Part 1: John Watson

Looking outside of his living room window, John could see the snow as it began to fall on London. It was a peaceful night, no new cases to solve and no new suprises. It had been calm the last week, almost eerily so. Lestrade had not shown up with the new case, and Mycroft had not made an appearance as well. That was unusual these days especially with Sherlock's condition. He had been having such a rough go of it ever since the last case. He had become more distant, never talking or playing his violin. He had not talked about how bored he was nor insisted on performing any random science experiments. If that in itself was not a warning sign John didn't know what was.

Letting his eyes wander over towards the clock, he was surprised to see that it was already 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve. He had not seen Sherlock leave nor had anyone entered so he knew that his roommate was still in the flat. Looking into the kitchen he could see that the breakfast lunch and dinner that he had left out were not touched. Knowing that the food would be cold by now and that the breakfast and lunch would have probably gone bad, John sighed to himself as he walked to the fridge and grabbed some vegetable rice left over from last nights take out. It was by no means a large Christmas dinner but it was better than nothing for the two men. Putting it in the microwave he quickly set the timer and began to make tea.

" Sherlock," John called. "Sherlock you need to eat something. Now you can either eat what I'm going to bring you or I can call your brother and insist that he assist me with this!"

It was an idle threat and both men knew it. But it was the only thing John could think to say to convince his roommate to eat something. By his reckoning it had been a good 52 hours since his roommate had left the room or eaten anything. That was not good, not good at all. A loud ding interrupted John's thoughts on the matter as the microwave to signaled that it cycle was finished. Grabbing the warm bowl from the microwave, John stirred up the rice and walked over to his roommates door.

"Sherlock, I am coming in," John said as he twisted the knob.

And going in he was, or so he thought until he realized that the door was in fact locked. That irritated the old army veteran. Putting down the bowl of rice, John stared at the door for a moment and decided what he was going to do. He needed entry, if not to feed his roommate at this point then at least check on him and make sure that he was okay. But he did not have a key to the room and the only set of lock picks in the apartment were locked inside with the detective.

"Sherlock you have three seconds to open the store before I break it down," John yelled. "And do not think that I won't do it!"

Unsurprisingly the door did not open. That left John only one option. With the bowl of rice lying forgotten by the doorway, John took 3 steps back and charged forward slamming his shoulder into the door frame above the lock. The wood stood sturdily for a moment before giving way with a loud crash and a cloud of splinters. Regaining his balance, John reached for the light switch and flicked it on. However what he saw was not what he expected to find. He had expected to find his best friend and flatmate upset in the corner of the room working on some project that he had smuggled in. Instead he saw no one. Sherlock was gone, and John had no idea how long he had been missing.

Stepping out of the room, John quickly grabbed his cell phone from the living room table and called a number that he did not wish to. It only took three rings before a familiar voice answered the phone.

"And how is my little brother this evening," Mycroft asked calmly. "I can deduce, by the fact you are calling me, that something has gone awry. Now do you wish to tell me over the phone or speak to me when I arrive in about 2 minutes?"

"Sherlock is gone," John said, his voice not betraying the sea of emotions he was feeling. "Mycroft, find him."

ooooooooooo

AN: it's been quite a while since I have done any fanfiction writing and I am very glad to be writing once more. be aware that all my stories are done by voice to text so if there are errors please let me know so that I may go back and correct them. Thank you.