Title: The City of Fear Part 2
Author: Dancing Star
Crossover: PSI Factor / Sherlock
Pairing: Connor / Lindsay, Sherlock / Anne (OC)
Spoiler: This story takes place after season 3. That it turned out in "His Last Vow" Mary was a liar, by the way never happened in this story.
Rating: 12
Category: AU, Mystery, Romance
What happens: Eerie lights scare the people in London. Even the best detective in the world can´t solve the mysterious case.
Notes: I had never dreamed that I´d write a Sherlock Holmes story ... :-)

I wish you a merry Christmas! I wish you a merry Christmas!

The city of fear- Part 2

Connor guessed that the laboratory would find high values of radioactivity on the shirts and the laboratory confirmed his guess. The more pieces of the puzzle could be completed, the more he realized, what had happened to the men. He shared his suspicions with Sherlock and he asked him if he was actually serious.
The OSIR team decided they wanted to see the place where the angler had found Liam Stone and Max Cartwright. Sherlock wasn´t up for motivation, but Lestrade had told him they should go through this case together, otherwise he would punish him until his death in order to be bored.
They parked their cars on the same afternoon in a parking lot in a ten acre forest. Here they had to proceed by foot, because there were no paved roads in the forest. Connor, Lindsay and Peter were carrying a heavy backpack and Anne offered to carry a box for them. When they walked up a small hill after fifteen minutes of walk, Anne slipped and almost dropped the box. Because Sherlock walked beside her, he caught her in time and Anne thanked for the help, but she didn´t dare even to look at him. Anne walked faster and caught up to Lindsay, who led the group. Peter realized he couldn´t avoid this important issue. So he caught up to Sherlock with his heavy backpack.
"Is it true that you are a master of disguise?", Peter asked him.
"Sometimes more, sometimes less," Sherlock replied, "But you didn´t want to ask this."
Internally Peter clenched a hand into a fist: He realized that Sherlock was really smart. "Do you like Anne?", Peter asked now. He spoke so quietly that Anne and Lindsay couldn´t hear.
Sherlock hesitated. "Love is a chemical malfunction."
Of course, Lindsay and Anne heard their conversation anyway and Lindsay could see in the face of her new friend that this statement of Sherlock seemed to hurt her internally.
"We are now closer to the find spot", Lindsay informed them then.
Connor was the rear guard of the group. "Keep your eyes and ears open," he told them, "Each of you has a recording device and a camera. If you see something unusual, take a photo of it or film it."
"All right," Anne agreed. Sherlock didn´t participate in their action. For him the fact counted that he could provide a plausible explanation to Scotland Yard for what happened. "Out here, there is nothing unusual," Sherlock said, unimpressed, "I remind you there are no witnesses for what happened to Liam Stone and Max Cartwright..."
"Do you want to say, this was a trick?", Connor was horrified.
"That´s what I wanted to say if you would let me talk..."
"You saw his T-shirt and his wounds. He couldn´t have done it to himself..." Connor complained.
"To answer your question," Lindsay added, "There were even a lot of witnesses. At least ten people from the area reported about a mysterious light in the sky, which quickly changes the position. They called the police, you know?"
"The military claims the planets Jupiter and Mars were to blame for what the people saw," Peter remembered.
"That might even be true," Sherlock said, and all were surprised he didn´t seem to be sure.
"You don´t believe in UFOs and aliens," Peter said.
Anne replied for Sherlock: "He also didn´t believe in the Hound of the Baskervilles, until he has seen it with own eyes," she said. She had already followed the blog of her cousin John in America with great interest. The fact that John invited her to England to work with the famous Sherlock, while John and his wife Mary enjoyed the parenthood was an accolade for Anne.
Now they reached the river, where the angler had found Liam Stone and Max Cartwright.
The team built a kind of base camp in the shelter of the trees: Connor and Lindsay built up a tent in which Peter housed the computer with the help of Anne. Then they placed some sensors in the area. While they worked, Sherlock didn´t lift a finger: He just stood there and tapped around on his cell phone.
"What are you doing?", Peter wanted to know from him.
"I make sure the theory is true that the planets Mars and Jupiter are responsible for the appearance of light in the sky." But suddenly his cell phone dropped out. He pressed the reset button and nothing happened.
"Sherlock..."
"What´s wrong?", he raised his head and looked at the sky, "It's all right." So he focused again on his Blackberry, which didn´t work. He asked if he could use Peter's cell phone.
"Sure, here it is," Peter gave him the device and Sherlock researched again, if it was possible that a part of the London population believed the planets Mars and Jupiter were light phenomena. "I don´t understand," Sherlock said.
"It worries me to hear this from you," Anne, who was standing right next to him, answered, "That must mean we have a big problem, isn´t it?"
"You can call it like that," he finished the internet, "No matter what people have seen in the night sky, it wasn´t a planet or a plane."
"In other words, you have no idea how to solve this case this time."
He hated he had to admit. Sherlock merely condescend to nod.
Peter demanded his phone back now and he was amazed when it suddenly dropped out. "What have you done to my phone?", he asked and put it back into his jacket pocket.
"All this doesn´t make sense," Sherlock said to himself. He still had no explanation to what had really happened here in the woods and why Liam Stone, a former cheater, and Max Cartwright, a good citizen, were involved.

