trashchildren | For Joan

Oh no. Joan's frown deepens. She had thought they settled the whole issue with Sherlock making comments about their love life, but apparently not? Ted says it's not a big deal, but he would say that regardless just to be nice.

"What did he say?"

Ted presses his lips together. He doesn't think 'nothing' is going to fly.

"Something inappropriate I don't care to repeat," he answers, which is definitely true. "Really though, it's no big deal. I told him how I felt about it."

Sherlock has said inappropriate things before that Ted has just let roll off his back, so Joan doesn't believe that what he said isn't a big deal. But it's clear that Ted doesn't want to repeat whatever it was, so Joan isn't going to push. She'll just have to ask Sherlock.

"Help me with my shirt?" she asks, changing the subject.

Ted does have a feeling she doesn't quite believe him, but at least she drops it.

He picks up the shirt again, holding it up for her to put her arms through. He's glad to see that she's doing better, able to do some of it herself without him helping with everything.

"You know, you look real cute with braids," he says with a smile, wanting to lighten things a little bit.

She's glad she's able to do more now, too. At this rate she'll be mostly functional is a few days.

She smiles at the compliment. "I'll have to let you braid my hair more often," she says. Then she looks at the underwear. "Should I lie down?"

"Probably easiest," Ted answers. He's pretty sure he already made the joke about being more used to taking the underwear off than the other way around.

He did, and in a roundabout way it led to the amazing sex they had this morning.

Joan lies down carefully and settles her hands on her belly.

"Do you want to lie down with me for a while?"

"Yes," he answers immediately, and his smile looks more relaxed at that. "Abso-friggin-tootely," he adds.

He helps her on with her underwear, then picks up the tights. "Wanna put this on first, or is it more comfy without, if we're just gonna snuggle anyway?"

She smiles at the response, happy to see him relax a little. She's still worried about whatever Sherlock said to him, but at least he's not too too upset.

"Probably a good idea to put them on now," she says. "So we don't have to worry about it when we're ready to go out."

"Smart, thinking ahead," he agrees, helping her on with them as well. Once that's all done, he crawls in next to her, immediately snuggling up and giving her a kiss.

She snuggles up next to him and returns the kiss happily. Then she rests her head on his chest with a contented sigh. They can't sleep, but she's feeling well rested, so that's not really a problem.

Ted didn't sleep that much, so he could probably do with a nap. But right now his mind is too occupied.

He hasn't really been thinking about that stuff. And now he can't stop thinking about it. He just wraps his arms around Joan and lies there pondering.

Joan idly brushes her fingertips gently against his chest.

"What do you want to do today?" she murmurs. They still need to take it easy, but she is feeling well enough that she doesn't need to sleep all day.

"Oh, uh. I dunno," he answers. He'd sort of forgotten about... the rest of the day. "We did talk about having Roy and Keeley over."

"We did!" She had forgotten about that. "That would be really nice. Do you want to do that?"

"Sure, yeah!" Ted answers. He doesn't quite feel the entusiasm, but it'll probably be good for both of them to have some light socialising. They've been very wrapped up in drama lately. "It'll be nice to see them."

"It will!" It will be nice to have an escape from the intensity of the situation. Maybe that was a factor in whatever had gone down between Sherlock and Ted. God knows the three of them have been under a lot of strain.

"I'd like to see Beard sometime soon too."

"Yeah," Ted agrees vaguely, staring up at the ceiling.

Why did he react so badly to Sherlock's words? Why didn't he either just lie, or just tell it like it is? He's spoken about his personal life before, and Sherlock's been supportive, even had good insights.

Joan frowns and lifts her head to look up at Ted. Was what Sherlock said really that bad?

"You okay?" she asks softly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he says, apologising for not engaging properly in the conversation and evidently worrying her. "I'm just a little stuck in my head today, I guess." He gives her a small reassuring squeeze.

He's keeping something from her, something more than what exactly Sherlock said. Something that's clearly really bothering him. And it worries her.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" she says softly.

"Yeah," he answers with a soft smile. He thinks Sherlock's right about that at least. She wouldn't mind. That doesn't he wants her to know.

"I just need to cook for a little while," he answers, and he gives her a small smile reassuring smile.

"Okay," she says, answering that small smile. She can't force him to talk. She can just trust that if and when he wants to tell her, he will.

She's still worried, though.

She settles her head on his chest again.

He kisses the top of her head and gives her a little grateful squeeze.

And then he goes right back to cooking.

He should probably apologise to Sherlock. The more he thinks about it, the less he thinks Sherlock deserved that response. He just still doesn't very much want to talk about it.

"Oh, shoot," he says suddenly, shifting a little and going to sit up. "Forgot to take my meds." He was gonna do it after the session, but then Sherlock had distracted him.

"You should do that!" she says, sitting up. She gives him a smile. "Go ahead. I'll be fine."

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