The state of people's wedding rings (Sherlock BBC fanfic)

Set before 'Friends in odd places' and after 'Back in the Saddle'

November 13th, 9:00

Current Mood: contemplative

Current Music: classic FM

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Sometimes, when he's watching Sherlock examine a corpse at a crime scene, John thinks his partner spends too much time looking at the state of people's wedding rings.

"State of her marriage - right there," Sherlock repeats without looking up and John sighs as Lestrade startles and interrupts with the news that the marriage was sound and long running. John doesn't need to see the ring to know that, her husband is weeping in the other room, having found his wife killed and posed in their dining room only an hour ago. The fact that she's wearing full Victorian dress, jewellrey and is elaborately made up, with her hair even dressed to suit the time period of her clothes adds a certain air of unreality to the scene.

John has already confirmed to his partner that she died of suffocation and that she was dressed and posed after she'd died, so his part in the drama before them is done for now, leaving him to muse over Sherlock's obsession with other people's wedding rings. He wonders what other people would make of the state of his own ring, not that they'd recognise it as a wedding ring. Sherlock had insisted that until Moriarty was stopped for good that they don't wear any traditional jewellrey that would be visible. A ring hanging on a chain around the neck was right out, naturally, as was the alternative of some sort of bracelet or anklet no matter what it was made out of. John agreed with the idea in principal - no use in giving their enemy more ammunition against them - but had insisted on doing something to mark their change in status.

He'd bought Sherlock a new phone - on the excuse that the old one had been ruined, along with the Pink phone when he'd knocked Sherlock into the pool. He hadn't engraved it or anything, which would surely have given the game away, but it was a pricey bit of kit and Sherlock was very particular about it. No one else was to touch it, no one else was to use it and it was not to be dropped, thrown or discarded with jackets and coats. Given that the last one, also an expensive piece of kit, had been thrown, experimented on and loaned out, this was a positively adamant declaration that Sherlock recognised the significance of the gift. They weren't shagging or anything, but Sherlock's insistence in the hospital that they were married had been seriously meant. John had even stopped seeing Sarah outside of work.

John's wedding ring was a bit more subtle. It certainly wasn't portable like Sherlock's, it lacked the traditional air of status and visibility that these things often had. Sherlock had been so earnest when he'd presented it to John, the underlying current of anxiety in his partner's frame much more eloquent than the barely audible disjointed words that had accompanied the presentation. Mrs Hudson had been pleased though, as it meant that she no longer had to deal with it.

Sherlock's skull had been very carefully relocated to John's dresser. The half heard statement that 'he's really redundant now, you're much better' had been touching for its awkwardness. Though John did wonder, as he watched Sherlock scrutinise the dead lady's wedding ring once more what a consulting detective would say about his 'wedding ring' should his room ever become part of a crime scene.

Which, knowing Sherlock, was only a matter of time.

END

Disclaimer - characters and setting as depicted in BBC series not mine. No money being made. Plot is mine.