Peter went to Anne, who stood in the middle of the river with Lindsay on a kind of sandbar and filmed the surrounding area with a video camera, while Connor (and Sherlock) should guard the camp.
"I hope we don´t have to stay out here this night," Lindsay said and when she heard Peter's footsteps on the sand bank she gave her meter to him and left the two alone.
"I bet I know what his problem is", Peter suddenly said to Anne.
"Whose problem? Besides us, there is no one here." She had noticed it had become suspiciously quiet around them. The migratory birds had traveled to the south this time of year, but this forest was almost as quiet as a graveyard.
"Sherlock is an alien," added Peter and grinned.
Anne raised her head irritably. "Pardon?"
"Well, he's freezing cold, selfish, conceited... He practically never shows feelings. The most logical explanation is that he is an alien."
"So you contradict yourself: You say he was cold but in the same breath you say that he would be selfish... He may seem to be heartless, but he..." Their conversation was interrupted by a scream. With their instruments in their hands, Peter and Anne ran through the ankle-deep river back to camp.
The cry they had heard came from a young woman they had never seen before. "Please help me," the woman cried. Her face and her pajamas were dirty. Blood dripped from her forehead.
Sherlock recognized her: Her name was Leslie McKinney and she was wanted by the police and Scotland Yard. Just like many other people who had suddenly disappeared in the suburbs.
Leslie collapsed and remained unconscious on the floor.
They worried now much more about the object that appeared behind her: It was a disc-shaped object which floated above the ground and rotated around its own axis. It was made of metal, but didn´t reflect when you looked into it.
"We need to get the woman away from there necessarily," Connor said to Peter and he agreed. They crawled on the floor to Leslie, each of them took one of her arms and pulled her slowly away from the object, which caused a deep, purring sound.
Anne was no longer able to move, so she filmed the scene with her camera. When a black shadow in the lower left area of the screen showed up, she raised her head.
"Sherlock, don´t!",
He slowly crawled toward the object. "I need to know what it is," he muttered to himself and held out his hand before he reached the object. A small door on the left side of the object opened, a flap and a green light came out. He heard voices from the inside of the object.
Then the lights lit up the complete environment.
Their eyes burned so much that they collapsed on the floor. They all felt a severe headache.
Sherlock turned around and saw that Anne was kneeling on the floor (she had dropped down the camera) and also shielded her eyes. He crawled over to her and held her protectively.
The next moment everything became dark around them.

