Screams. Every time he closed his eyes for sleep, blood drenched his hellish dreams, the only sound permeating through the thin veil over Sherlock's ears were the screams.
No wonder they worried about him.
Pain. It constricts at his stomach sometimes when he eats, to the point where he deliberately 'forgets' to eat, and why he ate rather small portions.
No wonder they asked him about it.
And that was where he was, Lestrade asking him when the last time he slept was.
Sherlock looked at him a second, then answered him truthfully, "I don't remember. I think I had a half hour nap 5 days ago."
Lestrade gave him worried looks, and Sherlock subconsciously rubbed his arm.
"I've been having nightmares… and hearing people and seeing the same 2 people everywhere. I can't tell if it's sleep deprived paranoia or I'm being stalked."
'They call it creeping, I say loving, it's the only way for me'
Lestrade felt his head.
No fever…
"Come on, we're going to get you some sleep." Sherlock nodded slowly, leaning into Lestrade.
"How did you get here?" Lestrade asked, noticing Sherlock's new car that Mycroft got for him a few weeks ago wasn't there.
"Taxi."
"Why?" Lestrade asked, helping Sherlock into the passenger seat of his car.
"Someone put spikes near my car. The tires are popped."
'I know that your car needs a new tire 'cos last week I laid those spikes'
Lestrade narrowed his eyes, thinking.
Sherlock's eyes dropped heavily, then sprung open.
"It's alright, you can sleep." Lestrade said to him.
"I'll wait until we are at my home."
They passed 2 shadowy figures on their way.
"So where are Karrine and John?" Sherlock looked up.
"They are out at the carnival." Lestrade nodded.
They stopped outside of the flat, a woman on a bike riding past.
Lestrade looked to where she went and blinked twice to see she disappeared.
Sherlock got out and almost fell, but Lestrade caught him and helped him inside, into his room. Dirty clothes was piled in a corner of it.
"Remind me to do laundry tomorrow." Sherlock said sleepily.
Lestrade nodded, adding a, "You do laundry on Sundays?"
'I know you do your wash on Sundays and you separate your whites'
Sherlock nodded, falling asleep soon after. Lestrade smiled slightly, going to the couch.
Sherlock was a strange person. He was rude most of the time, until the case with Karrine.
An abused kid. And Sherlock adopted her.
Lestrade looked outside, noticing something move in Sherlock's tree outside.
'I brought a pack lunch and some coffee for my stakeout in your tree... outside your house..
shhhh. gotta be as quiet as a mouse, or else you'll call the police
And I'll get done for somethin' stupid like disturbance of the peace'
Lestrade kept watching the tree, and when nothing moved again, he chalked it up as Natural Causes and waited for John and the tiny 9 year old wavy black haired blue grey eyed girl, Karrine to get to 221B.
When the door opened to the 2 aforementioned, Lestrade got up.
"Sherlock is asleep in the room, he was almost falling over with exhaustion so I got him to go to sleep."
"Thank you, Greg. I feel like I should pay you for babysitting!" John chatted.
Karrine sat on the couch.
Sherlock talked in his sleep.
Everyone who knew him knew he talked in his sleep. If he slept.
Karrine had noticed strange things happening with Sherlock, but she waited to see what was happening.
Sherlock turned, then opened his eyes slightly, closing them to fall asleep again.
He talked more. A little black item under his bed caught every word.
'I sneak a walkie-talky in your room to listen to you sleep...'
The next morning, Sherlock was well rested and cheerful… well, as cheerful as Sherlock is when he doesn't have a case.
"Good morning, Sherlock!" John called.
"Good morning, Sherlock. Piggy back ride?" Karrine asked.
Sherlock smiled at her and allowed her to cling to his back.
She was still in her pastel yellow camisole and purple short shorts she slept in.
Sherlock walked into the kitchen, one hand holding onto Karrine.
"So John, would you like to go to the diner for breakfast instead of tea and toast?" John stopped brewing the tea.
"You know what, that sounds lovely."
The 3 made it to John's car and drove to the diner.
