Chapter Text
Sherlock knew John was keeping something from him; which was both annoying and not very easy to do.
John had received an email from someone (Sherlock surmised it was a former army comrade but was not certain who), and John's reaction upon reading it was most interesting due to its unusualness. He had blinked several times, and got somewhat flustered – to the point Sherlock thought he was actually blushing! John went as if to get up, then looked at Sherlock – who quickly looked at the phone in his hand and tried to pretend he was not watching John avidly. Nevertheless, John looked at him in suspicion, before pulling his phone out of his pocket and taking a photo of the screen before laboriously clicking around the screen in a way that Sherlock knew was him deleting the email. Only once he had deleted the email, deleted it from his trash, cleared his history and did a disk clean-up, did John put his laptop to one side, get up and make his way over to the kettle.
When John came back with their cups of tea, he looked at Sherlock with a raised eyebrow as he placed his cup on the coffee table on front of him before returning to his own seat. “Yes Sherlock, that is the level I have to go to in order to have a bit of privacy. And the fact that I have gone that far gives you a little hint that I do not want you to know. So please, just leave it.”
“I never said anything!”
“Maybe, but you did forget to lock the screen before you put my laptop back.”
When Sherlock had had the opportunity (once John had gone to work the next day) to check the laptop more thoroughly, all he got was confirmation that John had taken all the steps he thought he had – even going so far as to delete his entire deleted items and his sent items in his email account, as well as his internet history. However, the fact he had deleted his sent items meant that John must have replied to the sender at some point; leading Sherlock to investigate using the 'to' bar to work out the email address of the last email John had sent. This meant he now at least knew who had sent the email – Bill Murray.
Sherlock was aware that Bill was John's closest surviving comrade – John had met with him for drinks a few times whilst Bill was on leave since he had moved in with Sherlock. This did not lead Sherlock to ascertain anything further; it could be something army related, but it could also be something embarrassing that had happened whilst John was on tour, or it could be Bill teasing him about his love life (the few minutes Sherlock had spent with Bill when he came to the flat to meet John on their last night out, Bill had let John's nick-name of 'Three Continents Watson' slip, which was the first time Sherlock had seen John blush). The fact it was Bill did make Sherlock wonder if it was related to John's sexual history; however, Sherlock had told the still blushing John that he was not at all surprised by his nickname, as he had already surmised John's sexual history from his stance and the way he organised his pants, so he did not think John would be so secretive if that was the case.
He had seen John typing laboriously on his phone; the amount of stopping and frowning leaving Sherlock sure it was about that email, but still no clearer on what the email was about! And John was being very careful to never put his phone down when Sherlock was around – he was even sleeping with it under his pillow (and Sherlock's one attempt to get the phone had resulted in him getting a black eye).
He had also caught John on the phone to Bill at one point, although he did not manage to glean much from this before John had realised he was there:
“-you know I'm not trained or qualified to do this! I know its a compliment to be asked, but seriously the idea of doing it frankly scares the absolute shit out of me! I don't si-”
When he saw Sherlock had walked in, he jumped, as Sherlock had managed to avoid the creaky step, and opened the door soundlessly, meaning John had completely missed his entrance.
“Shit Sherlock! Don't do that! I so need to get you a bell! Bill, I gotta go. We can talk about this another time.”
No matter how much he tried that evening, he could not get John to tell him what the call was about.