A Game Of Hearts And Minds

CHAPTER VIII - Bombs and explosions

I stood in the bathroom of 221B, facing the mirror, a little wet handkerchief in hand. I was wearing nothing more that my bra and a simple, grey pair of joggers. I looked at my shoulder and my elbow in the mirror as I froze, my eyes stuck to the wounds. After some time, I slowly reached up to the one on my shoulder with the handkerchief and tried to clean it. The blood around it had already dried up, and whoever had patched it up hadn't done the best job. The wound stung as I cleaned it, but after I patched it up again, it felt a bit better. I did the same with the wound on my inner elbow, which was in fact a lot harder to patch up.

I was so focussed on patching up the cut that I didn't realize that Sherlock had his head peaked around the corner. "What are you doing?"

I snapped my head around at him, and hurriedly grabbed a towel to cover up my back and shoulders. "Nothing."

"Oh you know better." Sherlock said as he turned around the corner and walked in.

"What?"

"You know better than lying. To the best detective in the world."

I lifted on of the corners of my mouth into a tight smile, almost a smirk, trying to turn Sherlock's attention away from the conversation we were just having. "That's a bit overdo, don't you think?" I giggled. Sherlock however remained serious, and he didn't reply. "Show me. Please."

"Excuse me?"

"The scars, the wounds. Show them to me."

I turned my gaze away from Sherlock and returned to the mirror, my hands holding onto the sink. "I- I" I paused for a second, to catch my breath. "No."

"Darling, I know this is no place for me, to say anything, but... you are ashamed, aren't you?"

I dug my nails into the sink as I tried desperately to hold back my tears. "Why do you think that?"

"Because of the expression in your eyes right now," Sherlock stepped closer, he stood just inches away from me, behind me. "You weren't intimate with me since you came back. And of course the fact that you just tried to hide them from me."

I turned around to face him, and he slowly reached to grab my wrist. Softly, he held my arm as he spoke. "You've surely been through a lot the past week." He paused, taking a deep breath. "And I'm sure it wasn't easy. But you are not alone. So please," he begged. "Please show me. There's no need to be ashamed. Not in front of me."

I looked into his hell blue eyes like sapphires, for a moment, I thought I could see his eyes start to water. We stood there, for a few seconds, before I let the towel fall off my shoulders, revealing my back full of cuts from the torture and my shoulder and elbow previously patched up although the blood was already seaping through.

Sherlock still held onto my wrist as he looked down, at my shoulder and elbow then he glanced over to the mirror. I knew he could see my back in it, because my back was in fact facing the mirror. I continued to look up at him, and now I was certain that tears were welling in his eyes. After a couple of seconds, he looked back down at me. Tears were now welling in my eyes too, and after a moment, Sherlock pulled me in for a hug.

"It's okay. You're strong." He whispered into my ear as he swayed back and forth a bit, trying to calm me down.

At this point, I was practically crying my eyes out into Sherlock's chest. "So strong." He whispered again as we continued swaying. Oh god, I really fell in love with the right man. After a few minutes I looked up at him. "Don't you mind them?" I asked.

"Why would I?"

Without answering I burried my head back into his chest. It was there and then, that Sherlock promised himself to protect her from everything, no matter the cost.