For Joan

[theodorelasso]

Continued from here.

(warnings: sexytimes. also, panic attacks, brutal violence, attempted murder, discussion of suicide and actual murder... )

Comments

[formersurgeon]

Joan knows that she's not out of the woods yet. That there's still plenty to worry about. But she is determined to lessen Ted and Sherlock's worry as much as possible. It's the best she can do to take care of them.

She sees those tears and her heart aches. Trembling with the effort, she lifts her other hand, the one with the IV, and cups his cheek, gently brushing his tears away. She doesn't have a lot of strength, so she lowers her hand, still smiling.

"Everything's going to be fine," she murmurs.

[theodorelasso]

Ted can tell she's using what little energy she has to comfort and protect him, and he loves her so much for it. He leans down and kisses her forehead, then hugs her - not a full body hug, even if he really wants to - just resting his hand on the back of her neck and putting his head against hers, burying his face in her hair. Just to be close for a moment.

"I love you," he whispers into her ear.

It takes him a very long moment before he pulls back again, clearing his throat a little. He looks around for a chair, letting go of Joan's hand just for a moment to pull up the chair and sit down, before taking her hand again. He plans to leave this spot as little as possible.

Now that he's no longer actively panicking about Joan, he realizes he has very little idea of what actually happened near the end of the gala there, so he turns to Sherlock again.

"Um. Is everyone else alright?" he asks. That's obviously his number one priority.

[formersurgeon]

Joan leans her head against his in turn, her eyes closed. It feels good to be held by him, however awkwardly. She lifts a hand to settle it on his waist.

"I love you," she whispers back.

She smiles as he pulls the chair over, giving his hand a slight squeeze when he takes hers. She knows he's here for the long haul, and she's so grateful.

Sherlock sits as well in the chair further from the bed, there to look after Watson without getting between her and her beloved. When Ted addresses him he looks up, straightening.

"Yes," he answers. "The assassin was careful to only poison your plate. He also used a form of cyanide that had to be injected to be toxic, so that he would not be poisoned through skin contact."

[theodorelasso]

Ted nods. That's good at least. He can imagine everyone is a bit rattled, given everything, but as long as no one's hurt, they should be okay.

"Don't suppose you've got our phones on you?" he ventures. He wouldn't necessarily expect him to carry them around, but it's worth a try. He assumes there are a lot of people trying to get hold of him right now.

[formersurgeon]

"I do not." Sherlock can very much understand why Ted would want his phone. There were plenty of people who surely had plenty of questions and concerns. "If you like I can have them fetched." He'd offer to get them himself, but he has no intention of leaving Watson. "Alternately, you may use my phone to contact whoever you wish."

"Beard?" Joan suggests softly. He'd definitely want to know they're okay, and would be able to contact the others.

[theodorelasso]

Ted nods at the suggestion of calling Beard, but using Sherlock's phone makes no sense to him. "Well, I don't know his number," he points out, looking between the two of them. Right, they probably do memorize phone numbers, don't they? Ted doesn't really have any reason to.

[formersurgeon]

Sherlock pulls out his phone, types in a number, then offers it to Ted. Ted might recognize Beard's number. At very least he'll recognize the Kansas area code.

Joan raises her eyebrows. Sherlock glances at her. "Don't look so surprised, Watson. I needed a way to reach Ted in case he wasn't answering his phone."

[theodorelasso]

Ted blinks at the phone, then lets out an amused huff. "Yeah no, that would probably be an effective way," Ted agrees. They do spend a lot of time together.

He presses the call button and leans back in his seat.

"Hey, Coach.. Yeah, we're okay, yeah," he says, making an effort to sound calm and reassuring, and not like he's emotionally and physically exhausted (which he is). "Yeah. How about there, is everyone alright?" he asks, nodding as Beard quickly summarizes - the gala got wrapped up pretty quickly, as smoothly as Rebecca could manage, and mostly everyone's just confused and worried.

