The Invitation

I do not own this show at all. Now that that is out of the way please enjoy the story.

The card sized envelope was mocking him. It had turned up in his mail at New Scotland Yard in a larger shipping envelope that had also contained a large magnifying glass and a sharp wicked looking letter opener shaped like a dagger. It was suspicious and he dreaded opening it in fear of finding some unspeakable horror, being a police officer and working with Sherlock Holmes had made him incredibly wary of things like this. This mysterious package he received with no return address and no way of telling who sent it without the help of the forensics team or the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. He looked at it the way one might eye a viper and he hoped he didn't look too foolish keeping his chair between him and the envelope like he feared it might jump up and bite him.

He'd had it inspected and it appeared to contain nothing dangerous besides the letter opener that was in the larger envelope. It was just paranoia, well deserved paranoia, but paranoia nonetheless. He took a deep breath and sat down in his chair. With a hand that was not shaking he picked up the letter opener and slid it into the lip of the envelope. The thick heavy paper parted like melted butter and he instantly knew the letter opener was high quality and could probably be used as a deadly weapon. He put down the letter opener and slid the card that was in the envelope out and noted its quality. The card was rather minimalistic in design but it was heavy and looked expensive for an invitation. It was a soft cream color that edged closer to yellow than white with a large calligraphy WSSH and JHW pressed into the paper in black ink as its only decoration.

He opened the card taking note of the interior which was minimalistic like the outside of the card. The wording was presented with bold calligraphy which was again the only decoration. None of that rally registered though as he nearly had a heart attack right then and there the second he saw the names. In fancy curving script were the words 'Detective Inspector Gavin Lestrade. You are hereby cordially invited to the wedding of Mr. William Scott Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Johanna Hannah Watson on Saturday the 21st of February at St. Mary's Church at 12 o'clock. The intended couple request that you dress formally for this occasion and arrive thirty minutes early to secure your seat. They look forward to having you present at this very special day.'

He dropped the invite and nearly fell on the floor himself. Sherlock was getting married! He didn't even have a girlfriend! When did he even send out the invitation the wedding was only three days away! Then again it was just like Sherlock to get married and leave people less than a week to get ready. It was also just like Sherlock to use a method of sending them that would make anyone with half a brain freak out. He sighed pressing his hand to his temples to ward off the headache he knew was coming. He'd have to go to the wedding or he would face the wrath of a gossip deprived police force. Heck he wanted to go just to see what kind of woman would say yes to Sherlock.

That was how he found himself at the store taking a mini fridge to the checkout lane right after he got off work. The checkout girl a woman that looked to be in her late forties smiled at him. "Do you have a child going to university?"

"No a friend of mine is getting married. This is their wedding gift." Lestrade said patting the side of the box as the lady looked for the bar code.

"Any reason you decided on a mini fridge and not something more useful like a blender or a food processor?" She asked laughter in her voice even as she scanned the item and he paid for it.

Lestrade smirked as he thought back to his first time looking through the fridge in Sherlock's apartment. "Trust me if you knew the guy getting married you'd agree that this is a marriage saver."

Special Thanks to Betasanonymous for pointing out a language error, it has been fixed.