Spoilers: Hounds of Baskerville
Ch 30 in which our hero John is subjected to a considerable amount of fear.
John wasn't in the mood for sharing jokes with Sherlock Holmes. In fact, he was in the mood for walking the hell away from him.
Of course, Sherlock wasn't the one to give up easily. He kept walking behind John making a joke on John's failure with the therapist. John wasn't amused.
"Funny doesn't suit you. Stick to the ice," he said pointedly.
"John," Sherlock tried to keep the conversation going.
"It's fine," John wasn't willing to talk.
Sherlock persisted and grabbed John's arm. That broke John's pace. It was a small shock really when Sherlock would reach out and make any kind of contact. He let go quickly and kept talking about the doubt he had in himself. His serious and apologetic expression didn't last long, quite quickly there was that smile which expected of John just to get up and jump on board.
"You got something to go on then," John moved away. "God luck then."
He kept pacing away satisfied with himself. He kept his ground but of course, Sherlock wasn't the one to give up.
"Listen, what I said before, John," John turned to see what he'll say now when he decided to address the real issue at hand. "I meant it. I don't have friends," he repeated his line in the daylight. "I only have one."
John looked away snorting. It was just like him to reaffirm the insult and then modify it to suit his needs.
"Right," John answered unimpressed.
He walked away knowing that he'll carry on as before but still trying to find another ground, make some distance.
"John," Sherlock shouted behind him and started to pour compliments at John.
"Not to overdo it," John said calmly knowing that now he's just plainly repeating John's lines back at John.
Sherlock kept talking and of course the compliments weren't really compliments, he was just happy he figured something out.
"Hang on, you were saying sorry a minute ago, don't spoil it," John stopped his flow of words and made Sherlock explain.
The acronym idea seemed plausible but then Lestrade showed up and changed their pace. Sherlock showed that he doesn't know his name and John decided to use him. He got out his receipt for meat and that revealed the nature of the dog the people were seeing.
The dog died so that ended up as nothing. John followed Lestrade to tell him that Sherlock is pleased to see him. John was sure of that. Sherlock appreciated Lestrade, he was just too fast when he thought to be anything but annoying.
Lestrade tried to find a word to describe Sherlock's state of mind.
"Asperger's," John offered an option and Lestrade accepted it.
Lately, that option seemed more plausible to John than sociopathy, how Sherlock liked to self-describe himself. Still, it wasn't satisfying either. It didn't cover all angles of Sherlock's impulsivity. Sociopathy John dismissed early on as an analysis. John wasn't a psychiatrist but he saw Sherlock in enough situations to know that he's not as cold and detached as people assumed he is.
He wouldn't be able to be bothered by John's anger if he was devoid of guilt, or love.
One friend. That wasn't surprising. John didn't know anyone like himself, patient enough to withstand Sherlock's mood swings.
Now it seemed that he fell into another change because in the car he was anything but animated. He was quiet and absent.
Listening to half of the conversation he had with Mycroft was entertaining. Sherlock asking for a favour in a polite manner must have been a surprise even to Mycroft because he complied without any fuss.
When they came to the base, Sherlock gave John a task to search the base looking for the Hound on his own.
"Could be dangerous," Sherlock said and John smiled to a side.
That damn phrase that lured him in every time. John could smell the promise of an adventure on it.
John walked through the laboratories not expecting to find much. He didn't believe in monsters. As everyone left, John admired Mycroft's impact on people. The laboratories didn't contain anything special. He crossed through some fridges, saw bad plumbing that leaked steam. Nothing interesting really.
He thought about their raid of Baskerville as a dead end. There were no hounds from hell here.
John was calm even when the flashing light blinded him. He was less calm when the door wouldn't open. Then the noise came and he wasn't calm at all.
Soon he was scared beyond comprehension crouched in the cage thinking he'll die at any moment. Sherlock's voice was on his phone but that didn't calm him down.
He thought his heart will stop when the sheet moved but there was just Sherlock and he started to breathe more evenly. Still, his heart was racing so when Sherlock suggested that there was no monster he was furious at him. That was a fear unlike anything John had experienced before.
Sherlock then explained that they were drugged and that seemed plausible.
As Sherlock examined the sugar with the microscope John didn't think much. He just tried to sit still. It was so hard to avoid running and hiding. It was as the instruments around him could jump up and attack him.
To divert his train of thoughts he talked to the rabbit scientist Stapleton. For some reason, Sherlock decided that he trusts her. Maybe because of the blackmail thing, the missing rabbit that glows in the dark. Sherlock liked to have the upper hand on things.
The sugar turned out to be harmless and Sherlock was again lost.
"You, get out," he pointed at the rabbit scientist. "I need to go to my mind palace."
John knew that doesn't apply to him, he was allowed to stay and watch as Sherlock is looking for clues in his mind but he went with the rabbit scientist. He didn't feel like staying alone. What if he gets paranoid in the silence, while Sherlock is lost in his mind.
The rabbit scientist realized that Sherlock's mind trick place can be called anything, a street, a house, anything. Most people missed that bit.
"But he calls it a palace," she said as they exited the lab.
"Well, he would, wouldn't he," John said apologetically.
Sherlock was like that, bigger than life. It was no surprise to John when he returned a few minutes later with a whole explanation in his hand. The H.O.U.N.D. scientists and their experiments with paranoia, fear and anxiety that caused murders and suicides in their test subjects.
Then Henry's therapist called John saying that he's on the run with a gun in his hand.
"There's only one place where he'll be off to," Sherlock was already on the phone. "Where it all started."
Then they were back in their car driving back to the hollow.
Moving on to the wods with Sherlock and his POV.