I don't own Sherlock, just having some fun.
All mistakes are my own.
Chapter 51
Sherlock and Mycroft were huddled over the same piece of paper at the desk, each taking a chair and leaning over. Greg watched them as they worked, he had never seen the two of them work together, most of the time Mycroft would be complaining and worrying over Sherlock, while Sherlock would be just complaining about his brother's involvement in his life. Their relationship was animosity at best and pistols at dawn at the worst. Greg couldn't help but think what would happen if the two of them got along, what they could do together. He knew that the two work in very different ways, both were genius' and both did something they enjoyed, he couldn't fault them for that.
"Got it," Sherlock said as he placed the last letter that they had into the square, there were five combinations that hadn't been used, meaning that five letters weren't in the wall of text he had gotten.
"What does it say?" Greg asked as he got up from the sofa and walked over.
"I need to figure out the order first," Sherlock said as he looked over to his elder brother and waited for him.
"Well, I got the substitute code sorted," he said, his voice calm and smooth as he added, "Sherlock backwards, from s to z. And each letter from the rest of the alphabet going to each one, also backwards. With that, we got the name James Moriarty, but with doubles on some letters, it took a moment for me to remember that it's the correct order, so," he paused as he handed over a piece of paper with everything on it, "here."
Sherlock nodded and took it from him, he was about to start translating it when the phone rang. He looked at it and wondered what had happened, his heart had leaped into his throat at the sound and with a slightly shaking hand he reached out and picked it up. "It's a video file, not message," he told them as he then transferred it to the laptop and pressed play. Mycroft and Greg both moved behind him, to watch.
The three of them watched in horror as Moriarty poured salt into his hand and put it on John's back. Sherlock flinched as he heard John cry out in pain as it hit the open wounds on his back, Mycroft and Greg both placed a hand on each of Sherlock's shoulders, hoping to give him some comfort as they watched as Moriarty put more and more salt all over John's back.
"Oh, poor Johnny," the Moriarty on screen laughed as they watched John slump a little in the restraints. He walked towards the camera, as though he could see Sherlock as he spoke quietly, "Well Sherlock, I do hope you enjoyed the show, I'm trying to take care of your pet, but I'm not a doctor, and please do hurry up, it's almost time for more punishment for your failures." He laughed a little more as the screen went black as the video ended.
Sherlock was shaking when the video ended as he brought his hands to run over his face. As though he was trying to get rid of the images from his mind. He heard the echoes of the cries of his partner as he was tortured with the salt. He could see that John was weakened, in pain and becoming ill with all that he had gone through so far.
Guilt began to claw at his stomach as he thought of when Moriarty had first shown himself to him, how he had enjoyed and thrived on the game they had played. He had enjoyed it until he had come face to face with John in the swimming pool. Now all he felt was guilt, guilt for enjoying it, guilt for wishing someone like that to come along, guilt for John being dragged into it.
Worry was the next emotion that was making itself known to the Consulting Detective. The worry for how long John could hold out., Hold long it will take Sherlock to find him. Worry about how John will be when they found him, and there was a tinge of hope, that it would be over soon and John would once again be home, back at Baker Street, where he belonged.
Sherlock ran a hand over his face once more and picked up his pen, pushing the images that he had seen to the back of his mind as best as he could. He knew that it would be something that he would never be able to delete from his mind and he couldn't help the small shudder run through him as he thought of what Moriarty had in store for John as the days went by. He quickly started translating the wall of text he had been given and sighed a little, he was just glad that there was a lot of it since it helped make the code easier to solve.
"Done," he said almost ten minutes later. He looked at his brother and friend as he picked up the phone and began a text to Moriarty, with the answer.
Fourty Two is a most important number Sherlock but you will have to figure out why - SH - Sent 12:31 pm
"So what is it?" Greg asked as he went over and looked over the younger man's shoulder he read the writing and then asked, "What does it mean?"
"I think that it might have something to do with finding John, it's as though he is giving me a number of separate clues that all together will help me find John. Though why he spelled forty differently I don't know." He said his voice devoid of emotion as he tried his best not to think of what John was going through.
"Could mean four on its own, or just there to confuse us," Mycroft said as he looked to the translated text.
Sherlock nodded, "I know."
"Then we make sure to keep that in mind as we look at places," Mycroft said, his voice almost soothing as he looked at his younger brother, he wished that he could have done more to help other than be at Baker street, so far he had Anthea working on it, but had no word so far.
Sherlock nodded to him as he remained silent. It didn't take long for it to be broken as the phone on the table began to ring. They each looked at it and knew exactly who it was.
Thank you for the wonderful reviews, and I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter as well.
