You guys are the best! Really though! A MASSVE thanks to all of my incredible reviewers! You guys make my day, honestly though. I never thought anyone would read this story, so the fact that people take time out of their day to comment, makes my day so much better. So really, thank you.
I hope you guys are enjoying!
"This is the case?" John asked as he read the post on his own blog, "This one? Really?"
"Yes, really," Sherlock argued as he semi-eyed Kylie fixing lunch in the kitchen, "Did you call her?"
John glared at him as Kylie walked back into the room, handing him a sandwich before she walked back into the kitchen to make another.
"Yes, I called her," John snipped back in return setting his laptop to the side as he put the plate Kylie had just given him in his lap, "Which, I find insulting, by the way. Why in the hell do I have always have to call the clients. I'm not your bloody secretary!" He paused and sighed for a moment, looking down at his sandwich, "Thank you Kylie."
"No prob," she smiled at him as she walked back out and set a sandwich down next to Sherlock.
"You aren't my secretary, you are my blogger," Sherlock informed him as he looked at the sandwich quizzically, wondering why on earth he had one put in front of him before he looked back up at his friend, "You tell me the difference between the two."
John glowered at him.
"You pick up the phone, call the client and ask them to come in. Its not difficult and may do you some good to talk to another human being other than Kylie and myself."
"If its not difficult, then why are you still complaining about it?" Sherlock asked, still looking at the sandwich.
"Because he's your friend, and not an employee," Kylie inputted for him as she walked out with her own sandwich.
Sherlock looked up at her with confusion as she walked back into the kitchen, "I'm aware of that."
She walked back out with a glass of water, "Well then act like it," she told him with a smile as she walked towards him, running a hand down his chest as she kissed his cheek, "You actually have to pick up the sandwich and put it in your mouth to digest it. I know your brain is good, but you cant digest nutrients with your thoughts."
He frowned as she smiled and stood up, walking over to her side of the table, taking the seat across from him as she opened up her laptop and picked up her sandwich.
"And for what its worth," she commented before she took a bite, "I agree with John. This case is bull."
"Thank you!" John exclaimed with his mouth full.
"You 'agree' with John now?" Sherlock scoffed at her, "Last night you wanted to stay in your flat to 'avoid' him!"
John looked at her with slightly insulted puzzlement as Kylie blushed.
"No, I said that sleeping down stairs would give us more privacy. It had nothing to do with John, I told you that."
"How does saying you didn't want him to overhear us, not avoiding him?" Sherlock asked her flatly.
John snorted loudly as he tried to cover his laughter with his sandwich.
Kylie rolled her eyes and slouched in embarrassment.
"For the last time, Sherlock," Kylie muttered, "Drop it."
"Why? We are talking about the case."
"Sherlock," John imputed with a large smile, "She's wasn't referring to the case."
Sherlock looked at him, and then back to Kylie, completely lost.
"Yes, she was."
"No, I wasn't Sherlock. It was…. It was a come on," she admitted in embarrassment, saying it quickly.
"A… come on…?"
Silence.
"Think about it," John told him, still smirking.
"What does that even…" he trailed off as he began putting the pieces and prior conversations with Kylie together.
He stiffened and began to feel the heat rise to his face as he finally figured it out.
"…Oh…"
"Yeah," Kylie muttered as she took a bite of her sandwich and began to throw herself into working on editing her latest paper for submission to a Journal.
The flat fell into an awkward silence, John enjoying every moment of it as he watched Sherlock clear his throat and shift awkwardly.
"I'm going to go… um…" Sherlock muttered before awkwardly getting up and wandering back into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
Kylie nibbled her sandwich as she tried her best not to die of humiliation, feeling John's eyes on her.
"Say something and I will castrate you, John Watson," she snapped.
John shrugged, smirking at his sandwich, "I didn't say anything."
"Just…" Kylie trailed off, giving up on the conversation.
John just smirked as he watched his friend turn even redder before she eyed him and let out a groan of frustration before she walked down the hall to Sherlock's bedroom.
John smiled even more as he leaned a little to the right, peering through the kitchen and seeing a glimpse of his two friends talking quietly. He watched Sherlock take a step towards her as she ran a hand up his chest, talking to him quietly. Warmth filled John's chest as he spied on his two best friends.
It had been slow, but over the last several weeks, since Kylie had moved back to London, he had seen a large change in his two friends. They had been small at first, but each of the small changes seemed to build upon one another, slowly opening one door that led to another opening.
It started as small touches, here and there. Sherlock would purposely brush his hand against hers, trying to hold it without John or anyone else noticing. Kylie would trail a hand across Sherlock's shoulder when she would walk past him into the kitchen. John would see him stiffen, still getting used to human touch, but it would be less and less each and every day. Eventually the stiffening became minimal and John would catch him watching her with a small smile that he most likely wasn't aware of on his face. It was almost as if he was… admiring her. John had caught her looking at him in the same way; watching him work in fascination.
