Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it was probably created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and/or the BBC's talented Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

Author's note: Wow, I hadn't realised how much time had gone by since my last update! Major apologies to everyone who's been waiting for this chapter. The dreaded Real Life threw me a couple of curves recently and my 'get up and go' got up and went. So thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourite and alerted this fic. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

It was the change in light that woke Sherlock. Even as he noted this, he was running a quick assessment of his situation. Sitting up, legs stretched out in front of him and trailing on the floor. He'd fallen asleep in his chair, then. Not that unusual. The weight against him, though was unusual. His eyes shot open as the memory of the evening's events came flooding back. Sure enough, Seona was snuggled against his chest, her mass of coppery hair cascading around them both. A smile tugged at his lips as she sighed in her sleep and snuggled closer to him.

A flicker of movement snapped his gaze towards the kitchen door, where John stood with a glass in his hand and a small smile on his face. Sherlock raised a finger to his lips. "Don't wake her," he murmured.

"You're both going to be sore if you stay there all night," John replied quietly, still smiling.

"Too late." Sherlock winced as he tried to shift carefully, the muscles in his back protesting. John just grinned at him from the doorway, and it was perfectly obvious what the doctor was dying to say. He sighed. "If I admit that you were right, will you go away?" he asked testily, although he couldn't quite keep an answering smile from his own face.

John raised his glass of water in mocking salute and snapped the light off before disappearing back into the stairwell.

Sherlock looked down at the sleeping woman in his arms again and gave her a little shake. "Time to wake up, I'm afraid," he whispered, placing a soft kiss on her hair. He grinned when she shook her head and burrowed deeper against him, then shook her again. "If we don't get up, I suspect neither of us are going to be able to walk tomorrow."

This got a slightly better response. Seona rolled slightly so she could look up at him, wincing as she did so. "Too late," she muttered, which made him laugh. She blinked sleepily at him for a moment, then returned his smile. "Awkward position aside, this is a rather nice way to wake up," she added, shifting against him to give him a kiss.

The feel of her body made it difficult to concentrate on much else, but insofar as he was currently capable of any sort of reasoning he found that he agreed with her one hundred percent. Reason was swiftly being overtaken, however, by the unfamiliar stirrings in his own body that he had been noticing at odd moments throughout the week. It was stronger now, although no less confusing. Had anybody ever drawn such a primal, physical response from him? He didn't think so.

"Will you stay with me?" The words slipped out before he could stop them and he winced inwardly at the hesitant, pleading note in his voice.

Seona pulled back slightly to regard him silently for a moment. He found that he was holding his breath until she smiled and gave him another kiss. "Yes," she said. Just that one word, but there was such a wealth of emotion in it that he felt light-headed. She knew what he was asking, and somehow knew exactly how out of his usual character it was for him to ask. In return, she let him know that she accepted him and wanted him in the same way.

He couldn't remember ever feeling so... happy? The word didn't seem strong enough for all the emotions he was experiencing, but he couldn't think of a better one. Thinking could wait, though. For once, thinking was actually the boring alternative.

A deft twist propelled them both to their feet. He looked down at her, marvelling again at how tiny she was in comparison - her head barely reached his shoulder and she'd cocked it to one side to look up at him. She was obviously having similar thoughts, as she grinned and said, "I think I liked it better when we were sitting down."

He chuckled. "Let's do something about that, then." A gentle tug on her hand directed her towards the door to the sitting room and out into the hallway. He pushed open the opposite door and led her into his bedroom.

She paused on the threshold and looked around. Sherlock noted her interest and waited, remembering that she'd done something similar the first time they'd brought her back to the flat. Her eyes sparkled as she took in the barely-restrained chaos similar to that of the sitting room, with piles of papers and books stacked in odd places, newspaper clippings and bits of police reports tacked to the wall. She glanced towards him and said, "Well, that answers that question. I figured your bedroom would either be more of the same as out there, or completely sterile and un-lived-in."

"Well, you're right that it isn't terribly lived in," he replied with a laugh. He closed the gap between them and drew her further into the room, shutting the door behind her, then found himself hesitating.

The look Seona gave him was searching, considering, the sort of look he was used to turning on other people. There was a feeling of empathy in hers, though, which he was fairly sure wasn't in his. "Is this... is this the first time you've done this?" she asked quietly.