"Yeah, listen, it's a long story, but I promise I'm going to explain everything," he says. "Um, how about tomorrow, if you can round up everyone. Not the team, but, the Diamond Dogs and the gals. ..Okay, thank you. ..Yeah, thanks, that'd be good. ..Yeah, no, my phone's at Sherlock's place, but I'll be at the hospital. ..Alright. Bye now."

[formersurgeon]

Joan listens, smiling faintly, fondly, as Ted goes out of his way to be reassuring. It's definitely not always the healthiest of impulses, and Joan knows to not always take it at face value, but it's still borne of his need to take care of people, and she loves him all the more for it.

From the expression on his face Joan would guess everyone is okay, which is a relief. Ted talks about explaining tomorrow, and when he's off the phone she squeezes his hand slightly.

"Are they coming here?" she asks, meaning in her hospital room.

[theodorelasso]

He shakes his hand a little, handing Sherlock back his phone. "At the club," he explains.

He doesn't want to put Joan through having that many visitors, who will no doubt be fussing and worried, while Ted tries to explain everything that's been going on. Besides, he thinks it might sound better coming from him alone. If any of them have any misgivings or questions they might not want to say in front of her.

"Beard's coming by though, and I'm sure everyone will want to visit," he adds. (Whether that's true will probably vary. Not everyone will want to intrude, since they don't know Joan that well, but Ted just assumes they'll want to.)

After a moment Sherlock will get a text from Beard, offering to pick up their phones, since he's already fetching other things.

[formersurgeon]

"Okay," she says softly, tiredly, closing her eyes. "That's good." All things being equal she would have wanted to be there, but she definitely doesn't have the energy. She also doesn't know what state she'll be in tomorrow, and she doesn't want to alarm them.

Sherlock texts Beard back, asking him to stop by the hospital to pick up the key.

[theodorelasso]

Ted looks at Joan sadly, his heart aching for her and the pain she's going through. He lifts her hand to give it a soft kiss, then just sits there slightly leaned against the hospital bed, stroking her hand with his thumb. He doesn't want to exhaust her with talking either, but he'll sit here and keep her company for as long as she needs.

Eventually Beard arrives, though he doesn't enter the room, not wanting to disturb, instead just texting Sherlock that he's outside the room. For now he's just brought them some coffee, water bottles, and some wrapped up food and snacks that they can eat whenever they need. He assumes their appetite won't be the strongest at the moment.

[formersurgeon]

Joan drifts off, her chest gently rising and falling with each breath, the monitors beeping softly with each beat of her heart.

Sherlock steps out of the room to meet Beard, give him the key, and receive the supplies. He tells Beard exactly where the phones can be found.

[theodorelasso]

Beard of course offers to pick up anything Sherlock might need. Especially given Sherlock is still dressed as a waiter, which Beard can only assume has something to do with the arrest of Rupert Mannion, though he doesn't ask.

Ted hadn't exactly eaten much at the gala, so he appreciates the supplies. He's so tired - not sleepy, and the tiredness isn't just in his body, but his entire being.

Eventually Beard returns, not just with the phones, but with various things Ted might need. He accurately predicts Ted will want to stay the night, so he's brought a change of clothes, some toiletries, his laptop and chargers, and even a blanket and pillow so the hospital room couch will be marginally more comfortable.

This time Ted does go out to greet him, since Joan is fast asleep, mostly so he can get a good hug from Beard. It's one he sorely needs.

Once Ted returns to the hospital room, he goes to check his phone - there's dozens of texts and missed calls, as expected. There's also a text from Michelle, and Ted sags with relief once he checks it and realizes she hasn't seen the news.

"I'm, uh, just going to make a call," he tells Sherlock quietly, before leaving the room again to phone Michelle.

[formersurgeon]

When Ted goes out to meet Beard, Sherlock moves to sit next to Watson, so that someone will be there if she wakes up. When Ted says he needs to make a phone call, Sherlock merely nods, his eyes on his partner.

[theodorelasso]

It's an... emotionally complicated phone call, to say the least. She quickly picks up on that something is wrong just from his voice.

