Fade Into You

Rating: R (this gettin' dark).

Notes: Thank you to reviewers new and old, and thanks for all the story favorites/follows. I'm so stoked that a lot of people seem to be liking this. I'm trying to update as fast as I can! I will say this, we have now started "The Great Game" episode. I won't write the episode word for word though-after all, how can I with Maddie thrown into the mix?

So...on with, The Great Game.


Chapter Six: The Great Game Pt 1

Everyone was okay. That was the good news. Mrs. Hudson had already went down to her flat to call for repairs with the windows (upstairs any window facing the street were blown out, one of Maddie's basement windows was shattered, and Mrs. Hudson's tiny kitchen window wasn't blown, but it was shattered apparently). Right after the explosion Maddie had went upstairs, to discover Sherlock shakily standing-in his dressing gown no less, and Mrs. Hudson looking terrified.

It was a few minutes after getting to his flat, that Maddie was able to talk Sherlock into sitting down (he had been pacing quite a bit), in order to get glass out of his hair. She had noticed it tumbling out, onto his collar then onto the floor. She had been smart enough to put shoes on before going upstairs, which was painful to the foot that had previously met glass. As Sherlock sat he didn't engage in conversation-it was the first time she had seen him since she fell asleep on him. She could see it in his eyes, that he was busy thinking, more than likely about the explosion.

Moving to stand behind him as he sat she felt a lump grow in her throat. Combing through his hair would be different than her sobbing and falling asleep on him-she wasn't in her right mind then. Now she was very aware that she was looking down at his curly mop of hair. She had previously grabbed a comb from his bathroom-it was Johns, it had to be. Sherlock's hair did not look like it had seen a comb in years.

She had draped a towel around his shoulders to catch any glass that would fall from the gentle combing. With one deep breath she placed her left hand on his head to steady him, and her other hand started to comb softly through his hair. She could feel his change in posture, and heard him take a breath in as she started touching his head. It was weird. This was weird. She shouldn't have offered.

But she did, and it was too late to stop now. His hair was soft, and his head was warm. After combing through a section, she would do her best to run her fingers through it-softly so neither she nor he were to get cut. It had started to become less weird and more zen after a while.

"What do you think happened?" He asked her, his voice was soft, relaxed. For some reason, he did tend to ask her opinion on things. She wasn't sure why.

"Well, there is no reason for the building across the street to randomly explode. Could have been a gas leak, or something-but…"

"But?"

She had set the comb down on the back of the chair, there were little tiny pebbles of glass littering the towel around his shoulders now. Even with the glass out, her hands went back into his hair. "But...it's a big building, to cause that much force-to where our windows shattered and you were knocked off your feet…" She trailed off thinking, her hands running through his hair-she wasn't even aware that she had switched from glass hunting to full on head massage. "Could have been something else, I mean-I don't want to get all conspiracy theorist or anything. I just don't know what would have caused an explosion like that outside of...something strange, because a gas leak doesn't make sense…"

She was rambling, he was making noises of agreement. That was how Mrs. Hudson found them.

"I um...sorry to interrupt." she was doing a double take, and it was that which made Maddie realize what she was doing. Sherlock didn't seem keen to jump up and pretend like nothing was happening, so she just followed his lead and continued to rub-she wondered if the explosion gave him a headache too, or if this was a weird experiment to see how long she'd rub his head. "We'll have some men coming by to take measurements before it get's too late, and put up plastic. New windows tomorrow!"

And then she left, not so subtle in leaving a broom and dust pan in the corner-pointing it out to Maddie. She smiled, yeah she was aware Sherlock wouldn't do it. Actually, he probably would have-he was a grown man after all.

"Did you and John have a nice dinner?" He asked.

"It was alright…" She started, moving from rubbing his head to picking the towel up off his shoulders carefully, "Until you started to shoot up your flat."

"Bored." Was all he said, no apology.

She rolled her eyes. The towel was shook off into the bin and...where did their laundry go? She had her own washer and dryer tucked away in a closet in her bathroom, did they? This was followed by the odd thought of Sherlock doing laundry. On top of that while she was busy getting the glass out of the towel-Sherlock had indeed grabbed the broom and started to sweep.

So there she was-having finished combing out (and giving a massage) to Sherlock Holmes' head-watching him sweep.

"What?" He didn't need to look up to know she was watching him.

