Close Encounters of the Fictional Kind

Chapter 28: Hooper, Holmes, and Watson

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"For crying out loud, we are not there yet, Marie!" Elise shouted as she slammed her orange juice down on the tray in front of her. The stewardess glared over at her, but didn't say anything. They were on an overnight flight from JFK airport to Heathrow in London. It had been a long six hours so far, and both girls were getting anxious to get up and out of the plane.

"When will we be there?" Marie asked after a minute.

Elise let out an exasperated sigh and impatiently tapped the monitor on the screen in front of her to get to the flight information. "Two hours and sixteen minutes," she said pointing out the time and the little airplane moving slowly over the north Atlantic at the moment.

Marie flopped back in her seat and let out an undignified groan. "Two hours? Who's bright idea was it to go to the U.K. anyway?"

"I believe it was yours since it was your former roommate who invited us," Elise pointed out, earning a glare from Marie.

"It was rhetorical."

Elise rolled her eyes and unbuckled her seat belt. "Right, I'm going to the bathroom."

The older girl headed back towards the restrooms, only to see there was already a line. It was a good thing she didn't actually have to go that badly. So she entered the steward's alcove to wait with the others so they wouldn't block the aisle. The person in the restroom finally emerged and the next lady went in leaving just two more in front of Elise.

At that moment, one of the stewards entered the alcove. He gathered a few things then glanced over at them. Leaning forward conspiratorially, he whispered, "We keep the alcohol in there," and pointed toward a cupboard on the bottom row.

Elise chuckled and the two people in front of her gave him a thumbs up. When she returned to her seat, Elise was smirking and trying to cover up a small bulge in her pocket. Marie looked at her worriedly. "What did you do?" She asked.

"What makes you think I did something?" Elise replied.

"That shit-eating grin on your face," Marie said ignoring the elderly lady's startled gasp behind them.

Elise barely paid attention to the vulgarity though and instead handed Marie two small plastic bottles of whiskey. Marie's eyes lit up as she grabbed at the bottles. "Where did you get this?!"

"I have my sources," Elise said smugly.

Marie didn't question further as she poured some of the whiskey into her ginger ale and took a sip. "Oh, that's good," she said grinning and hiding the bottles from a passing stewardess.

Two hours and eight minutes later, the plane was landing in Heathrow airport in London. Marie was pleasantly giddy, and Elise was ready to get the hell off of the flying death trap. It took another two hours though to get through customs. Elise, who had been to London before, knew what to expect and pulled out her iPod and slipped one earbud in. Marie on the other hand just gawped at the line. "Can't we go to that line?" she asked, pointing at the shorter line off to the left.

"Nope. Only for United Kingdom residents."

"So they make all of us guests wait for hours and hours?"

"Yup. Last time it took me an hour and forty-five minutes to get through customs. Doesn't help that only like five attendants are working." Marie groaned and pulled out her own iPod, Lindsey Stirling playing before she even really got her earbud in.

It did indeed take just over two hours to get through customs, but once through, Elise and Marie grabbed their baggage and hailed a cab in short time. The heat was almost too much on the streets of London, but it wasn't enough to stop Elise and Marie from their goal. They had a lunch date at the morgue in St. Bart's Hospital.

They walked a short way to grab three sandwiches and drinks from a Pret a Manger before hailing another cab and going to St. Bart's. "Molly Hooper?" Elise asked the receptionist who nodded and paged the girl to the desk.

A moment later, a smiling mousy brown haired girl walked out of the door at the end of the hallway and quickly crossed the distance to them. "Marie!" she squealed as she hugged the girl.

"Molly!" Marie hugged her former roommate tightly.

"And Elise," Molly hugged the other girl as well, though not as enthusiastically. Molly and Elise hadn't really known each other very well during Molly's one year studying in the states.

"We brought food!" Marie said pointing at the Pret a Manger bag.

Molly's face lit up at the mention of food. "Excellent!" she grinned. "We can take it in the cafeteria."

The girls followed their British friend down the halls and eventually through a double door that led to a large cafeteria. There were a few others eating at the tables, but for the most part lunchtime had already passed. Molly led them to a table near one of the large windows looking out into a small courtyard. "Glad you guys got here when you did. Was about ready to eat my pen," she smiled as she took her egg salad and arugula sandwich.

Marie laughed as she took out her balsamic chicken and avocado sandwich. "I would have thought a mortician of all people would know that eating pens is bad for you?"

Molly rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean!" She took a large bite out of her sandwich and her eyes rolled back accompanied by a soft moan of appreciation. "This is excellent! Haven't had anything to eat in nearly eighteen hours."

"You didn't have breakfast?" Elise asked before biting into her chipotle chicken, bacon, and avocado sandwich, avocado dripping out to land with a splat on the sandwich's wrappings.

Molly shook her head as she swallowed. "No, got called in early and I've been at it all day."

"What's so urgent?"

"Hmm?" she chewed and swallowed another bite. "Oh," she blushed before continuing. "Um, a consultant for the MET needed the lab and I'm the only one who'll work with him."

"Why?"

Molly's blush intensified. "He's a bit… different. But in a good way!" the last part came out in a rush. "I mean he's very dedicated to the work. He just gets a bit absorbed."

