"What will you do? What will happen? What states of the world do I now have it in my power to cause with this choice?"

"I think me being upset is fairly self-explanatory," says Sherlock. "I will be upset. Experience indicates that no one besides Tony can tell the difference unless I mention it to them, but I have already mentioned it to you. As for the other, I do not know."

"Oh." Bell resumes her prior sitting-on-the-bed position and bites her lip a bit. "Well, I guess I can work around some informational limitations."

"Should I leave you to it, then?"

"Unless there's anything else you can tell me."

In the basement, continuing to make friends with that generator, where else?

"Hey. Are you interruptable?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I burned down the train station. The original fire started all by itself, on a house, I made it look like a natural spread. And Sherlock was there when I did it and now she says she's attracted to me again. And I think that since the holiday drugs thing, I know enough about what it's like to be attracted to her that I could do it again purpose? And if I don't she'll be upset. And I don't know anything much about what will happen if I do. So I thought I'd ask for your advice. I hope that isn't weird."

"...okay," he says, "as much as I love Sherry, if 'she'll be upset if I don't' is your only reason it's probably a pretty bad reason. And I'm not sure that me thinking you guys would be cute together is a much better one, but for the record, I totally think you'd be cute together."

"That's not the only reason I have, just the only thing I know about the results," Bell says. "She wasn't a lot of help with making detailed predictions about either possibility."

"Well, yeah, of course not," says Tony. "She's terrified of thinking about it."

"A significant factor in the con column is that she seems like she'd be emotionally high-maintenance," confesses Bell.

"She... is and she isn't," says Tony. "Depends what you mean."

"What do you mean?"

"It can be pretty rough, caring about somebody who's so... not okay with herself," says Tony. "But she knows that, and she tries not to make it any harder than it has to be."

"Good to know." Pause. "Oh, um, I've been recording this, is that okay? I usually don't ask, but I'm usually not trying to form long-term working relationships."

"Yeah, that's fine," he says agreeably.

"Thanks." She smiles faintly. "You think we'd be cute together, huh?"

"Adorable."

Bell sits and leans on the wall. "I'm not sure what to do. I've been talking to myself for a few hours now and I'm still not sure. It doesn't really help that I don't think I can just will myself back into holiday-drugs-mode, I think I'd have to playact at it a bit to start, and there's a chance that it wouldn't work and that would probably be hurtful."

"...Well, I'd tell her that part first," he says. "But I dunno. How's the talking to yourself been going?"

"Except for the fact that it trailed off without coming to a clear conclusion, about like normal. Why?"