Sherlock paced anxiously in the morgue. He had left Kairi after a well deserved nap and snack. He traded off with Molly and was off with John before Kairi could realize he was gone. He always made sure to kiss her, mutter kind words in her ear, though he couldn't quite vocalize the feelings that reeled within him.
He felt as if he were getting closer to Moran, a creeping suspicion in the back of his mind that made him think that he would soon come from the shadows to make his demands known. When Lestrade had called with a mysterious body, he and John had dropped everything they were doing to go to the morgue.
He was pacing furiously, fingers pressed to his lips as he searched his mind palace, organizing information on Kairi's case, trying to pull in small clues and rearrange them more effectively. He wasn't sure how long he had been doing it, but he was disrupted by John resting a hand on his arm.
"Sherlock, why don't you sit, you've been pacing for what seems like an hour." His face twisted with concern and Sherlock shook his head.
"I must think, John." Sherlock growled and John sighed.
"We can't do much until the body arrives." John reminded him.
"Do shut up," He snarled and began pacing again, "I need to organize the information on this case. I can't very well do that with your stupidity clouding the room."
John scoffed, "Get stuffed you prick." John grumbled and Sherlock gave him a grave look. John rolled his eyes, "Fine, be a cock." John pushed off of the table and made his way through the morgue doors, leaving Sherlock in a unique silence as he catalogued the information.
At this point they were waiting for the body to be transferred, Lestrade had told them not to bother with coming to the crime scene because the body had been deposited in the back alley of Scotland Yard already inside a black body bag and phoned in. There were no direct signs of foul play, but they wanted the coroner to be the one to do the inspection to be sure. Someone was making a statement and Sherlock was sure it was Moran. He was growing bolder in his actions and Sherlock was sure that the monster would slip up soon, allowing Sherlock the perfect opportunity to kill him.
Like Kairi had said, it would only be over when one of them was dead.
Sherlock was determined to see it be Moran.
Though he could barely voice it, he flatly refused to live without Kairi.
He was annoyed at the lack of information and the waiting, but when Lestrade arrived with John at his side, looking shaken, Sherlock was sure that this would be a useful clue.
"File?" Sherlock muttered as Lestrade came forward, an intern rolling in the body bag on a stretcher. Lestrade approached, looking tired already and handed Sherlock the minimal notes about the arrival of the body. No identifying markers, no clothes, fingerprints not in the system, the body was the most drastic John Doe that Sherlock had ever seen. The cameras had been disabled and even if that did not happen, the drop spot was not actually covered, thus it took a call to get the body spotted. The abrasive move to leave a body outside Scotland Yard was audacious. Sherlock felt the tremor in his gut, knowing that this had to be Moran's doing. He only feared how this corpse could relate to Kairi.
Lestrae took the liberty of opening the body bag and exposing the corpse. Sherlock, John, and Lestrade leaned in, not daring to touch it. They knew that whoever they got to do the autopsy would not be forgiving as Molly.
Sherlock eyed the body, inspecting it closely and coming up with very little information. To be truly honest the entire thing looked strange. The skin was obviously cold, signifying the body had been dead for at least a few hours, blood had stopped pumping and the skin looked hard and stiff. It had the slightest sheen to it, almost like sweat beading after a long run, but it was more than obvious to Sherlock, the man had not been doing any strenuous activity for some time.
The face was oddly familiar though it seemed malformed. The skin was almost tightened, twisted slightly and bending in way skin should not bend. Sherlock's eyes ticked across the corpse, burrowing information in his mind so he could ask questions when the pathologist arrived.
"This guy familiar to you two?" Lestrade asked John and Sherlock.
John shrugged, "I dunno, he seems like a normal bloke. Middle aged, decent health. I've got to say though theres something off about him. He's been dead for a while, cold and stiff and all that, but..." John paused looking at Sherlock, "Something is off about this. I mean I haven't inspected him completely, I don't want to fuss with whoever is on call, but this... I feel weird about it."
Sherlock scoffed, "Feelings." He muttered with disdain and John gave him a noncommittal grunt. "I agree John, something seems off. The skin is malformed, almost..." Sherlock flicked his eyes quickly across the face and hair, "Malnourished."
John shrugged, "Decent weight for his height. I don't think he starved to death."
Lestrade coughed, "Nothing about him speaks to me. The scene was completely clean. No tire treads, no trash, just the bag and the body."
Sherlock narrowed his eyes, "When will that blasted pathologist get here." He grumbled, only slightly disappointed that it could not be Molly to help him on the case, she was of much more use sticking with Kairi.
