They were…they were…

Rough coughing interrupted Lesrade's trail of thoughts, causing him to open his watery eyes. Both John and Sherlock were gasping in breaths of fresh air, their eyes flying open. Lestrade sighed in relief and pushed Sherlock onto his side as he spat up dark sand. Happy tears were falling down from his eyes, slipping down his chin onto the sand. He looked over the detective as he slowly began to recover. Color slowly began to creep back into the detective's face and the blue began to disappear from his lips.

"John?" Sherlock rasped, breathing heavily as he spat up the last of the sand. His eyes speed around, searching for his friend.

"I'm here," John croaked, holding a hand out to Sherlock. Vermont let go of the good doctor and let him crawl to Sherlock's side. Sherlock took his friends hand, entwining his hands with John's like before. Smiling at John with a sickly smile, Sherlock mentaly asked if he was alright. John nodded and the two slouched as relief took hold of their tired bodies, glad that they had both made it out. Lestrade punched them both in the shoulder, glaring at them both.

"You two are going to be the death of me," Lestrade sighed, rubbing the tears from his eyes.

"Yeah, well your life would be so dull without us," Sherlock croaked. Lestrade stared at him, noticing the sympathetic smile that was now resting on Sherlock's face. Lestrade's body un-tensed and he nodded in agreement.

"True, I'd be more than dull though. I'd be shattered if one of you…died," Lestrade stated, staring at the both of them. There was a long heavy silence for a few moments until Agent Vermont tried to help Sherlock to his feet. A sharp hiss left through Sherlock's clenched teeth and the detective slumped back into the sand. Lestrade pulled himself to Sherlock's side, unbuttoning the detective's shirt to find his pale skin completely blotched with ugly bruises and red scrapes. Lestrade sucked in a breath.

"What the hell-"

"I flew out of a spinning vehicle," Sherlock informed him, pulling his arm, which was wrapped in his blue scarf closer to him. Lestrade sucked in a breath, reaching out to take Sherlock's arm. Sherlock flinched at the gesture, but let the DI unravel the scarf and pull up the sleeve. Lestrade's gut tightened at the sight of Sherlock's arm. It was badly bruised and swelled. He knew for a fact that it had to be broken.

"Do you know how lucky you are that this wasn't your neck?" Lestrade stated, glancing into Sherlock's blue eyes. Sherlock wrinkled his nose and nodded in John's direction.

"He's the one with the concussion. Why don't you baby him?" the detective spat. Lestrade shook his head and smiled smugly at his friend.

"John at least isn't the one who keeps running off on his own to chase after criminals," Lestrade pointed out to him. "How many times must I tell you to quit running off on your own before you actually listen?"

"Well, just until solving cases begins to bore me, but the odds of that happening are slim so don't worry you'll have me for a while, but sadly not long enough to teach your team common sense." Lestrade let out a laugh.

"Oh, Sherlock, what would I do without you?" Lestrade turned back to Agent Vermont, who was helping a paramedic check over John.

"Better get them back home before they get into any more trouble." The agent nodded, helping Lestrade pull the blogger detectives to their feet and toward the helicopter Mycroft had sent them. Suddenly, Sherlock and John both froze, glancing at each other in fear as something came to mind. "Moriarty-"Lestrade cut the both of them off before they could finish as he helped carry them through the sand.

"We know. He had stopped by while you two were suffocating under layers of sand," Lestrade stated. Sherlock's body tensed slightly and his hand brushed the sweaty curls out of his face. He looked way too stressed, which for Sherlock is probably not a good sign.

"Where is he now? Sherlock asked.

They're alive! YAY! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. there might be around four more, depending on if i make any changes or stuff like that so it's not for sure yet. Let me know what you think! thanks for reading!