As Sherlock and John run away from the police and the superintendent orders half of the police to go after them; he orders the others to stay at 221 B. Just in case that they try to contact Zoe and Maddy or try to come back.
"Please," Maddy tells Zoe as they go back into the foyer. "Sherlock is smarter than that; we don't need bobbies watching us."
Zoe shushes her as two police cars are down the street from the front door and two officers are in the back of the building. She closes the door and tells Maddy "First, check on Mrs. Hudson." More than likely the old landlady will be shaken by the events. "And then wait for Sherlock to let us know where to meet him and John." Zoe explains, forming a plan.
"Right," Maddy agrees. They go to Mrs. Hudson's door and Maddy knocks on the door.
Mrs. Hudson opens it and sees the girls. Looking at Zoe, she tells her "Oh dear, it's just all a mix up." Knowing that Sherlock is innocent in all of this mess. "I just know it."
"Of course it is," Maddy says too. "Sherlock would never….maybe I'll fix some tea. Calm the nerves," Wanting to be useful and not wanting to think about the mess right now.
The landlady nods and lets them come in.
As Maddy makes the tea, Zoe sits at the kitchen table, waiting for one of the boys to text them. A few minutes later, Zoe's phone chimes with a new text.
236 King's Row Apt. 2A, Come if convenient. -SH
Another 5 seconds later, she gets another one.
If inconvenient, come anyway. -SH
Zoe sends her own text to him, having a smirk on her face at the way he had sent the text.
Give us 5 minutes to leave, trying to get away from the lap dogs outside. –Zoe
"What's the plan?" Maddy asks excitedly, seeing the smirk on her mate's face.
Smirking at her, Zoe says "Well, they're guarding the front and the back. That only leaves one way out; we're going to the roof."
"Excellent."
"Oh girls, please be careful!" Mrs. Hudson tells them. They're just as bad as the boys!
"We will," Zoe tells her reassuringly. "Please look after yourself."
Mrs. Hudson nods and hugs them. They head to the stairs and go into John's room to get to the roof.
They get to the roof and manage to get to café next door and drop down from the fire escape. Using the back ways, they come to the streets and get a cab.
Zoe and Maddy walk through the front door, which was still open by Kitty Riley when she had walked into earlier to find Sherlock Holmes and John Watson handcuff together. Sherlock looks at them frantically for a minute while John keeps a dangerous eye on Kitty.
"Bloomin' hell, what's going on here?" Maddy asks as she closes the door behind them. They all can feel the tension so thick that she could cut it with a knife.
Zoe sees his reaction to them before he covers it with his cool façade.
"What?" Zoe asks him.
Sherlock looks to Kitty and says "Tell them!"
Looking at the reporter, Zoe asks "Tell us what?" Keeping her voice even.
Kitty sighs and says "That the great detective is as mad as the Hatter. There is no James Moriarty, never has been."
Zoe rolls her eyes to that. Course she would believe the cover story of a university math teacher.
"What Kitty is saying is that James Moriarty is the same as Richard Brook," John clarifies. He did hear the same thing too. "She is saying that we imaged the trial, crimes, everything and have been running around London chasing nothing."
"But it was national news!" Zoe counters.
"Was it? There is nothing in the papers, nothing on the internet….nothing. Surprised you lot haven't been put away yet." Kitty sneers at her.
"You're a liar!" Maddy accuses her. "Professor Brook basically told us who he was the first time we met him."
"And let's not forget about he had broken into a heavily armed place in the middle of the day!" Zoe adds as well.
Kitty shakes her head, "Didn't happen."
"Have you even talked to the police when they had him arrested?" Zoe questions her.
"How utterly convenient. Who is Brook?" Sherlock questions her as well.
It didn't make sense on how she would know about his personal life. Kitty wasn't someone he would trust like John and Zoe.
Kitty shakes her head again, refusing to tell him anymore.
"There are all those furtive little meetings in cafes; those sessions in the hotel room where he gabbled into your Dictaphone. How do you know that you can trust him?" Sherlock continues. "A man turns up with the Holy Grail in his pockets." Then he says sternly. "What were his credentials?"
Outside in the hallway there have been sounds of someone coming in through the main front door. Now Kitty looks towards the door of the flat with a concern look on her face as someone pushes her door open. Sherlock and Zoe turns to follow her gaze as Jim Moriarty, unshaven and with his hair messy and wearing casual clothes including a cardigan; like how Maddy and Zoe sees him on the campus grounds outside of class sometimes, walks in with a shopping bag.
