I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 49 : Guns and tight shirt.

"Come on man ! We are not going to spend our entire morning on this!" a tall blonde man complained to Gregory.
"Shut up Donougher. You'll keep training until I judge you are ready for the next step." retorted the detective, pointing to the other man to focus back on the disassembled gun laying down on the table in front of him. Like once every month, the inspector had to bring his team to the shooting stand for standard gun holding exercises and like every month one of his officer was complaining about being there better than in his office eating donuts. Greg, on his side, was quite pleased to be able to escape his stifling office and all the paperwork he was still to fulfil even if it was to spend his morning surrounded by 14 officers and as many guns in a noisy environment.
"Come on boss, we do that every month, you know I'm able to reassemble it." snapped Donougher, annoyed to be the last not to be able to proceed to the next stage of the examination.
"Yes,then if you are able to do it, do it." replied the inspector, pissed by the childish reaction of his man. "And you'd better hurry up if you don't want to lose your right to be armed."
The blonde moaned but returned to his task, finally achieving what he was asked to and the group made their way to the shooting stands, putting up earmuffs and protection glasses. A young policewoman carrying a whistle was waiting for them in front of the targets and repeated them the usual security rules while they were taking their positions.
"We're going to start with 3 strings of 6 bullets. Kneel please. Steady. Go." she ordered, her words quickly followed by a blow in her whistle and the loud sound of flying bullets.
They shot the three strings of bullets before standing up and pulling their earmuffs off, making their way to the targets 15 feet away to examine their results. Greg took a quick look, quite happy with his achievement, having placed eight of the bullets in the head and nine in the heart, only missing his target once with a bullet in the stomach. Most of the officers failed a couple of bullets but apart from four of them, they all were authorized to make it to the next string, the other having to retake the first one before joining them.
After a couple more hours of shooting at cardboard targets, the 15 men were dismissed and made their way back to the changing room, all having renewed their gun carrying authorization. The detective opened his locker and seized his shirt and trousers, putting them up quickly, eager to leave, having an appointment with Molly for lunch in a coffee near Barts Hospital.
"Seeya guys !" he shouted to the rest of his team while leaving. "Don't forget the meeting at three and don't be late please."

"Hello Molly !" the detective greeted the young woman, kissing her on the cheek before sitting down on the empty chair. "How are you doing ?"
"Great. I've been to visit my mother in Somerset last week end, she sends you her best regards." smiled the post-mortem, pouring both of them a glass of sparkling water. "What about you ?"
"Oh ... That's very kind of her." noted the DI,surprised that Mrs Hooper senior actually reminded him as they had met only once at a party Molly was hosting five years ago. "For myself, it's quite good to actually. Better than last time tho..."
"Oh, I'm happy to hear that ! So you said you weren't at the Yard this morning, a big case to investigate ?" she wondered, drinking a gulp of her water.
"No, standard shooting examination like every month. Haven't got a decent case in weeks, Sherlock is driving me mental ..." the policeman sighed.
"Yeah, I've noticed that he is starting to be a bit bored." the young woman chuckled. "He've been running experiment in the lab last wee kbefore writing to a publishing house to say them that their star writer was wrong and that the person caught by the detective in his last story wasn't the culprit."
"He haven't done that ?" Gregory laughed, knowing that it was most probably what the consulting detective could do when being forced to inactivity.
"Yes, John told me. Actually I pity him. It musn't be that easy living with Sherlock 24/7 but when he has no case, 221B become the nickname for hell if you trust him." Hooper noticed in a grin.
"It's been awhile I haven't been to Baker Street actually. No case and Myc manage to picked up Alden almost every time this last month. I suspect he takes that as an excuse to check over his little brother by the way..." replied the yarder with a meaningful gesture of the hand.
"How is Alden by the way ? Still fencing and playing the piano ?" questioned Molly.
"Yeah, apparently he seems to like it. Mycroft say he is good at it. But at the moment, his greatest passion is chess. Can't stop him, can't even beat him !" retorted the man, half-proud and half annoyed.
"He is really a Holmes." the post-mortem laughed. "I think there is nothing we can do against that is it ?"
"No ... I suppose it was part of the deal when I accepted to move in with this idiot ..." giggled Greg while he was served his lasagne.
"Here's to you !" laughed the young woman before starting to eat her own dish, not paying attention to the fakingly-crossed look her friend was glancing at her.