[Oops I think I stuck 9 in the wrong place. I think it should go here. (Nesting gets confusing to me sometimes). And yay Johnlock! ]
"So, not what you expected, then?"
John wasn't particularly good at reading his boyfriend's face, ( Yes, boyfriend, dammit. If I can have girlfriends then I can have a boyfriend. Nothing adolescent about it, it just takes some getting used to, is all ) but this was obvious. Disappointment.
"No. Not quite. Something's off. He's not lying, but, it just doesn't fit."
"There's more than one way to lie, you know. Lying by omission is a big one. I'm a bit of an expert at that." John smiled, but sadness was still in his eyes. "Not to make it about me, you see, but I know that feeling rather well. When it isn't exactly right, but it isn't exactly *wrong* either. Don't let it fool you. Trust your instincts."
"Instincts are nothing without facts to back them up. I can not make bricks without clay. Give me data!"
He practically threw his coat on the hook. John was worried. Tea. Tea would help. Tea always helps. Bloody British Penicillin, he muttered to himself, but he was making a pot all the same.
Sherlock pounced on the couch, still clearly furious. He moved his hands aggressively as he spoke.
"It's difficult with him. He could fool me if he really wanted to, but I don't think he does. Eventually, everyone seems to want to be found out, and he is no exception."
"So, you did get somewhere?"
"In a manner of speaking. I know he didn't lie. But there is a greater truth. And..." And, this is why I need John Watson. Always the whetting stone to my mind, "... he tried to make me turn away. He tried to distract my train of thought. Purposefully. With Mycroft, it is always purposefully."
"I know you want hard evidence, but you might never get it."
"Never to move beyond mere suspicion. How infuriating! Crueler than the act itself."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far."
"He denied ever laying a finger on me. And that's 100% true. I know it!"
"Concealment within truth, Sherlock."
"Yes. But if what he said is true, and there's really no other conclusion I can come to, then it's simply not enough."
John brought the tea to the sofa. "I don't..." He cut himself short. Shook the words out of his head. He was not about to say "I don't understand" again. Not for a long, long time. "What do you mean by 'not enough'?"
"Whatever he did would not have been severe enough to have had, that effect on me." Sherlock turned away and muttered "I'm sorry, John."
John was stunned. Hearing those words coming from Sherlock Holmes was a rarity in and of itself, but in this context it was completely jarring.
"You have nothing whatsoever to be sorry about. Well, that's not entirely true. The fingernails on the countertop, for the cyanide..."
"Arsenic."
"Arsenic test. That is something you should be apologizing for. But not your emotional reactions. Never that."
Re: FILL 9/? Plausible Deniability (TW: underage, child abuse, incest, dark!mycroft)
"So, not what you expected, then?"
John wasn't particularly good at reading his boyfriend's face, ( Yes, boyfriend, dammit. If I can have girlfriends then I can have a boyfriend. Nothing adolescent about it, it just takes some getting used to, is all ) but this was obvious. Disappointment.
"No. Not quite. Something's off. He's not lying, but, it just doesn't fit."
"There's more than one way to lie, you know. Lying by omission is a big one. I'm a bit of an expert at that." John smiled, but sadness was still in his eyes. "Not to make it about me, you see, but I know that feeling rather well. When it isn't exactly right, but it isn't exactly *wrong* either. Don't let it fool you. Trust your instincts."
"Instincts are nothing without facts to back them up. I can not make bricks without clay. Give me data!"
He practically threw his coat on the hook. John was worried. Tea. Tea would help. Tea always helps. Bloody British Penicillin, he muttered to himself, but he was making a pot all the same.
Sherlock pounced on the couch, still clearly furious. He moved his hands aggressively as he spoke.
"It's difficult with him. He could fool me if he really wanted to, but I don't think he does. Eventually, everyone seems to want to be found out, and he is no exception."
"So, you did get somewhere?"
"In a manner of speaking. I know he didn't lie. But there is a greater truth. And..." And, this is why I need John Watson. Always the whetting stone to my mind, "... he tried to make me turn away. He tried to distract my train of thought. Purposefully. With Mycroft, it is always purposefully."
"I know you want hard evidence, but you might never get it."
"Never to move beyond mere suspicion. How infuriating! Crueler than the act itself."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far."
"He denied ever laying a finger on me. And that's 100% true. I know it!"
"Concealment within truth, Sherlock."
"Yes. But if what he said is true, and there's really no other conclusion I can come to, then it's simply not enough."
John brought the tea to the sofa. "I don't..." He cut himself short. Shook the words out of his head. He was not about to say "I don't understand" again. Not for a long, long time. "What do you mean by 'not enough'?"
"Whatever he did would not have been severe enough to have had, that effect on me." Sherlock turned away and muttered "I'm sorry, John."
John was stunned. Hearing those words coming from Sherlock Holmes was a rarity in and of itself, but in this context it was completely jarring.
"You have nothing whatsoever to be sorry about. Well, that's not entirely true. The fingernails on the countertop, for the cyanide..."
"Arsenic."
"Arsenic test. That is something you should be apologizing for. But not your emotional reactions. Never that."