"WHERE IS HE!" Mycroft Holmes bellowed to a room full of the best technological agents MI6 had to offer. All of whom were scurrying around the room attempting to pry any scrap of information out of the various bits of electronics that could appease the wrath of one of the most powerful men in the UK.
Mycroft was most assuredly not happy. Eyes the color of flawless blue sapphires frozen in ice ceaselessly scanned the the room looking for anything, anything that could help find him. Anything that could bring his beautiful little brother back to him safely. There had to be something! Some small minutia that had been overlooked, some little detail that if found held the power to locate Sherlock. It had to be out there, God please let it be out there. Someone out there had the gall to raise a hand to his brother and when he found them he would make them pay...dearly.
"Sir." Called the quiet but sure voice of his personal assistant whom at the moment was on a bit of a Harry Potter kick and as such was going by the name Andromeda.
"Sir" She called again, this time a little louder.
"Yes, Andromeda." Mycroft answered, startled at her sudden appearance but
unwilling to admit to it and controlled the urge to flinch.
"I have accompanied Dr. Watson from the clinic. He is waiting for you in your office."
"Thank you," Turning toward the PA with arms crossed and brows furrowed. "I will be there shortly." He told her.
While turning back to the multitude of monitors covering the back wall of the room eyes once again flitting back and forth.
For a fraction of a second he let his shoulders drop before taking a deep breath and straightening his spine as if to fortify his nerves. With almost military precision he turns on his heels and heads out of the cyber unit and up several floors to his office to the waiting doctor, leaving the recovery efforts to find his brother in the hands of his more than capable assistant.
He had not been shocked to find the black unmarked sedan with windows tinted pitch black waiting for him just as his shift ended at the clinic. With a nod to the driver that held the door open John slid into the backseat with ease.
Normally when Mycroft sent a car it was empty or he came himself. Occasions were rare when his PA accompanied the car. Mycroft usually only sending her when there was news he didn't want to deliver to the doctor himself and he thought there was something that would spark his legendary temper. Her arrival seldom heralded good news. John glances across the seat at her and gave a weary sigh.
"Good evening."
"Good evening Dr. Watson."
Finished with the pleasantries and wanting to know what situation was so serious that Mycroft would send her instead of coming himself. He looks at her straight on raises a silvery brow and waits.
After a short silence a plain manilla envelope is passed across the seat into waiting hands. The doctor takes the envelope noticing its weight and gives a sardonic chuckle, morbidly amused at how the most devastating news camouflages itself in the most innocuous shells.
He pulls out the contents of the folder and with each new piece a little more color drains from his face leaving the war veteran pale underneath his natural golden coloring. He could finally put a reason to the sinking feeling that had unsettled his gut all day. One of his worst fears. Sherlock, who had left home that morning and was supposed to have been following up on a supposedly harmless lead….his beautiful love… was missing.
And someone was going to pay.
John stepped out of the car a short distance later the very picture of tranquil serenity. He looked up at the building with its windows reflecting the last rays of a quickly descending sun.
"Where is he?" John asked curtly while strolling into the building with Andromeda trailing not far behind.
"He's in the cyber unit reviewing the surveillance footage, Sir." She replied.
"I'll be in his office. Please, let him know that I have arrived." With that he strolled off to Mycroft's office to wait. He needed no directions because he was intimately familiar with this particular path and had long ago received the proper security clearance to be without an escort. He arrived at the office in short time and decided against sitting and chose instead to stand in front the large windows to the right of the large mahogany desk that was in the center of the room. So he stood and with arms crossed over his chest he waited for the eldest Holmes brother to arrive while looking out at the setting sun knowing that he would need to gather his strength and control to himself. The brothers would need that from him he was their anchor and he would not fail them.
The large door opened silently. There was a prevailing silence that seemed to seep into every object in the room and caused even the large grandfather clock that set perpendicular to his desk to silence its ever present ticking. He opened the door wide enough for only his body to fit through. He slipped into the room and came up short, his breath catching in his chest. John was standing with his back to the window the setting sun behind him surrounding him in a halo like light. Mycroft frowned a little as several thoughts of other situations where John seemed to have a glow flitted through his mind and were quickly dismissed as all of those occasions could be reasonably explained away just like the one before him so with a small shake of his head as if to send those thoughts away he closed the door to his office leaving him alone with the doctor.
Mycroft walked until he was a few feet in front of John and began to speak in a small fragile voice that wavered with unshed tears. "I'm sorry, John." Eyes that were just a moment ago cold and unyielding now held heartbreaking vulnerability as they gazed at the doctor.
John said nothing as he held his arms open to the slightly older man. Mycroft almost tripped over himself in his relief that John would offer him this comfort instead of berating him for his mistake of losing track of Sherlock.
"I'm sorry." He said again; this time with his breath hitting the warm tan skin just under John's ear that always seemed to smell of warm sunshine, moist earth and apples. This was his favorite place to be. Held tightly in the arms of his lover against skin that always smelled of comfort. Here he could relax his impenetrable walls and be himself safe from the world.
"Shhhh…," came John's response muffles by auburn hair . "I thought you would be so angry with me."
"Baby..my beautiful strong My." John pulled back just far enough to tilt Mycrofts head up so he could look into eyes that were by now wet with tears. Using his thumb he wiped them tenderly away.
"How many times to I have to tell you that you are not responsible for the actions of others?"
"But I should have.."
"But nothing love. Stop blaming yourself. You are gorgeous," at this Mycroft quickly buried his face back in John's neck still unused to being spoken to kindly without the comment being a backhanded insult and incredibly bashful at receiving what he knew was genuine affection and praise from John.
"Hey, none of that." John brought Mycroft's face back up to continue. Knowing that he needed to look his love in the eye to show he meant every word he said. " You ARE gorgeous Mycroft." He said firmly. " You are brilliant and powerful as well. You can manipulate people and situations to suit your purposes as easily as doing the crossword in the paper. But you are NOT responsible for every single thing that goes wrong in the UK. People have free will to make their own decisions and whoever took Sherlock is one of them. You can't honestly tell me that you believe that you could have done anything more for him, for US, than you already have. In order to keep Sherlock as safe as we'd like we would have to lock him in a room and throw away the key and we both know that wouldn't go over well. Right?" John said.
Mycroft gave a tiny nod and took a deep breath that he let out with a shudder that traveled down his whole body.
"You know it My. Here," John caressed the auburn hair slicked back to hide the persistent curls. " You just have to let yourself believe it here." His hand moving down to rest over his heart."
"I know John. It's just he's out there alone and he needs us and we can't be there for him because I can't find him. What if they hurt him John?" He looked pleadingly into John's own sky blue eyes looking desperately for any reassurance.
"We'll get him back My. We all know the jobs we have and the dangers of them. This isn't our first time in this situation and I'm sure it won't be our last."
"I know. It's the first time since we've all been together that any of us have been hurt and I suppose that I am not handling it with my usual aloofness."
"It's perfectly okay love. I would rather have you in my arms and worried than having you standing across the room pretending to feel nothing."
"John?"
"Yes love?"
" I prefer it in your arms as well."
"Well then," he said with a small smile. Holding out his hand, "Why don't we sit on the couch and talk over everything you know. I read the file on my way over here. Maybe we can brainstorm together yeah?"
Quickly grabbing a laptop from within his desk Mycroft returned to grab John's outstretched hand and allowed himself to be pulled onto the couch. He set the computer on the coffee table before them and curled up to rest his head on his loves strong shoulder allowing himself a moment to soak up the strength that seemed to radiate from the other man before they set themselves to the arduous task of finding their missing partner.