Sherlock was reading an email when Annie woke up, barely sparing a glance as John gave her a cup of tea and a blanket.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Like someone just ripped out her guts, I presume" Sherlock replied for her, "Don't ask for the obvious, John"
"It's called being polite, Sherlock" the other man glared at him, "Don't pay attention to what he says"
Sherlock sighed dramatically and stood up to pick up his coat.
Even if Mycroft had told him to find Harrison, the case had already been solved and closed in his opinion, especially since the detective knew how vindictive his brother is after a betrayal.
The older Holmes could very well conduct the hunt alone and leave Sherlock to other cases, like the one he just received by Lestrade.
"Where are you going?" John asked with confusion, not really understanding where the man had intention to go in that moment.
"Lestrade called me. They found a dead woman with big spots on her face and a piece of clotted blood stuck on her arm"
"Sorry?"
"You'll see what I mean" Sherlock cut short John's protests, "Miss Annie, you're free to join us if you want"
"Are you joking, Mr Holmes?" she asked coldly, "You just told me my brother killed my fiance and now you are... already skipping around in search of another case?"
"It's my work. Your case is solved and another one is being presented right in front of me" Sherlock shrugged, "There's nothing more to do for us"
"But...!"
"I can guarantee you my brother will warn us as soon as they find Mr Harrison, but for now you need a distraction"
"Seeing a corpse is a distraction?" John asked with disbelief.
"Or you can go back to your flat, alone and with the absolute certainty that you'll be left out of news on your brother"
The coldness in Sherlock's eyes surprised even John, who had seen how much care the detective had put to hide himself from Annie.
The man in front of them was completely different from the one who dragged him to a stranger's funeral and watched over the unconscious Annie.
And it didn't make sense the sudden wish he had for keeping her around. There was surely something Sherlock wasn't telling and John was determined to find out.
"Fine, but after this case you'll leave me alone" she bargained.
Sherlock smirked in amusement as she picked up her purse.
"Now you're not so shy anymore, aren't you?" he called for her, hearing John grumble disapprovingly beside me.
"I'm too angry!"
...
The trip to the Barts was silent and uncomfortable for John, who sat between a moody detective and a fuming journalist.
Passed the shock, Annie was so stressed and her pulse so elevated that sadness was temporarily forgotten.
Rarely she felt so much pressure to almost explode, but even shy people have boundaries and Annie was well past her own.
Unbeknownst to her, Sherlock was trying to help, in his own way, the young woman who absolutely refused to pay attention.
Quite childish, but he really had no right to speak.
As soon as the cab left them on the curb, Sherlock pranced inside like he owned the place and went straight to Lestrade, who was waiting for them.
"I see you're dragging with you Miss Harrison" the man commented, "I hope you have been respectuful"
"Absolutely! I'm the portrait of politeness lately" Sherlock replied with a sarcastic grin, "Now, show me your corpse"
Despite the constant sadness she felt ever since Percy's death, Annie fought the urge to smile at the funny choice of words and watched Sherlock being reprimanded by John for his rudeness.
The journalist didn't know if it was a common occurrence with the detective, but he strangely had the ability of making even a serious situation almost ridiculous with his comments. Something he clearly wasn't aware of doing since he watched them all with perplexity.
Lestrade guided them to the lavish villa's garden and pleaded Sherlock to ignore Anderson, who was struggling to find an explanation for the state of the body and lashed out to everyone else whenever they passed in front of him.
"It's quite normal, Gary. Incompetence goes hand in hand with ignorance" the detective shrugged.
"Now, all of you. Wear these and follow me inside" Lestrade pointed to the haz-mat suits.
"Why? There is some kind of biohazard risk?" Annie asked, picking up one for her as Sherlock grimaced at the sight of the bright yellow material.
"We don't know. It's a precaution for now. We aren't able to exclude anything for now"
"This is ridiculous" Sherlock growled, "I won't wear this… thing"
"You'll do it, or no access to the corpse" Lestrade threatened him.
"Then I'll stay out there as John goes inside and report to me the details"
"Oh, no! No, no , no! Put that on and come with us" John protested, "I won't give you chance to make fun of me again!"
Annie was really tempted to go back home and ignore the childish man in front of her, when John pushed the suit in Sherlock 's arms and forced him to remove his long coat.
Lestrade snickered at the sight of two grown up men arguing, not to mention the teasing John was about to receive. Despite the doctor's absolute and categorical refusal to acknowledge whoever talked about them as couple, the show in front of the entire police department was very funny.
"They are together?" Annie asked to Lestrade.
"No, we aren't!" John exclaimed.
As they finally managed to convince Sherlock to keep the suit on, the group was finally allowed to see the corpse.
It was disturbing how much the skin on her face was discolored in some places and angry red in others, extremely painful if someone stopped to think the amount of irritation she had suffered before her death.
The arm was covered by what at first sight seemed jelly, but Anderson had already told them it was blood, just like Sherlock had predicted.
"How did you know it was blood?"
"Just common sense. Surely the victim had no time to get involved in a food fight and … for goodness' sake! Anderson, don't make that face! There is a bite mark on her arm and obviously blood oozed from there copiously, judging by the state of her body"
"And you guessed all of this just by the image I sent you?" Lestrade asked, "Maybe you'll be able to tell me what happened to her face too? Those spots are …"
"Allergy" John interjected, before Sherlock could open his big mouth and insult Scotland Yard even more, "A bad case of contact dermatitis. I saw something like this on a boy yesterday. He accidentally touched some leaved of ivy and the poor thing had the hand swollen for a week"
"Clearly his parents weren't paying him too much attention" Lestrade commented.
"Put the blame on the careless child who touched it without thinking about consequences" Sherlock argued.
"Sherlock, he's five" John sighed.
"Old enough to understand the stupidity of his actions"
Annie snorted at the haughty detective, luckily soft enough to not be heard by him, and exchanged a smile with John before they joined Sherlock as he observed the body.