Ahhhh, almost done! Second last chapter and I have a feeling things will be thrown at me once you read this chapter. I KNOW YOU GUYS WANT A HAPPY ENDING BUT PAIN COMES FIRST, I APOLOGISE NOW.
Chapter 34; At the Top of Her Lungs
Midnight couldn't come soon enough for Sherlock as he waited at the top of the building overlooking the Thames. He couldn't help but remember standing with Maria at the end of the pier and giving her the Angel that hadn't left her bedside since. He sighed softly and turned hearing the door of the staircase open.
"Moriarty." He said, in his usual cold and calculating voice as he took a step forwards. However Moriarty hung back in the shadows, though his Cheshire cat grin seemed to glow in the darkness.
"Did you have fun solving my puzzles?" He asked, watching Sherlock carefully, like a hawk and its prey.
"It's been you all along, every case since Maria returned." Sherlock said quietly and Moriarty only seemed to grin wider.
"You are clever you, not that it was really hard to figure out I mean, come on. You don't have to be a genius to see that I'm the only fun you've had lately. She wasn't very good was she?" He mocked with another wide grin before he finally took a step out of the shadows. He watched as Sherlock stiffened slightly, however didn't comment.
"A consulting criminal, how quaint." He said finally causing Moriarty to grin again.
"I know right. People come to me with all their problems and I make them go away. Or I help them in seeking revenge." He said waving his hands around before smirking again. "And you, you're smart, you understand. But you're boring; you're on the side of the angels." He slowly advanced upon Sherlock who gave a flicker of a grin.
"I may be on the side of the angels, but never mistake me for one. If you wish for me to shake hands with you in hell I won't hesitate to go now."
"Oooh, I wouldn't be so quick to say that…" He said as he walked a circle around Sherlock before snapping his fingers. The door to the staircase opened again and out walked the last sight on earth Sherlock needed right now.
Maria came stumbling out. She'd been stuffed into a horrid red dress that clashed with her hair which was awkwardly swept up into a bun, bits falling down and around her face. He makeup was smeared, her eyes red and mascara was running down over her cheeks, her lips pained blood red, probably her blood from the look of her and the cut across her temple that was bleeding down over her eyebrow. Her hands were cuffed in front of her, but she still managed to stand with some dignity, which was probably all she had left.
"What did you do to her?" Sherlock asked, hiding any pain the sight was bringing him.
"I did nothing except put her in that dress. I gave her to my men, and said 'Have fun'. If you think she looks bad you should see what she did to my men. But this sight pains you doesn't it? People are always so fond of their pets."
Despite her condition Maria managed to spit blood in Moriarty's direction.
"I am no pet!" She said angrily. "I could have done much worse to your men if it weren't for this ridiculous dress! I know I wouldn't have stopped at maiming."
A small smiled cracked Sherlock lips. That was the woman he loved, the fighter who never gave up.
"You thought kidnapping her would give you some advantage over me?" Sherlock asked, turning on Moriarty.
"Well, yeah." He said simply before going over to Maria and grabbing her shoulder. "You said so yourself, you painted a target on her back."
He pulled Maria around so her back was to Sherlock. He was horrified and enraged which what he saw. Across her back Moriarty had taken the liberty to carve an 'X' into the flesh of her back that was revealed by the dress.
"You did that to her." Sherlock said in a low menacing tone.
"No, you did."
With ease, Sherlock had Moriarty by his shirt and was half dangling him backwards over the edge of the building over the depths of the Thames. In this moment it almost seemed that Donovan's predictions about the man might come true. Maria knew better though.
"No don't!"
"Maria look at what he's done to you! Tortured you and permanently scarred you! He is not worth my time." Sherlock declared and Moriarty giggled.
"If you think killing me will save you then go ahead. By just know, I ordered my men to kill your friends if I die alone here."
"Die alone?" Sherlock's voice lowered to the point where Maria couldn't here anymore but she didn't dare move, Moriarty's words stuck in her mind.
"Just a little insurance to make sure I keep living or I take you with me." He warned, his voice filled with venom.
