Chapter 2

When John arrived back in the hotel room, Sherlock wasn't there yet. In the end, Sophie had found her fellow student's name on Facebook. According to her profile picture, Eliza Valjean was a dirty-blonde girl with big eyes and a questionable clothing style that involved a lot of clashing colours.

Sitting down on the bed, he waited for Sherlock to arrive so he could tell him everything. There wasn't much more to do. A phone call about this case had had Sherlock jumping up, packing a few necessary things but leaving laptops and books as they hurried to get a cab to the small university town.

He looked up when there was a sound in the corridor, hoping it would be his lover.

The moment Sherlock stepped through the door, he let his coat fall to the floor. As he closed the door behind him, he looked around. When he saw John on the bed, he grinned. "Perfect," he purred as he approached, unbuttoning his shirt.

John let out a laugh and stood up to stroke the newly exposed skin of Sherlock's chest. "Let me guess, you got frustrated talking to the students?"

Sherlock didn't answer but covered John's mouth with his own in a kiss that lasted long enough for him to shrug off his jacket and shirt, unbuckle John's belt and unbutton his trousers. Then he pushed John down on the bed, straddled his knees and pulled his trousers and pants down to his thighs.

John smiled up at him. Well, that was a nice surprise. Of course it wasn't the first time Sherlock broke the "not during a case" rule that John had expected at the start of their relationship, months ago. In fact, it was rather becoming a rule that they would go at it when a mystery was becoming complicated. Still, their work on this case had only begun a couple of hours ago, and yet Sherlock's movements were surprisingly urgent.

Pushing himself up a little on one elbow, John pulled the detective down by the back of his neck for another kiss.

Sherlock kissed John hungrily and reached one hand down to stroke him hard.

John moaned, falling back as he used the arm he was leaning on to caress Sherlock's shoulder and back.

Sherlock moved down to take John's cock in his mouth. With urgent hands he struggled to remove his own trousers while sucking and licking eagerly.

"Oh god," John groaned, tangling his fingers in the dark curls to rub Sherlock's scalp in the way he knew he liked.

As soon as Sherlock was naked, he positioned himself over John. As he sank down over him, he groaned and all urgency vanished. He leaned down and kissed John. "Did I mention that I love you?" he whispered.

John grinned breathlessly. "Now there's a kind of repetition that will never get boring." He gasped as Sherlock moved. "Fuck, I love you too."

Resting his hands on John's chest, Sherlock moved slowly, rolling his hips to take John deeper. He closed his eyes and moaned softly.

John was also moaning, putting his hands on Sherlock's hips as he started thrusting gently.

"Yes," Sherlock whispered as he tilted back his head, matching his movements to John's.

"I wish you could see how ridiculously beautiful you look," John said, licking his lips.

Sherlock looked down at him and smiled. "Only for you, love."

Sherlock's deep voice caused a full body shiver and John pulled him down again to crush their lips together. "All mine," he panted.

Sherlock whimpered softly as he continued to ride John, kissing him eagerly.

Planting his foot in the mattress for leverage, John rolled them over, groaning as he could now thrust more forcefully.

Sherlock clung to him. "Oh god, yes," he moaned.

"I'm going to come, I'm going to fill you and mark you as mine," John said hoarsely in Sherlock's ear, knowing exactly what that kind of talk did to the great detective.

"Yes," Sherlock moaned. "I'm all yours..." Almost desperately he reached between them and began stroking himself.

John rammed into him, finally releasing deep inside Sherlock, with his moans muffled in the taller man's neck.

Sherlock gasped. After a few more strokes his own orgasm hit him and he trembled under John, clenching around him.

John didn't immediately pull out, but just limply lay on top of Sherlock, pressing soft kisses to his neck. "My amazing, beautiful genius," he mumbled.

Sherlock smiled. "I love you," he said, running his fingers through John's hair. John lazily lifted his head so he could kiss Sherlock, who caught his lip and sucked on it. When he released it he chuckled. "Sorry for jumping you like that, but I really needed this."