When they awoke, it was dusk.
"How long were we kicked off?", Peter asked. He was desperately looking for a flashlight and finally found it beside him on the floor. The light turned on immediately, as he pushed up the lever. In the light of the torch he saw Lindsay, who just picked up a camera and put the device in her jacket pocket. Then she crawled to Connor, who obviously had sunburn in the face. He was also dizzy.
Peter got up and staggered to the two. "Hey Connor. Is everything all right?", He asked anxiously, his best friend nodded.
"What about this woman?", It occurred to Peter then. With a hectic movement he turned around and let the light cone again flitting about the camp. The woman in pajamas was still lying unconscious on the floor.
"Where are Anne and Sherlock?", Lindsay wanted to know.
"I'm here," a female voice replied. Anne was sitting just a few feet away from her. Sherlock had to be woken up before them and left the camp. If he was just as dizzy as them, then he was disoriented wandering in the forest. A rustling sound led them to turn around. Peter tried to localize the source of the noise with the beam of the flashlight.
They all breathed a collective sigh of relief when she saw Sherlock. "Where have you been?", Peter asked.
He didn´t answer, but went a little insecure to the point where he had seen the object. It had left no traces. Nothing, except a circle with flat grass.
"My watch has stopped," Sherlock then found out. And he couldn´t initiate the expensive piece.
"We must return to the city."
They helped each other getting up.
"I'm all right again," Peter said, "I'm no longer dizzy. I can drive." His friends agreed.
"Sherlock, your shirt", Lindsay noticed and he realized that his shirt was covered with many holes in the chest- area.
"Reminds me of the shirts of Cartwright and Stone", Anne said. She became cold when she realized, what this meant.
Their eyes fell on the unconscious woman. Her clothes where covered by holes as well.
"Who is she?", Lindsay asked.
"This is Leslie McKinney. She´s also among the disappeared persons", Sherlock said.
Peter nodded knowingly. "Okay. Lindsay stays with Connor and Anne, beware that Sherlock doesn´t run away again. I'll take care of Leslie McKinney. She and Connor have to get in the clinic."

Leslie McKinney was still unconscious when they arrived at the hospital, but Connors sunburn had completely disappeared. Meanwhile, Sherlock wanted to meet his old friend Inspector Lestrade at Scotland Yard and would report to him about what had happened in the forest. It had been his job to figure out what was really happening. And he couldn´t give Lestrade a reasonable explanation. What remained was the truth.

Back at Baker Street Anne started her laptop to continue John´s blog. She wrote about the events of the last few hours and put the memory chip of the camera into the computer, but all the pictures were overexposed and thus completely ruined. Also the film, she had made, was useless.
She asked Connor and Lindsay for help, who just took care of their files. "Yes, that's perfectly normal," Connor said, "Usually all electrical appliances fail."
Frustrated Anne sat back down at the kitchen table, but she drew a sketch of the flying object. When she was done, she was startled by an alarm which came from the kitchen.
"What happened?", Lindsay and Connor also entered the kitchen. Smoke came out of the oven. Anne opened the device and a cloud of black darkened the room.
"This is one of his experiments!," Anne cried. She grabbed a kitchen towel and put a roasting pan without lid from the oven, in which a pig's head lay. The back of her hand touched the hot wall of the oven and Anne let the roaster fall.
First Sherlock Holmes was puzzled what uproar his latest experiment caused: Connor ran to the window and opened it, Lindsay threw the pig's head away in disgust and Anne ran cold water over her hand. "Is it very bad?", Lindsay wanted to know when the smoke was gone.
"I'm all right...", A crescent-shaped, reddish wound was formed on the back of her hand.
"I'll take care of it," Sherlock's presence astonished them. Even more, they were surprised that he sent them out of the kitchen with the task to bring the smoke alarm to silence. He took a red plastic box from the cupboard and sat down with Anne at the table.
While he took care of her wound and deposited a burn ointment, he held her hand the whole time. "I've ruined your experiment," she noticed, "I'm sorry."
"I can repeat it anytime..."
The door to the kitchen opened. Lindsay held the smoke detector in her hand. "It´s working again." She smiled.
"It took quite a long time," Sherlock stated who was still holding Anne's hand, "I would have done it in half the time."
"Of course you would," Lindsay replied just shaking her head and walking away. "Ungrateful guy," she murmured as she was in the living room again.
Sherlock put a plaster over Anne's wound. "We're done." He put his first aid- kit back in the cupboard and went out. About a minute later they heard music coming from his room: He played a song on his fiddle.
Lindsay walked into the kitchen again. Anne was still sitting at the table. "Are you all right?", Lindsay asked, worried and Anne nodded. Then she showed her the plaster on her hand.
"Yes, I have got a first class first aid", Anne tried to smile.
"You like him," said Lindsay firmly and sat down in the empty chair on which the famous Sherlock Holmes had sat a few seconds ago.
Anne hesitated. "Yes," she said then, "But either he can´t see it or he doesn´t want to see." Sherlock read people like an open book: He knew all their secrets in seconds. She was sure he knew her secret: namely, that she didn´t think the night in which they both ended up drunken on the couch was misunderstanding and meaningless. They were crashed after Sherlock (drunk) said he had a hobby, he was a good rider and in addition a dancer: Because Anne didn´t believe him, he grabbed her waist and they began to dance a waltz in his living room. Although he had not lied, they both crashed and ended up on the couch, she under him. Sherlock didn´t let her get up from the couch. As always, he giggled childishly when he was drunk. Anne didn´t know who of them had grasped the needle and began to kiss the other. Anyway, it wasn´t just a kiss and she knew now that Sherlock Holmes was not made of ice. Anne felt it was inappropriate to stay all night so she slipped away as soon as he was asleep. When they met the next time, she hardly dared to look him in the eyes. When they got a new, tricky case, it was better.
"He would quickly get bored with me, because actually I am an uninteresting person," Anne said finally, "I don´t think he is interested in a real bond. The last thing I want is to end up as one of his strange experiments and he can´t stand, for example, to stay at home on a Sunday morning and have nice breakfast and ...", she turned to Lindsay," I want a man who loves me. And I would like to start a family ... I'm...", Anne stopped.
"What?"
Anne seemed to have to think. Then she shook her head. "I shouldn´t be here. It's not what I want." Then she hurriedly left the room, grabbed her jacket on the coat rack and left the 221b Baker Street.

