His Favorite Melody

Looking

When John limped into the flat, he was met with the sight of Sherlock Holmes sprawled on sofa, seemingly in dreamy contemplation. Quickly after, he noticed a figure curled into Sherlock's chair. It was Melody, with a small blanket draped carefully over her. His gaze turned back to his flatmate, who was surrounded by paper, his laptop is open on his chest, along with his PDA and his phone. It looked as though he hadn't moved in hours. That was when John noticed that he had rolled up one sleeve and was fiddling with something on his exposed forearm.

"What are you doing?" John finally questioned, rather loudly.

Melody woke with a small start, causing Sherlock to look at her, then glance up at the man irritably. Mel rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked between the men as Sherlock showed John his arm.

"Nicotine patch, helps me think! Impossible to sustain a smoking habit in London these days - bad news for brain work!" he explained quickly.

"Good news for breathing." John tried to reason.

"Oh, breathing - breathing's boring." Sherlock quipped, earning a small snicker from a still groggy Melody. He looked over at her and cracked a small smile. Mel Smiled back before noticing the weight of the blanket on top of her. That certainly wasn't there when she fell asleep...

"Three patches?" John asked, breaking Mel out of her own thoughts.

"It's a three patch problem." Sherlock said as though it were a bit obvious.

John looked at Mel in slight disbelief. The woman simply shrugged, being used to Sherlock's antics.

"Well?" John asked as Sherlock simply continued to stare, lost in thought. "You asked me to come. I'm assuming it's important." he continued.

"Oh, yes, of course." Sherlock said, once again acknowledging John. "Can I borrow your phone?"

John simply stared at him. "... my phone!"

"Don't want to use mine - always a chance the number'll be recognized. It's on the website." Sherlock explained.

John looked at him with mounting indignation. "Mrs. Hudson's got a phone."

"Yeah, but she's downstairs." Sherlock shrugged.

"Melody has a phone."

Sherlock looked over at the woman. As their eyes met, she smiled.

"Melody was asleep. Seeing as how she has been deprived of that luxury for quite some time, I thought that it would be best to allow her to continue sleeping." Sherlock said, allowing himself to smile at Mel once again.

John noticed the small moment between the two, but decided against saying anything. I instead, he decided to give Sherlock a piece of his mind. "I was on the other side of London!"

"There was no hurry." Sherlock assured, obviously blind to John's irritation. He held his hand imperiously out for the phone.

John was seething, but already knew that there was no point in arguing. He handed his phone to Sherlock with a sigh of indignation.

"What's this about? The case?" John inquired.

"Her case." Sherlock corrected.