Disregard the Danger [BBC Sherlock - Johnlock, Warstan & Johnlockary]

Another Holmes

Magnussen doesn’t take the bait immediately. In fact, he does nothing notably new or interesting for too long, and she finds it terribly irritating. For the first time ever, she finds herself paying less attention to work and more attention to the rest of her life.

She and John have only been dating six months and living together for one when Mycroft texts to warn her.

He’s looking at rings.

She frowns at what she thinks of as the Mycroftphone. I’m going to assume that’s code for something relevant to the mission, since this is my Secret Spy Phone and all. (Mycroft told her to stop calling it the Mycroftphone; she's since been amusing herself trying to make him regret that order.) He doesn’t respond.

* * * 

Mycroft isn’t the only one predicting an impending proposal.

I bet he’s going to ask you to marry him, Janine sends to her regular phone.

He just moved in, she protests. It would be ridiculous to propose now. She tries to convince herself.

It would be romantic. He’s a romantic.

She’s not wrong. Mary, always the pragmatist, always devoted to her work above all else, should find it irritating. Instead, she finds it endearing.

It’s not that serious. Maybe if she repeats it enough, it will be true. Maybe Mycroft was mistaken. She laughs at that thought.

Uh-huh.

Did you see the way he was looking at you yesterday when he picked you up from my place?

Bet you he pops the question before the end of the month.

It would be a disastrous idea. She feels a happy flutter in her stomach at the thought. 

* * *

A few days later, Mycroft again: He’s booked dinner at the Landmark in three days. Put an end to this. Now.

She accidentally loses the phone in a nearby river.

* * *

The Tube is delayed, so she grabs a cab on the way home from the clinic. As she gets into the car, she sees Anthea and groans.

Anthea gives her an apologetic smile. “Bit of a detour, I’m afraid.”

Mary shrugs. “Of course.”

They ride in silence to a warehouse.

Mycroft gets right to the point. “You must refuse.”

“I don’t see that it’s any of your business,” she says with a tight smile.

He frowns. “I have invested a decade preparing you for this mission. You are destroying everything we’ve worked so hard to do by forming attachments.”

We’ve worked so hard to do. She hasn’t seen him doing any hard work. Just sending her to train, to kill, to put her own life at risk. The fact that he’s right about his overall point only makes her angrier. “What do you even know about attachments, anyway.”

Mycroft ignores that. “I let this continue far longer than I should have. When you turned your life upside-down to move in with the doctor -- “

“It wasn’t upside-down,” she breaks in. “I told you, given that I’m only working at the clinic a fraction of the time that John does, and given how much of my work is done outside the flat or from my laptop --” and given that John turns out to be rather spectacularly unobservant, she adds silently, “-- it hasn’t actually interfered with my work.” Much.