Mystery Man - Sherlock

-New Neighbour-

"Sherlock! Sherlock!"

"Not now, Mrs. Hudson! I've got things to do, places to be!"

Just as she had been opening the front door of the building, the door had flown open and Sherlock had zipped past her, giving her quite the fright. 

"Oh Sherlock, always on the move," Mrs. Hudson cried, now running up the stairs after him, he taking them two at a time thanks to his long stride and eagerness for - well, whatever it was. She wondered what it was this time. A murder? Suicide? Attack?

"That's the way the world moves, Mrs. Hudson: FORWARD! Which it seems you are taking part in seeing as you're preparing the other flat for a tenant."

She stopped mid-flight. He continued before she could question him.  "The people coming and going, commenting on the place. The frequent time you've been spending across the hall. Really, it's very obvious."

"Well then, took the words right out of my mouth," she sighed.  So the chase up the stairs had been for nothing then.  "Do pass it along to John."

"Will do!" And with that he disappeared into his own flat which would soon have a neighbour. 

"No you won't," she chuckled, and headed back down the stairs from where they had hurriedly just come. 

----------------------------------

"Ugh John, don't tell me you've got a girlfriend," Sherlock cringed as he entered 221B about a week later.

"Always makes a good first impression," John said, rising to his feet, as did the woman sitting across from him.  "Sherlock, this is Caroline, our new neighbour across the hall. I invited her round for tea-"

"Why?"

"Because that's something people do with new neighbours, make them feel welcome and gives them a chance to know each other."

"Oh - seems like far too much trouble to me."

"Of course it does. Well get your arse in here and say hello at least."

"You can join us, if you like," the woman, Caroline, offered.  "There's still plenty of biscuits, and even more where that came from - I hoard them by the tin!"

"No, no, far too much to do - hello, goodbye."

"Sherlock," pressed John.

Sherlock sighed, stopping in the kitchen before turning around and coming back towards them.

She extended her hand.   "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Holmes. Caroline Westin."

He shook her hand, holding eye contact. "You're the daughter of widower Harold Westin, died several months back-"

John sucked in a breath. "Oh, here we go-"

"-Leaving you the sole heir to the Westin family estate, including a large fortune and an assortment of worldly artifacts."

"Well done."

"I remember reading the articles in the papers."

"Ah. Good memory."

"Great memory."

"Feel free to just tell him to piss off, it's what most people do," John told her. 

"What are you doing with the manor house?" Sherlock asked. "What's driven you to renting an inner-city flat?"

"And how do you know I'm renting, not buying?"

"I saw your things coming in and up the stairs - bare minimum, suggesting you're not permanently settling down as of yet. And Mrs. Hudson said so."

She nodded. "Keeping it, for now, the house. I honestly just needed to get out of that haunted old place."

This caught him. "Haunted?"

"Some say." She winked. 

He seemed a little thrown. His eyes flicked back and forth.  "So that's it then?"

"That's it?"

"'Pleased to meet you,' and 'well done'..."

John chuckled, more of a scoff.  "He's confused: there's usually a lot more ooing and ahhing at his so-called greatness."

"Ah, I see. Well, impressive."

"That's it?"

"That's it," she confirmed.  

And with that he scurried away, without another word to them, though going on and on about all the things he had to do in varying degrees of detail while muttering to himself.

"Not really much of a welcome wagon, I'm afraid," John said by way of apology.

"Oh, you and Mrs. Hudson have been lovely, thank you. I think I'm very much going to enjoy it here."

(And off we go! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this first little part! :))