Two of a Kind: the Fall
Chapter 6
*Maria's POV*
'Okay, I lied about the arm not hurting.' Maria grimaced as she took off the dress. Laying it on her bed, she put on a navy blue shirt and grey sweatpants. She took her pistol holster and lazily strapped it to her calf, just out of sight. Grabbing her tennis shoes, she walked into the living room and slipped them on.
Em came out in jeans and a black and white striped shirt. "Take off the stomach."
"Nope," she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, "I really wanna see Sherlock's and John's reaction."
"They're not going to think it's funny," Em grinned.
"But I think it'll be freaking hilarious. And so will you," she stood up. She leaned back a bit to support all of the plaster. 'Why does it have to be so heavy?'
"Ready to go?" Em grabbed her brown purse and stood by the hallway leading to the door.
Maria nodded and followed her out the door. Em hailed a cab and they rode to 221B, joking about how Sherlock and John would react to Maria being 'pregnant'.
Mrs. Hudson saw them first. "Hello girls," she smiled. "Oh, Maria! Is that ―"
"Sshhh, it's a surprise," Maria whispered.
"Oh, okay," Mrs. Hudson grinned and imitated zipping her lips up.
"Thank you. We'll be upstairs if you need us," Em said. Mrs. Hudson nodded and walked back to her own flat.
The two made their way to the living room, whispering to each other so the old woman couldn't hear.
"Does she still think that we're lesbians?" Em asked under her breath.
"Yea. She told Sherlock that I might be using him as a cover-up."
"Oh my God, that's hilarious," Em laughed loudly. They walked into the living room, Maria sitting on Sherlock's couch and Em standing close to the doorway. They heard Sherlock and John arguing in the kitchen about Sherlock's latest experiment.
"You couldn't just put a note up on the fridge so I wouldn't have to see severed organs?" John asked.
"You should be used to it by now," Sherlock replied matter-of-factly.
Maria said to Emily, "Be happy I don't do that many experiments anymore. Otherwise you'd have to deal with far worse."
Em rolled her eyes and replied, "I wouldn't 'deal with it' and you know that."
Maria was about to make a snarky comeback when the two men walked in the room. Sherlock sat in front of the computer while John rested in his usual chair. 'I give it five seconds before either one of them sees,' Maria began counting in her head. On six, she saw John's eyes grow wide and his mouth drop a bit. 'One second over.' She asked why he was staring at her, and he grew pink.
"Um… maybe it's because you're ― … you look…" He trailed off. Sherlock looked up from the laptop and shifted his eyes straight to her. She raised an eyebrow in his direction.
He quickly said, "Not mine." Maria kept her calm, though she felt like grinning ear-to-ear.
"What do you mean not yours?" She asked innocently. The guys grew extremely uncomfortable under her gaze.
"Why don't I get us all some tea?" Em said, making her way to the kitchen. Her shoulders shook from holding in her laughter.
"I'll help," John quickly shuffled after her. Sherlock stared at her, no doubt thinking of what to say. Silence fell over the room.
"Why the fake pregnancy?" He finally asked.
"Mostly for a case, and partly to freak you two out." Sherlock closed the laptop and stood up, making his way to her side.
"How did you make it look so real?" He asked, sitting beside her.
"Little bit of sandpaper and a whole bunch of non-smudge makeup," she lifted her shirt a bit so he could see. He gently rubbed off some of the concealer with his thumb, revealing smooth white plaster.
"Good job. Almost fooled me," Sherlock complimented.
"It did fool you," she laughed. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for a kiss to shut her up.
She pulled away, smiling, and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Are you two done kissing? We'd like to come in now," Emily called from the kitchen. The two detectives said yes. They walked in with four cups of tea and a few biscuits, and Maria immediately grabbed a biscuit to chew on.
"Em filled me in on everything except the actual case," John hinted that he wanted to hear the story. Sherlock's head perked up and looked at Maria impatiently.
Maria started, "Women were dying. The only link I could find was that each one was visibly pregnant and married. I decided to take on the case after a man came to me begging for my assistance because his wife was expecting. Being the kind person I am, I accepted."
"You took it because he offered to pay £200," Em interrupted.
"Hey," Maria retorted, "I said 'kind'. Not 'generous'."
"So I went out and bought a mold and a whole freaking lot of concealer. I plastered this bad boy on me and got Em to go undercover with me. By then, I had narrowed the suspects down to three possible people ― none of which you should know ― and all of them were going to this fancy uptown party that night. I got us nice dresses and amazing rings, and we left."
