1.

Elspeth felt like she was in a dream, or some kind of trance, as she opened the door of the fire escape and walked back down the way she'd came. When she first went to the roof of the hospital, she didn't expect to be leaving in one piece. Then again, she didn't know what she had been expecting. She'd waited and watched Moriarty stroll away like they were just two friends saying goodbye after a quick catch up, and followed shortly afterwards. She was on edge. Elspeth half expected Moriarty to be waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, or around the corner, or even outside the front of the hospital, but he was nowhere to be seen. It was like he had completely disappeared. If it wasn't for his face still plastered on the screens of London, Elspeth might've started to question her own sanity.

She should've questioned it the second she thought it would be a good idea to confront Jim Moriarty on the rooftop of St Bart's Hospital. Stepping out onto the busy street, Elspeth brushed her fingers against her lips and tried not to shudder.

Just as she was about to start the walk home, a dark car with tinted windows pulled up alongside Elspeth. She tried not to grimace. Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she plastered a false smile on her face and wandered over. The back door slammed open; Mycroft did not look pleased to see her.

"Hi," Elspeth began.

"Get in the car," Mycroft ordered, climbing out the back seat and holding the door open for her so she couldn't bolt. Not that she would've done. "Now, Elspeth."

Elspeth bit her lip and let the fake smile fade, sliding into the back seat. Sherlock was already there, his fingers flying across the keypad of his phone. He looked up when Elspeth moved over to sit next to him, a sly smile appearing on his face. She couldn't help but smile back. Maybe stealing a car and driver from under Mycroft's nose wasn't the most sensible plan, but if it made Sherlock laugh, it was worth it. Elspeth's smile faded when Mycroft took a seat next to her, the three Holmes' crowded together in one car, but she didn't say anything. Now wasn't the time to tell them she had just seen Jim Moriarty with her own eyes. She would wait until she and Sherlock were alone.

"Well?" Mycroft asked. Sherlock looked up from his phone momentarily and Elspeth frowned at her uncle. "You took a car without my permission, didn't tell any of us where you were going, completely ignored every call and message I left you. What excuse could you possibly come up with this time, Elspeth?"

"Uh . . ." Elspeth's mind went blank. "I don't have one?"

Sherlock snorted. Mycroft glared at them both.

"This is serious, Elspeth. You cannot just leave without informing us, anything could've happened to you. We have enough to deal with without adding your spontaneous joyrides on top of it all."

Elspeth sank in her seat and leaned against Sherlock with a quiet sigh, feeling little comfort when he bumped his shoulder against hers. He didn't look up from his phone, though. When Elspeth glanced down, she realised with mild amusement that her father was tweeting. She decided now definitely wasn't the right time to tell him about Moriarty. She would wait, however long that took.

"What you're about to see is classified beyond top secret. Is that quite clear? Don't minute any of this. Once beyond these walls, you must never speak of it. A D-notice has been slapped on the entire incident. Only those within this room – code names Antarctica, Langdale, Porlock and Love – will ever know the whole truth."

Elspeth sighed and slumped in her seat, the dimmed lights of the room making her feel sleepy. She sat in one of the chairs at the side, while Sherlock was in the centre with Mycroft standing next to him. Apparently this meeting did not concern her, but Mycroft wanted to keep both his brother and niece under the same roof for the time being so he could keep an eye on them. Lady Smallwood and Sir Edwin sat at the desk with a third woman, each of them watching the footage from the night Sherlock shot Charles Augustus Magnussen. It played on a loop; Elspeth flinched every time there was a gun shot.

"As far as everyone else is concerned," Mycroft continued. "Going to the Prime Minister and way beyond, Charles Augustus – are you tweeting?"

Elspeth smirked, recognising the sound of a tweet being sent even as Sherlock attempted to hide his phone.

"No."

"Well, that's what it looks like."

"Of course I'm not tweeting. Why would I be tweeting?" Sherlock asked, the picture of perfect innocence. Mycroft demanded that Sherlock give him the phone and Sherlock refused to, resulting in a fight for it that lasted a few seconds. Sherlock clung desperately to his phone with both hands, and Mycroft all but climbed on top of his brother in an attempt to wrestle it off him. "Ellie – Ellie, help me!"

