"Sir Jeffrey Patterson." Katherine hummed, arms cross over her chest with one hand holding the remote as she stood behind the Lucy leather couch in the middle of the living room.

"Businessman, husband…successful…happy…" Jim trailed off, a smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth as he watched the television screen eagerly. "Hard to believe he took his own life." From where he stood, a couple of steps away but in front of her, He turned to flash her a sinister grin and chuckled under his breath.

"Do you want everything we can get on him?" She asked, watching him wearily as he approached her.

As he got closer, Jim slowed his movement until his face was close, his mouth merely inches away from her cheek. Though there was never any real contact. With his hands in his pockets, he just inhaled her scent, the same scent which intoxicated him as he slept by her side each night.

"No, he doesn't matter." Jim shook his head gently before continuing past her. "But do tell me if anything dear Sherlock does is off pattern." Katherine almost scoffed then as she dropped the remote onto the sofa and turned on her heal to follow her husband.

Everything that detective did was off pattern. Just when they though they had him figured, he'd turn left instead of right. He'd prefer warm over cold, he's had a sudden distaste for his favourite area of London, his enemies would become friends. With Sherlock, they didn't know what was coming or how to predict his next move…apart from Jim. Jim somehow knew what was coming with each passing day. It was like he was perfectly tuned in to the sociopaths ways, down to his inbuilt processing decided by nature and adrenaline. He knew when his plans would change, when he would fail and when he would conquer. It was almost creepy, but that was just Jim, it was what he was good at. He didn't get where he was by being blind to people ignorance and habits.

"I'll have surveillance upped on him in that case." She tried to stay on his coat tails as he walked quickly through the house, towards his office.

"Hmm…" His tone wasn't right, something was off. He sounded too…innocent. "While we're on that topic actually…" Stopping suddenly, Moriarty turned with an innocent smile. "I might get your feet on the ground." He didn't come close this time but stayed with his feet planted to the ground.

"What do you mean?"

"You still talk to Sherlock Holmes?" With a quirk eyebrow, Jim's question caused her to frown.

"Not regularly." Katherine's shoulders shrugged heavily. The man had no appeal to her anymore, not since all her work suddenly started to revolve around him. There was no mystery or intrigue, he didn't temp her in to talk to him or tease him, he was boring.

She had expected Jim to become bored not long after her, after all he wasn't known for his attention span. But the detective failed to fall, through a Jim's eyes he could do no wrong. And at times that worried her, for it was beginning to seem that the closer Jim crawled towards Sherlock, the less she seemed to matter.

Not that she was jealous. Poppycock, that was stupid. Jealous of a man. But she missed the attention, and she missed being his sole project.

With Katherine's eyes focused on the floor, Jim finally stepped forward and took her chin between his fingers, lifting it. "There's going to be another body soon. He's going to get suspicious. I want you on the ground, I want you as my eyes." Through narrowed eyes he watched for her reaction, but it was minimal, a mere crease in her brow.

"Okay."

"You think you can handle that?"

Suddenly her brow quirked, and with a stiff upper lip, she snarled. "You doubt me?" Jim grinned before laughing and wiggled his finger out in front of him, for her to follow him.

"Never." He turned, his steps never faltering and continued down the hallway as Katherine's heel clicked behind him. "I'm also going to start giving you some lessons, like the good old days. I need you to know the business inside and out, I need you to be my back up." He could see her reaction this time and Jim scolded himself for letting that happen, though he knew just what she would doing. First, her lips would pout as she became confused, then her nose would wrinkle with worry, then her tongue would run along her teeth as her mouth open to let out a squeaky pitch from curiosity.

"What for?"

A smirk of satisfaction covered his face, just as they both entered his office. Once Katherine entered, Jim closed the door behind "Dark times are rolling in darling. Someone needs to know where I hide the keys should I fall." Instantly, she spun around on the spot to stare at him with as much serious as she could muster from within her petite little body.

"Don't speak like that, its morbid."

