"Sherlock, if I'm staying in England why does Moriarty need to…?"
"Because we don't know if you're really staying or not."
"Mycroft is basically the British government. I think it's safe to say I'm staying." I threw myself on the couch next to my brother. He had his nose buried in a small case file, since the day of the hospital visit he hadn't let me leave the apartment. I felt completely trapped, I wanted to climb something, or at least go outside. Sherlock refused.
"Can we go outside?" I poked him in the arm.
"No." He said stiffly.
"Could I go outside?" Sherlock refused to look at me. "Please, Sherlock."
"No." He flipped the pages in his case.
"What if I took Doc with me?" I pleaded. If I kept Doc in my line of sight Moriarty would probably leave me alone. Probably.
"Mm, no."
The sun was creeping through the window. It was beautiful day outside, and I was being held against my will in my brother's house. Doc was coming in the living room with a cup of coffee in his hand. To him it was early in the morning, to Sherlock and me the day started at seven a.m. His hair stuck out at odd angles, and jamas were rumpled. I snickered.
"Will you two shut up? I can hear you both in my room. Sherlock just let her go outside." Doc said sleepily. Sherlock threw his file on the table.
"Dull. It was the second grade teacher. No one noticed the butter knife." He put his feet in my lap, but I pushed them away. I was angry at him for being my jailor instead of my brother. I looked out the window longing, until I saw my mom standing on the sidewalk. I leapt backwards into Sherlock, he snorted. "Told you we couldn't go outside, did you think I was just being arrogant."
Yes. The answer was yes.
"You didn't tell me why!" I snapped.
"She's been out there for a few hours, Jade." Sherlock shrugged nonchalantly. "If I let your crawl out of the fire escape I'd look like an awful brother."
Doc poured a bowl of cereal. He poured me one too and pointed at it sternly, he mouthed the word eat. I didn't want to eat, food was disgusting, dull, yucky. Sherlock shoved me off the couch with his mutant monkey feet. I grumbled as I walk towards the kitchen
I grabbed the bowl from Doc and sat down on the table, he began to protest. I gave him an "I dare you" look. He sat down next to me.
I began spooning cereal into my mouth, Doc and Sherlock were both completely silent. "You guys should tell me a story, or something." I said unsure of what to do next. Doc loved telling story, it was something he was good at. Sherlock rolled his eyes and said nothing.
"How about the first case your brother and I went on together?" Doc asked. I nodded eagerly. Doc made me sit and be still before he'd start anything. He told me I had to finish my bowl of cereal well he talked. I snorted.
"I'm not five, Doc." I swallowed my corn flakes down, milk and all. Doc began his story with the nightmares he had been having about the war. He went through meeting Sherlock, watching Sherlock, getting told off by Sherlock, meeting Mycroft, and finally Sherlock disappearing off the cabbie. He told me the "game" they had been playing and how he had shot the cabbie just in time. My mouth dropped on the floor.
"Sherlock! You idiot! You would have died!" I shouted. My brother looked surprised. I was absolutely seething. "Haven't you ever seen the Princess Bride, numb nuts?!" I demanded.
"No." Sherlock said with a bored tone. "I don't enjoy watching dull…"
"This one could have saved your life, idiot." I could see my accusations were having no effect on him, so I darted into the kitchen. Doc had empty capsules, which were just what I needed. I filled them properly without letting Sherlock see. I put them each capsule in the bottles and sat down at the table. "Come here."
Sherlock sat across from me with a suspicious look. I set the two bottles in front of me so they were side by side. I looked into my brothers eyes. "One is filled with salt. The other is filled with sugar. Eat the salt tablet and die. Eat the sugar and live." I thrust forward a bottle towards Sherlock. "Did I just give you salt or sugar?"
Sherlock cocked an eyebrow clearly interested. "There's no way of knowing if this is indeed how he played."
"Oh, I think it's safe to assume." I said truthfully.
Sherlock reached for the bottle by himself. I gave him a cocky smirk. If he picked that bottle up he would lose. Sherlock noticed my smile. "Well at least he wasn't that obvious." Sherlock picked up the bottle near me. I shrugged and popped my bottle open. Sherlock did the same.
"One." He said.
"Two."
"Three." Sherlock crunched down on his tablet and made the most disgusted face I had ever seen. "Salty! That's…that's…"
"Inconceivable!" I shouted. No one in the room cracked up, but if they had been cool, it would have been totally hilarious to them. I passed him my untouched tablet. He bit into it.
"Jade, you little shit." Sherlock hissed. "This is…"
"How you play the game, bro." I laughed. "That cabbie was probably immune to the poison or wasn't going to take it at all after you were dead at his feet."
Sherlock sat a little straighter in his chair, I had clearly offended his deduction powers. I shrugged. It wasn't my fault Sherlock didn't watch T.V. Sherlock icy blue eyes were boring into mine.
"Just be thankful it was salt and not poison." I said defensively. Doc gave a small snicker. My brother's eye twitched.
Sherlock dove across the table in an attempt to strangle me. I rolled my chair backwards just in time to have Sherlock's weight come crashing down my legs. I tried to shove him off, but he wrapped his arms around my waist like a vice. I swatted him on the head, there was nothing much else I could do because his chest was still "injured".
The big baby.
"Sherlock! Get off!" I tried to push on his shoulders, but he wouldn't give.
