Two of a Kind

Chapter 6

*John's POV*

The next day, John woke up to his phone vibrating. Buzz, buzz. He cracked his eyes open and checked it. Unknown. Sherlock probably gave out my number again. Sighing, he checked the message.

'Wear emerald green on your date with Em. –MC' MC? Oh, Maria. Not even going to ask how she got my number. He was about to roll out of bed, when he got another message.

'Also, you're late for work. –MC' He paused, looking at the clock on his phone. It read '9:45'. How do they do that?! He thought as he got out of bed and hastily got dressed. He hopped into the living room, and saw Sherlock on the couch, his back turned to everything else.

"Hurry, John. It takes you approximately 17 minutes to get to work," Sherlock then muttered, "If you can actually hail one…"

"I know. Why didn't you wake me?"

"Busy."

"Busy? Doing what?" John began slipping his shoes on.

"Thinking and texting."

"Oh. You were too busy texting to wake me up," John said, with a hint of sarcasm and anger in his voice.

"Yes. I needed to fill Maria in on the history of brothers that came in yesterday." Sherlock said, unmoving from his position. John sighed and left, not even saying goodbye. It took him three tries to hail a cab. He kept his eye on his watch. Sure enough, he got to work in exactly 17 minutes. He immediately signed in at the desk- after paying the cabbie, of course- and walked into Sarah's office and explained why he was late.

"Well, I've taken care of three of your patients, so stay a bit after-hours and help out. That'll make up for it." She looked back at her computer, and he took that as a clue to thank her and get out of her office.

He saw Emily at the front desk, and walked over- partly to say "Hi," and partly to go ahead and get to work.

"Hey, Emily. How's your day been?"

"Fine. You have a patient waiting in room 14," she grabbed a file and handed it to him. "Nice shirt." He grabbed the file and looked down, realizing he had taken Maria's advice without knowing. "Oh, thanks." He looked up and smiled at her, then walked to the room. I can ask her during the lunch break. He told himself as he greeted his patient. "So, it says here you've been having severe headaches?" He closed the door and began discussing what could be causing them.

*Maria's POV*

She finished typing the second text to John and set her phone down on the floor next to her. She heard some co-workers grow quiet as they walked past her. She rolled her eyes and spoke, "I know you were talking about me, boys. Try not to be so obvious next time." They stopped and stared at her as she lifted the 20lb dumbbell and began to do curls. Why doesn't hardly anyone use the work-out room in the station? It's perfectly fine.

The men walked over and grabbed weights 10lb heavier than hers. She saw a vein slightly bulge in both of their arms.

"Those weights are too heavy for you. Stop trying to show off and use a weight that won't hurt you."

"This is fine. I never caught your name, what is it?" the larger of the two asked.

"Maria. 5…4..." she began to count down.

"Why are you counting?"

"3…2…1." At that moment, the shorter of the two men dropped his dumbbell and grabbed his arm, gasping in pain.

"What the hell?! How did you-"

"Simple deduction. It's just a cramp. He'll be fine in about 3 minutes as long as he stretches his arm out. Don't be idiots next time." The two men glared at her as she put away the weights and walked away. She heard them mutter something, distinctly hearing the words "crazy" and "freak".

She picked up her phone and left the workout area, going to the bathroom with a change of clothes. A few minutes later, she reappeared at her desk. A slim, dark woman was waiting for her.

"Hey, rookie. Where've you been?" she asked, leaning on Maria's desk.

"The name's Maria. I've been in the workout room." She sat down and looked up at Sgt. Donovan.

"Well, I've heard you've been with the psychopath." She said with a bit of disappointment in her voice.

"Sociopath," she immediately corrected her. "And I don't see what the big deal is."

She scoffed. "He's crazy. I have my suspicions about him."

"I'm sure you do. Now, if you don't mind telling me about Sophie Benson, please?"

"How did you…" she revealed a file hidden by her leg and slowly gave it to her.

"I saw the name on the file," she said as she opened it and flipped through it.

"Oh. Well, she found her boyfriend's body in the alley of a pub. He was killed. Knife wounds to the neck." She looked relieved, watching Maria flip through the file. A few seconds later, Maria spoke up.

"Sophie isn't the victim. Arrest her," she handed the file back to Sgt. Donovan and took her phone out of her pocket, turning it on. Donovan opened the file, confused, and looked through it, making sure she hadn't missed something. "How can you tell?"

"From the picture. Her hand is raised slightly, right beside the end of her hair." She didn't look up, but continued using her phone, occasionally typing something.

"You're wrong. She was crying at the crime scene. She called 911 herself," she began to get a bit aggravated.

"Ever heard of acting?" The phone's screen went dark and Maria looked up. "Now, where is she?"

"At her home, where you'll not be going" Sgt. Donovan stood straight, as if saying, 'I'm in charge. You'll do as I say'. Maria rolled her eyes and dialed a number into her phone. After a few rings, someone answered.

"Hello?" a tired voice asked.

"Hi, Miss Sophie. This is Sgt. Donovan. We've recently made a new discovery about your boyfriend's death," Maria faked a British accent, and was rather good at it. She ignored Donovan's protests and stood up, moving away.

"Oh, what is it?" Sophie sounded a bit nervous.

"It's best I told you in person. How fast can you get here?"

"About 10 minutes."

"Thank you. And please, hurry." Maria hung up the phone and slid it in her pocket. Turning around, she faced a very annoyed woman.

"I told you not-"

"To go and find her. I didn't. I called her," Maria finished smugly, walking back to her desk and sitting on the edge. Donovan stared at her for a minute, deciding what to do.

"Anderson is looking for you." Maria broke the silence.

"What?"

"Sally! I have some news." Anderson walked over, smiling. Her mouth opened just enough for no one to notice-except for Maria.

"Oh, what is it?" she finally responded.

"We have to do another search in Psycho's flat."

"Drugs bust. There's nothing there," Maria said. Anderson glared at her, clearly still mad from yesterday.

"Doesn't matter," He began to explain that they do it mainly just to get information he wouldn't give otherwise.

"That's stupid, and I was there yesterday. Just ask me." She moved from the corner of her desk to her chair, leaning back in it. Anderson pursed his lips, then said, "Fine. Go to Lesterade's office." He looked a bit disappointed, but didn't say it.

She stood up and walked to Lesterade's office. As she got in there, she pulled out her phone and texted Sherlock, 'I just saved your butt. You owe me. –MC'