"What…." Zoe mutters as she sees him.
Maddy, John, and Sherlock look at him in shock.
"Darling, they didn't have any ground coffee so I just got normal…" Jim says and he raises his eyes and sees everyone else in the room, including the girls. "Girls, what a….unexpected surprise." He then sees Sherlock and drops the bags and backs away until his bumps into the wall behind him. "Oh…God. Uh, hello."
Zoe just gapes at Moriarty, unable to speak at all.
John's face is full of shock and points to him. He then asks Kitty "So that's your source? Moriarty is Richard Brook?!"
Feeling Maddy looking at her, Zoe glancing back to her and gives her a blank look. Even she doesn't know what is going on.
Moriarty points to John and Sherlock. "Are you friends of Maddy and Zoe? I wasn't expecting guests really but….seems you already know Kitty."
"What are you doing?" Maddy asks Moriarty.
He looks at Maddy confused, not getting the question.
Zoe glances over to Sherlock, silently asking him what is going on.
"I agree with Maddy," Sherlock says. "What are you doing Moriarty?"
"Who?" He asks. "Sorry, never heard that name…Maddy, Zoe; you know who I am."
Zoe takes a step away from him; this was too much for her.
Was this what Moran was talking about, what she had to sacrifice?
"No, you are Moriarty!" John snaps at him. He turns his head briefly and yells at Kitty, "He's Moriarty!" And then turning back to him, "We've met, remember? You were gonna blow me up!"
Still haven't forgotten about the pool, the snipers, and the bomber jacket.
Jim looks at John fearfully and stutters "I….I'm sorry, but I don't…I'm not…"
"Why are you doing this?" Maddy questions him, planning on calling the cops as well.
"No, no!" Jim protests, "I have proof! I have proof, show him; Kitty! Show him something!"
"Yeah, show me something." John scoffs.
Kitty walks across the room, John and Maddy turns to her as she reaches into a bag and pulls out the information. Behind them, Jim has put his hands over his face but now he pulls them down from his eyes a little and looks towards Sherlock, whose own gaze has barely left him since this has started. For a brief moment, he reveals his true self and gives him a mock smile. Sherlock half-smiles back at him, but there's no humor in his eyes. Zoe doesn't see it, still a little shocked at what's going on and more focused on what will be happening next. Trying to predict what will happen.
Kitty takes out a folder and hands it to John and Maddy.
"What is this trash," Maddy says as she flips through it.
As they go through it, Moriarty tries to talk to Zoe.
"Please Zoe, help me understand." He tells her, trying to coax her into talking.
Looking over to Sherlock, Jim pulls her a little away from him. Zoe goes along willing, still thinking.
Zoe is brought out of her thoughts as she feels Sherlock taking ahold the back of her shirt, stopping her from going any further.
"Excuse me, could you not grab my student like that," Moriarty tells him. Still playing the part of the concern teacher.
She can feel Sherlock tense behind her, feeling a slight pressure of her shirt in his hands when he had said that to him; tightening his hold on her.
"Are you sure he's not abusive?" Moriarty asks as he sees the action too.
"No!" Zoe answers him, speaking for the first time. She is taken aback of the idea of Sherlock ever hurting her.
"I just want to make sure," Jim tells her. "You and Maddy are my best students and I…. I just want to look out for you two."
Zoe backs away from him, which was the most disturbing that he's done.
John and Maddy still go through the papers that Kitty has given them.
"This is just diplomas and awards," Maddy says as she reads the ones in her hands.
"Yes, to prove he is nothing more than a teacher." Kitty tells her.
As John flips through his pile, he asks Kitty "How did you find out about him?"
"Met him through online dating," Kitty says as she bats her eyes at Jim.
Maddy and Zoe cringes at that, grossed out that anyone would do that.
"Ew," Maddy comments.
Jim laughs uneasily by the fact of how his relationship is being talked about. John looks unsettled by the change of topic.
"So, are you satisfied now?" Kitty asks.
"Yes," Zoe says sarcastically.
"Good," She says right back with the same bite in her tone. "Then go."
"We're not going till we figure out how a university professor knows about Sherlock who has 'supposedly' NEVER met!" Zoe says stubbornly.
"Everyone knows Sherlock Holmes," Jim says and picks up a paper where one of Sherlock's cases is on the front page.
"No, that's just speculation," Zoe corrects him and walks over to him; putting the dots together. "You would have to know inside information on him if you 'claimed' to know him."
