Sherlock One Shots

The Case of the Stolen Spotlight

The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson

August 17

The Case of the Stolen Spotlight

Even after all this time Sherlock is still finding ways to surprise me. Whether it be a head waiting for me in the freezer or a samurai sword covered in blood resting on the coffee table I'm never greeted with anything dull or ordinary inside 221B.

Yesterday, however, a surprise of a completely different nature had been waiting for me when I entered our flat. There had been no experiment on the kitchen table, and no body parts stuck in the fridge. I found a pair of theatre tickets to something called 'Scarlett' sitting on the kitchen counter next to a folded up newspaper, and Sherlock was nowhere to be found.

Upon further inspection I'd found a note Sherlock had left for me, and after taking several moments to decipher the hurried scribbling I learned that Sherlock had in fact bought the tickets for us, and that the show was later that night. I'd never known Sherlock to be a fan of the theatre, but then again there are a lot of things I still don't know about Sherlock.

Sherlock had shown up no more than fifteen minutes after I'd entered the flat, and from then we went shopping for suits to wear to the theatre. Apparently one of my 'silly jumpers' wouldn't be proper attire for such an event. Still, I don't think Sherlock has much room to talk about 'silly' fashion after he spent a good five minutes looking at scarves in each store we went in.

Still, later that night I found myself in a suit and tie, sitting next to an equally as dressed up Sherlock in the front row waiting for the show to begin. How Sherlock had managed to acquire such premium seats I had no idea. I mean, Sherlock was sitting beside an actress from a very popular soap opera whose name escapes me at the moment, and I was sitting next to Kevin Doyle! The Kevin Doyle from Downtown Abbey! I couldn't believe it! Apparently he was there supporting a friend of his he'd made during his theatre career. He said his friend had finally made it to the big leagues and was the male lead in this major production.

He told me all about how they'd met at an audition for Romeo and Juliet, and though he'd ended up beating his friend out for the role of Benvolio, they'd still remained friendly and had remained in contact all these years. (It was quite unbelievable that they'd been friends for so long. It makes me wonder if my friendship with Sherlock will be as long lasting. I wouldn't be against it, and Sherlock hasn't seemed to grow tired of me just yet. At least I hope not.)

While I was listening to Mr. Doyle talk, Sherlock had somehow managed to disappear. I'd turned around to introduce him, but I'd found an empty seat. My first instinct was to go looking for him, but just as I was about to get up someone walked onto the stage. After he welcomed everyone to the show he made an announcement that because their lead male had come down with some sort of illness, there would be a change in casting for the production and his understudy, Desmond Krofft, would be playing the role.

I immediately looked to Kevin, who looked incredibly confused and told me that he'd just spoken to his friend earlier that day and he had sounded completely fine. It was around this time that I started to become suspicious, and my suspicion levels only increased when Sherlock hadn't returned by the time the play started. I waited until intermission to leave, as to not be rude, and went looking for Sherlock. After several minutes of searching indoors, I went outside and found him lurking around the back entrance to the theatre, apparently waiting for me.

Next thing I know, he had somehow managed to pick the lock and we were wondering around backstage. While we walked Sherlock began to explain how he'd been reading the paper and caught sight of an article telling about the recent death of a celebrity. Apparently he'd contracted some sort of mystery disease a while ago that had never gone away, and had finally lost the battle this past weekend. It was a shame too, as I'd seen him in several movies and thought him to be quite talented.