if_inconvenient | (no subject)

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&cal

(no subject)

When Sherlock walks into the Biology classroom, a few minutes early as usual, he is thinking about last night. It's a bad time for it, but he is hardly going to start thinking about Biology until it is absolutely necessary.

He takes his usual seat and settles in to await Miss—to await Bella.

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. . . Cal blinks.

"Wow," he says.

"Also, I suspect James Mayer met Howard Stark at Milliways."

When he says it out loud like that, his chain of evidence seems so tenuous. An offhand comment about paternalism. Perhaps he is just getting paranoid.

"What?"

Cal stares.

Yeah, that's all he's got.

"It has been an eventful few days," he says dryly.

"No shit."

Cal cracks his soda open.

". . . Mr Mayer goes to Milliways?" he asks after a moment, apparently having decided that was the easiest thing to tackle.

"Yes. That much I am sure of. He claimed that the reason he looked so thoughtful had nothing to do with me, but I am not so sure I believe him."

"That's so weird," Cal mutters.

Teachers are not allowed to have social lives, or to go to places any of their students frequent. Even if, like Mr Mayer, teaching is clearly not what they really do.

There are rules.

"And if he did meet Howard Stark there, I envision a great deal of trouble."

- yeah. Yeah, he was kind of trying not to think about that.

In fact, he's tried not to think too much about the subject of the Milliways dead in general since his own father died.

"Yeah," he says quietly, staring down into his soda can.

Sherlock quietly puts his hand on Cal's shoulder.

Cal glances up with a thin smile.

"Fucking Milliways."

"Perhaps it's nothing," Sherlock murmurs. "The evidence is not very solid."

"What made you think it was?" Cal asks.

"Something he said. I made an offhand comment about paternalism and he echoed it back to me. It... seemed to fit, all of a sudden."

Cal - looks a little doubtful. As evidence goes, that is kind of on the skimpy side.

He trusts Sherlock's instincts, though, so it's only a little doubtful.

"I guess it would kinda hard to tell with him," he offers.

"Astonishingly so. Until now, I've never seen him lie anywhere near that well, if he was indeed lying when he told me his business was none of mine."

Cal frowns slightly, thinking.

"He can be kind of . . . have you ever seen him, like . . ." He gestures vaguely, trying to find words. "Like when he saw me and Tony coming up from the basement. He just - changed, all of a sudden. If I'd never met him before, I never would've guessed he was just a biology teacher."

"I know what you mean. Well, working for a secret international organization will have that kind of effect, I imagine."

"A what?"

Cal considers this.

"You think so?"

"There are damn few other explanations for why he is lurking in Sunnydale carrying extraterrestrial technology and covering up supernatural phenomena."

"This is the most bizarre conversation I think we've had in a while," Cal decides after a moment.

"Good to know I have not lost my touch, I suppose."

Cal raises his soda for a drink, snorting a laugh into the can.

Sherlock smirks.

Cal takes a long swallow of soda, then sighs.

"So," he says. "'Discussion about ethics,' huh?"