For Joan

[theodorelasso]

Continued from here.

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

Comments

[theodorelasso]

Ted nods a bit. "Yeah, I had a feeling," he answers, which is why he asked first. He didn't seem to react badly to comforting touch though, though that might be more because of the intention rather than the touch itself. But a hug might be a bit too far.

"I'm glad you like hugs, though," he adds with a smile, giving her a soft squeeze again.

[formersurgeon]

"I love hugging you," she says with a smile, giving him a slight squeeze. "And being hugged by you."

She looks at Sherlock, a mischievous smile spreading on her face. "We should wake him up."

[theodorelasso]

Ted smiles with amusement, looking at that cheeky smile. "Did you have any specific ideas about how, or what's that smile about?" he asks.

[formersurgeon]

She grins. "He has woken me up so many times, in so many crazy ways. It's practically a hobby. It's rare that I get the opportunity to return the favor." She tilts her head and narrows her eyes in thought. "Now how to do it..."

[theodorelasso]

Ted grins, utterly charmed by this streak of mischief. "Consider me at your disposal," he answers, amused. As long as it's not mean, he's game. But Joan wouldn't do anything mean to Sherlock.

[formersurgeon]

Well. Joan might be a little mean to Sherlock.

"Do you have your phone?" she asks. "Loud music might be the perfect wake up call."

[theodorelasso]

That leans a little mean for Ted's sake, but he pulls out his phone and hands it too her anyway. Not like he's going to deny her anything right now.

[formersurgeon]

If Ted thinks this is mean, he should hear about the many, many ways Sherlock woke Joan up, via tortoise, single stick, morse code, bugle, police radio...

"Oh," she says with a smile, picking a song and holding it out to Ted.

Who Let the Dogs Out.

"We don't want it to be too loud so we don't disturb other patients, so if you can put this by his head and hit play..."

[theodorelasso]

Ted smiles, shaking his head a little with amusement, and gets to his feet. He takes the phone and limps carefully over to Sherlock's side.

He looks at her for confirmation, then presses play while standing right at the end of the couch, near his head.

[formersurgeon]

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT! WHO! WHO WHO!

Sherlock sits straight up, blinking.

Joan grins.

[theodorelasso]

Ted jumps back a little, like he's almost worried Sherlock's going to come up flinging his fists around, though he's grinning too. Ted's not a big pranker, but he's spent a significant portion of his life in locker rooms, so it's not like it's unfamiliar to him.

He shuts the song off immediately after Sherlock's woken up. "Morning, sunshine," he says, all chipper friendliness.

[formersurgeon]

Sherlock glances quickly at Ted before looking back at Joan.

Joan smiles, eyes twinkling. "That was fun," she says, her voice still soft but also very amused.

"Watson." Sherlock rises and goes to her side, his sharp eyes examining her face, her body, looking for signs, for clues, for hints of how she is, how she's recovered and what weaknesses remain. The amusement is good, and for that reason he appreciates the turnabout. But he can hear the weakness in her voice, see the way she's lying back against the bed, knows she has some way to go yet.

Joan looks up and catches his eyes. "Hey," she says softly. "I'm okay."

[theodorelasso]

Ted just stands there watching - Joan's amusement is delightful, but it's much better to watch Sherlock realize that his best friend is recovering. He imagines he looked much the same, just more effusive.

"Alright, y'all, I'm gonna go see if I can scrounge us up some coffee," he says, smiling. They should probably have a moment alone, and Ted needs to visit the restroom anyway. Now that Sherlock's awake, he doesn't mind leaving for a minute.

[formersurgeon]

Sherlock looks back at Ted. "Who let the dogs out?" he says with a disdainful expression. "Are you serious?"

Joan rolls her eyes and shakes her head, still amused. "Hey, it was my idea," she says. "And it was hilarious." She smiles at Ted and reaches out her hand to ask for his, just to squeeze before he goes.

"I don't think they'll want me drinking coffee," she says. "Water would be great, though."

[theodorelasso]

Ted just gives a shrug at the questioning of the song choice. He actually agrees it was a great choice for waking someone up. That's not the part he would feel bad about.

He takes her hand for a moment, smiling and squeezing it back.

"Oh, Beard covered that, hold on," he says, going to the bag and pulling out a bottled water to hand to her. "I can see if I find some actual cold water though," he adds, grabbing his crutch and setting off to find stuff.

