A Study In Love - A Johnlock Fanfiction

Chapter Fourteen

It didn't take long for John and Sherlock to apprehend the suspect, and once the police arrived he'd confessed almost immediately. Everyone had thought the case was closed until the bookstore manager told the police that there had been another person involved: an employee at the jewelry store. The police could handle that on their own though, so Sherlock and John were free to go after Sherlock answered a few questions for the police records.

The first thing John had done when he got inside the flat was take a long hot shower. When he came out of the bathroom into the living room Sherlock was sitting at the table looking at something on his phone. He sat down across from Sherlock and picked up the newspaper that was sitting in front of him. He let out a breath and stretched his legs out underneath the table in an effort to relax, and accidentally stepped on Sherlock's sock covered foot.

"Sorry," he said quietly. Sherlock's only response was to glance up at John briefly before returning his attention back to his phone. However, after a few minutes had passed, John felt something pressing against the side of his foot. He looked underneath the table and saw that Sherlock had placed his foot right next to John's. John kept his head turned downward, but lifted his gaze to look at Sherlock's face. He nudged Sherlock's foot and saw the hint of a smile on Sherlock's face that appeared before he placed his foot on top of John's. John placed the foot that wasn't trapped on top of Sherlock's foot, and soon the two of them were giggling like idiots and an all-out game of footsie had erupted.

Who knows how long they would've continued kicking at each other underneath the table if Sherlock hadn't received a call from St. Bart's requesting his presence at Matthew Greene's room. He'd asked John to come along, and of course John said yes. Mere minutes later the two were sitting in the back of a cab on their way to the hospital. John tried to keep his eyes staring out the window, but he found that he kept looking over at Sherlock for the entire duration of the cab ride.

When they finally made it to St. Bart's and got out the car, John remembered something he'd been meaning to ask Sherlock about.

"Um, Sherlock?" he asked as they made their way through the hallways, "When we were sitting in the car, before the robber showed up…you were saying something."

"Was I?" Sherlock said, looking down and taking off the gloves he was wearing. " I don't remember."

"Yeah, right," John said, rolling his eyes. "Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Sherlock bit his bottom lip and looked down at the floor, then up at the ceiling and anywhere but at John.

"Oh, nothing, just…" Sherlock didn't continue with his sentence, but instead trailed off and stared forward, his eyes unblinking and brow furrowed.

"Sherlock what's wrong?" When Sherlock didn’t respond John turned his head and tried to figure out what Sherlock was staring at, and that was when he saw Lucy. She was standing just outside of Matthew's room at the end of the hall, her hands covering her face and her shoulders shaking slightly. Sherlock's walking speed increased until he was at a slow jog, though John had to run to keep up with him. When they reached where Lucy was standing, she removed her hands from her face and looked up. When John saw the tears that were streaming down her cheeks and the look of sadness and despair in her eyes, he knew the following conversation would not be a good one.

"He's…he's gone," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. John's jaw dropped, but Sherlock's face was emotionless. Lucy wiped away a few tears and shrugged. "Well, not really, but he might as well be." John didn't understand what she was saying, and his confusion must've been evident on his face. Lucy took in a deep breath and sighed.

"When he first got here… When they first checked him in, the doctors all told me there was a chance he could make it. That he could survive." The reached up to wipe away more tears as she continued talking. "But now, now they say he's too far gone. He's one hundred percent dependent on life support now." She continued her attempt to rid her face of any tears, but each time she wiped her eyes new tears took the place of the ones that had been wiped away. Her head dropped and her shoulders slumped, and John suddenly became very uncomfortable. He wasn't the best when it came to comforting others or handling grief, so he knew he was pretty much useless here.