No beta, so sorry for the inconvenience.
Ch 19 in which our hero Sherlock is avoiding certain kind of things and ends up in the dark.
Sherlock was unsatisfied by the interruption in his disguise but he was clearly recognized before entering. Naked Adler woman caught him by surprise but he wasn't impressed. Her nudity meant nothing to him. But lack of information on her made him uneasy. He was confused, she was better cleaned from personal details than Buckingham's palace. That was unsettling. But she was engaged, he was focused on reading her, annoyed by her weak attempts to throw him off with sex. But then John entered and interrupted the moment with his bluntness. Couldn't he just wait by the door and listen before entering.
"I missed something, haven't I" he stated the obvious and Sherlock rolled his eyes as things as expected went to the mundane. She offered tea.
"I had some at the palace" he diverted the focus back on the task. It was clear she already knew, as she knew they are coming.
She sat down and he was confused by the lack of any clue, he looked at John and all his accessible information was there displayed, easy to see. Then she showed off her deduction abilities to show that she's not just well informed. He wasn't impressed by the obvious that he believes in himself, or that John cares about him.
"Could you put something on" John again cut in with the mundane "Anything at all, a napkin."
"Why are you feeling exposed?" she turned her attention to John.
"John clearly doesn't know where to look" Sherlock took his coat to spare John his discomfort.
"No, I think he knows exactly where" she approached John and Sherlock held his coat. "Not sure about you" she took it. Sherlock was sure in himself, he was not interested in her feeble attempts to attract attention with something so primal.
"If I was interested in watching naked women I'd borrow John's laptop" he dismissed the thought, he could never understand his fascination with woman's features.
She did surprise him with the hiker case that was information hard to come by. Of course, it was simple she knew the policeman, but John was now intrigued when she wasn't naked anymore.
"So you like policemen" John sat on the sofa.
"I like detective stories," she said and Sherlock got caught by surprise, not by her nonsense talking, but by John's reaction to it. He sat, as he always does, with his legs spread apart, but then suddenly he had to cross his legs, something he never does because of he…
"Positionofthecar" Sherlock blurted out incoherently to divert his train of thoughts.
He took control over the situation turning the attention of both of them to him. Enough of the niceties, he was here to do a job so he started to talk in the fast pace and spread out deduction to preoccupy her mind. He gave his signal to John to get him out of the room and his plan in motion. While he waited he tried to entertain her mind. It was fairly easy to find her safe. The code seemed harder, but then entered men with guns and changed the game.
"Don't you want me on the floor too?" he asked interesting new player thinking only of the game, this got interesting, Americans too.
"On the count of three shoot Doctor Watson," game stopped to be fun, why did they always had to pick on John.
"I don't have the code," he yelled at him, but he kept counting. Adrenalin kicked in and Adler made a mistake, she looked down.
"Wait," he thought fast, self-portrait, vanity, her height, volume, the slight disproportion between the chest and lower area. The safe opened but Sherlock paused. This was a ruthless woman prepared to let John die for her secrets, she would be able to let him die too. He looked at her and she looked down with guilt on her face.
"Vatican cameos," he shouted to warn John and ducked down. With no surprise gun fired, he acted without thinking, he needed to regain control. Soon he did. With the phone in his pocket and police on its way, and John looking about the house he flaunted a bit.
"That's a knighthood in the bag," he said throwing the phone in the air.
"That's mine" she extended her hand and he informed her without mercy that she had lost her little game and went to find John.
Of course, he found someone to care for.
"She's alright, just out cold" he said to Adler, she had no reaction.
"You're very calm" he had to comment, that level of non-reaction was beyond even him, he had more heart than that. She didn't care of her lover, of the man her booby trap killed, nothing. Not even losing control, but then she showed she didn't lose control.
It was a sneaky move, one he couldn't predict because he always played fair. He fought the drug, he knew to handle that, and her slaps but the dosage was too strong and he fell unconscious with last images of her unpleasant smug face. Just before he blacked out John's voice was there. Good, he'll take care of it. With that, he submitted to darkness.
Did you notice that crossed legs in between, with Sherlock's frowned lock that way, it's not a coincidence ;)