And then there was three; a Sherlock Fanfiction

Nine

Sherlock regarded his brother with a cold glare. Mycroft took a seat in John's chair, still not acknowledging Lilly's presence.

"Rather rude, don't you think?" Sherlock said, his focus on the cup of tea in his hand instead of Mycroft.

"What is?"

"Well there is another person in the room Mycroft. Or didn't you notice? I did hear that your vision can go in old age."

"Yes," Mycroft rolled his eyes a little, but finally looked at Lilly, "Lilly Harper. It seems you've been spending quite a bit of time with my younger brother here. Not sure how you can do it."

Lilly laughed while Sherlock glared at his brother. Mycroft gave her a small smile before turning back to his brother.

Sherlock shot an angry look at Lilly before taking a stab at Mycroft, "I happen to be great company Myc. How's the diet going?"

Mycroft pursed his lips before responding, "It's going fine, Sherlock. How's that firewall case coming along?"

This caught Sherlock off guard, but he tried to hide it. Lilly watched Mycroft with interest.

"It's going fine, Mycroft." Sherlock said, mocking him. Mycroft sighed while Lilly laughed at their childlike brotherly feud.

"Why are you here, Mycroft?" Sherlock finally asked, waiting for him to get to his point.

Mycroft raised an eyebrow at his brother, "Can't I just check on my little brother to see how he's doing? I worry Sherlock,"

"Well I'm fine. Now if that's all you needed, then you can leave now," Sherlock snatched his violin and began playing violently, his back to Mycroft.

Mycroft sighed and stood up. He walked over to Lilly and bent down, whispering in her ear so that only she could hear, "take care of him, won't you? Now that John has higher priorities,"

Lilly nodded, sharing a wan smile with Mycroft. He turned to look at Sherlock's turned back sadly before leaving the messy apartment.

Sherlock stopped playing and sat back down as soon as Mycroft left.

"I gather that was your brother then?" Lilly smirked, raising an eyebrow at Sherlock.

"How ever did you guess?" his voice dripped with sarcasm, but a glint of amusement shone in his eyes.

The two sat in comfortable silence, until they heard the footsteps and loud voices of Mary and John approaching from the stairs.

"Hello!" Mary said brightly, entering the room before John. She set down a bag full of stuff for the wedding planning and smiled at Sherlock and Lilly.

"More wedding planning today I presume?" Lilly said, smiling back at Mary.

Mary smiled, but hesitated, glancing over at John, "well actually, John and I were talking, and we decided that it might be good for us to all take a little break from planning,"

Lilly and Sherlock both watched her, not saying a word, obviously confused by Mary's statement.

"Um, what Mary's trying to say is," John tried, "is that we've all been working so hard on planning this wedding, so we thought it might be nice to have a day off. You know, go into town, maybe do some shopping, or...." he looked back to his fiancé for help.

"We agreed that you two deserve something for doing so much to help us plan, and we thought it might be nice to just go out to eat and maybe shop around a bit today. You know, like.... normal people,"

Two blank faces continued to stare back at them.

"Okay you two, just get up." John ordered, grabbing Sherlock's coat and throwing it to him.

Lilly sat, unsure of what to do, "what?"

"Get up. We're going shopping." John answered.

"But why would we need to do that?" Sherlock asked.

John sighed, "just come on."

•••

"I don't understand why this is necessary. What do I need a new dress for?" Lilly called out from the stall. She was trying on the dresses Mary handed her, while the other three waited in the changing room.

"We're trying to be nice and buy you a dress. Suck it up and pick one out won't you?" John replied. This "break" was turning out to be more work than expected.

After listening to the sounds of quiet movement inside the stall, the three heard the lock click open. The door was pushed forward hesitantly, and Lilly took a single step out.

"You know, if you wanted to buy me something, I would have been perfectly happy with some new biographies or something." Lilly said, inching out of the door a little more.

The three stared silently: Mary was smiling in a friendly fashion, John watched like a proud brother, Sherlock looked mildly interested.

"What? Does it look bad?" Lilly looked down at the blue sundress chosen by Mary, suddenly insecure. She cringed when she realized she sounded like one of the teenage girls she used to despise so much in high school.

"No it's looks nice!" Mary said, proud of her pick, "you can wear that to the wedding!"

Lilly smiled and regained her composure. No way was she going to say something so juvenile or ridiculous again.

"And now that Lilly has something to wear to the wedding," Mary shot a sly look to Sherlock, "I think Sherlock should try on some tuxedos,"

Sherlock's face quickly went from bored to horrified, "no. No I am not trying on anything. I already have a tuxedo, I don't need another,"

"Of course you do," John said, grinning wickedly. He grabbed Sherlock's arm and began to lead him to the men's department, "we'll pay for it even Sherlock. Come on,"

Mary and Lilly snickered from behind, following the boys to find him a suit.

•••

The four returned to Baker Street after only an hour of shopping. They stopped for fish and chips on the way back and, by the time they'd gotten to the apartment, Sherlock was right back at the desk, sifting through the RSVP's for the wedding.

Lilly stood near the doorway, munching her fish and chips quietly. She watched Mary and John give each other disappointed looks.

"Well," Mary sighed, "let's get planning then,"

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Hey pals! Sorry this was a rather lame update. I reread it and cringed a little, but I think I edited it down so it's not as bad. So anyways, I'm going kind of crazy waiting for season four so just don't freak out if I begin to immerse myself in writing this thing. Then again, I might always get distracted with other things.... apologies if that does happen. I have less then a month until summer vacation (I GET OUT JUNE 8 AH!) so who knows what the future will bring.✌

M