AN: I wanted to say thank you to all those nice comments and the alerts! Apparently this is actually being read D: Also, I am SO sorry that this took such a long time! I was a little preoccupied with summer camps and working… Love to each and every one of you wonderful people; Evin R.
Chapter 2
The door to the room opened again, and John blinked, waking up from his sleep, disturbed by the bright light that shone through the opening. He immediately turned to look at his new friend, who was sitting calmly against his cage bars. His face showed no interest whatsoever as a man strode with puffy black hair strode in. The stranger ignored Sherlock, just as Sherlock was doing to him, and walked up to John, his lips parting into what appeared to be a sneer.
"Hello, erm, what was it? John Watson, is it not?" the man said, flipping through some files in his hand. He crouched down to take a closer look just as the door opened again, and a woman came in. Not Mrs. Hudson, unfortunately, thought John as he shrank back a little.
"You knew very well what his name was, Anderson, do not try to hide it. An idiot playing dumb is simply lowering all of our IQs in the room." Sherlock said, yawning and closing his eyes. Anderson snarled at him silently before turning back to John.
"ZSVJU0009XPXXX2!" snapped the woman, turning to Sherlock. "That's enough already! Do you want us to shut you up again?" she bristled, and faced John. Anderson wrote something down on a file, ignoring the boy.
"You'll do best not to get close to that one; he'll do nothing but trouble to you and to him in the end." She said, motioning to Sherlock with a wave of her hand. A grimace crossed her face, and she stepped closer to Anderson.
"Now, now, Sally, calm down, we mustn't let… it… ruffle our feathers." Anderson commented in a nasally voice, patting her hand with the one he wasn't writing with.
"Anderson, Donovan, can I ask a question?" Sherlock purred, inching closer to the edge of his cage.
Sally Donovan sighed and Anderson rolled his eyes.
"It better not be one of your idiotic theoretical quest-"
"Have you two been having sex again?" Sherlock asked suddenly, lighting up. He put his face up against the bars and grinned up at Anderson and Donovan, who were gaping at him in shock and horror.
"'Cause, you know, I do recall there being an act that stated in your contracts that there be no fraternizing with employees in the same division as you…" he went on to say gleefully, noting the wide-eyed looks the two scientists were giving each other.
The two of them launched into a fight, Donovan screeching that it will tell their boss and Anderson trying to figure out how it knew. Sherlock simply sat in his cage smugly. Everyone had forgotten about John, who was curled up in a ball on the floor of his cage, embarrassment flooding his cheeks. That was a dirty word, and his mum had told him never to talk about such a thing in public. The nerve of his friend! Maybe the Sally lady had been right- Sherlock was a bad influence.
"Sherlock!" he whispered, and Donovan and Anderson turned to look at him with puzzled expressions. Sherlock looked at his nails, and John couldn't figure out why they were suddenly giving him unwanted attention.
"John decided to be humane and has kindly given me a name." he stated, scratching the back of his neck. "That name happens to be 'Sherlock'."
"O-Oh." Was all that Donovan could say. Anderson stood, dumbfounded, and scribbled something else down on the file in his hands.
"So, ZSVJU0- ah, forget it. Sherlock, how do you feel about obtaining a name?" Donovan asked after coming out of her momentary stupor. Sherlock just blinked up at her, his face expressionless.
"I don't see how this will lead to any magnificent data, and you know very well I refuse to keep up petty conversation for the sake of distracting me from Anderson, who is writing down every detail of my glorious appearance." Sherlock replied, shifting so that his arm was more comfortable. It had fallen asleep overnight, and it was cramping up badly.
That was a fact that he wanted to keep silent; he was known never to show pain.
Anderson didn't look up, but kept writing, a paragraph that was, in fact, describing the boy's appearance at the time.
"Though you really could write that in a sentence, Anderson." Sherlock scoffed, "It is still disgusting and is losing more weight." Anderson finally looked up, and closed the folder with a snap.
"I don't see how what I'm writing concerns you, freak." Anderson hissed, striding out of the room, and slammed the door shut behind him. The two boys sat, looking at the door, but Donovan was already moving around, grabbing something from a table in the corner.
"I don't particularly enjoy having to work on you, ZS- Sherlock, but I'm not completely heartless, either." She said as she turned a key in the lock that held Sherlock's chain together.
"You better not tell anyone I did that, freak. Oh, and a new shipment in coming in." She whispered, looking straight at a security camera, and with a swift movement, stood up and grabbed her folder. With one last glance at the two boys, she walked out the door hurriedly, and locked it behind her. Sherlock and John sat silently as they listened to her footsteps grow fainter and fainter, until they disappeared.
Sherlock tugged off the chain, and rubbed his tiny wrist.
"Interesting" was all he said about that.
"What did she mean? Sherlock? New shipment? Is that important?" John launched himself into a rampage of questions, and Sherlock just shook his head, a faint smile growing on his face.
"They will never find out just how much you talk, you being all gentle and quiet when the grownups are around." Sherlock snorted, and John blushed, shrugging. Sherlock closed his eyes and rested his head against the bars of his cage, relieved that his arm was no longer suspended.
He opened his eyes abruptly when he heard a whimper. John was facing away from him, and his shoulders were shaking slightly.
"John?" Sherlock asked tentatively, and noticed that the small boy crying made him feel sad for some reason. John turned himself around, and wiped a red and quite runny nose on the large sleeve of his sweater.
"I miss my mum." John whispered, and a tear trickled out of the corner of his eye. Sherlock grew somber, and reached out towards the other cage.
"We will find a way to get you ho-" Sherlock started, just as the door opened again, and two men clad in white strode in. John shrunk back as the two men walked over, then simultaneously picked up his cage. Realising what was going on, Sherlock launched himself towards his bars, and reached to grab onto the other boy's cage. The boy paled and started shrieking as one of the men pulled out a needle and jabbed it in his skin.
"John!" Sherlock shouted, "Stay awake!", but the boy was already slipping away, and collapsed with a small thud onto the blankets in his cage.
Sherlock yelled out, and tried to grab onto the cage, which was now being carried out by the two men. One of them flipped the light, engulfing the room in darkness, while the other opened the door. They both stepped outside at the same time, taking John with them.
Sherlock was still yelling when they shut the door, locking him in once more.