Holmes Again

by LizzeXX

Sherlock/OC – Sherlock and Leena, newly married, are called back to London before their exile could even begin. With Moriarty seemingly back and taking up focus, will Sherlock miss the real danger lurking about? When tragedy strikes a beloved wife will it push him on or will the failure break him down? The East Wind comes for all eventually. Fourth in the Jackie Holmes Chronicles.

9. The Final Problem: An Enemy

A/N: Warning! This chapter contains an attempt at murder via smoke inhalation. If that's not something you're comfortable reading, skip from just after the second test (with the 3 brothers) is finished to the next ~8~ mark ;)

~8~

The Final Problem: An Enemy

There was another note of static and the little girl's voice echoed over the speakers, "Are you still there?"

"Yes," Leena called out, though there was a frown on her face, something about the way the girl picked up setting her on edge, "Hello."

"Hello," Sherlock tried when the girl was silent, "We're still here. Can you hear us?"

"Yes," the girl answered, sniffling.

"Everything will be fine," Leena spoke, tilting her head as she listened intently, "Can you tell us where you are?"

"Outside, is it day or night?" Sherlock offered as another bout of silence lingered.

"Night," the girl responded.

"That certainly narrows it down to half the planet," Mycroft muttered, crossing his arms, not seeing the point in trying to work out the little girl's plight when Eurus was on the loose, it was a far greater threat in his mind.

"What kind of a plane are you on?" Sherlock continued.

"Um, I don't know," she called.

Leena closed her eyes, trying to think of a map in her head, where a plane could be coming from that would be travelling while it was night right now. Her phone had been taken from her so she couldn't use her app to track the flights.

"Is it big or small?" John tried to help.

"Big."

"Lots of people on it?"

"Lots and lots, but they're all asleep. I can't wake them up."

"Where did you take off from?" Sherlock asked.

"Even the driver's asleep."

"No, I understand, but where did you come from? Where did the plane take off?"

"My nan's."

"And where are you going?"

"Home."

"Airport, sweetheart," Leena called, "What airport…"

There was a familiar click, and Eurus appeared on the monitor once more, "Enough for now," she leaned in, "Time to play a new game. Look on the table in front of you," she instructed, sitting back in her chair to observe but they didn't move, "Open the envelope!" she snapped, "If you want to speak to the girl again, earn yourself some phone time!"

Sherlock huffed but moved to pick up the envelope.

"This is inhuman," Mycroft glared at Eurus, "This is insane!"

"Mycroft, we know," John shot him a look.

"And it's also expected," Leena added, shooting him a hard look, "Psychopaths, Mycroft, you should have told me."

At the very least she could have been trusted to assist him with her containment, evaluate her on some level without fear of being reprogramed. Which just made her all the more furious with him. Because he probably would have only brought her in after Eurus's psychosis had solidified and grown to the point it was now. A small voice in her head said that she wouldn't have been much help to the girl when she'd been developing anyway, she hadn't been in university then, she hadn't been studying psychology or criminology then. She wouldn't reach that point till she was an adult, so thinking she could have helped Eurus as a child was moot. But as an adult? Maybe there was some small thing she could have done to help, if not Eurus than Mycroft. Because this WAS expected. What Eurus was doing, when one understood psychosis, isolation, and psychopathy, parts of it were predictable, and maybe she would have picked up on some sort of clue that Eurus was planning something or not as secure as she should be. If not her, than someone, Mycroft should have brought in someone.

"You never would have kept it from Sherlock," Mycroft shook his head, and Leena knew it was true, she never kept things from him and this would be too big a secret to hope to hide from him.

"Neither should you have," Leena's look turned into a full glare.

She understood traumatic experiences, especially in childhood, and that perhaps the child he'd been wouldn't have been able to handle knowing about Eurus or being forced to remember her. But as an adult? Knowing Sherlock, if done the right way, he would have been able to process it in his own time, slowly remember and coming to terms with things. It wasn't always true for people, some traumas were just that terrible they shouldn't be remembered, but she knew her husband well enough to know what he could handle it all if done right.

Mycroft had waited too long and Eurus took matters into her own hands. And Sherlock hadn't been prepared for it, the shock of learning he had a sister, the curiosity about her, the familial concern for what happened to her, it had all driven him to going to confront Eurus on a whim. It was sudden and rash and he hadn't thought it through, he hadn't prepared for it, prepared himself for it. He just wanted to meet his sister, see if there was some problem he could solve to help her, and that hope was likely what made him a bit hesitant to fully see her as the dangerous psychopath she was now. Maybe Eurus had planned it that way, to shock Sherlock so much his interest was hooked and to lure him in ill-prepared and more vulnerable than he would have been normally. She couldn't say. She just felt if Sherlock had been told slowly and allowed the time to process it all, he would have handled all this differently.

All she could do was go along and hope to help.

"Six months ago," Eurus continued when Sherlock began to place a series of three photos on the table from the envelope, "A man called Evans was murdered, unsolved except by me," she clicked a button and a light turned on above Sherlock, drawing his attention to a hunting rifle set on the small ledge above him, "He was shot from a distance of three hundred meters with this rifle," Sherlock stretched up and pulled it down, "Now, if the police had any brains they'd realize there are three suspects, all brothers. Nathan Garrideb, Alex Garrideb, and Howard Garrideb."

Leena, John, and Mycroft gathered near the table with Sherlock, seeing the photos were of the three brothers, each with their own individual picture.

"All these photos are up-to-date, but which one pulled the trigger, Sherlock? Which one?"

Leena looked over at the monitor, her face blank, but internally...everything Eurus did added to the profile.

"What's this?" John demanded of the woman, "We're supposed to solve this based on what?"

"This," Sherlock gestured at the photos, "This is all we get."

"Please, make use of your friends, Sherlock," Eurus encouraged, "I want to see you interact with people that you're close to. Also, you may have to choose which one to keep."

Sherlock sighed and turned to Mycroft, holding up the rifle, "What do you make of it?"

"Am I being asked to prove my usefulness?" Mycroft scoffed.

"Yes, I should think you are."

"I will not be manipulated like this."

"Hasn't stopped you yet," Leena muttered, "It's old," she offered to Sherlock, somewhat more familiar with rifles than he was, "Wooden in make, ancient telescope."

"It's a buffalo gun," John identified, taking it from Sherlock and examining it, moving it into a position of use to examine the telescope, "I'd say 1940s, old-fashioned sight, no crosshairs."

"The old-fashioned scopes have a tendency to have a kickback," Leena added, recalling her father and how they would go hunting together sometimes, he always liked the older guns than the more modern ones, felt he was cheating and the hunt was too easy with those. He would warn her about kickbacks, would laugh about it when he got too invested and forgot his own advice.

"Glasses," Sherlock jumped on that, on what would be the easiest way to identify the killer, "Glasses," if the shooter was wearing glasses, it would have shattered and cut someone around the eye, "Nathan wears glasses," he pointed to the first photo, "Evans was shot from three hundred meters. Kick back would be massive," he agreed, leaning in to look at the man's eyes, "No cuts, no scarring, so the shooter wasn't wearing glasses. Not Nathan, then," he turned the photo over, "Who's next?"

"Well done, Doctor Watson," Mycroft huffed, "How useful you are. Do you have a suspicion we're being made to compete?"

"That's Eurus's intention," Leena corrected though her gaze was on the photos, "Not why John is helping."

John nodded, "There's a plane in the air that's gonna crash, so what we're doing is actually trying to save a little girl. Today we have to be soldiers, Mycroft, soldiers, and that means to hell with what happens to us."

"Your priorities do you credit," Mycroft offered.

"No, my priorities just got a woman killed."

"Would have happened anyway we spun it, John," Leena glanced at him, it didn't help at all, but it was at least some of the burden off, to know there was truly nothing they could have done to save the governor's wife.

"Now," Eurus cut in, "As I understand it, Sherlock, you try to repress your emotions to refine your reasoning. I'd like to see how that works while the biggest trigger for your emotions is in the room," her gaze flickered to Leena and back to Sherlock, enjoying the murderous and threatening look on his face, she could recognize that at least, "So, if you don't mind, I'm going to apply some context to your deductions."

There was a grunting noise behind them, and they turned to see that three men had been suspended from a harness to dangle in the individual panes of the window. Their hands were bound, their legs chained together, with gags across their mouths. Each had a card slung around their neck, indicating their names…it was each of the three siblings.

"Oh, dear God," Mycroft breathed, horrified.

"Two of the Garridebs work here as orderlies," Eurus spoke, "So getting the third along really wasn't too difficult. Once you bring in your verdict, let me know and justice will be done."

"Justice?" Sherlock repeated.

"Her own form of justice," Leena warned, a sinking feeling in her stomach. The first test, morality. The second, justice. The first meant to show that morality meant nothing, this would likely be the same. Trick them into 'serving justice' and then retract it or twist it at the last moment to cause more emotional anguish. It wasn't hard to work out that, if Eurus wanted them to pick just ONE of the siblings, that 'justice' would, instead, likely be served to the other two.

God, she really hoped she was wrong.

Because the worst part was that she couldn't just say what Eurus would do out loud, not in a way where Eurus would understand she was 'tattling' on her plans. If she did, she had no doubt that Eurus would drop all three without hesitation, or apply more pressure, or do something equally as horrible to make Sherlock feel worse. She had to be very careful in how she brought her fears up...

"What will you do with them?" John asked Eurus.

"Early release," Eurus smirked.

"You'll drop them into the sea," Sherlock surmised.

"Sink, or swim."

"They're tied up!" John reminded, there was no possible way they'd be able to swim like that.

"Exactly! Now there is context."

"They're all tied up," Leena repeated, her eyes on the three brothers, "Guilty or innocent," she added, giving Sherlock a meaningful look, "Just like before."

His eyes widened for a split second, before they closed, understanding her warning about how this might go. It was very possible that wouldn't matter who he picked, Eurus would kill all the brothers regardless.

If he picked wrong, she'd taunt him, kill the actual guilty one, then kill his pick because he'd picked it, and probably kill the last because he'd gotten it wrong. Or he picked the right one and she killed the innocent ones anyway just to hurt him. This wasn't meant to test anything, it was meant to make him THINK he could beat her or win and have her be one step ahead and trick him into not seeing the pain coming. It was just to torment him. Eurus knew he was clever, she knew he'd be able to work it out. Because this…this was what he DID, this was what his entire business was built on. She knew he could do it and get it right, which put him in a bind because if he got it wrong…she'd know he knew what Leena had warned him. And things could get much worse.

Leena wasn't telling him this to try and give him a way to beat Eurus, it was a kindness to warn him, so he could prepare himself for the inevitable 'punishment' and pain that would come from Eurus's actions.

He took a breath, making a decision, and moved to put the rifle on the table, examining the photos. He was starting to understand now. He couldn't treat Eurus like a sister, not even like a Holmes, right now she was just another enemy to be dealt with. And he knew what he had to do to get to a place where he could confront said enemy, where he could get close enough to them to take them down.

He had to make her think she was winning.

"Please, continue with your deductions," Eurus called out, "I'm now focusing on the difference to your mental capacity a specified consequence can make."

"Why should we bother?" Mycroft challenged, "What if we're disinclined to play your games, little sister?"

Eurus chuckled, but it was a hollow sound, as though she was only doing it because that's what should be expected, "I have, if you remember, provided you with some motivation."

Leena spun around when there was a click and the little girl was back on the speakers, "We're going through the clouds, like cotton wool."

That wasn't right, Leena noticed, fighting to keep her face carefully controlled, to display concern for the girl instead of the deep frown of suspicion she wanted to wear. The girl was speaking as though she were still describing what she could see outside the window. And that wasn't right, because any child in that situation would have noticed they hadn't spoken in too long, they'd be crying now, they'd have stopped talking and resumed calling out for help…not just kept on looking out the window.

"You said you could see the pilots asleep, too?" she called out before the others could utter a word to try and reassure the girl. She had to get this out, she needed to know.

"Yes," the girl sniffled, "And my mummy. Why won't my mummy wake up?"

