Are You Alright?
"Nobody's reading your website!"
As these words had left John's lips Detective Inspector Lestrade had noticed Sherlock's face fall as he'd taken his friend's biting words to heart – it seemed to take a moment for his meaning to sink in, but then Lestrade observed the slight widening of the Detective's eyes, his mouth set into a stiff, thin line, the corners of his lips twitching slightly, and his head dropped slightly.
Sherlock Holmes had never taken heed of anything anybody had said to him - unlike anybody Lestrade had ever come across in his life before he hadn't ever seemed to care what anyone had thought of him – until Doctor John Watson had arrived on the scene.
It had been Lestrade who'd managed to convince Sherlock to set up his website 'The Science of Deduction' in the first place, as an outreach to the outside world. Sherlock had been lonely, struggling to communicate his brilliance, and Lestrade had thought that the website had been the perfect medium by which for him to communicate with the outside world.
Now he was forced to stand and watch as Sherlock backed away from the examination table and stalked slowly out of the mortuary, and aiming a disapproving look in John's direction – a look which to all intents and purposes remained unnoticed – he followed him out into the corridor.
"Are you alright?" He asked Sherlock who was leaning up against the wall - his gaze directed towards the floor.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be alright?" He asked.
"You know you don't have to pretend you are if you're not. You're a great detective, I wouldn't think any the less of you if you were just a little more human." Lestrade said.
Sherlock laughed – a slightly bitter tone.
"You were the one who convinced me to set up that website in the first place." He snapped. "Tell me, what's the point if nobody's reading it? It's just a pointless waste of my time!"
"It's good for you." Lestrade sighed. "People need to understand that not everything's so black and white in this world, they need their eyes opening to the brilliance which surrounds them and yet seems to pass most of them by unnoticed every day. You've said it yourself many a time that people so often see but do not observe. That website of yours, it injects some much needed colour into the mundane of this world… and it's not good for you to spend so much time locked inside your own head! Having that website humanises you!"
As he spoke the door to the mortuary swung open and John appeared. The concerned expression upon his face revealed to them both that he'd evidently heard every word which had just been said.
"I'm sorry if what I said upset you." He apologised, looking at Sherlock as he addressed his friend exclusively, but Sherlock turned his head away from him uncomfortably, unsure of how to respond to such an openly empathic display and embarrassed to have been betrayed by his own emotions.
"It didn't… you didn't… it doesn't matter." He faltered, still avoiding John's gaze.
Lestrade smiled meekly in John's direction before turning to leave. He'd done all he could do. Sometimes people just needed time to settle their own differences – this wasn't his battle to fight – and the doctor acknowledged him with a curt nod of the head, indicating that he understood as he watched the DI walk away.
"I read it…" John confessed once Lestrade had left, and this produced the vague flicker of a response from Sherlock - who looked up at him as he said this with dark eyes, and a pained expression upon his face.
Watson could tell by his friend's reaction that his words had cut him deeply. Sherlock always did his best to remain detached, and emotionally distant from people – whether they be his family, his friends, his colleagues, or his clients - but he was after all only human, and it was only when he'd been seriously hurt and wounded that this became all the more apparent. Distancing himself was a defence mechanism he'd built up over the course of a lifetime, making himself unreachable protected him from pain and helped to make him feel safe.
"I shouldn't have said what I said…" John said.
"No!" Was Sherlock's only response, and as he turned he began to walk away. Watson sighed and followed his friend. He could tell that it was going to take much more than a simple apology to make up for this. Sherlock was a master at giving people the silent treatment, and his sulks could go on for days.
John could only wonder how long his friend was going to make him suffer in silence this time, and could only hope that it wouldn't take too long for Sherlock to come round.