Chapter Nine-
The morning after the shooting, John wake up and it took his mind a few minute to realize he was alone in Sherlock's room. Slowly his mind recalled the memory of last night. After getting a taxi home and ordering delicious Chinese, Sherlock had taken John gently by the wrist and took him to his room, shocking John. When he had planned to go to bed last night, he had thought he would be taking the upstairs bedroom. But obviously, Sherlock had had other plans.
When they had gotten to the bedroom, Sherlock gently pushed John onto the bed before disappearing confusing John. And then, Sherlock had come back with John's night clothes. "Change." The Alpha had ordered gently handing John his clothes before stepping out. After John realized what the heck was going on, he had changed. And before he could let Sherlock know he was done, Sherlock was back in the room and was now laying, sprawled out, on the bed. He had also changed and was now in sweats and a house coat.
"Come here." Sherlock had whispered, and John thought he had sounded unsure and slightly scared, as if afraid John would deny him. After hearing his tone, John had quickly climbed onto the bed and allowed Sherlock to pull him so that they were now back to chest. It felt strange to have someone laying beside him or, in Sherlock's case, wrapped around him.
"Sleep." Sherlock told him as he began to run his hand through John's hair, luring him into a deep sleep. A sleep that had not been disturbed by nightmares. John sat on the bed, wrapped in the blankets soaked with Sherlock's scent, shocked that he had been able to sleep through the whole night. It had been years since he had slept the whole night. John's stomach growled informing him that he was hungry.
With a sigh, John slipped out of Sherlock's bed and, with a slight hesitation, grabbed a spare house coat before leaving the room. John padded down the hallway and paused just outside the living room when he spotted Sherlock lounging on the couch in his house coat with his hands stapled under his chin. "There's food in the kitchen." Sherlock told him without opening his eyes.
"Right." John said before he continued into the kitchen where he began to search the refrigerator for the food Sherlock mentioned and nearly screamed in fright when he saw a head in the fridge. He slammed the fridge shut before running into the living room where he noticed Sherlock had sat up, concern in his eyes. "There's a head in the fridge!" He told the Alpha.
"It's an experiment." Sherlock told him calmly as his body relaxed.
"An ex-" John started before he closed his eyes in slight annoyance, it would seem that he would have to get used to finding random body parts around the house if he were to stay here with Sherlock. "Sherlock, if I designate a certain place in the fridge for your experiments, would you actually use it?" His answer was a sigh and John gave his own sigh before he spun on the balls of his feet. "If you don't, then I will throw them away." He warned as he went back into the kitchen.
~Nine~
Life with someone was different than Sherlock had expected it to be. He had thought that he would have been hiding in his room or running his new flatmate out of the flat to do whatever they would do for the whole day. But, with John, Sherlock always wanted John with him or in the flat within ear shot. He found out very quickly that he loved having John in his arms as they slept and for the past week he had pulled John into his room at night. And though Sherlock didn't sleep much he found watching John sleep at night fascinating.
Him and John quickly fell into a routine. Sherlock would get up in the morning after holding John all night and visit his mind palace and into John's wing to categorize everything he had learned about John the night before. John would wake up and enter the living room wearing the house coat Sherlock would leave out for the Omega, and go into the kitchen to make him breakfast and a cuppa while also making Sherlock some toast and a cuppa as well.
After lunch, Sherlock would finally emerge from his mind palace before checking his e-mails for cases. He would spend the next few hours sitting in his chair solving boring cases that he didn't need to be there to solve as John sat across from him in his chair looking for work. Around dinner time Sherlock would have John order whatever he wanted and they would eat, well, John would eat and Sherlock would nibble to keep John from gripping at him. And then at night after John had showered and changed, Sherlock would lead him to their room and hold him all night.
And for weeks that was their life. Nothing changed. And Sherlock didn't mind it as much as he thought he would. Because, even though they didn't do much of anything but be with each other, life with John was not boring. But that didn't mean the Sherlock didn't want it to stay like that. He was beginning to long for an interesting case that couldn't be solved from their flat.
"Sherlock." John growled out from the kitchen, his tone of voice instantly snapping Sherlock out of his mind palace. Had he not put a body part in his designated spot in the fridge again? He shot up into a sitting position, intending to rush into the kitchen to save whatever body part John was fixing to throw out, when John stormed into living room. "There's no food in this flat!" John told him angrily. "Why isn't there any food?"