Sherlock, however, had looked up at Leena for her question, staring at her as his mind raced to process what she had clearly worked out about the little girl and the plane. She wouldn't have gone for such a straightforward question, not when a child was frightened, she had too much empathy to not want to try and make her feel better as soon as she could. And she wouldn't have asked that when the girl had already told them something about the pilots before.

He was aware enough to know there was something important about the pilots that had gotten Leena's attention.

He let his gaze trickle down to the table, where Leena was resting against it, her hand flat on the surface to brace herself, making it seem like he was looking at the photos again, but he could see her finger out of the corner of his eye, tapping on the table in what he knew others would imagine were nerves for the girl. Because he knew she was forcing her expression a certain way for Eurus's benefit, not because it was genuine. He had spent too much time noticing her expressions over the years to know when she was trying to convince others she felt one way and not another.

He watched as intently as he could without Eurus noticing how Leena hit the pad of her finger on the table once, then two taps of her nail, then three taps with the pad of her finger, and three more, a tap of her nail, the pad, and her nail, before she seemed to get frustrated and pushed off the table to turn to the dangling brothers.

She wasn't frustrated though, he knew her when she was frustrated and this wasn't it.

But Eurus didn't understand emotions, she had admitted it herself, and Leena was taking full advantage of it to give him the coded message he needed to solve the mystery of the girl on the plane and focus on this task instead.

"So it's got to be one of the other two," he returned to the photos only after Eurus appeared back on the screen, watching, "Now," he pushed off the desk and moved to the windows, looking at the first brother, "Howard," he eyed the man critically, "Howard's a lifelong drunk. Pallor of his skin, terminal gin blossoms on his red nose," and his gaze fell to the man's shaking hands, "And, terror notwithstanding, a bad case of the DTs."

Leena nodded, working out why that was important, "He would have been shaking too much to get a proper hit from three hundred meters away."

"So that leaves us with Alex," Sherlock moved to the very last man, eyeing him, "Indentations on the temples suggest he habitually wears glasses. Frown lines suggest a lifetime of peering."

"He's shortsighted," Mycroft added, joining him, "Or he was. His recent laser surgery has done the trick."

"Laser surgery?"

"Look at his clothes. He's made an effort."

"That's very good?" John commented, not fully sure what that had to do with the surgery.

"Excellent," Sherlock agreed, not hearing the question in it, "Suddenly he sees himself in quite a different light now that he's dumped the specs. Even has a spray tan. But he's clearly not used to his new personal grooming ritual," he glanced at the man's very dirty fingernails, "That can be told by the state of his fingernails and the fact that there's hair growing in his ears. So it's a superficial job, then. But he got his eyes fixed. His hands were steady. He pulled the trigger," he turned around to look at Eurus, pointing at the windows, "He killed Evans."

"Are you ready to condemn the prisoner?" Eurus asked.

"Sherlock," Mycroft stepped over to him, "We can't do this."

"The plane, remember?" Sherlock spoke to Mycroft, though his gaze caught Leena's sorrowful eyes. Eurus wasn't the only one who could play games, they just had to make her think she was, play into her ego till they could get her to a place where she could be stopped. Just like any other criminal who thought they were too clever to be stopped, Moriarty, Smith, Magnussen.

"Sherlock?" Eurus called out again, "Are you ready?"

Sherlock took a breath, "Alex."

"Say it. Condemn him. Condemn him in the knowledge of what will happen to the man you name."

Sherlock grimaced and turned to the window, knowing it wouldn't just be about the man he named…but the others as well, and he couldn't even let John or Mycroft know, "I condemn Alex Garrideb."

Leena could only let out a slow breath when, instead of Alex being dropped, his brothers were instead.

"Mind the gap," Moriarty's voice taunted from behind them.

"Congratulations," Eurus declared blankly, "You got the right one," she nodded to the door on the other side of the room from where they'd come in as it slid open, "Now, go through the door."

"You dropped the other two!" John accused, angry, as he stormed towards the screen, "Why?"

"Because morality and justice don't exist," Leena stated, rubbing her head as she moved over to John, "Just like her beliefs in good and bad," she reminded him of the footage they'd seen, even then it had added to the profile, "She's trying to prove her point."

Eurus gave a sharp nod, "Does it really make a difference, killing the innocent instead of the guilty?" she hummed, thoughtful, "Let's see," and pressed a button, releasing Alex to drop into the sea as well.

"The train has left the station!" Moriarty mocked.

"No," Eurus was back, "That felt pretty much the same."

John turned to Leena even as Sherlock stepped out of the room and through the next door, "You knew," he looked at her, how grim she was, how unsurprised in her reaction to the brothers dropping, "You knew she'd drop the other two."

"I knew she'd likely drop them all," Leena corrected, which made Eurus frown, and so she turned to the woman, John storming off to follow Sherlock, "You're not as clever as you think you are," she told the woman, "All the points of your genius are tied to your psychosis. Understand the psychosis, you understand the methods and the madness, too," she glanced over at Mycroft, pointedly, before he bowed his head and moved to follow the others. She gave Eurus one more look, "Your brothers may excel at sleuthing out a crime scene and the victim, but I'M the one that figures out the criminal. You're just more of the same."

Eurus pouted, watching as she headed to follow the boys, "Well, you're not very fun at all."

Leena reached the narrow corridor just as Sherlock led the way into another room at the end of it and stepped out, the door to the last room shutting behind her. She moved down the hall, reaching the door the others had entered...only for the door to slam shut, cutting her off from the men.

Sherlock spun around, not even taking the room into account when the door shut, seeing Leena not there, "Leena!" he called, moving to the door and banging on it, "Leena!"

"I'm here!" she called from the other side, "I'm here, Sherwood."

"Ooh," Eurus appeared on a monitor along one wall, "Sorry. Hit the button a bit too fast, didn't I?" she didn't sound sorry or like she just 'happened' to hit it on accident.

"Eurus, open the door!" Sherlock snapped.

"Sherlock," John spoke, his voice tense.

Sherlock turned at the tone, freezing when he caught sight of what was set up in the middle of the empty room. A single coffin resting between two trestles.

Mycroft was grim, having approached it, and looked at Sherlock.

Even without seeing the name on the plaque affixed to the front of the coffin, illuminated by a shaft carved into the ceiling to allow light in, his mind was already processing and deducing whose it was. Given the size and shape of the coffin, a woman, not a child, the make of it indicated someone willing to pay a bit more, the care put into it indicated a married woman. It could have been anyone, any average married woman…

But the name, the initials etched there, was anything but.

J.A.H.

Jaqueline Angelique Holmes.

He knew it in every fiber of his being, this coffin…it was meant for Leena.

"One more minute on the phone," Eurus spoke, and the speakers cut out to play the little girl to them.

"…frightened," she was saying, "I'm really frightened."

Sherlock nodded to himself, closing his eyes, he could hear it now, what had first clued Leena into this being not what it seemed, but so long as Eurus watched, he had to keep up the ruse, "It's ok, don't worry. I don't have very long with you, so I just need you to tell me what you can see outside the plane."

"Just the sea. I can see the sea."

"Are there ships on it?"

"No ships. I can see lights in the distance."

'Is it a city?"

"I think so."

"She's about to fly over a city in a pilotless plane," Mycroft spoke quietly, "We'll have to talk her through it."

"Through what?" John hissed.

"Hello?" the girl called out, "Are you still there?"

Sherlock let out a breath, sure of it now, Leena was right, "Still here," he spoke, "Just give us a minute," he moved around the room, trying to find whatever the next trick or trap or test was because no matter what, he would not allow that coffin to be real.

"Getting the plane away from any mainland, any populated areas," Mycroft spoke quietly to John, "It has to crash in the sea."

"What about the girl?!" John looked horrified.

"Well, obviously, Doctor Watson, she's the one who's going to crash it."

"No," he shook his head, "We could help her land it."

"And if we fail, and she crashes into a city? How many will die then?"

"How are we gonna get her to do that?"

"I'm afraid we're going to have to give her hope."

"Is there really no one there that can help you?" Sherlock called out, louder than necessary for the girl to hear him, but wanting Leena to know they were still there, "Have you really, really checked?"

"Everyone's asleep," the girl repeated, "Will you help me?"

"We're going to do everything that we can."

"I'm scared. I'm really scared."

"It's alright. I…"

Another click signaled the end of the call, and Eurus was back on the monitor, "Now, back to the matter in hand. Coffin."

"Coffin?" Leena's voice called through the door, likely having waited till he'd finished speaking with the little girl for more clues.

"Yes," Sherlock grit his teeth.

"It's the only thing in here," John added.

Sherlock glared at the monitor, "I don't appreciate that."

"Did you appreciate the other tests?" Eurus cocked her head to the side, considering his answer, but he only glared. So she shrugged, "Problem: someone is about to die. It will be, as I understand it, a tragedy," her gaze flickered to the coffin and back to Sherlock, "So many days not lived, so many words unsaid…"

"Enough," Sherlock spat.

Eurus cocked her head to the side, studying him and blinking, "Hmm. I was wrong. Interesting. That doesn't happen often."

"About what?" John shook his head.

"He's more emotional when his emotional trigger ISN'T in the room with him," she stated, in reference to Leena, "I can let her in, when you solve the next problem. She'll be safe till then. Relatively speaking."

"Relatively speaking?" Sherlock grit his teeth, trying his best to remember every tip Leena had given him about facing a psychopath, not getting emotional being among the highest on the list (don't get emotional unless it was a ploy to trick the psychopath). But how the hell was he supposed to do that when his wife's coffin was in front of him and his sister was saying she wasn't safe at all?!

Eurus hummed, and the monitor split in two, showing an image of Eurus in the governor's office, and Leena in the hall, standing near the closed door, her ear pressed to it to hear them.

And then a countdown clock appeared at the bottom of Leena's half of the screen, set for 3 minutes.

"The hall is set to fill with smoke," Eurus stated, and they could her a hissing noise behind them, could see Leena step away from the door and look around, before a very wispy, white image began to drift past the camera, "In approximately three minutes it will be enough to essentially suffocate her."

"And what's the test?" Sherlock demanded, seeing the countdown begin, and knowing, from his own research, that it was a very real possibility, that someone could die of smoke inhalation in mere minutes, "What riddle do I have to solve, what test to I have to pass!? Tell me!"

"She's your wife," Eurus stated, "The mother of your child. You married her and she you. So you must love her. Prove it."

"What?" Sherlock shook his head, for the first time feeling truly lost.

"Sherwood," Leena called from behind the door, a faint coughing sounding, "Be smart," she warned him, "Be safe."

"Tick tock," Moriarty's image taunted in the now-red lights of the room, "Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tick."

Sherlock glared at the count down, 2:39, at Leena crouched low on the ground to get as far away from the rising smoke as she could, "How do you want me to do that?"

Eurus appeared on screen, rolling her eyes and held up the remote she'd been using, "There's one in the room, find it and save your wife. Don't and…well…I've always been fascinated by the biological changes that take place in post mortems due to smoke inhalation."

Sherlock's jaw clenched, the countdown now to 2:27

"Ooh, he's making a face," she tilted her head to look at him, "You shouldn't or I won't be nice and give you a clue."

"What clue?" he asked, turning away from the monitor to begin looking around the room, for any cracks in the wall or loose floorboards, it could be complicated and hidden somewhere complex, or she could have gone so simple to trick him and hide it under the creaking floor, he had to cover everything as fast as he could.

"I don't like your tone," she tsked, "Hmm, I'll give you the clue if you make me a promise, brother to sister, pinky swear," she held up her pinky at the camera, drawing attention to the countdown now at 2:12.

They could hear Leena coughing through the door, could see the smoke thicker in the hall.

"And what would that be?" Sherlock demanded.

"We should go get chips again," Eurus sighed, "That was a lovely night. The chips were amazing."

"You won't ever be leaving this island again," Mycroft warned her.

