Chapter five: Living Arrangements
Hayden sipped her tea as she watched the two Holmes brothers talk in her living room from her spot on the couch. After he had woken up Sherlock had shown up to make sure that Hayden was alright. Other than a few broken dishes nothing had happened in Hayden's flat.
She had made tea for the two of them and they had sat in silence until Mycroft had shown up with a cleaning crew that immediately got to work in Sherlock's flat. Hayden had then made tea for Mycroft before going into her room to get dressed.
Now the two were in the middle of arguing and Sherlock had somehow gotten his violin in the time it had taken Hayden to get dressed.
"No," Sherlock snapped at his brother. Hayden raised an eyebrow having missed the original question, "I will not stay with Hayden."
"What?" Hayden questioned, setting her tea down so she didn't drop it, "Why would Sherlock stay here?"
"His room took the most damage, it will take three days for even my crew to fix everything," Mycroft explained like it should be obvious.
"Seems unreasonable," Hayden responded, "I bet you just think I need some sort of protection because you know more than you're willing to tell us."
"I-"
"My question is: why don't you say outright that Sherlock is the only one you trust to keep me safe from whatever danger you think I'm in?" Hayden continued, her expression giving nothing away. Of course, she was in danger, this was Moriarty they were dealing with, "to a degree I do trust you to make decisions for my safety and it would make my job a lot easier."
"Fine," Mycroft relented with a sigh, "Sherlock will you stay with Hayden for the next three days to ensure her safety?"
"Yes," Sherlock agreed readily, much to Mycroft's surprise, "I'm here more often than not these days anyway."
"I'm aware," Mycroft sneered. While he didn't approve of their friendship entirely there was obviously nothing he could do but use it to his advantage.
"I know," Sherlock said, grinning sardonically for a moment.
Hayden groaned, resisting the urge to bang her head on something, "considering you two are the smartest set of siblings I know it's a surprise how childish you both are."
There was a knock at the door and Hayden smiled as she called, "it's unlocked, John."
"Are you two okay?" John questioned as he rushed over to check on Hayden and Sherlock, he turned to Hayden, "and how the hell did you know it was me?"
"Explosion at Baker Street?" Hayden grinned, "Who else would be knocking at my door? And I'm fine, BTW."
"BTW?" John questioned.
"By the way, John," Sherlock explained as he hadn't asked Hayden the same thing the other day.
"By the way what?" John asked turning to look at Sherlock.
The three stared at him.
"Oh! Oh," John exclaimed as he understood the saying, "btw."
"Yes, John," Sherlock drawled, "we're all fine b...t...w…"
Hayden just giggled as she watched John turn to Sherlock with barely concealed annoyance. Sherlock raised an eyebrow at him expectantly.
"Ugh," John groaned before flopping down on the couch next to Hayden.