It was endearing. The two of them were obviously falling quickly for each other. They were becoming more and more comfortable with one another. They showed more and more affection for one another, becoming more and more able to show their affection for another in front of either him or Lestrade. Kylie had practically moved into 221B due to the fact that Sherlock refused to sleep unless she was in his bed, wrapped in his arms.
Sure, these were small things; obviously for two people in a relationship, these things were small… but for these two, John knew it was leaps and bounds. Sherlock Holmes, the man with a mysterious past that not even John knew. The same one who was so utterly rational and factual that he had ignored relationships of any sort; claiming that he was married to his work. Then there was Kylie. The poor woman had been to hell and back; losing her mother and sister at a young age, then moving onto a relationship which she was betrayed in the worst possible way.
After so much crap in all of their lives, it was truly amazing to see them falling so fast and so hard. He doubted either one of them knew what was happening, God knew Sherlock had no clue, but it was Kylie he wasn't sure about. Sometimes she would mention things to him that would make him think that she was in denial about her feelings, and others it was as if she were completely oblivious.
John was almost afraid to see them fall for each other. Not that he didn't want them to, but the fact that if they accidentally hurt one another… both of them would seal their hearts up until the day they died.
But for now, they were happy. It made him happy to see his friends find someone who was so good for them. Watching them made him yearn for a relationship of his own. Since Karen, John had avoided dating. He had been on a few dates, but no one could come close to the feelings that he saw between his two friends everyday. He was okay with that though. For the first time in two and a half years, he had both of his best friends back in his life, and he would take that over a random woman in his bed any day.
John turned his attention back to his sandwich as he saw Kylie and Sherlock re-emerge from the bedroom.
Kylie retook her seat and began working on her paper once more as Sherlock finally started eating his sandwich.
"What time is the client coming?" Sherlock asked before he took a second bite.
"Five-thirty," John told him, "That is, if we are still taking this case that isn't really a case."
"Here we go," Sherlock said, rolling his eyes as he took another bite of his sandwich.
"It is though, Sherlock! It's a paranoid socialite who believes that someone is watching her and breaking into her house!" John argued.
"MI6 has had more absurd assignments, I'm sure," Sherlock told him simply.
Kylie scoffed, "MI6 is breaking into this woman's flat? Really? Sherlock, I don't even by that this is a real case."
"You need to open your mind to see the truth, Kyleigha."
"Sherlock, she goes to dinner parties and has an art degree. The woman is a self-proclaimed artist. I doubt the woman has sold anything in her life and is just living off of her father's hedge fund! What possible interest could MI6 have with her?"
Sherlock just stared at his flat mate for a moment.
He hadn't known about the woman's background. He had just known that it was a breaking and entering case. The woman was obviously well educated, all signs pointed to some unseen connection, not that she was a rich socialite who was an artist.
Unfortunately John was right, the chances for this being a real case were becoming slimmer and slimmer.
"She must have some link to a government agency…"
"She most likely doesn't," Kylie argued, joining in the debate, "Unless she's sleeping with half of MI6… or your brother."
"That's going to be permanently seared into my brain for forever," John commented dryly, causing Kylie to smirk at him, "But an agent, nor… Mycroft… would be stupid enough to blab government secrets or get so close to someone who was so public."
Kylie shrugged and looked at Sherlock, "The man has a point."
Dammit… he did…
He still needed a distraction for them, and right now, this was his best bet.
"We're still meeting her," Sherlock commented as he picked up his plate and walked it into the kitchen, "I need a bath."
Sherlock disappeared into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
Kylie sighed and looked at John, "Well, good thing that I have about thirty-five papers to write to help us get through this boring ass case, he's going to make us take."
John laughed lightly at her as he got up, grabbing her plate and taking it into the kitchen with his as well.
Kylie only had a moment to turn her attention back to the paper she was editing before footsteps pounded up the stair case, and Mrs. Hudson burst into the flat, pale and out of breath.
"Mrs. Hudson…" Kylie began in shock, getting cut off by the older woman.
"Telly, turn on the telly. Now."
John walked out, giving Kylie a fearful look before turning on the news.
"… United Kingdom Speaker of the House Bartholomew Kingston was assassinated just moments ago at a press conference in front of Parliament," the reporter said.
"Oh my God," Kylie muttered as she got up, slowly, horrified by what she was seeing, "They did it."
"Speaker Kingston was a favorite for the next Prime Minister had been under heavier security as of late, to which his staff refused to make comment," the reporter continued, "But one has to wonder with this very public assassination, was the Speaker's life being threatened? BBC news has reached out to sources at MI5, but we have yet to get a returned statement at this time. All that we do know, is that the British nation will be mourning the loss of this great leader."
