trashchildren | For Joan

"And we get to have a great time with you," she responds with a smile and a warm bump of her shoulder against his. She's so grateful to have him in their lives, and wants to make sure he knows how important he is to them.

"On it!" Joan says, giving him one more squeeze and peck before letting go to start pulling out plates and glasses and silverware. Sherlock joins her and together they set the table for three.

"Alright, here's hoping," Ted says, putting on oven mitts and reaching in to pull the roast out. It should be just right, and it both looks and smells it. It certainly doesn't diminish his appetite.

He sets it on the table, makes sure everything's nice and ready, and finally takes off the apron. "Sherlock, you're probably the best one at handling a knife, right?" he says with a small wink, gesturing to the roast that needs carving.

Joan sits, smiling at the feast Ted has prepared for them. It's way more food than they can eat tonight, but that's okay...Ted's food typically makes great leftovers, and she knows that cooking helps him deal with stress.

She looks up as Ted suggests that Sherlock carve the roast. "Not sure he can do much without throwing knives and twenty paces," Joan says, teasing her partner. He scoffs and picks up the carving knife.

"Certainly you remember the case where I used a pork roast to prove the murderer had..."

Joan holds up a hand. "Okay, yes, thank you, I remember that. Not now, okay?"

Sherlock shrugs a little and begins to carve the roast.

Ted chuckles at the banter. He could probably imagine, given the context. But he's feeling cheery enough that such matters feel far enough away that they don't really worry him.

"It's like that Roald Dahl story where the wife murders the husband with a leg of lamb, and then she invites the police officers for dinner, and they all eat the murder weapon," Ted says cheerfully. "I promise I didn't murder anyone with the roast beef. Or any of the side dishes, for that matter."

He's not completely above a little bit of dark humour.

"Something like that," Joan says with a smile, appreciating the reference. The actual case had to do with the victim being served up instead of the murder weapon, however, but she's not going to go into it, and with any luck Sherlock won't either.

"Regardless, I'm sure all this food is to die for," she quips playfully.

That was actually Ted's first guess - who hasn't seen Silence Of The Lambs, right? But he didn't want to risk being right.

He snorts at her quip, and gestures for her to start serving herself side dishes while Sherlock carves the meat. "Yeah, it should surprise no one that if I'm gonna read a Roald Dahl story, it's probably gonna be James And The Giant Peach, and not that one," he says with a chuckle. "Hey, did you know the town square down by the bay in Cardiff is named after him? Beard was telling all about it when we played there."

"For an author relegated to the morass of 'kiddie lit,'" Sherlock says, putting a couple slices of roast on each of their plates, "Dahl is strikingly macabre."

"I didn't know about the town square," Joan says, beginning to scoop sides onto her plate. "I haven't been to Cardiff yet."

Ted hums in agreement with Sherlock. Even the kiddie lit is a lot more macabre than you would think, at least some of them.

"Oh really? It's nice, they've got this cool old castle and stuff," he says. "I've ended up seeing a few cities, but unfortunately we don't really get time to sight-see a lot while there. I think the most I saw of Liverpool was the hotel and a karaoke bar. And yet, hoo boy, that was a trip."

Joan is aware of what happened on that trip.

"We should go!" Joan says, cutting a piece of roast. "To Cardiff, I mean. Or Liverpool, if you want. It would be nice to take a vacation at some point. Even if just for a couple days."

She takes a bite.

"Oh yeah, it would," Ted agrees, nodding, giving himself a healthy serving of gravy. "Though right now I feel like our vacation should be, like, something wintery. Go skiing or something. Of course, I don't know where you would do that in the UK.."

"Scotland," Sherlock says as he sits.

Joan looks over at him. He gives a small shrug.

"My boarding school had yearly skiing trips to Glencoe Mountain."

"You ski?" Joan says, amused.

"And risk a torsion fracture?" Sherlock replies, his nose wrinkled in distaste. "No. While the other boys were risking life and limb on the snow, I was in the lodge reading by the fire."

"That sounds pretty cozy too, actually," Ted agrees with a chuckle. He loves sports and adventure, but he also loves a good book and snuggling up by the fire. Although the latter feels even better after the former.

