"So," John started, "How was it?"
"Fabulous! It turns out this guy is the one I had a massive crush on in sixth form! And now we're dating! It's my turn to take him out tomorrow," Jay answered.
"Wait, tomorrow? December 19th? That's my Christmas get together!" Jay exclaimed.
"Well I'll bring him here then," Jay smiled, pulling her phone out.
So tomorrow. Christmas gathering
at my house. You're invited.
It's Baker Street, Two hundred
and twenty one, ask for Jay.
Arrive at seven. ~Jay x
"I've just text him," Jay told John and as she spoke her phone buzzed, it was Chris replying, "And he's coming."
"Great, so we need to start planning," John decided.
The planning didn't take long. Once the total guest list was written down the amount of food needed was easy to calculate.
Sherlock finished his case early the next morning, so Jay and John enlisted his help with the food preparations. After he'd messed up three lots of food they exiled him form the kitchen and set him on tidying the living room, Jay went and replaced the food.
By five everything was sorted, and Jay had just showered, John went in next to give her the length of two showers to get ready. She chose one of the dresses that John bought her. This one was deep blue with black, lace style patterning on the skirt, it was rather low cut but since she was at home she didn't mind.
When she exited her room John looked at her and returned to his.
"Oi," Jay shouted through his door, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong with you," John replied opening the door, "I just felt I was under dressed.
John now wore a smart, white shirt and black dress trousers, but with a cream knitted jumper on top. When Sherlock emerged he wore a black suit with a dark purple shirt.
"So now we wait," Jay sighed looking at the clock. 6pm.
"I know, a whole two hours," John agreed.
"Wait... two hours? Crap," Jay muttered.
"What's wrong?" John asked.
"I told Chris seven. So he's gonna get here an hour early," Jay explained.
"Who's Chris?" Sherlock enquired.
"Have you not read the blog update yet?" John asked.
"Oh my. John! You already posted it! And Sherlock, he's my friend and he's going to arrive an hour early. And you're not allowed to deduce him aloud. Okay?"
"Okay," Sherlock agreed, it seemed a fair deal.
John noticed that Jay has a slight smirk on her face, he knew fun was going to occur during the hour with Chris.
7pm on the dot Jay heard a knock on the downstairs door. Then Mrs Hudson say 'Jay. Oh she lives upstairs apartment B.' Followed by footsteps on the stairs.
"He's here," she whispered, "Remember the deal Sherlock," she commented getting up to answer the door.
"Hey Chris, come in," Jay smiled, "Welcome to my flat, well shared flat," she spoke as she lead him into the living room, "These are my flat mates Sherlock and-"
"Captain John Hamish Watson," Chris finished.
"Private Pence?" John questioned.
"Correct," Chris smiled, "Fancy seeing you here."
"So you know each other?" Jay asked.
"Yeah we trained and served together in '08," John replied, "You look different with long hair. I didn't recognise you when Jay showed me your picture."
"Oh so you're the one who couldn't believe I looked how she described, and you also look different with longer hair, but still recognisable."
"So you're a soldier now?" Jay asked Chris.
"Sort of," he smiled.
Jay was now smiling too, Chris had not noticed that he was now relieved of his mobile phone.
"Still using the iphones I see," she pondered, "Well at least you're loyal to them," she joked.
"Wait, is that mine?" Chris exclaimed.
"That depends."
"How?"
"Oh how much you want it? And on whether your phone has, ooh, a very nice screen saver?" she laughed.
This exchange set John laughing and Sherlock was listening in too.
"Wonderful," Chris sighed with fake disappointment, remembering what his screensaver was, Westlife, who he knew Jay didn't like, "I would very much like it back and you don't even like them."
"Yeah, good point. I'd say you're the only person alive to have Pondlife as a screen saver."
"Woah, Westlife aren't that bad. There's plenty worse."
"Yeah, and plenty more even better. Here," Jay handed it back.
"Thank you."
"You should have seen the last party, Jay decided to swap around the phones of all the guests and then somehow whilst taking a call in the kitchen they all rang causing the switch to be noticed.. She's also got a brilliant habit of removing my wallet from my pocket when I'm getting ready to leave," John told Chris.
"Well I'm not as bad as Sherlock, he talks to me when I'm not in and hen complains that I wasn't listening to what he was telling me," Jay added.
"Seems like it's a barrel of laughs here," Chris noted, "And how come there aren't any other guests?"
"Oh that's my fault. Turns out the party starts at eight not seven, we've got thirty more minutes until the other guests arrive," Jay explained.
"Your friend doesn't speak much," Chris mentioned.
"Well he's silently working out what your clothes and body say about you. I told him he couldn't do it aloud, which he usually does. Although he is listening too," Jay replied.
