Disclaimer: (meant to put this on chapter 1) I don't own any characters, I'm not making any profit, nor do I intend to.
Authors Notes; would appreciate constructive criticisms as this is my first attempt at writing fan fiction. Thanks!
Chapter 2: Effective Strategy
Cecilia was still tired even though she had had a week of proper sleep. Everyone kept telling her that it would take a few more days to really shake-off the jet lag. She was standing above Sherlock and John's sink, trying to work through the mountain of dirty dishes.
She had already taken care of the piles of books. That had been the first thing she tackled. She had emptied the bookshelves entirely and put the books all back alphabetically by author. Sherlock had not been happy, of course, he ranted about how he couldn't find anything now and that innocent lives were at stake. John was her savior from this, defending her actions. He pointed out to Sherlock that ALL of his books were now actually on the shelves and that he couldn't have found a book that was on the bottom of a pile in the kitchen, and that there were no innocent lives at stake right now, anyway. This expedited their friendship, Cecilia feeling indebted to him. Petulant and territorial as he was Sherlock could see reason. He had even apologized to her. It had been a sterile and cold apology, nothing more than lip service, but John had told her that it was more than he had ever gotten. She had bundled all the newspapers; there were really not as many as there had originally seemed. Sherlock had even ended some of his experiments and had agreed to take the bulk of them to his lab. He called it his lab, but it was really the morgue where he shamelessly manipulated the love-struck pathologist. John had been amazed with the change in the flat, and in Sherlock.
"What's your secret?" he asked her in whispered tones one day.
Cecilia had been lost in thought, scrubbing a casserole dish, when the question reached her. "Pardon?"
" It's just… I've never seen him take anyone else's wishes into consideration before. I've asked him to move these experiments a hundred times." John leaned on the kitchen island and watched Sherlock take another box of beakers and scientific glassware out the door.
She smiled to herself. She was having an effect. " I don't know; maybe he feels bad about Auntie.; he wants to make amends. Even he can't be cruel to sick old ladies."
" hmmm. Maybe…" an audible pause. " or.."
"Or what? You know him better than I do, John." She countered.
"Well…I'm no expert, but…I mean, a pretty girl asks you to do something and not many men would say no." he smiled smugly at her.
She was dressed in some old clothes her Aunt had leant her, she hadn't wanted to ruin her good clothes with the harsh cleansers she needed to use to scourge Sherlock's experiments from the kitchen. She also was wearing a bandana around her hair and rubber gloves. She looked down at herself, then back up at John, "Yeah, I'm a super-model right now. I think there's a better answer, John."
John didn't say anything, but chuckled. This was incredibly strange behavior from Sherlock.
Changing the subject and interrupting his musings Cecilia asked "So, when am I going to get to meet this Sarah that Auntie tells me so much about?"
John blushed, "How much could she have possibly said about her, I think Mrs. Hudson's only met her once."
" Just that she was gorgeous, a doctor just like you, the perfect thing for you…" she listed off all the things her Aunt had gossiped about John's girlfriend.
"You'll get to meet her, soon probably, the way this cleaning is going. I've been embarrassed to have her over. Actually, I've been spending quite a lot of time over there lately; Sherlock is impossible to be around when there are no cases to work. Last time it got like this he got drunk and shot holes in the wall with his revolver."
" Oh, my. Anything I can do to keep him entertained?"
" I don't think that's in your job description." He winked and smiled.
"Not what I meant." She did, but she didn't want John to know that.
"Not that he would be interested anyway. Girls aren't his area" John held up quoting fingers as he spoke.
"Sherlock is gay?" Cecilia asked, privately crestfallen.
"hmmm… I don't think so. He's married to his work, he considers relationships "boring"."
Cecilia was quiet for a time.
" What about you?" John asked changing the topic slightly. "Left any bloke behind pining in the snow?"
She laughed. " No bloke, no snow. It's April, all the snow is gone by now."
"I don't believe that."
" It's true. It's generally very warm this time of year."
"You know what I meant." He responded lazily.
She laughed, and then became a little more serious "No, I haven't had a boyfriend in over a year… I guess I have been pretty focused on work." She resigned herself to the truth.
"Should I ask Sarah if she knows anyone she can set you up with?." He suggested.
" No. Absolutely not, really, that's okay." Nothing was worse than a blind date, in Cecilia's opinion.
"Fine." He said, but sounded like he was going to do it anyway.
They were quiet for a moment, Cecilia scrubbing a particularly stubborn spot of…something brown…off a plate. John watched as Sherlock grabbed another box. Sherlock didn't give him much credit for his analytic skills, but Sherlock DID keep him around for a reason. John was an amazing doctor and had skills nearly as good as Sherlock's in observing things. He noticed that Sherlock glanced at Cecilia as he lifted the box and continued to watch her as he walked toward the door. Feels bad about Mrs. Hudson, my foot, he thought.
"So you did research in psychology? Putting rats through mazes and such?
"Not really that type of research, I worked with a criminal psychologist. When she wasn't doing research she assessed if criminals were fit to stand trial. Her research centered around truth detection..." She became so engaged when she talked about psychology and research that John understood how much she truly loved it, and how much she must care about her Aunt to put all of it aside and come here to work as a housekeeper.
" You miss it?" It was more statement than question.
"Well, yes and no. I was an assistant so most of what I did was enter data. Not really the most exciting of things, but we were finding some pretty interesting conclusions. I won't miss the long hours sitting in front of a computer or reading endless articles, or finding results so small that they don't fall outside the margins of error." She sighed, remembering the arduous process of scientific investigation. "It's nice to be able to help Auntie too, though, I'm really happy to be here." She smiled.
"I hope you can keep that enthusiasm."
" What were you two clucking about?" Sherlock approached them.
" Oh, just something human, warm and fuzzy, you wouldn't be interested." Said John sarcastically.
"Quite." He snapped,. "You've just wasted time gossiping whereas I've moved the last of it, all by myself."
" And thank-you, Sherlock. Just imaging how clear your thinking will be without all the mess around." Cecilia praised. She turned and leaned on the counter. A lock of her hair had fallen from the bandana. She had gotten very accustomed to phrasing things in such a way that it always benefited Sherlock the most.
"We need to go set everything up at the lab, John." He didn't seem phased by her comment, but John noticed a little sparkle in his eye.
" 'Lab', right. Well… nice chatting with you, Cecilia. I'll bring Sarah round once it stops smelling like… it does in here." He pushed himself up off the island, and walked towards the door grabbing his jacket. Cecilia turned back to the dishes, ignoring Sherlock.
"Cecilia," Sherlock turned to her, resting his hand on the archway that separated the kitchen from the living room.
"Hmmm?" she didn't look up at him, but continued staring at the counter. Her knees were weak.
"Your welcome." And he dashed out of sight and out the door.
Cecilia thought she had imagined it, but it sounded like he meant it.