Disadvantageous

Chapter 23

A knock resounded through Lydia's flat, much to her annoyance. She had finally had a chance to sit down with her drink and now she was being interrupted. Her first thought was to ignore whoever was at the door, but she feared that it could be something important so she pulled herself off the sofa to see who it was.

As soon as she caught sight of the messy dark curls, Lydia's face turned to stone and she growled, "no."

The door was slammed in Sherlock's face before he had a chance to react. He stared at the wood for a moment afterwards, his mouth agape. But soon reality returned to him and he began to pound on the door once me.

"Lydia, I know I'm the last person you want to see right now, but please let me try to explain," he practically begged, uncaring if her entire block of flats heard him pleading with her. "Lydia, just open the door, give me five minutes then I swear I'll leave whether you forgive me or not."

She knew she should have turned him away and never speak to him again, to save herself the pain of loving a man who clearly cared little for her. But she couldn't find the strength to do it. Perhaps it was the alcohol or just her bad judgement that made her let out a sigh and open the door for him.

"You've five minutes to explain yourself and then I don't ever want to see your face again," she declared as she walked back over to the couch, grabbing her drink on the way and trusting Sherlock to follow her.

"Lydia, I thought you were sober," he frowned, stepping into the flat and closing the door behind him.

She gave him a shrug, pouring a second glass for Sherlock. "I was. Now, you are wasting your five minutes that I so graciously gave you."

"It's a long and complicated story, Lia, but know this: I do love you, I've loved you for years."

"People in love don't act the way you have and they certainly don't force a confession out of the one they claim to love and then promptly hang up."

"I have a sister," Sherlock blurted out, realising that he was truly going to need to tell her everything for her to believe him.

"Sure, you do, Sherlock."

"No, it's true. Her name's Eurus, she's a psychopath who's been locked up in a prison called Sherrinford since she was a child after she left my childhood best friend to drown in a well and drew pictures indicating that I would be her next target."

"But why have you never mentioned her before?"

"Because I'd forgotten she existed."

Lydia snorted, "Sherlock, how could you have possibly forgotten the death of your best friend, even if you were also just a child at the time?"

"Forgotten wasn't the best choice of words, I rewrote my memories so it would be less painful for me. Apparently I wrote Eurus completely out of them, until recently." Sherlock paused, trying to determine whether or not Lydia was actually believing him. "Eurus lured John, Mycroft, and I to Sherrinford, promptly forcing us to engage in a sort of experiment that she had concocted. She was trying to understand emotions and how they effect behaviour, she's never felt any emotions herself. You were one of the tasks. She claimed she had set up bombs in your flat and would blow you and Willow up if I didn't get you to say 'I love you.'"

"That's the story that you're going with? A bit far-fetched isn't it? There's a fine line between a detailed and unrealistic lie that could seem true and one that is simply absurd and illogical."

"Proof? You want proof?" Sherlock muttered, racking his brain for some physical evidence he could prevent. "Well, talking with either John or Mycroft would corroborate my story, though it'd best be John as I think Mycroft's still in a slight state of shock. Or you could swing by 221B, Eurus set off a bomb in there. Oh! The cameras!"

"What cameras?" Lydia asked as Sherlock leapt up from his seat, looking around the flat like a crazed man.

As he dragged the coffee table over to the wall and climbed on top of it, he explained, "Eurus had surveillance on you as part of her experiment. She probably assumed that seeing you would prove that she wasn't just playing some trick or perhaps she thought it would be harder for me to ignore my emotions if I could see you on a screen reacting to my words."

Sherlock felt along the top shelf of a book case before coming across the small camera, ripping it from its spot and holding it out for Lydia to see. She crossed the distance between then and carefully room the small camera in her hands, angry that she had not realised that she was being watched.

"There's one other in here and one in Willow's room as well," Sherlock informed her as he stepped off of the table.

Dropping the camera to the ground so that she could smash it, she looked up at Sherlock, "well, go find them."

"Does this mean that you believe my story?"

"There's always the chance that you could have planted the cameras here yourself, but I am inclined to trust you a bit more. Why did Eurus target me?"

"Because she knew that I still loved you. You are my strongest pressure point. It's why Magnussen kidnapped you, it's why Eurus threatened your life. I can't expect you to be willing to come back to me, especially considering that I'm proving how much I love you by noting situations that put you in danger, but you confessed today that you still feel the same about me. Perhaps we could give this another go? Be a united family for Willow?"

"Sherlock, I-"

"I know, you're uncertain of whether or not you can trust me. But I assure you that you can, I would do anything to prove it to you. But if you decide against it, I promise I won't bother you with such a proposition again," Sherlock spoke, cupping Lydia's face in his and brushing his thumb along her cheek.

"I was going to say, I have been waiting for you to confess you still cared for me since you returned from the grave. While I'm still upset that you lied to me and pretended to be dead for two years, making us lose precious time together, all I've wanted since realising how much I still cared for you is to be with you again."

Sherlock's lips twitched upwards into a relieved smile, his azure eyes shining in the light of the room as they searched hers for permission to close the gap between their lips. In her chest, Lydia's heart skipped a beat, anticipation rushing through her body as she felt her body move closer to Sherlock's. She tried to memorise every feature of his, half afraid that she was hallucinating this entire encounter.

But there was no hallucinating the feeling of Sherlock's soft lips on hers, the way that their lips move in tandem, the taste of his lips upon her own. Lydia's eyes fluttered shut as she drunk in the moment, wishing that the feeling could last for an eternity. She had almost forgotten the butterflies, the pleasure brought about by Sherlock's kiss. But there was one thing for certain that she knew: she was home.

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(A/N): Did something good actually come from the whole Eurus affair? Or with this be another moment of temporary happiness before they stop speaking again? I hope you enjoyed this chapter!