Chapter 2

Hiii! So, this is the 2nd chapter of my fanfiction and it will be a bit longer than the first. Thank you for reading it if you do and please don't forget to review, give me suggestions or just an opinion about the plot or anything. :)

"Hello, Will. Hopefully, you won't mind if I don't call you Mr. Graham, said Sherlock Holmes as he sat next to his new colleague."

"Of course not. It will make Jack happy, it will seem that we are finally getting along, Sherlock."

Will had a big ironical smile on his face and his eyes shined with arrogance and feeling of superiority. Sherlock didn't know how to react with him, he was so special. He'd never met that kind of man before and he wanted to know him more; to see the real Will Graham.

"So, declared the English detective after a while, aside being a lonely dog man who frames criminals, what are your hobbies?"

Will laughed nervously "To be honest with you, this is pretty much all my life is about. The only thing you haven't deduced from me was that I loved fishing. I am a good fisherman."

"I was expecting you to tell me that you were playing some pointless game; like football or Mario Bros… Now I don't have any rude sarcastic comment to make, great!"

"Well now you'll be able to finally be rude about something that needs to be rude about: yourself."

"You know what, Will, I guess working with you isn't going to be so dreadful after all… No, I'm joking."

"I began to expect the worse, like, becoming friends with you." Graham looked into Sherlock Holmes' cold blue eyes and noticed something he hadn't seen before: a kind of interest. But not the interest of a person wanting to know another, it was more a sort of scientific interest. Will felt like a new species of a certain monkey discovered an hour ago.

Jack Crawford came into the cafeteria and at the moment he saw Sherlock and Will, he walked swiftly to them.

"It's good to find you two together, because I want to speak to you both, of course. A young woman was found murdered in her college and we think it's the Chesapeake Ripper who did it. Mr. Holmes, I hope you have read the rapport I gave you earlier. Let's leave, now."

In the car, on the way to the scene of the crime, nobody said a word. Sherlock kept giving little stares at Will while he was looking through the window, "enjoying the countryside to avoid an eye contact with me", as Sherlock thought.

When they arrived to the library, where the body was found, a Special Agent ran to them.

"Good morning, Jack Crawford, Will Graham and… Sherlock Holmes, I assume. The victim's named Amanda Goode and she is – well was – twenty-one. She had been studying medicine for almost three years and her friends describe her as a friendly person who wouldn't be the kind to make enemies or get in trouble. However, she had no family left, which made of her a perfect potential victim. With the elements found on her, we seriously think that the Ripper made this. An organ has been removed from the body: the lungs to be precise. But, follow me to judge by yourself."

Further, in the medicine part of the library, a lifeless body was found hung on a shelf with the help of a dozens of nails. She had a shape of a star, but her chest was open and the inside of her body could be seen. A book on the organs opened on a page showing the lungs took place where this organ should've been. Amanda Goode had her eyes wide open and a huge emotion of fear could be read all over her face.

"It definitely is the Chesapeake Ripper who did this, concluded Will from what he had seen, you can feel the presence of the need to make of every murder a theatrical performance. She is the star of this library, books are a so big part of her that are literally a part of her here. She is one more character added to the Ripper's piece of theatre. He, if we admit it's a man, he removed her lungs while she was still alive and the huge blood loss caused her death. She died of mutilation."

"Nonsense, replied Sherlock Holmes, if you tried to be less poetic and more rational, you'd notice marks of strangulation on her neck. The lungs were removed after Amanda Goode died."

Will seemed very annoyed by this pretentious Holmes' comments. Sherlock hadn't seen the others bodies like he did. He wasn't haunted by the Ripper's murders. He didn't get to feel like him.

"Sherlock, you don't see what I see. There was a strangulation like you mentioned, but it was just to catch her and to control her moves. Instead of catching her by the arm or the shoulder, he did it with the neck. Because for the Chesapeake Ripper, the victims are no better than pigs. We are all inferior to him, so why should he treat us with respect and dignity?"

"You are interpreting too much, doggy man. It could be almost seen as suspect."

"Are you accusing me to be the Ripper? Because if I were, you'd be better off running and hiding because you are the perfect next victim. Anyway can we go back to what matters? The Ripper is a genuine psychopath, he is smart, he is curious, he is testing us like animals. You are deducing, I am interpreting the evidence. Our methods are different and all quite successful, but in this case mine is more reliable because I feel the Ripper, I somehow know why and how he did every single thing you have before your suspecting eyes."

"Perfect, now I am incapable of doing my own job! You know what? I'm totally done. I was getting bored anyway." Sherlock left with a serious look on his face.

"Jack, called Will, you see it is totally useless to make me work with someone. I cannot cooperate because what I feel is sometimes unexplainable."

"You have to understand that it is essential for your mental health to do half of the job, at least for now. Will, look at me, I know it's hard and you don't especially enjoy it, but please, trust me, responded Jack with a huge tone of concern in his serious voice."

Sherlock was waiting in the car, furious. He didn't like it when someone couldn't trust his deductions. They were always right, or an element was missing. But it was never 'wrong' the much Will Graham accused it to be. He was truly offended but he had to keep going on this mission. His brother wanted him to have some distance with London, especially since what happened last month.

Yet, even after this outrageous accusation Will made, the detective couldn't help but admire his stubbornness and his assurance in what he thought. Sherlock realised that they were more similar than he wanted to admit. Will's arrogance challenged him and made him want to play that Special Agent's game. Of course, Holmes would win it. Sherlock had a tiny smile on his face at the thought of him and Will Graham playing Cluedo. Suddenly a door of the car opened, Sherlock looked in its direction and saw a rather sorry facial version of Will Graham.

"Sherlock, he began awkwardly, I am sorry for what happened in the library. I shouldn't have denied your theory as if it were some nonsense said by a three years old. It was coherent with what we could observe and there will be an autopsy anyway so I made sure we would be the first to know the results. As you probably may have noticed by now, I am not confident in social courses and sometimes I wish I was friendlier but this is who I am, who I have always been so I am sorry that you'll have to get used to the unsociable bear I am. I think you and I could make a great team, added Will with an amused half smile, we just must deal with each other's strong personalities. It will take time, but there is hope. That was probably, no surely, my worst apology speech ever but know that it was honest. Sorry again."

Sherlock Holmes laughed, but it wasn't a mocking laugh. It was a warm, welcoming one that reassured Will on the quality of his apology.

"I admit I was a bit harsh at times with you, too, replied Holmes calmly, and I promise I will try to behave myself better. You aren't like everyone. Surprisingly, you annoy me less than others would."

"You know what, Sherlock, I guess working with you isn't going to be so dreadful after all."

Will Graham and Sherlock Holmes both smiled.

"Do you want to eat something? I know a pretty good restaurant near here, continued the Special Agent, they make the best hamburgers in the world."

"Let's go before Jack shows up." Sherlock winked at Will.

In that moment, Will knew that the best friendship or the worst loss was going to happen.

Don't forget to review. Yes, I'm repeating myself but anyway haha, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.