The Reichenbach Fall

Silent Regrouping

Despite not quite knowing how Rose knew where he should be heading, John made his way to St Bart's and wasn't in the slightest bit surprised to find she was in face right; in one of their regular labs he found the man he was looking for sat on the floor between workstations, bouncing a ball off the cupboard doors as he thought.

Looking up, Sherlock frowned as he only saw one of his friends. "Where's Rose?" He asked, confused as to the sudden disappearance of his assistant. "I haven't seen her all day."

"I think she may be killing your brother..." John said as he looked about the room. "Though that's between you and me – I'll probably give her an alibi."

Chuckling at the loyalty of his friends, Sherlock shook his head. "Mycroft really does have a way with women." Thinking back on their lives, while Sherlock had usually – though admittedly, not always – managed to avoid the dramas that came with the fairer sex, Mycroft had always seemed to pick the... feistier of women – and usually paid the price.

"He should watch out." John told him, eyes wide as he remembered how angry their friend was. "He may have bitten off more than he can chew."

"She can be a bit... um..." Sherlock started, trying to find a way to describe his more unpredictable flat mate but only frowned as he came up empty.

John however knew exactly what the younger man was driving at though. "Oh yeah! Kind of glad I left when I did. She did say you'd be here though and is going to text when she's on her way."

Sherlock just nodded, thoughts circling back around to his current position, the ghost of a smile evaporating once more. "The computer code is key to this. If we can find it, we can use it; beat Moriarty at his own game."

"What do you mean, use it?" John questioned, looking wary at such an idea.

"He used it to create a false identity." Sherlock explained looking up at his friend. "So we can use it to break into the records and destroy Richard Brook."

John clocked on now, nodding along as he finished the train of thought. "And bring back Moriarty again."

Nodding, the younger man shifted, pulling himself up off the floor to lean against the counter as he thought. "Somewhere in 221B, somewhere on the day of the verdict, he left it hidden."

"Uh hu..." John sounded as he moved to join his friend, hands on the counter as he thought. "What did he touch?"

"An apple, nothing else." Sherlock confirmed.

Thinking, John frowned a little more. "Did he write anything down?"

"No." Sherlock answered, frustration leaking through as he struggled to see the answer either.

"Alright, well..." John said, knowing he'd run out of solutions, tapping the counter as he tried to think of anything useful he could do instead. "I'll see if I can get hold of Rose, get her down here to help. You want anything from the machine?" Getting a shake of the head from his troubled friend, John tapped the counter once more before pushing off and heading to the vending machine for a coffee, having now been up most of the night. "Okay, I won't be long."

Having turned his back to the younger genius however, John didn't see the light bulb go off in his mind.

He didn't see the observant man copy his motions against the counter top.

And as the door shut behind him, Doctor Watson didn't see a text being sent from his best friend to the insane criminal who was trying to burn everything they had built.