It didn't take Sherlock long to find him. He peeked around the wooden boxes, a gun in hand and his eyes alert, scanning his surroundings. "John… you could have told me you were here. Are you alright?" He crouched down and started picking at the lock of the handcuffs.

Of course he was complaining. "I… you… please tell me someone knows that you're here. It's a set-up, Sherlock, they're gonna fucking kills us." John was really mad now, although he should have been grateful that he'd come for him.

"Yes, that's rather obvious. Are you alright?" Sherlock's voice had adopted an urgent tone now and turned over to look John in the eyes.

"Do I look alright to you? Seriously, we have to get out of here, they have guns and I'm damn sure they're gonna use them and…" Sherlock placed one of his long pale fingers on his lips and finally freed him of the handcuffs.

Sherlock pulled him to his feet in one quick movement. "This was all way too easy, wasn't it?" John asked, his voice a mere whisper. Sherlock didn't answer, it was obvious. Suddenly his eyes grew wide, his expression unreadable, but if John hadn't know better, he would have thought it was fear. "Sherlock, what…?" He followed his gaze down his chest, where a red light was flickering, quivering slightly, as if it was searching for the perfect spot, eventually coming to rest over his heart.

Breathing, yes, he needed to keep breathing, this really was not the time for panicking. Now, however, he could read Sherlock's expression perfectly well. I'm so sorry for pulling you into this.

It's alright, he wanted to say, I had the best of all times with you, no need to ever feel sorry for all of this.

"Well, well. I just want to say Hi before I leave." Sherlock spun around, just soon enough to see Moriarty stepping out of the shadows, immediately pointing his gun at him. "And I will give you a fair warning. You need to back off, Sherlock. I'm really not happy with you destroying all my hard work. It's nothing I couldn't fix, though. So, we are going to leave and you are not going to follow. Is that understood?"

"What would you do if we did? Kill us?" Sherlock was perfectly calm now. John thought it was somewhat admirable, since he clearly wasn't.

Moriarty casually picked some fuzz off his suit, his lips twitching. "Don't be obvious. But you see, it doesn't actually matter, Sherlock. You're going to do exactly as I say, you're way too fond of your little pet here, you're not going to risk his precious life. Now, put your gun down and we might all just live happily ever after."

Sherlock slowly placed his gun on the ground, not without looking at John for a second and then stepped back, right in front of John, the tiny red dot now targeting him. "Some other time then."

"No," Moriarty said, chuckling as if it was one of the best jokes he'd ever heard in his entire life. "Really, no." And with that he walked off, the shadows of the warehouse swallowing him.

And with Moriarty, only seconds later, the red dot also vanished. It was quite obvious to John that Sherlock was itching to run after them. A minute or so later, they heard their car race off, probably on the way to the next airport, never to be seen again.

Sherlock still didn't move, slightly pushing John against the pipe and the wall behind it. John let out a sigh of relief when they were gone and rested his head between Sherlock's shoulderblades, both of them taking in how lucky they were to still be alive.

John lightly touched Sherlock's arm. "I messed it up, didn't I? I only walked across the street… should have listened to you."

Now Sherlock moved, stepped away from him, still facing the other way. "No, John. It was only my fault. I didn't see."

"See what?"

"This… all of this. I didn't think… I just didn't think it through." John had never seen him like this. He paced back and forth, trying to figure out what his next step should be, John watching with wide eyes. Eventually, he picked up his gun and finally looked at John. "I need to go after them."

"Alright, let's go." He walked past him, grabbing his phone and heading straight for the exit and out of the warehouse. It had gotten dark, but he could see Sherlock's silhouette in the moonlight right behind him.

"John…" Sherlock took his hand and squeezed it a bit. "John, you can't come."

"What do you mean, I can't come? Of course, I'm coming. And there's nothing you could say or do to convince me otherwise. Can we go now?"

Sherlock seemed rather taken aback for a moment. "Fine. Let's… oh, I guess we'll need to find another way of getting around", he finished with a look at the impressively big knife sticking out of one of the car's tyres.

Luckily, Sherlock knew the right people and they were at the airport in no time. He'd been on his phone for ages, calling his brother, asking him to send them a car and talking about flight schedules and fake passports and airports and people to contact abroad. He had only been nodding at the information he'd gotten from his brother, John silently standing next him.

Soon, a black car had pulled up next to them and Sherlock had told the driver to take them to Heathrow. He had then proceeded to stare out the window. Thinking. Neither of them had spoken, but at some point Sherlock had taken John's hand, their fingers intertwining, with so many things to say, but none of them had dared to actually talk. All of this could go so very wrong.

They'd been dropped off at the airport and now John watched Sherlock write a few texts, people rushing about, coming and going, completely oblivious to all the things happening around them. For a second John wished to be one of them.

"John? There are some things I have to take care of." Sherlock didn't seem nervous, however, there was something distant in his eyes that was not quite right. "Could you… wait here for me? I'll come back to get you." He kissed him, hurriedly, his hands streaking trough John's hair.

"Promise?" What he actually wanted to say was, why can't I just come? But no, he'd trust him. He had come for him when he was in that warehouse, this was the least he could do for him.

Sherlock nodded and placed another kiss on John's forehead and then he was off, leaving John alone with nothing but his thoughts.