A picture snapped, but John and Sherlock ignored it.
Karrine snapped her head toward the sound, seeing a woman and man looking at a camera.
The man left after a few seconds.
'I've got a million Polaroids with all the dates penned in red ink'
Karrine decided it was most likely tourists and didn't think of it again.
They sat down in a booth, the 2 people with the camera coming in.
They got different tables, and Sherlock and John looked over the menu.
'I know your favorite place to dine at when your check comes in each week'
"Oh, sorry little girl, that's for adults, I'll get you a kid's menu." A waiter said, taking the adult menu out of her hands.
"Wha- hey!" Sherlock looked up from the menu.
Karrine was trying to get the menu back and the waiter was holding it high above his head.
He had a child's menu in his other hand, trying to give it to her.
"Hey!" Sherlock interjected.
John looked up.
"Yes sir?" The waiter asked.
"It's alright, give her the adult menu." Sherlock said, watching with wary eyes.
"But sir-!"
"He said let her have the adult menu!" John said loudly.
The waiter gritted his teeth and nodded, handing Karrine the menu.
"Thank you, sir!" She smiled at him cheerfully.
Sherlock put his menu down.
"I know what to get."
John put his down. "Me to."
They looked over to Karrine.
She hummed slightly, then nodded.
"Yes, me to." She put hers down.
Sherlock's eyes flashed happily.
'You've got those eyes that drive me crazy'
"Ready to order?" A new, woman waitress asked cheerfully.
They ordered and waited to get their food.
When they finished, John got in the driver's seat.
Sherlock complained mildly, but otherwise the drive home was smooth.
Well, up until Karrine screamed to stop the car.
They both turned to her to see what was wrong, but she had the upper half of her body sticking outside.
"Sherlock, look." Sherlock turned to where she was facing and nearly choked in horror.
"Oh god…" John whispered, horrified.
A bloody Lestrade lay on the asphalt. People crowded him, but not enough for them not to see.
"Greg?" Karrine asked, voice cracking.
Sherlock hummed softly, tapping his knee.
Hospitals always made him restless.
Someone sat down next to him. Whoever he was opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it.
'I'm sure if I sat down and asked you, well you really wouldn't mind...'
Sherlock got up and left, leaving behind his coffee cup and a book.
He really didn't care. The person who sat next to him took the things and left.
'and piece by piece I am collecting all the things you leave behind'
Sherlock turned back to see an empty stretch of seats, devoid of life and everything he left.
Sherlock narrowed his eyes, suspicious, until Karrine ran up to him happily.
"Lestrade is awake~!"
"What happened?" John asked Greg, concern edging at his voice.
"A car hit me… on purpose." Lestrade said hoarsely.
"How do you know it was on purpose?" Sherlock asked.
Lestrade swallowed.
"The car was driving fine. In fact, I was on the Sidewalk. But suddenly it swerved onto the Sidewalk and kept driving until it got to me. It turned to get me on the asphalt and went back to driving correctly on the street."
Sherlock nodded silently and swallowed.
Karrine turned and left the room, staying quiet.
No one noticed, and Karrine murmured a thank you to whoever was up there.
She stepped away and started her investigation.
As she left the hospital, a black car drove up to the entrance and the window rolled down.
"Oh! Uncle Mycroft!" Karrine said happily.
"I'm not sure I like you investigating this on your own- you are just 9 years old, and you are short, skinny, and I can see your ribs poking through that shirt of yours. You would have no way to protect yourself."
Karrine tsked at him. She pulled a tazor out of her all to familiar pea coat that was way to long, the bottom from her waist down to her knees open, and then the gun Mycroft gave her and a knife.
"Uncle Mycroft, I'm perfectly safe." All the things were hidden away under her coat with the tons of pockets on the inside once she finished speaking.
"I have other weapons to, my phone, charger, everything. I will be alright. Oh, this may be out of the blue, but you are invited to Cam and John's wedding." Mycroft sighed.
"Ok, fine Karrine. But be safe. I don't want to have to tell Sherlock his Daughter is dead or was kidnapped again because I decided to allow her to do something dangerous."
