Sherlock blinked.

"I saw her once, isn't that enough?" he asked curiously.

"You really have no idea what to do with women, do you?" John sighed. "Alright, fine, have it your way." He held up his hands in defeat and headed to his portion of the suite they shared.

"I didn't hear you making any plans to see her, Abby, was it? Again," Sherlock pointed out. He wasn't going to admit he'd been observing John as a role model.

"No, but she has my number, and we are planning to go out again," John called. "We just don't have a day picked yet."

"I see," Sherlock said. He considered that for a moment and then checked his phone quickly. He expected Lestrade to have bothered him at least once, if only to make some comment about the forced vacation.

Lestrade had indeed left a message, something along the lines of 'about bloody time you took a vacation, go inflict yourself on America for a bit'. But it was normal for them by now.

Sherlock snorted softly and put his phone away again. He knew Lestrade missed them.

A few days later, John was seeing Abby again, for lunch this time.

And in another part of the city, Elena was being questioned by the police about a murder.

Sherlock had let John go off on his date, and was wandering around the area for a while. He paused when he saw flashing police lights and a crowd of people. Those were always promising signs. So he went over to see what was going on.

Elena blinked when she saw Sherlock had somehow managed to get past the police line, into the building, and up to the correct floor. She got up and walked over to him, frowning a bit.

"Mr. Holmes? What brings you here?"

"I was bored," Sherlock said. "And I seemed to have the afternoon to myself when I stumbled upon this gem of interest." He glanced at her. "Tell me what happened."

"Coworker got killed," Elena said after a moment. "Someone got in, probably through a window, killed him, left a big bloody mess behind, and left out the front door."

"Indeed," Sherlock said, scanning the area. "There's likely more to it than that."

"Oh I don't doubt it," Elena said. "I don't think anyone hated him so much as to kill him, but I also don't know the details of his private life." She shrugged. "But the police are hassling me because I knew him."

"They're going about it all wrong," Sherlock commented. He snorted. "Americans are rather backwards."

"You would think so." Elena rolled her eyes. "I suppose you think you'd like to solve it for them."

"I want to solve it just to have solved it," Sherlock said. "Just as a distraction." Quickly, he snapped a picture of the mob of police and people with his phone and sent it to John.

Look at what I found.

John felt his phone buzzed and checked quickly. He groaned aloud and sent back a quick reply.

Oh Sherlock you didn't...

I merely stumbled upon it.

Abby glanced at John curiously.

"What happened?" she asked.

Only you could 'just stumble' on a murder, Sherlock.

"Apparently Sherlock found himself a murder to keep himself occupied," John said with a bit of exasperation.

It isn't as if I went looking for it.

Abby blinked.

"What?" she asked. She pulled out her phone and did a quick search on the local news site. "Like, here in town? I don't see anything on the news."

"It must be in town, he's still in the area," John said with a sigh.

Apparently all you need to do is go outside. Besides, I know you can't resist looking when you hear sirens.

I did not hear sirens so your hypothesis is false.

Abby studied John for a minute.

"Well, if you want, we can have the rest of our lunch boxed up and then go and see what's going on," she offered. She grinned. "Who knows, maybe we'll get there in time for you to reign in Sherlock."

John sighed. "Only if you don't mind," he said. "Sherlock's an adult, I'm sure he can manage by himself for a while."

But he didn't want to see Sherlock thrown in jail for meddling. Which could happen.

Abby grinned.

"Let's go, then," she said. "I will admit I kind of want to see this."