The next day was Christmas and Mrs. Hudson had invited them for a little celebration in Baker Street. First, Connor, Lindsay and Peter met the famous John Watson, his wife Mary and their daughter. After drinking a cup of tea, they started to exchange gifts.
"This is for you," Lindsay said and handed Sherlock a parcel, wrapped in green paper, "Read the card."
He did what she asked. "Thanks for your help," he read, "Actually it was the other way around. I've helped you... "
"No, I'm sure it wasn´t so," Lindsay folded her arms across the chest. They discussed, but Sherlock won this round as always until John ended their discussion. He told his best friend he should open the gift and thank her for the present (a new watch, after all his watch was broken in their investigations). "Where is Anne?", John finally wanted to know from Sherlock. He wanted to ask his cousin, if what she had representative written for him in his blog had really happened.
"Don´t you know where she is?," Sherlock asked.
"I haven´t talked to Anne for three days." They finished their conversation but Watson didn´t miss how Sherlock grabbed his cell phone and wrote Anne a text message.
"Come to Baker Street SH" He waited one minute, grabbed his Blackberry again (the small, red box, which included a necklace, would have almost slipped out of his pocket) and wrote her the next message.
"Come to Baker Street Right away. SH"
Normally, Anne responded immediately to his messages. And when she didn´t answer, he dialed her phone number. He received the announcement the other party wasn´t reachable.
Mrs. Hudson seemed to notice his restlessness. "Is something wrong?", she asked.
"Where is Anne? Did you talk to her?"
"No," Mrs. Hudson shook her head.
Lindsay entered the kitchen to get some more tea. " I can do this for you," Mrs. Hudson followed her.
Sherlock knew that Anne and Lindsay had talked to each other yesterday after he doctored her wound.
"Where is Anne?", he asked Lindsay.
"I don´t know," she replied.
"You know it," hissed Sherlock, "I know you're lying."
"Okay, I'll say it," she gave in, "She's traveled this morning Paddington station by underground and from there to the airport."
Sherlock didn´t understand. He had no idea why Anne had left so hastily.
"Oh dear, you really have no idea of broken hearts, "Lindsay stated, "Anne yesterday said this is not what she had wanted for her life."
"Was that all?", Sherlock was getting impatient. Their conversation mobilized Connor, Peter and John. They asked what was going on. "Anne has left town," Lindsay told them and turned back to Sherlock, "She also said she shouldn´t be here after what had recently happened between you." Lindsay assumed he would know what she meant, but Sherlock was like a blind man when it was about the feelings of a woman. Even Connor and Peter understood and also John Watson wasn´t thrilled that his cousin had fallen in love with his best friend. Lindsay found it impossible she had to push Sherlock with his nose to the facts.
"Anne loves you very much," Lindsay added, "But she is worried that she wouldn´t be good enough for you, because you might get bored with her."
"Is that all?", John asked incredulously. He, his wife Mary, Connor and Peter still stood around Sherlock and Lindsay, listening to the unusual conversation.
"Anne thinks you aren´t interested in a relationship and ... she wants to have a normal life... With a family."
They all waited for what these words would cause with Sherlock, but he went to the door and took his coat. "When does the plane leave?"
"I don´t know," Lindsay said. Her voice and her posture told him she wasn´t lying this time.
Sherlock didn´t expect he would arrive in time at the airport and that he could stop her. After he entered his apartment that evening alone, only John and Mary were waiting for him. Connor, Lindsay and Peter had gone back to their hotel because they wanted to return to Toronto on the next flight.
"I'm sorry," John said to his best friend before he and Mary went home, "If you need anything..."
"There's really something."

