trashchildren | For Joan

Joan loves sharing interesting facts with him. She loves how curious he is, how much he loves learning new things.

"That would be so much fun," she says, setting her plate down and picking up her wineglass. "I imagine Keeley in particular goes all out cheering the team on."

"Oh, I bet," Ted agrees, then pauses. "I have no idea though, obviously I've never been up there during a match. Though Higgins told me Rebecca's gotten real into it lately," he says with a warm chuckle. He hasn't seen it during a match, but it's been delightful watching her open up.

"I imagine it would be hard to coach from there," she says, amused. "Rebecca does seem a little formal. I'm glad she's been enjoying the games more."

Ted's affection for the woman is clear, but Joan doesn't let it worry her. She trusts that Ted would tell her if there was something romantic going on.

"Yeah, I think I mentioned she got the team in her divorce, so obviously she had some complicated feelings about all of it," Ted says with a nod. "But then eventually she became invested in it, you know, on her own terms."

Ted doesn't plan on divulging what those complicated feelings actually led to, because that's water under the bridge, but the actual emotional investment isn't really a secret.

"I'm glad." They'd talked about it a little, and Joan had known the basics before she walked into the office to question the woman. "Divorce is rarely easy, but that one was nastier than most."

She leans her head against his shoulder, a bit of affection, knowing that divorce is likely still a difficult subject for him.

Ted hums in agreement, popping the last bit of food in his mouth, then leaning forward (carefully so he doesn't topple Joan) to put the plate down and pick up the wine glass. Now they're done eating he puts an arm around her shoulder so they can cuddle up more effectively.

It's not an easy subject, for sure. "Suppose I'm lucky that Michelle and I are still on good terms," he says softly. Overall he feels a lot better these days, especially with Joan, but it doesn't necessarily eliminate that small bit of sadness he's still working on.

She snuggles against him. "It's definitely a good thing. Especially for Henry." She's seen the fallout from bitter divorces, and it's always the kids who have it the worst, watching their parents hate each other. Ted clearly still loves his ex-wife, and she at least cares about him. And they both clearly adore their son.

Ted nods at that. He could've dealt with it if Michelle hated him. It would've hurt, but he'd be okay eventually. But the effect it would have on Henry, and on Ted and Henry's relationship, that would've been devastating.

"Oh, hey, speaking of," he adds with a smile, shifting a bit to pull his phone out of his pocket. He opens the text conversation with Michelle and shows it to Joan, where the last message is from after the game last night, with a drawing of a cyborg dinosaur, and a compliment from Henry passed on by Michelle.

"Oh wow!" Joan says, looking at the picture. "That's adorable. He's got a great imagination."

It's clear that Henry loves his dad very much, and Joan can only imagine how wonderful that is for Ted.

"Does he watch all your games?"

Ted nods proudly. "I mean, how much he actually pays attention is a different matter," he adds with a chuckle. "Boy checks out of me saying three sentences sometimes, can't expect him to focus on 90 whole minutes of guys kicking a ball around."

Not that Ted minds. All that matters is that Henry cares, and that much is obvious.

"He's young," she agrees. "Jut having him watch has got to feel good, being able to share this huge part of your life with him."

It's one thing that has crossed Joan's mind when she's thought of adopting a child, how wonderful it would be to share her world with them.

"Yeah," Ted agrees happily. "What about you, you ever thought about having kids?" Then quickly he adds, "That's not a proposition or anything, just curious."

Not that it's not a proposition, it's just, you know, a smidge early to discuss that kind of thing. He'd love to have another kid, but he'd also be happy if Henry was his only one. So he's not that invested in getting a specific answer.

She smiles, laughing a little at the addendum. It is a tiny bit too early to talk about having a child together...but Joan actually finds herself considering the possibility.

"I've definitely thought about it. For a while I looked into the possibility of adopting."

"Oh yeah?" he asks, smiling and encouraging her to elaborate. He could easily see her as a mom. She's got a very caring and responsible nature.

