if_inconvenient | (no subject)

"I'll meet you there."

She is not looking forward to this. There is no reason to think that alerting Sherlock to her search will do anything other than permanently cut off any other avenues she might have tried. Then she'll never know the answer, and she hates that.

But. It is a question of ethics. She's known that from the beginning, which is why her need for knowledge isn't the only reason why she doesn't want to ask him about it. She's also worried about how he'll react, because she likes him and wants him to like (to keep liking) her, and she wouldn't care about that if she didn't know perfectly well that he will have a very valid reason to be upset with her.

Which is probably the best reason of all to tell him before she finds herself caught in some ridiculous soap opera-esque feedback loop of lies. It was, when she started out, the best way to improve her odds of getting what she wanted, but those odds are rapidly dwindling, and Bella will not let herself be someone who refuses to adapt when a situation changes.

Sherlock gives her a thoughtful look.

He can tell there is something going on there, but in this case the best possible way to find out will be to wait and ask.

In the meantime, paying attention to class is always an option.

That it is.

With some effort, Bella is able to put aside her concerns and focus for the rest of the day. A lot of the material her classes are getting into now that the school year is truly underway is familiar, but she doesn't remember all of it clearly enough to get away with daydreaming too much, and some classes are more open to a teacher's interpretation of the curriculum. English is one of them.

When the school day is over, Bella heads right for the nearest door, which is the one Sherlock was most likely talking about.

It is.

He's waiting there for her, leaning against the wall just inside the door and reading a book.

"Hi," Bella says as she approaches him.

"Your house or mine?"

"Mine, by preference," he says, without looking up at first. "Unless you would find it distracting."

When he finishes the sentence, he closes the book and straightens.

"Not at all," she says.

Then,

"Or not enough to be a deterrent, anyway." Because a house that size is bound to be a little distracting to someone who's not used to it.

"All right, then."

Smiling, he starts for the door to lead the way towards her car.

Bella picks up just a little extra speed so that she's walking next to him instead of behind him. Just on principle. It's her truck.

Sherlock falls into step without appearing to notice.

Then again, he's Sherlock. The odds of him not noticing anything so relatively obvious are slim.

Bella remembers most of the route back to Sherlock's home, though she has to doublecheck with him on a couple of the turns.

The building is no less imposing for having seen it before, but she pays that fact less attention this time, concentrating more on parking instead.

He doesn't offer to let her into the garage. The garage is still Tony's even without Tony here; it wouldn't be right.

When they step up to the front door, it unlocks itself just before Sherlock's hand touches the handle. He smiles fondly.

Bella hears the lock click open. Interesting; she didn't see Sherlock do anything to trigger it. Hidden motion detector, maybe, or just a staff who plays attention. Maintaining a house this size must take some work.

There certainly isn't a staff of any kind, or if there is, they have all gone home. The inside of the house is perfectly quiet.

"Come in," he says, opening the door and stepping through. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

She looks around curiously.

"Yes," she says, "thank you."

Everything is clean and neat and tidy. A few living rooms are visible along the hall. A half-open door just off the foyer leads down to a presumable basement, and a staircase near the far end of the hall leads up to the second and third floors. Sherlock heads down the hall and past the stairs to the kitchen.

If Bella is paying particular attention, she might notice the cameras. They're fairly unobtrusive, but there are a lot of them.

Once she spots one of them, the rest become obvious. Bella doesn't know very much about private security, but thais seems pretty heavy for a residence. She's been in museums with fewer cameras.

Though it is entirely likely that the Stark family has more need of the heavy security, especially since Tony took over as CEO of Stark Industries.

"And here is the tea cupboard," he says, pulling open the cupboard nearest the hall door. "I'll put the kettle on. Do you want to bring up your ethical dilemma first, or shall I?"

Bella blinks, turning her attention to Sherlock.

"You can go first," she says, reasoning that if she did, it would probably derail any further conversation.

And no, the chance to put it off for a little while longer is not unwelcome.

"Well."

He shrugs slightly.

"I was speaking with someone last night and he seemed to be thinking over a puzzle. An offhand remark he made led me to believe it might have something to do with—my family. When I asked him about it directly, he said it was none of my concern, and he was either completely sincere or as good a liar as I am."

The pause before he says my family does not go unnoticed.

(She is really, really going to hate not being able to solve this one.)

Bella pauses for a moment herself, absently shifting her backpack a little on her shoulder, trying to focus on what Sherlock did say rather than speculate about what he didn't.

"Has he given you reason to think he might lie to you about that?"

He snorts, hitting the button on the electric kettle and going to another cupboard to retrieve two mugs.

"Lord yes; he's tried the like before, over other matters. But until now he has never managed to pull it off without giving himself away. If he did lie this time."

"You already think he did," Bella observes again. "And you're questioning your conclusion. You need more evidence one way or another, but you're reluctant to go after it."

She puts her backpack down next to the kitchen table, considering. She's not sure of how much her next question is her projecting her own situation, but she decides to ask it anyway.

"Is it really about the ethics, or is it that you don't want to find out that he is lying?"

"I don't like either option," Sherlock admits. "But on the whole, I would rather he were telling the truth. If he is lying, that means he knows something about my family that I do not, and is willing to lie to me about it. I don't consider that an optimal outcome."

Bella suddenly wants to know who this mystery person is. Maybe he has answers to her questions.

But it's obvious that Sherlock is deliberately shielding his identity, and wouldn't tell her if she asked.

"No," she agrees, "it's not. But if he is lying, and you can prove it, then you'll have a more accurate picture of the situation and you can decide where to go from there. You can't make an informed decision without information, no matter how much you don't like the information."