Jim gives her a curious look, but Kitty interrupts them "Right, I have had enough! Get out," She tells them and starts to push them out the door and then she shuts the door.
They walk out into the road and then John asks "Can he do that? Completely change his identity; make you the criminal and she can sell the story like that?" Seeing Sherlock begging to pace rapidly back and forth in the middle of the road.
"She is a journalist and he is a criminal tosser," Maddy says as she stands on what she believes. "Together, they can do as they please. Am I right, Sherlock?"
"He's got my whole life story. That's what you do when you sell a big lie; you wrap it up in the truth to make it more palatable." Sherlock says, backing up what Maddy had just said.
"Your word against his," John says as well.
"He's been sowing doubt into people's minds for the last 24 hours," Sherlock continues to talk out loud while pacing.
"The trial, it's been international news as well." Zoe counters. Maybe they can use that to their advantage.
Maddy looks it up on her phone. "I can't find anything about it anywhere," She tells them.
Zoe walks over to her, "How is that possible?"
Jessica would've been asking her questions about it, since she is majoring in journalism. It was odd that her friend didn't ask her about it when she was talking to her about it.
"There's only one thing he needs to do to complete his game, and that's to…" Sherlock stops dead as he makes the realization.
John, who had continued to go through the folder, looks up at him who is turned away from them. Zoe glances over to him as well, hearing him stop speaking in mid-sentence as Maddy continues to search on line via phone. Even Maddy notices his pausing too.
"You're hesitating….why are you hesitating?" Maddy asks him. "That's not good Holmes, what does he need?"
"Sherlock?" John asks.
"Something I need to do," He states.
"What? Can we help?" John asks again.
"No- on my own." Sherlock responds and briskly walks away.
John watches him, sighing.
"So he's just going to swan off without us?" Maddy asks, tired of Sherlock's mood swings.
Looking down at the papers again, John looks up to them and says "You two go home. I need to take care of something."
"John…" Maddy says to him. Not him too!
"The cops will be looking for us," He reasons with her. "It was dangerous enough when you two came out here on your own."
Maddy walks over to him and gives him a tight hug. Kissing his cheek, she tells him "Just be careful."
Hugging her back, he says "I will."
John heads off in the opposite direction, leaving Zoe and Maddy on the road. They make their way back to 221 B.
It was going to be a long night.
Molly comes out of a small side room in one of the labs, switching off the lights and walks across the darken lab; sighing tiredly. As she reaches for the door to the corridor, Sherlock is standing in the darkness behind her with his face turn away from her. She doesn't see him as she reaches for the door handle.
"You're wrong, you know." He speaks.
Molly gasps and jumps, spinning around towards him.
"You do count. You've always counted and I've always trusted you."
Sherlock has counted on Molly and still does after Zoe came into his life. She was the one person that didn't make him feel like a freak and for that; he did count her as a friend.
Turning his head to her, Sherlock says "But you were right. I'm not okay."
"Tell me what's wrong." Molly tells him.
Did something happen to Mrs. Hudson, John, Maddy, or Zoe? Was that why he's acting like this?
He slowly starts to walk to her. "Molly, I think I'm going to die."
"What do you need?"
"If I wasn't everything that you think I am- everything that I think I am- would you still want to help me?" Sherlock asks as he continues to slowly approach her.
Sherlock didn't want Zoe to know about this, even if she is good as him; she can't know about what he's going to do. Not when it can save her life. Sherlock always knew that both he and Moriarty would die.
Ignorance is bliss.
Molly gazes up at him as he stops close to her.
"What do you need?" She repeats herself.
Stepping even closer to her, his expression is intense.
"You."
Oh God, sorry about the month long wait! But you know the routine; life, personal drama, school, and job. Since I still have school for the next week (till Thanksgiving holidays), I'm buckling down till all of my projects and finals are over. And sorry for not having all the lines from when they had met kitty again and the shortness of the chapter. Had to change it a little to add zoe and maddy.
on that same thought- happy early turkey day to my fellow American readers! =)
also, 50th anniversary of the Doctor! XD
so this is a little doctor who present to celebrate the day! (going to go see it in the theaters with my sister this mon.! =D )
I know that I've been getting messages of what maddy looks like. So thed0ct0r-d0nna has said that her character is an older version of Georgie Henley (lucy from Narnia).
p.s.- what did you all think of zoe almost figuring out moriarty? Coming pretty close to the truth, right?