First of all. Thank you to sass-mistress-lucifer for your review. Your suggestions were great. Your comments lifted my spirits. And I don't think you are a butt. :) So, after taking your suggestions into consideration, and after working hard, I give you this chapter. This one's for you!
So, without further ado. Allons-y!
Write On
WFFH
John sat in his favorite chair and looked at the note in his hand. One of Jim's goons had bumped into him at while he was with Sherlock and had pressed it into his hand.
It didn't surprise him at all. Jim was the type of man who did things at an inopertune time just for the hell of it. It was one of the things that made working with Jim so interesting.
It was one of those things that made double-crossing Jim so dangerous.
"John," a soft, smooth voice purred in his ear. John turned to face the scantily dressed woman.
"Irene." John's placid voice replied. He turned back to his note and tried very hard to ignore her, and to not stare down her shirt- which she was quite obviously inviting him to do. Skinny fingers started massaging his shoulders. He tried equally as hard to ignore those.
"He's getting bored John," Irene purred in his ear, "You know how dangerous he is when he's bored. You have to give him something."
"Jim needs to remember his size and be a little bit more patient," John stated, annoyance seeping into his tone. Irene stopped massaging his shoulders and moved around to sit on the couch across from John.
"He needs to remember that I don't work for him," John finishes.
"Of course not," Irene starts, "but I think that you need to remember that you owe him your skin. And if he gets too bored, he might just skin you." John chuckles.
"But then who would he get entertain him? Hmm?" Irene smiles stoically across the room.
"I don't think, I have that much to worry about. Besides, I'm working on it," John says, "Tell Jim that."
"Or Yoooouuu could," a sing-song voice called out. John turned around in his chair to see Jim Moriarty standing in his doorway. John frowned.
"Oh John," He said as meandered forward, stopping every so often to look at an object, "I'm soOOoo boored. Everyone is boring John. Except..."
"Except who?" John probed.
"The Holmes sisters," Jim sang. John's eyes grew wider.
"Mostly the younger one," Jim continued placidly, "The older one needs to loosen up a bit. She acts like the fate of the world is in her hands."
"It practically is isn't it?" John asks, forcing a smile on his face, "All our files on Myka Holmes states that she claims to have a 'minor' roll in the British Government, but that would be like calling you a small town gang leader." Jim smiles.
"Yes, it is. Myka's fun to play with, but Sherlock... Sherlock's the real joy," he says. He stops and sits on the coffee table.
"We hear you've visited with Sherlock," Irene cut in, "Find out anything we can use against her?" She gave him a "entertain him" look. JOhn sighed.
"Deep inside herself she has issues with who she is. Which is why she overcompensates with her rude and prideful behavior," John says as he casually picks at a spot on his jeans. He said it as casually as if he had just stated the weather.
"Because of her rude behavior, she doesn't have many friends. The friends she does have however are loyal to her and she's overprotective and loyal to them," John finishes.
"Brilliant," Jim said, "It's so much easier to tell people what to do when you have their pressure point under your thumb." John stood up and looked down at the man, a snarl somehow made it's way onto his face.
He had a bad feeling about this.
"What do you mean?" John asked bitterly. He heard Irene stand up and cross over to him, she put her hand on his arm as Moriarty started speaking.
"How's Harriet, John?"
"You bastard," John said, forcing his voice to remain calm, "You didn't."
"Oh but I did," Jim said with a smug look on his face, he stood up and Irene moved to his side, releasing John.
"You've started to become a little over confident in yourself John," Jim continued, "You've begun to act is if you don't need my help as much. You've forgotten about Afghanistan." John felt cold at the word.
He most certainly had not forgotten it. In fact he seemed cursed to never forget it.
"So I took some precautions and moved Harriet to a facility where she'll be safe," Jim continued. John started to sigh in relief, "Or at least she'll be safe as long as you stay in line Johnny boy." John's relief immediately disappeared into the cold gripping reality. Jim took a step forward and got in his face.
"We've worked well together for years John, and we've got something big coming. But you were wrong, I do own you. I've let you, and everyone, feel safe under the illusion that you are free, that we're co-workers. But John, I have never owned someone more then I own you now," Jim said, his voice lowered, "Don't mess this up." Jim backed away and turned to leave.
Despite the cold feeling John had deep inside himself, he wasn't scared, he was closer to angry. He kept up a calm facade though.
"See you later then?" John asked calmly as the man strode through the door way.
"NO YOU WON'T," Jim sang, "I'll see you though." John's eyes narrowed as Irene winked at him flirtatiously and left. None of Irene's flirting ever bothered him. He'd been working with her for over a year now and found that when he managed to squirm his way past all of her facades that it was all just self preservation.
Losing a fatal game, that was Irene's greatest fear. Her pressure point is her secrets. As John had come to discover; Irene puts up a face that says no one can discover her secrets when, in the end, that's what she's terrified of. Because if someone has her secrets, then someone has her life in their hands.
Not even Jim Moriarty has her secrets. Neither does John, and John is great at disarming people. Physically, intellectually, and emotionally. Perhaps that's why Jim kept him around. John had this ability that Jim could only dream of having. People trusted John.
Even Moriarty had trust in John to a certain level.
But that trust was waning. John was running out of time.