He grimaced and avoided her gaze. "No," he replied, unable to lift his voice above a whisper. "But it's the first time I've cared about the outcome." He swallowed hard. "I don't know what you like. I don't even know what I like! But I know I don't want to disappoint you."

Her smile was warm as she replied, "Then we'll learn together. You're hyper-observant, Sherlock. I don't think you're going to have any trouble figuring out what I like. What you like is my problem for me to figure out. And I seriously doubt you're going to disappoint me. I suspect you're going to approach this with the same single-minded focus and attention to detail you apply to everything else."

"That sounds like a challenge," he murmured, unable to resist the affectionate teasing in her voice. His nervousness hadn't disappeared entirely, but it faded a little at her words. She understood him, and maybe that would be enough.

She began to undo the buttons on his shirt, her nails running lightly over his chest. He sucked in a sharp breath at the sensation. Their eyes met for a moment before she planted a swift kiss on his collarbone and pushed the shirt from his shoulders. This meant he had to remove his hands from their uncertain position at her waist to let the garment fall to the floor, but the movement galvanised him. He wasn't sure how best to go about it, but suddenly he wanted very much to reciprocate.

He started by returning his hands to her waist and slipping them under the soft, stretchy top she was wearing. The feeling of bare skin under his fingertips was pleasing, and seemed to be pleasing her too if her expression was anything to go by. He explored the sensation for a while as she stood with her hands flat against his chest, letting him get comfortable. Her top had inched its way up as he did so, and finally he tugged it sharply upwards. She lifted her arms as he did so, allowing him to slip it off her completely.

His breath caught as he looked at her standing there in her jeans and a simple bra of forest-green cotton. Somehow the fact that she didn't go in for lacy undergarments intrigued him. As did what was under said undergarments. Breathing still ragged, his hands moved almost of their own accord to trace over the newly-exposed flesh. He watched her as he did so, noting the changes in her own breathing, the small smile hovering at the corner of her mouth, the way that she leaned slightly into his touch.

Suddenly it was as if something snapped inside him. He pulled her to him roughly, mouth descending on hers, hands tangling in her hair. Her hands trailed hot paths up and down his back before she slipped one between them. This caused her body to pull away slightly from his and he couldn't contain a soft sound of disappointment. A moment later he felt the tug at his belt and gave her a startled look.

Seona's hand stilled. "Only if you want," she whispered.

Sherlock smiled and kissed her again. "I do," he whispered back. "I want..." He hesitated.

"What do you want?"

"You." He barely recognised his own voice. Barely recognised himself at this moment. He'd taught himself to ignore his body's urges many years ago, whether those urges were to do with eating, sleeping or any of the baser emotions that he'd noticed ran most people's lives for them. He'd always considered it a sign of his superiority to normal humanity. Now, he ached. It wasn't right to feel this way, surely - to feel as if someone had replaced all the blood in his body with something hotter that made him tingle. It was all her fault, he was sure of it.

In the brief time he'd allowed his thoughts to distract him, Seona had managed to get his belt undone. Now her fingers drifted lower to brush against the bulge in the front of his trousers. His breath hissed sharply between his teeth at the new sensation. An odd smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "You have me, Sherlock." He barely registered the words at first, then he gave her a brilliant smile.

He was rewarded with an absolutely dazzling smile in response. Green eyes met grey in silence for a moment, then with a quick motion she unzipped his trousers and let them fall to his ankles. The smile turned decidedly impish as she placed one hand on his chest and gave him a gentle push towards the bed behind him. Her other hand was encouraging his boxers to follow the trousers.

"Lie back, Sherlock," she murmured. "Let me show you..."

"Show me what?" he asked, even as he automatically sank down onto the edge of the mattress. Her only answer was to lower herself to the floor in front of him and duck her head. A moment later and his mind went totally blank as she took him into her mouth. "Ohhhh..." His eyes widened in surprise and he let himself fall back. One hand wound itself into the hair spilling across his thighs, twitching spasmodically and not entirely under his control. The other dug into the bedclothes beside him.

He had no idea how long she worked on him with hands and lips and tongue. Time had no meaning in the small, private world he'd fallen into. It might have been five minutes or five years when the tension that had been slowly building inside him released with a sudden cry of "Oh fuck, yes!"

Dimly he was aware of her pulling away from him, the loss of her warmth feeling like an amputation. The mattress dipped as she levered herself up to sit beside him and ran a gentle hand through his hair. It was an effort to open his eyes, but the sight that greeted him was worth it. She was leaning over him, a look of tenderness on her face that he had never expected to see anyone aiming at him. What was even more amazing was that he'd never imagined wanting anyone to, and yet he felt a curious warming deep inside him as their gazes met.