"Stay where you are, Elspeth," Mycroft snapped. He got the phone from Sherlock and glanced at the screen, raising an eyebrow as he scrolled. down Sherlock's twitter account. "Back on terra firma. Free as a bird."

"God, you're such a spoilsport," Sherlock muttered.

"Will you take this matter seriously, Sherlock?"

"I am taking this seriously," Sherlock retorted, scowling at his brother. Elspeth took her own phone from her bag and found Sherlock's twitter account, still wondering when her dad got twitter. She didn't even realise he knew what twitter was. "What makes you think I'm not taking this seriously?"

"Hashtag oh what a beautiful morning," Elspeth read. "Really Dad?"

"Look, not so long ago I was on a mission that meant certain death – my death – and now I'm back, in a nice warm office with my big brother and my only daughter – are those ginger nuts?" Sherlock sprung to his feet and snatched a handful of biscuits from the plate. "Love ginger nuts. Ellie, come and have a ginger nut. They're delicious. You like ginger nuts, don't you?" He swung back around to face Elspeth, all but force feeding her the biscuit before she finally snatched it from him. "Where did you disappear off to anyway?"

"Our doctor said you were clean," Lady Smallwood said.

"I am, utterly," Sherlock said, joining Mycroft's side and looking at his brother. "No need for stimulants now, remember? I have work to do." He took a large bite from one of the biscuits in his hand, scoffing when Sir Edwin accused him of being high. Elspeth couldn't blame him; Sherlock was acting odd. "Natural high, I assure you. Totally natural. I'm just" – Sherlock threw his arms up and sang – "glad to be alive!" Elspeth raised her eyebrows. Sherlock chuckled. "What shall we do next? What's your name?"

Sherlock pointed at the third woman, and she blinked nervously. "Vivian."

"What would you do, Vivian? It's a lovely day. Go for a stroll? Make a paper aeroplane? Have an ice lolly?" Sherlock threw the suggestions out like he didn't have a care in the world, oblivious to the way Lady Smallwood shook her head and Sir Edwin face palmed. Elspeth felt her cheeks reddening the more he spoke, glancing at Mycroft with mortification written all over her face. When Vivian tentatively suggested an ice lolly, Sherlock threw his arms up again. "Ice lolly it is! What's your favourite?"

"Dad," Elspeth snapped. "Stop harassing people about ice lollies."

"Thank you, Elspeth. That may have been the most sensible thing you've said all day," Mycroft said. Elspeth shot him a withering glance, but he ignored her as he raised the remote and restarted the security footage of Sherlock and Magnussen. Elspeth forced herself to watch. Her eyes widened when she realised it had been altered so that it wasn't Sherlock who shot Magnussen, but rather a sniper out of shot. In the new footage, Sherlock didn't even raise his gun.

"I see. Who is supposed to have shot him, then?" Sherlock asked.

"Some over-eager squaddie with an itchy trigger finger, that's who," Sir Edwin said.

"That's not what happened at all," Sherlock commented.

"How did you do that?" Elspeth demanded, rising to her feet and standing next to Mycroft so she could get a better look at the footage. She watched it over and over, taking in every detail, expecting Sherlock to raise the gun each time.

"We have some very talented people working here. If James Moriarty can hack every TV screen in the land, rest assured we have the tech to doctor a bit of security footage," Sir Edwin explained. Sherlock tossed a piece of biscuit in the air, scrabbling for it when it missed his mouth and landed down the side of the chair. Elspeth broke off a piece of her own biscuit and threw it at the side of Sherlock's head, smirking when he glowered at her. He threw the biscuit at her. Mycroft chose to ignore both of them. "That is now the official version, the version anyone we want to will see."

"No need to go to the trouble of getting some sort of official pardon. You're off the hook, Mr Holmes. You're home and dry," Lady Smallwood said.

"Ok, cheers," Sherlock said, jumping to his feet and pulling on his coat. "Come on, Ellie, I fancy chips."

"Obviously there's unfinished business," Lady Smallwood continued before Sherlock and Elspeth could leave. "Moriarty. You said he filmed that video before he died. You also say you know what he's going to do next. What does that mean?"

"I never said he was dead," Sherlock said. Elspeth bit her lip and glanced up at him, knowing it still wasn't the right time. Every time someone so much as mentioned Moriarty's name, her stomach knotted and her heart raced. "He isn't just trying to frighten us, he would never be that disappointing. He's planned something, something long-term, something that would take place whether he made it off the rooftop alive or not. Posthumous revenge, maybe. No – better than that. Posthumous game."