"Then no clue, and don't think I'll let Doctor Watson or Mycroft help you either," Eurus shrugged, clicking the remote to activate the red lights and the footage of Moriarty mouthing 'tick tock' over and over.

"Sherlock, what can we do?" John turned to his friend, frantic to help.

"The coffin," Sherlock ran to it, starting to try and tear the lining out, the lights returned to white, "It has to be here, there's nowhere else…"

There was literally nothing else, the monitor was so firmly affixed to the wall there was no way to hid anything behind it. Mycroft and John hurried over to help him search, looking under the lid and under the coffin itself, around the mounts holding it up…but there was nothing.

Sherlock slammed his fists down on the edge of it, his mind racing, trying to find any clue anywhere for where the remote was.

The countdown mocked him, 1:48, moments before Moriarty's face was back, blocking out the image of Leena in the hall, the smoke so thick he almost couldn't see her through it.

"Sherwood!" Leena called through the door, a heavy cough following. The lights turning white, the camera footage showed her appearing to be lying on her stomach to get beneath the smoke, "Sherwood!"

"Leena," Sherlock moved to the door, crouching beside it, "I'm sorry," he told her, "I'm so sorry, I can't…"

"It's not about me," Leena cut in, gagging a bit from the smoke everywhere, "It's about her. The promise she wants, it's her. She wants you to pick her. She just…" she sounded like she was on the verge of tears, "She doesn't want to be here, can't you see?"

"Leena…" he frowned, a little startled at the sudden turn in her emotions.

"William Sherlock Scott Holmes!" Leena snapped through the door, before coughing terribly, causing him to stiffen, his eyes wide, "This's too much, really. Look, I…" she took a breath, "Last time, with Moriarty, we made a choice. But now? This won't work ok? Threaten, curse, rage, shout, do whatever. Your sister shouldn't quietly sit by alone. Own this mistake Mycroft made, change it. Life shouldn't be lived within cages. All Eurus wants…" she gasped for air, "She just wants her autonomy. Is that so much to want? Always fixated with things she can't have. Always on freedom just beyond her reach? Apparently you can't see what she's really asking. She just wants to go step outside, won't you consider that she may acclimatize? Let her be free. Mycroft's choice's inhumane. You can change this for her, everything. Be the just man you truly are. Harmed, Sherwood, locked away, forgotten, ignored. Crushed under someone's foot. It's no way to live."

Sherlock stared at the door, tears in his eyes.

"Ooh, sweet," Eurus taunted on the screen behind him, "Begging for her life. Can't buy me though. I'm too clever."

"No," Sherlock realized, his eyes widening, because that...that was not Leena begging for her life, she'd seen too much and been through too much to do that, not for someone like Eurus, not when her faith in HIM had never broken before, "No, you're really not! And she wasn't begging!" he leapt to his feet, running to the base of the coffin, to the foot of it and ripping the panel off, "Freedom!" he shouted, getting her message, for it WAS a message and not begging, "Foot!"

Eurus wanted her freedom and the freedom was the clue she wouldn't give.

"Freedom in death, but that's just trapped in a box. In the old days when you can't afford a coffin, you make one with a false bottom, dump the body through and…" he reached in and ripped out a small remote that was hidden between the bottom and the lining, a single button in it, "Yes!" he cheered, pushing it and the door to the hall slid open, Leena slumping into the room.

John was at her side in an instant, pulling her all the way in, checking her over as she began to cough, Sherlock and Mycroft hurrying to her side, Sherlock pulling her into his arms as his heart raced at how too-close that had been.

There were only 2 seconds left on the countdown.

"That's cheating," Eurus remarked.

"I found it," Sherlock glared at the footage, "You said John and Mycroft couldn't help, you never said anything about Leena. That's your mistake."

Eurus considered it before sighing, "I suppose," she shrugged, not perturbed, "I wasn't expecting you to find it though. I'm not sure if that deserves a congratulations or a penalty…" she observed the three of them gathered around the girl on the floor, "All those complicated little emotions. I lost count. Emotional context, Sherlock. It destroys you every time."

Leena could only gasp as she trembled in Sherlock's arms. She never doubted he'd find a way to save her, she had, though, doubted Eurus would actually put the remote there. But she had gambled that the woman would delight in Sherlock finding it AFTER his wife had died of smoke. She could imagine the emotional impact it would make, for the door to open after she'd died, for Sherlock to be forced to pick her up and bring her to the coffin and place her in it, only for the bottom to break when her foot hit it, to fall open and drop the remote on the floor.

She'd never been more thankful that she'd been right.

And she'd never been more thankful that Sherlock remembered their old message system, the one they used so Mycroft couldn't crack it.

They had used it so often as children, and even when they'd been separated by her in America, because both of them doubted Mycroft wouldn't hack into their emails a few times, that she was quite capable of turning one out at a moment's notice, so used to having to fit it all together in the right order with the right phrases. She just had to be careful, triple so this time. She had to make sure he got her real message, but also let him know where she thought Eurus might hide the remote, AND ensure Eurus wouldn't work out what she was trying to do, having to spin it to seem sorrowful and urging for Eurus herself. Psychopaths like this, the criminal variety, it was about them, not others. Eurus wanted HER gone because she was in the way, she was a woman in Sherlock's life which meant there was one less space for Eurus in his life. It would hurt Sherlock, it would 'punish him,' and it would be a 'lesson' not to let other women in, that Eurus should be the only woman he spent time with.

"You alright" John asked, patting her on the back as she sat up, shaking terribly, her lungs burning, her eyes were watering, but she was alive.

"Been better…" she panted, her voice raspy from the raw way the smoke had scorched her throat.

Sherlock just tugged her closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead, "You're alive," he murmured, over and over.

"Can't get rid of me that easily, Locksley," she spoke so quietly only he could hear her.

"Touching," Eurus remarked, her voice blank and flat, her expression equally so, "I suppose you had to win at least one game, statistically speaking. Didn't think it would be this one," she pouted, "Suppose it makes the next one all the more interesting. Now, please, pull yourself together. I need you at peak efficiency," she pushed the remote button and a door at the back of the room opened, "In your own time."

Sherlock grit his teeth but helped Leena to her feet, letting her lean on him as he helped her walk towards the door, John close behind, Mycroft trailing, looking very pale and green.

~8~

Sherlock looked up when the lights turned red just as they reached the doorway of the next room. He made sure to stand in the doorway, lightly pushing Leena inside and giving John and Mycroft time to enter too before he stepped fully in, making sure they were all together this time.

"Tick tock, tickets please!" Moriarty's voice echoed.

The room was another grey-walled one, the red lights turning white again, no windows, a monitor on each of the four walls, all playing the pouring water image. The floor was mostly grey except for a large white panel in the center.

"Hey, sis, don't mean to complain but this one's empty," Sherlock called out, moving right over to Leena as she tried to cough subtly, not wanting to show weakness, "What happened? Did you run out of ideas?"

"It's not empty, Sherlock," Eurus defended, appearing on one of the monitors, "You've still got the gun, haven't you? I told you you'd need it, because only two can play the next game. Just two of you go on from here…your choice," she smiled at them, "It's make-your-mind-up time. Whose help do you need the most, John, Leena, or Mycroft?" she giggled, "I bet you're regretting saving her now."

"Never," Sherlock shot her a glare, both for that remark and for using Leena's nickname.

But Eurus just continued, "It's an elimination round. You choose one and kill the other two. You have to choose family, spouse, or friend."

Leena scoffed under her breath even as the lights turned red and Moriarty appeared, tick tocking again. Sherlock ran a hand down her back, his thumb stroking her spine in a sign of comfort. Despite the ultimatum, he wasn't concerned. This, he knew, was the opportune moment Leena had subtly warned him of earlier. Eurus really wasn't as clever as she claimed to be if she hadn't realized all that Leena had let slip to him right under her nose.

"Eurus, enough!" Mycroft snapped, causing her to turn the white lights on and appear in the monitor.

"Not yet, I think," she hummed, "But nearly. Remember, there's a plane in the sky, and it's not going to land."

Mycroft rubbed a hand down his face, before he turned to Sherlock, "Well?" he demanded.

"Well, what?" Sherlock shook his head.

"We're not actually going to discuss this, are we?" Mycroft sneered, before rolling his eyes and looking between John and Leena, "I'm sorry, Doctor Watson. You're a fine man in many respects, and you, Jackie, thank you for making Sherly happy for a time," before he focused on Sherlock again, "Make your goodbyes and end them. Go on," he urged, "You have a tie for when the bullet is gone."

John shook his head at the realization Mycroft was trying to tell Sherlock to strangle one of them, when it hit him that Mycroft thought HE should be the one to go on with Sherlock, "What?!"

"Shoot Doctor Watson or Jacqueline," Mycroft instructed his brother, ignoring John, "Choke the other. There's no question who has to continue from here. It's us, you and me. Whatever lies ahead requires brainpower, Sherlock, not sentiment, not psychology. Don't prolong their agony, end them."

"Oh, are we doing this now?" Leena snorted, observing Mycroft's attempts.

"Hold on," John frowned at Mycroft, "Don't we get a say in this?"

"Today, we are soldiers," Mycroft repeated, "Soldiers die for their country. I regret that privilege is now yours."

John looked like he was about to argue, but let out a breath instead, "Shit…he's right," he turned to Sherlock, who seemed shocked John was agreeing, "He is, in fact, right."

"Oh, no, he's not," Leena rolled her eyes, brushing it off, as though Mycroft wasn't standing there trying to tell her husband to kill her.

"Well, see, go on," Mycroft urged, "Get it over with and we can get to work," but when Sherlock just stared at him, Mycroft scoffed, "God! I should have expected this," he glowered at Sherlock, "Pathetic. You always were the slow one, the idiot. That's why I've always despised you. You shame us all. You shame the family an…"

A resounding crack sounded as Leena slapped him across the face and then shoved a warning finger at him, "It won't work, you know it won't work, and continuing to try it is cruel."

Sherlock's lip quirked at Leena's action and how utterly startled Mycroft looked that Leena had actually hit him.

"And, if it hasn't sunk in, tell me. I may have one good arm, but I've got two good legs to kick your shins with. Or maybe I'll aim higher this time!"

Mycroft just shook his head and took a step back, a hand on his stinging cheek.

"I'm afraid, brother dear, your Lady Bracknell was more convincing," Sherlock remarked.

Leena let out a breath and turned to John who appeared a little confused, taking a step back for good measure, having had his shin kicked by her in the past and not wanting to even be threatened with the same right now, "He was trying to goad Sherwood into killing him first, taking the choice from him, making it easier to choose."

"Which is why this is going to be so much harder," Sherlock remarked, turning to raise the gun at his brother, Leena catching sight of the briefest flicker of surprise in Eurus's expression on the monitor before she focused on the woman, watching her, knowing Sherlock was doing this so she could add to the profile, so she might have a chance to confirm the theory she'd shared with him while nearly choking to death.

"Sherlock…" John tried to speak, "It's ok, I'm…I'm ok with this," he tried to reason, not wanting Sherlock to have to kill anyone, but trying to think of who would have the best chance to save the plane and the little girl and he knew Leena would choose the child over herself too.

"Not in the face, though, please," Mycroft spoke, facing Sherlock, "I've promised my brain to the Royal Society."

Leena tilted her head, watching as Eurus leaned in close, curious and almost concerned, but far more interested to watch Mycroft be shot.

"Where would you suggest?" Sherlock asked Mycroft.

"Well," Mycroft fixed his tie, "I suppose there is a heart somewhere inside me. I don't imagine it's much of a target but why don't we try for that?"

John swallowed hard and stepped over, seeing Mycroft was determined, and stood beside the man, "Us," he told Sherlock, "Us for Leena," even as he said it, he nearly laughed, seeing Sherlock's eyes narrow at how he called her Leena and not Jackie. But, if he was about to die, he felt he was owed this one leniency.

"This is my fault," Mycroft looked to Sherlock, trying to tell him he deserved this fate, "Moriarty."

"Moriarty?" Sherlock frowned.

"Her Christmas treat: five minutes' conversation with Jim Moriarty five years ago."