Sherlock froze. John was upset. And he wasn't upset that there was not food in the flat, this happened about every other week. He was just using that as an excuse to take his anger out on Sherlock. So what had made his John so angry?
"Useless!" John hissed before storming over to the coat closet and grabbing his coat from it. "I guess I'll have to do the shopping. You just lay there and do nothing but mope."
"I've been offered a case." Sherlock told him, had them not having a case to work on upset John? Would he leave because of this? That got Sherlock up off the couch and over to John before he could even comprehend what he was doing. John looked at him in annoyance before understanding flashed through his eyes.
"I'm just going to get us some food, Sherlock. I'll be back." John told him before peeking him on the lips. "What's this case you've been offered."
"The Jaria Diamond's gone missing. They want me to find it." Sherlock muttered. So John wasn't upset with him not being able to find a case interesting enough to leave the flat? Then what was bothering John? But John had left the flat before Sherlock had time to figure it out. Sherlock sighed and looked around the flat as his mind raced to figure out what was wrong with his John.
As his mind did that, his body began to move on its own. He took a shower and got dressed before he grabbed John's laptop from where it sat under John's chair. Even with most of his mind focused on figuring out what was wrong with John, it didn't take him long to crack John's password. He quickly logged in to his e-mails and found the request he had told John about.
He had gotten that request days ago, accepted it, and had solved it within hours. He just hadn't gotten around to e-mailing the person back with the results. But before he could begin to type out a response, the door to the flat burst open as a Arabic swordsman ran in. Sherlock carefully tossed John's laptop onto John's chair and began dancing around every swing of the sword. The sword's man cornered Sherlock on the couch and went to swing at him, but Sherlock kicked him away causing him to stumble and trip over the coffee table.
Sherlock shot off the couch, fixed his suit, and quickly scanned to see if the swordsman had broken anything. John was already piss off about something, he didn't need to anger him any further by having something of his broken in a fight. The swordsman jumped back up, and before he could continue swinging at him, Sherlock punched him. After getting over the shock of being punched, the swordsman charged at him and pined him to the oak table in the kitchen with the sword against Sherlock's throat. The two struggled against each other and Sherlock growled when the sword dug into the table leaving a noticeable scratch.
Sherlock kicked the swordsman in the side, just knowing John was going to see the scratch and become even more upset. After a few hard kick's to the side, the swordsman stumbled back. "That is oak!" Sherlock growled before punching him again, this time knocking him out. Sherlock angrily fixed his suit once again before going to check the table. The scratch was clear as day, there would be no hiding that. And there was no time to order another table to get here before John got back from shopping.
Sherlock checked the time and saw that John should be back any minute. He grabbed the swordsman and carried him outside before dumping him in an alley his comrades would be sure to find him. He then rushed back to the flat and quickly put everything back where it was suppose to be, hiding the sword as best as he could under his chair. Once he was satisfied, Sherlock hopped into his chair, grabbed a book, and began to skim over it while waiting for John to return.
20 minutes later, 15 minutes longer than it should have taken John to get back, the Omega stormed up the stairs and into their flat without groceries. Something had happened. Had John been attacked? Sherlock peeked over his book discreetly and checked John over. There were no signs of an attack any where on John.
"You took your time." Sherlock muttered as John began to look around the room. John knew something was off in the flat. Sherlock stopped himself from tensing up.
"Yeah, I didn't get the shopping." John told him as his eyes scanned over everything. Had Sherlock left any clues, besides the scratch on the table, that a fight had taken place? Sherlock stopped skimming the book to look at John worriedly. How would John react? Would he yell? Would he worry over Sherlock and demand to check for injuries? Would he not feel safe and leave?
"Why not?" Sherlock asked.
"Because I had a row in the shop with a chip and PIN machine." John snapped out.
"You had a row with a machine?" Sherlock asked tensing up. Mycroft had known about the fight happening in the flat and had tampered with the machine to keep John out longer, but that had caused John anger to rise. Sherlock bit back a growl at that. Mycroft needed to keep his nose out of their lives.
"Sort of. It sat there and I shouted abuse." John said with a sigh rubbing his forehead. He was getting a headache. "Have you got cash?"
"Take my card." Sherlock told him, the thought of John using the money Sherlock had earned from all of his cases gave him a warm feeling. He was proving to John that he could and would take care of him. And though he knew what that feeling entailed and were that thought process would lead him to, he didn't feel the urge to run and hide. He couldn't stop the loving smile from appearing on his face.
But that smile vanished when John entered the kitchen to grab his wallet. John would see the scratch! How would he react?
