All too soon, Katherine remembered every single reason as to why the sadistic side of her had thanked her shooter. 99% of which related to allowing her to escape from this underground prison. Within an hour, she'd developed a headache mostly due to the ill lighting and backache from being constantly sat with such artificial posture as she typed. The work for her to do was minimal, surprisingly so, but she had yet to earn the full trust of her boss it seamed and the five week absence had not helped. Overall the day was dragging on and she couldn't wait to go home.

"He's not answering his phone." The sudden presence entering the room caused her to jump, dropping her mobile phone into her desk draw and slamming it.

"Sorry, do you have an appointment?" She already knew without looking up, of course she already knew. There were only two people on earth who could enter a room and start a conversation with a stranger like that and one of them was in the office next door. Never the less, she couldn't act as if she paid attention, so she went along with the script she used for everyone.

"Oh, its the slow one. Back from holiday?" It was at that point she did move her eyes from the computer screen, looking up at the six foot, gaunt frame of Sherlock Holmes. Surely he didn't just say what she thought he had? Before she had time to register and confront him however, the good detective continued. "No. Of course it wasn't a holiday, you're even paler than when you left. Meaning you spent the majority of your time inside and..."

He suddenly trailed off and broke their eye contact. She should have been relieved but it was quite the contrary, she wanted to know what he had deduced, what exactly had Sherlock Holmes found to make him so abruptly, yet subtly, awkward?

"And..." Katherine pushed him on, eyes wide and questioning. But all the man did was look at her with fake grief, a look all too familiar because every morning for the first week of her recovery she had seen it on Jim's face too.

"I'm...sorry." At least Jim's words were more believable, Sherlock merely sounded like a child trying to get out of a sticky situation. He didn't really know...he couldn't have. What was it from? The way she was sat? The way she talked? What on earth was she doing which made it so bloody easy to see? Did she have the word 'miscarriage' tattooed across her forehead in ink everyone but she could see?

There she was, thinking she was strong and that she was getting over it. But obviously there was a part of her being which just made it oh so obvious she was affected by it.

An awkward silence settled over the pair, both trying to figure out what dialogue could come next to detract the tension from one another. In the end, it was Katherine who broke face first, shrugging her shoulders and clearing her throat.

"Your brother is currently in a meeting Mr Holmes. I'll let him know you stopped by. If it is urgent, you are more than welcome to wait upstairs." Katherine stamped a pile of papers into line on her desk and then rose from her seat to walk past Sherlock and to a small filing cabinet on Sandra's side of the office. She had to move just so she didn't feel trapped by him, backed into her little corner.

She had been expecting him to leave cause of her explanation, instead he turned and allowed his eyes to follow her across the room.

"What's your name?" His voice was slower than any other time she had heard it. It matched the sort of voice she'd tried to create in her head when he sent some of his texts, those one word sentences or calm questions. It made her smile, Which also made her grateful her back was turned.

"Me? Oh you know, normally I just go by 'The Slow One'." Her heated tongue had got the better of her, regrettably, but she fought it and turned back to Sherlock with a small smile. He almost seemed shocked at her first reply. Good, she wanted to be able to shock him. "Rebecca Austin." Katherine's smile grew and she bumped the draw shut with her hip before returning to her seat.

Dress size 6. 30 years old. Married. Shoulder injury.

What he failed to pick up was her dishonesty. Something she had over most others, an innocent little ability to fool almost anyone. Even she wasn't aware of it, but after years of meetings and identity changes it became a gift. After all she had separated from her born identity and stepped into Katherine almost seamlessly without ever looking back. Lying was was like breathing to her now, the only person who could detect it was, of course, Jim.

Sherlock openly displayed a frown as the woman took a seat in front of him. He watched her down the bridge of his nose as she made an unconvincing effort to make herself look busy. She shuffled papers and clicked open a few computer windows, shutting others but honestly she was faking it all. Most likely because she never really did any work unless someone of importance was watching.

In reality, Katherine just didn't want to look at him and risk showing him the sadness he had caused to surface. Not because she was afraid of him feeling guilty, but because she didn't want to seem at all weak.

"I'm sorry, is there something I can help you with?" She asked when he continued to hover.

"Who is my brother with?" For a moment Katherine thought he was actually beginning to stall his exit. Either that or he was genuinely interested in his brother, though after talking to Sandra on the rare occasion, she could confidently deny that as even being an option.

"Lady Smallwood. An associate." Sherlock merely hummed a response and hovered around the office. He was no longer watching her but he didn't seem to be looking at anything. Just...wandering. "Mr Holmes...I assure you I'll make your brother aware of your visit." He needed to leave before she grew too tired of his presence to keep up the act.

