The Consulting Hacker

Questioning

Chapter Fourteen

Sherlock heard the front door close shut, he sat up. He was certain it was Cate. He called out to her and asked her to come up to his living room, he heard her footsteps coming up the stairs and watched as her head began to become visible above the steps of the stairs. 

"What do you want Sherlock?"

"Oh, just a friendly conversation. Come sit down." She sat down looking at him cautiously, dumping her backpack to the side of her, "Your eyes are a lot redder than yesterday, did you not sleep last night?"

"I slept very little last night, I was busy watching stuff on my laptop and I didn't notice how late it actually was."

"Hmmm? What were you watching?"

"Just different animes and some Korean dramas." 

"Interesting?"

"Very." They sat a bit more until Cate got up.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to do something."

"Do what?"

"Finish writing this chapter of fanfiction that I didn't get to finish yesterday."

"Why don't you come up here to do it? It must be really lonely just being down there by yourself, mustn't it?" 

"I rather write it by myself in my apartment, it's easier to write stuff with my music blaring."

"No I insist, if I'm by myself at this time, I would probably end up shooting at walls. As I'm sure you probably had heard if you were downstairs at the time."

"I wasn't, but Mrs Hudson was talking about it for days. So to prevent you from shooting the walls, all I need to do is come up here to write my fanfiction?"

"Yes." 

"Fine then. I see nothing wrong with that. Wait, would you mind if I blared my music out loud?"

"I would mind."

"I guess that would mean it would be best for me to do this in the comfort of my apartment. Goodbye, Sherlock."

"Cate, no, I wouldn't mind. Come up and do it up here. And blare your music all you want."

"Are you that lonely, or do you actually care about the fact that I'm by myself?"

"Well, it's best to not leave anything to chance after what happened."

"So you care about me?" Disbelief laced her words.

"Y...es." Sherlock struggled to get these words out. Cate laughed.

"Aw, that was sweet. I know you actually don't but whatever, I'll keep you company."

--

Sherlock sat beside Cate as she opened her laptop, as it whirred to life, Cate moved over to John's chair.

"Why did you move?"

"I would prefer it if you weren't able to read what I write." Sherlock watched her from his seat and just pulled out his phone. He glanced over at Cate's laptop and began to type in the model into the search engine. Cate blasted some music out loud that contained a mixture of Korean and English phrases, she paid no attention to Sherlock and was tapping away furiously at her laptop, not stopping at all.

"I heard that your laptop ran out of battery when you were in the hospital, when did it run out of battery?"

"Pretty much that night when John gave me the laptop."