Thanks to sevenpercent for beta reading again.

Enjoy the ride guys and tell me what you think!

Chapter 2

Sherlock´s „Obviously" was drowned out by the sound of Shane Lundonderry suddenly jumping off the table, prepared to attack, while the restrains hung losely in the air. John supposed he must have slipped out of them. He didn´t get very far as suddenly there was Donovan, quicker than John ever would have thought she could be. She had gotten a knife from somewhere John didn´t know, and with one swift move she cut Lundonderry´s throat. Blood spattered to the floor as Shane was bleeding heavily and John stepped back as Shane made one last painful, gurgling sound and then sacked down onto the ground.

Dead.

For a few seconds all was silent. John was breathing heavily, contemplating how the hell Donovan knew how to cut a throat with such precision and about what the fuck he had just seen as Sherlock thundered at the woman.

„You imbecile! You had not secured him properly."

Donovan huffed, clearly not taking this. No surprise there. „Well you could have checked the bindings yourself."

„Yeah and what would you have done when I didn't ..."

„Shut up you two!" John barked, incredibly loud even to himself. He was angry. Utterly confused. Hurt, pissed off and god knows what.

He couldn´t believe he had just walked in on Sherlock trying to kill a man. A man which then had been killed off by Sally Donovan nonetheless, as they apparently were some kind of killer team. It was weird enough to see these two working together for once, but he just couldn´t wrap his brain around the other two parts he had just thought about.

Sherlock, Sally. Together. Killer... his brain supplied again and he must have looked weird as Sally spoke to him now. "I told you one day we'll be standing around a body and Sherlock Holmes would be the one who put it there. So I did warn you, didn´t I?" Donovan shrugged and John held up his hands helplessly not sure what to say about that. „Well technically you put him there." he brought out after a second of thinking? No, he couldn´t call it that. It seemed like every little thing was confusing wasn't it? This couldn´t actually be happening.

Sherlock, next to him, let out a small laugh. „Indeed you are right, John, but Sally normally doesn´t like 'the act', as she calls it. Blood makes her squeamish."

Donovan sure as hell didn´t looked squeamish right now, John thought as she handed Sherlock the large bucket of chemical, which would soak up all the blood Shane had left on the floor without a problem. He still simply stood there as Sherlock picked the dead man up and put him onto a table,which, upon closer examination, actually had a drain system attached to it. Clever.

Than again, this was Sherlock, wasn´t it? Should he have expected anything less?

"Uhm, okay I guess I leave now. See you around." Sally said and turned to leave. She was clearly uncomfortable with him, John could tell. It wasn´t that big of a surprise. Hell, he still felt out of place here himself. The thoughts in his head were whirling, barely coherent, his heart racing, combined with feeling fuzzy in general it probably meant he was going into a shock of some kind.

But before Sally could open the door to leave, Sherlock was already by her side holding her back. "Damn it Sally, what is up with you today. You are covered in blood, do you want to walk straight into a prison cell?"

Sally sighed and turned around again, eyeing John suspiciously, which Sherlock didn´t fail to notice.

"He won't tell anybody, will you John?" he sounded reassured, which surprised John himself. Hey, he didn´t even know what he was going to do. How was Sherlock so sure?

"It´s not like he hasn´t killed himself." Sherlock commented further, but Donovan shook her head.

"Yeah, but proving he killed the cabbie after all this time would be much harder than this..." She pointed down herself and Sherlock shrugged. John had no idea how she knew about that, but maybe Sherlock told her? He would have to ask about that.

"Then strip. I´ll be lending you my coat." He went into the back of the container and started to wrestle with the layers of plastic, before producing his trademark coat. As he turned around Donovan hadn´t still moved a muscle, causing Sherlock to groan.

"Sally, John has seen naked women before. "

"But..."

"No but." he handed John the coat and started to open the buttons of her blouse. John expected her to protest but instead Donovan resigned. It was eerie to see these two working together. He knew he should have averted his eyes but found himself staring instead. Maybe that had also had something to do with the shock he probably was in.

And yet his:"Oh and you have blood in your hair as well." roused a "Ewwww" and a shudder from Donovan while Sherlock laughed. John just caught himself before smiling at this sort of gentle bickering. So different from the normal crime scenes these two met on.

Soon Sally Donovan was standing there in her underwear and socks, shivering at the cold winter air which came from outside.

"You are definitely going to shower at 221b. I´m not letting you run around with evidence." Sherlock stated and Sally didn´t even try to complain. She simply took the coat from John and wrapped herself in it.

Sherlock took her soiled clothes and began to wrap them in plastic while Sally looked a little sad.

"Damn, I loved the blouse. Such a shame." she complained.

"Well you know better than to do this in new clothes." Sherlock scolded and nearly sounded like a caring father which weirded John out even more.

Sally and Sherlock didn´t seem to notice him at the moment anyway, as they were lost in their discussion.

"And you know better than to run into this without planning. What were you thinking Donovan?" Sherlock hissed at her then, clearly not amused. This was turning into a verbal fight once again but John found himself strangely fascinated by the two and listened further.

