Chapter Text
“Sherlock?” Something had been intriguing John for a while, ever since a slightly odd conversation he had had with DI Lestrade a few days before.
“What?” Sherlock said, an impatient tone to his voice. He was between cases, having solved four at the weekend, leaving nothing to do for the rest of the week. He needed distraction of some sort, any sort.
“Is Inspector Lestrade married?” John asked purposefully.
“Married? Yes I suppose he is, I have never been interested enough to ask him, but he is married. Recently, though the relationship has been ongoing for some years. He started wearing a wedding ring very recently, doesn't always remember to put it on. And it migrates – not always on the same hand.”
“So you don't know the name of the person he's married to?” John smirked slightly at this.
“We have never met, I don't tend to socialise with the man – he just comes around here unannounced every now and then. I assume she's called Emma or Emily. Something tediously conventional.”
“Oh, he has mentioned a name then?” John started to feel his theory evaporating. It wasn't often he thought he'd worked something out that Sherlock had entirely missed. He was hoping this would be a coup d'etat, but perhaps he had been wrong after all.
“Well, not the whole name, but I have heard him talk about an Em.”
John bit his lip, realising that he had, after all, stumbled on something Sherlock was oblivious about.
“Really. Oh well that seems conclusive then. No need to explore that matter further... cup of tea?” John prepared the tea and waited almost ten minutes before asking his next question. He sipped some tea, slowly dunked a biscuit and very nonchalantly asked, “Mycroft is married though isn't he?”
“What? Yes, Mycroft is a very private man. I don't think he knows that I know but the clues are all there. I don't think he wants me to know anything about his home life but it's obvious. He went abroad a few months ago and came back looking very smug. I am fairly sure he's married someone Dutch, he had some business at the Hague, probably met her there. The big give away is the ring on his right hand – he thinks I don't realise it's a wedding ring, but Holland, Germany, Spain, so many countries use the right hand for their wedding rings.”
“Oh, so you worked all that out then? Just from his hand.” John smiled and nodded.
“It's obvious. She is no doubt a minor politician of some sort, maybe something in law enforcement. Mycroft always did have a thing about authority,” Sherlock said with a degree of contempt in his voice.
“I suppose her name is Gina, or Giselle is it?”
“Now you come to mention it, yes, it almost certainly is,” Sherlock smiled, “It's great you are taking an interest in the methods, John. It's just a shame you are making me use them on something as tedious as my brother's love life.”
John coughed a little at this. “So you've never met his significant other?”
“No, I just said that didn't I?”
“You've never been curious to meet the person your brother presumably intends to spend the rest of his life with?” Sherlock's shrug of indifference at that showed John he really had not. “And you have never met Lestrade's spouse either?”
“Oh are we back to that?” Sherlock sighed dramatically. “Why should I care about any of this?”
John started giggling which caused his flatmate to look at him with a mix of bemusement , confusion and annoyance. “I think Mycroft might have one up on you here Sherlock.”
Sherlock's look of confusion grew.
“You remember when you though Harry was my brother...?” John began. He didn't get any further.
Sherlock leapt to his feet in a sudden moment of clarity. “I can't believe they did this to me!”
John scratched his head and smiled. “I'm not sure I would have put it together, they 're both very secretive people, it's just Lestrade mentioned the other day in passing that he had had a discussion with “Em” about in-laws and how difficult they could be. He was nodding towards you at the time.”
Sherlock did nothing but growl angrily.
“I don't think they did it to annoy you, Sherlock. I get the impression Lestrade thinks you already knew.”
“Mycroft will be receiving a very strongly worded text,” was all Sherlock had to say to that.