"Hello Mr. Watson." The voice from behind him said. John turned around to look at its owner. She was taller then him, with soft brown hair, and wore a simple black dress that accentuated her figure nicely. She wore no jewelry and very little make up.
"Hello Ms. Holmes. Thank you for seeing me," John said. Myka Holmes stood in front of him, twirling her umbrella, and trying oh so very hard not to look like she had somewhere more important to be.
"Please call me Myka," she said as she crossed around to the other side of the desk to sit, "What can I do for you Mr. Watson?"
She didn't smile. John got the impression that she only smiled when she needed to, or when she wanted to be irritating. Automatically John tried one of his most disarming smiles.
"Please, call me John."
"Well then, John, would you care to sit down and tell me why you are here?" Myka asked, seemingly unaffected by John's friendliness.
"Ah yes. Of course," John said as he sat, "Well Myka... I guess why I'm really here is because I'm running out of time and I've been careless." Myka clasped her hands on her lap.
"And why are you running out of time?" she asked.
"Myka, I know that you know who I am. I know that you know what I do for a living. However I also know that you are looking for a way to get inside Moriarty's network and are lost in the way of progress," John said, Myka sat straighter, her eyes narrowed.
"The thing is... through certain situations I have come to find myself in alliance with James Moriarty. I've been working with him for a year now, ever since I returned from active duty in Afghanistan. This was never the path I planned to take in life, and now I find myself wanting to leave this path," John continued, "However, that is a very dangerous thing for someone to want to do. Jim would rather kill me than to have to reset his network."
"Are you proposing what I think you are proposing John?" Myka asked.
"I help get you inside, you help me survive getting out," John said firmly. Myka clasped her hands in front of her face, she expressed no emotion.
"And just how do you propose I do that?"
"Something big's coming... for my own safety I can't tell you what, but I can tell you that I'm the one doing most of the planning for it," John gave her a sly smile, "I suggest that you decide to help me get out before I decide that I'm okay staying where I am. And trust me Ms. Myka Holmes, if I decide that then your in for a problem of national security."
"Are you threatening me?" Myka asked with disbelief. John smiled again.
"No, of course not," He said pleasantly, "I'm just... giving you more motivation. Because, sure you could have someone take me out right here and now, and no one would know; but you do that and you've just taken a few steps back in the progress of taking down Moriarty's network. And Moriarty will take a few steps forward in the way of making sure you never do." Myka returned John's placid smile.
John is very convincing, he might even be threatening to someone of less power, but at the same time he has this pleasant way of putting things that makes you think you'd be getting a gift by shooting yourself in your foot.
"I'll see what we can do. Are you absolutely sure there's no information you can give me on the 'big event'?" Myka asked. John smiled.
"Exhaustively."
It had been a hard day at work. Rubbish Czechoslovakian elections, dull Algerian represenatives, and those mindless idiots from Washington D.C. Oh yes, and then there was the Watson meeting.
Myka rubbed her temples. It was hard sometimes, having to make such desisions. But she wouldn't dare leave the world in the hands of today's idiots.
"Hard day at the office?" came sort of gravelly voice of her lover, soothing and romantic.
"It was mostly just boring international issues," She answers looking up into his sharp, loving, brown eyes. She can't help it, she smiles.
"It's looking like it's going to be a lot better night though," Myka says with a playful grin, "I'm going to turn off my cell phone."
Greg smiled, he knew what that meant. He happily leaned down and kissed Myka.
"Good," he mumbled against her mouth.
"Oh, god," Sherlock commented quietly to John, "He had sex with my sister last night." They were watching Lestrade approach through the windows.
Gregory Lestrade had walked in to the Yard in a great mood this morning. It didn't even dampen when he saw Sherlock and her new bull dog sitting in his office, watching him.
"I've met your sister," John whispered back, "she never seemed like the shagging one of my little sister's only friends type. She seemed more like she had-"
"A stick up her ass?"
"Yeah," John said with a chuckle.
Finally, Greg entered the office.
"Alright Sherlock, want do you want?" He asked, although he didn't sound as grumpy as he normally does. Sherlock just barely bit back "for you to stop fucking my sister."
"I wanted to know if you had any cases for me," Sherlock asked, "I'm already quite bored."
"What? Doesn't your new partner provide any relief from that?" Greg asked with a smug grin.
"Not her boyfriend," John mumbled. Greg just rolled his eyes.
"Sorry Sherlock, nothing in that you'd be interested in. Just a few suicides that's all. There's not even a real case," he said. Sherlock pouted at him.
"What? It's not my fault that no one's getting murdered. In fact I rather like when people don't get killed," Greg said, he couldn't help himself from adding, "Sorry I'm a normal human being."
John's eyes flashed and he opened his eyes to say something.
"Come on John," Sherlock said, "If I'm going to be bored I might as well do it somewhere where there's comfortable chairs." John closed his mouth and stood up with her. He gave Lestrade a look and held the door open for Sherlock.
"Would you like some tea?" He asked Sherlock as they walked out the door.
"Yeah, but I want you to make it. I've never had tea as good as yours," She answered. John looked at his phone.
"Yeah okay, but let's go to your place. I want to see some of your experiments."
Sherlock grinned.
Whoo! Got that done *wipes sweat off brow*. How was it? Any suggestions? Requests? I'd love to here what you think.
Allons-y
Write On,
WFFH