[formersurgeon]

She takes the bottle with a smile. "Cold water would be great."

She waits until he's left the room before holding the water bottle out to Sherlock. "Can you open this for me?"

"You don't want Ted to know how weak you are?" he asks as he easily twists open the bottle. "He's going to notice eventually."

"I know," she says, carefully taking a drink, her hand trembling a little. "I just don't want him to worry too much right now. We have enough time for that."

[theodorelasso]

Ted is gone for a little while before Sherlock gets a text. He's clearly managed to track down the café, in which there is apparently a Costa Coffee, with a wide selection of drinks (including more healthy options, like juice), freshly baked goods, packed sandwiches...

What would you guys like? They've got so much stuff.

Then there's a picture of the menu. Ted was this close to just buying a bunch of different stuff to bring back, but then sanity thankfully took hold of him.

[formersurgeon]

Sherlock texts back after a minute.

OJ 4 WTSN & SNDWCH 4 ME NE KND

It's an honor for Sherlock to be using his text speak with Ted, but Ted might not feel that way.

[theodorelasso]

Ted squints at it for a little while. OJ is easy enough, and he's been around long enough that he assumes 4 means for, and not 'four bottles of orange juice'. The last bit he has to mentally spell out 'enn-ee kind' before he gets it. This is supposed to save time?

He assumes Sherlock still wants coffee, since otherwise he could've said so when Ted set off in the first place. He gets a regular black coffee for Sherlock, and a mocha for himself. (He considers tea for Sherlock, but he wouldn't know where to start.) He gets a cold water in addition to the orange juice for Joan. Then two freshly made roasted chicken salad sandwiches for him and Sherlock. And then he gets a slice of lemon swirl cheesecake too, because it looked so darn tasty and he needs some sugar in his system.

And then after that he just sort of stares at the tray and wonders how long it's going to take him to carry this back to the room, until a sweet nurse offers to help him. She also gets him a second crutch, so he can move along a bit quicker.

"Breakfast delivery," he announces cheerfully as he enters the room trailed by the nurse.

[formersurgeon]

Joan smiles as he enters, glad to have him back, and happy to see that he got help and another crutch. The nurse is very nice, setting up everything for Ted and Sherlock so that they can eat close to Joan, and fetching a straw for Joan to use with the orange juice, which she opens for her, much to Joan's appreciation.

Sherlock is quite happy with the black coffee and the sandwich, and begins eating as soon as possible, since he hadn't eaten much of anything the day before either.

[theodorelasso]

Ted had managed to at least eat one of Beard's sandwiches last night, so he's not desperately hungry, but fresh food (that he doesn't have to worry about being poisoned) is definitely nice, as is the coffee.

He also finally starts checking his messages properly, replying to each worried message that they're okay and Joan is feeling better. There's even several messages of concern from people who he isn't that close to, but who had seen the news and wanted to reach out. It warms Ted's heart that people are looking out for them.

He intentionally hasn't checked the news himself yet.

[formersurgeon]

Joan hasn't even looked at her phone. She honestly doesn't know what she's going to find. Have Gregson and Bell been keeping up with football news coming out of London on the off chance that Joan is involved? Marcus knows more details about Ted, but she hasn't yet told them why she returned to London. And her mother knows less, just that she'd been dating this incredible, sweet, gentle man and had to break it off. It's also anyone's guess whether Mary Watson even remembers that information.

"When are you meeting with people at the club?" she asks as Ted finishes his sandwich.

[theodorelasso]

"Oh, good point," he answers, since he hasn't actually planned that closely. "I figure in the early afternoon? Does that sound alright?"

He doesn't want to leave her for any extended period of time, but he figures she doesn't want him to baby her either. She's doing well enough that he doesn't feel scared she's going to suddenly get worse again. (Could that happen? He doesn't know, and he's not sure he wants to know.)

[formersurgeon]

"That's fine," she says. She'd like to have him there, but it's really important that he tell everyone who needs to know what has been going on. Sherlock will be there in case anything happens. Joan is aware of possible neurological aftershocks in addition to the weakness she's feeling, some serious, but again she doesn't want to worry him.

[theodorelasso]

He nods a bit, then sighs heavily, leaning back in his chair. "Oh boy, I guess I gotta think about how I'm gonna explain all of this to them."

He plans on telling Rebecca in private first, since she definitely deserves to know the most, and she deserves to have her reaction be private. Otherwise everyone would be looking to her while she deals with it.