The Hounds Of Baskerville (Sherlock Holmes X OC)

EIGHT- At Long Last

The next morning at the Cross Keys Inn, Anita and John were sitting at one of the outdoor tables and Billy brought out two plates of food and set them down in front of the pair.

"Thanks, Billy," John said as Anita nodded in agreeance.

As Billy walked away, Sherlock walked over with three mugs and gave two of them to John and Anita.

"So they didn't have it put down, then- the dogs," Sherlock said.

"Suppose they just couldn't bring themselves to do it," Anita replied, shrugging her shoulder. She looked at the mug Sherlock brought over suspiciously, but didn't voice her opinions.

"I see," Sherlock said as Anita smiled at him. They had to share the bed again last night, though this time they were less awkward about it. In fact, that was one of the best nights of sleep both of them had. They'd never admit it though.

"Listen, what happened to us in the lab?" John asked Sherlock, who looked at the pair for a moment, then reached for a box of sauce packets.

"D'you two want some sauce with that?" he asked, deflecting John's question.

"I mean, we hadn't been to the Hollow, so how come we could hear those things in there? Fear and stimulus, you said," John continued.

"You and Anita must have been dosed with it elsewhere, when you two went into the lab, maybe. You saw those pipes- pretty ancient, leaky as a sieve; and they were carrying the gas, so...um, ketchup, was it, or brown-" Sherlock said but Anita cut him off.

"Hang on: you thought it was in the sugar. You were convinced it was in the sugar," she argued, and Sherlock looked away.

"Better get going, actually. There's a train that leaves in half an hour, so if you two want-" Sherlock said as he looked at his watch. Anita let out a humorless laugh and shook her head.

"Oh God. It was you. You locked us in that bloody lab," she said. John turned and narrowed his eyes at Sherlock.

"I had to, Anita. It was an experiment," Sherlock reasoned.

"An experiment?!" John and Anita asked, furiously, and Sherlock shushed them.

"We were terrified, Sherlock. We were scared to death," John argued, but in a quieter voice.

"I thought that the drug was in the sugar, so I put the sugar in your coffees, then I arranged everything with Major Barrymore. It was all totally scientific, laboratory conditions- well, literally. I knew what effect it had on a superior mind, so I needed to try it on a mildly superior and average one," Sherlock said, and Anita and John looked up from their plates. Once again, Anita wasn't totally sure whether or not that was a compliment.

"You two know what I mean," Sherlock said and John and Anita returned to their meals.

"But it wasn't in the sugar," John commented.

"No, well, I didn't know you two had already been exposed to the gas," Sherlock stated.

"So you got it wrong," Anita replied, a smirk forming.

"No," Sherlock replied.

"You were wrong. It wasn't in the sugar. You got it wrong."

"A bit. It won't happen again."

"Any long term effects?" John cut in.

"None at all. You two will be fine once you've excreted it. We all will," said Sherlock.

"Think I might have taken care of that already," John responded, and Sherlock and Anita snorted with laughter.

Sherlock looked across to a nearby table where Gary was pouring coffee for two other customers. He smiled apologetically across to Sherlock, who put his mug on the table and stood up.