"Nothing...just, I was going to do that for you...it's kind of weird to see you sweeping."

There was a pull of his lips, a hint of a smile. "It is my flat, I do know how to clean."

"Where should I put this towel?" She said, instead of wanting to poke fun at his 'clean' flat-there was dust everywhere.

"There is a clothes hamper in my bedroom, you may put that there."

She nodded, and he went back to sweeping as she headed to the room he had pointed towards. It smelled deeply of his cologne, his bed was unmade but plush looking-as if he did like to indulge in sleep when nothing better was going on. All the furniture was dark, he had a dresser that was covered with different items, from a stethoscope to a jar that had change in it, a watch, and some cufflinks were scattered on the dresser as well. She tried not to dawdle, it wasn't nice to snoop (even though he did it to her). She found the hamper and tossed it in. She was overwhelmed by how...normal it was.

"What did you think?" He asked her, he was crouched and doing his best to sweep bits of broken glass and dirt into the dust pan. She moved to help, he stayed bent down holding the dust pan and she used the broom to lead the glass into it.

"Normal."

"Normal?"

"I don't know what I was expecting. It was just...a nice normal room. If anything your bed looks nicer than I imagined, and it smells good."

He looked up at her and she gulped, even in a dressing gown he looked nice. She was trying to stick to the mantra of 'no time for a crush on the neighbor' but that was crumbling. "Smells good?"

"Yes, it smells like your cologne. It's nice, not overpowering like some."

One last sweep and he was up, and she was there holding the broom. It was then when voices were heard coming up the stairs (for some reason it seemed like the boys kept their door open more often than not).

"Ah, that looks better without all that glass everywhere. Got the repairman here to take the measurements and hang up plastic for tonight-he'll start here, then go down to Maddie's." Mrs. Hudson said with a smile, as if she really wasn't bothered by what had happened.

Maddie didn't like the repairman. His eyes seemed to linger on her for too long, before looking over the rest of the flat. He was tall and thin, but more built than Sherlock. He had day old stubble, and really didn't say anything-just a nod before taking his supplies to the window. She glanced over to Sherlock but he didn't seem to look as if he noticed anything. It was probably all in her head.

"I should get downstairs then, clean up my own glass...plus my Dad should be calling sometime." She explained, only slightly embarrassed by the mention of a phone call from her Dad-it made her feel like a child.

Sherlock nodded, "Thank you." He didn't have to go on, she knew he meant his hair, his head, maybe even helping him sweep.

She smiled, "You're welcome."

Maybe it was the emotions, the worry over everything under the sun with her step-father, the shooting, the explosion...but she did to Sherlock what she had been doing to John for awhile now.

She hugged him.

He didn't hug back, which was something she expected. He looked a bit shocked when she pulled away-as if he couldn't believe she did that. She wondered if people hugged him at all...ever. "Have a good night Sherlock."

She left his flat, heading down to her own-carefully taking the steps on her still sore foot. She wasn't going to feel bad for the hug. She hugged people she cared about, it wasn't a long list of people-but she did. She did have to admit there might have been a crush. A tiny crush. Like the tiny crush she developed on Agent Coulson when she was a teenager (after he saved her, but before she started working for him).

Once in her flat she set about cleaning up the glass, and looking at her phone. Her Dad normally called by then. She wondered if they were now approaching the time when he got too distracted for their calls, there were only two times before when he had to text early in the day to tell her he wouldn't be able to call that night. While she waited for the repairman to come down to her flat she tried to call her Dad. No answer.

Well, that was a bummer.

She was starting to get tired too. It wasn't long until the tall and slightly irksome repairman came down her stairs after a quick knock. She had just finished eating (did she ever stop?) a bowl of ice cream.

"Just the one?" The man asked.

"Yeah, none of the others blew." She confirmed. He nodded and looked her over again in a way that made her stomach feel like eating ice cream had been a bad idea.

Yet he was quiet, he simply started to measure her windows before taping them up. She was just being paranoid. If this kept up, she'd be going back to therapy. He left saying he would be back the following night, probably after three with new windows to install. Following him up the steps, she bid him farewell and locked her door behind him.

Mads: Hey Dad, no phone call? Hope all is well. Love you.


John had came back the following morning, winded and worried, making sure he and everyone else was okay. It was only minutes after John arrived that Lestrade called. Sherlock had a feeling the previous night, that his boredom would finally be gone. It seemed as if he was correct.

