Chapter Text
It was late in the night that John and Sherlock had finally solved the case and could go home. It was really cold and pouring outside, so before they reached the blissful warmth of a cab, their clothes were soaked with rain.
The case they wrapped up was one of the most tiring ones they ever had. Child kidnapping with two murders. At some point, there were even drug smugglers involved. Thankfully, the daughter of their clients’ came out of this mess unharmed. Except for the trauma of course.
It took almost three weeks of their time. John thought Sherlock to be a miracle worker, really. Especially since there were almost no traces to follow, no cameras to check the footage from. There hardly even were any witnesses.
And now their hard work had paid off and they had successfully closed the case yet again.
“That has been one hell of a case.”
Sherlock was visibly exhausted, the man hardly ever slept and during that case, both of them were exhausted. John insisted he had at least six hours of sleep, as he still worked outside cases at the local surgery. The detective himself functioned on catnaps whenever he thought was acceptable, which in fact was once a day or even less. The doctor was anything but happy with that arrangement, but he suffered through it for the sake of the kidnapped little girl. He did plan to force Sherlock to take care of himself better when the case was over though, which is why he already called for their usual Chinese takeaway.
“It was”
“You were brilliant as always though”
It never ceases to amaze me. The way his eyes lit up every time I praise him. As if he couldn’t believe the things I say are absolutely true. As if he didn’t believe himself to be remarkable. Which is as obvious to me as the fact that the world goes around the sun. I’ve never met anyone like him. The ways that his mind works are out of this decade, and if the people around him can’t see that, they are idiots. And they are, as the genius so frequently reminds me.
“Okay, the game plan for now is a shower for you while we wait for our dinner, then sleep.”
Sherlock was drained and even sitting in the cab I could see that. He was white as a sheet, more so than usual. There was no doubt that it wouldn’t be much longer and the man would be in serious trouble. He always appreciated being told what to do instead of thinking about it himself when he was this exhausted.
Once inside, we went up the stairs trying to keep the noise to a minimum, as Mrs Hudson tended to come and congratulate us on a closed case and neither of us had the energy to deal with her at the moment.
Sherlock went straight to the loo to take a quick shower and I prepared the dishes for the takeaway dinner. Ish, cause it was almost 11 PM. We were lucky the restaurant delivered that late. Very lucky indeed as we were saved many times by that option. I cleaned up the kitchen table from the stacks of paper and remains from our last meal. Next was the tea.
I got the doorbell and went up to see that Sherlock was already sitting at the table with his head in his hands, elbows on the table. The light was catching at his curls in a way that I could tell that his hair was wet from the shower. There was a steaming mug of tea in front of him. I got him his meal as I could see that it took all of his effort to lift the cup to his lips.
We ate in silence and it became apparent that he was in worse condition than I had previously thought. His hands were slightly shaking and he ate more slowly than his usual I’m tired after a case manner. He was slightly squinting against the light, barely there but I knew him well enough to notice. He didn’t even finish his food eating only a better half of it when I decided it was enough.
“Alright, up with you”
He was resigned and wordlessly let me manhandle him to the bedroom where once his head hit the pillow he was already asleep.
I cursed half-heartedly as I got him out of his robe. Couldn’t he think beforehand that it would be uncomfortable to sleep in it?
I managed to put him in a decent position with his head on a pillow and cover him with a blanket he fell asleep on (which took some effort as the tall git is not as light as one would think he is).
I might not have been as exhausted as Sherlock was but still, I was tired as well. On top of that, I had a shift at the surgery in the morning. Either way, I cleaned up the kitchen once again and took a brief shower myself. Before I headed upstairs I quietly opened the door to Sherlock’s bedroom and stole a quick glance at his sleeping figure. He seemed alright and I could go to sleep myself.