Matters of the Heart (A Mycroft Holmes Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1
These Four Words - The Maine
As if a plane crash were timely, there's no good time for bad news. These four words don't come easy...

It's been a typical English summer, dreary, rainy, filled with young people who think they can take on the world, only to find that the world will take, and take, and take. There was another kid who found himself wrapped up in manslaughter because his summer fun turned out to be more than he could take and Dani is just glad to be wrapping it up. She scrubs her hands down her face with a groan and stands.

Swinging her coat on, she shuts down her computer and flicks the lights off in her office. She closes and locks the door with a sigh.

"Alright, Solo. I'm off."

Sergeant Solomon Mati looks up from his desk, his coffee in one hand and phone in the other. "Drinks?" He smirks, knowing she would refuse as always.

"Dinner." She denies.

"Have fun!" He shrugs. "Think of me tonight."

"About bludgeoning you." She laughs, rolling her eyes. She runs into a little florist just as they're closing and apologetically buys a small arrangement for the table. It's two hours past when she said she'd be home. Phillip hasn't texted or called; he's used to her getting caught up in work by now. Pulling up to the house, she runs inside, her coat slung over her head and her shoes getting flooded as she sloshes through the rain. She checks her hair in the hall mirror, fluffing the frizzing curls before dropping her things and shoving her shoes off.

"Hey! Sorry, I'm late!" Xerxes, her black lab, trots over with lolling tongue and slapping tail. She rubs his head and endures sloppy kisses. "Had to wrap up the last case." She calls to Phillip around baby-voiced hellos to Xerxes. "Did you eat?"

She finds Phillip in the kitchen, hunched over a beer and staring absently at the wall across. She slides her hands down his shoulders, bending to kiss his cheek. "Hi." She whispers

"Hey." He doesn't relax under her hands.

She sets the flowers down in front of him. She used to send them to work for him, laughing when she was told at office parties about the way he blushed over them.

"I'm supposed to send you flowers." He'd tell her.

"I know, but it's as far as my romantic streak goes so take them." She told him once.

He started laughing over it eventually. "Ooh... lilies! My favorite!"

"They're peonies."

"What do I know?" He'd laugh, nuzzling her neck and planting a warm kiss on her shoulder.

He doesn't seem to see the flowers now or the way she comes around to frown at him. "Phil?" She murmurs, sitting across from him.

"I want a divorce." He whispers, his eyes closing because he knows what he's said and he knows he can't take it back. Is he too much of a coward to face her when he says it?

Her stomach drops. It clenches as if someone had just taken their fist to her gut. She can't grab a breath. "They're carnations." She laughs weakly, breathlessly, hoping she hadn't heard him right.

His eyes finally find hers. He sips his beer, staring at her unblinkingly. "Dani."

"Why?"

"You can't be serious."

No, she doesn't know. She can't see it, whatever he's looking at that's so wrong with their life. It had been a good summer. She's gotten home in decent time most days and they've made most of their date nights. They haven't fought much. Had she lost herself? She's put on twelve pounds and she's stopped going to the salon again. She doesn't wear the makeup that covers her skin anymore. She's grown tired of trying so hard to hide the wide white splotches and spattering of freckles that form masses of discolored skin. He used to like her freckles but there's more now and they've grown into blobs of white. Is she too ugly for him now?