Title: Scent Experiment
Author mafief
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Rating: G
Length: 688 words
Content notes: Wake up your Watson, now with scents!
Summary: Unbeknownst to John, Sherlock has been experimenting on him again. It goes over about as well as you expect.


John jolted awake after a rather disturbing dream. His heart was pounding in his ears and he flailed disoriented. He swung his hand and it contacted something. Something warm. He grabbed at it and gripped tight. Ok, it was warm and fleshy. In the darkness of his room, he heard a whimper.

Still holding onto to it, John fumbled for the light and switched it on. He was in Baker Street; Baker Street was safe. In his grip was a wrist attached to a wide-eyed Sherlock who was leaning over his bed. He was in Baker Street and in his room with his flat mate who still did not understand boundaries. Adrenaline had done most of the job to shake off sleepy dullness. John glared at Sherlock and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Hi John. Didn’t mean to disturb you. I’ll be on my way.”

John’s anger erupted. That was not a reason. “Sherlock! What the bloody hell are you doing in my bedroom?”

Sherlock gave no reply. Out of the corner of his eye, John saw Sherlock fiddle with something in his hand. “Sherlock, give me whatever is in your hand.”

“I’d rather not.”

John lunged out of bed and after the thing in Sherlock’s hand. There was a tussle but John snatched it away from Sherlock. Holding it out, he glared at the small vial and back at Sherlock. He noticed a faint smell coming from the vial and recognized it instantly because it vividly reminded him of his dream.

“Explain.”

“It’s for a case.”

“That is not an explanation. Try again.”

“I am testing the effect of stimuli on people’s unconscious mind. Specifically, I’m testing scents and the effect on dreams. I needed someone with a relatively normal brain who had a regular sleep schedule. I’m trying to see if it is possible to subconsciously drive someone to self-harm, which in this case wouldn’t really be self-harm, because the scents caused it, but to harm one’s self because of the scents.”

“You swore no more testing after Baskerville!”

“I swore no more tests that you would ingested. This is a smell and most of the affects you have experienced from this experiment have not been distressing.”

John looked up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath in and out trying to calm his anger just a little bit before he decked his flat mate. “How long have you been doing this?”

“About a month.”

John’s mouth hung open. A month! He thought. He was going to kill him at his first opportunity.

“I don’t think killing me is in your best interest,” said Sherlock. “As I said earlier, most of the outcomes have been positive. I have been testing the association of pine smell by itself or with other odors. Take pine and ginger, you came down refreshed and very happy after that evening.”

“Because that scent reminds me of the holiday baking my mum would do. What you are telling me is that every morning you were awake before me and politely asked how I slept was only because you had experimented on me the night before and were observing the results.”

“Yes, and as I said most of the results have been positive. I kept trying different combinations and this has been the worst response.”

“Sherlock, this is a Bit Not Good! This is a terrible experiment for a former soldier who has suffered from PTSD! That combination of pine and antiseptic brings back a very painful memory in my med school days during the holidays.” Stopping to give Sherlock time to process, John immediately decided he needed to clarify rules. Like that would do any good. “New rules: no experimenting on me in anyway including ingesting, smells, anything topical, anything psychological, and anything at all. Period.”

Sherlock looked like he was going to protest, but after John pinned him with a Captian-John-no-nonsense-look, he slowly nodded.

Sherlock turned to go and he said, “if that is the new rule, you will need to throw out your shampoo.”

John growled and sprinted after Sherlock as he dashed down the stairs away John’s bedroom.