Me oh my oh! I am so sorry that the sweet love that is JohnLock hasn't happened yet but mind you not my prettys it is coming. And all the sweet lemons you've been waiting for shall come forth!
Adrian stood waiting outside his door dressed in dark jeans and a warm looking jacket. John saw him and noticed he looked like he'd gotten next to no sleep.
"You alright?" John asked.
Adrian smiled and pushed off the wall he was perched on, "Yeah, I took a sleep aid last night." He said and rubbed his eyes, "Just a bit groggy."
John smiled, "Well Sherlock already left."
"We should go too." Adrian said and knocked three times on the door of the room he was staying in with Carmella.
"Kay!" she shouted from behind the door and Adrian started down the hall.
"I don't know how he stands it." Adrian said once they were outside and waiting for what John figured must be a car to take them to the base.
"How who stands what?" John asked standing next to Adrian.
Adrian looked down, "How Sherlock stands you."
John felt hurt, he was about to speak, "I mean look at you, how can he not keep his hands off of you." Adrian sighed.
John felt deflated; of course that's what this was about. Adrian didn't mean it in a bad way he meant it in a sexual way.
"I think Sherlock is asexual, nothing gets to him." John shrugged.
"Oh? Nothing, John you really aren't giving yourself enough credit, your adorable."
John looked at himself in his favorite stripped jumper and light blue jeans, "Really Adrian I don't think he cares."
"Oh trust me John he cares, and to top it off he notices." Adrian said smirking. He knew that look he got from Sherlock earlier. Carmella had been the one to stop his flirting before but Sherlock saw the competition and wanted to show Adrian that he was there and that he wasn't allowed to hit on John. Adrian chuckled, the alpha male thing.
"I doubt that, Sherlock is married to his work." John chuckled.
"Married men have affairs John." Adrian whispered in John's ear as the car pulled around.
Sherlock was already in the front seat, "You two look cozy."
"Just waiting for you." Adrian shrugged and held the door open for John before getting in himself.
John sat on beside Adrian and could see Sherlock staring out the window. Sherlock looked lost in his thoughts, John was left wondering if Sherlock was ever really lost in thought or if he carefully followed strings of information stored in his mind palace.
When they arrived at the base Adrian handed over Carmella's ID and explained they were her eyes and ears for the day. And once inside Adrian led them back to where Carmella had before, Adrian remained silent, Sherlock following and John trying to keep up with their quickened paces.
"So the amazing Carmella didn't grace us with her presence?" Alex bit as the party came into the lab.
"Carmella didn't want to today." Adrian said, towering over the cocky smaller scientist.
"She's just about dead huh?"
Adrian stiffened, John saw Sherlock do the same.
"Figures," Alex scoffed with a laugh, "The timing is right, she can probably hardly stand anymore, vision spotty at best, hearing the strongest over the rings and hardly able to keep anything in her stomach-"The tray Alex had be handling, full of empty glass wear was suddenly toppled over by Adrian.
"You have more word to say against Carmella then you'll be joining that broken glass on the floor."Adrian said shaking with rage over the sounds of shattering glass.
"Gentlemen!" Jaiden shouted and ran into the scene, "What is happening here?"
"I'm afraid that we haven't been honest with you." Sherlock said, stepping around the broken glass, "I'm no reporter and I'm here to have you arrested."
"Told you he wasn't a reporter." Alex sneered and began sweeping up the glass.
"What's going on?" Dmitri asked coming around the corner with more rats in cages.
"It was actually clever, surprisingly," Sherlock began and John led Adrian to sit down.
"At first glance it must have been Alex," Sherlock said to the glaring raven haired woman after she had cleaned up, "You've never like Carmella, at all, she was always better than you," he said and got closer to Alex, "You hated to watch her rise to the top while you tried to get out of her shadow, you wanted to kill her more than anyone." Sherlock said towering over the smaller woman.
"Yeah, so? I hate that bitch, doesn't mean I did it." Alex said glaring into Sherlock's green eyes.
