A/N: Thank you very much for feedback! This chapter is quite rushed as school is very crazy at the moment (I'm in my final year!) Hope to have the next chapter up soon to make up for it though!

Disclaimers note: I don't have rights to any of these characters or storylines.

Chapter Two: (S)

'Is that a new perfume you're wearing, Molly?' Sherlock asked, the corner of his mouth turning up into the smile John saw all too often. At the morgue, the stations, the clinic. He didn't understand how it worked on anyone, especially Molly. After compliments on her hair style, blusher colour and the positioning of her collar (all within the last week) he would have thought Molly would be able to see the smile for what it was.

Instead, Molly's own mouth turned into a smile, and she mumbled something about a sale at the department store. Sherlock looked at John, and John rolled his eyes at Sherlock, and Sherlock turned back to look at Molly.

'Thames body, can I take a look?'

Molly now looked at John, catching on to what Sherlock had done. About time too, he thought. She turned around to face her desk, where she picked up a pile of files that had already been finalised, and started to sort them into groups.

'Sorry, I'm waiting on someone from the Yard to come down…it's not you, I asked Greg,' she finished, as Sherlock opened his mouth, ready to claim that it was he who had been sent down (or to ask who Greg was…)

The door to the morgue opened, stopping Sherlock from speaking better than John ever could. In the doorway stood a man and a woman. The man was tall…blimey, taller than Sherlock, thought John…and his hands were in the pockets of his black trench coat, making his shoulders sit somewhere around his ears. The woman was shorter, and dressed in more floral and frills than Molly.

'Oh, hi, you must be-'

'Ned,' the man said, stepping into the room and taking a hand from his pocket to shake Molly's hand. Sherlock and John exchanged looks, as she looked at her feet as she spoke next, the way she always did when dealing with someone she viewed as a potential male partner. Or just males in general.

'-you must be here for my body- I-I mean, the body, the Thames body! You're from Scotland Yard?'

'Yes, Detective Inspector…Cod sent us,' the woman spoke up, and shook her hand with Molly's, her collection of bracelets hitting Molly's own collection.

'I'm Charlotte, call me Chuck.'

'Molly Hooper, call me…Molly.'

'John Watson. Nice to meet you, Ned, Chuck,' John said, to save Molly from the silence he knew would follow her attempt at her joke. He then turned to look at Sherlock, who instead shaking hands or smiling, was staring at Ned and Chuck with a face that said 'not nice to meet you.'

'This is Sherlock Holmes. We're partners. Not like that,' John added, giving Chuck a look, even though he could tell he had as much a chance with her as Molly did Ned. He wasn't a member of the Holmes family, but he could tell a thing or two about relationships between other people.

'Uh, Cod? I thought Lestra-'Molly started, before being interrupted by Sherlock.

'Not like what?' Sherlock asked, his voice doing that thing that John knew it only did when he was being serious.

'Not like…you know...'

'If I knew, why would I have asked?'

John sighed, regretting choosing to become partners with someone with the same understanding of social cues as a two year old.

'Sorry, we were just leaving, good luck with the body,' John said, nodding at Ned, Chuck and Molly. Sherlock followed John's moves, his smile for Molly long gone. The two walked into the hallway outside the morgue and started walking towards the elevators at the end of the hallway, and John was talking about Sherlock acting like a five year old, when Sherlock stepped in front of him, stopping him.

'Bloody hell, Sherlock, we're not going back in there, you can't get access to the-' John began, as he'd already been through this situation enough times to know that the only way Sherlock would get access to the body would be in a way that would result with him in a prison cell. When news of the Thames body had been made public, Sherlock had Lestrade on the phone within two minutes, yet he had refused to allow Sherlock on the case due to the need for a more appropriate individual to be working on it. Yet Sherlock was not going to let a case like this ('like a shiny new toy, but better!' was the way he had described the news) escape him, and had come to the morgue to examine the body and begin his own side investigation when Molly had caught onto his plans.

'Detective Inspector Lestrade would not put me on this case as the circumstances surrounding it required an individual with a certain level of expertise to be working on it, in particular, to be completing any work associated with the body. Such an individual would have been appointed by Lestrade, as he is the highest authority involved in the case. Yet Ned and Chuck claim that they have been sent by 'Detective Inspector Cod?''

John's eyes focused on the light fitting above Sherlock's head as he thought for some explanation, hoping that he could come up with soon, because he was not ready to be pulled into another Sherlock Holmes versus Scotland Yard situation.

'…Lestrade could have been asked to step down due to…the circumstances, right…and Cod was asked to take over?'

'Yes, that might be a possible explanation…if Cod existed.'

Damn.

'Sherlock, you don't know every employee of Scotland Yard …' John started, but Sherlock took his hand and placed it across John's mouth.

'I know of anyone with a higher authority than Lestrade...they've had to deal with me in a number of situations…' Sherlock's eyes took on a look of serious concentration, and John could have sworn he mouthed 'prison cell.' While he appeared distracted by his memories (he did not want to know what they involved, but anything involving Sherlock Holmes and police officers never had a good ending), John pulled Sherlock's hand off his mouth.

'Okay, well just say Cod doesn't exist…what is your point?'

'My point is that Ned and Charlotte have as much right to be examining that body as I do.' Sherlock said, back in reality.

'And you have...?'

'Technically speaking…none.'

'I still don't see your point?'

'We're going to find out why they are lying in order to see a body…' Sherlock said, placing both hands on John's shoulders and turning him around to face the direction from which they had just come.

'I'm the only one who gets to do that.'

A/N: I don't even know, I just needed a reason for Sherlock not to be on the case so decided that Lestrade would need someone particularly educated on human decomposition in water or something, I don't know, wow.