Promises Series

Promise of Home - Back Against the Wall

The title of this chapter is "Back Against the Wall" by Cage the Elephant.

You should've noticed it before.

The scars on her forearms.

You should've deduced it.

They weren't just from Moran.

You should've known.

He tried to kill her, once or twice. She'd tried twice after that.

You should've guessed, at least. A guess would've been better than the nothing you had.

She'd set a date. She'd probably ticked off on her fingers the days that passed: Only two weeks left, now just one, five more days, three more days, two, one, gone.

Sherlock rubbed his arms, where his scars used to be. They'd faded years ago, when he was in his twenties, but he could remember where most of them originated. He ran his fingertips up and down the vein, so abused by needles over the years.

Julia had only said that so John would see something good that had come of Sherlock's death. That had to be it. Sherlock could spend all day and night trying to convince John that he'd done the right thing, but he would get nowhere. John was stubborn and strong-willed. There's no way he would've forgiven him as quickly.

Although, John had never said he'd forgiven Sherlock.

Sherlock emerged from his room wrapped in a dressing gown. He saw Julia in the kitchen and nodded to her before grabbing his violin and starting to play. He noticed the girl curl up in Jo- the armchair, listening to the melody that flowed from his fingertips. She closed her eyes despite the early hour.

"Are you angry with me?" Julia asked. She chewed on her lip.

Sherlock's violin shrieked as his bow jerked to a stop. "Why would you think that?"

"Because I- I said- about the date... You were supposed to talk to him, anyway; I wasn't even supposed to be there. I messed everything up."

"You didn't."

"But you weren't talking to me," Julia protested. "I thought maybe I'd done something wrong, and I couldn't think of anything other than that."

"You haven't done anything wrong."

"Then why were you ignoring me?"

"I wasn't ignoring you. I was simply busy thinking."

"You were just thinking."

"Yes, exactly," Sherlock affirmed. "I'm glad that you understand."

"But I don't understand."

Sherlock sighed. "My mind is a vast library of information. It would be easy to get lost in, had I not created it myself. If I enter my Mind Palace, whole days or hours could pass, and I'd snap back into life, feeling as though only minutes had gone by."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"And I- I haven't done anything to muck up with Mr. Wat-"

"He is a doctor," Sherlock corrected automatically. "You can just call him John. I'm afraid if anyone's 'mucked up' our relationship, it would be me."

"Do you do that a lot then?" Julia asked, playing with her fingers. "Stop speaking or eating for days on end?"

"Only when I'm thinking."

"Okay. Um, well, you've been out for a while, and I have been cooking, and..."