Jim's hand encircled her waist, pulling their chests together. "That's life, precious." As he took her hand, she tried to recoil from him and from their topic of conversation, but he held it tight and raised her wrist to his lips. "Not that I plan for it to happen, but it's always a possibility…" Jim's voice trailed off, while his hand let go of hers and moved to rest over the gunshot wound on her shoulder, hidden by the thin fabric of her dress. Unconsciously, his other hand tightened around her waist and his eyes darkened but his words were a dark reminder of the true which threatened them every day.

They weren't safe, no one was safe, and their name was tarnished and people were constantly seeking revenge and power. But it was only going to become a greater danger, things were never going to get better. He would do all he could to make sure no one ever got to him, nor did anyone get to Katherine but there as always a threat and he had put too much work into everything for it to all die with him.

"Still, I would rather not think about such events." Katherine peeled his hand away from her shoulder and, with a small smile, straightened his skull print tie. "Not that I am not flattered to be you successor."

"Well…Sebastian doesn't have the looks. At least your only a minor step down."

She was great fuel for his jesting as it provided a much wanted distraction from the topic of conversation but no matter how much she tried she could not picture anything but that day now. It was unavoidable, like she had said to Mr Hope, death is imminent. But should Moriarty fall, it would be like the Berlin Wall crumbling around her. There would be no one to protect her, no one to hide her, no one to keep her alive…she would become a deer in a forest of hunters.

Jim saw her eyes searching beyond his own thoughts, and after clearing his throat, he removed himself from her and attended to his desk. There she still stood, doe eyed and worried, but at least it was not directly bothering him.

"So…when do lessons start?" Katherine asked after noticing her was not going to follow on from his teasing.

"Tonight. Confidential stuff, best to do it when there are less ears tuned in." Most of the staff went home at 9. It wasn't that they weren't trusted, but he trusted his men more. "I want your full attention, spend the rest of the day as you wish. I'll call for you at 9."

"Very well…" Jim turned away to work but Katherine failed to move. The air felt too thick to do so, her Jimmy Choos stuck to the shining oak floor beneath her.

"What is it?" Sensing that he was already growing impatient of her, she shook her head and smiled gently.

"Nothing." But her weak voice betrayed her, making Moriarty's frown grow deeper. "I'll be home if you need me." Hurriedly, Katherine left her husbands office before he could notice her faultering breath or busy thoughts, though she doubted her was oblivious to it all.

She had never even thought of the possibility before, that one day he may not be there for her. That one night he could not return home, he would not crawl into bed beside her in the early hours of the morning. There would be no one to scream at her when she stepped out of line, nor a hand around her throat when she failed to meet his expectations. Where would work go? Where would she go? What would their empire become? She feared the answer was nothing. Even with lessons, she didn't have the strength to be him.

"Mrs Moriarty?" A small voice from down the hallway made her jump from her thoughts. It was just one of the staff, probably needing something mundane approved. But they had caught her in a week moment, leaning against the wall with one hand resting over her stomach, eyes staring dead ahead.

Before she even considered trying to hide her state, Katherine cleared her threat and stood up straight. "Yes?"

"All of the rooms upstairs have been cleaned, would you like work to begin downstairs or in the garden." If was mid-October. No one used the garden anymore but it was still kept immaculate. Her old self would have laughed and asked why anyone would bother tending to bare branches and welded roses, but now it was all just a matter of keeping up appearances.

"Downstairs." It was raining outside, she would be kind for a change and delay their drenching until closer to home time. "Please…" It didn't take long for the girl to nod her head and turn but Katherine wasn't done yet, as a thought came to her so she called out what she hoped was the girl's name. "Miranda, where is Sebastian Moran?" Even if it wasn't her name, she stopped and smiled gently, facing her mistress.

"In the front room I believe, miss. Would you like me to get him for you?"

"No, it's quite alright. I'll find him, thank you." Once again, Miranda turned and Katherine waited until she was out of sight before following, ready to seek out a sniper.