"He's sounds interesting," Elise said wiping her hands on a napkin. "Is he still here?"

Molly nodded before taking a sip of her drink. "Yeah, he's still in the lab."

"I thought you couldn't leave people there alone?" Marie asked.

"Well, not technically, but John is there and he's a doctor, so he should keep Sherlock out of trouble."

Elise's eyes widened. "Sherlock? Such as in Sherlock Holmes?"

"Oh, you know him?"

Elise looked to be at a loss for words. Marie rolled here eyes and buried her face in her hands. "Oh boy… yeah, we've heard of him. Elise would love to meet him, the prick," the last part was said softly under her breath and Molly didn't seem to notice.

"I suppose I could take you back there?" Molly said softly.

"Could we? Yes please!" Elise exclaimed brokenly.

"Sure, come on," Molly rose, making her way towards the door and tossing their garbage in a trashcan on the way out.

They followed the small woman through the halls again. This time, Elise was nearly bouncing with every step, causing Marie to sigh exasperatedly. When they finally arrived, Elise bounced through the door and turned the corner to see a tall man with dark hair wearing a black Belstaff coat and stroking a riding crop thoughtfully. A shorter blond man in an army green jacket stood with his arms crossed and leaning back against an empty examination table while he watched the taller man pace back and forth.

At the sound of the door closing, the taller man looked up. His bluish grey eyes were just as sharp as his cheekbones. He scanned the two newcomers before rolling his eyes and turning back into his pacing. The blond man on the other hand pushed off from the examination table and walked over to greet them. "Afternoon," he said holding out a hand to shake. "John Watson."

"Hi, Elise Jirele," Elise smiled and shook his hand.

"Marie Johnston," Marie shook John's hand as well.

"These are friends from the States," Molly introduced the two girls.

"Nice to meet you," John smiled. "This is my flatmate, Sherlock Holmes." He gestured toward the pacing man. "He'd introduce himself, but he's thinking at the moment."

A scoff was heard, but no further words. John rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. "So what brings you to London?"

"Just visiting Molly here," Elise said eyeing Sherlock.

"And slowly making our way around the world," Marie added casually.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, we've been planning this trip for a while. We've got a bunch of places we want to go and we're finally doing it as a kind of college graduation present to ourselves."

"Well congratulations," John complimented. "What did you go to school for?"

Another huff was heard from the pacing man. "Social work and writing! Isn't it obvious?" Sherlock growled. "You're interrupting my thought process!"

"Sherlock," John said in a low voice.

"You see but do not observe, John." Sherlock stopped pacing and came to stand beside his flatmate. "That one," he pointed at Marie. "Has recently passed her license test for social work. I'd guess to work in geriatrics going by her disdainful face to the sound of a child yelling outside earlier.

"And that one," he pointed at Elise now. "She's in writing, but she doesn't think she's good enough to actually publish something. She's wondering if she should go back to school to get a degree in teaching."

"What the fuck?" "Wow…" Elise and Marie said at the same time.

Sherlock looked at Elise with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything further. "How the hell did you know all of that?" Marie asked.

"Like I said, I observe. Do try to keep up. I hate repeating myself."

Marie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the dark haired man. "Google," she muttered.

Elise on the other hand simply marveled. "That was awesome," she said quietly. "Seriously, the way you can just pull all of that from the smallest details? Amazing."

John gave her a small smile and Sherlock quirked an eyebrow. Elise could have sworn she saw a small twitch at the corner of his mouth, but it was gone before she could confirm it. Silence filled the room for a minute before John broke the silence by clearing his throat. "Right, well, we'd best get back to it, right Sherlock?"

"Indeed. I need to get back to Baker Street."

"We'll see you later maybe?" John asked turning back to the three girls.

"Sure! We could do lunch tomorrow?" Elise said excitedly.

"Sure, have Molly text me and we'll meet up somewhere," John clapped a hand on Elise's shoulder. "Nice to meet you!" he said to Marie and Elise once more before following the tail of the black Belstaff out of the door and down the hall.

"Wow," Molly muttered quietly.

"What?" Elise asked.

"Well, I don't think I've ever seen him be that nice with a new person," she replied.

"Didn't seem very nice to me," Marie muttered.

Molly shrugged and seemed to come back to herself. "I'll walk you guys out and send you a text when I'm done with work. We can do dinner at my place." She paused for a moment. "You were staying with me, right?"

"Of course!" Marie said.

"Right, just give this address to a cabbie and you should get there just fine if you want to drop your stuff off or take a kip before dinner. Here's a spare key."

Marie hugged the mousey haired girl again. "Thanks, Molly. You're awesome."

Molly blushed again and smiled. "It's nothing. I'll see you after work."

Elise and Marie then wheeled their baggage out to the curb and hailed another cab, gave him the address to Molly's apartment building, and settled in for the fifteen-minute ride. "Can we go see the British Museum? Please?" Elise asked half way there.

Marie rolled her eyes, but nodded. "I was hoping for a nap, but whatever."

"They say the best way to get over jet lag is to keep a regular schedule. So we shouldn't nap. We need to keep active until tonight."

Marie groaned, but agreed, mentally readying her self for the next few hours to be spent at the British Museum. Of course, truth be told, she was rather excited about seeing mummies!