Hi again! So happy to find everyone enjoying this! It makes any bad days suddenly not seem so bad - the consequences of school life, I'm afraid. Been so busy at school - so many prelims etc that I need a holiday. Thank god there's one coming up! I'm not entirely sure if I like the title of this story - 'Life Continues' so any recommendations for a new one would be fab! This might be a little OOC. Thanks to everyone for all the great reviews!
I've got to thank TheScienceODeduction for a few ideas I put in - or will do in later chapters. I hadn't even thought about what I could do in future chapters until I read your comment. So thanks a bunch!
Disclaimer - as always, do not own.If I did, would I honestly be sitting here writing fan fiction, when I could just write the damn episodes? - which is probably a good reason for me not to own 'Sherlock'.
Any and all mistakes are completely my own.
(JOHN'S POV)
He hadn't imagined that. Sherlock's fingers had moved. They had moved.
"Sherlock? Come on, Sherlock…".
He looked back to Sherlock, and felt like giving in to disappointment again, when he felt Sherlock's hand close around his. He looked at the hand. Sherlock was squeezing his hand. A small smile reached his lips as he squeezed back.
(SHERLOCK'S POV)
He'd managed it! He was able to grip John's hand enough to get his attention. He felt John tugging back at his grip, and felt safer. He kept trying to open his eyes, or speak, or move, or something. He felt his toes twitch as he tried to move. A groan made its way up his throat.
He could hear John calling for a doctor, as he continued, trying to open his eyes.
He did it! A crack of light made its way through his eyelids, but it was so bright he immediately closed them again, and felt his head turning away from the light.
"Sherlock…".
That did it. His voice was encouraging him, telling him to keep going. He tried to open his eyes one more time.
He could see John standing over him, smiling brilliantly. He couldn't help but smile back at him, even though it hurt to do so. He knew that John could tell he was in pain, but didn't feel the need to hide it. He felt John's grip on his hand strengthen, as John pressed the call button.
A few seconds later, a nurse came into the room. She checked his vitals, and nodded her approval of them. She told them that the doctor would be round as soon as he could, and that Sherlock should rest until he came. She left the room, checking his chart before she got to the door.
"Sherlock…thank god you're awake…".
"John…" he croaked.
"It's going to be okay, Sherlock…just rest for now".
He wanted to sleep, he never realized how tired he was until now. Then he remembered.
"Moriarty!" he cried, jumping forwards, grabbing John's arm.
"Don't worry, Sherlock. Mycroft trying to find him. He won't get away-".
"No, John, he was-" he cut off as he hissed in pain. His stitches had come undone when he had jumped forwards, and now his wound was staining the bed sheet a whole different colour.
John jumped up from the bed and ran to the door. He opened it and shouted for a doctor, then ran back to Sherlock.
"John -".
"Just lie back. The doctor's going to be here in a moment, just lie back".
"No, John-".
"Sherlock, your stitches have come out, you need to lie back".
"John, listen to me, please!" he managed, almost exhausting himself over that one sentence.
(JOHN'S POV)
John was stunned into silence. Sherlock never said please. As John listened to what Sherlock said next, three people hurried into the room behind him.
"He was here, John. Moriarty was here…"he gasped.
John slowly lowered Sherlock back down onto the bed as he passed out. And a doctor and nurse took over, looking at the wound, cleaning up the blood. John was too shocked to notice that the third person who had walked in the room was Lestrade. Too distracted to realize that Sherlock was being taken back to surgery. Too overcome to notice that Sherlock's blood was covering his hands again.
He looked at Lestrade across the now empty room.
"He was here. He was in here…".
Lestrade looked as anxious and as nervous as he felt.
He reached in his pocket and phoned Mycroft.
"John? What is it? Is Sherlock okay?" he started, without saying hello.
John would have smiled if the situation had been different. Even though the two brothers had always seemed to be at war with each other, he could hear the genuine concern and worry in Mycroft's voice.
"He woke up, he started talking-".
"Good, that's good".
"Mycroft…something's happened. It turns out that…Moriarty was here. He somehow got into Sherlock's room. I don't know what happened, but he was here, and while Sherlock was warning me, he pulled his stitches. He's been taken back to surgery, he was bleeding rather badly".
There was no answer, and John thought he wasn't going to get a reply.
"I'll be there as soon as I can. I'll find out how he got in. This will not happen again".
"It better not. I thought you'd have had security around here or something?".
"I did, Moriarty is obviously more clever than I'd like to give him credit for".
"Don't underestimate him, Mycroft. Believe me, that's the worst thing anyone can ever do".
It was just over an hour later when Sherlock got out of surgery. He was being taken back to his private room, while his doctor - Dr. Connors - spoke to John and Lestrade.
"He lost a lot of blood. When he pulled the stitches, the wound completely opened up again. There was one complication with his surgery. He went into Hypovolaemic shock. We were able to treat it with an emergency blood transfusion, once the wound had been surgically repaired" He explained. "He'll be extremely weak when he wakes up, so I need to ask you to make sure that he doesn't pull his stitches again. You are the Doctor that Mr Holmes was talking about?".
"Um, Yeah. Mr Holmes told you about me?".
"The, uh, other Mr Holmes. Mycroft".
"Now it makes more sense" John replied, smiling slightly.
"Well, if he does wake up, I'm sure you know how to take care of him until I or another doctor arrives. He'll be in better hands with you around" he continued.
John and Lestrade thanked Dr. Connors, and went back to Sherlock's room, as the doctor returned to his rounds. Sherlock was looking even paler than before, but was sleeping peacefully.
Thanks to everyone who keeps reading, you fab!
For those who want to know, Hypovolaemic shock is basically a state of shock caused by various things: dehydration, vomiting, severe burns, drugs, and bleeding. It's common during surgery because of all the anaesthetics that are used, and/or in-operation bleeding. Symptoms are elevated pulse, lower b.p, paleness, dizziness - basically all the signs common to shock. There are four different stages of this type of shock, obviously each stage gets worse as the volume of blood loss increases. If you want more information, just search it up on the internet or in a book - you'll find it's pretty popular.