Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Life

Chapter 21

"Punch you?" I said, "Have you gone insane?!""Yes. Punch me, in the face. Didn't you hear me?" Sherlock reiterated

"I always hear 'punch me in the face' when you're speaking, but it's usually sub-text." John spoke. I chuckled at him and before I could finish Sherlock's fist connected with John's face and he grunted in pain before reeling from the blow whilst Sherlock shook his hand out. John straightened up and immediately punched Sherlock right back.

"Ow!" Watson huffed and turned away, flexing his hand painfully and examining his knuckles as Sherlock picked himself up. Holmes finally straightened up, holding his fingers to the cut on his cheek mumbling"Thank you. That was- that was..." and I was about to rush over to him and see if he was ok when John lunged at him again, sending them both crashing to the ground. John had Sherlock in a headlock and I panicked, what the hell was I supposed to do?!

"John!" I yelled in a meagre attempt to bring the violence to a stop

"Okay! I think we're done now, John." Sherlock choked

"You want to remember, Sherlock: I was a soldier. I killed people." John said savagely "You were a doctor!"

"I had bad days!". I'd given up on standing by and freaking out; I resorted to joining the confrontation. Without thinking about my actions, I gripped John tightly by his left shoulder and right arm and pulled with all of the strength I could muster. Eventually, it worked. John's hold on Sherlock loosened and I was able to drag him back onto the pavement while Sherlock staggered back to a standing position, breathing heavily in order to regain the breath that John had knocked out of him. John also calmed down and I held out a hand to help him up; he took it and said

"Thanks, Sarah. I don't quite know what came over me.", then he turned to Sherlock and apologised for his actions.

"It's ok. Now. Shall we go?" Sherlock asked.

After a five minute walk we came to one of the most expensive streets in one of the most high end suburbs in London. "That's where she lives." Sherlock gestured to a grand white building two houses down from where we were stood,

"So what? Do we just ring her doorbell?" I asked

"Precisely." Holmes said with a grin on his face before walking ahead. Doorbell rung, we waited for an answer.

"Hello?" came a female voice over the intercom.

"Oh! Um, sorry to disturb you." Sherlock spoke in a tearful, anxious voice that was only a touch posher than his usual tone, "Um, I've just been attacked, um, and, um, I think they... They took my wallet and, um, and my phone. Umm, please could you help me?". I had to hand it to him, he was a good actor and this only made me become more attracted to him. Fantastic.

"I can phone the police if you want." the woman replied

"Thank you, thank you! Could you please?" Sherlock said, still in character. "Oh, would you... Would you mind if I just waited here, just until they come? Thank you. Thank you so much." I chuckled and shook my head as we were buzzed into the house. This man knew no bounds.

As soon as we stepped over the threshold the size, which was only hinted at on the outside, hit us properly. The place was incredibly lavish. If I were to try and describe it to you I would say it looked like a smaller version of Buckingham Palace- gold, cream and oak.

"We- we saw it all happen. It's ok, I'm a doctor." John reassured the brown haired woman as she gave him a confused look upon us entering the house and Watson shutting the door behind him. "Now, have you got a first aid kit?"

"In the kitchen." our companion said before gesturing towards a room on her right, "Please."

"Oh! Thank you!" Sherlock exclaimed in his character's voice. Holmes and I followed the woman's directions into the room and I flashed her a brief smile as we passed.

"Thank you." I heard John say as the maid lead him down the hallway. As soon as they were out of earshot Sherlock turned to me urgently and said, in his normal voice,

"Start looking for secret storage places."

"Already have," I shot back, "There are three possibilities: behind the mirror, under the couch cushions or just inside the chimney above the fire."

"Good, now we just have to figure out which one of those it is." he replied in a whisper before we heard the sound of heels on the wooden floorboard in the hall coming towards us and sat down swiftly on the cream two seated sofa.

"Hello. Sorry to hear that you've been hurt. I don't think Kate caught your name." came a voice that I presumed belonged to the woman that we were here for but the voice didn't yet have a face.

"I'm so sorry. I'm..." Sherlock began but trailed off when he turned his head to see Irene Adler, who was- with the exception of a pair of black high heels- naked, leaning in the doorway.

"Oh, it's always hard to remember and alias when you've had a fright, isn't it?" she said as she walked into the room, standing directly in front of Sherlock; straddling his legs and half kneeling on the sofa, pushing my legs aside in the process. She proceeded to pull off Sherlock's white collar from his shirt and this infuriated me greatly. I knew that she was only doing this because she somehow knew how I felt about the man that was currently underneath her. It seemed that everyone did except for Sherlock himself. I felt like she was harassing him even though she clearly wasn't, if anything she was invading his personal space, and it made me want to put my self-defence classes to good use. "There now-" she said casually, "We're both defrocked... Mr Sherlock Holmes."

"Miss Adler, I presume." No shit, Sherlock! There were only two people living in this house and it wasn't Kate, was it?

"Look at those cheekbones. I could cut myself slapping that face. Would you like me to try? Or has your friend here already given it a go?" Irene addressed me and I felt myself blushing bright red at the thought of what The Woman had just said. As she bit down on the piece of plastic from Sherlock's disguise I focused on trying to push the manifestation of Irene's accusation out of my mind and John walked into the frankly awkward situation but at first he was too focused on not spilling the contents of his bowl to notice.

"Right, this should do it." he mumble to himself before stopping dead in the doorway and lifting his eyes to acknowledge what was transpiring around him. "I've missed something, haven't I?" he asked me and I simply nodded in reply. At his question, Irene removed the plastic from her teeth and invited him to sit as she stepped away from Sherlock, who shot me an uncomfortable look as he fidgeted on the sofa. I knew how he felt. Nobody has ever made me feel so uncomfortable in my life and I don't think anyone ever will.

"Oh, if you'd like some tea I can call the maid." she said to me as if she'd forgotten to ask with all the excitement that had just happened.

"We had some at the Palace." Sherlock spoke for me, I was still too shell-shocked to say anything. Instead, I gawped at her naked form that sat cross legged on a cream chair that was nearly next to me.

"I know." she replied and swiftly moved her eye line to Sherlock

"Clearly.". I shot him a quick sideways glance and noticed that his eyes were scanning her body but he couldn't have been admiring her because his eyebrows were creased together so, unless he needed glasses to see her, he was trying to deduce her.

"I had tea, too, at the Palace, if anyone's interested." John inputted in a meagre attempt to get someone's attention. Nothing. Everybody seemed to be having a staring competition with each other; me with Sherlock, Sherlock with Irene, Irene with Sherlock and John with all three of us. Awkward was the perfect word for this scene.