"I'm going to kill you!" He shouted. Sherlock may not have looked like it, but his arm strength was insanely impressive. I grabbed his hair and tugged it slightly. Sherlock had always been sensitive in that area. Eventually his grip loosened. I wiggled out of his arms.
"Okay what the hell?" I snapped at him.
"How did you know that, and I didn't? I am far more clever than you." He sounded like a four year old.
"I just got lucky, I suppose." I muttered. Sherlock nodded in agreement, to him that was the only explanation. Doc rolled his eyes.
"Oh for Heaven's sake."
I leaned back in my chair lazily. Sherlock was lost in thought, his hands were under his chin like he was praying. I took out a small pencil and paper and began drawing him. Doc peeked over my shoulder. "Damn." He muttered. I was always proud of my drawing skills, but every now and then it was nice to hear how awesome I was. I beamed at Doc.
Mycroft burst through the front door so loudly it pulled Sherlock right out of his mind palace. All three of us jumped five feet in the air as Mycroft slammed the door shut. His face was of total rage. "Your mother," he started, "makes Satan look like a gentleman." He looked at Sherlock and me accusingly. "Would you two learn to sleep either with the blinds shut or separate? Your mother is outside accusing Sherlock of sexual harassment towards you, Jade. All because you can't sleep without knowing the other is there!"
I gave a little sigh. My mother was…well nuts. "I didn't think she'd go as far as standing outside the window. Sorry Guardian. Sherlock was finally sleeping, I didn't want to wake him up. It's been weeks since he…"
"Shut up, moron." Sherlock flicked a fallen corn flake at me.
It was true. Sherlock hadn't slept since I told him I was going to commit suicide, but last night he had curled into a ball on the couch. I had made him move over, and he fell asleep with his head in my lap. There was nothing wrong with it, I couldn't sleep anyway without knowing Sherlock was in the room. Usually I would only sleep if I had my head in his lap too. I rubbed the back of my neck, exhausted.
"Sherlock that drive is becoming a necessity. I need it back." Mycroft hissed. "Lara has a court date set, and she's threatening me with…" Mycroft glanced at me. "I need it back, Sherlock."
"Do you know, it's been so long I can't even remember where I put it?" Sherlock knocked himself in the head. "Silly me." I giggled a little.
"Sherlock she's threating me with 12-2-94." Mycroft said tiredly. "And everything before that."
Sherlock didn't look at Mycroft. He stared at Doc's coffee cup and shook his head. "It's safer with me, Mycroft."
"Sherlock, give it to me." Mycroft held out his hand. I looked between my two brothers and quite a glimpse of something new. Mycroft was turning into a father, and Sherlock his five year old son. Sherlock shook his grumpily. "Sherlock Holmes."
"What are you going to do, Mycroft? Count to three?" Sherlock demanded.
"It is essential to keeping Jade here." Mycroft's voice was filled with thin patience.
"She can't prove anything about that, no one can. You made sure of that." Sherlock rose to his feet dramatically. He made his over to the couch, where he plopped down on it belly first.
"Don't." Mycroft said shortly. "Not with that Sherlock. Don't test me with that."
"Why not? I might as well test you with something. You let Mummy test me for eighteen years, I figure you kind of owe me one." Sherlock said with that familiar smart ass tone that every five year old had.
"I did everything I could…"
"You left me when I was twelve to the devices of a mentally unstable woman." Sherlock said hotly. "And now you're facing the monster you've created and you don't like it. Do you, Brother? Jade wants you to be her guardian that's fine, but stop trying to be mine because I'm a grown man and you've already failed at it!"
"There was nothing I could have…" Mycroft didn't sound like he was trying to win the battle with Sherlock. In fact, he sounded like he already lost.
"Yes, because dialing the police was too hard for your tiny intellect." Sherlock said stoutly.
I was examining my eldest brother's face. Mycroft never quit, he never wanted to stop fighting with someone unless he wanted the subject dropped, or unless he was hiding something. Mycroft never flinched when Sherlock accused him of something, which meant he felt justified. However, he never denied that he was in the wrong when Sherlock shouted at him. Mycroft's body language wasn't adding up.
"Why didn't you tell anyone, Mycroft?" I asked shyly.
"Not now, Jayden."
Sherlock answered for him. "Because our mother would have surely died in a prison cell. Her weak old heart would have surely given out. It can't go out if the bitch never had one." Sherlock rolled on his side.
Mycroft's shoulders straightened. He didn't defend himself, but he clearly didn't feel guilty about his choices. I took a random shot in the dark. "Did she threaten Sherlock?" I guessed.
I know, I know. Holmes never guess. Well this one was tired, sore, and tired. I knew Mycroft hadn't given a rat's left nut about his mother, but after talking to him when Sherlock had been put under it was clear he cared about his younger brother. So it was really only half a guess.
Don't. Judge. Me.
Mycroft completely flinched at that, even Sherlock lifted his head from the couch. I blushed a little. "You left first right, Guardian? Well if you told her you were taking Sherlock away she'd probably have been upset by that. Maybe upset enough to threaten to hurt him, and with her being crazy enough you believed her. That's why you came up with a bogus story about her "heart" giving out. To protect Sherlock."
Mycroft's mouth was opened in a small "o" shape. He looked ready to toss his English cookies. I bit my lip until Mycroft spoke.
"How on Earth did you…?"
"Story time?" I asked hopefully.
"Story time." Sherlock agreed for his brother.