Instead of thinking about the possibility of adventure on the cab ride to Scotland Yard, he thought about Maddie. Namely he thought about how her hands felt on his head, and how surprised she was at his bedroom. He was human after all (even though he did try his best to suppress it sometimes). He didn't know what to think about the woman anymore. She had secrets, worked for Mycroft, yet at the same time she was open. She didn't mind him poking around her flat, she accepted him and John into her life easily-to the point of it feeling like she had always been around. She was smart...very smart, but didn't show it like he did. The only time she seemed to show it was if he asked a question, whenever he did that, her answers were well thought out-intelligent.

When they made it to Scotland Yard, John had to prod Sherlock to get him out of his thoughts. He had been trying to decide where to categorize Maddie in his life. Who was she to him?

Quickly any thoughts on that subject were abolished as he walked through the doors following John. It seemed no matter when or why he was there people stopped working. It always felt like all eyes were on him. He clenched his jaw and gave a withering glare to anyone that met his eyes. He didn't understand their fascination-maybe if they spent more time working and less time focusing on him they'd get work done.

"You like the funny cases don't you?" Lestrade had found them almost immediately, "The surprising ones…"

"Obviously."

"Then you're going to love this."

He followed on, taking note of Donovan who per usual looked as if she had just come from shagging Anderson-really, it was obvious-how did no one else notice that? The envelope had Sherlock's name on it, and he could only wonder what was about to get started. It took a few moments looking in his mind palace to realize what type of paper it was, where it was from. No prints, of course there were no prints.

He would admit, the phone surprised him. What surprised him more was Lestrade announcing that everyone read John's blog. Of course they did. Now it seemed that someone else was reading the blog as well, someone who wanted to toy with him.

The message was unnerving, but he knew the sound and the meaning right away-there was going to be another explosion. It had been quite obvious it wasn't a gas leak after all, even Maddie knew that much. What made his stomach drop and his mouth go dry was the picture that followed.

When he didn't say anything (he was too busy thinking of all the scenarios-and a lot of them were not good), John took the time to look over his shoulder. "Jesus, that's Maddie's place."

John was running before Sherlock, when he started to follow John, he could hear Lestrade's steps trailing after them. He wasn't sure what he should think, it was a picture of Maddie's flat-there was no sign of her at all, but it was recent-he couldn't tell by the picture if it was days and days ago while she was out, or if it was that day. He worried, his stomach churned, and he followed into the cab that John had hailed.

The worry was made worse when she wasn't answering his texts he was sending as soon as they got into the cab.

Is this what his brother warned him about...caring too much? Rushing off with no plan. For all they knew it was another bomb sitting there ready to blow them sky high-but he didn't care, he just had to make sure she was okay.


Standing under the shower head she tried not to think about every little thing that was going on in her life. No word from anyone, not her Dad, not Pepper, even Coulson didn't respond to two e-mails she sent about her work. There was only one note in her e-mail when she woke up, which was simply to go through a certain set of books that had yet to be translated and find anything regarding something called the 'tesseract'.

Which was how she spent her morning. Book after book, flag after flag she sent e-mails to her higher ups. It was slightly unnerving and made her wonder if it was connected to her Dad not calling her-after all Coulson seemed to indicate that her Dad would find himself busy sooner rather than later.

She managed to go through all the books in the span of five hours (she had the unfortunate blessing to wake up with no ability to fall back to sleep at five in the morning). It was why her shower came late.

She was wondering what the rest of her day would be like, and pondered going out until she remembered the repairman would be back to fix the windows. It made her shudder a little bit, he was creepy. She went about the business of forgetting he was creepy by turning her long hair into a mohawk thanks to shampoo. Maybe just a relaxing day in with a book, a fiction book-not some old and musty book would do her well, or maybe she could get Molly to do something with her.

She was in the middle of rinsing off all the suds she accumulated on her body when she heard it. At first it was faint, and then it was very clear.

"Maddie!" Her name, it was called not just by John, but as she turned off her water she heard a very frantic (wow) Sherlock as well. She barely had time to pull her robe on before it was Sherlock who was busting into her bathroom.

It was only moments after that John appeared.

Followed by a gray haired man she had never seen before.

All in her bathroom.

She was standing there wide eyed, trying to come up with something to say. There really wasn't much she could think of, all she could think of was how Sherlock was staring at her.