"Your right, you had nothing to do with it, well at least not getting your hands dirty." Sherlock said; face lighting up a little, as it always did when something was working out.
"Um, I still don't understand what's happening." Dmitri said looking confused on the farther side of the room.
"Then there's you." Sherlock said pointing at Dmitri but not breaking eye contact with Alex, "You were in love with her," Sherlock said and looked at Dmitri and started to walk over to him, "Your shy, reserved, didn't talk much about home because your working for the Russian government to use this drug and try to make it into future weapons." Sherlock said stopping a pace from the Russian man, "But she showed interest when no one else did, that made you feel special and disobey orders to still the research in order to help her."
Everyone looked at Dmitri, his team members looked betrayed, "O-Okay, he's right, I am a Russian spy, but Carmella was so kind and sweet I couldn't steal from her." He said in his thick accent.
"Or infect her with the virus but the one with the most to lose could." Sherlock said and finally rounded on Jaiden again, "This is your last chance isn't it?"
Jaiden blinked, "I-I don't-"
"Your father has given you this last chance. When I interviewed you whenever I asked about progress your eyes instinctively when to the picture of your father, he wants more done on this project and you have nothing yet, so you infected one of your own." Sherlock said and made his was way to Jaiden as he had done with the others.
"That's-"Jaiden tried to defend.
"There is no drinking inside the labs, no one is allowed water, I saw the signs out front, you are just at the level you can give your team water or gum inside and your father will take most of the heat off of you." Sherlock said and stood in front of him, "You worked with Alex and emptied a specimen of virus in her water and favorite gum."
"And how could we do that?! The virus dies in open air!" Alex shouted.
Sherlock looked at her, "If you had a syringe filled with it you could easily inject it into a substance."
"What about her water huh?" Jaiden said and Sherlock looked back at him, "The virus is in a solution, sure gum could mask a taste but water? She'd be bound to taste it."
"Not if it was flavored." Adrian said catching on.
"Correct," Sherlock said and kept looking at Jaiden, "Carmella hates the flavor of water, she would only drink flavored water or small sips of plain water. To ensure she took the entire virus in you slipped in into her flavored water, it masked the flavor of the solution and you'd have a body to study once she died."
"But she didn't give her body over." Jaiden said; trying to stand in this hole Sherlock was digging for him.
"No, she offered her body to me and demanded it cremated." Sherlock said, "I think she knew exactly what she was denying you. If your team looked for dead virus, the vaccine for it would be easy and your father would let you keep this job and you'd have a woman on your arm." Sherlock said looking over to Alex, "So long as she was pulled up the ranks with you."
"You have no proof." Jaiden breathed.
"No but I think we do."
Everyone turned to see Lestrade and Sally walking into the scene with Anderson in their wake holding an evidence bag with a water bottle inside and a note taped to it 'This is mine –C'.
"There's enough water in there for the virus to survive." Anderson said shaking the water a little to show just over half of the water still in the bottle.
Alex and Jaiden looked dumbfounded, "But…I infected her back in America…." Jaiden breathed.
"I'll take that as a confession." Lestrade said and pulled out his hand cuffs.
He and Sally began reading rights and escorting the two scientists out but Adrian stopped them a moment, "Carmella figured this would happen, she couldn't very well throw out evidence." He smiled sadistically.
"How did you know they were together?" John asked and watched as the team of scientists was taken away.
"He kept looking at her through the glass during the interview and the same for her looking at him." Sherlock said and started to leave, he seemed tired in John's eyes.
"We should go back to the inn, I'm sure Carmella is getting bored, she does stupid stuff when she's bored." Adrian said and started out after the police.
John took Sherlock's arm and pulled him along.
He mustn't think so much.
John thought with a smile, he wished he could get the detective to stop thinking just for a little while. As they got outside Adrian was looking down at his phone, he looked upset.
John let go of Sherlock's arm, "Adrian? What is it?" he asked.
"Carmella's been taken to the hospital."