This on is going very very slowly. But I give you a bit of science and some Baker Street pubbary, so please forgive.
Also Greg's team's research is based on actual research from Dec 2010, when a team of scientists found arsenic-based bacteria in a lake in California. Look it up, it's by Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her team and the original publication is called 'A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus', published in Science 3 June 2011: Vol. 332.
I couldn't do this without my lovely beta Lily! Thank you, love, this story is still for you. (She's also credited for the last two chapters, shh). All mistakes that still remain are my own.
In the exciting life of academic research, Wednesday night was pub night. At least, in the astronomy department at St. Bart's. Only when there were no major breakthroughs.
This was the first time this month Lestrade's team had the time to sit down and socialise, properly.
The team had had a breakthrough, after all, and it seemed to be supported by evidence left, right and centre at this point. Something Lestrade was rather proud of. His team had been running tests for years, looking for more than the six most common elements to base life on (CHNOPS - carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and phosphorus). Of course, some minor elements could be replaced quite easily to make way for the diverse life already found on earth, but these were merely trace elements. Copper instead of iron in an oxygen carrier, for example. That was old news, but strong enough to base the rest of his program on. A few months ago he had had the idea to try arsenic and found it could theoretically replace phosphorus. The team had gathered around the computer's monitor and just stared, baffled by the obviousness of it.
And now they had possible proof from a lake in the States, one team from there had been sending around samples of an arsenic-filled lake. And Greg's team had found a bacterium in it.
It quickly became apparent that it would not be the primary topic at tonight's table. The turnout wasn't particularly good, but Lestrade was happy with the company. Around the table were himself, John Watson, lecturer for the first year students, and Molly Hooper, who maintained the university's private telescope installation. Sarah Sawyer, the head lecturer joined them with a beer in her hand.
"Do you guys think those two Holmeses are related?" she asked before she even sat down. Greg tried, and failed, to hold down a small smile, he could do with some gossip about the mysterious new researcher.
He nodded: "Yes, I think so."
The table looked at him expectantly.
"No one can look at someone with that much hate without being related," he expanded, waving a half-empty drink at John.
"Really?" Sarah raised a questioning eyebrow, "I have seen them together, I suppose."
"They were in the library yesterday, you should've seen it," Greg provided.
Sarah turned to John and placed a soft hand on his shoulder, "What do you think, John?"
The minor lecturer jumped as if awoken from a dream and looked at his ex-girlfriend: "They're very similar, aren't they?" He posed the question as though the answer was obvious.
"They hardly look similar," Greg said, frowning.
"Yes," John had a vague expression on his face, "but that look that they give you. The 'why are you telling me what I already know' look. They're mirror images." He shivered slightly and Greg chuckled.
"Oh, I thought you meant a different look," Sarah snickered into her drink. Greg raised his eyebrows at John and found the man looking equally confused back at him. They didn't remember looking at a Holmes in a particularly snicker-worthy manner.
"Molly?" John tried to awaken the woman who was staring into mid-distance next to him.
"Hmm?" she said.
"How many of those G&T's have you had?" John joked, albeit somewhat awkwardly.
"I don't even know," Molly answered and she swirled her drink in her glass to check how much was still in it.
"Have you met them?" Sarah asked eagerly. Greg looked at Molly, somewhat amused.
"Who?" the woman asked, "Oh!" She realised who they were talking about and looked anywhere but at the occupants of the table. "No, not really. I've seen them about."
John rolled his eyes.
"Neither of them pay attention to me," Molly said, almost silently.
Greg nodded and said, "Hmm, they do tend to stay up in that office most of the time."
John looked at him, silently asking how do you know that?, but Greg ignored him.
"You will soon enough," Sarah reassured Molly, as though she needed it, "I had the young one in my office asking when he could finally make use of the telescope."
"The young one.. Black hair?" Molly asked, taking a breath to say that she'd already met him.
"Do they know about the waiting list?" Greg asked at the same time; even though he didn't need it himself, he reserved a few hours every week for his team, and had to do so months in advance.
"I'm sure they do, it's been told to them," Sarah said, waving her drink, "I don't think they're going to keep to it."
The table considered this for a minute.
"I bet they're rich," Sarah added.
"They seem it," Molly said.
"Entitled," John said, with a posh voice and a big smirk.
"John, do you know any gossip?" Sarah asked curiously. Greg exchanged a long suffering look with the good Doctor.
"Oh, come on!" Sarah exclaimed, intercepting the look, "You guys know something!"
John sighed dramatically and pretended to be reluctant as he said: "The young one got kicked out of his last course."
"Oh, where was that," Sarah said excitedly, "Do we know anyone there?" She looked around the group.
"Edinburgh?" John mused.
"Is it THAT kid?" Greg nearly spit beer back into his glass, his eyes growing in size in amazement.
"Who do you know there, Greg?"
"I heard about an incident there, that's all. Do you think it was connected?"
"Incident?" Molly asked, sensing the shift in the conversation to good gossip material on the black-haired mystery.
"Oh, do tell, professor," Sarah said, only a hair away from clapping her hands gleefully. Greg looked into his glass, unsure of which details of the story to tell and which to leave out.
"Go on, John, get him to spill please!" Sarah whined.
"Go on Greg, or I will," John laughed.
Greg smiled and said, "There were some bacteria. The kid contacted NASA, reckoned he'd found them real moon life. Every astrobiologist in the country was contacted. Huge fight over who would supervise."
Molly's eyebrows rose: "Seriously?"
"Yep! Said student then uses his shiny new NASA access to use Hubble, which isn't related at all to the kid's research, so questions were asked. We only knew about it because of all the panic," Greg trivialised, even though, at the time, he'd been quite eager to get the research to St. Bart's.
