Oh my goodness. *happy shriek* This is great! I don't have a lot of time to go into the details now, so I'm just going to rapid-fire talk here. I love-love-love all of the little allusions to Sherlock's past. His voice, as always with you, is spot on: deliciously sardonic, clever, a-world-of-barely-tempered-thoughts behind every word, surprisingly vulnerable in some ways, unconventional, brilliant. I just love him when you write him. And gravity. Ah! Such a perfect detail.

Your descriptions of how Mycroft taught Sherlock how to drive made me wince -- I'd love to know more about that! When I read about the toes, I had the sense that Sherlock was being serious, though I think Lestrade interpreted the statement as being at least partly sarcastic, so the fact that Sherlock didn't try to convince him further was interesting to me.

Also much love for Lestrade's knowing he'll only be able to get limited small talk out of Sherlock, and so knowing how to ration it and, at the end, use it to his advantage. Lestrade is fairly clever in his own right, as it should be. :)

Oh, and Sherlock's suspicion of small talk was hilarious. Also, your descriptions of the mechanic, as well as the overall situation, were lovely.

Thank you so much for writing this! It was such a lovely surprise to read. :D