Kidnapped
Disclaimer. All characters belong to Mr Moffatt, Mr Gatiss and Mr Doyle. All are loved by me.
Time Period: set sometime after TRF, when Sherlock has returned.
SH SH SH SH SH SH SH SH SH
Sherlock was sulking.
John tried to ignore the large Sherlock shaped mound that occupied the couch, whilst he ate his lunch. However the steadfast silence emanating from Sherlock was beginning to wear him down. The scrape of John's knife and fork across the plate in the quiet room seemed even louder than normal. John winced as the knife squeaked.
Sherlock huffed slightly. That was the only indication that Sherlock wasn't actually dead. And yes, John had actually checked he was breathing.
Sherlock had been fine when John had gone to bed last night, but when he came down for breakfast, Sherlock was sulking. John was used to Sherlock's erratic mood swings, he hadn't been unduly concerned at breakfast, but now something seemed slightly different.
Glancing at his watch, John realised he had about 20 minutes before he had to leave for work. He was working a late shift today. So, 20 minutes to try to winkle out of Sherlock what was wrong, or wait until tonight when Sherlock would have been stewing for another 8 hours.
Sighing John turned to face Sherlock. "So, do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"Right," said John slowly. "It can't be a case, you managed to solve that last one from Lestrade in less than hour. So not stuck there."
"Really John, you don't need to psychoanalyse me."
"I'm not. I was just trying to work out, why you were staring at the wall."
Sherlock remained silent.
"I have to go to work, so why don't you go an annoy Lestrade again. Or go work in the lab at Barts?"
Sherlock muttered something under his breath.
John suddenly understood. "But of course Molly isn't there to pander to your every whim, is she?"
Sherlock huffed again. "Supposedly she is attending a seminar on to how to recognise even more unusual pathogical diseases in dead humans," Sherlock said scathingly.
"Don't be like that Sherlock. You know she hardly ever gets to attend these types of events, and she's been looking forward to attending this one for months. And she'll only be gone for a couple of days."
Sherlock stood up and began pacing the room, throwing his arms about. "It's not the fact that she's attending the seminar, or the fact that her being there limits my lab time. It's more the fact that she's not actually there, but off gallivanting somewhere else in the country completely."
John shook his head. "Sherlock, what are you going on about? OK, the seminar is in Oxford. I know it doesn't compete with London, but that's hardly Molly's fault."
Sherlock threw his phone to John. "Oh really? Oxford? In that case why is she in Bristol?"
John stared at the phone. It took several seconds for John to understand what he was seeing. "Oh please no. Sherlock, you didn't. Please tell me you didn't."
Sherlock stopped his pacing, sensing a problem. "What?"
"You are tracking Molly's whereabouts via her phone?! Like the Study in Pink case. Good Grief Sherlock. That's stalking."
"Nonsense. It just makes sense to know whether she's at Barts before I go there."
"You could phone her instead!" John said exasperatedly.
"It doesn't matter."
"Like hell it doesn't." Yelled John. "She is going to kill you when she finds out."
"The fact is, she said she was going to Oxford. Instead she went to Bristol. And now she's turned her phone off."
John massaged his temple. "Even if we ignore the bizarre fact that you are tracking Molly's whereabouts, I am sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation to why the tracking app said she was in Bristol. She may have had her phone stolen. Left it on the train. Or there was a change of venue. She may have just changed her mind about attending."
Sherlock looked at him and said scathingly, "Really? Molly changed her mind about attending the biggest seminar of the year? The one she'd been looking forward to?"
John sighed. "Fine." He dug his own phone out of his pocket, scrolled through his emails, selected a number, and waited for it dial.
"What are you doing?"
"Unlike some people, Molly trusts me," said John. "She gave the details of the venue, in case of emergencies. I am going to phone them, to confirm whether she registered this morning."
Sherlock huffed unhappily as John made his call.
"Hello. This is Dr John Watson. I would like to confirm that my colleague Dr Molly Hooper has checked in and registered for the pathology seminar today." It didn't take long for John's face to show that everything was not alright. "So you have no record of Dr Hooper arriving today. And she didn't call to cancel her room?" John listened for a moment longer.
John hung up the phone. "Molly didn't check in."
"See I told you," said Sherlock. "She's in Bristol."
"She might be. But the receptionist said there was an incident this morning. A delegate said he saw a young woman being abducted. But no one knew who she was, and there was no way of checking. The receptionist said they contacted the police."
Sherlock stared at John. It had to be Molly. It was the only explanation.
"My phone," Sherlock demanded quietly.
John passed Sherlock's phone over. "I'll call Lestrade," John said quietly tapping buttons on his own phone. "He can contact the police at Bristol."
"Fine. You do that." said Sherlock absent mindedly.
"What are you going to do?" said John.
"I'm contacting a higher authority," said Sherlock. His phone connected instantly "Mycroft. I need your help."
.
SH SH SH SH SH SH SH SH
Thanks very much for all your amazing reviews. I appreciate every single one.