Mrs. Holmes [Book III]

A Trek through Loman-Bullard

November 24

"Perhaps next time, try not to get us stranded all night on the outskirts of London? Molly was barely able to cover Rosie!" John chided as the duo hopped up the stairs and into 221B.

"I shall try to tell the criminal not to run into the forest, slash the tires on the police cruiser and get out of cell range next time, although I doubt they'll listen," Sherlock replied, "We haven't had a case like that in months, John! Wasn't it stimulating?"

"It was," John admitted, garnering a chuckle from Sherlock. The jovial mood of the flat went when the doctor had a niggling in his brain, "Sherlock?"

"Yes, John?"

"You did tell Susanna about the case, right?"

The detective froze. He hadn't even texted Susanna since the morning of the previous day. And of the two of them, she was more prone to worry, "No but she understands that I tend not to phone during cases."

"... Alright, then..." John went into the kitchen to brew some tea as the detective set to update his website about the newly solved case. The blonde veteran noticed, when he went into the freezer for an ice pack to apply to his bruised leg (Susanna had stocked the freezer with them) that there was an ice cream cookie sandwich cake there. The frosting on the top of it read "Happy Birthday", or would have had the whole thing been there. It had a good chunk carved out of it. In fact, half of it was gone.

John suddenly had a bad feeling, "Sherlock."

"Yes, John."

"Look at this."

The detective reluctantly made his way to the freezer and again froze, "What's today's date?"

"What?"

"The date, John!"

It hit them quite hard when they abruptly remembered that it was, in fact, Susanna's thirty sixth birthday. Sherlock put one hand to his head and John exhaled, "Well this isn't good."

"Brooklyn must have bought it for Susanna last night," Sherlock hissed, "Birthdays are important for Susanna. She always celebrates with family and friends."

"I bet she's not very happy that you weren't here last night or this morning." John remarked. Sherlock gave him a look and let out a suppressed noise of frustration.

"Come, John."

"Come- Come where?"

"It's time we paid her new Lab a visit."

John shook his head in slight amusement, "Worried about her being upset about your forgetting her birthday, mate?"

"I didn't forget, John, I suppressed the memory for the case."

"I don't think that'll matter to Susanna." Half an hour later they had arrived at Loman-Bullard with pastries and chocolate in hand. And immediately upon entry, both were clueless as to where they would find Susanna's lab.

Instead of letting Sherlock get them in trouble, John pulled a few people aside and asked for directions. No luck. Finally someone walked up to them, "May I help you, gentlemen?"

"Yes, my wife works here and I wanted to pay her a visit." Sherlock said bluntly.

"That could be tricky. Where does she work exactly?"

"She's a Forensic Scientist." The man nodded and thought for a moment.

"She'd be in the other building then- with all the Forensic Labs and Mortuary and stuff. But you can't get in there."

"What?"

"Not alone, anyway. You'll both need Visitors badges and an escort."

Sherlock took out Mycroft's ID. To his surprise, the man shook his head, "What?"

"I know that you are not Mycroft Holmes. I've met him. You're Sherlock Holmes. Does he know that you've stolen his ID?"

"Stop stalling and get us in." Sherlock groaned. I'll have to make Mycroft get me a Pass that'll work.

The man nodded, "Of course. This way."

They were led into a bustling office where they were photographed and input into the visitor registry. Sherlock had to prove his relationship to Susanna. Security was informed of their presence. Then finally they were given temporary passes and a guard was assigned to transport them to Susanna's lab. Sherlock huffed, "So tedious."

"It's a government lab, Sherlock, I'm sure they don't want the wrong people getting in."

"Mm."

It seemed to take hours for them to make it into the Forensics building. Since Susanna hadn't told them anything about her Lab or security, Sherlock had to commit everything to memory as it came.

Their escort led them from behind to the northern wing of the facility and their trek was abruptly halted outside Lab 1260 on the right side of the hallway. The door was closed but the lights were on. As the escort went to open the door they heard a voice, "You must be here for Susanna."

They turned and saw a scrubbed up man walking down the hall. The escort recognized him, "Shall I leave them here?"

"Yes, I'll keep an eye on them," The guard nodded and disappeared as the man approached. His nametag read 'P. Duke-Weathersby', "Hello."

"Hello."

He halted, "Susanna isn't in her lab at the moment. Should be back soon."

"You work with her?" John asked.

"Yes. I'm Percy Duke-Weathersby. I'm one of the Medical Examiners. She works with me and my husband Zachary frequently."

"She's mentioned you." Sherlock stated.

Percy smiled a bit, "I suppose your visit has something to do with her birthday."

"Did she tell you?"

"No, but I guessed when I saw you with those bags of goodies. She also had ice cream on her face when she first came in so."

Shout out to @JustaSyd! Thank you for reading!