"Eh?" Was the first pseudo-word to come out of my mouth. I was heavily drugged yet it didn't feel good. I had been extubated and my throat was dry down to my stomach.
"Sherlock," Mrs. Hudson cooed.
"John?" I coughed and felt my chest rattle.
"He's with Rosie and the dogs. It's all going to be fine," she said, brushing away my hair.
"Did I die… again?"
"Only for a bit. You do have a touch of pneumonia though so they've kept you under," she said.
"For how long?"
"Two weeks," she said.
"Two weeks!" I repeated. I shot up in bed.
"Sherlock, don't get up! You're still attached!"
I tore off the monitors and removed the oxygen. I was about to remove the catheter as well before the doctor burst in.
"Allow me!" she insisted.
"If you must!" I fell back into bed. "God!" I shouted. "You allowed them to keep me sedated for two weeks?!"
"Sherlock, quiet down, there are other people you know," Mrs. Hudson said.
"Oh God!" I wailed, remembering what brought me here in the first place. I hacked up a lung and felt a tightness in my chest. "I've got to get out of here!" I got up from my bed and felt a draft up my backside. I hobbled to the door despite Mrs. Hudson's and the doctor's protest.
I nearly made it halfway down the hall before I saw him.
"You!" I shouted and immediately had another coughing fit. I clutched my chest and clumsily stumbled towards him. When I was within arms reach, I grabbed him by his collar and shook him. "You did this!"
"Eh?" he asked.
"Don't play dumb!" I held onto him for balance.
"I'm here to see how you're doing," he said.
"You knew."
"Knew what?"
I looked him square in the eye. "You knew Gregson was my brother!"
"He's what?"
"Ok, you didn't know, because you're an idiot, but you were sleeping with him!"
"Erm…" Lestrade said uncomfortably.
"I knew it!" I said, pushing him away. "How could you?"
"He's your brother?"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"He told me not to tell anyone! Especially not you. I thought… I don't know… that he was just not out to anyone."
"Of course not! He plans to extort my family for money!"
"Are you sure?"
"No! I'm not," I admitted, frustrated at myself for not seeing it clearly before. "I'm not sure of anything anymore. I need to…"
I took a seat on the floor, it was freezing cold on my bare bottom.
"You think maybe he was just curious to know you? Before he'd go extorting you?"
"Shut up, Lestrade. I need to think about my life thus far."
So my father had an illegitimate child. We were born approximately around the same time, meaning he planned to leave my mother, and stayed with her when he found out about me. Tobias grew up, estranged from the family, lived a seemingly normal life, and recently found out he was a bastard. He used his skills as a detective to investigate his new found family so he could use this information to his advantage if he chose to do so.
"No it doesn't make sense. Too many variables would be left up to chance," I thought out loud.
"He wasn't assigned to that double homicide case in Crawley," Lestrade said. "It's technically outside of his precinct." My head throbbed. Lestrade kneeled on the floor beside me. "He was the one that reached out to me and said we should meet up. I had no idea, Sherlock."
"Why is everyone in my family a psychopath?"
"I don't think he is. I think he was trying to get a feel of the situation."
"By getting a feel of you?" I asked, pushing him away.
"It was one night. That's all."
"He seduced you for information about me and my family."
"He did ask about you… come to think of it… was that all it was?"
"How could you be such an idiot?" I sneered.
"If it makes you feel any better, the sex wasn't all that grand. It was like… well to be frank it was like sleeping with your other brother… not that I have… nor would I want to."
I abhorred the thought.
"Why would you tell him about me?" I placed my head in my hands.
"He's a detective, I trusted him," he shrugged.
It was back to trust again. He'd trust a stranger but not me.
"It is an odd way to go about learning summat. Don't you think? It'd be easier to search Google," Lestrade quipped.
"You're more intimately involved with me. At least, you are now. The only way he could get any closer is if he slept with John. Which I know he wouldn't have done because John's at least loyal and a far better friend."
"Sorry?"
"You and your sorries. It's too late for that! Don't you see the mess I'm in?"
"Even if Gregson plans on extorting you and taking revenge on your family, he's really got nothing on you."
"Doesn't he though? He's worked himself very close to me and has one piece of vital information that can bring us both down."
"What is that?"