Lucy went to check up on Sherlock and Mari to see how they were getting on with the case. She walked in the lounge and found Mari on the sofa. "Hey, how are things?"
Mari was sitting, with her laptop, which is connected to the printer, in her lap and phone to the left. The only thing abnormal to the scene was that she was connected to John's hospital's blood-pumping machine and she looked very exhausted. "Pretty fine-dandy. How have you been?" But Mari managed to be like her old self.
"I'm fine" She looked at the machine. "Did something happen?"
"Ah, just some enemy of Sherlock targeting me. Unusually, I guess." She yawned. "Been stealing my blood for the couple days. Strange one."
Lucy sat down on the sofa, confused "Your blood? Why?"
"From what I gathered, I guess they want me to die slowly and keep Sherlock to my side so he will be less active in his cases. Nice try, I say. But not good enough." Mari smirked as she quickly hacked into a surveillance database.
"Well you know Sherlock, nothing will get in his way"
"Absolutely nothing." She looks at a video of the outsides of the nightclub. "Though they have checked it, I want to double-check it just in case." She looked at her friend. "Want to know what I discovered?"
She looked at her. "what is it?"
"Though this particular club has been very popular ever since it opened, practically over 1000 guests a night. All I've seen on this camera, which aims to the front door, that only like 340 of the visitors are seen in this video. Rather weird, don't you think?"
"Maybe they went through a back door or something?"
"I checked the back door. Only employees and box deliveries."
"That does seem strange, I wonder what happened to them"
Mari shrugged. "Maybe they're just lying about the clubbers, but that seems kinda unlikely, because the counting was done with a quite sophisticated worker for the law."
"Hmm…really don't know what to think, I'll keep thinking about it and if I come up with anything I'll tell you"
Mari smiled. "That would be quite helpful."
"By the way, I know people don't seem to be there but has Sherlock actually gone there to check for himself?"
"I believe so." Rolls to the date and time, few minutes before he had called her. "There he is."
The video plays, they watch for a while until he leaves "Did you notice that?"
Mari blinked as if she had snapped out of something. "Did I miss something?"
"Yeah, I think you did because if I wasn't mistaken it looked like he was talking to someone"
"He was?" Mari rolled back and checked Lucy's story. "He was... What in the world? He does talk with himself sometimes, but not like that..."
"Maybe we should ask him?"
"That if he's gone mad?" Mari joked.
"I don't think he has" She paused for a second "Do you want me to ask?"
Mari nodded and sighed in relief. "Asking as myself would be rather strange."
"Sure thing, I'll go ask" Lucy got up and went upstairs to Sherlock's bedroom and knocked on the door "Sherlock?"
"It's open." Sherlock's faint voice could be heard saying.
Lucy walked in and saw Sherlock laying on the bed looking at his laptop. "Hey, you okay Sherlock?"
"I'm perfectly fine." He was tapping something very fast. Probably blogging on his site.
"That's good" She paused for a moment "Is it okay if I ask you something? It's about last night at the nightclub"
"So, Mari and you were checking on the security tapes?" He placed his laptop on the night table and sat up, looking at Lucy straight in the eye.
"Yes, well we watch them and noticed something so I wanted to know where you alone when you went there?"
"Yes." He replied without hesitation. "What about it?"
"OH, so you were just thinking out loud?"
"Yes, I was. I'm kinda used to talking to people now, and it felt unnatural for me if I didn't speak out loud."
"Okay, sorry for wasting your time, I'll go tell Mari" She then walked out disappointed from the reply, and went back to Mari, leaning against the doorframe "Seems he was just thinking out loud again"
Mari smiled to the reply. "I guess he just feels lonely, but somehow... on the inside, I feel like that was a white lie. I don't know why."
"I don't know but I should head home, got some stuff to do" She said smiling
"Oh? Stuff?" Mari grinned. "Is Jim coming over?"
"No not like..." She sighed "Honestly, I give up with you sometimes, he's not coming over, and I just have some house jobs to do" She smiled
"Oh, right," winks. "House jobs, I understand."
She couldn't help but giggle "You're so dirty minded, but then again you can't help but think about that kind of stuff without Sherlock in your head can you?" And walked away before Mari could answer back
"Laterz" She shouted as she was walking down the stairs.
Before Mari could realize the situation she was it, she started to blush. "L-LUCY!" She yelled in fury, even if she was in an ill condition.
Lucy finally got home and took her outside clothing off, hanging them on the pegs by the door, she then went over and grabbed her laptop then laid down on the sofa and started her research. The only things she could find about disappearing's was the news reports which didn't offer her anything that she didn't already know. So for a while she thought to herself, she kept thinking about the time she was attacked, she wanted answers to her questions that only Jim would know. "I must be crazy thinking this" She said to herself, she looked at the screen and typed in anything she could remember about the woman: red glowing eyes, sharp teeth, incredible strength and it all kept coming back to same thing. Vampires.
