Elena looked at him for a moment, dumbfounded, before she shook her head slowly.

"I don't know whether to be appalled or start laughing hysterically," she said. "I think for the sake of everyone I'm going to take a breather to figure that out." She scooted out of the booth so she could head outside for a minute.

Sherlock looked mildly perplexed at her response and looked at John for some help.

John shook his head. "You were right," he said dryly. "She does want to punch you in the face."

"According to you, so does everyone," Sherlock pointed out. "John, she makes no sense at all, I don't understand it."

"She's a woman, they tend not to make sense," John said soothingly. "No offense," he added to Abby.

"None taken," Abby said, grinning a bit. "Really, keep going, this is great."

Sherlock gave her a bit of a Look and 'humph'ed a bit, slouching in his seat.

John grinned briefly. "Women don't make sense," he continued. "They are often contrary and they don't say what they mean. You just have to... adapt."

"Clearly," Sherlock grumbled.

Abby had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, and got up.

"I'm going to go see if I can get Elena to come back," she said. "Be right back."

Elena was outside leaning against a wall, grumbling to herself and muttering. Clearly she hadn't forgiven Sherlock yet.

"You okay?" Abby asked when she found her friend. "He didn't upset you too much, did he?"

"He's infuriating, but I'm okay," Elena said with a shrug. "Annoyed at him, but otherwise fine. I just needed to get out of there before I tried to strangle him, or something."

"You looked like you wanted to punch him," Abby said. "And no jury would have convicted you."

"I know." Elena pouted a bit. "Maybe next time. Oh well. I feel like if I have to spend too much time with him I'll start smoking or something."

"Nothing says you have to keep spending time with him," Abby pointed out. "It's totally up to you."

"Well if I want to eat tonight I kind of do have to," Elena said with a shrug. "Well, I'll be fine for dinner, at least. After that, nope. All bets are off."

"Fine with me," Abby said. She grinned. "And like I said... I bet no jury in the world would convict you if you punched him."

Elena grinned, cheered by the thought, and headed back inside with her.

Sherlock watched as the two came back in, but didn't comment. For now, observation seemed best.

Abby sat back down next to John, grinning a bit.

"And now back to our regularly scheduled meal," she said.

"We're not going to have to pause again for any violence are we?" John asked mildly. "I don't have my med kit with me."

"No, we should be good now," Abby said. Sherlock just grumbled slightly under his breath, but didn't argue at all.

"Good." John grinned. "Well, speaking of, here comes food." He shuffled things around a bit to have room on the table.

Abby grinned a bit and made some space for her plate, although she did glance at Sherlock and Elena briefly to make sure they weren't antagonizing each other.

Elena was good and was pretty much completely ignoring Sherlock and eating her food quietly.

A couple of weeks after the semi-disastrous dinner, Sherlock found himself finally being handed an interesting case by Lestrade.

"A murder and a suicide?" Sherlock asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'd swear they're connected," Lestrade said, "but for the life of me can't figure out how."

"Well, obviously, they're connected, just look at them," Sherlock said.

"So you'll take the case?" Lestrade pressed. Sherlock responded by putting on his coat and scarf.

By the time the two got to the murder scene, Elena was already there, although she was just poking around a bit and chatting with a few officers on the scene. She wasn't actually serious about helping (at that point), nor was she trying to get involved.

But then Sherlock arrived and she looked over at him.