I’m engaged in pitched battle with Jim Moriarty in scene 4 out of 4 of Chapter 15. It’s my birthday this weekend, and I’m taking a long weekend to celebrate and also to recover from my job’s recent attempts to burn me out (big event coming up, and we’re shorthanded all around). So hell. Have an except, to commemorate all these things and Archia’s incredible new art.
***
“I’ve already said I’m not with the police, if you’ll recall. And you’re forgetting something. Four things, to be precise. Top drawer, left compartment.”
Maybe he’s not above shaking John up a bit. Why not? Impress him, make him wonder.
It works. John stares at him with the steadiness of a man absolutely refusing to let on how startled he is. Like almost every other medical professional, he takes his watch and wedding rings off at work to avoid contamination, snagged gloves and patients gawking. It’s the simplest thing in the world to deduce from his left-handedness and the heavier wear on the brass handle that John defaults toward the left-side set of drawers, and a reasonable guess that he uses the top one for things he wants to be able to grab easily, because everyone does. But he looks impressed, and wary.
It strokes Sherlock’s pride. He’s as much a force to reckon with as Moriarty, and he’ll prove it.
“You know the most interesting thing about you?” Sherlock asks, letting the words roll out as he savours them. “I didn’t truly believe in you until I saw you. The word from certain quarters is that Mister Moriarty is not only blissfully married, but working on breeding up an heir.” He watches as John slowly bends and retrieves his jewellery to begin sliding it back on, moving as cautiously as an animal looking for traps. “I think you’ll understand that I found it laughable. He hardly comes off as the family type, does he? But here you are—entirely clueless, harmless, and fertile.”
John jerks at the last word, a reaction so sharp and hidden so quickly that Sherlock doesn’t even have time to begin to analyze it before the phone rings with a thought-shatteringly piercing tone.
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