"Why do you choose to work for my brother?" Sherlock suddenly turned his full attention back to her with a furrowed brow and took long, slow steps towards her desk. "You're wearing a designer dress worth more than what most earn in a month, that sapphire on your ring finger indicates your husband makes more than a good living so why...why work for my brother when you could get buy fine without any job at all?"

"I like getting out the house." Katherine smiled at him plainly, not at all smugly although she was tempted. God was she tempted. "I'm not a one for sitting around all day spending my husbands money."

She intrigued him. Not in a interesting way but something was off about her. Something he couldn't see when he looked at her. She wasn't lying, but she wasn't...her behaviour didn't follow the same pattern as the ordinary being which suffocated him every day.

"Tell my brother I'll call." He slowly turned around, putting his back on her. She was boring. Nothing more than a receptionist, just a woman trying to find a bit more independence.

Once he had left the office, Katherine gave great sigh of relief and finally allowed her shoulders to sag, her spine arching into a slouch. He had been much more curious in terms of her being this time around, he'd actually looked at her, actually spoke to her. She wondered why, but from what she'd learnt through Jim it could be for any number of reasons, one being just because he just couldn't help himself.

For the remaining hour of Mycroft's meeting, Katherine spent her time aimlessly browsing the internet and staring into space. The whole office was silent due to the sound proofing which blocked out all of Mycroft's doings and no other visitors had dare wander in. She hadn't even had a call or a text. No prying from Sherlock, no check ins from Jim...nothing. She was just left to her own devices, in fact she was almost happy for the interruption when Mycroft's office door opened. At least it gave her a purpose and something to do.

"I'll expect an update within the week Mycroft." The ageing, white haired woman spoke sternly through a thin mouth. She was dainty, but professional, Katherine was reminded of a school headmistress when she laid eyes on Lady Smallwood.

Standing, Katherine moved to retrieve the Ladys coat from the hook and help it open for her to slip on as their conversation continued.

"Of course. Miss Austin please assure a helicopter is arranged for the day after tomorrow."

She nodded once, brushing down the shoulders of Lady Smallwoods coat. "Of course, where will I say the destination is?" He seemed to stiffen then, his arm straightened on the cane he always seemed to have and his chin pointed up.

"Sherrinford." She knew not to ask questions, but inside her curiosity had perked. She'd never heard of such a place but by the look on both their faces it was serious. Most likely some government thing, a place they all met like those Aluminati documentaries. He was probably going to dance naked around an Aztec sculpture somewhere.

"Of course." Instead of prying, and imaging the awful image she'd just presented to herself, Katherine nodded and walked back to her desk once Lady Smallwood had shrugged on her coat. They shared a few more hushed words out of her earshot but it wasn't long before the woman walked past her desk, throwing one final greeting over her shoulder.

"Good day, Mycroft."

"Mr Holmes, your brother stopped by about an hour ago. He said he'd call."

"Did he say what for?"

"No."

"Very well. Oh and Rebecca..." He never used her first name, not unless her truly wanted to intimidate her or make her feel the lowest of the low. "If you even think of that word outside of this room, your finger tips will be planted on a major crime seen which will see you be incarcerated for all of your remaining days, am I clear?"

"Understood, sir." Mycroft then turned with a smirk and retreated back into his dungeon. "Jackass." The joke was on him, they didn't even have her real fingerprints, she'd love for him to try planting them just to see how it was all unfurl. How embarrassing it would be for him, for his lousy government.

God she couldn't wait to get home, but she couldn't wait to tell Jim Mycroft's little secret more. Had he have left it she would have shrugged it off, hell she would have down right forgot the word after telling it to the transportation team. But he just had to threaten her, he just had to make her curious.

It took two seconds to type out the message on her phone, another to send it.

(New) To: Unknown

Sherrinford.

K.

She didn't need to put anymore than that, they each knew how the others brain worked by now and Katherine knew as soon as he received the message he would be delving into his research using the darkest most hidden parts of the internet.

Her apprehension for a reply made the next hour pass quick. For a little while she thought he must have just been busy but then her phone dinged and she knew then that he'd long ago received her message, he'd just spent the best part of 60 minutes finding out what it meant exactly.

From: Number Blocked

Oooh...good girl Kitty Kat!

JM xx

It must have been good, or at least some form of positive intel. There would be no way he'd call her that if it wasn't. But she wouldn't find out until tonight, it was far to delicate of a thing to simply text. However, she did have another little piece of info up her sleeve which she'd almost forgot about. She'd save that for in person too however, she wanted to see the look on Jim's face when he was informed of just how much Sherlock could read her.