"We brought you back to deal with this. What are you going to do?" Lady Smallwood asked.

"Wait."

"Wait?"

"Of course wait. I'm the target. Targets wait. Look, whatever's coming, whatever he's lined up, I'll know when it begins," Sherlock said, putting his arm through the second sleeve and guiding Elspeth to the door with a hand on her shoulder. She'd lost a lot of colour in her face, and she was grateful for the support. "I always know when the game is on. Do you know why?"

Lady Smallwood sighed, exasperated. "Why?"

Elspeth couldn't help but grin as she turned back and said, "Because he's Sherlock Holmes."

The shark tunnel was quiet; eerily so. Elspeth followed Sherlock and craned her neck back, watching the sharks glide over their heads. She'd always been a bit wary of sharks. When they reached the end of the tunnel, Sherlock and Elspeth came to a darkened room with tanks on three of the walls. Elspeth walked forwards and stood as close to the glass as possible, biting her lip as a pair of flat eyes stared back at her when a shark swam by.

"You know how whales talk to each other? Specific sounds mean different things and some of them even have names . . . do you think sharks do that too?" Elspeth asked. Another shark passed her. "I think we should name one. That one right there." She pressed her finger against the glass. "We should call him Charles, in honour of Magnussen."

Sherlock took a seat on the bench behind her. "What did you tell the driver?"

"That Mycroft ordered me straight home, no questions asked," Elspeth said. She turned to face Sherlock. "I don't get why he's so pissed, it's not like anyone got hurt. And he didn't need to keep calling me. I'm an adult now, I can look after myself." Huffing, Elspeth walked away from the tank and sat next to Sherlock, glancing at him with a gloomy expression. "Am I in trouble now?"

"You're not in trouble. I would like to know what you were doing at St Bart's, though," Sherlock said. Elspeth glowered at him. "Don't look at me like that. You've spent the whole day acting like you saw a ghost." Sherlock frowned when Elspeth looked away, her eyes glazing over. He recognised the expression straight away; it was same sort of behaviour that followed her ordeal with Moriarty the first time round. "Has something happened? Has someone threatened you in some way?"

"No one has hurt me or threatened me," Elspeth said. She wasn't quite sure if it was a lie or not. "I am fine. Completely and utterly fine. See?" She plastered a false grin on her face, batting her eyelashes at Sherlock. He snorted. "When did you get twitter?"

"Don't change the subject."

"I'm not changing the subject, I genuinely want to know when you started to catch up with social media." Elspeth's eyes widened. "Oh God, you're not following me, are you? Please say you're not following me."

"I have no interest in your endless tweets," Sherlock said. "Do you remember the story about the merchant and Death?" Elspeth screwed her nose up and shrugged. She had a vague recollection of Sherlock telling her the story when she was younger, but she couldn't remember it fully. "There was once a merchant in the famous market at Baghdad. One day he saw a stranger looking at him in surprise, and he knew that the stranger was Death. Pale and trembling, the merchant fled the marketplace and made his way many, many miles to the city of Samarra, for there he was sure Death could not find him. But when at last he came to Samarra, the merchant saw, waiting for him, the grim figure of Death. 'Very well,' said the merchant. 'I give in. I am yours. But tell me, why did you look surprised when you saw me this morning in Baghdad?'"

"'Because,' said Death. 'I had an appointment with you tonight in Samarra,'" Elspeth finished. "So who is death and who is the merchant in this messed up situation?"

Sherlock frowned, looking to the side. "I suppose we'll have to wait and see."

"Right," Elspeth said, rising to her feet. "We had best get to work then, hadn't we? No point in sitting around staring at sharks."

"Where exactly are you planning on going?"

"To Baker Street, of course," Elspeth said, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on Dad, the game is on!"

I'm back! After a long hiatus I thought I would delve back into the Sherlock fandom; this fic is a sequel to my last fic, Wisdom In The Face of Danger. Others in the series are The Family Business and The Game Changer. My version of series 4 is going to be AU, as you no doubt picked up on already, with quite a few changes, but hopefully you'll all enjoy it!

Please let me know what you think, I would really appreciate it! xoxo