An Affair with the Enemy (A Sherlock Fanfic)

Chapter 21

John

"Right. We ready to go?" I walked out of our small terraced house with Mary and with a suitcase rolling behind me and called for a cab from the main road. Clambering onto the cab, we sat in silence and deep thought.

It had been a year and three months since Tanya had left and it had been the same for how long I had dated Mary. When Tanya had initially gone to New York, she face timed every night. This soon reduced to a phone call every second day. Then an email once a week and finally, it stopped altogether. I assumed she had been busy and that was why she couldn't contact me but it still worried me. I knew Mycroft wouldn't budge an inch however much I pushed him to tell me where Tanya was. I tried tracking her down and had even roped Greg Lestrade into it but without success, she was nowhere to be found. I just had to hope that she was safe and fine.

We arrived at the airport and we checked in and had been through security. Behind me, I could hear a commotion. One of the voices in the argument was Mary's. "What the bloody hell do you mean by I can't take this with me? Really now? I'm not paying a bloody extra quid for this!" She looked as if she was about to pounce onto the security woman.

"Alright, alright. What's going on here?" Mary's head shot up as she looked at me.

"Nothing. Go through, I'll be there in a minute." So he waved me off with her hand dismissively. But before I could leave, the security woman spoke up.

"Your wife wishes to carry this violin in her hand luggage but she is not allowed an item bigger than her bag unfortunately. So unless she pays, you may not carry this violin with you." Violin? What violin? I spun around to face her holding Sherlock's violin in her hand. I sighed and smiled weakly at her. I approached her and attempted to pry the violin out of her hand.

"Please don't throw it away." She pleaded. "I know how much it means to you and I didn't know how long we'd be gone and I know you like to hold it when you miss him." My smile widened. I pulled my wallet out of my back picket and paid the woman £20 for the extra luggage. Grabbing Mary's hand, we walked through security and waited at the gate. "You weren't supposed to pay for it." She paused. "But I suppose it's better than throwing it away."

Eventually, the gate opened and the passengers made their way onto the plane.

We fastened our belts and awaited the rocky start of the journey. In no time, the plane had taken off and I had found myself deep in thought once again.

A few days ago, my sister, Harriet aka Harry, had called saying that she wanted to meet up in Belgium. I hadn't heard from her in years and found myself in tears but continued to listen to her. She said that's she had found someone and that they were getting married in a week's time. She sent us plane tickets through the mail and off we were. But I was surprised that it was in Belgium. What was she doing there? But if she was happy and her drinking habit was under control, then I had no right blocking out her sunshine. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have now arrived at Belgium and the local time is 10.46. We thank you all for travelling with British Airways." The hassle of departing the plane began as families and couples pulled their luggage off and made their way down the aisles. Mary and I took our baggage down as well and shared a kiss as we got off the plane.

~~~

The pub was empty so it could be decorated in time. It was also very big and I could see the beer breweries at the back. How typically Harry, I thought. We had arrived the day before and had enjoyed the beautiful views of Belgium. We received a call from Harry saying that she wanted us to come to the venue a day earlier to help out with the decorations and we couldn't refuse. Entering the pub, we saw flowers and decorations scattered around, ready to be put onto the tables. "John?" I turned around and saw my older sister grinning ear to ear. She looked different. No, she looked happy.

"Oh god, Harry." I gave her a tight hug and looked at her feeling overwhelmed.

"Oh shush John. I'm not dead: stop crying." I couldn't help but laugh. "I missed you. I really did and I'm sorry." I shook my head still chuckling and spoke to her for a bit.

"Well then? Where's the love of your life?"

"CAAMM?? Cam, John's here. Come down!" I expected a large and muscled man to come downstairs but instead came a small, fragile woman with long red locks. "Cam, meet John. John, meet Camille."

Oh.

"Uh...hi." I put my hand out and she shook it vigorously. Probably a Belgian custom. She spoke to me in her thick, European accent.

"Harry, told me that you had a boyfriend. S-s-erlock?" She evidently couldn't pronounce the sh sound but that didn't bother me.

"He wasn't my boyfriend." I muttered.

"Hey, look at us. We're happily gay. And you can as well. Take that from your older sister." I didn't want to tell her that he was dead and I was glad when Mary diverted the topic.

"Well we're in a bloody pub so how about a drink?" We made our way to the main bar where a barmaid stood with her back to us cleaning glasses.

"Ah John. This barmaid is the organiser by the way. Lovely young lass." We sat down before Harry called her. "Mind getting us four beers please?" The barmaid filled four glasses and turned around to face us. Handing one to each of us, I met her confused expression.

"John?" She asked. I spluttered out my drink.

"Tanya?"