"Take the dogs out and make sure Jim's car is seen to as it has a long journey in the morning. See to the floors in here, they're disgusting and I want someone to look at the terrace in the guest bedroom immediately. I don't know what your staff do all day but it seems to be everything but what they're supposed to."

"Is Charlotte present?" That young little blonde. Katherine needed someone to make her feel superior after her first day back acting as Mycroft's slave and she would do perfectly. Over the past couple of months she had wanted nothing more than to send her packing but she didn't have a good enough reason apart from her face irritating her, and she didn't want Jim to think she was pathetic. So instead, she just made the girls life a misery when she felt like it...it was perfectly reasonable.

"In the Kitchen Ma'am." A passing maid answered promptly.

"Charlotte! I want dinner served at 6pm, sharp. I have too much to do for you to slack." She didn't care that she sounded like a bitch, no one cared. She also didn't care if it wasn't the girls job, she had better make it her job or she'd still suffer the consequences. Walking away from the kitchen, unwilling to wait for the girls response, Katherine pulled the pin from her hair allowing her locks to fall down and frame her face. "Sebastian!" She needed the 'head of staff' to put his foot down, and to also sort out the ongoing argument of who was acting dog handler. "Sebastian!"

Behind the door of Jim's office, the sniper cringed upon hearing the shrill scream of his name. It had been so calm. He'd enjoyed a scotch with the boss and sat agreeing to plans for the following day, all while the house was quiet with everyone going about their business. Then footsteps had quickened and the maid began whispering orders out in the corridor signalling she was almost home. The lady of the house. Her effect on the atmosphere never failed to shock him, though it always managed to make Jim smirk beyond his knowledge.

As the second call sounded, Jim looked up from his schedule with raised eyebrows but a tensed jaw. Some times he loved it, other times it boiled his blood. Like all husbands, no matter what background, sometimes he wished she would stay at work just a little while longer.

"She sounds in an oh so pleasant mood this evening..." He spoke and then focused on Sebastian. "Go see what she wants." Without a moments hesitation, Seb ran a hand over his face but stood and moved towards the office door.

"Will I let her know you're home?" He asked over his shoulder, but already knew the answer.

"Not until she's tolerable." Moriarty shuffled papers to return to his work, but just as Seb was about to close the door he hesitated and called out. "Actually...send her in. I could use her while she's heated." Katherine was much more motivated when she was in that sort of mood...bossy. And once he calmed her down she was always so mouldable.

He didn't have to wait long for her presence either, after hearing the muffled sounds of Sebastian conversing with her it was only a matter of minutes before she barged into his office. She stood, straight faced, looking less than pleased, in that plain awful dress suit he'd have burned before she could wear it again.

"Darling...you seem..." Jims eyes raked over her figure when she failed to speak. "...flustered."

"The result of being Mycroft Holmes's servant." Katherine began her journey over to his desk. She was practically sauntering up until she sat with an ungraceful thud on the corner of his desk. "I've never been so bored."

Jim looked up at her with amusement, a smug grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. "That doesn't mean you have to order your own staff around like the devils mistress." He had heard her. It had been hard not to hear her.

"Oh, but I am the devils mistress." She surprised him by leaning back until she was fully laid out in front of him, her head resting just by the keyboard of his computer so she could look up at him. After kicking of her shoes, Katherine brought her feet up to rest at the end of the desk and her hand began fiddling with his shirt buttons. That smirk would be the death of her one day, it was too much of a distraction for him. "Sebastian said you had a use for me?"

As her skirt rode up, transfixing his attention on her bronzed legs, Jim grew impatient and pulled her body roughly until she straddled his lap on the chair. Katherine giggled, feeling his finger tips digging into her hips but gasped when he spanked her.

"Behave." It was a growl which radiated through her, rattling her spine all the way down to her core. But all he received from her was a sinister smirk and teasing as she hovered her mouth just out of his reach, her head turning around his like a predator snake. "Katherine..."

"I'm bored..." She gave a final pout and then pecked him on the lips, humming in amusement.

Once a second growl pushed her back from him by an inch or two, Moriarty perked a brow and looked at her seriously. "If you would be a good girl, I'd let you in on what I found." She accepted his offer and climbed off his knee, but stayed close by perching on the end of his desk. "Sherrinford. It's a prison." Moriarty gestured to the computer where very few notes were open in the database.

Katherine sparsely read over the three or four bullet points and frowned. "A prison? Why would Mycroft be visiting a prison."