Manners were not a rare display from Katherine Moriarty, they were in fact much more common from her than Moriarty. But the staff could always easily tell her mood by her manners, when she was soft with them it normally meant she was sad or thinking. When she was harsh, her husband had normally raised his hand or or done something against his wishes. When she was sharp but polite, moving quickly through their orders, she was normally happy. Recently, the latter had not been witnessed by anybody and her mood was always drifting between deep thought or anger. Since she returned from that strange week long absence, during which no one had been permitted to say her name under the order of the head of staff, she had not been…herself. Whoever that was.

She was oblivious to it all herself of course, only the staff noticed, but they dare not utter a word to each other about their observations. If they did there was a risk of Mr Moran finding out, or worse, the boss. So they kept their heads down and got on with their work, just like they did any other day, no matter what happened. They treated it like a private hotel at at the end of the day they went home and told their family's that's all they worked for. A wealthy couple running a private spa and retreat for other wealthy couples…

That's what Sebastian advised then to do when they were enrolled. Not that he treated the home like a retreat, that afternoon for example he sat in the front room cleaning his hand gun with the news playing out on the television behind him.

He noticed her presence in the doorway before she could even fully be seen, her thin petite figure sending a shiver down his spine until he sat up straight and raised his head to look at her. Upon merging his eyes, Katherine smiled though it didn't fully reach her eyes.

"Sebastian… you know our whereabouts better than I." Her hips swayed as she entered the room fully. "Are we anywhere near that shooting range? Remember the one-"

"From years ago?" He interrupted her slow questioning with a frown and sat back after laying his gun on he table. "Maybe an hour or so in the car. Why?" In reply, she seemed to chuckle at herself.

"Jim has no work for me until 9 tonight…it's only 10am." Katherine gave a hinting smile and shrugged her right shoulder, almost shyly. She felt silly for some reason, asking to go and shoot something but she needed to get out the house and not for something as silly as shopping. She wanted to do something. "I thought practise would be useful…being back out and about…"

"Does the boss know of this idea?" Sebastian asked with a shallow sigh, though her request was of no nether to him there was still an unnoticed awkwardness between Jim and himself when it involved Katherine…especially Katherine alone in Seb's presence. Although Moriarty seemed to have moved past his childish remarks, Sebastian still didn't want to loose his head y overstepping the unmarked line.

"No…but I could ask him. He said to go about as I wished."

With a small smile, Sebastian shook his head as he stood from his chair and quickly started to reassemble his hand gun. "I'll ask Jim." He spoke sharply before gesturing towards the stairs behind her. "Go get changed, they have a combat area and you need to start building your strength and self defence back up."

With a wide smile taking over her face, finally causing a shine through her eyes, Katherine nodded once and then rushed off, but not before shouting over her shoulder. "I'll meet you outside, by the car."

"Good, take a break." With a grunt, Katherine dropped her arms to her side and threw the unloaded, hot gun onto the stand she stood behind.

"Seb, can I ask you something?" She said, reaching for her water. The man was sat off to the side, watching her and making comments when needed…the one to come was not needed.

"You just did." Her smirk, hidden by the bottle of water, in partnership with her sweaty brow and casual clothes, made her look far more powerful than she was. It made her look like the master of operations, not the pretty little mask to it. It always caught him off guard, her look, not a lot of people with her original mindset and look made it so far, normally they were week…normally they were good little girls.

"Sherlock Holmes…what is this great plan?" The sudden question shook Sen out of his thoughts and threw him into a deep ponder.

"Your guess is as good as mine Katherine. Jim tells me just as much as he tells you, when he tells you." Their boss wasn't well known for his fondness of sharing…or his trust. And with this case he seemed to be having difficulty even sharing with the two people he was closest with.

The sniper didn't know where he needed to be until he was already too late to get there on time. And Katherine, he could only imagine how Katherine's day developed. A morning of free time would quickly fall into a full week of sleepless nights and fact finding.

"What's going to happen?" Looking at her, Seb noticed the small crease in her brow and frowned himself. "To Jim? You're his personal guard, surely he had briefed you on what danger he intends to put himself in?" His words from earlier in the day had haunted her, even through the endless gunshots which she hoped would clear her mind.

