Ten

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It was John's day off, Mary and Daniel had gone out to a nearby playground. They had spent most of the afternoon outside playing games together and meeting up with some of Mary's friends. John had sat at home all day, watching shows on the telly and reading a book with a cuppa tea set on the glass coffee table. He was bored, but happy that he didn't have to check anyone's throat or temperature or ask his patients dumb questions hour after hour. The afternoon was slowly turning to evening and neither John's wife, nor his son, were home yet. He wanted to call Mary but was afraid that she would snap at him because of the argument the other day.

So he refrained from using his phone and cleaned up a bit after himself. There was a quick set of knocks on the front door, which John thought were his son's, and he went to go answer it. But after opening it up, he realized that the person on the other end was quite a bit over two feet tall. Actually, just about three times taller than two feet.

"Uh, hi Sherlock. What are you doing here?" John asked, trying to be as polite as possible.

"I'm here to pick you up. We're going on a little holiday for a case and it will be approximately for three days." His friend spoke quickly.

"Woah, woah, you do realize I have a job...and a family, Sherlock. I can't just go on a holiday with you and leave all that behind."

"Call in sick, I know you have two weeks of paying sick time avaliable to you. Just call Mary or leave her a note, she'll understand. And if she doesn't, then it'll be too late to stop you anyways."

"What case is it for?"

"You'll see when we get there. Now go grab a suitcase and pack up your things. Hurry up!"

John sighed, rolling his eyes at how clueless the detective could really be at human interactions and human nature. But he grabbed his beige suitcase from the walk-in closet he shared with his wife then threw in a few outfits and toilettries. A notepad was left on the kitchen countertop with a note in a messy drawl- Sorry for short notice but you know Sherlock. Gone out for brief holiday, be back in about 3 days. Love you and Daniel loads! -John

The two men left the house and went into a cab, heading for a train station so they could get to their destination. Sherlock's multi-coloured eyes stared outside of the window, fixed upon certain things in the London sky while John used his phone for entertainment. They arrived at the Chariton Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) in no longer than 95 minutes and got their tickets to some city in Luxembourg.

"I've never been there." John commented.

"Where?" Sherlock asked.

"Luxembourg. I never had a reason to really go to such a small country or anywhere for a holiday really."

"Well, then pretend this is work because it's for a case. You won't have hours to tour the country and enjoy its culture if that's what you were looking to do."

"Yeah I got that after you said that's what this is for anyways." John remarked, boarding the train with Sherlock behind him.

They found their compartment and sat on opposite sides of the tiny space- John on the bottom bunk bed and Sherlock on the uncomfortable couch-like piece of furniture. After the train began moving, Sherlock was dying of boredom and sat beside John to see what he was up to. This ended with the detective having a competition with his friend in all of the games on John's mobile phone for half an hour. He won at 2048 (got to the number faster) and the Try-Not-To-Hit-The-White-Tile game. It amused John when he got frustrated over losing in Temple Run, Daddy Long Legs, and Crossy Road, grunting in exasperation and repeatedly claiming how stupid the games were.

The train's tracks had already led to the underwater section and would arrive on land (in Coquelles, Pais-de-Calais, France) within the next five minutes. John put his phone back into his jacket pocket, then both him and Sherlock grabbed their things and prepared to get off of the train. Afterwards, they would have to get a vehicle and drive for all four hours to Diekurch, Luxembourg.

It took Sherlock literally five minutes to get a car after mentioning his brother and the two men drove off to the small country. John fell asleep in the passenger's seat while Sherlock's eyes were trained on the road and alert, making sure that the traffic and indecisive drivers wouldn't manage to even scrape the rental vehicle. Some of the roads were practically empty since it was starting to get quite late and Sherlock remembered which routes to take for the least-busiest drive.

John's phone began to vibrate in his pocket, creating a very irritating buzzing noise that slowly drove Sherlock mad, causing him to pull over and stop the car. He pulled out the phone without waking up the doctor and saw that Mary was trying to get ahold of him. Not fully understanding this form of care, Sherlock knew that he should probably pick it up and notify her that John was alright.

"Hello Mary, John's asleep right now so he can't exactly speak to you at the moment." Sherlock answered.

"Oh, is he okay? God, I feel awful for that argument the other day and I actually thought he made up the holiday just to get away from me for a few days."

"Yes, he is fine. And this is for a real case, not him running away from his problems with a pathetic excuse."

"Well thank you. Have a good night." Mary sounded wistful as Sherlock rudely hung up on her without bidding her a good night as well.

He tucked the phone back into John's pocket and got back onto the road, driving off into the night. He was lucky (in this case)  that he couldn't sleep much on a regular basis because he would never feel drowsy while driving. John continued his peaceful  slumber with small snores escaping his lips and occasionally shifting around into a more comfortable position. 

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