trashchildren | For Joan

At least gently cuddling with Joan soothes his patience quite a bit.

Still, it's not that long before he whispers to Joan. "How long do you think they'll keep this up?" he asks softly, as if they can't still easily hear him in the quiet room. He understands that non-verbal communication is a thing, but this seems to be dragging it a bit far.

Both Sherlock and Beard turn to look at them. Joan smiles.

"That long," she says, taking and squeezing Ted's hand. "You know," she says to Sherlock and Beard, "you two should actually talk. I think you'd find you have a lot in common."

"Aw, nuts," he answers when they both turn to look at him, but he smiles almost immediately anyway.

"Hey, you could play each other at chess!" he suggests, figuring that's definitely something Sherlock would be good at, right? It'd be thrilling to watch. Ted understands the rules of chess, but he's not particularly good at it, so he's never been much of a challenge for Beard.

Joan smiles and looks at Sherlock, knowing that he would in fact love that.

Sherlock lifts his eyebrows and looks back at Beard. "I can fetch a board if you like."

Beard gives a nod, accepting this proposal. There is a slight tension in his posture suddenly, very minuscule, that Ted takes to mean Beard's excited about this.

Ted smiles at Joan. "And then you and I can play Go Fish or something," he suggests jokingly.

At that nod, Sherlock gets up and heads out to go over to 221B. Joan turns her head to press her lips to Ted's cheek.

"We could go play video games," she suggests, with a smile that hints she actually intends to do something quite different in the bedroom with him.

Ted raises his eyebrows at that smile. Maybe they should have just shooed both Sherlock and Beard over to the other apartment, instead of having them bring the chess board here.

He gets to his feet and holds out his hands for Joan. At this point it's becoming such a habit, he might accidentally just keep doing it.

"You gonna be alright," Ted asks Beard.

"Depends how well he plays," he answers, with just the hint of a smile.

It might have been best, yeah, but she'll work with what they've got. She smiles up at him when he holds out his hands for her. She's getting stronger, and soon she won't need help to get up, but she can imagine this just being a thing they do, even when it's not strictly necessary. She takes his hands and rises, then holds onto his arm for stability.

"Oh," she says to Beard with eyebrows raised. "He is an amazing chess player. I can't even tell you how many people in New York owe him favors because he's beaten them at chess."

"I'll be sure not to wager any favors then," Beard answers. As if Sherlock or any of them would need Beard to owe them a favor in order for him to help with something.

"Good luck," Ted says, picking up his crutches, and starts heading towards the bedroom, slowly so he's sure she's doing alright. He can't really hold onto her, but she can hold onto him, which seems to be the important part.

Joan walks slowly, appreciating the care. She's feeling strong and steady, and only needs to lean on his arm a couple times as they make their way into the bedroom, closing the door behind them.

Sherlock returns carrying a beautifully carved chess set. He sees Beard sitting alone in the living room, and sits down across the coffee table from him, setting the board down and taking out the pieces.

"I take it the happy couple has retired to the bedroom?" he says as he begins to place the pieces in their squares.

"They were gonna play video games," Beard answers, sitting forward in the chair. He's not entirely convinced that's what's going to happen in there, but he's not gonna make any immediate assumptions either way, considering it's Ted.

"As far as euphemisms go, that one is a little uninspired, isn't it?" Sherlock comments, glancing up at Beard and wrinkling his nose, before continuing to set up the board.

In the bedroom, Joan takes Ted's hands again, and tugs him toward the bed, a suggestive glint in her eye.

"Eh, I've heard worse," Beard answers. He knew Ted when he was with Michelle, after all.

Ted doesn't need to be persuaded, following her easily. She may look suggestive, but he looks adoring. "I love you so much.."

"Yes, I imagine you have," Sherlock says. "I imagine Ted comes up with quite fascinating ways to make such things sound as wholesome as possible." Sherlock gestures to the board. "Black or white?"

***

Joan's smile warms at that, and she steps close, into his arms, and kisses him.

"I love you," she murmurs as their lips part.

Ted wraps his arms around her happily, returning the kiss.

"Do you need help taking off your clothes?" he asks, tugging gently at her tunic. He's picked up the suggestiveness by now, smiling a little cheekily.

"Need?" She asks with a smile, and shakes her head. "Do you want to take off my clothes?"

"Now that you mention it," he answers, smiling. Ted generally doesn't consider himself very suave, but him and Joan have developed this flirty playfulness, and it's a lot of fun.

He gives her a kiss, taking the bottom of her tunic and pulling it upwards.

Joan sighs happily into the kiss, her lips parting. She breaks the kiss to let him pull the tunic up and off, then immediately kisses him again, taking the edge of his sweater and pulling it up on return.

Ted helps him pull off his sweater, pulling back from the kiss again as it goes over his head, though he doesn't immediately kiss her back after that.

"You know we're gonna have just as much trouble getting these khakis off as it was to put them on, right?" he points out, smiling.

It's alright though, he's not in a rush. Despite what they said about 'getting to the good stuff' before the shower, Ted actually enjoys the process of getting undressed. It's somewhere between domestic intimacy and foreplay.

She smiles back. "I'm sure we have time," she says. She's not going to elaborate that Sherlock and Beard will undoubtedly spend quite a bit of time happily challenging each other at chess, and hopefully even talking about other things as well. They hardly need to ruin the mood by saying that out loud.

"Here..." She sits on the bed and, smiling up at him, begins to unbuckle his belt.

You know, he's pretty glad Joan's got most of her manual dexterity back by now. This brings back enjoyable memories to just earlier today.

He just smiles at her for a second before he starts unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off while she works on his pants.

Joan is extremely glad of that, too. It was frustrating to not be able to button her own buttons or put on a bra. She might not be up for any sewing or calligraphy for a while, but a belt, button and zipper is definitely back in her wheelhouse.

Once his zipper is open she works his khakis down as far as she can before getting to the cast.

Once they get that far, Ted sits down as well, carefully threading the pants over his cast. It is, by far, the most boring part of this process.

"Can't wait to get this thing off," he comments. He looks at her with a smile to clarify. "The cast, not just the pants."

It's nice walking around with a bunch of Henry's drawings covering him, but that's about as far as it goes for positive aspects.

She laughs a little at the clarification as she helps him get his pants over the cast. "I bet. It will be really nice when we've both healed completely." She knows that they can't just put the whole thing behind them. The mental trauma will linger, even when their physical trauma has faded. But at least they'll be able to get back to their lives.

Once the khakis are free, Joan leans in, placing a gentle hand on his cheek as she kisses him again.

"I'd like to try something," she murmurs.

Ted smiles into the kiss, enjoying her soft touch on his cheek. He always feels so taken care of, and cared for, by her.

He raises his eyebrows at that though. "Alright," he answers, though he has no idea what she's talking about. But he's always up for trying stuff.

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