"Not this far in advance." Serbs eyes watched her closely as Katherine returned to the stand and placed her feet in the mastered positions for aiming right. "But I do know he plans to starts deeper lessons with you tonight, maybe you'll learn something then?"

"Maybe…" Her shoulders heavily shrugged as she reached to pick up the gun. But after her hand wrapped around it, she seemed to hesitate. Katherine swallowed hard and then chuckled under her breath. "You know what is funny? I should have had a child by now." The barrel of the gun was clicked out, ready to load, but Seb was too busy watching her face. "They would have been 6 months old, whoever they were."

"Katherine." She didn't listen. She didn't even stop to consider listening to him.

"After this "storm"…this "big plan"…life still won't ever be normal will it?" Katherine loaded the bullets into the revolver, then flipped the barrel back into a gun with a motion that looked too normal on her. "We'll come out of it, move on, and Jim will find the next distraction. That's all Sherlock Holmes is anyway, a distraction." She raised her arms to extend towards the target, gun held with an expert grip.

"You knew that from day one."

Katherine's stance faltered, locked elbows falling the slightest amount as her jaw fell to point towards the dirty floor. She had known that, maybe not from day one but definitely since the early days. When being Jim's girlfriend was an unexpected and sudden development in her life, when she was still getting over the shock of all that had happened and when she was still picking another persons dried blood from beneath her fingernails.

"I know but…I'm being stupid…" Shaking her head, Katherine straightened the gun in front of her and kept both eyes open to aim.

"Once you've tasted a slice, you want the whole cake?"

Her finger begged to squeeze the trigger, but she kept it at bay long enough to answer Seb without taking her eyes off the target. "I want something…I just don't know what that is yet." Normality, that wasn't it. Serenity? Safety? Maybe she just wanted to be able to sleep brought the night again without waking to peek through the curtains at the dark fields around them, hiding danger.

"You've been out the game." She could here the reassurance in his tone, but she pushed it away and out of her head. She refused to be weak, she refused to accept sympathy. "You've not been out acting all high and mighty by Jim's side, you've been hidden. Give it a couple of weeks, see what Jim has planned. You'll come to love it again."

Would she? She almost scoffed, thin lips turning up at the edges into a muted sneer. She was starting to question whether she had ever loved it. Maybe once, just after the we're married when the worst was over with and she though there only lay green lights ahead. Maybe she had enjoyed the power and the riches, her lucky number had come up. That's what she thought. But looking back now she struggled to locate one fine memory, a one which had her chest tightening and her eyes lighting up. There wasn't nothing but pain and anger and…loss.

Licking her lips, Katherine released a large breath of hot air and rolled her shoulders back. "I will if I get to shoot something…"

Sensing her mood, Sebastian gave up and patted his hands on his knees before standing to begin packing the bags up.

"It's getting late, one more round and we have to go."

"Deal." Following her words, a loud shot shattered the room. Then another. Then another.

"Mr James Dillon…his father, Dr A Dillon…father to the deceased Mr G Dillon."

"Deceased?" Her inquisitive eyes looked up from the tall stack of documents, focusing on Jim's profile. He was still in his suit but his tie was undone and the top buttons of his shirt had been undone.

Any other situation, he would have been handsome. His rough, stylish and tired facade would be deliciously inviting to any female. A hard working man had a little something extra too him, a man who looked like he owned the world around him was overwhelmingly inviting. Maybe it was cause he looked like he could look after a woman, he looked respectable and protective. But Katherine knew this particular man was one of, if not they most, dangerous man that she let on so close to her. An emotionless killer who she curled around at night.

Never the less, they were certainly an eye catching pair and she was by no means any less dangerous, she just hadn't embraced it yet.

"Car accident." By both the face he pulled, and the slanted tone on his words, Katherine knew he meant 'accident' very lightly. More likely than not it was Dillon who had accidentally forgot to play by another mans rules or pay a certain bill on time.

"What are they responsible for?"

"Nothing, but they are a good client. They work off the books which…" Jim trailed off with the expectation she would continue on from, and she didn't disappoint, though she had been taught the answer years ago.

