The door closed behind the last patient of the morning clinic. John sighed, rubbing his hands over his face, and reflected on the conversation he had had that morning with his flatmate. It had kept him slightly distracted ever since he arrived at the surgery for work.

-o0o-

John ran a hand through his hair, checked his shirt was buttoned and tucked in properly, and huffed into his hand to try and check for morning breath. Satisfied that he was as presentable as he was likely to be, he turned away from the mirror. He caught sight of Sherlock, sitting legs crossed in his chair, elbows on knees, with his fingers steepled in front of his face. He had barely moved from that position since they arrived back from Scotland Yard the previous night.

"Sherlock, I'm in clinic this morning but I'll be back after lunch." He paused, waiting for acknowledgement, "Can I have a quick word before I go?" Still receiving no response, he tried again. "Sherlock? Hello, Earth to Sherlock?"

"I did hear you the first time, John." Sherlock replied without even turning his head. "I was waiting to hear what else you had to say. I assume it does have something to do with my current case, yes?"

John blinked, hardly surprised any more that his intentions were so blatantly obvious to the self styled "Master of Deduction", and nodded. "Right. Well." Deciding it would be best to get any potential tantrums out of the way, John blurted out, "I want you to promise you won't go and see the girlfriend without me."

Sherlock raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"I know you must be impatient to get this case solved, but even you acknowledge you're not good with people. I just think that maybe I should go with you, that's all. To make sure you don't upset her too much. I mean, you remember what Lestrade said about the world watching? If you offend her she might make a fuss. And a fuss would bring people's attention to you, and then they might ask questions about why an independent investigator is working on such a high profile case. And they might realise you're the same Sherlock Holmes that almost got blown up last month, and then where would you be?" John stopped and cleared his throat as he realised that he was ranting and pacing back and forth.

Sherlock uncrossed his legs and stood up from his chair. "Finished? Good. John, are you aware that most murders are committed by people their victims trust, implicitly? Family members, best friends, spouses. You're more likely to be killed by the person you have sworn to be with 'til death do you part' than anyone else. I'm not assuming this woman was involved, but statistically speaking she is the most likely suspect."

John gaped at Sherlock. "You're not serious? Sherlock, she practically collapsed yesterday!"

Sherlock rolled his eyes. "Which could easily be overacting."

John frowned. "Or it could be she was honestly struck with terrible grief! It does happen. No, that's it. You definitely can't go and talk to her without me. If – and I'm only acknowledging it as an if – if she is guilty, then you badgering her is only going to make her clam up tighter. If not, you'd be putting an innocent, grieving woman through unnecessary pain." John crossed his arms, attempting with all his might to broadcast an air of belligerent finality.

"All of which is why I had no intention of speaking to her today. And besides," Sherlock turned and sat down again, "I have other things to do this morning."

John uncrossed his arms, surprised by his easy victory. "Okay then."

Turning, the doctor shrugged on his coat, when his brain finally caught up to the second part of Sherlock's reply. "Wait, what do you mean you have other things to do? What other things?"

Sherlock looked up at him and smiled a small smile, then stood and started ushering the smaller man towards the door. "John, I do hate to be a nag, but didn't you say your clinic starts at nine? It's just gone twenty to. You'll be late if you don't get going."

John's eyes widened in surprise as he found himself standing outside the flat, with the door closed abruptly in his face. He looked down at his watch, registering that once again Sherlock was right. "Oh bugger!" Turning, he ran down the stairs, his enigmatic flatmate temporarily forgotten.

-o0o-

Of course, he'd not been in work for more than half an hour before he found he was worrying about Sherlock's mysterious 'other things'. What if he'd already solved the CBeebies case and was going to go and do his denouement without John? What if he'd had another case appear in the night, of which John was unaware? What if, god forbid, he'd had a lead on Moriarty, and was planning another stupid stunt like the pool meeting? John found it almost impossible to concentrate properly on the patients that passed through his consulting room, and more than once had to ask them to repeat themselves. At last the clinic was over so he could go and check on his infuriating best friend and make sure he wasn't out there trying to get himself killed.

A knock at the consulting room door brought John back to the present. "Come in"

The door opened and Sarah came in, hesitantly. "John! I haven't seen you in weeks. I'm glad you were able to come in today." She stood in front of him, slightly awkward, as if she were unsure how to act around him. "So how are you and Sherlock?"

John winced slightly at her tone. He had been dreading this conversation. "Fine. We're fine. Everything's...fine." She stood still, rubbing her hands together slightly, unconvinced. John sighed, and leaned back against the desk, hunching his shoulders inward as if to protect himself from imaginary blows. "Look, Sarah, it's not what you think..."

Sarah smiled tightly, the corners of her mouth beginning to turn down. "Well, I wasn't quite sure what to think John. You were found in what was left of that leisure centre, half naked and wrapped around each other."

John sighed again and closed his eyes tightly. "Our clothes were wet through and it was freezing. I didn't know how long we might be trapped under the rubble and I was worried about hypothermia." He looked up at her, beseeching. "We were just trying to stay warm, you know, body heat and all that?"

Sarah made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort. "Body heat is right. I did wonder about you two when he came along on our date." She shook her head, eyes gleaming wetly. "If you'd just been honest with me, no one would have got hurt." Sarah turned and hurried from the room, and John listened to her footsteps click quickly down the hallway.

Feeling emotionally drained and extremely put-upon, he left the surgery and hailed a cab to take him home.

-o0o-

Trudging up the stairs back at Baker Street, John braced himself for whatever he might find inside the flat. Unexpectedly, what he actually found was Sherlock sitting calmly, staring at his laptop, while overly cheerful music blared from the speakers.

Nonplussed, John walked over and stood behind Sherlock so he could see the screen. "Sherlock, what are you watching?"

Without taking his eyes from the screen, Sherlock held up a DVD case. "It's the last episode of Jason Verne's previous series. I've been watching them back to back since you left."

John felt himself smiling. "You've been watching a kids TV program all morning? This was your 'other things'?" Shaking his head, he felt himself relaxing for the first time all day. He saw Sherlock smile slightly.

"Of course. Why, what did you think I was doing? Chasing Moriarty over the rooftops and through the sewers?" Sherlock looked up and clucked reprovingly. "Really John, I thought you knew me better than that by now."

John stared at the detective, his mouth hanging ever so slightly open, incapable of expressing the depths of his frustration with mere words. Unable to think of a suitable response, John fell back to a safer topic. "Tea?"

-o0o-

So very sorry for the wait! I had a mental block over how to move on to the next part of this story, which has finally cleared. I know there's little to no progress of the mystery plot, but don't worry, all will eventually be explained. I think there's probably only one or two chapters more of this story to go, although don't quote me on that!

All advice/criticism will be gratefully received :)