"It's late in the evening
Glass on the side now
I've been sat with you
For most of the night
Ignoring everybody here
We wish they would disappear
So maybe we could get down now
I don't wanna know
If you're getting ahead of the program
I want you to be mine, lady
To hold your body close
Take another step into the no-man's land
For the longest time lady

I need you darling,
Come on set the tone
If you feel you're falling,
Won't you let me know?
Ooohh Oohh Ooohh
Ooohh Oohh Ooohh
If you love me, come on get involved
Feel it rushing through you
from your head to toe" ("Sing" by Ed Sheeran)

About three days later the phone rang in Connor´s and Lindsay's apartment in the middle of the night. Lindsay walked wearily into the kitchen to answer the call. "Hello, who's there?", she asked.
"This is Sherlock..."
"Sherlock Holmes?" All of a sudden she was wide awake.
"Do you know another Sherlock?", the voice on the other end of the line asked.
"My goodness, do you know what time it is?", Connor wanted to know: He had intervened in the conversation with the phone in the living room.
"It´s 05:00 o´clock in London, thus it should be midnight in Toronto..."
"Why do you call?", Connor asked indignantly and he and Lindsay noticed how Sherlock hesitated for a moment. "I admit I don´t like saying this, but I need your help...", he replied then.
"Are you sure?", Connor could hardly hide he liked that fact, "Why could the great Sherlock Holmes probably need OUR help?"