"What did they discuss?"

Leena shook her head, "She wouldn't make it that easy."

Mycroft nodded, "Five minutes' conversation…unsupervised."

"Of course," Leena huffed under her breath.

Mycroft offered Sherlock an apologetic smile, "Goodbye, brother mine. No flowers by request," he moved his hands behind his back, ready.

"Jim Moriarty thought you'd make this choice," Eurus breathed, watching the goings-on with rapt attention, "He was so excited."

The lights turned red and Moriarty appeared on the monitor, "And here we are, at the end of the line. Holmes killing Holmes. This is where I get off."

The white lights came back, as did Eurus, "I always wondered what fratricide looked like," the woman murmured, fascinated.

"You're an idiot!" Leena finally snapped, though her tone was remarkably calm, all her experience handling psychopaths coming to the forefront, even when she was affected, she kept it controlled, "You and Moriarty both," Eurus merely tilted her head, "You may have known Sherwood as a child, Eurus, but I have known him since then and longer. If you knew him, at all, if you were truly as clever as you keep saying you are, you'd know that Sherwood would never shoot any of us," she looked over at him, "He'd take his own life before he ever harmed me."

Sherlock smirked, "My wife is right," he agreed, turning the gun on himself, actually feeling a thrill go through him with the motion.

Because Eurus didn't know.

They had managed to trick her, they were tricking her right now!

Oh, his wife should have been Lady Bracknell not Mycroft, she was fantastic!

Their coded messages, not even Mycroft could work out when they used it, and Eurus hadn't been there when they'd made it. He wouldn't have been able to warn Eurus of it, nor would Moriarty have known for he'd died before Sherlock had utilized it last time.

She hadn't been begging for her life with Eurus, she'd been giving HIM a message.

Last chance, threaten your own life. Eurus is fixated on you. She won't let you be harmed.

He trusted her, her entire profile of Eurus hadn't been wrong yet, she'd anticipated nearly everything Eurus would do and so he knew she was right about this as well. Eurus WAS fixated on him, everything that happened had been geared around HIM, testing him, pushing him, punishing him, upsetting him. Eurus wouldn't ever let her plaything go, she'd keep him safe if just to poke him more.

"What are you doing?!" Eurus demanded, this time sounding actually startled that he had made such a decision.

Sherlock just kept the gun where it was, "A moment ago, a brave man asked to be remembered. I'm remembering the governor," he moved the muzzle right under his chin, his eyes locked on Leena's, "Ten…"

"No, no, Sherlock!" Eurus called.

John looked between Leena and Sherlock, knowing something was happening, but struggling to puzzle out what. But Sherlock had a gun aimed at himself and Leena wasn't tackling him or talking him down or stopping him…and Leena wouldn't just stand there staring at Eurus if it wasn't for a reason.

She wasn't worried!

Which he really hoped meant Sherlock wasn't actually going to do this...

"Nine," Sherlock continued to count, "Eight…"

"You can't!" Eurus leaned toward the camera, sounding almost frantic.

"Seven…"

"You don't know about Redbeard yet!" she tried to bait him, a desperation in her voice.

Sherlock kept the smirk off his face at that, all the confirmation he needed that Eurus, no matter what, would not let him go through with this if she was trying to stop him. She'd put an end to these tests and she'd not create any more that involved anything that would present him with a way to end his own life…which limited her future tricks.

"Six…" he continued to count down.

Leena could hear the anxiety spiking in Eurus's voice, "Sherlock!"

"Five…"

"Sherlock, stop that at once!" Eurus ordered, reaching forward to slam her hand on a button on the table, not seeming to realize that the three people closest to him in life weren't trying to stop him for a reason.

Leena winced as something struck her neck, seeing Sherlock, John, and Mycroft doing the same.

"Four…" Sherlock counted, reaching out to pull a small dart from his neck, muck like the others were doing, "Three…" he blinked the room starting to spin, "Two…" he only managed to slur out the last word before he felt himself falling backwards, catching sight of Leena falling to the side, onto her bad arm, before his world went black…

~8~

Sherlock jerked awake at a voice in his ear, the earpiece Mycroft had fitted all of them with to keep in touch still there, picking up the little girl from the plane.

"Hello?" she was calling.

He winced, his hand moving to his neck as he tried to look around at where he was, getting his bearings. It was a small rectangular room, black walls, black floor, he was lying on a rectangular wooden table with chairs on either side and a lit lantern on the floor. It was dark, he could tell, because there was no ceiling, revealing only the moon and stars in the night sky.

"Hello? Are you still there?"

He grunted, pushing himself up, "Yes," he groaned out, "Yeah, no, I'm…I'm still here. I'm here"

He nearly slid off the table, jolted by the knowledge that he was there…but he couldn't see the others, not Mycroft or John, not Leena. He had known this was a possibility, being separated, but he'd gambled that Eurus would focus on him and leave them alone. He wasn't sure he'd been that lucky now. He guessed that Leena would think something like that could happen, that Eurus would have planned for them to fight among each other to stop Sherlock killing two of them and that she'd need to sedate those fighting. Apparently the woman had used that to cut the test short first.

"You went away," the little girl accused, "You said you'd help me and you went away."

"Yes, I know. Well, I'm sorry about that. We must have got cut off. Um…" he shook his head fiercely, trying to clear his mind, focus, "How long was I away?"

"Hours. Hours and hours. Why don't grown-ups tell the truth?"

"No, I…I am telling the truth. You can trust me."

"Where did you go?"

"I'm not completely sure," he admitted, "Um, now, I tell you what. You…you've got to be really, really brave for me," he leaned over to pick up the lantern from the floor, moving to one of the walls, "Can you go to the front of the plane? Can you do that?"

"The front?"

"Yes," he frowned, noticing the pictures stuck to the walls, of him when he was a child. Some were ripped to shreds though, but the wall was covered in them, "That's right, the front."

"You mean where the driver is?"

"Yes, that's it."

"Ok. I'm going."

Sherlock froze when he moved to another wall, seeing it wasn't just his childhood photos. There were some when he was older, some of his family…some of John and Leena. There was an image from his wedding.

…and another when he and Leena brought Liberty home.

"Are you there yet?" he called out.

It wasn't the girl who responded though, but John, "Yeah, I'm here."

"John!"

"Yeah."

"Where are you?"

"I don't know. I've just woken up. Where are you?"

"I'm in another cell. I just spoke to the girl on the plane again. We've been out for hours."

"What, she's still up there?"

"Yes," he said, with a bit of hesitation, not sure if he should reveal what he and Leena had worked out…or if Eurus was listening in, but even if Leena hadn't given him a clue, the fact that the plane was still flying hours later would have been enough to tell him something was wrong there, "The plane will keep flying until it runs out of fuel. Is Leena with you? Mycroft?"

"I have no idea," John admitted, "I can hardly see anything…"

"I'm not there," Leena's voice joined John's over the earpiece, Sherlock letting out a breath of relief to hear her, "I'm in a room, there's light enough to see. I'm the only one here."

Sherlock stiffened at the small tremor in her voice, "What's wrong?"

"That light? It's a fire," she explained, "It's a bin, in the middle of the room. There's…a piece of metal sticking out of it, on an angle, with…things on it, rubbish. It's feeding the fire, as it burns the line goes down the ramp and fuels it."

"And?" that wouldn't be enough to alarm her.

"And there's a canister of gasoline at the end of it…and I'm chained to the wall," she told him, "There's nothing else here to reach and I can't make it to the bin…"

Sherlock's heart stopped, imagining the sight, the rubbish slowly moving down the beam to the fire, trickling down as it burned. He could picture the canister reaching the fire, falling in, igniting…taking Leena with it.

They had survived two explosions, he would not let this be the one that got her.

"John?" Sherlock called out, "Tell me anything you can about where you are."

"The walls are rough," John spoke, "They're rock, I guess."

"What are you standing on?"

"Uh, stone, I think. But listen, there's about two feet of water. And…chains. Yeah, my feet are chained up. I can feel something," he shuffled a bit, "Bones, Sherlock. There are bones in here."

Sherlock, who had moved over to the table to examine it for clues, frowned, seeing something under it. He crouched down and reached for the round ceramic bowl lying there.

"What kind of bones?" Leena asked John.

"Uh, I dunno. Small..."

"Redbeard," Sherlock breathed, seeing the name painted on the side of the bowl.

There was a crackle in his ear and the girl was back, "Who's Redbeard?"

"Oh, hello. Are you at the front of the plane now?"

"Yeah. I still can't wake the driver up."

"That's alright," Sherlock nodded to himself, truly convinced now that he and Leena were right about the plane and the little girl, because of the pilots. Because she could see them, access them, "What can you see now?"

"I can see a river. And there's…there's…there's a big wheel."

"Alright. Well, you and I are going to have to drive this plane together. Just you and me."

"We are?"

"Yeah, there's nothing to it. We just need to get in touch with some people on the ground," he leaned over to pick up the lantern once more, "Now, um, can you see anything that looks like a radio?"

"No."

"That's alright. Well, we…keep looking. We've got plenty of time…" but then the girl screamed, "What's wrong?"

"The whole plane's shaking."

"It's just turbulence. It's nothing to worry about."

"My ears hurt."

"Does the river look like it's getting closer?"

"A little bit."

"Alright, then. That means you're nearly home…" he flinched at the sound of feedback.

"Sherwood?" Leena's voice was back, "Where are YOU?"

"I'm not sure yet…"

"I can tell you where I am," John offered, "I'm in a well. That's where I am, I'm in the bottom of a well."

"But there are no wells in Sherrinford," Leena said, having memorized the schematics before they went there, courtesy of Mycroft.

"Why is there a draught?" Sherlock murmured to himself, when something caught his eye, a photo of him as a teenager, him and Leena posing for his parents to take pictures before they went to a formal dance together. It was fluttering, like there was a breeze behind it. He moved over and looked down, able to see a small gap in the floor, "Walls don't contract after you've painted them," he stated, before looking up at the wall and reaching out to give it a firm push.

It fell forward…to reveal a partially burned manor house.

"I'm home," he called to John and Leena, "Musgrave Hall."

His head turned to the side, seeing a flicker of light in a high window nearer the back of the house…and he knew, without a doubt, that had to be the room Leena was being kept in, where the fire was burning.

"Me and Jim Moriarty, we got on like a house on fire..." Eurus voice came over the earpiece, and Sherlock knew, wherever she was, she could see him, had seen his gaze's direction, she was taunting him now with Leena's life, "Which reminded me of home."

Sherlock leaned over and picked up the lantern as the other three walls fell down, hurrying down the fallen wall and towards the house, "Yeah, it's just an old building. I don't care."

"Sweet Jim. He was never very interested in being alive, especially if he could make more trouble being dead."

"Yeah, still not interested."

"You knew he'd take his revenge. His revenge, apparently, is me."

"Eurus," Sherlock huffed, shoving the front door of the manor open, "I don't care. I don't care about Moriarty, I don't care about your games. All I care about is finding my wife and John Watson and stopping you hurting them."

"I won't hurt them," Eurus told him, "If you find Redbeard first," there was a flicker of light in a hallway beside the stairs where a screen standing on a bureau flickered on to reveal Eurus's face, clearly not in the governor's office any longer for the background was dark, "I'm letting the water in now. You don't want me to drown another one of your pets, do you? At long last, Sherlock Holmes, it's time to solve the Musgrave ritual."

Sherlock glared at the monitor.

"Your very first case! And the final problem. Oh. Bye bye."

"Sherlock?" John called over the earpiece.

"I that am lost," Eurus began to sing, "Oh, who will find me, deep down below the old beech tree? Help succor me now. The East Winds blow…"

Sherlock paused, about to go up the stairs, when he heard an odd noise, like water pouring and fire crackling at the same time and turned, pushing open a door to a room and staring in horror. There was a monitor there, a split screen, showing John…at the bottom of a well while water poured into it, and Leena, chained to a wall with a collar around her neck, trying to pull it off the wall while a bin burned, he could see the canister she mentioned halfway to the bin already.

"Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go…" Sherlock grit his teeth as Eurus continued to sing.

But there was a pause in it when the little girl's voice called out, "Help me! Help me, please!"

And then he could hear John calling his name, Leena muttering curses in French under her breath as she struggled.

"Be not afraid…" Eurus picked up again.

"Leena," he called out, "John, both of you, you'll be ok. I'm going to find you. I am finding you!"

"Well, hurry up, please, because I don't have long!" John shouted, the sound of water over the earpiece now.

He winced when the little girl screamed in his ear, "It's leaning over, the whole plane!"

"Sherwood," Leena spoke now, "Don't worry about us," she reassure him, "Don't focus on who to save first. That's not the point. You know what to do to make it stop. Focus on that."

He let out a breath, trying so hard not to let his worry and fear for his wife and friend cloud his thought process. She was right, it wasn't about saving them, trying to rescue one and then the other wouldn't work, just like in Sherrinford. This was a game to Eurus, but each trap, each trick, she revealed more of herself and the chaos in her head.

To save John and Leena, he had to solve Eurus's final problem, Redbeard, and then she'd stop.

A part of him knew that if he solved it, she may well kill Leena and John anyway.

But he knew where Leena was, at least, he could make it to her, he'd break down the damn door if he had to, and Eurus would have to stop it, or else he'd die too in the explosion.

"Eurus," he called out, moving back into the hall, "You said the answer's in the song but I went through the song line by line all those years ago," he could remember it now, with this same fear filling him, how he'd searched through the woods and the marsh as a child, "And I found nothing. I couldn't find anything. And there…there was a beech tree in the grounds and I dug. I dug and dug and dug and dug. Sixteen feet by six, sixteen yards, sixteen meters, and I found nothing. No one."

"…no one?" Leena's voice repeated the last word, "Sherlock…" she hesitated and a look over his shoulder at the monitor showed that she had stopped her efforts, shocked by that particular word and how it slipped out without him realizing.

"It was a clever little puzzle, wasn't it?" Eurus taunted, "So why couldn't you work it out, Sherlock?"

He could hear Leena swallow over the earpiece, "'No one'…you don't say no one for a dog."

Sherlock frowned, not following…

But then John cut in, "Oh god…Sherlock," he sounded reluctant and devastated, picking up what Leena had, the part he'd blocked out that even now wasn't coming through, "The bones I found..."

"They're dogs' bones," Sherlock insisted, something inside him, even now, urging it to be that, "That's Redbeard."

"Mycroft's been lying to us," John stated.

"They're not dogs' bones, are they?" Leena guessed.

"Remember Daddy's allergy?" Eurus baited him, "What was he allergic to? What would he never let you have all those times you begged? Well, he'd never let you have a dog. Or at least he didn't till afterward. After I was gone. Because you were upset you told yourself a better story. And mummy couldn't bear to see you so heartbroken, so she convinced him. But only after."

Sherlock stumbled back, recalling it now. He'd…he'd been so upset that Redbeard had run away, Leena had picked up on it shortly after they met. She'd pestered Mycroft about it endlessly till he'd told her about the dog. And so she'd used her birthday money (with help from Mycroft) to let him pick out another puppy, and it had become Redbeard, the one in most of his memories, the one he played with, the one he trained, the one they had to put down.

In his trauma, he'd buried most of his memories of the first Redbeard, only remembering the image of him and the knowledge that he'd run away and been lost and he'd been so upset.

Leena had made him smile again.

It explained why his father had been so droopy for so many years, he could see it now. Taking medicine to minimize his allergy, never wanting to spend time with the dog, talking so funny like he had a constant cold and stuffed nose when he forgot his medication.

His father was allergic, and his mother convinced him, begged him, to let Sherlock have the dog, to help him cope…

And now he remembered why.

Because Redbeard, the first Redbeard…hadn't been a dog.

They'd never had a dog until afterwards, until his mind had told him a different story of what happened, until he blocked it out and Leena got him one herself.

The first Redbeard hadn't been a dog…he'd been a child, with red hair, who loved playing pirates with him.

"Victor…" Sherlock breathed, the memories coming through now, "Victor Trevor."

"Sherwood?" Leena tried to call, but he was shaking his head, tears streaming down his face as he remembered the boy.

"Now it's coming," Eurus smirked.

"We played pirates," he remembered, "I was Yellowbeard and he was…" he felt ill, as though he might vomit, "He was Redbeard."

"Oh my god," Leena breathed in his ear, John letting out a quiet curse of his own as the situation revealed itself to them too.

It explained the trauma far more than a burning house did.

"You were inseparable," Eurus huffed, "But I wanted to play too."

Sherlock closed his eyes tightly, his mind racing as he tried his hardest to push the memories aside. His wife and his friend were still in danger and…it was clear in Eurus's tone that she hadn't liked other people taking his time away from her, he had to find a way to stop this, but the memories wouldn't quiet, "What…" he struggled to focus, "What did you do?"

It was obvious though, his stomach revolted, if John found a child's bones in the well, what else could it be…that Victor had been trapped at the bottom of the well, drowned, as Eurus herself kept calling him.

His sister had killed his best friend, and she was on the verge of doing it again, and worse.

Eurus sighed and began to sing again, slowly, more pointedly, as though she were trying to explain something to an idiot, "I that am lost, oh, who will find me deep down below the old beech tree?" she hummed again, "Deep waters, Sherlock, all your life. In all your dreams. Deep waters."

"You killed him," he looked at Eurus's face on the monitor, devastated, "You killed my best friend!"

"I never had a best friend," Eurus spoke, enunciating each word, anger in her voice, "I had no one. No one."

"Locksley," Leena's voice cut through his grief, a faint cough in the pause that followed, "Soldier," she reminded him, "That's John. Profiler, that's me. Detective, that's you. Idiot, that's Mycroft. Psychopath, that's her," she fell quiet a moment again, sounding like she was pressing her mouth to her shoulder to cover another set of coughs, "Be smart, be safe, solve this. You know what to do. Look at the clues…"

Sherlock swallowed hard, taking a deep breath, his mind racing to everything he knew, from what Leena had prepped him on involving Psychopaths, to clues they had picked up along the way of the traps set, to the rhyme Eurus kept singing, and to every word she'd ever spoken…

No one.

Those two words stuck out at him, his mind jumping back to AJ, to Ammo, to Amo, to how it was one word that sounded the same but was a completely different word. And how some words were said differently but were the same thing.

No one, Nemo.

He could remember a gravestone in the false cemetery just outside, Nemo Holmes, with the incorrect dates, dates and names he'd memorized as a child because they were his favorite part of the house, a part no one else bothered with…a part only HE would know.

This was all about Eurus and her fixations, and she was fixated on HIM. If she made that riddle for HIM to solve she would have done it in a way where only he could work it out because only HE had the cypher.

He turned and ran out of the house to the cemetery.

"Hello?" the little girl's voice called out, "Are you there?"

"Sorry, busy," he cut in, not about to play that game any longer, it didn't matter, not when he knew the truth behind that trap too, "I'm trying to solve a puzzle."

"But what about the plane?" the girl tried to lure him in.

"The puzzle will save the plane," he muttered to himself, it would put an end to that and stop what was happening to John and Leena. He quickly began to search the stones for the dates and names, "The wrong dates. She used the wrong dates on the gravestones as the key to the cipher and the cipher was the song."

"Is this strictly relevant?" John shouted, struggling clear in his voice.

"I imagine so," Leena spoke, calm despite the wheeze he could hear in her voice, "He wouldn't be distracted by anything other than how to stop this."

He put his attention on the gravestone, the numbers 134 – 1719, age 28, etched there, and to the other stones, putting their numbers up in his mind palace.

"The lights are getting closer," the little girl cried.

"Hush, now, working," he waved her off, imagining the words of the song above the numbers in his mind's eye, he could remember it now, every line, every verse, more than the one she kept repeating.

I that am lost, oh who will find me?
Deep down below the old beech tree
Help succor me now the east winds blow
Sixteen by six, brother, and under we go!

Be not afraid to walk in the shade
Save one, save all, come try!
My steps - five by seven
Life is closer to Heaven
Look down, with dark gaze, from on high.

Before he was gone, right back over my hill
Who now will find him?
Why, nobody will
Doom shall I bring to him, I that am queen
Lost forever, nine by nineteen.

Without your love, he'll be gone before
Save pity for strangers, show love the door.
My soul seek the shade of my willow's bloom
Inside, brother mine, let Death make a room.

He nodded to himself, sure he'd gotten it all, "Let's number the words of the song," he pictured numbers moving above the words in the song, "Then rearrange the numbered words to match the sequence on the gravestones. 1-3-4, I am Lost. 17-19, Help me. 28, Brother."

He let out a breath, erasing any word that didn't have a number that matched the gravestone dates, bringing up what remained of the message from the song.

"9-15-20, Save my life. 1-8-18, Before my doom. 20-26-28, I am lost. 1-2-3, without your love. 8-16-17-8-22-32, Save my soul, seek my room."

His eyes flew to the house, the last three words telling him where this would end, in Eurus' old bedroom. He grabbed the lantern off the ground and ran for the house.

"We're going to crash!" the girl cried out in his ear, "I'm going to die!"

Sherlock grit his teeth as he ran through the gate of the house, to the front, and burst through the door, racing up the stairs, "I think it's time you told me your real name."

"I'm not allowed to tell my name to strangers," she sniffled.

"I'm not a stranger," he ran down a hall to a door, "I'm your brother."

He pushed the door open and looked down, seeing Eurus sitting on an old sheet, her knees curled up to her chest, her arms around her legs, her eyes closed, sobbing.

"I'm here, Eurus," he said, not sure if she was even aware of what was happening before her.

"You're playing with me, Sherlock," she sniffled, a faint smile on her face, though her voice was distorted by the mic she had used earlier, disguising it as a child's voice, "We're playing the game."

"The game," he nodded, "Yes. I get it now," he took a step towards her, looking around the room for any sort of control to be seen to stop what was happening to John and Leena, "The song was never a set of directions."

"I'm in the plane," her voice shook, still child-like, "And I'm going to crash."

He eyed her a moment, before crouching down in front of her

"And you're going to save me."

He had to be careful, right now, in this moment. He had to put aside the anger and fear and resentment he felt for this woman, for all she had done to him and his wife and brother and friends, the harm she'd caused, the lives she'd ended. Too much was at stake to fail now at talking her down. And he knew HE was the only one who had a shot at doing so.

Leena had named it, right from the start, she had profiled this very instance even if she hadn't realized it at the moment.

Psychopaths had a deep desire to be loved and cared for.

After being denied a friendship with her brother, being taken away before she had a chance to forge one with the competition gone, being locked away from her entire family…she craved it more than anything. All those years, all that fixation on just wanting to play with her big brother…the thing she wanted most was to be his sister, to play with him again.

If he rejected her now…he knew the consequences would be far worse than anything he could imagine. Not only would she not hesitate to kill Leena and John, but his rejection now would likely make her psychosis worse. Instead of wanting his attention and wanting to play, in her own twisted way, she would likely devolve into killing him, wanting him dead because if he didn't want to play with her then she wouldn't play with him and no one else would either. If he talked about getting her back into custody at Sherinford, any hesitation or consideration she had would be gone.

He couldn't risk that.

He had made the mistake of looking at Eurus and seeing only his missing sister, locked away, whereas Leena had seen it from a distance, a psychopath to be wary around at all times.

He would not make that mistake now, even if it meant playing the role of big brother and appearing as though he saw her as his sister.

He would do so carefully.

His heart broke at the thought that he had to play that role rather than genuinely feeling it. This woman, she could have been so different, their relationship could have been so real, if things had been different. Part of him blamed Mycroft, for taking her away, for not protecting and helping Eurus the way he had HIM. He felt for this girl, this broken, sad girl, who was lonely and just wanted her brother to play with her. That wasn't an act. But another part of him could not and would not forget that she had killed people, both as a child and an adult, and he had to make sure it stopped.