"I knew I had to make sure that this bastard wasn´t going to run away." Donovan spat.

"Then why didn´t you wait."

"It would have been too late. He would have been half way to Hawaii by the time you got your ass moving."

"Wrong. You took an unnecessary risk." Sherlock seemed to get louder. "What do you think would have happened if I didn´t come?"

"I can take care of my self. I don´t need you."

"Do you have a death wish Donovan?" They both were standing right in front of each other now, face to face. The only thing missing was them actually baring teeth.

So much for the "actually working together without biting each other´s head off " John thought then and waited for the fight to get even worse.

But strangely it didn´t. Instead Sherlock turned to him. "John, take her to Baker Street and make sure she cleans up. I´ll be along once I have taken care of this guy." With that he turned towards the body and began to work on it.

At first he wanted to object, because who was Sherlock to tell him to do things like this? But as he saw Sherlock getting out a bone saw for the body, he decided against it.

He didn´t need to see this.

So it went that he and Donovan were walking through the darkened streets of London a few moments later. Baker Street was only a few street turns away and they would need about ten minutes to get there.

Since it was really cold Sally was still shivering and John nearly took pity on her for a second, but than thought better of it. This woman had just killed a man in front of his eyes! He shouldn´t be a gentleman and make sure she didn´t feel cold, damn it.

Not to say he wouldn´t have loved to kill Lundonderry himself this afternoon. After seeing the photos of what Shane Lundonderry had done to that 5 year old African girl he would have loved to shoot the bastard. The Guy deserved that. But still. You couldn´t simply go out there and kill people.

And yet, he knew Sally and Sherlock were right. The bastard would have gotten away with it. He had enough wealth and connections to support him.

But did that make it right?

No, he decided, he wouldn´t feel sorry for Shane Lundonderry. He wouldn´t care about what had happened to him as well. He would simply forget this.

Yet there was the nagging question, that this probably hadn´t been the first time. Sally and Sherlock had seemed too used to everything that for that. Which begged the thought who had been the others victims?

And how many?

God, he simply couldn´t wrap his head around this.

Sally had walked silently right next to him for a few minutes, but now she seemed to sense his thoughts. Probably picked up more from Sherlock´s way of deductions than she realized.

"We have a code John. We only do it to people who deserve it." She started, voice a little unstable. "The ones who get off through money or connections or corruption and which are truly guilty. Everything is double checked. You know how accurate Sherlock is."

A compliment for Sherlock out of Donovan´s mouth, John nearly laughed but then chose to say nothing. If only that were true. And yet, did that make what they did all right? He needed time to process this. It wasn´t like he was a stranger to death and such. But that had been war. He hadn´t expected to have to deal with this in London. Well the crime scenes weren´t the problem, but now he had it at it literally in his house with his flatmate. It was probably simply a bit close to home, he thought.

That and he had always hoped to prove Donovan, Anderson and the other naysayers wrong. Sherlock wasn´t a psychopath.

But was he? Was Sally one as well?

Donovan had been eyeing him since she had last spoken. She still seemed to expect him to run to the police he supposed.

"Don´t tell me you wouldn´t have loved to kill the bastard. I saw it in your eyes, right after he got off in court." She tried again and John just led out a long sigh.

They walked further. "So you kill these people together?" he asked then, clearly curious how that worked out.

"Well, yeah. I mean, Sherlock does the killing most of the time and I´m his back up. Today was just- " She shrugged and wrapped the coat tighter around herself, speeding up her steps a bit. "I don´t know. Normally I don´t go after people alone, but this guy needed it. Sherlock wanted to wait, you know. But Lundonderry would have been gone by then."

She still looked like she wanted to flee instead of walking next to him and somehow John couldn´t blame her. She didn´t trust him one bit.

"Back up?" He inquired and Sally nodded.

"Yeah, I make sure the area around the containers is clear, get him information he can´t get without a badge, drive the car towards the container so he can use it to dispose of the body. Such things." She bit her lip and then seemed to remember something. "Sometimes I even make sure he doesn´t get himself killed. "

John was silent again. This was proof. It hadn´t been the first time. At least he knew now, didn't he?

All the while Sally still seemed to be nervous around him. As they entered Baker Street she finally spoke again. "John, don´t rat us out, please?" she begged.

John sighed and stopped right in front of his home. "Donovan, I´m still here, aren't I? I´m not going to the police. At least not yet. Go shower."

Sally seemed to physically grow at these words, like a big stone had been taken away from her shoulders. "Thank you." she breathed and they both wandered into the flat.

John´s idea of this not being the first time got validated once more as Sally walked straight into Sherlock´s room and started to search his cupboard. A few moments later she produced a box and told him. "I have some clothes and some necessities here for cases like this. Baker street is closer than my apartment." With that she took out some women´s clothes, women's shampoo and shower gel and headed for the bathroom. "Just give me 15 minutes and I´ll be right out of your hair, I promise."

And gone she was. Seconds later John heard the water running. Taking a deep breath he sat down onto the couch and tried to think what to make of all this.

Sherlock and Sally were serial killers. They worked together as a team.

Stranger things must have happened, right?

Well somewhere supposedly.