if_inconvenient | (no subject)

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(no subject)

It has been no more than a few hours and still he feels that is too long.

"Where are they?" he asks as he steps inside. Home at last. It should be comforting.

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"Tony created Jarvis when he was eleven; he created me when he was twelve and a half. I'm a clone."

How can the truth sound so utterly impossible?

"If you've ever wondered who I was before I chose the name, the answer is quite literally no one."

Cal . . .

. . . Cal has no answer to that.

It would be a lot easier if he could believe for even a second that Sherlock would lie to him.

"The reason I have no particular attachment to Tony's parents," he continues softly, "is because I never met them. He kept me hidden. Quite well, in fact. Even Obadiah never knew I existed until after we moved to Sunnydale."

"Looks like you've figured out his sense of humour, too. Could you translate for the humans in the room?"

He'd wondered at the time, why that of all the things Stane had said about Sherlock that evening had been what set Tony off.

Still lost for words, still looking straight ahead, he nods as he slowly brings his cigarette to his mouth again. Just to show that he's listening.

As though he knows exactly what Cal is thinking, or perhaps as though he has no idea:

"He always took great delight in reminding me of what I wasn't, after that."

That, at least, gives Cal something to say.

("It's about time somebody gave that boy a helping hand. He's been so alone all his life.")

"Yeah, I'll bet," he mutters, and exhales.

He shrugs.

"And now you know."

With a hint of a smile: "Out of curiosity, what was the prevailing theory?"

"Uh."

Cal swallows, pulling his mind away from Obadiah Stane for the thousandth time today, and tries to think.

"That, uh. That y - Tony's parents favored him and pretty much ignored you. I, uh, that happens a lot."

Especially, it seems to him, in the social circles his own family occupies.

"Reasonable," he acknowledges after a moment's thought. "But I am sure you will see it fails to account for all the facts."

"Yeah, well. Like I said."

Once Cal known enough about Jarvis, he'd stopped fitting into that theory.

There are other things too, like how Sherlock clearly doesn't resent Tony the way Cal has seen in (what he thought were) similar situations, or how Tony never seemed to miss who his brother had been, but Cal had kept putting those questions aside when they came up because the answers were none of his business. And besides, in a situation that had gotten bad enough to break Sherlock completely, who can say what reactions are even normal anymore?

So it was still Jarvis who was the biggest question mark. Until now.

"There was some trouble between us over it," understatement of the century, "but that's past."

"Right."

Another mechanical drag from his cigarette.

If there is anything more to say, he can't think of it.

Cal blows out a slow stream of smoke.

He's tired, like he's been awake for days instead of just hours, and kind of drunk, and he watched someone he hates get sucked into hell, and now his best friend is a clone.

He starts to laugh.

What else can he do?

Sherlock glances sidelong at him.

And then grins.

"I'm gonna wake up any minute now, aren't I?"

He's joking. Mostly.

"Sadly, no. My life will be just as strange tomorrow."

Cal hasn't finished laughing yet.

"What a fucking day."

Speaking of understatements.

"Quite."

The laughter trails off after a moment or two; he sighs after, like he's been holding it in all day. Which, on some level, he has.

"Did you see if Connolly's still out front?" he asks.

"He is."

"Okay."

Cal drops the remains of his cigarette and grinds it out.

"I should -" He hesitates.

"I - I need to think. You know. When I'm functioning better."

He's not fleeing just because of Sherlock's revelation. He's not.

(Mostly he's not.)

"Of course," he acknowledges.

"I'll talk to you later."

He glances at Sherlock.

"I'll, uh, I'll keep you up-to-date on setting everything up." He still has to think about that, too.

"I'd hardly expect any less. And—thank you."

Not just for helping.