"You didn't hear me complain, did you?" John smirked, his face still hovering over Sherlock's with their noses almost touching.

"Never have." Sherlock lifted his head to kiss John.

John was grinning when they pulled back. "So, what got you so worked up?" he asked, easing himself off Sherlock to snuggle next to him.

"The insufferable combination of stupid people and missing you."

"Hmm, if it has this effect, I'll need to leave you alone more often, during, what was it, half an hour?" John's eyes were twinkling.

Sherlock grinned. "They were really stupid."

John laughed and kissed him. "Could they tell you anything useful?"

"Apparently the new friend of the victim was called Liza or something like that and was a bit odd." He changed to an eerie impression of a young chatty girl. "She was always following Chiry around and being so weird and rude to everybody." He sighed.

John laughed again. "Her name was Eliza Valjean. Sophie told me, but she also had to look her up on Facebook to remember. Seems like she isn't the most popular girl of her year. And she doesn't have a room in the dorms, so I couldn't find her before we have her address."

"Right..." Sherlock leapt off the bed. "They must have that at the administration. You go get it and I'll see what classes Chiara attended." He picked up his clothes and headed for the bathroom.

John snorted and stretched on the bed, before rolling off, wiping himself clean and getting dressed. Then he walked into the bathroom. "Text me if you want to meet somewhere other than here."

Sherlock looked at him over his shoulder and grinned. "Don't give me any ideas."

"That actually wasn't what I meant," John chuckled.

"Too bad," Sherlock reached for the shampoo.

"Or not exclusively," John smirked. "If you weren't covered in soap you'd get a goodbye kiss before I disappear for another half hour."

"Half an hour and no kiss?" Sherlock teased. "You're really in for it when I see you again. You better pray I don't encounter any stupidity or you won't be able to walk straight for a week."

John chuckled. "I can only hope."

"Then keep your fingers crossed for lots of stupidity."

...

Twenty minutes later, Sherlock texted John to meet him at the University's morgue.

'For the case, I may hope? I can think of more romantic places,' John answered, before thanking the woman for giving him Eliza's address, and rushing to the morgue.

Sherlock smiled as he read the text, then continued his search of the room.

John quietly walked in. "Hey," he said, to make sure Sherlock noticed that he had entered. "Found anything new?"

Sherlock looked up and smiled at him. "We'll need to confirm the DNA, but I'm pretty sure the amputation was done here." He pointed to some faint reddish brown traces in the groove between two tiles on the floor. "Someone did a pretty good job cleaning, but not thorough enough." He got to his feet, "And before you ask, yes, I'm sure these are not just traces of a legitimate autopsy or dissection, since this is only a few days old and this room has supposedly not been used since the finals in June."

John nodded. "Okay. But I still don't get who would do that. And did they sedate her first? Why would Chiara come here with someone?"

"It definitely has something to with that other girl. Eliza. She was the last person to be seen with Chiara and is unusual in many ways. She has only been here since the start of term, but she's mainly following fourth year classes. So, of course she could have transferred, having done the first three years somewhere else, but she has also been attending first year's anatomy classes as well as some lectures for second and third year. Basic stuff that she should know if she had studied somewhere else. It's like she's trying to do an entire degree in a single year." He paused for breath. "I was also told that she frequented this place a lot, so I decided to take a look and immediately saw the blood on the floor. There are no traces on any of the instruments, but a few have been cleaned more recently than the rest. I would like you to take a look at them and tell me if they are consistent with the amputation." He pointed to a table with a small number of surgical tools.

John studied the tools for a while. "Yes, I think it could be done with those, but... You know. Heads aren't taken off that easily. On the picture I've seen, Eliza looks rather frail. I have difficulty imagining that a young girl has the strength to take off a head in one blow."

Sherlock nodded. "She is either working for or with somebody. I think it's time we go talk to her."