She was standing in a puddle, one foot taking the brunt of her weight. Since she hadn't been able to grab a towel in her haste her hair was dripping, her robe was clinging to her body-and what had once been a modest robe turned into what she could only assume was something you could use for a wet tee shirt contest. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or laugh.

John had the decency to look away, the gray haired man did too after muttering "Christ", but Sherlock just looked at her.

"This seems like a really stupid question, but is there a reason why all of you are here?" She crossed her arms, trying to keep any shred of modesty she had left (hey at least she had time to put on the robe-however soaked it may be). "Without knocking."

It was John that answered, "We got a text of a photo...it was your living room."

She closed her eyes, hold it together. Hold it together.

"Repeat that?"

The man, the one she didn't know spoke. "We got a package at Scotland Yard for Sherlock, it had a phone, on it was a picture of your flat…"

"Okay…" She interrupted, "How about I dry off and get dressed, and you all...not stand in my bathroom doorway."

That got them moving, except for Sherlock. Sherlock stayed put for a moment, "You're okay?"

His tone was caring, extremely caring. It was soft, it was worried, she frowned. "Yeah, I'm fine-just...kind of soaked."

When he took a step forward, she couldn't help but take a step back. It was that fear that had been left in her from when she was a teen. "Just let me get dressed and I'll come out and dazzle you with how okay I am."

He nodded and left. She wondered if he was as confused by everything as she was.

Sherlock did shut the door after him, it was only a few minutes after that she heard a ringing of a phone-shrill and loud. It made her wonder what was going on. She toweled off in record speed, leaving her robe soaking in the puddle on the floor along with the discarded towel. Hair was tossed up in a clip, she would deal with it later. Clothes were tugged on, she unfortunately had just grabbed whatever when she had headed into the bathroom. This meant she was pulling on jeans that were so well worn they had holes in the knees, shins, and at the back pockets-normally that wasn't bad, but her panties had dogs on them, and she was pretty sure the plaid button up she tossed on did not cover that.

Wonderful. Maybe this would teach her to throw worn clothes out.

The only thing to keep her from panicking was her sheer (and blind-according to her Dad) trust in SHIELD. They would have contacted her had they thought Connor left the states...right? So this just had to be a Sherlock the detective thing and unfortunately that meant Baker Street as a whole being a target.

Maddie did take the time (while breathing and telling herself everything was okay) to re-bandage her foot. It wasn't as good as Johns bandage job, but it was better than nothing-even as small as it was the last thing she wanted was an infected cut on her foot.

All the men ceased talking when she came out. The gray haired man had been standing by her book case-everyone seemed to go for her book case for some reason, it didn't matter where she was. John was standing, and Sherlock was inspecting a pair of...shoes.

Mens shoes, sneakers, they looked old but cared for.

"Sorry to barge in on you Miss, these two thought you were in trouble." The man by her bookcase moved, "Detective Inspector Lestrade." He introduced himself.

"Um, Madeline O'Brien...Maddie…"

She shook his hand, it was cold but a nice grip. She figured this was who Sherlock worked for while working with the police.

"Well, thankfully whoever left...shoes...didn't seem to bother me." Although it made her wonder what would have happened if she had been present in the room.

"You'll have to change your locks." John said, and she nodded. She would get Mrs. Hudson to help her figure out who to call on that.

"We need to get these to St. Barts." Sherlock said, finally looking up from the shoes. "I want to examine them, that's the best place."

In the end, no one would be able to stay with her-and they all talked about it. If someone had gotten in to leave the shoes before, they could do so again-at least that was Lestrade and John's thought, Sherlock had the good sense to believe that whoever was behind it wouldn't bother her again-that whoever had broke in simply did so in order to "show off" and show that they could.

"I'll work with Mrs. Hudson and have the locks changed today." She told them, "I'll make sure you two get your copies of the key."

Lestrade left first, John gave her a hug and left after saying he would hail him and Sherlock a cab. Leaving just Sherlock there, holding the shoes in one hand, and looking over her awkwardly.

"Sorry for bursting in…" He started, and she blinked-so he had thanked her recently and apologized? It was strange, it was as if ever since she cried on him he was acting different-and not in a bad way.

"It's okay, I mean-not how I wanted three grown men to see me-but I understand why you did." She paused, "You were worried?"

There was a moment of silence.

A nod.