"The killer was a woman, obviously. She was jealous of pregnant women because they were able to carry a child. Even more so of the hitched ones, because they kept their marriage going where she couldn't."
"She tried to kill me, of course, but Em was a total badass and knocked her out cold with a chair. We then drug the woman outside made Anderson look like an idiot for calling me out on my belly." She beamed at everyone."
"It was actually pretty fun. I didn't like the whole marriage thing though," Em commented.
"Well it was necessary. Plus our landlady has told us that we look adorable together, so I knew we could pull it off easily."
"Mrs. Turner thinks you're lesbians?" John laughed.
"So does Mrs. Hudson. Sherlock can tell you about that one," she smiled at him.
"But you two are together. Why does she still think that?" John asked.
"She says that we're using each other as cover-ups for our actual love lives," Sherlock answered.
"Ah. So she hasn't changed her mind about that yet." John let out a puff of air.
Maria began to say something, when Sherlock's phone started ringing. He dug it out of his pocket and said, "Hold on. I need to take this." He pulled his arm away from Maria and walked into the kitchen, answering it.
As soon as he disappeared, she asked, "Okay, what's going on? That was an American number that appeared on his phone."
"Some police department over there is trying to get him to fly over and help them out on a few cases. I think they were called the NYPD," John replied. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"New York is calling him? Since when did he become international?" She knew that John lied about the reason behind the phone call, but didn't want to argue with him. All she wanted was to get the plaster off.
"Yes. Just for a few important cases. Sherlock has said 'No' three times already," he added. Even Em could see through that one.
Maria excused herself to the bathroom, and headed in that direction. 'What's up with him taking a phone call?' Shewas just about to close the door, when she heard muttering through the wall across from her. Curious, she crept to it and laid her ear against the wall.
"No, you can't come here," a muffled voice said. "Are you thi— …" There was a slight pause, "No. You should not come here because she will know what is going on when she sees you."
"Who the hell is he talking to?" She wondered under her breath. It was obviously Sherlock she heard. But who was on the other side of the conversation?
"I don't think she knows yet, but I can't be sure. She knows how to hide things from people… Yes I know she's clever… No that's a bad idea. Just stay there until I say otherwise." She heard a button click on the other side of the wall. There was an audible sigh, and she imagined Sherlock running his fingers through his hair in frustration. Thoughts swarmed her head, and all of them were about what was said on the other side of the phone call. 'God, why does he have to be so aggravating sometimes?'
Sherlock had beaten her back to the living room. She sat beside him and joined their conversation about the two cases he could possibly work. Of course, she voted for the possible serial killer; Em and John both thought otherwise ("When Sgt. Bronson asks for help, he really needs help").
Eventually it got too late to stay any longer, and the girls decided to head back to their flat. They talked the whole ride about the guys' reaction to Maria's 'plaster pregnancy'. When they arrived home, their sides hurt from laughing so much.
Just before she opened the door, she noticed that the doorknob was slightly warm, as if someone had just used it. 'Mrs. Turner is sick, so she wouldn't have been out here. John, Sherlock, and Em are clearly not it. Lestrade would have texted me,' she ran a list of people that could have visited while they were gone. None seemed to match up just right. Looking up, lights were on inside, but no silhouette in the window.
"Em," Maria said just loud enough for her to hear, "ready to be badass again?" She took out her gun and prepared it. 'Please don't let me have to shoot someone. I don't feel like cleaning up blood from our carpet.'
She looked confused, but then realized what was going on. Hesitantly nodding, she got ready to run into the room.
"One…two…three," Maria opened the door and bolted through it, Em following close behind. A man was standing in the middle of the room, his back turned to them. Maria aimed her gun toward him, but didn't slip her finger to the trigger just yet. "Turn around and place your hands in the air," she said loudly. Out of the corner of her eye, Em held an umbrella like a baseball bat. 'So much for being awesome.'
The man turned around slowly, holding his hands above his head. He had short, grey hair, but you could still see some of the original brown color. Wrinkles lined his face, and he looked as if he had just shaved this morning. His lips turned up, smiling at her. His eyes had the palest blue that anyone had ever seen, not unlike Maria's. Seeing this, she lowered her gun in shock. Em did the same with her 'weapon'.
"Dad?"