Work Text:
Three hours into the flight and the three friends had finished their dinners. Well, John and Cathy had finished their meals; Sherlock had eaten about a third of his seafood pasta and had charmed a steward into bringing two servings of tiramisu. Now he was drinking his coffee while John had a beer and Cathy enjoyed a peppermint tea.
The wedding had gone without any glitches, and now the newlyweds and their best friend were flying to Australia.
“John, your hotel is half way between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. When you get there on Tuesday morning, there should be tickets for a guided tour of the Opera House in the morning; there is a fine restaurant there where you can have lunch before you go to the bridge for your Bridge Climb at 3pm.”
“What are you talking about Sherlock?”
“The two most popular tourist attractions in Sydney John. They are only about a twenty minute walk apart. You will be staying halfway between them, so it will be easy to go from one to the other. Then there is a production of The Magic Flute at the Opera House in the evening, but you should get more out of it if you have already toured the building. And the Bridge climb, well it’s what it says, you climb to the top of the Bridge and you can see for miles, it’s almost the exact same height as the London Eye, it’s the best view in Sydney“
“No”
”Yes Cathy, you will be able to see all of the city. It’s an amazing view!”
“No. No I’m not going.”
“Yes, the tickets are all arranged, you just have to turn up on time.”
“No. What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand? I’m not going.”
“But...”
“John can go, but I. Will. Not. Go.”
“Sweetheart, Sherlock has arranged it all, it will be fine.”
“Well if it’s fine, you will probably enjoy it, but I am not going. I’ve never been on the London Eye, and I’m not climbing up to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There is no point arguing, I’m not going.”
“But Cathy, I thought...”
“Maybe you did Sherlock, I know you meant well, you were trying to be kind, but I don’t DO heights. There is no way I would go on a bridge climb.”
“You, you’re scared of heights? How could I not know that? Why didn’t I see that before?”
“Yes, are you happy now? Yes, I’m scared of heights. I don’t go up high because I have panic attacks. John, you should go, maybe we can get a refund of Sherlock’s money for the ticket. If not, maybe we can find someone else who wants my ticket. I’ll stay on the ground and take photos of you.”
“How could I not see that? I’ve known you for months. You have never said anything...”
“It’s alright Sherlock, you don’t need to know everything. I never said anything because sometimes when people know, they try to bully me, so I just don’t talk about it. You couldn’t have known.”
“But I always know. I don’t understand how I missed this.”
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A couple of hours later, somewhere over the Middle East, Cathy was snuggling under a rug, while Sherlock and John, now both drinking tea, discussed some of the details of their recent cases. John knew that some things couldn’t go in the blog, either because of privacy or security issues or just because the cases were just too boring to be worth publicising. Sherlock was unsure whether John should publish yet another book of Sherlock’s adventures (John always failed to include the truly important deductions), but John’s publishing successes during Sherlock’s absence had given the doctor tremendous satisfaction.
“I really do have to decide soon if I want to publish another book. If I do, I can’t put any case details on the blog, which is a disadvantage in that the blog acts as a sort of advertising for the work. But if I blog about them, I can’t really include them in the book.”
“John, I’ve decided it would be best if you and Cathy stop using birth control in mid March.”
“Wha... Sherlock, what are you...where did that come from?”
“Cathy and I have discussed it.”
“What, no we haven’t”
“Cathy, I thought you were asleep.”
“No Sherlock, I don’t sleep well on planes; even in business, I just can’t settle. And now you’re telling John that you and I have discussed this, when we obviously haven’t, well it’s just as well I am awake.”
“Cathy, I clearly remember. You told me that you want John to be with you when your children are born.”
“Yes. And?”
“There are never any interesting crimes at Christmas. Lots of murders, yes, but they are all by people forced to spend time together playing ‘happy families’. All the interesting criminals go
out of London. If you insist on having children, you should have them at Christmas time, when John and I aren’t so busy, and I will be able to spare him to be with you during the delivery. “
“Well in that case it is probably best that John and I have already decided that we are going to start trying to start our family at the end of the year.”
“March would be better.”
“No Sherlock, it really wouldn’t. You don’t know a lot about female hormones, do you?”
“Not really my area Cathy.”
“No, I didn’t think so. Pregnancy isn’t one of those things where you just decide to do it and it happens at once. It rarely happens in the first month. I spoke to my doctor about it, no not John, I can’t use John as my GP; anyway, I spoke to my doctor who said it would probably take three to six months. Maybe more. We might get lucky, but if we stop using contraception at Christmas, we should be pregnant by the next Christmas, but probably won’t have a baby yet. MAYBE we will be able to have our baby at Christmas, but there is no guarantee.”
“Oh”
John interrupted “Sherlock, I know you want me available for the work, but the simple truth is that we can’t be certain when we will be able to get pregnant. It will be as much a surprise for us as it will be for you. The one thing I can tell you is that you will be the third person to know.”
“The third. Who, oh yes, you two will have to know first. Well, I suppose that will have to do. But I think you should make a special effort to get pregnant in mid March.”
“OK Sherlock, that sounds totally acceptable. In mid March, you will have to go on cases alone. I’ll be busy. With my wife!”