"So Mrs Hudson, Lestrade and Maria will all die if I throw you over alone?" Sherlock asked, his voice only a whisper. Moriarty smirked and nodded.
"Now you understand."
Maria's limbs had stopped responding as she listened intently to find out what they were talking about. That was when Sherlock slowly pulled Moriarty back to his feet. Then he turned to look at her. There was something in his eyes, those familiar storm clouds that crossed whenever he was hiding his emotions from her. He pulled his phone from his pocket and threw it to her. She caught it surprised.
"Goodbye Maria."
He turned back around and grabbed Hold of Moriarty before he dragged them both off the edge.
'I can purge the world of Moriarty and no-one else has to die, not Mrs Hudson, not Lestrade, and certainly not Maria.'
His last thoughts echoed through his head as he hit the cold water.
"No!" Maria let out the ear piercing shriek as she watched them tumble off the side. She wanted to run to the side, wanted to throw herself after them, to pull him back up and slap him senseless but her body couldn't move, she couldn't move!
Finally, after being paralysed with her fear, her limbs started responding and she sent a message to Lestrade, using Sherlock's phone, telling him where she was and that he wanted him to come straight away, not giving any details. When Lestrade finally arrived he found the woman in shambles, sobbing into the ground. He managed to release her from the handcuffs and held her as she proceeded to sob once again. He could only wonder what had happened there for the woman, the woman who not only held herself with such grace and dignity to be reduced to a weeping mess on the ground. He took her back home, not willing to present her as a target for mockery from Anderson and Donovan who both held the woman in the same contempt as Sherlock.
Mrs Hudson came fluttering in at the sound of Lestrade trying his best to make Maria something to drink, before shooing him away to do it herself. They all sat around the table.
"Maria, tell me what happened." Lestrade finally asked after the woman had showered, changed and managed to stop crying.
"It's Sherlock; Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, he's dead." Maria managed to choke out before biting her lip softly. "He made a meeting with Moriarty, our infamous picture sender….and…and…they fell off the building into the Thames…"
Lestrade looked horrified as Mrs Hudson began to weep and came around the table to hug Maria. The woman replied in kind, holding the older woman.
"How?" Lestrade questioned and Maria sighed.
"I told you, he fell off the building into the Thames. He…he obviously knew something I didn't but now the world's only consulting criminal and consulting detective…are dead. I want his body recovered Lestrade, I want to bury him."
"I'll see to it…" Lestrade said, running a hand through his hair before standing up. He took Mrs Hudson off Maria's hands and led her downstairs leaving the woman alone in the apartment. Tears started down her face again.
"How could you do this to me?" She asked the silent apartment before she collapsed onto the floor and blacked out.
The next few weeks passed in a haze for Maria and before she knew it, she was standing in front of a polished headstone, Mrs Hudson next to her speaking quietly and rapidly.
"…Up at four am with his crackpot experiments and putting bullet holes in my bloody wall…"
"Mrs Hudson, can I have a moment?" Maria said, cutting across her banter. Mrs Hudson blinked then nodded and started making her way back to the gate of the cemetery. Maria sighed and absently fiddled with the ring on her finger as she bit her lip. She sighed heavily.
"You know….you promised you'd always protect me, you promised…" She muttered softly, shaking her head slightly. "Just for me, Sherlock just for me, don't be this. Don't…don't be dead." Biting back a sob she reached out and placed a gentle hand on top of the gravestone, running her fingers gently across the top. She then turned and headed for the gate. What would she do now? Her love, her life, her protector, her saviour, her everything was now dead and cold and six feet under.
What was she supposed to do now?
So...please don't kill me for making that chapter painful, this story does have a happy ending..if that's to be believed. But I'm also thinking about writing a companion piece to this, probably going into more depth about all their exploits as children, it'll be explained better in the notes at the end of the final chapter. But as always, tell me what you think about where this story has gone and weather I should think about writing this accompanying piece :)
*edit* I also apologise about the little edits I'll be doing, for some reason it doesn't like me putting in little squiggly bits to separated where a chuck of time has been taken out~ So I'll be bolding all my comments so you know what's story and what's me blabbering on :)