Chapter Text
She’d been having such horrible pain. She’d gone to the A & E at Royal London as soon as she’d gotten off her shift at Barts and they’d given her a bit of special treatment, bless them. After a round of tests and a cocktail of cranberry drink and barium sulfate for a CT scan they determined she had gallstones and an inflamed gallbladder and would need to have her gallbladder removed. That was just what she didn’t want to hear; she’d made plans to take a holiday away from London over Christmas and New Years, take a cruise to the Western Caribbean, but they were going to take her into surgery the day before Christmas. Supposedly the surgery would only take a few hours, and she’d get to go home to recuperate, but she would end up spending most of her holiday in bed and it was going to take at least two full weeks to recover.
This was going to be a miserable holiday.
She made her way back home, her heart heavy. She supposed if she could find a friend who could get the time off on such a short notice she could talk to the cruise company about transferring the cruise package to them. It might be a nice treat for John and Mary; there was always the chance that they could get a crib for Lynette to use. And she supposed she could arrange for someone to check in on her if she couldn’t get out of bed, which, with major abdominal surgery, she had the feeling was going to be likely.
Once she got to her flat she left herself in, noting almost immediately that the lights were on and that it smelled of Persian takeaway. That could only mean one thing. She set her handbag down on the table by her door and spoke as she took off her coat and scarf. “So I take it you heard,” she said out towards her sitting room.
“Surgery scheduled for nine in the morning Christmas Eve,” Sherlock said from the vicinity of her sofa. She moved out of her foyer and saw him sitting there, suit jacket off and shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, munching on midye tava. He motioned to a container that she hoped had hunkar begendi in it. She thought maybe she could stand that. When she sat next to him, she was pleased to see that it had. He handed her a fork and she sat down next to him. “I’m here to help arrange things for you.”
“Arrange things for me?” she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.
He nodded. “I know that his cruise that you booked was your dream vacation,” he said, having another bite of his food. “By the way, if you want, you can transfer the tickets, even on such short notice, and a certain married couple consisting of a blogger and assassin would enjoy the time away from their child, who Mrs. Hudson has graciously agreed to watch over the course of their trip, as I will be here for the duration of your recovery.”
Now she knew the expression on her face was one of shock. “What?” she asked, turning to him and ignoring the forkful of food hanging halfway between her mouth and the container.
“I have no cases at the moment. I do not plan on taking any in the interim, either, as you will be unavailable and hopefully John will be on the cruise with Mary. And you are a good friend. You have taken care of me in many ways. It’s time I return the favor.” He took another bite of his food. “You have no family to look after you, and most of your other friends are rather flighty, to be perfectly blunt. I am not as useless at home care as most would think, I can be decent company, despite what many people think, and in point of fact I have no other holiday plans and I want to help ensure your holiday is not a miserable mess.”
She knew she was looking at him as though he had grown two heads, and after a moment he scowled and looked away. She dropped her fork in the container and then quickly put a hand on his arm before he could get up. “Sherlock, I just…I honestly thought I didn’t mean that much to you, that’s all,” she said, when she felt him push up against her arm as though he still wanted to bolt. After a moment she felt him settle and look at her hands. “Ever since last Christmas, we’ve been a bit more distant. Maybe even before that. Maybe since John and Mary got married. I mean, we spend time together, but it’s…”
“Like there’s been a barrier,” he said quietly.
She nodded. “Yes. That was part of the reason I took the cruise. I didn’t really think anyone would care whether I was here or not this year. I mean, I knew I would be missed, but I didn’t think it would matter.” She curled her hand on his arm slightly. “Maybe while you’re here playing nursemaid, we can see about taking that barrier down?” she asked hopefully.
He looked up at her, meeting her eyes before nodding slowly. “All right,” he said quietly. She gave him a small smile and squeezed his arm before letting go. Having gone through medical rotations and learning about various surgical things she had some idea of what to expect during the surgery and physically when it came to her recovery, but to be honest? As she watched Sherlock go back to his meal before starting to make plans for what to do while she was recovering from surgery, she wasn’t sure she had any idea of what to expect after the surgery at all.