At that moment Sherlock finished deducing and spoke.
"Hello Christopher and how long have you and Paint been friends?"
"Erm okay, I'm gonna assume Paint is Jay, and I knew her '03 to '05 then we re-met on the tube three days ago."
"Oh, the case of the smiling roommate," Sherlock responded.
"Is that really what he called it?! I thought it was joking," Jay grumbled.
"Wait what do you mean is that what he called it? What he called what?" Chris asked.
"Do you know who Sherlock is?" Jay enquired, Chris shook his head, "Right, have you been living under a rock for three months?"
"No, under a cover in Dubai," Chris added.
"Okay. Well Sherlock is a detective, consulting detective, he helps the police, mostly Gregory who's coming later. And John writes the cases up on his blog," Jay explained, "John asked if he could write up the case of the smiling roommate the day I met you on the tube and returned smiling. I said he could if Sherlock couldn't work out the cause of my smile, Sherlock unfortunately failed and John uploaded the story yesterday after our date. It seems John actually called the story 'The Case of the Smiling Roommate'."
"Oh I see, so we're in the limelight due to association. Pretty cool. Who else is coming? Us four, Gregory the policeman," Chris commented.
"Sherlock's brother. Molly, a pathologist. John's girlfriend-"
"Girlfriend?" Chris asked.
"Yeah, that odd?" Jay replied.
"A little. Carry on," Chris responded.
"That's all, and what's so odd about that?" Jay enquired.
"Well he only dated guys when we served together," Chris confessed.
"Maybe he just wanted a change, or he's just bisexual?" Jay suggested.
"Maybe."
Just then there was a knock downstairs, "Mycroft, nice of you to pop by, and is this lady with you?" they heard Mrs. Hudson ask.. Then sounds of the two walking up the stairs.
John greeted the two and Mycroft headed to Jay.
"Do I really have to stay?" He complained, he didn't care for social gatherings.
"Do you really want to meet Lestroodle?" Jay replied.
"Lestrade," Mycroft corrected, "I've never met him and I get his name right."
"Well I just call him Gregory, so…" Jay trailed off, "Oh and this is Chris."
"Sherlock's brother," Chris said.
"Correct, Mr. Pence," Mycroft replied.
"No, you didn't meet in the field, so how's you know this one," Jay moaned.
"We work together," Chris shrugged.
"Have you worked with Gregory and Molly too?"
"No, I can't say I have."
"Okay at least I can introduce you to them," she smiled, "Oh and that's John's girlfriend," she pointed to the woman who had entered with Mycroft.
Meanwhile Sherlock was talking to John and his girlfriend.
"Sarah was the doctor and then there was the one with the spots and the one with the nose and then who was after the boring teacher?" Sherlock listed.
"Nobody," she replied.
"Jeanette! Ah. Process of elimination," Sherlock said gladly, not realizing he'd offended her. John then led Jeanette away and Sherlock joined the others.
"I don't see why you're here," he moaned to Mycroft.
"'Cause John and I invited him," Jay defended, "Now play nice."
Jay then headed to the door where Greg and Molly were.
"Hey, glad you made it," Jay greeted.
"Hi," they both replied.
She took them over to the group.
"So Gregory, Molly here we've got Chris, my friend, and Mycroft, Sherlock's brother," Jay introduced.
Molly then said hi to the two of them and led Sherlock away, she could sense his annoyance.
"What did you do?" Jay asked Mycroft.
"Nothing," Mycroft insisted, then turned to Greg, "Hello Gregory. Pleased to meet you."
"And you too. Are you much like Sherlock?" Greg asked.
"Not really, but a little," Mycroft confessed.
"Well I'll leave you two to get acquainted," Jay said before leading Chris away.
A couple of hours and plenty of drinks later, John suggested playing spin-the-bottle truth or dare. By this time they were all drunk enough to not care about it being a stupid idea as they organized themselves in a circle, but they weren't drunk enough to not remember it the next day.
It started with simple truths and dares like 'I dare you to kiss one person next to you' and 'confess your first crush' but soon escalated to more extreme dares (everyone had given up on truth) such as licking other people faces.
Most guests stayed the night, Mycroft being the only one to go home, Jay could clearly remember Anthea's face as she assisted a drunk Mycroft into the car, and the giggles when she told her to ask 'how Gregory tasted' the net day.
Due to the impromptu sleepover, sleeping arrangements were mixed up. John and Chris shared John's room, Molly and Jeanette used the two beds in Jay and Sherlock's room, Lestrade was on the sofa and Jay and Sherlock were in two of the chairs, Jay made sure she wasn't in Sherlock's this time.
A/N: If you would like to maybe write the truth or dare scene message me and I'll let you know how they're all sat.