The whole... picking him apart thing is in itself worthy of befuddled staring, but what Sherlock has said afterwards really isn't helping at all either. Somehow it doesn't... work together, it's too endearing, all this struggling for words, to fit with a man who says he'd like to pick another man apart. It's... absurd.

John can't really come out with anything else - for starters - than, "Merlin, you..." Okay. Okay. "What are you talking about? All this... talking is driving me mad. Did your brain to mouth filter go on vacation? Because it's not there at all right now, I'm pretty sure."

Which basically means he thinks Sherlock is being ridiculous, and he's not going to run.