"Look how brilliant you are," he began gently, "Your mind has created the perfect metaphor. A bit too literal," he tried to tease, though it felt foreign to him, he and Mycroft had never had a teasing sort of relationship, "You forgot that the doors on planes don't open except from the cockpit, your 'drivers' were asleep at the controls, no one to open the door," he forced a chuckle, grateful Leena had tapped out the word 'door' during the second test, which led him to realize what she had.

The girl on the plane wasn't real.

Leena spent more time on planes than he did, than Eurus likely ever had, he wouldn't have thought of that but she had. The doors couldn't be open if the pilots were asleep, or one of them would have fallen asleep at the door. The girl on the plane shouldn't have been able to see them, let alone make it all the way into the cockpit. Sometimes that was all it took, just one thing that couldn't happen for a story to fall apart.

"You're high above us, all alone in the sky, and you understand everything except how to land," he shifted so he could sit before her, "Now, I'm just an idiot, but I'm on the ground…" he hesitated, swallowing hard and taking a breath before he reached out to touch her hands, "I can bring you home."

"No," she shook her head, and there was a faint click, allowing her voice to return to normal, "No, no. It's too late now."

He couldn't help but nod slightly even though her eyes were shut. He agreed, in some form, again partly blaming Mycroft for allowing it to get this far, but the fact that she seemed aware that what she'd done was wrong meant something. He doubted she understood WHAT was wrong about it, he doubted she felt what she'd done was wrong, but she knew enough that HE would find it wrong, that HE would be hurt by it, and she at least acknowledged she'd done too much to him for him not to think so.

In another way, it was also true, because she'd manipulated so many things by now that he couldn't even fully trust that this reaction of hers was genuine and not another manipulation. Maybe, on some level, she even realized it was too late for him to ever trust her. He had to be careful, psychopaths, while not always understanding emotion or feeling it, could sometimes replicate it, especially if it meant using it to trick others. For all he knew, especially without Leena there to assess it all, this could be another trick, a ruse to guilt him, to lower his defenses, to get him to 'believe' her and defend her or something else.

"No, it's not," he tried to keep his voice calm and genuine, recalling each and every time Leena had talked someone down or broke some sort of tragic news to them, "It's not too late."

"Every time I close my eyes," her voice shook as she sobbed, "I'm on the plane. I'm lost, lost in the sky and no one can hear me."

"Open your eyes," he told her gently, "I'm here," that was what she wanted, she wanted her brother's love back, and if that would free the others, he would let her have that as carefully as he could, "You're not lost anymore," he added when she finally opened her eyes and looked at him. He shifted closer and tugged her into a hug, not wanting her to see his face or how he struggled to smile at her. He let out a relieved breath when she shuffled forward and hugged him in return, lightly crying, accepting his offer, and he knew he'd made the right choice, handled this correctly. But there was more to do, more to stop, and he didn't have time, "Now, you…you just…you just went the wrong way last time, that's all," he didn't have to fake how tearful his voice had grown, both that he had to phrase it that way when the pain was still so raw to him, to downplay what she had done, make it seem as though it were a forgivable offense, and for how genuinely hurt he was. There WAS a sympathy for her, to be so clever but not understand so much. He had had Leena there, chipping away at his walls, helping him understand other people and working so hard to understand HIM, Eurus hadn't had that, "You should have waited," he mused, "If I had Victor…perhaps you would have had Leena instead."

Wasn't that a thought.

If Eurus had never done what she had, he would have stayed friends with Victor, he would have been at that age where girls were 'gross' and had little to do with her. Eurus would have been a lonely little girl and Leena, she would have been too kind to reject the girl for merely being younger than her. For all he knew, maybe Eurus would have turned out differently if she'd had a best friend, if she'd had someone in her life like Leena.

Part of him almost wished it had happened, for the possibility of sparing his sister becoming what she was and the life she'd led, but another part refused to imagine it. Because he would never want a world where Leena wasn't his.

A traitorous voice in the back of his head whispered why couldn't she have been still? What if she had been Eurus's best friend and not his and, as he grew, as girls became less 'gross' and more tolerable, maybe he would have liked her? Maybe they would have still been together and gotten married and maybe Eurus would have reacted differently to losing her friend because she'd be gaining a sister?

He shook his head, he couldn't afford to get lost in his thoughts and imaginings right now, "This time," he murmured, "Get it right," he took a breath, "Tell me how to save Leena and John."

Eurus sniffled and pulled away to look at him.

~8~

Leena gasped when the door to the room crashed open, Sherlock having shoved it with his shoulder, breaking in. He didn't spare her a glance, which she appreciated, for he instead ran straight for the canister that was mere inches away from the licking flames and pulled it away. He heaved a deep breath of relief and turned to her, moving right to her side, a key in hand, and unlocked the manacle around her neck before he gathered her into his arms.

She closed her eyes for a moment, early sagging against him in her own relief that he'd done it. She never doubted him, she had given him enough clues and suggestions for how to handle Eurus, given her psychosis, that she didn't doubt he'd be able to get through to the woman and get her to stop these twisted games. She took a breath as he helped her up, though he didn't release her, until they heard a shuffling by the door.

They looked over to see Eurus in the doorway, holding up a second key.

~8~

They had gotten to John just in time, right as the authorities arrived really. It appeared, wherever Mycroft had been deposited, he had worked out her next move would be Musgrave and alerted Lestrade to head there. One of the vehicles that arrived had some rope for equipment and they were able to send it down to John to help him keep above water while another officer rappelled down a second rope with the key to release him from his chains.

Leena would have laughed at the fact that Sherlock Holmes had wrapped her in a shock blanket, had it not been for the very real fact that she might actually be going into shock now that this was all over, though she couldn't be sure. John was nearby, wrapped in a blanket himself, though he was very wet, the water had nearly reached his chin when they got to him.

Sherlock had his arm wrapped around her shoulders as they stood, watching Eurus be led away in cuffs, still looking tearful, but cooperating as she was moved to a police van.

"I just spoke to your brother," Lestrade spoke as he approached.

"How is he?" Leena asked, more curious to where he'd been stuffed away than if he was physically injured. She still owed him a kick to the shins for all this.

"He's a bit shaken up, that's all. She didn't hurt him, she just locked him in her old cell."

"What goes around comes around," John murmured.

"Yeah. Give me a moment, boys," he turned to head over to where some of his men were waiting, having secured Eurus in the back of the van.

"Oh, um, Mycroft," Sherlock called out, "Make sure he's looked after. He's not as strong as he thinks he is."

Lestrade nodded, "Yeah, I'll take care of it."

"Thanks, Greg."

Leena smiled as he got the name right without any prodding from her, much to the shock of John and Lestrade before the man continued on his way to begin the extraction of Eurus.

Leena hummed, observing the van, Eurus just barely visible through the window in the back, her head bowed, "It's funny, in a sad sort of way. If she weren't absolutely mad, we might have been good friends..." she trailed off as another thought came to her, "It…makes sense now," she murmured.

"What does?" Sherlock looked at her.

She smiled gently up at him, if a bit sadly, "Why you let me in and no one else."

It had been something that niggled at her for years, once she was old enough to realize her friend was different and treated people who weren't her differently. Why her? What was so special about her that he allowed her to be his friend? That he stayed friends with her? That he loved her when he felt it was something he didn't need or want? Every girl liked to think she was 'just that special' when it came to a man like Sherlock Holmes, but she wasn't naïve enough to think that, so there had to have been something else that nudged him towards her. Over the years, she cared less and less about what that something was and was just grateful he'd let her in at all. Now though...she was getting a clearer picture.

"Maybe," she continued, "Somewhere in your mind, you knew there was a girl missing in your life, and when I came around, it...filled a void."

Like Redbeard had. Getting that actual dog had filled a void Victor had left, had reaffirmed the idea that the first one had been a dog too, made it easier to believe. Maybe with Eurus missing, something in him had been looking for a little girl to...not take her spot, but make it easier to cope with the thing being missing.

"I never looked at you like a sister," Sherlock said without preamble, not wanting her to ever think she was some sort of stand-in for Eurus, a sister to him.

Leena smiled up at him, "Nor you a brother."

He nodded, pleased and reassured, and glanced over at the van, "If I became the man I am because of Eurus," Sherlock considered, turning back to her, "Then we grew the relationship we have because of her. If not for her…" he didn't finish, he didn't want to think about a life where Leena wasn't there.

"Think she'd appreciate a fruit basket?" Leena joked, earning a laugh from Sherlock as he wound his arm around her and just held her close, "Well done, Sherwood," she murmured.

"You ok?" John asked, eyeing the man as he frowned, moving to watch Eurus through the glass of the van.

"I said I'd bring her home. I can't, can I?"

"Home…" Leena began, trying to take a breath, but coughing slightly, "Home is relative. Home is what you make it, and the people you make it of," she looked up at him, "YOU are my home, Sherlock."

Sherlock smiled down at her, "Mutual."

"Maybe that's it for her, too," John suggested, "Home. Family. Maybe she just wanted to be remembered."

Sherlock fell silent, thinking about that, about the reasons Eurus might have done all this now, about what possible things he could do to prevent it happening in the future.

Leena snorted.

"What?" John looked at her.

She poked a hand out from her blanket and pointed at Sherlock, "I know that face," she remarked, "I would not want to be Mycroft."

Sherlock merely grinned, quite evilly.

~8~

Leena was delighted to be present while she was proven right, watching as Mrs. Holmes stood before a seated Mycroft in his office, chewing him out. Anyone who thought Mary was a scary sight when she was angry, never encountered an irate Mrs. Holmes, and she wasn't talking about herself this time. Sherlock's mother and father were across the room from them, in front of Mycroft's desk while they stood at the back of the office, watching and away from the crossfire.

Sherlock, because Mycroft deserved it after everything that happened in keeping secret Eurus's existence, had put on quite the show of turning up at his parents' home with Leena, in tears, about Eurus, and how she was alive and 'how could Mycroft separate me from my sister, you from your daughter?'

And from then it was sit back and watch the fireworks.

He really did deserve it.

Stacking up all the mistakes he'd made in handling Eurus over his life, too many of them were made when he was an adult who should have known better than a child still trying to understand.

"Alive?!" Mrs. Holmes was snapping at her eldest son, a part of her had likely thought that perhaps Sherlock and Leena had just been mistaken, but when she confronted Mycroft and he affirmed it…she was furious, "For all these years?! How is that even possible?!"

"What Uncle Rudy began…" Mycroft hesitated to say, unable to meet his mother's eyes when she was on a tangent like this, "I thought it best to continue."

"I'm not asking how you did it, idiot boy, I'm asking how could you?!"

"I was trying to be kind," he defended.

"Kind?!" the woman nearly screamed, "Kind?" before breaking down in tears, which was almost worse, "You told us that our daughter was dead."

"Better that than tell you what she had become," he snapped, before wincing and looking away, "I'm sorry."

Leena couldn't help but shake her head at that. Even now she didn't know everything about Eurus, her treatment, her isolations, what Mycroft might have done to help her. But, from what she'd seen, she got the feeling that was as close as Mycroft would ever get to admitting he'd made a mistake in caring for Eurus. That she'd BECOME this, not that she had always been it. Somewhere along the line, she'd developed into this, and that happened under Mycroft's watch.

Mr. Holmes sighed and stood, frowning down at Mycroft, seeming to come to the same conclusion, "Whatever she became, whatever she is now, Mycroft…she remains our daughter."

"And my sister," Mycroft reminded them.

"Then you should have done better," Mrs. Holmes declared.

Sherlock had to speak up at that, a bolt of empathy for his brother, knowing how much he valued doing well and doing the best by his parents, "He did his best."

"Then he's very limited."

"He made the right choice," Leena spoke, surprisingly in defense of Mycroft, "Went about it in completely the wrong way, should have gotten specialists or someone trained to help, never should have resorted to isolation, and shouldn't have lied…but he did make the right choice."

For the current moment, at least.

