Q & A (Johnlock)

Chapter 1

John was humming to himself as he entered the living room. He settled onto the sofa with his laptop.

Sherlock gave him a searching look before turning back to his papers. "New woman?"

It was still surprising to John how easily Sherlock could read him, even after all these years. "An old one, actually." It felt good to contradict Sherlock a little.

Arching an eyebrow, Sherlock gave him a look of distaste. "Really? Given up chasing after the fast ones, and going for the ones with bad hips now? Should Mrs. Hudson be warned?"

John gave a small huff at his friend. "I meant it's a woman I've known for many years."

"And somehow think things have changed enough she'll give you another chance," Sherlock nodded, his tone dismissive.

John was used to Sherlock's attitude towards his dating life. He was never encouraging and rarely kept their names straight. John usually kept contact between his dates and Sherlock to the absolute minimum. Hardly told Sherlock much about them anymore.

This time it was a little different. "Sarah Sawyer. We all went to the Chinese Circus together."

"Did she ever forgive you for that?" Sherlock quickly asked.

John shrugged. Sure, she had been tied up and almost killed at one point, but she seemed to have rebounded from it. "Yes, Sherlock. We dated for several months after that."

"So, what has changed that you are pursuing her again?" Sherlock grumbled, not really sounding interested.

John chose his words carefully. He had to get Sherlock intrigued. "Things never felt finished with her, you know what I mean? Anyways, she is studying now to become a psychiatrist."

"Pointless."

John ignored the comment, charging forward. "She gave me a test I thought you might like to try."

"My IQ is 5 points above Einstein's."

Sighing, John shook his head. "No, it's a test we would do together. But never mind, you look busy. Maybe we could try it later." He turned to make some tea for them both.

By the time he set a hot mug by Sherlock, he could tell the berk was squirming with questions. John calmly sat down and flipped through a magazine.

"What does the test involve?"

John lowered his magazine. "Just a list of 36 questions we both answer in sequence, telling the answers to each other. It takes about two hours and we could do it here, and send her the video afterwards." He kept his tone casual, trying to sound like he didn't care.

Of course, it was the complete opposite. He was jumping at this chance to impress Sarah again, giving her good study data for her research. When they had run into each other at a physician conference, John had been struck by how attractive she still was, and was pretty certain he saw a spark of interest in her eyes as well.

"What kind of questions?"

John tried not to grin in response. It was almost like pulling in a big fish; once hooked, you had to draw him in little by little.

"I haven't looked at them. Sarah said they would show how well we knew each other." He aimed for nonchalance.

Sherlock scoffed. "After living with you for years, I know everything about you. Too much, really."

"Same here," John laughed. "We would probably zip through the questions in half the normal time."

He could tell that worked. Sherlock never could resist a challenge. He sat up straighter, his eyes focused on John. "Let's do it. Do you have time now?"