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes, but the silence was comfortable. Eventually, though, he became aware that their recent activity hadn't dulled his desire for her. If anything, that desire had sharpened. He broke eye contact and ran his eyes over as much of her body as he could see from his prone position. "You're wearing altogether too many clothes," he purred, and was rewarded with a startled laugh.

The surprise only lasted a moment, however. Seona flashed him a sultry smile and slipped off the bed. Sherlock rolled onto his side so he could keep watching her, using his feet to push his trousers, underwear and socks onto the floor. Luckily this was a fairly mechanical process that didn't require much concentration as his attention was firmly on the young woman standing beside him. She slipped her jeans over her hips and let them fall to the floor before stepping daintily out of them. Her knickers were black satin, which made him smile. She really hadn't planned for this to happen, then, said the part of him that was constantly analysing the world - if she had she would most likely have co-ordinated her underwear.

Which wasn't to say that she wasn't intoxicatingly sexy in what she was wearing now, he acknowledged silently as she bent to slip off her stockings. The look she gave him as she straightened sent a shiver through him and he felt himself harden again in anticipation. He licked his lips as she removed first her bra and then her knickers, then moved closer to the bed.

His hand shot out to grab hers, pulling her down on top of him. Her breathless laugh as he rolled them towards the middle of the bed was cut off as their lips met in another searing kiss. Feeling her pressed against him like this was an exquisite kind of torture. Pinning her to the bed beneath him, he let his hands roam over her body and delighted in her pleased murmurs and the way she buried her face in the side of his neck.

She twined one leg around his. The warm wetness he felt as their hips ground together left him certain of what he wanted the next move to be, although he felt horribly clumsy and awkward as he tried to manoeuvre into the correct position. Thankfully a quick glance at Seona - dilated pupils, uneven breathing, hands clutching at his shoulders - suggested that she didn't share this opinion of his performance. A quiet part of his mind couldn't help feeling a little proud of that.

Sherlock found himself unable to think of much of anything after that. From the moment he slipped inside her he was afloat on a sea of pure sensation which defied any attempt he might have made to rationalise it. Admittedly, he wasn't trying very hard. For possibly the first time in his life, he surrendered to instinct and reaction. Somehow it didn't feel as threatening as the idea had always seemed to him.

Their movements grew more urgent and intense. She'd wrapped her legs around his waist at some point and her hands clutched at his shoulders. He could feel her nails digging into his flesh as the warmth surrounding him rippled and squeezed. Her inarticulate cry was joined by his own as he found his release for the second time. It was different this time, though - sweeter, somehow, knowing that she'd shared the intense pleasure of the experience.

He held himself suspended above her for a few moment while he tried to remember how to command his own muscles, then rolled to one side so that he fell beside her rather than on top of her. He pulled her towards him as he did so until they were lying nose to nose. She smiled at him and murmured, "That was... wow."

The laughter burst from him unexpectedly. "Wow indeed!" he gasped, darting forward to press a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. "Unexpectedly wow, in fact."

Seona regarded him with a grin, her green eyes dancing in the soft light. "I stand by my comment from earlier: you're an amazingly quick learner." She reached over to brush a sweat-soaked curl from his forehead as he gave her a mischievous smile.

"Ah, well, as to that, I still not sure that my technique is really where it should be. There may need to be other lessons..." He let the sentence dangle teasingly, even as a frantic little voice in the back of his mind asked what he would do if she had considered this just a one-night-stand.

She eased that worry with a quick laugh and a kiss. "Well," she drawled, matching his teasing tone, "I was always told that the best way to improve a skill was regular practise. And I have grown accustomed to spending most of my evenings in your company. I'm sure further lessons could be arranged."

He pulled her closer, tucking her head against his chest. As she wrapped her arms around him and twined her legs around one of his, he felt a rare quiet creep over him. He didn't know what this was that they were building, exactly, but he knew that it was important and that whatever it was, it was something he wanted. Tomorrow would be soon enough to figure it out in more detail. Lulled by the soft breathing of the woman in his arms, Sherlock finally let his mind relax into sleep.

Author's Note #2: Okay, so that was the first time I've written a sex scene. How did I do? Constructive critiques welcomed. :)