N/A Ch1A

Sherlock Holmes was lounging on the couch in 221B's sitting room, watching his favourite imported American reality programme. The thing was, he didn't really want anyone to know it was his favourite. But he suspected that the secret was out, at least as far as his wife, Molly, was concerned. She came in from the kitchen where she had finished cleaning up the dinner dishes (he had brought home the takeaway, so she did the dishes) and sat beside him, after he deigned to budge over enough to allow her room to join him.

"Really, Sherlock? I wouldn't have thought you'd give this show 15 minutes of your time without grousing," Molly teased, tweaking a curl as she gave him a peck on the cheek.

"I - erm - I don't know why, but it just intrigues me. These people are obviously not the 'experts' they are reputed to be. The show says they are vetted, but they must have dreadfully low standards for what they consider survival experience," the detective responded, watching intently as a man tried for the fourth time to start a fire in what was admittedly a fairly wet environment in a Nicaraguan rain forest. "Being able to start a fire in your dry home environment is a far cry from doing it in a wet jungle, whilst surrounded by biting insects and howling monkeys."

"I'm sure you could do better, my love,' Molly teased,

"I could, and did, when I was – erm - away. I wasn't always in the position to be in a hotel with all the amenities I'd prefer. I can tell you, though, it wasn't easy and not always accomplished at one go," Sherlock answered.

"Oh, love, I didn't mean to bring that all up, I -"

"Nonsense, Molly, it's all right – I just meant that I did have to do some of those things in not-so-ideal conditions. I managed to get them done, but it was far from easy many times, I can tell you."

"I'll bet you could show them up easily, if it came to it, dear." Molly whispered, curling up against her husband and playing with his curls. "Did you ever have to build a shelter like they do on the programme?"

"Oh, yes, several times. It was more expedient to be able to hide closer to my objective, than to stay further away in a town somewhere. As long as you had fire or some decent covering material, it wasn't too bad – mostly."

"I'm sure you missed your Belstaff when it was cold out. I know I missed seeing you in it, coming round the lab at all hours. I hope you never have to do that sort of work again, Mycroft or no..." Molly answered quietly, hugging her husband a little tighter to her.

"Yes, I certainly did miss its warmth. It is also very nice to sleep in if I need to do so, and there were more than a few nights I would have loved to have it available to me."

Molly shivered. "Enough of thinking in that direction for tonight! I am so glad to have you back home again, I never want you to be that far away for so long again, I can tell you."

"Nor I, love, nor I. It was quite enough - and you know I've told Mycroft that such missions are definitely off-limits for me in future. Occasional day-trips to France or some-such is inevitable for cases, but nothing like that ever again. I like being home with my wife - heaven knows it took us long enough to get to this point in our lives, since I was so foolishly ignorant of my own feelings for far too long," her husband answered, "But I really do think I could do a bit better than some of these idiots on this programme."

"Well, what do you have to do to be a contestant? It might be rather fun for you, and definitely not boring! I'd come with you, if they would have an established couple on the programme. I have skills in identifying edible plants, as well as ones which could be used for first-aid purposes. And if it were only us, the not-having-clothes thing would not bother us so much. I don't understand how people who don't know each other can just be naked together– I'd be horribly uncomfortable, I should think. What would you think of us going together, love?" Molly asked, thinking that this was a great way to get Sherlock out of the dark moods that settled onto him at times.

"Hmm. What if - you know, Mycroft is always saying he would like to pay for us to go on holiday somewhere? Well, what if he were to set up similar conditions, and we could do our own challenge without the whole thing being shown on the telly?" Sherlock answered as he took out his phone in preparation for calling his brother, if Molly agreed.

"Oh, yes, love! That would be perfect - and he could have people nearby to talk with us just like they do on the programme, so that if we got hurt or something, we could just call for them? They could even make a private recording of it for us to keep, and if we decided we want to show any of our close friends, they can 'blur' out our bits like they do, and I wouldn't feel so silly. I think it sounds fun!" Molly replied, getting into the whole idea of spending 21 days in the wilderness with Sherlock, and thinking it just might be exciting.

Sherlock was on the phone with his brother, who, after his initial gasp at the notion of it all, seemed to be getting into the idea of his little brother going native. He agreed to look into the programme and its requirements for contestants, and get back to them in a day or two, unless some international incident occurred. Sherlock's head was swimming with possibilities...