John and Marie sat in front of the large fountain on the grounds of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters together. It was a bit odd for John, because he wasn't used to talking to teenagers so easily, and although Marie was almost a grown up, he still felt as if the age gap was gigantic. The doctor liked talking with somebody beside Sherlock this openly though, and Marie was honestly interested in the stories he had about Sherlock and 'The Work'.

"But how did you realise that you are a mutant?" Marie asked after he finished telling her the story of the hounds of Baskerville. John stiffened slightly at that.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it." Marie told John hastily when she noticed how his expression darkened. John shook his head, dismissing her worries.

"It might be good to talk about it." He answered. Marie just nodded at that.

"The criminal I told you about earlier, James Moriarty, managed to make the whole of England, including the police, doubt Sherlock." John started. Had it really only been a few weeks? It seemed like ages had passed since then. "Two children had been abducted, and Sherlock found them just in time to save them from mercury poisoning. When he wanted to ask the girl some questions, she started screaming at the sight of him. Because of that, the yard thought Sherlock had something to do with the abduction and he was arrested eventually, which only made the thought that Sherlock wasn't who he said he was stronger.

"Sherlock and I managed to escape from the police, but before we could prove Sherlock's innocence, Moriarty came out with the story he was Richard Brooke, an actor hired by Sherlock. And of course the public believed all of it. I only left Sherlock alone at Bart's hospital for a little while, because I got a message that Mrs Hudson had been shot, but when I returned Sherlock was standing on top of that roof." John's voice broke and he had to pause his story.

Marie put a gloved hand on his arm. "Please, continue," she requested gently. John nodded and started talking again.

"Sherlock, he called me." John shook his head. "it was surreal, we were so close and he had to call me to be able to talk to me. He said it was a magic trick, told me he was a fake. He told me goodbye and dropped the phone." Marie's grip on his arm tightened.

"I've never felt that powerless, never in my life. I could only watch as my best friend simply stepped off of the damned roof, and I broke into a sprint but when I got to the other side of the ambulance station the whole world had stopped. I'm not even exaggerating my feelings or anything, it had just stopped, there were birds hanging still in the air, all the cars had stopped moving, and hovering just inches above the ground was Sherlock."

"Well, that must have been a surprise," Mary remarked dryly, successfully breaking the dark tension that had formed around them and causing John to chuckle.

"You can say that again, weirdest day of my life, and I invaded Afghanistan." The two laughed happily together. Their talk had cheered the both of them up immensely.

"I'm going back to the mansion, I've got some stuff to talk about with Bobby." Marie decided when she was sure her new friend was okay. She got up from the bench, dusted of her clothing and flashed him a grin.

"Thank you for talking to me, Cap John."

John watched her as she walked towards the mansion, now full of confidence. It was quite special that talking to a stranger like that had had such a good effect on both of their moods. His bad temper had almost completely disappeared, but he still wasn't looking forward to facing Sherlock again. Deciding to put it off for a bit longer, he leaned against the backrest of the bench and enjoyed the clear weather.

Of course his peace couldn't last long, it never did. After about five minutes, Sherlock appeared out of nowhere. "John, I'd like to apologize," he started solemnly. John couldn't stop himself from raising his eyebrows. Sherlock apologizing? Now that was something else. "What, that's what I'm supposed to do right? Apologize for experimenting without your knowledge?" Sherlock asked upon seeing John´s expression, feeling mocked.

"Yes it is, I just didn't expect you to do it." John replied.

"Well, you were right. It was not good to do it, sorry. But you have to admit, it gave us results."

John sighed quasi exasperated. There was the Sherlock he knew.

"Alright," the army doctor started, deciding to humour Sherlock. "What did you find out?"

"We've been doing your training sessions all wrong. An important fact about you is that you are an adrenaline junkie, and you perform best under pressure. It's quite logical that your mutation, a natural defence mechanism comes out in stressful situations." Sherlock ranted. John looked at the excitement in his best friends face, and he knew he'd forgiven Sherlock already. It wasn't so much that he had been angry with Sherlock's experimenting, as that he hadn't been told about the detective's plans, again.

"So basically, I can use my mutation easiest when there's adrenaline in my blood?" John asked.

"Yes John, that's what I just told you, did you even pay attention?"

John decided against responding to that and stood up. "Well, we should talk to the Professor about this then, shouldn't we?"

Sherlock simply nodded in response.

"Let's go then."

The two of them walked towards the mansion together, all anger between them forgotten. A few weeks ago, John had thought he would lose his best friend in the world. Now, he felt like he was actually gaining some new ones.

A/N: Well, here you guys are. I could come up with a lot of excuses, like the fact that my laptop somehow couldn't read my user account anymore, And I had to get my uncle who lives quite far away from us to fix it, but It isn't really fair, because that happened five weeks ago, and it's been a lot longer since I've written. Thank you for all the support, and please leave a reply if you've got the time. Of course you are always allowed to Pm me too.

Love,

The Young Writer's Apprentice