"I have to go, there is a case now." He looked like he was waiting for something.

OH.

She moved, hugging him. She felt his chin on the top of her head but other than that he didn't move into the hug. "Be safe!"

"Get the locks changed." He told her, and then he was off. Apparently that was what he wanted. She tried to understand it, but wasn't sure if it was anything to be understood. He didn't always seem to read social cues that well, so maybe he just figured that's what they did now after she did it once and after watching her and John hug all the time. She hadn't intended on hugging him just then, but certainly didn't mind it.

Her front door slammed shut, and she looked around her apartment feeling slightly unsure. Apparently someone who wasn't invited had simply...slipped in. That was unnerving. She grabbed her phone before heading up to Mrs. Hudson's flat. She had many missed texts, all from Sherlock and John. They had been trying to get a hold of her. No wonder the panic when they couldn't reach her.

However, it was nice to know they cared.

Mrs. Hudson had already been on the case, apparently the boys had made so much noise that she was aware of what was going on. Already she arranged for the repairman to not only fix her window but her lock as well. Maddie didn't stay with Mrs. Hudson for long, the woman was going out, and only stayed long enough to make sure Maddie really was okay (and would have stayed longer had Maddie requested it). She didn't mind, telling the woman she'd probably wait to get her lock and window fixed before going out herself-maybe grabbing a drink with Molly or something.

The next hour went by with Maddie being paranoid at every single noise. The paranoia stayed strong as she decided to get some random work done while eating a bowl of popcorn for lunch. Work was always a good distraction for her, she tended to be an obsessive thinker sometimes so if she could lose herself in her work it meant she wasn't sitting there thinking about all the bad things that might happen.

However she was not lost enough, when her phone alert went off she jumped sky high.

Molly: Sherlock thinks Jim is gay.

It was a simple statement, which made her frown. Molly seemed to really like Jim. She talked about him a lot. Yet, if Sherlock thought Jim was gay-he probably was gay.

Molly: Jim slipped Sherlock his number.

Mads: I'm sure he wasn't kind about telling you either?

She meant Sherlock. She wasn't deluded enough to think he could give that kind of news gently. He probably thought giving that news in the first place was being gentle about it.

Molly: No. Drinks tonight? I need to get away from this.

She wondered if 'this' was Sherlock or if it was just the idea of Jim being gay-or the everlasting search of trying to find a mate. She glanced at the clock, in a few minutes the repairman would be there (hopefully).

Mads: Meet at six?

That would give the repair guy enough time to do the windows and lock she figured, and give Maddie enough time to get ready. She liked dressing up (when she didn't have to do it all the time).

Molly: Perfect, meet at the usual place?

Mads: See you then!

Their usual place was a little pub near wear Molly lived. It was tucked away, and hardly got any traffic-those that did wander in were usually locals. It was one of the only pubs where Maddie felt like she could hear herself think since they kept the noise down. They had good food too.

She was in the middle of taking care of her work when the repairman showed up. He had all kinds of tools with him, and still seemed extremely...creepy. It probably didn't help that her place had been broken into-he was probably a fine upstanding gentleman and she was just projecting.

She left him to his own devices while he worked, and she focused on getting ready. If she sat there watching him like a hawk she would just drive herself insane. She took the time to curl her hair, something she normally didn't do-mostly due to having no real reason to or wanting to take the time. She was in the middle of the process when her phone went off, she heard it from the bathroom and had to take the time to run down the hall to where her phone was sitting on the kitchen table, finally her Dad.

Dad: Got something big going on right now kiddo, everything is okay. No training tomorrow. Will call when this is over. Love you.

First was the dance of joy from getting to miss self defense. She liked it, but honestly a break would be nice-plus it meant she could stay out late with Molly without any ill consequence. She knew better than to ask her dad questions about what was going on. She knew something big had been coming up, and with no one bothering to answer her e-mails or texts she really wasn't surprised over his text.

Mads: Ok, love you too Dad-be safe.

And that was that. She sighed, even with her normal life here in London she still managed to get involved in things due to knowing Sherlock apparently. It was different there though, it was at least her choice to live there (rationalizing that while Mycroft obviously had a hand in getting Mrs. Hudson's ad to her, he could not have made the choice FOR her...she made the choice). Here she was living HER life, not her life under IRON MAN'S life.