"No trace of activity. I already knew that from years ago." Katherine slumped back on the sofa, stick thin arms falling wide open by her sides.

The whole activity was pathetic. For hours she had been made to revise people, all from different backgrounds and all from a different area of Moriarty's life. Finance, weaponry, alliance, enemy… some of the names she had heard before, others could have been fiction for all she knew. But all were stupid. She had no need for the information, and even if she did she wouldn't know how to use it. She would be like those silly little people who memorise dictionaries, what was there to do with one name?

Obviously Jim disagreed.

"But it's important. Now…" Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he forced her to sit up and slapped her thigh. "As well as overviewing the cases, you need to know the background of each individual case and how it can be used to better yourself." Learning from Jim's own mistakes to help make her own future mistakes, oh the irony. He might as well just leave her an instruction manual when he passes. But Katherine stopped her rolling eyes in time to catch Jim watching her. "I'm John Smith, I'm a vintage clock collector. I have stolen an artefact and want to know how to sell it on without being noticed. What is the first question you ask?"

For a few moments, Katherine stared at her husband with empty eyes and her mouth flapping up and down like an injured bird. But then suddenly, she rolled her shoulders back and met his gaze with a smug smirk.

"How much are you willing to pay me?" He wasn't impressed to say the least and he made it very clear when he started to crack his knuckles. A subtle mannerism she had come to recognise and resent. So, to avoid his unforgiving wrath, Katherine smarted up and started to engage her brain. "I don't know…where did you steal it from?"

"Another collectors store."

Still struggling, Katherine sucked in her cheeks as she pondered. What would Jim ask? What would he do? What little things did he ask her while making her not even realise what information she was giving away. "What…what made you steal it?"

"It's worth a small fortune in it?" She gave a giggle as he put on a heavy southern accent and snarled, pouting his upper lip like a gangster from the 60's.

"And what does it mean for you? Getting caught?"

Staying in character, Jim heavily let his shoulders drop before dramatically taking a long sip of the whiskey sat just out of reach to his left. "Can't say really…not got a lot going on at home. Accept my mum, I'd do anything for her."

"Have you ever done anything like this before?" She started to remember it, slowly, but surprisingly clearly.

"Not really…once…back when I was younger I nicked some gum. But just greed in it…it gets to you."

Suddenly, Katherine's eyes narrowed dangerously and she sat taller her her seat.

"You're vulnerable. If you fail to comply once an agreement has been settled I can use your mothers safety as blackmail. You've never done anything like this before, your unfamiliar with going against the law so you are weak. But most importantly you're greedy, if you become confident you will try to overstep our agreements and in that case…I could drop all contact and keep things for myself, after all you would have no intelligence on how to get yourself out of such a mess."

Her words were so sharp and so dedicated, he was captured by them. Some may even say he was surprised with her quick intelligence and knowledge. He doubted that she would remember anything, but there she was…shining.

He didn't let on though. All Jim did was smile and gently nod his head. "Good…not excellent but good…it's a start and we all have to start somewhere." He gently took her chin between his fingers, drilling his black eyes on her. "I think that's enough for today, it's past your bedtime."

With a low purr, Katherine stood from her seat slowly and started to gather her skirts in her hands. While his eyes laid focus on her legs as they were exposed, his hands rose to hold her hips as she stepped over to straddle him before slowly sinking onto his knee. "But I'm not sleepy…" Her hands played with the collar of his shirt and started to massage down his chest.

Her skin was like silk under his fingertips, artificially tanned and smooth from her recent day long trip to the salon. Her hair still held a hint of a scent of coconut, her neck smelling of the million dollar scent he had imported for her on her birthday. She reeked of his money, of him, and that made him want her more than anything else in the world did.

"If you plan business, like you plan your seduction, you'll be even better than me." Gripping her backside, Jim pulled her closer on to his lap but her hands were already working on undoing the buttons on his shirt.

With a cunning smile in place and her eyes hazed with lust, her tongue seemed to dance around her teeth before she answered with a giggle. "I know."