A stroke of luck came to her as she came across that certain vampires cannot be seen in monitors, recordings or mirrors. She got a little exited "This must be it, everything adds up to it but...vampires aren't real, are they?" She thought herself to be crazy, thinking it was vampires who caused all of this. She sighed and placed her laptop back on the table.
Something made her snap out of it, though, someone was knocking on the door. It was a slow and direct knock. She sat up, walked over to the door and opened it. Jim was there in his usual coat, and suit under it. But his expression seemed pained. "Lucy, can I talk to you?"
"Yes, of course you can, come in" Jim walked in and took off his outside clothing and then sat down on the sofa. "Come sit down with me" So she did, she sat down next to him, looking at him with a worried expression.
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
Jim stared at his beloved for a while, before answering: "The laptop. Why is there a page about vampires open?"
She looked at the laptop for a second, surprised by Jim's question "OH, it's just an idea, it's nothing" As much as she wanted the truth she couldn't bring herself to tell him, because she herself was scared of finding out.
"An idea huh?" Jim smirked. "Where did you get this idea?"
"We'll all these people disappearing, others with marks on their necks...the night I was attacked, it all links to the same thing" She paused for a moment and looked away "But they can't be real, their just stories in a book but right here it's happening in front of our eyes, I just don't know what to believe, I think I'm going crazy"
Jim could hear the worry in her voice.
"I want to know what's going on, I've been meaning to ask you about that night, it's been constantly on my mind, it just happened so quickly, it felt like a dream"
Jim went straight to the point and said: "It was real." He was tired of keeping this as a secret from her; it felt really odd keeping things from her.
She looked up at him "So you did kill her, but she was so strong and you just killed her with you bare hands..."
She looked away for a second "She was a vampire wasn't she?"
"Yes." Jim replied, though he just wanted to nod. The more he spoke, the more afraid of he was of the outcome.
She thought for a second, her eyes widened by a thought, she looked at him "If you were able to kill a vampire, then that must mean that you're not human, like her"
"What do you think?"
She was scared to say but she said it anyway "You're a vampire, aren't you?"
He smirked at the answer and joked a Twilight reference: "Are you afraid?"
She couldn't answer; it was like her body was frozen, she just stared at him blankly with fear in her eyes.
"Please, don't be scared..." Jim sighed and leaned towards Lucy. "I would never, ever hurt you."
"I'm not scared of you" Se paused "I'm scared of losing you, all those vampires out there and I can't do anything to keep you safe" She leaned in and hugged him tightly.
He hugged her back. "Don't worry; I can take care of myself and you. Nothing can get in my way and nor I will let any other vampire touch you."
They just sat there for a while, hugging each other until Lucy calmed down a bit, she pulled away and looked at him "Sorry about that, I guess I freaked out a bit, I mean it's not every day you find out your dating a vampire" she smiled slightly
"I guess you have the right to react like that. But I wasn't turned by choice."
"You want to talk about it?"
"If you're willing to listen." He smiled.
"Of course I am" she smiled back and stroked his face "You can tell me anything"
"Well, you will be the first one I've explained it to, but here I go," he began. "It happened about a month ago. I was about to meet one of my clients, who promised a huge amount of money but the one waiting for me wasn't him, but in fact a vampire. She didn't seem to be a vampire at first, but everything cleared up when she bit me. She sucked me dry completely, I passed out. The very next thing I remember was waking up in the streets. Completely changed - inhuman."
"Did it hurt? When you were bitten"
Jim thought a while before answering: "It was like a mosquito bite, to be honest."
"Well I've never been bitten by a mosquito before" She paused for a moment. "Jim, if you're a vampire, vampires need blood, so how do you get it?"
She didn't want to be nosey but she was curious.
"Oh, I'm the type that doesn't need blood and can survive with human food. Though, to put my strength to use, I need to drink blood."
"Well Jim, if you ever need blood, you can have some of mine" She smiled at him
"What if I can't stop?"
She didn't even have to think for an answer "Then it would be the perfect way to die,in the arms of the person I love"
"I don't want you to die, Lucy."
She seemed a little surprised at that response "But. We all die in the end"
She took his hand to comfort him "you know that, and there's no way of stopping it and when I am gone you will have to move on from me and find someone else"
He looked down in sorrow, he didn't like the idea. "When you leave this world, then I will. I don't even like this eternal life bullcrap."
She realised she hurt him "Jim I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say it, it just...came out"
"It's alright. It will be figured out soon enough." He smiled.
She smiled back at him and then rested her head on his shoulder because she was starting to feel tired.
"I know it will"
Jim kissed her forehead. "I'll protect you forever."
She hugged him; she had never her anyone says that to her before so all she could say was "thank you" in a whisper
He held her close for as long as it took, replying "Always."
Still holding onto him, she closed her eyes. Throughout the rest of the day, they stayed together, in the house and enjoyed each other's comfort.