John snickered to himself, remembering how excited Professor Lestrade had been as he had paced around the Doctor's office.
"It can't have been the older one. I heard he turned down funding from NASA," Sarah said. A glass clanged loudly onto the table, but it wasn't acknowledged.
"Who turns down funding from NASA?" Molly said disbelievingly.
"Some with a massive ego and a lot of money," Greg said and then he groaned: "God, we'd kill for that sort of funding."
Molly rolled her eyes and swirled her drink again.
"Are you okay Molly, you're looking a bit pink?" John turned the table's attention to the young technician.
"I.. uh, I'm what?" Molly asked, clearly flustered at the attention. Even more clearly blushing.
"You're blushing! Are you impressed, Molly?" Sarah joined in.
Molly turned more pink. "No! Don't be, uh, silly! I barely know them!" she tried to rescue herself.
"Go on, Molly, you're so into them!"
"The young one is kind of cute," Molly muttered.
"Yea?" Sarah sat up.
"You like the bad boy type, Molly?" John laughed.
"He looks like a bloody vampire," Greg added, laughing equally loudly.
"A vampire, hm? Maybe he sparkles!" John said, roaring with laughter now.
Molly rolled her eyes again, glad to be the one in control of herself and muttered: "Knew I shouldn't have said anything."
Greg swooned in John's direction.
"Please, drink my blood," he let out a breathy moan, "it's so...erotic"
John mimed fangs and answered: "I'm so broody and sexually repressed – give me your virgin body!"
"Oh god," Sarah squeaked, clutching at her stomach and laughing.
"Oh, shut up," Molly said and she gulped down her drink.
"Impregnate me with your alien spawn, please!" Greg laughed.
Sarah gasped for air as John giggled the last bits of his laughter into his, now empty, glass.
"I'm getting another round, same?" Molly said, making to get up, her shoulders tense.
"I'll come with you!" Sarah jumped up.
"Fine," Molly mumbled and she made her way to the bar.
John once more mimed the vampire fangs at Greg and received a new burst of laughter in return. Greg nudged him, "What do you really think then?"
At the same time, John asked: "So, what do you think of the new guys?"
They both laughed and nodded and said 'Great minds think alike' and then looked at each other expectedly.
"I like the kid, he's smart," John started, "The older one, I'm reserving judgment on. What about you? I saw you and Mycroft chatting up a storm in the faculty room today."
Greg played with his empty glass a little before answering, "I like him, he's the saner of the two, for sure."
"Like him like you like me? Or like him like you liked Phil?" John narrowed his eyes.
"Yes, I find him attractive, you child," Greg glared at his best friend, "But I'm not looking for that."
"Really, because I've not seen you look that excited to talk to someone in a while," John said. He cocked his head lightly. These talks were rare and required alcohol, he needed to remember what Greg said. He shifted forward, attentively concentrated.
" He's very sweet," Greg said. He leant back in his seat and closed his eyes, giving up to the fact that he was saying this out loud, "but you know I can't go back there. Phil was a disaster, I'm not risking something like that-"
He stopped when he felt John's gaze upon him, "He's only been here for two weeks."
John's look didn't falter and Greg shrugged, "Oh, shut up!"
"Smitten," was all John said, "and it's written all over you."
"There's no guarantee he's even gay, let alone be attracted to me."
"Oh, he's gay," John provided, nodding happily.
"Stop making me whine like some kind of teenager," Greg growled and he squared his shoulders in preparation to walk off to find a restroom.
Molly and Sarah stood at the bar, both looking around.
"So, Moll. Has he harassed you for telescope time yet?" Sarah asked as she leant forward over the bar, looking for the bartender. The man was serving other customers and didn't notice her right away. She sighed. If she were still in her student times and as irresponsible as she was, she would've worn something a little more revealing. The bartender would already be serving them.
"Yes," Molly nodded softly.
"I thought so. He has to go on the list like everyone else," Sarah said thoughtfully, raising a warning eyebrow at the easily-impressed technician.
"Yeah," Molly said, a little high pitched this time. Her eyes darted away from her boss and back to the row of bottles of liquor.
"Right?" Sarah teased, leaning closer to Molly. She was certain she was onto something here.
"Of course!" Molly said, sounding slightly panicky.
Sarah waved a bill in the air and the bartender noticed her. Quickly, she ordered for the table, looking at Molly from the corner of her eye. "You're infatuated aren't you?" the gossip would be delicious.
"No! Don't be ridiculous!" Molly was quick to deny.
"Just don't let him on all the time," Sarah said, eyeing up the barman's back as he made the drinks, "he may need it for his studies, but we support more PhD students in that field."
Molly nodded quickly and made a high-pitched agreeing noise in the back of her throat.
"Let's go then," her boss continued as she grabbed the drinks and nodded at the barman.
"Who's gay?" Sarah plopped herself into a seat next to John and stopped Greg from escaping instantly.
"You always bring out the worst in me," Greg murmured at John.
"No one is gay," he continued, but to Sarah this time. Molly took the one remaining seat at the table and didn't particularly mind being out of this conversation. Her thoughts were rather filled with the mysterious younger Holmes and she hoped the PhD student would soon visit her.
"Everyone is gay," John said, accepting his glass and immediately taking a long drink.
"Who are you into?" Sarah squealed, everything clicking into place within her head in seconds. Greg hated having clever friends who were quick to pick up sometimes.
"Don't worry about it," Greg took several deep gulps from his new drink.
"I saw him watch you leave the faculty room, you know," John leant over and nudged Greg: "he's gay."
Molly heard this and snickered, although she wasn't sure who the Doctor was talking about.
"Stop it," Greg said, but his irritation was thinly veiled and disintegrated quickly into an intrigued grin.
