Title: Making the Connection

Story Summary: A non-chronological collection of short chapters based on one word prompts, includes (pre-)slash for Johnlock & Mystrade

Chapter Summary: At yet another crime scene Sherlock walks John through his deduction process. Prompt: Hood

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Moffat, Gatiss & SACD.

A/N: This prompt came from oneword(dot)com, the setting was wished for by the lovely lemondrops97 and I just wanted to write some more Johnlock.

"Why did the smoke detector go off?" Sherlock asked John as he paced through the room, not looking at him. Lately he had gone back to taking his friend through his whole process, going so far as to try to make him come to his conclusions by himself. It made John feel like the sorcerer's apprentice.

"Because there was a whole lot of smoke in here." That answer was simple enough. Where Sherlock's deduction skills were like a long jump John followed with baby steps.

"Why?" It felt like his friend was throwing him breadcrumbs and he just had to follow the trail.

"Because the chef let the food burn that he was preparing for his best friend and himself because he was dying on the floor and had other things to do than taking care of his after-work steaks."Although he knew that the consulting detective was only trying to be patient with him John found the slow pace annoying sometimes. Sherlock must've rubbed off on him. Okay, that was not a safe train of thought.

"No! You're missing it." Sherlock spun around and looked at him with those wonderful colour changing eyes. "Look, John. Observe! What do you see?"

John did as he was told, using the chance to turn his back on Sherlock and getting his act together again, focusing on the crime scene that lay before him. He took in the tiled floor, the appliances made out of stainless steel, the copper pans and pots standing on shelves. "I see a professional kitchen, because we are in a restaurant."

"Yes. Go on." His friend waved his hand in a circular fashion in front of his body as he approached him. It looked like he was trying to crank John's brain.

As ridiculous as it looked it seemed to work, since slowly a realisation dawned on him. "It's a rather nice restaurant, isn't it? So they wouldn't want the guests to smell anything. That's why they have a gigantic kitchen hood!"

"Finally! You're with me." Sherlock grabbed him by the shoulders, grinning and nodding enthusiastically. "Don't stop now."

He couldn't feel much besides the pressure of the gloved hands on his shoulders. It felt so good to make Sherlock look at him that way, so he smiled back when he knew he found the right question. Because that was all Sherlock asked of him, to raise the right questions. He would give him the answer. "So why was there so much smoke when they have an appliance especially to get rid of fumes, steam and smoke?"

"It took you long enough, but yes, exactly." Sherlock's hands squeezed John's shoulders before he turned around. "That's the correct question and the answer is very simple: the kitchen hood was turned off. The maître d' didn't realise it because he was shocked to find his best friend lying in a pool of his own blood."

Sherlock took out his multi tool and pulled out the screwdriver as he sat himself on the stove to get a better angle. "Can you see these screws? Usually kitchen hood screws are all greased up because they only get cleaned when you open the lid to change the filter. As you might've noticed this filter is actually in dire need of a change but the screws must have been recently undone, because they're perfectly clean. It's most likely that the murderer turned the hood off, unscrewed the lid and hid something in it that he could not take out with him. It's most likely the murder weapon which should lead us to the killer."

Sherlock unscrewed the lid with his Leatherman and John helped him take it down. Sure enough: There was a knife with a eight inch blade hidden on top of the filter.

John looked up and found his friend smiling with a mixture of excitement and pride, like a child that found its mother's chocolate stash in under a minute. It was adorable.