He finally gets to take a bite too, and hums in pleasure. Having been cooking for a long while, it's wonderful to be able to finally eat it.

"We could rent a cabin," Joan muses, cutting another piece of roast. "For the three of us."

As she puts the bite in her mouth Sherlock blinks at her, simultaneously surprised and touched that she's including him in this equation.

Ted meanwhile is not at all surprised, nor does he disagree. Though mentally he's also considering things like making sure they have bedrooms that are not adjacent. He loves having Sherlock around, just not always.

"I think I have a free weekend in January," he says, more seriously considering this now. He really only gets vacations during summer, and then they play almost every weekend, so there's limited options for when to squeeze in something like that.

That's definitely part of Joan's calculations as well. While the three of them are so close that a vacation would feel incomplete without Sherlock, she'd also greatly prefer that she and Ted have their own space, too.

"Whatever works for you," she says with a smile. "One of the benefits of not being paid is that we don't have to get permission to take time off."

Ted chuckles, nodding. "Right, right, makes sense. I mean, I do have vacation days I could probably use one or two of," he says, musing. "Just as long as I've made sure I've set the team up."

After the amount of time he missed this season, he doesn't want to be away for too long, at least not without preparation and knowing everything is going to be okay in his absence.

"If you have a free weekend, the players might appreciate a couple days off too?" She doesn't know how that usually works, being new to the whole world of football, but she imagines players get breaks, too.

"We will at least want to give the Yard a heads-up," Sherlock comments, and Joan gives him a smile, knowing that he's both making a suggestion and letting them know he's game.

Ted smiles, looking doubtful at Joan's suggestion. "You do remember how we took a half-day today, on Christmas," he points out. "But yeah, I'm sure we can figure something out."

"I guess I just assumed that's because you have a game tomorrow," she says before taking another bite. She chews and swallows. "Either way. We'll make it work."

"Well yeah, but, you know, career athletes, they are a little bit workaholics either way. If they weren't, they wouldn't be where they are," he answers. Considering the -- whoever it is who makes these decisions of when to schedule matches. (That's one of those things Beard knows, but Ted doesn't really worry about.) Considering that they did in fact schedule it the day after Christmas.

"You haven't given me your judgement on the food though," he points out with a smile.

"Mmm!" Joan hums as she chews another piece and swallows. "The food is amazing," she says with a smile. "You're such an incredible cook."

Sherlock nods in agreement as he also swallows his mouthful. "It is indeed exquisite. And certainly preferable to take-away Chinese."

As neither Joan nor Sherlock cook and they don't really have family in London, Chinese would have likely been their Christmas dinner without Ted.

"Good," Ted answers, relieved. "Just wanna make sure we have a nice time, you know, since I'm busy for a lot of Christmas." He's not usually so needy for reassurance regarding cooking, but after Henry disappeared on him, he just wants to make sure the rest of the day doesn't fall through as well.

She can tell he's a little anxious, and she's pretty sure it has to do with how things went down with Henry. Joan wouldn't necessarily call Ted a people pleaser...that's never been where his kindness and generosity is coming from...but he is keenly aware of when things go awry, and when people he cares about leave him for one reason or another.

She reaches out to take his hand and squeeze it gently, giving him a smile. "Just being with you makes it a great time," she says. "The incredible food is a bonus."

Ted squeezes her hand back, always so immeasurably grateful for Joan. Ted's not great at expressing sadness or vulnerability, but she always seems to pick up on it, and give him that extra bit of attention that he wouldn't ask for himself.

"Well good, cause I don't have anything special planned for the rest of the evening," he says with a little laugh. "I figure we can just open presents and then maybe watch a movie or something."

It's one of the benefits of having a detective for a girlfriend. She can pick up on the emotions beneath his perpetual optimism to know when he needs care. In a way he's like Sherlock in that respect. Sherlock's cynicism serves much the same role as Ted's optimism.

"That sounds perfect," Joan says. "I think we have hot chocolate and sugar cookies to go with that."

For Joan

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