Jayden stared blankly out the window as he sipped his milkshake, only vaguely aware that Lestrade had begun to talk to him.
"What?" Jayden said, his attention snapping back to Lestrade.
"I said, you're going to have to forgive him at some point, you know." Lestrade sighed. "You can't stay mad at him forever."
"Says who?" He crossed his arms, his attention turning back to the window.
"It wasn't his-"
"Yes," Jayden stated. "It was, And you're not going to change my mind about that."
"Could you at least explain to me why you're getting so worked up over this?" Lestrade asked.
"Why I'm getting worked up?!" Jayden said. "Lestrade, my brother's best friend just pretended to be dead and make Sherlock feel like it was his fault for getting angry and leaving! From Sherlock's view, if he had stayed just a few minutes longer, than none of that would have never happened! But no, come to find out it was all set up, and now Sherlock's doubting himself because he thinks he should have been able to tell that it was all fake."
"Alright, good point." Lestrade conceded.
"I don't need your confirmation." Jayden said. "Why are you fighting on his side anyway?"
"Because I got his side of the story." Lestrade answered. "He went to Mycroft to ask for help in making his plan happen, but Mycroft took it over, made a lot of changes to it. In John's plan, he was only supposed to be gone for a few hours."
"Doesn't make a difference. Using his plan, or Mycroft's," Jayden said. "It doesn't matter. It still shouldn't have happened. Yeah, I get it, Sherlock and I are annoying, but don't you think faking your own getting tortured is a bit overkill as revenge?"
"That was Mycroft's plan, not John's."
"How do you know!?" Jayden said. "How do you know he's not lying to us about all this, just like he did about his being kidnapped?!"
"Because I know John!" Lestrade hadn't meant to raise his voice, and was startled when he realized the volume they had both escalated to. He glanced around to see the rest of the people in Angelo's staring at them. Sighing, he looked back to Jayden.
"Listen, I know you think that John shouldn't have done what he did, and I agree." Lestrade said. "I can't force you to forgive him, but please just try to look at it from his perspective. You and Sherlock were pranking each other, it was stressing John out, trying to find the pranks before he fell for them. He wanted it to stop, neither of you stopped when he asked, so he took it into his own hands. When his plan involved asking for help, Mycroft took over."
"And John let him." Jayden said.
"Do you really think Mycroft gave him much of a choice?"
After a slight hesitation, Jayden spoke, "I guess not."
"I've worked with John long enough to know what he looks like when he's afraid," Lestrade said, "and he was scared to death at that depot. Things weren't going according to plan, people were getting hurt. Mycroft kept him against his will."
"So... what started out as a prank ended up as an actual kidnapping." Jayden stated. "Well that got complicated pretty fast."
"You bet it did." Lestrade sighed, his eyes widening slightly in exasperation. "So, can I trust you not to glare at John every time he breathes?"
Jayden smirked slightly, his gaze shifting down to the table.
"Yeah, but don't tell Mycroft to expect the same treatment."
"Wasn't planning on it. I'd like to take a swing at him, myself." Lestrade chuckled.
"Why does he do things like this, Lestrade?" Jayden asked. "Why is he determined to control every single part of our lives? Can't he just leave us alone?"
"I don't know, Jayden." Lestrade said, "But I think there's more going on with them than we know about."
"You noticed it too?" Jayden asked, suddenly meeting Lestrade's eyes.
"What?" Lestrade started at the sudden change of mood.
"I'm not sure about this, any of this, but something about their family- my family, it's just off." Jayden said. "There's tension there... tension about something. I don't know what; they're all too secretive to tell me anything. But I know Sherlock, Mycroft too I guess, and something's definitely up. They don't act like a normal family. There's something going on that they're not telling us about. I just don't know what."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" John asked, feeling helpless.
"I don't see how."
John sighed and put his head in his hands, elbows resting on the arms of the chair. After a moment, raised his head slightly, now propping his chin instead of forehead.
"Could you at least tell me what happens when you have those flashbacks?"
"They're not flashbacks." Sherlock shook his head. "They can't be."
"Sherlock, even you're not immune to-"
"John, what I hear, what I see-" Sherlock's gaze shifted up, a confusion, a disfocus in his eyes. "It never happened."
A/N: I was going to put a more detailed author's note about something... I don't remember what now. I got distracted by reading that last sentence a billion times. Despite common belief, authors also get that "Noooooo!" feeling that readers get when confronted with the end of the chapter. Ugh! I want to write what happens next!