Fully Alive

Chapter Four

Vivienne stomped up the stairs to Sherlock's flat, pausing only to make sure his door was open. "What is that godawful smell?! It's about to run me out of the building!" She asked, storming in. "Are you burning flesh in here?"

"It's an experiment. Did someone say you could come in? Is John here?" Sherlock walked out of the kitchen info the sitting room.

"No. Your door was open." Vivienne began, but a voice behind her interrupted.

"Oh, Vivienne, hello- Dear god, what is that smell?"

"Sherlock's experimenting." Vivienne said at the same time that Sherlock replied, "She's here uninvited. She's breaking in. Make her leave. I'm distracted."

"Breaking in? Your door was open! At least I didn't pick your lock!" Vivienne scoffed.

"What does she mean by that?" John asked, but as usual, Sherlock ignored the question.

"Oh, I picked your lock once! It's not my fault you keep leaving your door unlocked now. It's like you want me to come in." Sherlock dismissed her, rolling his eyes.

Vivienne threw her hands in the air, knowing she wasn't going to get through to Sherlock and turned to walk out without a word.

As she was descending the stairs, she heard John shout, "You broke into her flat?! Are you completely mad?!"

xxxxx

Sherlock took a seat in Vivienne's armchair and patiently waited for her to wake up.

He didn't have to wait long.

"You know, I thought your little obsession with breaking in here had finally gone away." Vivienne stated, her voice muffled by her pillow. She rolled over and sat up, rubbing her eyes. "But then I realized you weren't even home. Where'd you run off to?"

"I had to help a... friend." Sherlock replied dismissively.

Vivienne raised an eyebrow. "A friend?"

"A woman. Yes." Sherlock answered quickly.

"A woman. The Woman?"

Sherlock started to jump up. "How do you know about her?"

Vivienne shrugged. "I follow her on Twitter."

"Apparently, everyone does- How are you on Twitter? You can't even see!" Sherlock plopped back down in the chair, exasperated.

"If you have to explain the joke, Holmes, it stops being funny." Vivienne let out a small chuckle. "Seriously, though. Your voices travel from upstairs. I hear a lot more than you think."

Sherlock was at a loss for words considering he and John had had quite a few conversations regarding the woman in front of him in the past few days. "What, uh, what all have you heard?"

"Mostly John yelling about your experiments. Sometimes, things about the few cases you've had. I've heard my name in there a couple times, but no context as to what you were talking about." Vivienne licked her bottom lip in boredom. "Did you really boil eyeballs in your kettle?"

Sherlock relaxed a bit. "It was for- I was just doing an experiment. He overreacted."

"Remind me to never have tea with you until I've been reassured you've bought a new kettle." Vivienne scrunched her nose in slight disgust.

"Why would we need to buy a new kettle? We have a perfectly good one." Sherlock deadpanned.

"Holmes- you know what? Never mind." Vivienne shook her head and began laughing almost uncontrollably.

"What's so funny?" Sherlock furrowed his brow and stared at the crazy girl in front of him.

"Really?" Vivienne's cheeks began to burn from her laughter. She finally calmed herself enough to answer. "You fucking boiled eyeballs in your kettle. And yet you think it's perfectly fine? That's so... God, I don't even have another word to describe it. That's just so you."

Sherlock began to protest, but Vivienne shook her head and stopped him before he could get a word out.

"You know what, Holmes? You sit there, all stoic and proud and whatnot, pretending you don't remember me or that you deleted me or you packed me in a box and shoved me into a deep dark corner. But I don't have the magical power to delete things that are painful." (To which Sherlock mumbled, "It's not fucking magic.") Vivienne just shook her head once more. "But I remember everything. Every last detail. And I've been trying to act like I don't. Like I'm just meeting you for the first time. And with you coming here to annoy me when John's asleep and just being absolutely ridiculous, it's incredibly hard. Because you always made me laugh and think too much and you always made me push myself to be as smart as I could be."

Sherlock stayed quiet, processing everything he had just been told. He knew the right thing to do would be to drop his charade, but he didn't.

"Did I break you? Are you still alive over there?"

Sherlock's eyes landed on something that made him smile. "You have a skull on your mantle." That's my girl, he thought.

"Leave it to you to change the subject. Yes, Gran found it in one of my boxes. I've named her Martha."

"You're sure it's female?" Sherlock stood up to go investigate. She was right. It was.

"Yes, it was a present from my anatomy teacher my senior year at college. I was the only person to graduate with a hundred percent that year. And only the second person ever to graduate her class with that high of a grade. She thought I needed a present." Vivienne smiled at the memory.

Sherlock was glad that she couldn't see he had a similar smile, one of proudness, on his face, too. "How did she die?"

"Measles, I think, in 1927. She was in her late 20s, no family. She donated her body to science. Somehow my teacher wound up with it. And then I wound up with her skull."

"I'll be right back."

Sherlock left the apartment before Vivienne had a chance to ask where he was going, but he returned just as quickly.

"Here." He reached out and took her hand, setting something in it.

"This isn't mine." Vivienne replied, as she began feeling the object and realizing it was another skull. "This is male. Did you finally snap, murder John, and boil his flesh off? Is that why he's been so quiet?"

"He's a friend of mine. I call him Billy. Well, I say friend..." Sherlock trailed off.

Vivienne chuckled. "Where'd you get it?"

"A friend of my parents. He was a doctor, I believe. Possibly an archeologist or good friends with one. Visited a few times. The last time I saw him, he gave it to me. Said it came from some ancient tomb that had caved in, that he had had it a while and it was taking up space, and that he knew I'd appreciate it."

"That was very kind of him." Vivienne placed the skull carefully in her lap.

"He was an odd fellow, to be honest. Wore a bow tie constantly. But my mother was fond of him. Never would tell me how they met. She would always just smile and say 'traveling'." Sherlock mused. He had taken his place back in the armchair and just watched as Vivienne picked the skull back up. She had closed her eyes and was brushing her fingers ever so slightly over the face of it. "What are you doing?" He asked, even though he had an idea.

"Trying to figure out what he looked like."

Sherlock tried not to remember when she had done the same to him. "And what's the verdict?"

"He was handsome. Young. Ooh, nice teeth. Impressive jaw line. I'd do him. " Vivienne grinned.

"Are you fucking with me? It's hard to get a read on you sometimes." Sherlock tried to adjust himself in the seat to relax a bit.

"Yes, I'm fucking with you. He's decent-looking from what I can tell." Vivienne yawned. "Thank you for showing me. It's nice to know we still- it's nice to know we have things in common."

"Yes, because normal human beings keep dead people above their fireplaces." Sherlock chuckled.

"I never claimed to be normal, Holmes."

"You have psychosomatic blindness. You'll never be normal." Sherlock stood and walked back to Vivienne. He reached down to take the skull and their fingers brushed slightly. He watched as her cheeks reddened and she pulled back quickly. "I'll let you get back to sleep."

Vivienne nodded, already in the process of laying back down. "Goodnight, Holmes."

Sherlock reached out for her doorknob as a soft snore escaped Vivienne's lips. "Goodnight, Vivienne." He said softly as he walked out, quietly shutting her door behind him.

xxxxx

A/N: kind of important chapter, but also kind of unimportant. Just a nice moment between the two, really. But never fear, incredibly important things are coming very, very soon!

Also, small Easter Egg near the end. Let me know if you catch it! ;)

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