First he has to tell her that he's been dating Joan for a little while now. And that even as it got more serious, there didn't seem to be a good time to talk about it, with everything going on. That they wanted to at least introduce them while Michelle was there, but there were complications.

She is, of course, congratulatory and pleased. Ted wonders if she's upset, but hiding it since Ted's going through a lot. He hopes she's as cool with it as she sounds like she is, for her sake.

It's hard to know how much to tell her after that. He doesn't want to worry her, but withholding information when it's eventually going to go public seems wrong and a bad idea.

He ends up giving her an honest but fairly summarized version, downplaying the danger. There's only so much he can downplay 'someone repeatedly tried to kill me' without flat-out lying though. He definitely doesn't say how close Joan came to dying.

But then after he finally finishes telling her everything, he gets to talk to Henry for a bit, just talking about what he's been up to the past few days. That is at least a good emotional band-aid.

When he finally returns to the hospital room, he looks even more drained and exhausted than he was when he left, and he starts packing out the stuff Beard brought, just to have something to do.

[formersurgeon]

Sherlock sees how Ted looks when he re-enters the room. He looks back at Joan, the person he loves most in the world, who nearly died protecting this man. Sherlock opens and closes his hands a few times. He's not the comforting type, but Joan would absolutely comfort Ted, and Sherlock feels an obligation to help in this, considering Joan would but cannot, and considering Ted is, for all intents and purposes, a member of their family now.

"Would you like to talk about it?" he says, turning toward Ted.

[theodorelasso]

Ted looks over at Sherlock in mild surprise when he speaks. And then he smiles, utterly touched by the offer. It's actually usually a fairly effective method of comfort when it comes to Ted, just letting him blather on about what bothers him, regardless of the advice or comfort given.

"Called my ex-wife, Michelle," he explains, quietly so he doesn't wake Joan. "I hadn't told her about us yet," he says, giving a nod indicating himself and Joan. "And I didn't want her seeing this in the news and finding out that way."

[formersurgeon]

Sherlock nods, taking that in. There has been so much happening so fast, he can only imagine there are a number of things he hasn't had time to reveal to his ex wife. Watson being chief among them.

"How did she take it?"

[theodorelasso]

Ted purses his lips. "About Joan and I - happy for us. Or at least wanting to be happy for us," he answers. The two are not the same, but both show that she wants Ted to be happy. Just like she wanted to love him, but couldn't. Even though it makes him sad if she's sad, he still appreciates the effort.

"About..." He gestures vaguely at the room. "Everything else, well... You know, scared, worried, concerned, frightened.. However many synonyms you got for that."

[formersurgeon]

"How do you feel about that?"

Sherlock has theories how he might feel based on his past demonstrated feelings and behaviors, but he's trying very hard to not merely tell Ted what he's feeling. Joan would be proud.

[theodorelasso]

Ted frowns softly, considering how best to answer that beyond 'sad'.

"Well, you know, it's bad enough we have to deal with all this, I don't think she should have to," he answers. In short, he wants to protect her from it.

Especially because, well, now that they're divorced, they no longer actually have that commitment to each other. It's for Henry's sake that they keep in touch as much as they do.

[formersurgeon]

"Is she not your friend?"

To say Sherlock is not a fan of marriage would be a massive understatement. He believes it to be an unnatural arrangement that more often than not traps people in stagnation and unhappiness. He knows how Ted's marriage ended, and thinks it was better than most marriages end, and good riddance. But he fears Ted has forgotten the simple, basic truth that likely led to his marriage in the first place: that he and Michelle care for one another, and the lack of the bonds (or shackles) of matrimony doesn't change that.

[theodorelasso]

Ted blinks at that question, unsure what he even means by it.

"I mean... Yes?" he answers, though he sounds almost unsure. By Ted's standards, of course she is, but Ted counts a lot of people as friends. Doesn't mean he thinks he should burden them all with his struggles.

[formersurgeon]

"If she were to endure a similar hardship, would you not wish for her to tell you?"

Sherlock is aware of Ted's tendency to give help and support to others without seeking or accepting it for himself. He is rather like Watson in that sense, and it's not a good thing.