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Holmes was sitting in his favorite chair by the fireplace. The fire wasn’t burning. For once, it was a bright and sunny New London day. Rays of sunlight splotched the hardwood floors and no new cases had sprung to his attention. Quiet and peaceful. Just the way he didn’t like it....

'Will nothing happen today? I’ll lose my mind to boredom if I sit here much longer.'

Watson was in the kitchen fixing another batch of those biscuits he so loved to cook. The culinary artist wouldn’t leave his oven and stove if he didn’t have other responsibilities. However, today he was pondering Holmes’ recent mood. 'If I didn’t know better, I’d think he had spring fever or something along those lines. He’s so irritable when there aren’t any new cases. It’s as if he’s forgotten how to have fun,' the compudroid sighed. 'Well, if nothing else, one of the Irregulars should show up eventually to update him on the word on the streets.'

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News Channel: The New London heat of summer really seems to be keeping the criminals down lately. The crime rate is at its lowest in 15 years. There is a possibility of heat stroke and dehydration with this heat wave....

Holmes: Too bad Moriarty can’t control the weather....

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A police cruiser sliced through the hot air, flying down the streets of New London. She would have been stopped several times if the 'code of officers' didn’t include not pulling over a fellow police officer for speeding. She wasn’t about to do this alone.

A knock sounded on the door.

'Holmes, can you get that?! My biscuits are about to burn!' yelled a frantic Watson as he hurried to save his precious creations.

Jumping at the chance for any kind of external stimulation, Holmes sprang to the door, exhilarated for the excuse of leaving his chair. He saw not the person he had expected. There was a young brunette with a blonde streak of hair about shoulder length. Blue jeans and a faded shirt adorned her frame. Her blue eyes sparkled with an underlying intent. 'Lestrade?' he managed to croak. Never had he ever expected to see her in anything besides her police uniform.

'Hey! I just came by to see if you were busy today. You aren’t, are you?'

Holmes’ mind immediately caught on. 'What are you up to, Lestrade? I’ll figure it out before you leave if you don’t tell me. Wait, don’t tell me. Figuring it out would be much more interesting.'

Lestrade began to roll her eyes as she grabbed his arm and pulled him outside. 'You obviously aren’t busy, if that’s the case. I know something you can do.'

Somehow, he allowed her to drag him to the curb before finally demanding his arm back. 'You know, you could have just asked for me to come outside. What is so important that we have to stand in this infernal heat for you to tell me?'

'Eyes and brains, Holmes. Eyes and brains.' She smirked as she threw a rag at him and prepared to fill a bucket with water.

Holmes’s eye finally caught sight of the police cruiser she had driven. Splattered with mud, dirt and numerous insect-like spots, it was nearly unrecognizable. 'You want me. To clean that. For you.' An incredulous Holmes said.

'Don’t sound so skeptical, Holmes. You know I’ll be 'supervising,' she snickered out. At that moment, she wished she had a camera. It was definitely a Kodak moment. Unfortunately, even if she had had a camera, she wouldn’t have been in any shape to take the picture as she was laughing so hard.

Placing a soft towel over the biscuits while they cooled, Watson heard laughing. It sounded familiar but there weren’t that many children that lived nearby. As he peeped out the door, he saw a shocked Holmes and one incredibly euphoric Lestrade. 'My, my. Would either of you like some lemonade or would you like to stand in that heat all day?'

Lestrade said, 'Two lemonades and mine with a bit of sugar. We’re gonna wash my car today. It’s nice, hot, sunny. What better day could you ask for? Don’t worry, Holmes, I’ll help wash the car. It is mine, after all.'

As they rinsed the cruiser off, Holmes looked at Lestrade. She definitely seemed to be a good mood. What was so different about today that had her so happy? Normally, she would have stormed in complaining about the lack of cases, or perhaps some 'brats' that she would have to check up on. But today, having to do work that required relatively no sense of mental capacity at all, she was practically flying. For one, she had on civilian clothes. That couldn’t be it. A change of clothes wouldn’t change her personality so drastically. Perhaps it was that her mind had a break from the cases. That wasn’t it either. She enjoyed solving cases almost as much as he did. Perhaps it was the weather. It did seem to be about 50 degrees Fahrenheit in New London almost every day, yet today it was reaching over 100.

'So what have you been up to, Holmes? When there’re no cases, you must have some kind of hobby, right?' the euphoric brunette inquired.

As he looked up to reply, a sudden idea formed. 'Yes, I do. One of which is this!' And with that a sharp stream of water spurted from his water hose.

The scene was instant chaos. Screams of shock from both sides echoed as a water fight erupted.

'You’ll PAY FOR THAT, HOLMES!'

'Not so sure, Lestrade!'

'Take this!'

'Ughhh!'

Lestrade was pulling out all the stops. Throwing her own rag at him, she dived behind the cruiser.

Holmes said, 'That cruiser can’t stop me!' as he crouched to spray the water from underneath the hovering vehicle at the suspected spot. A sudden squeal confirmed his aim and suddenly, he was attacked from above with yet another jet of water.

'My! Aren’t we having fun today!' exclaimed Watson as he appeared at the door with two glasses of lemonade. 'Look at you both! You’re soaked!'

As Lestrade quickly reverted back to her normal self, Holmes stood up and realized that he was dripping wet. Both he and Lestrade stood with water dripping from their noses, cheeks, and hair; pants clinging to their legs; and shirts plastered to their bodies. As he glanced at Lestrade, he suddenly found his heart rate was not slowing. 'She looks so different. I guess I never took the time to notice before,' he thought.

As a mothering Watson ushered the two 'naughty' adults inside to dry off, it became apparent that Lestrade’s blue jeans were going to take some time to get even partially dry.

Watson said, 'Well. We certainly can’t let you walk around in wet jeans all day. I suppose Holmes will just have to let you borrow some of his.'

As Holmes looked up to argue he noticed Lestrade did look a bit bedraggled in her wet jeans. 'Well, all right. Just don’t get too comfortable. I don’t do this often,' he said, looking away to avoid her eyes.

'Just remember, you squirted me first with the water hose, Holmes.' Lestrade mumbled as she was corralled by Watson to the hall bathroom to change.

As she left, so did his heartbeat. Well, it slowed down, at the very least.

On to chapter 2!

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