Once again Sherlock, John and Lestrade sat in Lestrade's office, but now the case was done, to put it poetically, the battle's won but the child id lost. Sherlock hung his head in shame as Lestrade talked at him, Sherlock wasn't listening.
"Sherlock, it wasn't your fault." Lestrade said, and Sherlock finally listened.
"Never was Billy, that doesn't change things." Sherlock said bluntly.
"You need to move on from that and help your niece recover." Lestrade almost ordered.
"I've tried and I'll try." Sherlock said and looked to John.
"I'm going to see Iris then I'm going to visit an old friend." Sherlock said and got up."I'd appreciate your company." He said to his flatmate.
"Oh, ok." John said and got up from his seat.
"Fine, I'll sort out this mess then." Lestrade sighed and turned to the mountain of paper work on his desk.
"Have fun." John said and left the room.
"Sherlock what's going on, what did you mean back there?" John asked.
"Billy, the skull on the mantel, he was a very old friend of mine, a good friend." Sherlock said. "And that's all I'm going to say here."
"What do you mean 'here'?" John asked as they walked down the hallway, towards the room Iris was recovering in.
"There are too many people listening, it's rather personal." Sherlock sighed.
"Fine." John said, not completely happy with this answer.
"Iris won't press charges." Sherlock said after a few minutes.
"What?!" John asked in shock. "Sherlock she has to!"
"No, she doesn't. She's a Holmes and no matter what you or I or anyone say she will not change her mind." Sherlock sighed.
"Sherlock, she has to!" John almost ordered.
"No, it's too late for her now, there's no point in putting her in a court room when she'll say nothing." Sherlock said, they reached to room where Iris was and walked in. Iris sat on a chair behind a desk, her hands were wrapped in cloth to spot her doing anymore damage to herself.
"I want to go home." Iris said very quietly, nothing like her normal self.
"I know, that's why we're here." Sherlock said.
"Lestrade said I had to stay for questioning." Iris said in a child like voice.
"We both know he'd just be wasting his time." Sherlock said and offered a hand to his niece. Iris took his hand and stood up, walking towards the door. Iris stopped once they were out of the room and looked up at Sherlock, her eyes wide and hoping.
"I'd rather go back to Bakers Street first." She said and Sherlock nodded his head.
"Come on, before anyone sees." John prompted as he heard someone walking in their direction.
The three of them walked with purpose down the hallway and towards the entrance of Scotland, although they got some funny looks as they left the building they continued on and hailed a taxi. Sherlock claimed in first and told the cabby were they were going, John and Iris joined him in the taxi and sat back. When the taxi stopped outside the cemetery that Sherlock's empty coffin had been buried in, John looked to his flat mate with a confused expression.
"Iris needs to see something." Sherlock said before John could ask.
"O...ok." John said as the two Holmes' got out of the taxi. They walked alone the gravel path, towards a small group of grave stones, one of the graves had two deep crimson rose flowers in front of it.
"Billy Mathews, Friend." John read off the stone.
"He was my best friend since I was 8, and he died because of me." Sherlock sighed.
"Sherlock I'm..." John started but was cut off by Sherlock.
"It was my fault, it was completely my fault. I'm not going to go into details here, but I never moved on, Iris and because I didn't, well you know that rest." Sherlock said in an ashamed voice.
"I don't take drugs uncle, it's too dangerous under my circumstances and I don't go to university so how could I get kicked out." Iris said coldly just like Sherlock would and then walked away, back towards the taxi they had asked to stay.
"You were kicked out of university?" John asked once Iris had left.
"It's not something I'm proud of, I did get my degree, it was just 4 years later then I wanted." Sherlock sighed.
"I never realised that..." John trailed off.
"I was just like Iris, full of life, rude, happy, annoying, disruptive, dangerous even." Sherlock sighed.
"You are dangerous." John said to his flatmate.
"Iris is a different type of dangerous, she's unpredictable, unnaturally strong, very fast and gets very angry very fast. It's a miracle that she didn't kill Mr Stevens." Sherlock said. "Never underestimate her." Sherlock said in all seriousness.
"You need to be there for her Sherlock, no matter how dangerous she may be." John said.
"I know, but there's only so much I can do. I'm hoping that the cult will help her but, they only ever really meet on a full moon and even then they're just wondering around London looking for werewolves." Sherlock sighed.
"But aren't they bound to hunt werewolves, the first made some kind of deal with a cross roads demon." John said.
"I don't know, how do you know about this, you talking about it likes it's a completely normal think." Sherlock asked.
"When I was on tour, a mate of mine had the same tattoo as Iris, it was on his shoulder though. He was really strong, fast, but he didn't look it, every full moon he would disappear from the barracks, he wouldn't tell anyone why or where he went. But one afternoon when we were on patrol, he just stopped in his tacks, we were on our own and he just looked at me, wide yellow eyes staring at me, full of fear. He was so scared, he just looked at me and said that he stood on a mine. By some miracle we both got out of it alive and when we were back at the barracks he had to explain his eyes, and so he told me everything he knew about supernatural beings including himself." John said and turned away from the head stone.
"How did you escape the mine?" Sherlock asked.
"I can't remember." John said and started walking back to the taxi.