"I can´t believe he thinks we're competent enough to throw away his old junk!", Lindsay complained a few days later. She and Connor had returned to London because Sherlock had asked for help. "And why can´t your friend John help?", Lindsay added when, as she grabbed a skull, which was exhibited at the fireplace and put it in a box. She and Connor had received the order from the Sherlock to remove all the odd items from his apartment. Previously, they had already sorted the chaotic bookcase. Mrs. Hudson helped them to pack the collection of test tubes, which had turned his kitchen into a laboratory. "Put the test tubes in John's old room," Sherlock pointed at her. He wanted to set up his laboratory there. And as soon as he had finished the transformation he would fly to New York and get Anne.
When the bell rang at the door, Mrs. Hudson let in the visit.
"It's the way John has responded on Christmas Eve on the news that Anne might have feelings for me." Pure, cold reason, of which he preached so often, couldn´t decipher why Anne even felt like this.
"Listen, Sherlock. It is very nice you are willing to change all of this for Anne, but...", Lindsay looked at Connor and he nodded," But it doesn´t help if you aren´t yourself anymore ... A little example? 'When I was in college I was dating a guy who demanded that I give away my dog because he had an allergy. Blinded by love and stupid as I was I did that and when the guy left me, I had also lost my best friend... You should stop blaming yourself and go out again."
Sherlock's brow wrinkles. "I don´t understand what this anecdote should express."
"Yes, you do. I know you understand."
"She's right," suddenly another voice added. They turned around and saw that Anne was standing in the doorway.
"Mrs. Hudson let me in, "she explained quickly," She's right. I don´t want you to change fundamentally because of me."
Lindsay suggested that she and Connor should leave the two alone for a while, so they caught Mrs. Hudson, who also came up the stairs.
Anne came to the box in which the skull was packed, which stood on the mantelpiece. She unpacked the skull and put it back in its old place.
"You are back in London," Sherlock said. He immediately realized it was hard for her to stand here in front of him because at her attitude. Her eyes were red and glassy: She had been crying.
"I think I'll cancel my apartment and return to New York, "Anne's voice was low.
"I knew you would sooner or later return to London to resolve your apartment. Anne, I beg you, don´t do that."
She was surprised. "What?"
"I've been thinking about what you want."
"How do you know that?"
"Lindsay told me... To be more precise, she pushed me on it with my nose, when you haven´t appeared on our Christmas party...", Sherlock went to the bookshelf. He was relieved that the little red box had not been eliminated by the cleanup command.
"This is for you," he handed her the box. Anne hesitated, but then she took the gift and opened the box.
"It´s a late Christmas gift," Sherlock continued and went to the window to look out, "I'm not good at such things: They say, I´m blind about the feelings of a woman and I don´t see happiness when it´s directly in front of me. It already happened in the past that I have exploited a woman's emotions in order to achieve my goal and I want you to know that I don´t intend to hurt you, Anne. So I hope this gift expresses what I feel for you."
Anne didn´t manage to avert her eyes from the Necklace: The diamond in the pendant was small, but still beautiful. "Oh, that's..."
"Lindsay told me that you´re thinking about family planning. Although I have never looked into the fact to give my genes on, but you would be...", he heard her cry and therefore turned around.
"I... I don´ understand a single word..." Quickly, Anne wiped the tears from her eyes. She had come to London to say goodbye to her friends and now he handed his heart practically on a silver platter. Anne hadn´t even thought he had a heart at all two minutes before.
"What I really want so say is..." He stepped right in front of her, but it was still very difficult for him.
Anne wondered what he probably wanted to say and then it dawned on her. "I love you?"
For a second there was silence in the room. Then Sherlock nodded. "Simple, but expressed accurately."
Anne flung her arms around his neck and she still held the necklace in her hand. She couldn´t stop crying, even as she felt his arms around her waist. "Oh, I love you too," she wailed. Then she remembered this near was maybe uncomfortable for him. "Sorry," she backed away from him.
"No, that's fine," the words had hardly left his mouth, Anne hugged him again, but Sherlock thought it appropriate to kiss her now.
They didn´t know that Mrs. Hudson, Connor and Lindsay had been standing a while at the foot of the stairs and listened to the conversation. They looked very happy and relieved.

Three years later, Sherlock and John had entered the pathology of the hospital with Lestrade to see a corpse that had to do with their current case. They now discussed with the new doctor, what could be the cause of death because the man, lying on the table before them, was a bigwig in the economy. Suddenly Sherlock´s cell phone rang. He didn´t respond, so it rang again one minute later.
"Won´t you answer?", John asked.
"It's just a short message," Sherlock took it easy and John was amazed how much Anne's influence had changed him: John couldn´t remember that Sherlock had ever read a book when he was bored, or that he would meet him on a rainy Saturday in a cafe. After the third SMS Sherlock reached for the cell phone and read the message:
"Come to Baker Street. AH "
"Please come to Baker Street. AH "
"Baker Street. Right now! AH "
With a flourish Sherlock put the mobile phone again into his jacket. "I have to go."
"Where?", John didn´t understand, but Sherlock was already on the way out the door, "When are you coming back?"
"I don´t know yet", again something that the former Sherlock Holmes would never have said, "Anne has sent the message. So I think it will take a little longer. You're supposed to know that the birth of a child can´t be planed, John."
John nodded. He would never have believed that Sherlock and Anne would ever have a baby. Before leaving, Sherlock popped the collar of his black coat, left the pathology of the hospital and got the next taxi, which directly brought him to Anne Holmes at Baker Street.

To be continued…