John turned to Kylie, "Get Sherlock."
"Yeah," Kylie replied breathlessly as she turned and walked towards the bathroom.
John heard her knock softly on the door before she cracked it, telling him that he needed to see this, but he barely heard her. His body was numb. He had seen some horrible, terrible things, but the assassination of a leader… that was one he hadn't seen before.
He felt Kylie stand next to him once more. As they watched pictures of the former speaker play on the Television.
Sherlock walked out of the bathroom, tying his bathrobe around his body as he walked towards them, staring at the Television.
"They did it," John told him darkly, "They got him."
"Who?" Mrs. Hudson asked, "You know who killed him?"
"Unfortunately," Kylie muttered in horror as she kept watching the journalist speak.
"Moriarty and Thomas," John told her.
Mrs. Hudson let out a fearful yelp, "Those sons of bitches are back?"
Sherlock and John stared at Mrs. Hudson for her use of language in surprise.
RING RING RING
Sherlock's phone ringing brought them out of their shock.
He walked over and picked it up.
"Mycroft," he answered curtly, "… yes, we saw it… Give us twenty."
"Let me guess," John sighed, "Mycroft wants us?"
"The Prime Minister asked for us specifically," Sherlock said as he hung up the phone, looking back up at his companions, "Looks like we are going to Thames House. Cancel our appointment John!" He called back as he walked back into the bathroom, shutting the door.
"I'M NOT YOUR SECRETARY!"
* *() ()
A half-hour later, the three of them stepped out of a cab in front of Thames House. They had ensured Mrs. Hudson was calmed down and safe before they had left, after some griping from Sherlock and four calls from Mycroft, they had finally gotten down to the MI5 head quarters.
Kylie eyed one of the most secretive buildings in the Western world.
Because government secrets hadn't ruined her life enough already.
"Kylie," Sherlock beckoned as she came back to the real world, seeing John and Sherlock far up ahead of her.
"Right," she muttered before she jogged to catch up with them.
They walked inside the building, meeting a slew of security dressed in suits. Kylie looked around in slight surprise, looking down at the marble floor before looking back up at the large line of security.
"Doctor's Gibbs and Watson?" a pretty blond woman asked as she walked forward through security, texting rapidly on her phone, "And Mr. Holmes the younger of course," she said as she looked up.
"Anthea?" John asked, recognizing the woman, "right?"
She looked up at him peculiarly, "That's um, one of my names."
"You don't remember me, do you?" John asked, "You um, picked me up once or twice for Mycroft."
She looked at him, completely bewildered by him, "Oh… I did?"
John looked at her, the wind completely taken from his sails as the beautiful woman obviously hadn't taken to him.
"Mr. Holmes is waiting for you," she told them as she turned on her heel and walked towards the security.
Sherlock made to follow before John stopped him, grabbing his arm.
"How many times did you meet her?" John asked.
"Once," Sherlock responded flatly, "Maybe."
John's face fell once more at the news before Sherlock flashed him a smile and walked away. John gaped at him, for a moment before turning to Kylie.
"I've met her life five time, and that bastard met her once and she knows him?!"
Kylie raised an eyebrow at him, "Sometimes you swing and you miss, John. But we really need to get you laid."
John glowered even more at her as she walked away.
"I could any time I wanted to!" he told her.
She turned and mimicked as if she were swinging a baseball bat, "Swing and a miss, John."
John huffed angrily at his friends as they walked up towards security.
"Mobiles and identification in the bowl. Jackets off, arms out to the side, legs spread," the man told them all gruffly as he approached them with a metal detector wand and a bowl.
"If I wasn't already taken, I would tell you to you usually have to buy a girl dinner first," Kylie told the gruff man with a smart assed smile.
The man just stared at her for a moment he forced her arms out to the side and was about to kick her legs apart, only to be stopped by another hand, catching the larger man's.
"Do not touch her," Sherlock told him in a dangerously low voice.
The man in the suit stared at the dark-haired man, looking at Anthea, as if silently asking permission to kick the crap out of him.
"Let him go," Anthea ordered boredly as she typed away on her phone.
The man obeyed, dropping Kylie's arm and shaking Sherlock's grasp off his own.
Kylie warily took out her cellphone and ID out of her pocket, placing it in the bowl, before removing her coat and assuming the position that had been requested.
The man waved the metal detector over her, before repeating the process on the two men beside her.
Kylie reached for her jacket and the bowl, only to have it pulled away from her. She frowned and looked up at the man in the suit.
"Your phones are to remain here. You may pick up your personal items upon leaving."
"I cant have my passport?" Kylie asked.
"No, protocol," the man told her.
"Well, now I understand why Mycroft works out of the Diogenes Club," John commented.