"Yeah. At one point I hosted a woman at the brownstone who was pregnant and looking for someone to adopt her baby. She was a grad student and didn't feel like she could handle being a mom, and she wanted to get to know the people who were interested in adopting her child. We hit it off really well. She wound up deciding to keep the baby. Said I had helped give her the confidence to be a mom."

It's clearly bittersweet. She's happy for the woman...but had been a little heartbroken, too.

Ted picks up on the mixed feelings, and smiles softly and gives her shoulders a little squeeze. It says a lot about Joan too, and it makes Ted like her even more.

"Well, I think you'd make a great mom," Ted says, with absolute confidence. "And I'm sure Sherlock would make a great... eccentric uncle?" he adds, somewhat more jokingly.

Joan sighs at that squeeze and gives him a grateful smile, feeling seen and understood and cared for. She chuckles a little at the joking.

"Sherlock actually offered to move out of the Brownstone, if our unorthodox living situation was a barrier to me adopting. I wouldn't have made him do that, though. He'd make an amazing eccentric uncle."

Ted chuckles with amusement. He doesn't know enough about him to judge, but he's sure Joan would know. And he's sure if Joan was adopting a kid on her own (since she hasn't mentioned there was another person involved), having a second adult in the house would be helpful, even if they're not romantically involved. Not like it's that uncommon to live in different family units than the nuclear family.

"The 'Brownstone' is your place in New York?" he asks, now Joan has used that word twice.

Joan had told Sherlock that he wouldn't have to do anything if she had a child, that it would be her responsibility alone. That said, it seems likely he would have been somewhat involved.

"Oh! Yes. Sorry, I should have explained." The Brownstone is such a central part of her life in New York that it seems like a matter-of-course. "It's a row house in Brooklyn. Technically it belongs to Sherlock's father. It's where we live, and where we do a lot of our work. Which means it's not exactly your usual home." She slips her hand into his and gives it a squeeze. "I would love to show it to you someday."

Ted listens curiously, and at the last bit he smiles warmly. He loves that she wants to share her life with him, not just in the spending time together way, but in introducing him to all sorts of aspects of it, and he's so eager to see all of it.

"I'd love that," he agrees. "So, what, do you have a secret lab there and stuff, or what?" he asks with a small laugh. He wouldn't put it past them. (Maybe not a full lab, although that would be kind of cool.)

"Not exactly," she says, smiling. "We have some lab equipment, but we usually use the kitchen table. We do a lot of our work in the living room, so we have some interesting things in there. We also tend to put things up on the wall over the fireplace when we're working a case, to help visualize the connections we're looking for. Oh, and there's a rack of locks that we use to practice lockpicking."

Ted nods along, trying to envision the place. Mostly he's imagining something like 221B, but with those things she's mentioning. And of course she knows how to pick locks. Of course.

"Oooh, so you got the big conspiracy board and everything," Ted says excitedly. "And here I gotta make do with just a boring whiteboard," he adds jokingly. Obviously he doesn't actually need a conspiracy board to do his job. Especially because, well, he's working with the same team, he doesn't have different cases, just different opponents, and there's probably not enough basis there to fill a big board every week.

She lifts her eyebrows. "Conspiracy board!" she says. "I haven't heard that one. 'Crazy wall' is what people usually call it." She smiles. "I definitely don't knock the use of a good whiteboard. I'd love to watch you work yours." She'd love to watch him in his element in general. She's only seen bits and pieces here and there in his interactions with his players outside the stadium, and on TV whenever the camera is turned to him on the sidelines.

"Yeah, you know, with the red strings connecting all the clues?" Ted says, smiling. "Gotta have the red string though, otherwise it doesn't count. But yeah, for me it's less about the whiteboard and more about the people, really."

And he'd gladly have her spectating him working, but then again, he'd probably find it difficult to concentrate and remain professional.

She grins, laughing. "Every once in a while there's string involved." She rolls her eyes in mock drama. "And yes, okay, the string is usually red. We actually have a wall we use at 221B for the same purpose, if you'd like to see an actual conspiracy wall in action, the next time we have a case."

It would be a lot easier for Ted to watch Joan at work rather than the other way around.

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