"We don't know. No one can get past the basics. This is one project MI6 didn't slack on, there's no holes in the security, and if there was I doubt there would be any real intel. It'll all be on hard copy, under lock and key." She could tell he wasn't happy about such discoveries. If there was one thing Jim hated more than anything it was things getting in his way. He was above the law and nothing should have been able to stop him, but he'd reach a wall and there was no way under or over it. So he'd just have to go through it. The question was, how would they? And why were they having to go to such trouble?

"But why?...it's just a prison..."

"Maximum security...kept hidden from all but the highest of security assess. It might be nothing but it's worth us knowing about in any situation." Moriarty leant back in his seat for a second, running his hand over his mouth in thought. But then he stopped, his hand dropped to his side and his eyes turned up towards her. "Good job sweetheart, you must be doing something right for him to say it to you."

Katherine chuckled in reply, thinking back to Mycroft's threat. "I highly doubt it. Straight after he threatened me with indefinite incarceration if I so much as 'thought of the word outside his office'...he's just too important to book his own flights." Not that she could talk, ordering a young girl around to serve her dinner at a particular time.

Jim smiled and pulled her back down to join him on his knee, . She had pleased him today, and it showed. "Incarcerated? You? I'd like to see him try..." He pushed her hair behind her ear and caressed her hip with his other hand.

Katherine hesitated before she went to say what she had been holding back all day. First she'd not texted him and now she was having trouble getting the words out. She didn't want to risk ruining the atmosphere and disrupting his attention. She didn't want to risk changing his she had too, for if she didn't say and he found out the repercussions would be much worse.

"I met his brother again today too." She spoke quietly and bit her lips when the hand on her hip came to a sharp stop. It started again however, a moment later.

"Oh?"

At first she simply nodded, before he explanation followed. She wasn't sure whether she should tell him of the detectives deductions. But it was for the best, after all the years she'd spent by Jim's side she knew it was best to be honest no matter what. "He was...overly observing as usual. He somehow knew about my 'loss'. It took him one look at me to see it."

"I told you, he's different." Jim was attempting to comfort her, she could tell at his hand moved to the small of her back to draw small circles but it was too keep her talking.

"But he seemed more interested. He asked why I worked there, he guessed I had a wealthy husband and actually asked me about me." Katherine's eyes had started to glaze over as she spoke and it was a look he knew too well. She was starting to think too much, she was beginning to worry. But he couldn't have her scared, when she was scared she made mistakes.

"You can't blame a man for wanting to talk to you, why do you think I made you mine?" Jim tried to pull her back to him with a smirk and a tug on her long hair. "You're such an excellent distraction to them..."

All too suddenly Katherine came back to life with a grin and looked Jim dead in the eyes. "Flattery doesn't work when it comes from you...what do you want?"

Well now that she came to mention it, there was one small thing on his agenda she had to be made aware of. "Nothing..."

"Mr Moriarty." She drawled, her hand wrapping around the back of his neck.

"I have a small job for you, a meeting with a client tomorrow evening. I need your...face." She hadn't been seen by his side in too long, she hadn't been seen by any clients of a considerable size for weeks and he needed them to know she was still there, breathing and fighting. Rumours had spread across his network, the 'downfall of Moriartys wife'. He needed her face at his side, untouched and worthy of worship.

"My face?"

"Italian man, likes his women. He's speaking with me about a money transfer, I would appreciate your company." It was only a little white lie. It was a money transfer but it had potential to be the largest money transfer in the history of Moriartys business. He had captured the attention of a top mob boss and, if secured, it could change his contacts and improve his network considerably for the foreseeable future.

"Are you planning on whoring me out?" Katherine raised her eyebrows and tilted her head questioningly. There was teasing behind her words but there was also venom, she would put anything past him when it came to business.

"I could use you, it's not as if I'd let him touch you." As his face settled into a stern expression, his eyes ran over her but it wasn't meant to be seductive. No, no, no...it was his possessive side. That part of him that claimed her and needed her, the part of him which recognised her as his and his alone. His pet. "You know my rules. You're mine." The corners of his lips turned downwards but it only made her smile wider.

She lent her arms on his shoulders, wrapping them around his neck and bringing her face close to his. Their noses grazed one another, Jim licked his lips resembling a lizard and she looked down her nose at him.

"Till death do us part." Her smirk was infectious and it soon spread to Moriarty, against his will. "No matter how much I irritate you." Even Jim had to admit in that moment, when he'd first saw her he underestimated her.

"Surprisingly, even when you irritate me, you impress me." There was a moment where neither of them spoke ,they just looked at each other, each with the same smug, evil grin. But then, without a sound, Katherine got up from his knee and left him. It left him speechless but entertained, watching her wiggle her way across his office.

"Dinners at 6 darling, try not to be late."