She finished her hair. It looked good. Normally it was wavy but now it was more curly, more "done" up. It took her from a twenty something to older, less childish. She peeked out to see the repairman still working at her window, and went back to starting her make-up.

Her phone went off.

SH: Be safe with Molly.

She blinked. How did he know that? She frowned, well he was Sherlock of course he knew. Probably knew the moment Molly took out her phone to text. Figured.

Mads: You could have told her nicer. I think she really liked him.

SH: He wasn't good for her. When will you be back?

Concern? No. Probably just him wanting to know due to the recent break in-if that hadn't happened he probably wouldn't have cared.

Mads: Late, no self defense in the morning. I'll get keys made sometime tomorrow for you and John.

SH: Might be on the case for awhile.

Mads: Dangerous?

SH: Not in particular.

Mads: Be safe regardless, you never know.

So there she was wishing two men in her life to be safe. It was strange. She didn't want to read too much into it. She finished her make up, it was simple and not over the top-the curls were over the top enough. When she came out, intending to go into the bedroom and change her jeans the repairman was already done with the window.

"Just the locks now, here are the keys for the ones I'm installing. I'll let you know when I'm done and then see myself out." His eyes looked dead.

"Um...t..thank you."

He nodded and placed the keys on her table, heading up the stairs and leaving her standing there wondering if she was still just simply paranoid or if there really was something off by the man.

Either way when she went to change her jeans she locked her bedroom door. Worn jeans tossed back into her closet to be worn again some other time or if she was smart-thrown out, and black skinny jeans pulled on to replace the worn jeans. All in all she figured she looked good, decent even.

Normally once Molly and Maddie met up they really didn't do much walking so she decided she could get away with wearing her black ballet flats (they tended to leave angry red marks on her pinky toes if she wore them for too long while walking) which wouldn't leave the bottom of her foot hurting too bad. She was packing her purse up, book, extra lip gloss, cash, new keys onto her key chain-old keys removed, when her phone went off again.

Coulson: Good work on the translations today.

She frowned, days without contact and now this? Especially considering the text from her Dad earlier.

Mads: Thanks. Is something going on?

Coulson: It's just going to be one of those weeks.

She sighed, yeah it did seem to be one of those weeks-for everyone. When it rained it poured.

Mads: Well with whatever it is, be careful.

Coulson: Will do. (No word on Connor yet either, we did get a few bodies though-burnt, they're testing them. I'll let you know.)

Mads: Thanks.

She didn't know what else to say to that, so instead she just chewed on her bottom lip and looked down at her phone. She didn't want to think her step-father was dead (not because she didn't want him to die, she did in fact wish death upon him) and have it turn out he wasn't. She didn't want to lower her guard to that-but there had to be some reason Coulson was telling her that. Probably found some kind of clue to indicate that the bodies were from the prison and they were going on the assumption one of them was Connor.

Well, it was better than nothing.

"All done!" The repair man shouted down.

"Thanks, have a good night!" She could already hear the front door shutting, followed by the creaking of the stairs up to the boys flat to repair their windows. A glance to the clock told her she spent just enough time getting ready and waiting for him to leave, sparing her at least twenty minutes to grab a cab and get to the pub. She'd be there ten minutes early at the rate she was going which was perfect.

Between grabbing a cab and the drive to the pub she did make it ten minutes before Molly was supposed to show. It gave her time to grab a drink from the bar, a beer instead of her normal at home favorite, wine. She grabbed their usual table in the corner by a large window which was perfect for people watching.

Perfect for her to relax for a few minutes with a beer before Molly arrived.


"She's gone." The man said as soon as he heard the other line pick up. He was aware they couldn't afford to waste any time now that everything was starting to fall into place.

"Do you know where?"

"I got a look at her phone, it just said she was meeting Molly at some pub-she called it their usual."

"So predictable." The voice on the other end said, "Did you put the bugs into place?"

"In all the windows, could be a bit touch and go depending on the weather-but we should be able to hear anything that goes on crystal clear."

"Good."

"Connor?"

"Oh he's doing wonderfully, he's taken to this rather well. Didn't realize he'd be so well with bomb work."

"It seems like he was worth the hassle."

"Yes, yes it does." There was a pause, and a sigh…it was a happy sigh-the sigh of someone utterly content with the world. Honestly Sebastian never felt that way. To be fair, Sebastian did a lot of grunt work compared to Moriarty. Which explained why he was installing windows (which would probably leak eventually-he wasn't very good at it).

