221B

Chapter 2 - The Blind Banker

"Sherlock Holmes." Sebastian Wilkes grins as we arrive in his office.

"Sebastian." Sherlock replies.

Sebastian clasps Sherlock's hand in both of his as they shake hands.

"Howdy, buddy." Sebastian continues. "How long's it been? Eight years since I last clapped eyes on you?"

Sherlock looks at him with slightly disguised dislike and Sebastian turns to look at John and I.

"These are my friends John Watson and Katherine Harrison." Sherlock introduces us.

"Friend?"

"Colleague." John and I correct in unison.

"Right." Sebastian shakes hands with John, and then me. He looks at both John and I curiously, and shakes my hand longer than necessary and longer than when he shook Sherlock's hand and John's hand. Sherlock clears his throat a little, and I wrench my hand away at the same time, slightly uncomfortable by this. "Right." Sebastian repeats.

He throws a brief look at Sherlock again, grins unpleasantly, and scratches his neck momentarily. I see Sherlock's gaze fall on his wristwatch. When Sebastian turns away I look at John and I can tell he has instant dislike for the man just as much as I do. I look at Sherlock, who looks back at me as if he's saying "Sorry."

"Well, grab a pew." Sebastian says. "Do you need anything? Coffee? Water?"

Sherlock shakes his head.

"No." John says.

Sebastian looks at me expectantly, and I shake my head a second later, and look down.

"No?" He looks at his secretary. "We're all sorted here, thanks."

His secretary leaves the room, Sebastian sits down at his desk and we sit down on the opposite side of him, I'm in between Sherlock and John.

"So, you're doing well. You've been abroad a lot." Sherlock says.

"Well, some." Sebastian answers. "Flying all the way around the world twice in a month?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I see John frown in confusion. Sebastian just laughs and points at Sherlock.

"Right. You're doing that thing." He looks back and forth between John and I. "We were at uni together. This guy here had a trick he used to do."

"It's not a trick." Sherlock says quietly.

"He could look at you and tell you your whole life story." He looks at John.

"Yes, we've seen him do it." John answers.

"Put the wind up everybody. We hated him." Sebastian continues.

Sherlock turns his head away and looks down. I see his face momentarily fill with pain.

Since he's less than a foot away from me, I reach over and gently rest my hand on his in a comforting way. Sherlock looks at me.

"You'd come down to breakfast in the Formal Hall and this freak would know you'd been shagging the previous night."

"I simply observed." Sherlock says quietly, and I gently squeeze his hand before taking my hand away as Sebastian looks at Sherlock.

"Go on, enlighten me. Two trips in a month, flying all the way around the world. You're quite right. How could you tell?" Sherlock opens his mouth to speak but Sebastian continues talking. "You're gonna tell me there was, um, a stain on my tie from some special kind of ketchup you can only buy in Manhattan?" He suggests smugly. I see John smile at the suggestion, knowing Sherlock would make a deduction very similar to that.

"No, I-" Sherlock starts.

"Maybe it was the mud on my shoes!" Sebastian interrupts.

Sherlock looks back at Sebastian before speaking. "I was just chatting with your secretary outside. She told me."

I attempt to hide an amused smile, knowing this is a lie. Sherlock was never chatting with the secretary outside, he figured it out somehow but just wanted to make Sebastian look like an idiot-if Sebastian hadn't done so for himself already.

Sebastian laughs humorlessly and Sherlock smiles back at him with the same lack of humor. Sebastian claps his hands together, then gets more serious.

"I'm glad you could make it over. We've had a break-in."