A few minutes later, after a poignant silence between the three, the doors to the morgue finally opened and the pathologist walked in. Sherlock's eyes widened and anger rippled through his chest.
"What are you doing here!? You should be with Kairi." He spat and Molly went wide eyed.
Molly gave him a sharp look, "I moved one of Mycroft's men inside before I left, you buffoon." She walked over to her desk and began rearranging her items so she could begin the autopsy. "Lestrade said this one was odd and requested me. Kairi is just about as safe as the Crown Jewels." She muttered and then looked up at Sherlock who looked pained, "Okay, bad example. She's safer than that Sherlock. No one could possibly get into her home with all of Mycroft's armed guards on high alert." Once she was washed and scrubbed up she approached the table, Sherlock, John and Lestrade at her heels.
She began the process of removing the body bag, delicately this time as it is considered evidence. She put the heavy plastic inside an evidence bag and handed it to Lestrade so they could take a closer look later. Molly adjusted the microphone above the corpse that would allow her to transcribe her notes during the autopsy.
Sherlock watched her, determined and graceful as she began touching the corpse, speaking out her observations while feeling for broken bones or protrusions that could indicate a medical issue. She went from foot to head, her fingers nimbly pressing against the body with a frown on her features.
"This corpse is extremely firm." She muttered as her fingers spanned across his ribs, up his neck and felt across his facial and cranial structure. She placed a hand on his forehead and then pulled back quickly, "Oh my..." She gasped as her hand went back to press against his frontal bone and a large chunk of skin seemed to cave in. She grabbed a scalpel and cut into it, "Dear Lord this is mortician's putty." She looked up at the shocked faces around her. She dug around further, "This is a bullet wound and a large one. Very high caliber." She muttered and dug around using her scalpel to cut away the putty and flesh that was in her way. "Goodness, someone spent a lot of time putting him back together. This ripped right through him. I would think he bled out rather quickly, may have even blown the back of his head clear off, I don't know how they managed to keep him in one piece, but I'll need to wait to thaw him out."
"He's that frozen?" John asked surprised.
Lestrade frowned, "We haven't had any sort of weather yet that could freeze a corpse straight through. Not recently. Can you give me an estimation based on decomp or something?"
Sherlock felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He paused from his investigation, pulling it out and seeing a text from Kairi. He replied cheekily, as he knew it would make her laugh. Lestrade stared at him as if he spouted an extra arm, "We need to wait for him to thaw anyway." He muttered defensively at the inspector who shrugged and backed off with a grin on his lips.
He directed his attention back at Kairi who was texting him and becoming an indelicate distraction. His eyes strayed to Molly as she stood at the top of the victim, glancing at the hole in his head, pressing the skin around it to test for rigidity. She seemed thoughtful.
Sherlock continued to text for a moment and placed his phone back in his pocket, glancing up to meet John's teasing gaze. Sherlock returned the cheeky grin with his dark glare.
Molly shrugged after thinking, "Not until I open him up." Molly eyed the body once more with a frown.
"What is it?" Lestrade muttered.
"John, come here." Molly motioned for the doctor as Sherlock began his own inspection based on Molly's theory.
"What does this look like to you?" Molly asked John as he bent over to inspect the outside of the victim's thigh.
John stared at the patch of discolored skin, "I don't know, a bruise?"
Molly shook her head, "Yeah, looks it doesn't it?" Her tone was speculative. Sherlock rounded the table to inspect what Molly had found.
Thoughtful, Molly stepped towards the head of the victim, inspecting his skull and hair and feeling all sorts of inconsistencies now. She took a moment to really stare at his features, despite them being a bit mudded by death.
"How long will he take to thaw?" John muttered to Sherlock who seemed to be doing the calculation in his head.
"Right, cant we throw him under a heat lamp to speed this up?" Lestrade sort of joked and Molly laughed.
"No not quite." She said distractedly.
"Might damage the organs since we have no idea how he came to be the way he is." Molly sighed. She walked back to inspect the corpse's arms and shoulders while John and Sherlock went back to the patch of discolored flesh.
John and Sherlock looked up from their inspection at the sound of a sharp gasp. Molly's gloved hand was on the victim's face. She was frantically pulling at the skin.
"Molly!" John called to her and ran over, pulling her back from the corpse, "Molly what's gotten into you?" She was pulling away from him slightly, her eyes wide and breathing erratic.
"Sherlock look at his face," She muttered, settling against John, but she was still shaking, "Really look at him!"
Sherlock stepped forward, staring at the skin that Molly had manipulated. His eyes went wide as he looked back at Molly, his chest tight with apprehension, "How is this possible?"
