Elizabeth was almost asleep. She was lying on the floor just staring at the ceiling. She was just thinking that she should probably go to bed. It was almost midnight.

Sherlock was in his Mind Palace. He was working on a case. He was on the couch in his dressing gown, fingers steepled.

John had fallen asleep. He was slumped into the side of his armchair, cradling the union jack pillow. He was snoring softly.

And then the lights went out.

Elizabeth gasped, now completely awake.

Sherlock snapped out of his Mind Palace, startled by Elizabeth's gasp.

John started, eyes flying open.

Elizabeth was frozen, hardly daring to breath. Why had the power gone out? There wasn't a storm or any winds.

"John, you did remember to pay the power bill, right?"

"Yes, of course I did, Sherlock!" John whispered.

"Alright, phones?" Sherlock was taking control of the situation.

"Bedroom," Elizabeth replied. They were all whispering as a precaution. The fact that what could be a simple, mundane power outage made them all jump to the conclusion of danger said a lot.

"Same," John answered.

"Mine's dead," Sherlock told them.

"What do we do?" Elizabeth asked. None of them had moved an inch. Not that they could see to do so. The curtains had been drawn, so no light came from the windows.

"Well, by now Mycroft knows what's going on," Sherlock said. "He either sees the pitch black or the feed was cut along with the power."

"We need to get into one of our rooms or something," John suggested. "Until we know what's happened, we need to take caution. At least Mrs. Hudson is away."

"Doesn't she always seem to be when these things happen?" Elizabeth made an attempt to lighten the conversation.

"Alright, we can go to mine," Sherlock offered. "It's closest, and I think I have a flashlight in my bedside table."

"What about a phone, though?" Elizabeth reminded them. "Mine is right on my bed. I can get it easily."

"I can find my gun in the dark too," John supplied. "I can get it and grab Elizabeth's mobile on the way back down."

"You shouldn't go alone," Elizabeth argued.

"She's right, John," Sherlock agreed. He probably nodded too. "All or none."

"Fine, let's go then." John stood slowly. Elizabeth sat up, and Sherlock got up from the couch. Elizabeth saw a blob hover in front of her face, and she realized that it was Sherlock's hand. She took it and stood, reaching for John as well. She found his hand, and he accepted hers.

Together they all made their way to the doorway, which was an impossibly faint outline.

"Seventeen steps," Sherlock said as they began to climb the steps carefully. Elizabeth's room was first. When she lit her phone up, they all squinted, waiting for their eyes to adjust. Using the light of her phone, they retrieved John's gun and mobile as well.

Now amply lit, they went to Sherlock's room.

Elizabeth called Mycroft, who answered sleepily, "Please tell me Sherlock hasn't blown something up."

"No, we've lost power." Elizabeth explained quickly. "We were wondering if you knew why."

"People are onto it as we speak."

"Wait a second," Elizabeth turned to Sherlock and John. "Mycroft, how did you not know that we'd lost power?"

A realization spread across Sherlock's face, "Oh for God's sake!" He suddenly ran from the room. John bounded after him.

Elizabeth sighed as she realized what was going on as well.

Of course.

Mycroft had cut their power so that he could bug their flat. Sherlock had annoyed him more than usual last week, and this was how Mycroft got revenge.

To make matters worse, that was also the moment Elizabeth's mobile chose to die, leaving her in total darkness.

"Nice," she complained to the blackness.

Suddenly a hand was across her mouth.

Elizabeth tried to scream, but she couldn't. She brought her hands up to the hand on her mouth and tugged desperately.

"Elizabeth, it's me!" Elizabeth recognized the whisper instantly. It was Norman. He was one of Mycroft's lackeys.

Elizabeth sighed and dropped her hands. Norman removed his hand slowly, afraid she would still scream.

"Sorry," Norman apologized. "I didn't want you to scream and cause Dr. Watson to shoot me."

"It's fine," Elizabeth waved his apology away. And then she remembered that he couldn't see her. "How long will the power be out?"

"Another two hours," Norman said sheepishly. "I'm sorry. He thought it would be best to do it this way. Do the upstairs while you guys regroup in the living room, and then do the downstairs while you guys get the gun from upstairs. Unfortunately, you three walk quickly. I had to hide in the closet."

"Where are the cameras?" Elizabeth knew that Norman would tell her. All of Mycroft's minions, and the British Government himself, had a bit of a soft spot for the mini-detective.

"Mycroft told me to give you this," Norman found her hand in the darkness and pressed a piece of paper into it. "It's the locations of all the cameras. He trusts that you won't remove them, and that you will burn this paper after you read it."

"Don't I always?" Mycroft's cameras came in useful, Elizabeth didn't even bother denying it. She never told Sherlock where they were, because he would remove them all just out of spite. Elizabeth knew that those cameras saved their lives sometimes. They had definitely saved hers.

Besides she knew that her uncle never put cameras in her or John's rooms or the bathroom. He did monitor Sherlock's room, but he made sure that only he had access to that feed.

"How exactly do you plan to get out of here?" Elizabeth asked Norman.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Norman whispered.

"I would say just book it out the window," Elizabeth said honestly. "He'll know you've been in here anyways. There's really no point in trying to sneak out."

"Good point," Norman crossed to the window which let in the tiniest bit of light. He pulled the window open with a loud screech, which was immediately followed by thundering footsteps running towards the room. Elizabeth watched Norman climb down the fire escape before closing the window.

"Elizabeth, are you alright?" John said frantically. "What was that noise, and where are you?"

Sherlock clicked on a flashlight, "She was abedding a criminal. She let him out." Sherlock just sighed, knowing Elizabeth wouldn't give the man up.

Two hours later, as Norman had promised, the power came back on. The renewal of the lights actually startled John and Elizabeth awake. Leaving John falling back asleep in his armchair, and Sherlock still searching for the cameras (he'd only found three, Norman was getting more creative,) she trekked to her room.

Collapsing onto her bed, she pulled the piece of paper from her pajama pant's pocket.

Inside living room lamp – Nina

New one in the skull – George

Above kitchen sink – Michael

Living room mirror – Norman

The list went on for twenty cameras. It gave the location of each camera, and who was charged with monitoring it. Elizabeth was impressed that Norman had managed to mount so many in so little time.

Before going to bed, Elizabeth peeked her head out her bedroom door and waved to Julian, who watched the camera in the clock in the hallway.