyrie smiled up at him.
By the time Sherlock was taking John out for their stag night, Kyrie had already had the hen party she had organised. She had invited Janine, her sister Kathryn and even Molly, to celebrate with Mary the last few days of freedom.
Where Sherlock had picked a themed pub crawl, Kyrie had organised a 'chocolate crawl'. Or, an evening all chocolate-treats tour.
They started the tour in Covent Garden in a location where chocolate was made from the cocoa bean on site. It was a gorgeous venue for the introduction. Then the guide took them on a delightful stroll to several lovely boutiques while sharing a bit of local history along the way. They travelled through Soho to Piccadilly and stopped in places like the very cool tea room at Sketch, but also East India Company, Paul A Young, Carpo, Prestat and Charbonnel et Walker
All through the event, they were treated to a wide variety of chocolate products, like truffles, pralines, caramels and fondants. They got to sample the best of chocolate in all its forms... A freshly roasted cocoa bean, decadent chocolate bars, hot chocolate, gelato, brownies and even a specially designed chocolate cocktail in a secluded London bar.
It was a lovely evening, even though there were a few awkward moments because Molly felt the need to keep telling how wonderful Tom was and how great the sex was. Mary was a great sport through it all and numerous humoured looks were exchanged between the women.
Kyrie and Mary ended the evening together, each curled up in one of the armchairs near the fireplace back at 221B Baker Street. Kyrie liked to think that both Mary and John considered it to be their second home.
They were two women in love, completely besotted with their significant others. So, obviously, a lot of stories were shared, odd facts, weird trivia and other embarrassing things that would have completely mortified both Sherlock and John had they listened in on them.
Mary looked at Kyrie, slowly sipping her wine. "Molly... she really isn't over Sherlock, is she?"
"Nope."
"Those stories though..."
Kyrie chuckled. "I know!"
"As you live with, you know, 'The One and Only'..."
Kyrie snorted with laughter.
"...What exactly... is Molly missing out on?" Mary asked her with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"A lot," Kyrie said with a cheeky grin.
"Oh, come one! You have to give me more than that!" Mary complained. "Me and John, we only get to see Sherlock as he presents himself. You... you get to see an entirely different side of him. While John... God, I love him to bits, but he's John. You know John. So, try again."
Kyrie thought for a moment. "I think that Molly has a very romantic idea about Sherlock," she said thoughtfully. "Or actually, about how he'd be if he would just fall in love with her."
"She did make a few allusions to that, didn't she?" Mary said with a slight nod of her head.
"The truth is, he would not make her happy at all and she would drive him up the walls in no time," Kyrie said. "She would be disappointed because she would still not get the affirmation she craves and Sherlock would run mad with her constant need for affection and confirmation."
"How do you do it then? There must be a secret."
"Not really," Kyrie said with a small smile. "He's just him. There are still days he hardly talks, days he's too busy with experiments or cases to notice I'm even there... And days he just wants a bit of company, to not be alone, but without any romantic context at all. I don't think Molly could handle any of that."
"And you can?"
Kyrie shrugged her shoulders. "I'm used to it. I've lived with both Sherlock and John before we were 'together', remember? I've known him for a long time. I know his mood swings and what he can be like."
"John did say you always were very 'in tune' with him. He must have a different side to him though. One only you get to see. Otherwise, you wouldn't be in a relationship with him. You would have just lived with him as you've done when John was there too."
Kyrie smiled as she thought of him.
"Aw, there it is..." Mary suddenly said with a smile. "That look in your eyes that tells me you're thinking of him. Violet shooting stars."
Kyrie grinned at her friend. "You know me all too well! Yes, of course there is a different side to him. And yes... in those moments he is everything that Molly dreams him to be... and more! But, it's a side of him he's just learning to accept as being part of him. He still detests it, sees it as a weakness. He still struggles with it, fights it even."
"Can't be easy though," Mary told her, a serious look on her face. "Seems like you have to fight for every moment of affection between you two."
"Sometimes it feels that way, yes," Kyrie agreed. "You know, one of my favourite love stories is that of Catherine and Heathcliff. Wuthering Heights? In it, Cathy tells someone about the nature of her love. Her love for another man was like the foliage in the woods; it would change with time as winter changes the trees. Her love for Heathcliff wasn't beautiful or pretty; she compared it to the eternal rocks beneath... A source of little visible delight, but necessary."
"Wow," Mary said simply. "Thats... that's how you feel about him?"
"Yes," Kyrie said softly. "Our relationship might seem strange to some, loveless even. But it's not. It's ours, it's us, it's the way we are. My love for him... it just is. It's there. Not to be changed by time or any other earthly influence. I think... I think deep down he knows that and he doesn't always know how to deal with that. But, he also knows he has the time to figure things out on his own. I'm not going anywhere."
"Poor Molly," Mary said. "She never did have a chance with him."
"None whatsoever. I hope... I hope she'll learn to value Tom. He is a good guy. He's no Sherlock but, he can actually give her what she wants."
"Here's to Tom and Molly then," Mary said and she raised her glass in a toast.
"And John and Mary," Kyrie said, raising her own glass.
"And Sherlock and Kyrie."
They gently clinked the glasses together and smiled.
