Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of this work of fiction, and no profit, monetary or otherwise, is being made through the writing of this.

A/N: Spoilers for, Sherlock, Series III: "The Empty Hearse". Features one line of dialogue (in italics) from the episode. My first dabble into this fandom; I'm nervous. Let me know what you think.

"I'm not gay," John says, a little too emphatically if Mrs. Hudson does say so herself.

Though John claims that he's not gay, Mrs. Hudson knows better. Understands what John doesn't appear to want to acknowledge.

She knows the truth, though – that John Watson is in love with Sherlock Holmes – even if he doesn't want to admit that to himself.

She nods, and pretends to be excited for him on his upcoming proposal to a girl, a girl she's never heard of before today. Certainly if John was that into her, she'd have heard about her before now.

Mrs. Hudson might not be John's mother, but surely she deserves more than a second-hand, last-minute notification of his future nuptials. Which means that John is merely acting out of desperation, that he doesn't really love this girl, not as much as he loved/loves Sherlock.

It shouldn't matter, really. Sherlock's dead, after all, no matter the niggling doubt at the back of her mind which keeps her from sleeping some nights.

If Sherlock wasn't dead, he wouldn't have kept her, or John, for that matter, in the dark about it. That would be too cruel, even for someone who doesn't care anything about social norms.

Still, Mrs. Hudson doesn't rest easy with the thought that Sherlock is really and truly dead. And it breaks her heart, a little, to see John moving on so quickly. Two years is a blink of the eye, really, especially when weighed against eternity.

Maybe John isn't gay, gay. Could be he just has a thing for Sherlock. Lord knows that sort of thing has happened before. Least Mrs. Hudson suspects that it has. Has seen it at least a half dozen times in her lifetime alone.

It's not until Sherlock returns, back from the dead, so to speak, very much alive, and none the worse for wear, that Mrs. Hudson feels a personal sense of satisfaction – though she doesn't let it show – in her misgivings about Sherlock's death, and John's feelings about the genius.

The fact that John hit Sherlock, not once, not twice, but three times, is enough of a tell, at least to Mrs. Hudson's way of thinking, that John loves the man. Gay, or not.

"Isn't it great that love's not bound by silly things like gender and societal norms?" Mrs. Hudson says, as she serves tea them tea one afternoon. She keeps her voice low and her tone light. She doesn't want to startle John, at least not yet. She knows that, in the end, he'll come around, and, if she has to do a little ground work to make that happen, then so be it. It's the least that she can do – for John, and for Sherlock, because, even if John continues to insist that he isn't gay, and that he's in love with this Mary girl, Mrs. Hudson knows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Sherlock is in love with John.

She's determined to bring them together, one way or another. Humming, Mrs. Hudson busies herself with household chores, her mind a whir with plots that some might believe would be better suited to fiction, but which she knows will bring her two men together, properly.

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