#13 - Bias
"To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex..."
There was a rather long pause after this had been read allowed, interrupted only by a slight clink as the woman sat opposite Holmes placed her cup down gently. Said pause was, somehow, both carefully restrained and intensely amused, both at once.
"...My dear Watson?"
"Yes, Holmes?"
"I do believe you just forfeited any right you ever had to call me conceited."
"Did I really? I'm afraid I can't see how."
Holmes' only response was a raised eyebrow.
"Since," Irene Holmes continued, entirely ignoring said eyebrow, "as far as I am aware, the text you have just read out refers to an Irene Adler, not myself, am I correct?"
The eyebrow stayed raised. The woman simply picked up her teacup and smiled right back in response, before plucking the newly printed copy of the Strand from his fingers to read it herself.
A/N: OK, a lot of people may not get this. It's based on a joke essay wherein it is theorised that Watson did not exist, and that in fact Irene 'Adler' (Watson, that is. ...Née Holmes, as of SCAN) made him up for the stories. ...Yeah. I recommend it, it's hilarious really. And I know he should probably not call her 'Watson' because of that née thing but hey. It. Could be... habit? *shrug*