"Are we grabbing the girl tonight? Is that too early?"

"Oh no, it's perfect timing. Connor is like a rabid dog, I don't think he could possibly wait any longer to get a taste of her, and we need to be able to keep him in line for whats to come-and well, Mr. Holmes is being kept very busy right now so he won't notice…"

It certainly was going to get interesting.

They bid farewell, intending on meeting up after the girl was grabbed. He finished installing the windows, whistling.

It was going to be a good payday coming up.


Molly had changed after work, and was clearly ready to get her drink on. After spotting Maddie at their table she had dumped her purse and coat with Maddie, and headed to the bar with a mission. She came back a few minutes later to an amused Maddie proclaiming, "I ordered us the good chips, no need to watch my hips right now." bitterly. She also came with two shots filled with some kind of red liquid, another beer for Maddie (the dear girl saw her current beer was nearly empty), and a pink drink for herself that had bits of fruit in it.

"You didn't have to watch your hips in the first place." Maddie said as Molly handed her one of the shots.

"Well here is to drinking my feelings away and regretting the hangover tomorrow."

They touched their shot glasses together in a little clink-and down the drinks went. Surprising, tasted like strawberries-not bad.

It was the first time she had seen Molly order a shot, in fact it was the first time she seen Molly drink something other than wine. She didn't plan on getting completely pissed, but there was nothing wrong with a shot here or there with her beers.

"I mean, why'd he ask me out in the first place if he was gay? We had so many dates…" Molly complained with a frown.

"Maybe he was trying to see if he wasn't gay? Like, maybe he thought you were pretty and interesting and wanted to see? Or maybe he's just a complete douche." Maddie could always be sympathetic, with seemingly everyone; good or bad.

"And Sherlock had to be awful about it!"

It was going to be a long night.

When midnight rolled around, and Molly proclaimed "Ugh, I have work in seven hours." they called it quits. At how much they drank, for how long, Maddie figured Molly would still be drunk in seven hours. Her intention of not drinking that much had went away the longer she and Maddie were at the pub.

Good thing Molly worked with dead people.

They had fun, first Molly complained about Jim, then Sherlock, then back to Jim, then she talked about a cat, Toby. This was followed with them (badly) playing darts, and eating copious amount of chips with cheese sauce. It had been the kind of night they both needed. They walked together in the cold back to Molly's flat, it was only a few blocks away and Molly insisted she would walk home instead of paying for a cab for a few blocks. Maddie while very intoxicated was not so intoxicated that she would let her friend walk alone. First she'd walk with Molly to her place, then she'd flag a cab and head to Baker Street. Easy.

And it was, easy. They hugged and Maddie watched Molly walk up and into her building, a wave given before she turned. It was cold, Molly's flat was just about ten feet away from the main road where she could catch a cab. She didn't think ten feet would be that dangerous.

Maddie was so caught up in thinking about how much fun the night had been to notice that there was someone behind her.

She didn't even have the chance to make a sound before the drug entered her system, putting her to sleep so she didn't fight back as they stuffed her into a car.

Ten feet, that was all that there had been between her and the safety of the main road. Just ten feet.

How unlucky.


Molly: I'm still hungover from last night, remind me not to drink like that on a work night. (12:34)

John: After this case we need to have dinner, it can even be takeaway. (13:56)

Molly: Still Sleeping it off? Lucky girl. (14:13)

SH: Keys? (16:22)

SH: Where are you? (16:40)

SH: Just drop the keys off in our flat whenever you acknowledge your phone-did you really drink that much? (16:45)

Molly: Maddie, did I say something wrong last night-are you mad? (16:47)


Notes:

A little bit of a cliffhanger! Oh, I feel so bad. Hopefully I can have the next chapter posted before the weekend. The texts at the end were time stamped to show the passing of time-so hopefully that made sense.

Also is it clear (yet subtle) that this is taking place during the Avengers movie? I'm trying to add hints without being flashy about it.

I'm trying to add more Sherlock/Maddie (it would be super easy for me to fall into just talking about John/Maddie's friendship-they rock), I won't lie-any relationship OC or not is going to make Sherlock seem a little out of character at this point. However, I will try my hardest to stay true to his roots and Maddie's roots as well as I smoosh them together.

So thank you again for reading, feel free to let me know what you think and have a wonderful day!