"Who is it?" John added from around Molly.
Molly shook her head nervously, taking a deliberate swallow against the fear in her gut, "I don't know how Sherlock..." She met his eyes that were frantically moving over the corpse. "Glancing at the wounds make me think that it was recent. The skin texture and blood staining from the bullet hole give me concern though. Almost as if I cant tell you if it happened eight hours ago or eight weeks ago and he's just been a big p -," Molly froze and glanced at Sherlock who was staring at her with a reflected moment of clarity, "Oh no..." Molly pulled away to inspect the body again, her fingers more diligent and thorough as she traced every piece of the corpse.
"Who is it!?" Lestrade shouted finally, breaking Molly out of her trance and Sherlock out of his inspection.
Everyone froze and looked to Sherlock and Molly.
"John." Sherlock said, motioning towards the corpse.
John stepped forward, letting go of Molly who stepped back, breathing heavily and thinking. He placed his hands gently on the table and leaned forward, taking in the features of the man lying in front of him; the nose, the cheeks, the chin. He focused harder, trying to piece something together. He stared and stared and stared, using every centimeter of available brain space for processing power. It finally hit him and he stumbled back, the features now becoming cohesive and his gut sank. He leaned against the wall for a moment.
"He's been dead for years. How is he here!?" John finally bellowed at Sherlock who had closed his eyes.
Molly watched as his eyes moved speedily beneath his lids, pulling out relevant information for the corpse at hand. "Liquid Nitrogen?" She directed it at Sherlock.
"No," Sherlock growled, fluttering hands in front of him as he resharpened focus.
"Deep freeze?" Molly added quietly.
Sherlock opened his eyes wide, smiling at Molly and John with a sinister grin, "Closer." He muttered and walked over to the corpse, "Cryopreservation. The more realistic form of cryogenics which has been pushing for a more advanced form of preserving human tissue. People believe it would be able to preserve brain tissue before decomposition, allowing for someone to technically be re-awoken when their death could be reversed or prevented." He rolled his shoulders, staring at the body, "This time it was used a bit too long after certain death of course."
Lestrade sighed, "Will someone tell me who this man-cicle is?"
Sherlock's phone vibrated in the silence and he pulled it out, staring at his phone with a frown, "Detective Lestrade, I'd like to formally introduce you to David Aria." He looked up, for only a moment before glancing back down at his screen with concern, "Kairi's father." He added slowly. His eyes went glassy, unfocused for a moment and then, as Sherlock always did, burst into action, jogging from the room without a word.
John rolled his eyes, "Can you keep us updated on this please?" Molly nodded mouthing 'go' to John Watson who hurried after the consulting detective.
Once he got out of Bart's he glanced around and couldn't see Sherlock anywhere. He hailed a cab as he brought his phone to his ear and called Sherlock. He hopped in the cab and asked for Baker Street and the cabby took off. John cursed when he got a voicemail and stared at his phone willing it to ring with Sherlock on the other line.
He stared at it, mind going blank, except for the burning image of Kairi's father in his mind. How did a more than three year old corpse look almost as fresh as the day it was made? He understood the mention of cryogenics, but John did not have direct knowledge of those capabilities. It was something for science fiction and bad alien movies. He wiped a hand down his face as the cab turned the corner for Baker Street. In a few minutes the cab stopped and he paid the fare. He didn't see a guard outside Kairi's door, but she had probably invited him inside since she never liked to leave them standing there for hours. He took the steps two at a time, getting inside 221B and shouting for Sherlock who did not respond.
He frowned slightly, looking around quickly and then jogged to his room with his phone to his ear as he shouted for Sherlock again. There was no response on the line or from the flat and he went to his desk and opened his drawer.
He was left breathless.
His gun was gone.
"Shit!" John rasped and his phone finally vibrated.
He glanced down at the screen, his heart in his throat at the simple words.
Remember where my heart broke.
A/N
Ugh... I cant even...I've written this chapter and one other. The other still needs to be edited and I hope to get it up by the end of this week...My heart is currently breaking... I feel almost ill...I love my characters and so much stuff is going down...I'm literally exhausted because I couldn't stop writing... Please tell me you'll still love me after you read it...You have to promise me now "because you wont love me when you're finished."
I have to work early tomorrow... I'll try to get more writing done after work... Its really coming to an end...I keep having to remind myself I have a sequel planned...
Please review. I know this chapter seemed a little bit meh... but the rest will probably be a lot to handle... I want to give you guys some reprieve before I ruin your lives... I already know whats happening and i still feel like I'm ruining my own life when I read it...ugh