"And here I was thinking my brother thrived off of beurocratic bullshit," Sherlock commented to his companions, making the both of them chuckle.
"If you children are done," Mycroft drawled as he walked towards them, "I believe we have some work to do."
Kylie looked up at the elder Holmes, and could have sworn she had never seen the man look anything but at ease, but this was much different. He looked… stressed. Well, at least as stressed as Mycroft Holmes could look.
"I'll take it from here," he told Anthea, "Thank you."
"Yes Sir," she said, nodding before walking off.
"Follow me," Mycroft told them with a forced smile.
Kylie sighed before she followed him, trailing behind Sherlock and John.
She wandered down the maze of hallways close to them, glancing intently all around them. They wove up and down the hallway, passing by opened doors with highly stressed people dodging in and out of them. All either on the phone, Bluetooth, holding a tablet, or a piece of paper, frantically trying to pull the nation back together.
Finally, after a few minutes, Mycroft stopped in front of a door, holding it open for the three of them. Kylie walked into the most high tech lab she had ever seen. The cold, steel room with the most expensive and accurate equiptment money could buy, lining the walls. A lump under a sheet, being the only thing on one of the observation tables.
"May I help you?" A woman in a white lab coat asked as she stepped out, holding a clip board.
"Yes, Dr. Thurman," Mycorft said as he walked into the room behind them.
"Sir," the woman said, straightening in surprise, "Sir, I apologize, I wasn't expecting you down here…"
"May we please have the room, Dr. Thurman?"
The woman glanced at the body, looking at him uncomfortably, "I cannot leave the body…"
"That's an order," Mycroft commanded, "These three will be in charge of the body and you will allow them to take anything they need."
She looked at her superior.
"Yes Sir. I'll be in my office if you need me, Sir," she told them before she ducked out of the lab and down the hall.
John raised his eyebrows as Mycroft shut the door behind the Doctor.
"Looks like you really do have pull around here," he commented.
Mycroft smiled at him, "And I thought you were brighter than that, John."
"Why are we here, Mycroft?" Sherlock asked shortly a he walked over to the sheet, rolling up his sleeves, as Security had taken his suit jacket.
"Take one guess little brother," Mycroft commented snidely.
"I'm assuming that is the Speaker Kingston?" John asked as Sherlock ripped back the sheet, exposing a gruesomely headless body.
"Mmm, I'm so glad that I ate right before we came here," Kylie commented as she stared at the body, grabbing gloves and passing them around, "I'll take it he had a head shot at least thousand meters off? I'm going to guess 0.50 caliber by the amount of damage to the skeleton."
Mycroft raised his eyebrows at her.
"Father is a sniper," she told him with a smile, "And I do my homework."
"He was shot three times," Mycroft said pulling a bag out of his coat pocket, "He was shot three times. No one heard the shot…"
"Sniper," Sherlock commented as he began looking over the body.
"Yes," Mycroft told him, " Speaker Kingston was still under secure watch and private protection from MI5. MI6 was notified as well and before the speech, all surrounding buildings that had a view of Parliament were searched and cleared."
"Which means that Moore and Moriarty have deep roots within MI5 and government," John put together, "Great."
"Bullets?" Sherlock asked, holding out his hand.
His brother hesitated, causing his younger brother to look at him intently.
"I have a serious leak under my command. What you see here and what I tell you, does not leave this room. Am I clear?"
"Crystal," Sherlock told him firmly, staring intently at the bag in his brother's hand.
Mycroft's eyes flicked to his brother's companions.
"Really, Mycroft?" John asked him, "Yes, you can trust Kylie and I."
Mycroft handed his brother the bullets.
"0.50 caliber, just as Miss Gibbs predicted," he told them.
Sherlock looked at the bullets, moving them around in the bag before his eyes went wide and his body stiffened. He looked at his older brother in blatant shock.
"Yes," Mycroft said gravely, leaving both John and Kylie in confusion.
"What?" Kylie asked.
Sherlock ripped the bag open, pouring the three spent bullets onto the evidence tray.
"Normal, 0.50 caliber bullets," Kylie shrugged, not understanding what on earth was so special or shocking about them.
"Look on the back, Miss Gibbs," Mycroft said in a strangely grave voice.
Kylie put a glove on and turned the bullets over, seeing what had made her boyfriend so shocked to begin with.
Symbols were etched into each of the three bullets, but they weren't just any symbols, they were letters… Very specific letters.
I
O
U
"Son of a bitch," John muttered.
"Looks like they wanted to make their message loud and clear," Kylie commented quietly.
"Because blowing the next Prime Minister's head off wasn't subtle enough," Sherlock commented as they all looked at the body, dreading what was about to come down the pipe.
Like they didn't have enough to deal with already…
:D
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