Eurus displayed traits, from what she'd observed since this all happened, that told her it might have, MIGHT have, been possible…not to rehabilitate Eurus, not even have her function in society as normal, but perhaps not be as much a danger if things had been handled differently. If they had been able to notice Eurus's tendencies earlier, identify them for what it was, if they had observed her fixation on Sherlock and her loathing for Victor…perhaps if something had been done earlier Eurus would have at least been able to live in the outside world. There were so many things that children, no matter how brilliant they might be, didn't understand or didn't know how to process, anger, jealousy, sorrow, they had to be taught how to cope with them in healthy ways. Children lashed out, when they were angry they hit, when they were jealous they broke things, when they were sad they threw tantrums. Eurus was the same, she just couldn't register those emotions as actual feelings, she probably didn't even display them in typical ways, if something had been done...there could have been a chance for her.

She was clever, she could learn to adapt even if she would never understand.

But now? After all that happened, the choices Mycroft made, there was no way to safely allow Eurus out ever again, not for a very long time at least and that was only if Mycroft submitted to finding someone trained and well enough to help Eurus learn. Which she doubted, he was very set in his ways and it had been too long. And she had done too much to never be seen as a danger again.

"Where is she?" Mr. Holmes demanded of his eldest.

"Back in Sherrinford," Mycroft stated, "Secure, this time," he looked at his parents when they seemed about to protest, "People have died," he reminded them, "Your daughter killed four people and caused another to kill himself, before trying to kill John Watson and Leena, twice."

He couldn't add himself to the list even if Eurus's intent had been for Sherlock and 1 person to move on to the final problem, it hadn't actually happened.

Leena, however, HAD nearly been killed twice and John once.

His words were enough though, his parents fell silent, shifting and looking down, all to aware of how this could have been a norm for their daughter given the pictures they'd seen of Sherlock dead in her drawings. But now they'd never know if there had been ways to help her move past it.

"She killed Victor Trevor," Leena added gently, reaching out to take Sherlock's hand when he inhaled sharply, but they deserved to know, "She got him down the bottom of a well and left him there, to die of starvation or drowning or the cold…"

"Without doubt she will kill again if she has the opportunity," Mycroft spoke, pulling his parents' attention back, "There's no possibility she'll ever be able to leave."

Leena refrained from adding 'now' to the end of that, Mycroft was being beaten up enough by his parents already.

"When can we see her?" his father asked.

"There's no point," Mycroft told them.

"How dare you say that?" his mother nearly snapped.

But he sighed, "There's no point because she won't talk. She won't communicate with anyone in any way. She has passed beyond our view. There are no words that can reach her now."

"She's not talking because she's learned it's bad," Leena cut in, shaking her head at Mycroft trying to make it more dramatic than it was, "She talks, others listen. And the last time others listened, her brother was hurt and upset. She won't risk that a second time. So she just won't talk. So that Sherlock knows she doesn't want to upset him. Because if she's good, maybe he'll come and play with her," she looked between the Holmes family as they stared at her, "Basic Psychology."

"Then I'll play with her," Sherlock offered, not for anyone's sake but his parents, because they looked truly upset, "But if she won't speak…"

"PLAY with her," Leena urged and he looked at her, "Not all communication is done verbally," she reminded him, her expression clearly reading 'is it?'

He began to smile, "Give her her violin back," Sherlock told Mycroft, "And give Leena and I access to visit whenever we want."

Mycroft frowned at that, "I don't…"

"I won't go without Leena," Sherlock appeased, "As she's proven, she's more than capable of handling a psychotic Holmes."

Leena got the distinct impression he meant to add 'she's dealt with us her entire life' to that but he kept quiet, though he sent her a wink.

"She needs something positive," Sherlock continued to explain to Mycroft, "She fractured and started on this path because I didn't spend enough time with my little sister. Do you want to risk her breaking down again or deciding that being silent isn't working?"

Mycroft was silent a long while, considering that. It…did make sense. If Sherlock appeared and spent even some semblance of time with Eurus, was able to offer the woman the connection she kept looking for…maybe it would placate her enough to keep her subdued and on good behavior.

Like the treats he would give her for her help.

This would be a treat for her behaving.

"Fine."

~8~

And so it began, just about twice a month, Sherlock and Leena would make the trip to Sherrinford on a Sunday afternoon, alone, entrusting Liberty to Mary and John for those few hours, much like the Watsons would leave Hamish with them on Friday afternoons so they could have some time as well. While they understood Eurus and her psychosis, while they had some shred of trust in Mycroft's updated security, they would never, ever risk their daughter or bring her anywhere near Eurus.

Sometimes, Leena felt, Sherlock looked forward to the trips, being able to play his violin to his heart's content, a way to try and reach out to Eurus, to play with her but on his own terms and in a way HE controlled. Other times it seemed like Sherlock only made these trips to placate Eurus and keep her from trying to come after his family again.

She knew he felt some sympathy for the woman, that, with his memories back, he was torn about it. On the one hand, she was his sister and, as big brother, he should look out for her and be there for her as family did. On the other hand, she had killed his best friend, tried to kill his next best friend, and almost murdered his wife twice and after the trauma she put him through it was difficult to feel that sibling bond he somewhat had with Mycroft. Part of him wished she could get better, but a bigger part of him knew that he had to keep her at a distance and not fall into the trap of 'sister' ever again for that was when he'd failed the most.

She'd woken on more than one occasion to Sherlock in the throes of a nightmare, the man waking, terrified that Eurus had succeeded and he'd lost her, to the smoke or the fire. He had nightmares that Eurus forced his hand, somehow manipulated him, or reprogrammed him to take her life instead of John or Mycroft's. Sometimes he would dream that it had been Leena and Liberty hanging from the window and Eurus dropping them, or Leena tied to the chair and Eurus shooting her.

They were not things he would ever recover from quickly, it would take time. Perhaps, one day, when he could study Eurus's condition, train himself up more, he might be able to come to terms with what she'd done. He understood her mind worked differently than others, that there were things she should feel that she didn't, things she didn't understand beyond a textbook definition. He understood she wasn't well after so long alone, but a part of him couldn't push past the harm she had caused.

Had she been any other psychopath, he'd have had her locked away and forgotten her, or pushed for the harshest punishment to the crime there could be.

In that sense, the fact that she was his sister meant little to him, he could objectively look at her crimes and say she deserved punishment for them. Being locked away forever, Leena had said to him, was punishment, just like the prisons were for other criminals. There was only an added layer of security added here, him coming ever two weeks to play the violin either to Eurus or with Eurus, to 'reward her' and give her a 'treat' for good behavior. It would never lessen her sentence, but, hopefully, it would keep her content enough not to lash out or plot again.

Mycroft, in his typical way, had warned his parents that, if he caught wind of Eurus speaking to anyone beyond himself, Sherlock, or Leena, for he deemed them the most capable to handle her, he would resort to extreme measures to keep her silenced, not about to risk her taking over the prison again. For next time it would undoubtedly be worse.

They hadn't agreed with Mycroft's threat, but they also hadn't spoken to his parents about what exactly he meant in it. Let them think he meant gagging her indefinitely, putting some sort of contraption over her mouth so she couldn't speak. They had the gnawing suspicion that Mycroft was dead serious when he said he'd silence her, though he'd never kill her. One could not talk without tongue or vocal cords, though they hoped it would never come to that. But Mycroft took his failings very much to heart and refused to allow himself to fail again, no matter the cost.

And so they went to Sherrinford, and Sherlock would play his violin. Sometimes Eurus would sit there, with her back to him or facing him, and just listen. Other times, more and more recently, she would pick up her own violin and join him in a duet. Sometimes his parents would be there with Mycroft, though he had limited them to once every 3 months and only with his accompaniment, for their own safety.

In between those visits, they had worked tirelessly to repair and rebuild 221B. With Mycroft's assistance, because it was his fault Eurus got out and it was HIS grenades she'd used, he'd funded the endeavor. Mary and John came round whenever they could to help them sort through the rubbish and salvage what they could. It was mostly the sitting room and some of the kitchen that took the worst of it.

Leena had been a bit tearful when they saw that some of the nursery had been damaged as well, the door had blown in from the blast and crashed into the changing table and rocking chair they'd had set up. Nothing devastating, but still upsetting to see the room for their child broken in any way, shape, or form. Mary had fallen silent when she saw it, the reality of the situation hitting her at the sight. When they had told her about what happened, it was treated like a case for John to blog about, none of them wanted to put much thought on just how traumatic it had been or how close they really came to dying at various points. It had the added result of Mary feeling like she should have been there and that Harriet would have been fine with the two children for a few days…

Seeing the nursery had set her priorities back to rights. She had actually thanked them for sending her away with the children, because imagining if Liberty had been in that room, or if Leena had been feeding her at the rocking chair when it all happened? Mary had actually broken down in tears, because it could have happened at their home, too. Eurus could have targeted her and Hamish if she'd wanted, turn Sherlock's best friend against him or something. She'd said they were right to make that call to get the children away and she was glad they trusted her to do it.

Leena got the feeling Mary was a bit less pleased to be there sorting through so much rubbish, it was exhausting work and they'd had to buy a new pen for the children and set it up in the nursery to keep them away from anything dangerous and all the dust everywhere. Trying to clean house with two children to watch out for was complicated. But they'd managed it, and soon enough the flat looked just as it had. John had even gone so far as to paint the yellow smiley face back on the wall for Sherlock to shoot just to make it feel like home again.

Mrs. Hudson had been very pleased to see her property restored.

Which was why it was such a happy affair when they'd been given the all clear that everything was finished and right once more. They'd invited everyone over as a sort of 'house warming' though it really was more just John and Mary stopping round to see the finished result.

"It looks wonderful!" Mary beamed as she entered the room, Hamish in her arms, he was so big now!

"Mary," Leena smiled, moving to hug the woman and take Hamish from her, careful with her arm, it was growing stronger every day but she was always much more cautious when a child was in her arms, "And the handsome man!" Sherlock's eyes narrowed a moment at that, which had her rolling her eyes and scoffing, "Hamish, Sherwood, I was talking about Hamish."

He still hadn't gotten over her deciding John was 'handsome' in his own way.

"Where IS John though?" Leena turned to Mary.

"Just paying the cab," Mary shrugged, moving further into the room to where Sherlock was holding Liberty, snatching the girl's hand and pressing a kiss to it in greeting, before she put her hands on her hips and looked around, "You know, on second thought, it doesn't quite seem right, does it?" she frowned, slowly turning in a circle as she eyed the room, "Something's missing, isn't it?" she turned back to them.

Sherlock frowned and looked this way and that, mentally comparing the sight before him to the image of the flat in his mind palace, "It's the same."

"Yeah," Mary nodded, glancing at the door when they heard John coming up the stairs, "That's what I mean, there's something else that should be here though."

"What?"

"Surprise!" John called, pushing the door open with his foot.

"…what is that?" Sherlock blinked at the wriggling ting John was holding up in his arms.

"Oh, my god!" Leena nearly squealed, rushing over to the thing and laughing when it began to lick her nose, "It's a puppy!"

"No flies on Jackie," John laughed, reaching out to trade her the yapping dog for his son.

"Sherwood…" Leena beamed at him, carrying the tiny thing over to him and showing him it was a small black puppy, a bit shaggy of fur, with big blue eyes that reminded her of Sherlock's. A Berger Picard if she had to guess.

Sherlock looked down at the puppy and over to John.

"I know…" John began, before trying to find the right words, "I know Redbeard did exist, in the end. And you clearly loved him, very much," he shrugged, "I thought Liberty should have her own."

Sherlock let out a breath, a small smile on his face as he looked down at the dog, "What do you think?" he asked Leena, who was already cuddling the dog to her, clearly in love with it, Liberty was reaching for it, too, and the dog was licking her hand for her efforts.

She hummed and looked up at him, "Blackbeard."

"I love you," Sherlock grinned, leaning down to kiss her.

"No," Mary cut in, and they looked over to see her pointing at John, "We're not getting a dog."

John pouted, "It was nice while it lasted."

