His Doctor~

Chapter 11

"Here." Jo-Ann exclaimed, holding out the well-wrapped dark purple present she kept hidden from her flatmate. Sherlock glanced at it, and slowly took it from her while keeping his eyes on her.

"You brought me out of the flat to give me a Christmas present?" He eyed his doctor.

"Yeah well, with the little scene you just had with Molly, I didn't want to end up the same." She said coldly, although she didn't mean to.

"How could you end up the same unless you-"

"Just open the gift Sherlock." Jo-Ann interrupted, afraid of where that was going. The detective nodded and untied the white ribbon. The present was neatly un-wrapped and opened, to reveal the brown journal she bought for him earlier. Sherlock untied the suede string and opened the book. Much to his surprise, there was a note on the first page.

"To keep track of our adventures, Sherlock... - Jo-Ann."

Sherlock felt his heart clench, although he would deny it. Jo-Ann fidgeted in the silence and spoke up.

"I-it's just a little journal to write stuff in... kind of like my blog but with paper." She joked... and then cursed herself for sounding stupid. "You can take it back if you want, it's just-"

"I'm keeping it." Sherlock interrupted firmly, much to Jo-Ann's surprise. "The gloves Molly got me will probably be thrown away... but this has..." he paused, gesturing to the journal, "reasonable purpose."

Jo-Ann was completely thrown off-guard as Sherlock wrapped his arms around her. They stood for a moment, the doctor completely frozen in the detective's grip. "Thank you." He said in a near whisper, much too close to her ear. She blushed a shade that nearly matched her dress as the parted from the hug.

"Getting sentimental are we?" Jo-Ann teased, "You don't have to you know, it's not like we're a couple or anything." She joked, waving her hands as she said 'a couple'.

"Well, it's Christmas." Sherlock smiled, pointing up the stairs to suggest getting back to the party. Jo-Ann nodded and made her way up the stairs.

"Oh! I almost forgot..." Sherlock spoke up behind the doctor halfway up the stairs. "Wait here." He told her, walking around her and running up the rest of the way.

"Wha-Sherlock?"

In the flat, the guests continued to chat, but couldn't help feel a little uneasy at the way Jo-Ann and Sherlock ran out the door. Things quieted down a bit when the said detective entered the flat without his doctor.

"Is everything alright dear?" Mrs. Hudson asked him, as he ran over to the desk.

"Just fine, Mrs. Hudson." Sherlock smiled, rummaging through one on the desk drawers. He placed his journal on the desktop.

"Where's Jo-Ann?" Bennett spoke up, walking over to the detective. Sherlock eyed him, grabbing a gift neatly wrapped in blue paper.

"Worried?" Sherlock said, giving the boyfriend a teasing look. Bennett's eyes went wide as he was about to fight back, when Sherlock casually walked around him. "We'll be in soon." The detective said, walking out the door.

Jo-Ann waited on the stairs... leaning against the left wall and crossing her arms. She looked up the narrow stairway at the sound of footsteps. Sherlock happily trotted down the stairs, but suddenly grew nervous when he reached her. The stairway was narrow enough then it was just one person, but now they were face to face in awkward silence. Sherlock didn't look at her, and held out the small gift.

"Merry Christmas." He mumbled. Jo-Ann stared, shocked. But came to her senses and politely took the gift from the nervous flatmate and carefully opened it.