Sherlock was absolutely bored he hadn't had a proper case in exactly twelve days 7 hours and 34 minutes. See John I can easily mark the passing of time if I choose to waste brain power on such an effort when it is not necessary for a case. Sherlock thought bitterly to himself. He had spent the better part of the morning finishing his preparations of Sulfur Trioxide. He had built an apparatus earlier that week which would allow him to create a controlled test in order to determine the rate of damage that acid rain would cause to various forms of commonly used stones in masonry and sculpting.
As he finished the last process in the experiment he heard Mrs. Hudson shout his name from down stairs. Ignoring the landlady he sealed his container of SO3 and turned off the Bunsen burner. He held the flask up to light admiring the gas as it swirled around in the beaker.
"Yoo-hoo, Sherlock dear did you not hear me?" Mrs. Hudson said as she knocked on the open door. "You got a package dear." She said holding up the box in explanation of her presence.
"Ah excellent its here" Sherlock stated excitedly placing the beaker down on the mantle as he moved to yank the package out of Mrs. Hudsons hand.
"Well you could at least say thank you deary." Mrs Hudson said indignantly "I'm no spring chicken you know. You shouldn't be making me walk up all those stairs just to give you your mail and the man down stairs still wants a signature from you."
"Yes, yes" Sherlock responded absentmindedly as he happily opened the package, pulling out a mason jar with a silver liquid surrounded in a yellowish oil from the bubble wrap and packing peanuts in the box.
"Sherlock" Mrs. Hudson tried again as the genius was currently staring at the contents of the jar like a child in a candy shop.
"What is it Mrs. Hudson" Sherlock exclaimed exasperatedly placing the jar back in the box.
"Well there is no need to be rude, but the man down stairs is still waiting on your signature." She replied indignantly.
When Sherlock returned back upstairs from signing for the box he went straight back to the jar. Carrying it to the sink he figured he could do one or two small test of the exciting reaction. He place the jar down on the side of the sink as he began to search through the drawers trying to remember where he put his glass pipette again.
As he triumphantly pulled the pipette from the bread box his cell phone began to ring, it was his ringtone for Lestrade. Throwing the instrument back in the bread box he excitedly pulled out his cell phone.
"What is the address," he shouted at Lestrade. It had been so long since his last case he almost didn't care if it was a boring one.
"Well hello to you as well," Lestrade replied chuckling and then proceeded to give the excitable genius the details of the double homicide and what address to meet him at. Within a few minutes of finishing the call with Lestrade, Sherlock had dressed gathered his coat and was out the door of 221B Baker street. As he sat in the back of the taxi leg bouncing up in down in anticipation he sent a text to John.
Double homicide witnesses in each case but no bodies, the game is on! -SH
John chuckled to himself at work as he read the text from his roommate. He felt a little disappointed that there was no reason for him to meet up with Sherlock but without a body he couldn't really help him yet. However, he did have a bit of paperwork to catch up on so it was probably in his best interest that he didn't go anyhow.
After another three hours catching up on paperwork John was ready to call it a day. He checked his phone for updates from Sherlock as he shut the lights off in his office. There weren't any, knowing his friend he had found a lead at the crime scene and had left on his own to hunt it down. He wished the man would at least let him know when he ran off after a lead. John was beginning to appreciate Mycroft's comment that he 'Worried constantly' about his younger brother. As he walked home John sent a quick text checking up on him.
How is the case going should I meet you somewhere? –JW
Sherlock's phone chirped in his pocket but as he was currently pretending to be a highly distraught friend of one of the victims he ignored the text.
John checked his phone again hardly expecting a response from his friend having dealt with him for so long. Realizing he probably wasn't going to find out any more about the case until Sherlock returned home and knowing he might be busy for an undetermined amount of time in the future he figured he should go ahead and stop by Tesco's on his way home.
John placed the large bags of groceries on the living room floor as he removed his coat placing it on the back of his chair and looking over the box lying there with some curiosity. The address appeared to be Russian in origin and the only contents listed were one jar sodium-potassium alloy (NaK), liquid form. There were instructions on all sides of the box stating Hazardous Chemical Handle with Care. John tried to remember what sodium-potassium would do but it had been a long time since his undergraduate chemistry course and he really didn't remember at the moment. He figured he would ask Sherlock when he got home later. He picked up the groceries off the floor and moved towards the kitchen. John gave an audible sigh as he saw all of the beakers and tubes and flasks on the kitchen table. Glancing at the notes that Sherlock had written on the table he saw that the end result of what ever process he was preforming was Sulfur Trioxide. Great, that one he remembered was a major precursor to sulfuric acid. He was beginning to wonder if it might be a good idea to take a refresher course in chemistry just for his own general safety living with Sherlock. Hoisting the bags of groceries up high and facing his back to the table to ensure he didn't spill any of the various unlabeled beakers and glasses of liquid any one of which apparently could contain a very strong acid john moved over to the counter by the fridge as he was maneuvering the bags he heard the distinct noise of a glass being knocked over and then a split second later the sound of a glass breaking. With a long suffering sigh he put down the groceries and took a look at what had spilled.
He thanked what little luck he had for the fact that the jar had fallen into the sink and so there was no big mess to clean up. There was some kind of greyish blob covered in yellow liquid mixed among the glass in the sink. John moved the faucet over the mess not wanting to risk using a paper towel to clean up the mess. Although he was pretty sure sulfuric acid was a brownish liquid.
A split second after John turned on the water there was a massive explosion. Startled and thrown off balance John fell backwards cracking his head on the corner of the kitchen table hitting the ground hard afterwards his right elbow absorbing most of the fall. His vision black out for a second and when it came back he saw sparks and smaller explosions erupting from the sink smaller fires were catching all over the sink. Groggily Johns last thought before he passed out was O yea potassium reacts violently with water, yea I need to refresh my basic chemistry…