"Holmes," I half-sighed, "Does it not bother you at all that the newspapers give you next to no credit, and nearly fall upon the Yard with praise, when they hardly do anything except for bumble around and maybe do something somewhat productive if they are profoundly lucky; and you are the one who has done all the work?"

Sherlock Holmes looked up at me with one eyebrow cocked in surprise from his position across the table. I was hardly prone to outbursts, especially insulting ones, and I felt my cheeks color slightly. I gestured to the article in the paper I had been reading, which detailed the case he had solved earlier in the week. Holmes had been in a good mood since its conclusion earlier in the week, a fact for which I was profusely glad. It was a welcome change from the usual 'black moods' he normally sunk into with the end of a case. It seems that in his stead I had been the one to become irritable, for it was with a rather grumpy mood that I had woke up that morning.

Holmes seemed to be enjoying his breakfast, which was more than I could say, and indeed more than I would have hoped for. It was good that he was eating at all, no less heartily digging into his bacon. I, however, had not gotten my answer, and returned the gesture of cocking a eyebrow.

Holmes gave me one of his smiles that lasted a fraction of a second, and wiped his mouth, straightening up in his chair.

"Watson, do you ever receive recognition for your own professional cases?"

I frowned slightly. "No, but I'm a doctor, not a detective. I would think that your job is more comparable to that of the inspectors of the Yard rather than a doctor." I replied, not seeing where he was going with his last remark.

"I think, Watson, that given the choice of being compared with either a bumbler from the Yard or a man like yourself, I should surely choose the latter. There are people more deserving than myself of being praised in the papers."

I was left a little shocked at this backhanded compliment, and sat with my mouth half open while Holmes returned to his bacon with gusto.

I was glad to see, though, that my grumpiness had disappeared most completely.