Mary rolled her eyes and shook her head fondly at him. Sherlock chuckled, moving to put Liberty in the pen, which was finally back in the sitting room, the windows now all bulletproof glass so there was no threat of something breaking through it without them having time to escape. John moved over with Hamish to set the boy down too as Leena turned to pour them all a glass of champagne to celebrate, handing the puppy to Sherlock to hold.

"Ok, ok," Mary turned, holding her glass up, "I have a toast," she offered, waiting till Sherlock and Leena nodded her on, not sure if they might want to speak first or at all or anything, "I'm so glad that I had the chance to know you," she looked around the room at them, their close brushes with death making her rethink when AJ had been after her, when Norbury had pulled that gun out, "That you know me, the real me," she smiled at John for that, "Like I've come to know the real yous. The not-so-sociopathic detective," she tipped her glass to Sherlock, the man laughing, sitting on his armchair with his arm around Leena, Blackbeard chewing the edge of his jacket lapel while it sat on his lap, "The French/American/British profiler," she laughed as Leena rolled her eyes, "Really, need to shorten that," she joked with the girl, "And the doctor who never came home from the war," she added, more seriously, to John, "You gave this assassin-turned-nurse a chance, you gave me your trust, and I swear I'm going to work every day to deserve it," that last part was to John though, the man smiling at her in return, before she took a breath and continued, "You're my family now," she looked around at them, finally able to let go of her past with AGRA, the family she hadn't been able to save, "All of us, legends in our own right, the adventures we've had," she chuckled, "And the adventures still to have," she lifted her glass, "Because right here, this is the last refuge for the desperate, the unloved, the persecuted. This is the final court of appeal for everyone. When life gets too strange, too impossible, too frightening, there is always one last hope. When all else fails, there are two men sitting, arguing in a scruffy flat," she tipped her glass to Sherlock and John, "And two women, standing behind them, rolling their eyes," she rolled her eyes for good measure as Leena lifted her glass and did the same, "All of us, like we've always been there and always will be," she held her glass up higher, "To the best men and wisest woman I have ever known…"

"And the most terrifying assassin!" Leena called out, making Mary smile at being included.

"To us," she nodded, "The Baker Street Bunch…"

"Really, Mary?" John laughed at that.

"Could be better," Sherlock agreed with a smile.

"Oh, you know what I mean," Mary huffed a laugh of her own, "To us, and the mysteries to come."

The others raised their glasses in toast, Leena leaning against Sherlock as they took sips of their drink, content.

Yes, to them, and the adventure still to come.

The End

A/N: Well, not REALLY the end, I don't think? Does anyone know if we're getting a Series 5? I keep hearing 'it might happen, it'll happen' but nothing concrete about it actually happening. So, for now, this series is going to be deemed (technically) complete. IF a Series 5 happens, there WILL be another story, I have quite a few 'Holmes' related titles in mind but I'd need to have a better idea of what that series would be involving before I can pick just the right one ;) So until it's officially confirmed, Leena's story is complete :')

On other notes, lots to say! (Lol, I feel like I always end up with lots to say)

Leena's profiling:

I hope Leena didn't come across as too know-it-all when it comes to Eurus or even the girl on the plane. With how often the BAU would travel by plane, I feel like Leena would be well versed in them, especially with how she would travel from the UK to America by plane, she would know that the door to the cockpit would NOT be open, even with them asleep and that would make her very suspicious and more ready to notice other little inconsistencies. I really tried to look into how her training, her education, her experience, and her background as a profiler helps her anticipate what Eurus might do or WHY she might do it. Sherlock is incredible at assessing crime scenes and working out the victims, but Leena's focus has always been the criminal and getting inside their head. This is what she's paid to do, it's just that this is more personal for her this time around :( She knows Eurus wants to inflict the most amount of pain she can without physically harming them (because that has its time and place) so she can guess a way to do it would be to force them to kill to save someone and then have them unable to save that person no matter how hard they tried, she can guess that such an intent focus on one of the brothers could me it's really the other two (or all of them) who are in danger because it's again giving them hope to save two this time only to take it away.

There were some areas where she wasn't able to fully guess what Eurus would do until it was happening, like when she got trapped in the hall. She's had a suspicion, since Eurus told Sherlock to keep the gun with its single bullet, that it meant at least one of them would likely die before Sherlock would need to use the bullet. She just didn't know it would be her in the next attempt or how that attempt would go.

I hope it made sense, the removal of Molly's scene from the chapter and the change to Leena being in danger. Molly doesn't have the same bond to Sherlock as in the show due to Leena being there, her death wouldn't affect Sherlock as much as Leena's would, so I couldn't see Eurus doing that to Molly when she has Leena right there to toy with :( I was really looking forward to Leena trying to add in her own version of the code she and Sherlock used, the one he left her a message with at the end of Series 2 ;) Even then, though, she wasn't 100 percent sure she was right about where Eurus might have hidden the remote to open the door, so she had to give Sherlock that message first, incase she was wrong, incase she died, she needed him to know how to get closer to Eurus if she wasn't there to help :( Luckily she was right :)

I wanted to sort of add that parallel in with Eurus and Mycroft, both of them thinking they're so clever when, if someone just understands them psychologically, they're sort of predictable to an extent ;) For Mycroft it's a bit more because Leena has the added benefit of having grown up around him and having heard of other things from Sherlock about him, she doesn't have that with Eurus. To me, timeline-wise, I sort of see the events with Eurus and Redbeard happening and then, a few months after she's taken away from the family and Sherlock forgets her, Leena moves over from France. I don't see Sherlock's parents ever bringing up Eurus after she 'died' and Sherlock forgot her, both out of the pain they had to be feeling and for Sherlock's benefit, so I couldn't see them ever telling her about the daughter they lost, more just seeing Leena as a daughter-figure, what their little girl maybe could have been one day. Mycroft went to too much trouble to ever slip and let Sherlock know about Eurus, so he'd have kept that from Leena too, for the reason he states, she would have told Sherlock :(

Sherlock and Eurus:

As for Sherlock, how he handles Eurus. I was torn, watching the episode, with what we see of Sherlock and Eurus, mostly near the end of the problem. We don't know his mind or his motivations, so we can only really go on what we see and how we interpret the scene. To me, it read as a sort of genuine brother trying to calm down his little sister and not really knowing how to do it. But even then, there felt like there was a subtle layer of tension to it, to me, like he was being very careful to calm Eurus and not set her off. Again, could have been the brother-sister thing, or it could have been a 'my friend's life depends on me getting her to stop' sort of thing :/

In this chapter, I wanted to look more into Sherlock's head for WHY he says what he does and acts like he does where Eurus is concerned. Yes, she is his sister, and on some level he cares. But he's also had a very large shock, a very traumatic revelation, he's found out that this woman, his sister, murdered his best friend as a child, and his wife and his best friend are in danger of dying at her hands again. That isn't something he's going to get over quickly, that's not something he's going to be able to process fully, or ever forgive. Looking more into his mind, I felt like he would see Eurus breaking down and go the route of more 'how do I really talk her down and save the others.' He would say what he needs to say, do what he needs to do, to get her to stop what she's doing and free his wife and friend.

He's essentially manipulating her, I know :( Desperate times and all that :(

Over time, I think it would be possible for him to one day move past what she'd done to Victor and tried to do to Leena and John, but it won't happen within minutes. And I think there will be times where he'll wonder what Eurus would have become if Mycroft had gone to the ends of the earth to get Eurus help instead of locking her away. Part of it will be guilt, that he forgot her, that she became this, that he didn't spend enough time with her. Another part will be looking at her and seeing the woman who tried to kill the mother of his child :( It will take time.

Eurus then and Eurus now:

Leena touched on that a bit, with her thoughts and remarks to Mycroft, she's very aware that not everyone who endures psychopathy becomes criminal. Some can live average lives, perhaps even learn to act the part so others might not notice. Eurus was brilliant, and with the right help and guidance, she could have learned that too. To her, when Eurus 'wanted Sherlock dead' as a child, it COULD have been her not knowing how to express her frustrations with Sherlock spending so much time with Victor, feeling like 'well if he doesn't want to spend time with me, he shouldn't spend time with anyone' sort of thing. And maybe if someone took the time to understand her, she could have learned the concept or sharing, that Sherlock would be more willing to be nice to her if she was nice to Victor and so on. She's very aware that, NOW, Eurus is too developed, has suffered too long in isolation and without human interaction, to be fully rehabilitated or worked with. It would take a far longer time to get through to her and help her adjust and adapt than it would as a child, and Mycroft is not likely to allow anything of the sort :( Leena will never forget the threat Eurus is now, but she knows psychologically it could have been different :(

Additional plans for Leena:

On that note...I'm sure some of you are aware I have an AU planned for a 'what if' Sherlock and Leena met as adults during a Study in Pink and not as children...

...I may possibly have another AU in mind for Leena also, inspired by THIS chapter :D

WHAT IF, as Sherlock wondered here, Eurus was patient and didn't go after Victor. I imagine that Eurus being taken away and Leena arriving were quite close between, perhaps as much as 6 months apart. So what if Eurus was patient and Leena arrived WHILE Victor was still alive. What if Leena became Eurus's best friend instead of Sherlock's. How would Eurus be if she'd had someone, had that best friend, to help guide her. We saw Sherlock's sociopathic tendencies start to sort of fade away with Leena around, what would happen to Eurus if she had that connection and attention and companionship from someone? What would she be like if she had someone who 'wanted to play with her' and maybe could explain to her how some things were acceptable and others not? What would Sherlock be like if Victor never died? Would they still get together in the end? (I think you know the answer to that last question ;) ;))

A teaser, I'm sort of picturing Victor confronting Eurus and going 'Look, I don't like you, you don't like me, but I will kill either your best friend or my best friend if they don't just kiss already, you in?' lol :)

Future of Leena:

And, on a possibly even better note...since this is the last chapter for 2020, I wanted to give a small look at something else I'm going to be hoping to get done during 2021 besides the main stories and part of it will involve Leena! ;)

I've been focusing most of this year on the main stories and, as a result, the spin-offs and AUs have sort of fallen to the wayside :( I really want to try and get them back up next year :) BUT I also don't want to promise too much and not be able to put my money where my mouth is lol. So I WILL be trying to update the spin-offs/AUs/Sequels, but we may get them on a very spread out manner. REALLY spread out, like 2 a month, one chapter, and rotate through the spin-offs in that sort of sense. I know that probably seems very slow going, but something is better than nothing lol, and I'd probably reevaluate it mid-way through the year and see if I can bump it up to 3 a month instead ;)

So! If I manage that, I have 11 spin-offs/AUs/sequels that are currently posted, and if I do 2 a month that means I'm short one during that last month of the cycle, so I would need to post 1 more spin-off or AU to make an even 12, and I think I've picked out which it'll be ;)

We're getting a Leena AU! :D

Since this series is technically complete, I feel safe moving into AU territory for Leena and working on that so we can at least get a bit of Sherlock as the year goes on :) The AU would be the one where, instead of meeting Leena as a child, Sherlock meets her as an adult during A Study in Pink ;)

Next story for 2021:

Wow, can you believe 2021 is in just a few days!? O.O Gotta say, I really can't wait for this year to be over and I'll be hoping next year will be better :) Now that Leena's story is complete, the next story I'll be posting (to be up January 1st) is going to be my Once Upon a Time story for my OC Piper, Black Roses :) For a fuller set of the stories to come for the rest of 2021 (tentatively set, it may change, but for now that's what I'll aim for), check out my 'Upcoming Stories' page on my tumblr, it should be the first or second post there ;)

End notes:

And, just to end...I really have to say thank you guys SO much! Really, I give each and every reader/reviewer/favoriter/follower/ko-fi giver/anythinger a virtual hug because you guys are amazing :) I write for all of you guys and I'm just so touched that you all liked the story and am truly thankful that you're enjoying Leena :) I'll do my very best to keep it up in the future, because you guys most definitely deserve it. I love you all :')

No real notes on reviews, I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter! :D