"And I would like to tell Zack that whoever hurt his boyfriend was brought to justice."
With that, Karrine walked off.
She stuffed her hands into her outside pockets.
"In the morning when I wake... and the sun is coming through..."
"YOU LET HER LEAVE?! OUT THERE, ON HER OWN, WITH A MAD PERSON WHO TRIED TO KILL LESTRADE?!" Sherlock yelled at Mycroft, turning swiftly and giving a growl.
"She will be safe, you taught her how to fight, John, and she has weapons." Mycroft said.
"Weapons? What weapons, we never gave her any weapons. We never allowed her to touch a gun!" John cried, Sherlock's eyes wide.
"About that. I gave her a gun awhile ago and taught her. She's a natural. And she seems to have accumulated other weapons on her own- a bowie knife and tazor included."
"We really need to look at her room." Sherlock mused.
"She might be there, let's call Ms. Hudson!"
Karrine wrote another question on her note pad and looked at all the evidence.
She had almost used her mind palace or the thing she had been building to physically manifest the palace, but she decided against it because the thing wasn't ready yet and she needed to listen out for Ms. Hudson or the others.
A breakthrough surged through her mind, and she put down her note pad, turning away from the cork board.
"Karrine, sweetheart, are you here? Sherlock is really worried about you! At least I don't have to keep reminding YOU I'm not your Nanny, or house keeper…"
Karrine sighed, opening the window and jumping out, knocking a vase off of her desk.
It smashed loudly.
The long bottom half of her coat billowed behind her and slowed her down slightly.
She bounced off of something and slid softly to the ground, landing firmly on her feet and taking off running.
Sherlock opened the door to let himself, John, and Mycroft in.
'I'll talk to you later, Lance. - SH'
Sherlock put his phone away and called, "Ms. Hudson?!"
"Oh Sherlock, there was a crash in her room! The vase is broken, she jumped out the window when I called for her."
"Of course she would run, she doesn't want to be found." John said softly.
"Oh, sorry dear."
Sherlock beckoned them and went to her room.
It had purple walls and an electric blue plush carpet.
The cork board was filled with information and evidence.
Her note pad sat on the desk next to her diary, which was locked.
Everything was clean and neat except the shattered vase that spilled onto the floor.
"Oh, I better clean that, I wouldn't want her to cut herself when she gets back." Ms. Hudson said, going to start to clean.
Karrine stopped at the entrance to the forest, not sure why she had ran miles to get here.
It had been hours since she had been in the hospital.
She was sure Sherlock and the others were beyond worried.
Her heart hammered against her chest from fear and running.
Last time she was here she had been 6, had wandered into the forest. A wolf had escaped from a man's collection and had chased her.
She had tripped, skinned her knees, got a bad head injury that gave her a concussion AND got infected, plus she was bit by the wolf.
The scar was hidden by her hair, but if she moved her hair behind her ears, the stark white line would be really noticeable.
She had a phobia of wolves, and a lot of other phobias from her 9 years of experience.
"Did you figure it out?" The woman and man walked up to her.
"Yes, Lexie and Keith." She suppressed a shiver.
"And I need you to stop following my father."
Sherlock paced erratically, eyes wide and panic eating through him.
"Sherlock, please calm down. We will find her." John said softly.
Sherlock sighed, dropping to sit on a chair.
They were in the hospital room again, and Lestrade was talking on the phone with the police department.
Mycroft was talking to his people, worried since he couldn't find her either.
The door kicked open, and Karrine came in, wounds all over her.
She was dragging 2 people with handcuffs on them. They had way less wounds than her, and Karrine's eyes were glazing over quickly.
"I… arrest… them…" And she fell over, eyes closing.
Sherlock screamed, tears streaking down his face.
Karrine awoke in a hospital bed in the same room as Lestrade.
Sherlock had her hand in between his hands.
Silent tears fell down his cheeks, and Karrine flexed her hand slightly.
Sherlock's head snapped to look at her, and she smiled at him wearily.
"Don't you ever do that again."
"But I saved you."