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“Did you really call me The Woman?”
Holmes paused in what he was doing, looking over at Irene as she lay in bed. “I may have,” he said with a nod.
“Your cousin did as well,” she said thoughtfully. “I was The Woman because I beat him, as he doesn't like being reminded of that. Why did you call me that?”
Holmes finished getting his T-shirt off, leaving him bare to the waist. “Because you were the woman I lost my heart to, and then I messed it all up and began the slippery slope into my addiction, and at my worst I blamed you for all of it. It was easier to call you that then to call you by your name.”
“You must not have been fond of me for a long time,” she said thoughtfully.
“I suppose I wasn't,” he replied. “Why are we talking about this, anyway?”
“Curiosity,” she said. “I've been thinking about it the last few days, since Sherlock came to visit. We had quite the interesting conversation. We've had a few, actually. Now that there's not this need to impress and trick we get along quite well. I might almost say we're friendly.”
“But not friends?” Holmes asked.
“We may never be friends. But I can live with being friendly.” She patted the spot next to her and he came over to her. “Did you ever expect to see me again? Not when you had thought I'd died, but before, when we were both still in London.”
“No. I wanted nothing to do with you and no reminders of our relationship. I only kept one item.”
“What item was that?” she asked, tilting her head slightly.
“A photograph. I thought about burning it or taking scissors to it but I couldn't. So I simply hid it from sight. Now I have no idea where it went, but for a long time I knew exactly where it was and that it was safe. If I wanted to torture myself with looking back on what I'd lost I would go pull it out.”
She was quiet for a moment, but she reached over for his hand. “I could have reached out to you too, you know. I know I told you I didn't want to speak to you again, but when I had cooled down after our fight I could have searched you out. Tried to make amends on my own. I was just as stubborn as you were, and just as determined to close off my heart.”
“We were done in by our own refusal to at least reach out to the other,” he said with a wry smile. “And if it hadn't been for you trying to seduce my cousin I never would have known you were still alive.”
“Well, you are lucky in that he didn't care for me that way,” she said. “And that he didn't want to hurt you.”
Holmes looked over at her. “He said that?” he asked, his grin becoming less wry.
“Oh yes. He likes you much more than he likes Mycroft, and slightly less than he likes your aunt,” she said. “You hadn't done anything to hurt him so he felt no need to hurt you, and while he might have been oblivious to some aspects of human emotion he cared enough about you to make sure he didn't do something you would hate him for.”
“I hadn't expected that. I thought he refused you because he just wasn't interested.”
“That was a large part, but not the only part.” She shifted her position slightly to get more comfortable. “I confused him.”
“You're usually rather straightforward about things,” he said. “How did you confuse him?”
“When I met with him the first time he wasn't able to deduce anything about me. He told me he'd look at me and get nothing, then he'd turn to John and be able to figure out every last facet about him, and then he'd turn back to me and still be able to deduce nothing. I think that was the real reason he was flustered that day, not because I met with him stark naked.”
“It is still unnerving that both of us have seen you with no clothing on.”
“John has too,” she pointed out.
“That doesn't make me feel better,” he said with a sigh.
“Well, perhaps the fact he tried his best not to look will make you feel better. I don't think Sherlock would have made me put on his coat if it hadn't been making John uncomfortable.”
“I wonder if he's seen his girlfriend naked yet,” Holmes mused.
“I know the answer to that,” Irene said with a wide smile.
“And?” he prompted.
“He has,” she said. “Though the first time was not for the reason she would have liked.”
“I think this is something I need to hear.”
“Biological contamination when they were in her morgue. The two of them were exposed to something that had the potential of being quite nasty and part of the decontamination process involved being stripped down and...well, decontaminated. There were a whole host of people who saw both of them naked and from what I understand she was mortified.”
“Molly did strike me as the type to be a bit self-conscious,” he said. “To be honest, I'm still rather surprised he's dating someone like her.”
“As opposed to someone like me? Remember that I tried to seduce him and failed miserably,” she pointed out.
“That is true,” he conceded. “Still. I can't see what type of appeal she has towards him, other than having the patience of a saint.”
“She takes him exactly as he is and doesn't expect him to make major personality changes now that they're dating. And he's also said that she's been there for him when others couldn't, and because of that they have a very strong bond. To be honest, I don't think he could see himself with anyone else. I think it's quite lovely, actually.”
“Well, the same applies to you and I,” Holmes said. “I don't want to be with anyone else, either.”
“I know,” she said with a smile. “That makes me deliriously happy.” She sat up a bit more and motioned for him to lean over. He took the hint and kissed her, and when they were done she touched his face slightly. “You should finish getting ready for bed. Your cousin's flight leaves quite early tomorrow.”
“He did say I didn't need to take him to the airport,” he pointed out.
“Well, still. You should. I can sleep in an empty bed for a bit while you accompany him to the airport. But if you don't get some sleep you'll be cranky.”
“I'm never cranky,” he said.
“Oh, you're always cranky. Or rather cantankerous. But I love you anyway.” She pushed at him slightly. “Hurry up and join me here in bed so I can get some sleep, at least.”
“Fine,” he said, giving her a grin. “But only because you insist.”
“Good,” she said with a slight nod before giving him back a wider smile. As he got off the bed he realized that he was incredibly lucky that things had turned out the way they did. They could have gone very differently indeed. One day he might think about it more, but right now he just wanted to be happy, be content. That was what he wanted more than anything else.