─ excavation of the heart, s.h.

Chapter Eight

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Wow.

[Narrator]

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"Sherlock!" Came the nasally voice from downstairs. Georgia and Sherlock had been talking for around half an hour about the case, eventually moving onto small talk, and it was safe to say that Sherlock - even though he hadn't known her long - was very intrigued by Georgia.

When Mitzi called up to Sherlock for the second time, he rolled his eyes and stood up reluctantly from his place next to Georgia, and walked over to the door.

"What is it?"

"Come and give your baby some love!" At this, Sherlock visibly shivered, making the most disgusted expression Georgia thought was possible. She giggled slightly, making Sherlock turn to her, smiling softly.

"Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?" Sherlock asked suddenly. Georgia kept her head down, looking at the work, assuming that he was talking to Mitzi. When there was no response from her, she looked up to see Sherlock looking directly at her.

"Wait, me? What about Mitzi?"

"That's hardly a valid question. I've figured out her case, so I don't need her anymore, and seen as I'm soon to be single - I figured why not try my chances with someone I'm actually interested in."

Georgia froze for a second - Sherlock is interested? In me?!

"Uh - I - sure." What did she have to lose? Nothing, really. "I'd love to go to dinner with you, Sherlock."

"Perfect."

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That Evening...

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At precisely eight o'clock, Sherlock rang the silver doorbell placed next to Georgia's front door. To say Sherlock was nervous wasn't quite the right way to describe how he was feeling.

It was more...confusion.

He wasn't quite sure why he had asked Georgia out to dinner so suddenly, but he definitely didn't regret it. Now that he was single, he was going to make use of it. Sherlock would be lying to himself if he didn't admit that since the day he'd met her, he was instantly intrigued by this woman. Probably even more so than The Woman.

Usually, he would feel a little bit of guilt after using someone in the way he used Janine, but it was a completely different story for Mitzi. Sherlock absolutely despised her. The most he'd done is kiss her, because he wasn't sure that he could do much more without wanting to throw up. Just because she's a celebrity, doesn't mean she's a nice one, which turned out to be true for quite a lot of them nowadays.

But the longer Sherlock was waiting outside, the more he found himself now becoming nervous. Get a grip, Sherlock. You can do this. It's just two friends, having dinner. He then stopped in his train of thought. Were they friends? What was this dinner? Before he could interrogate himself any longer, the black door opened to reveal a different Georgia than the ones he had witnessed. Standing there nervously fumbling with her black dress, she suddenly felt very self conscious under Sherlock's analysing gaze. He had only seen her in either work clothes or blue overalls at the crime scene, so to see her looking so pretty, stood there on the doorstep, well, it was a new feeling for him.

As for Georgia, well you can guess how she was feeling. After she had left Sherlock's house, she assumed that he'd broken up with Mitzi, which left her feeling at ease, but she couldn't quite pinpoint why. She'd thought long and hard about what to wear, and considering she rarely went out to dinner or to any formal events, she came to the conclusion that she would need to shop for something new. So when she walked into Debenhams on her local high street, she walked straight over to the party dresses, and started her search. Luckily, it only took her a matter of minutes to find the perfect dress. It was black, figure fitting, with short sleeves and went down to just below her knees.

After a couple of seconds, Sherlock's gaze softened, which calmed her racing mind a little, but did nothing for her heart, which was rapidly trying to escape her chest.

"You look...wow." Sherlock found himself at a loss for words, which didn't happen often, as you could probably guess. As John had said, he's Mr Punchline. He would outlive God trying to have the last word. But it seemed that Georgia had rendered him speechless.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" She asked him, stepping out of her apartment. As she did so, she stepped into the light, revealing her face in more detail, and suddenly, Sherlock's words weren't the only things that had been taken from him. It seemed his ability to breathe normally had also vacated his body.

"Definitely...de-definitely good." He breathed. And in all honestly, nobody could blame him for acting this way. For the past three months, the only woman that he had done this with had been Mitzi...I think that's all that needs to be said. Also the fact that under the street lights, Georgia looked absolutely stunning. Sherlock reminded himself that 'beauty is a construct based entirely on childhood impressions, influences and role models', but then found himself completely throwing that out of his mind, because nothing could convince him that Georgia wasn't probably the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen or had the pleasure to meet.

"Thank you. I must say, you're looking very handsome yourself tonight." Georgia took a chance to say as she blushed a light pink.

"And thank you for not calling me cute or sweet or adorable." Both of them shared a laugh as Sherlock hailed a cab to take them to the restaurant he had picked out for the night. He could only hope that he wouldn't mess up.

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Author's Note

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hey everyone, i hope you're having a great day!

i just wanted to let you know that this story is going to be quite fast paced, and the chapter lengths are going to fluctuate throughout the book for future reference.

thank you for reading, and i hope you enjoy the rest of the book!

- a x