"You could always go yourself, you know." John told him, pausing on his way towards the kitchen to look at Sherlock. "You've been cooped in the flat for weeks waiting for an interesting case." Sherlock looked back at his book when his mind pulled up the very recent memory of the fight. "And what happened about that case you were offered, the Jaria Diamond?" John asked from the kitchen as he searched for Sherlock's card in his wallet.
"Not interested." Sherlock told him closing his book and noticing that the swordsman's sword was sticking too far out. He quickly used the hill of his shoe to push it farther under his chair before John could see it. "I sent them a message." He said with a proud smirk. And then John noticed the scratch. Sherlock had to force himself to remain calm as he waited for John's reaction. But all he did was sigh in annoyance while running his finger along the scratch.
"I'll be back." John told him before leaving again. Once the door to the building had slammed shut, Sherlock released a breath. It still felt strange to worry about what someone else thought about him. It felt even stranger to worry if that person would leave him alone or not. Sherlock was used to people leaving him and had been fine being alone, at least until John entered his life. Now that he knew what if felt like to be cared for and to care for someone else, he didn't want to lose that feeling again.
Sherlock sighed and grabbed John's laptop once more and signed in. He quickly messaged the person about where the Jaria Diamond could be found before checking his most recent e-mail. Sherlock's eyes narrowed and growled when he saw who it was from. Sebastian Wilkes. Him and Wilkes had gone to Uni together, even stayed in the same building. Wilkes had been someone who Sherlock had thought would be a friend, would possibly understand him. They had seemed to get along quite well, until Sherlock deduced something he shouldn't have. And then Sebastian tormented him the rest of Uni.
Sebastian had been the one to drive him to cocaine. Had been the reason he had almost overdosed.
Sherlock mentally grabbed the memories that had bubbled up at Sebastian's name and shoved them back into their cage. He would be professional about this. He would not let his hatred for the man keep him from taking the case, should it prove to be interesting. As he read over the case (a break in at the bank with nothing stolen) John came back home loaded with bags. After assessing that John didn't need help, Sherlock went back to reading the e-mail. There was something that Sebastian wasn't telling him, because something about this case that wasn't making sense.
"Don't worry about me, I can manage." John assured him while carrying the bags into the kitchen and setting them down. "Is that my computer?"
"Mine was in the bedroom." Sherlock informed the Omega as he sent an e-mail to Sebastian informing him to be expecting them within the hour.
"And, what, you couldn't be bothered to walk farther than my chair?" John asked half amused half annoyed. "It's password protected."
"In a manner of speaking. Took me less than a minute to guess yours, not exactly Fort Knox." Sherlock told him. He heard John sigh just before he stormed over and slammed the laptop shut and took it away. Point taken. When John is in a bad mood, do not touch his stuff with out permission. Would John be willing to come with him to the bank when he was in such a bad mood? He needed to physically go to the bank and look at everything to see what was missing from the e-mail.
"Oh." John groaned in annoyance, cutting into Sherlock's thoughts. He glanced at the Omega from the corner of his eye and saw him going through the mail. "Need to get a job."
"Oh, dull." Sherlock told him. Sherlock made plenty of money to afford whatever John wanted, John only needed to ask. But he knew that John would never just let Sherlock pay for everything and wanted to help, he was just that kind of Omega.
"Sherlock," John started nervously and Sherlock's heart lept, was John going to ask Sherlock to buy him something, because he would in a heart beat, "you know I'll pay you back, right?" That hurt, but at the same time, he didn't expect anything less from John. He was an independent person and Sherlock wouldn't change him for the world. "Sherlock, are you listening?"
"I need to go to the bank." Sherlock announced shooting from his chair. He removed his coat and scarf from the closet, put them on, and then, without thought, grabbed John's coat. When he realized what he did, he acted as if it was on purpose and helped John into it before taking his hand and leading him out of the flat.
~Nine~
"Yes, when you said we were going to the bank..." John joked looking around the posh bank that Sebastian worked at. Hearing John joking again made a weight fall off Sherlock's shoulders. John was happy again. It would seem a case was the exact thing John needed. Sherlock smirked at him before looking around the bank as he lead John to the escalators. Multiple time zones. The Bank is open at all hours. Card swipes. Keeping tabs on who was coming and going. Elevators only went to the 42nd floor. Building is 42 stories. This was not some normal break in.
Once at the top of the escalators Sherlock lead John to the reception desk. The Beta woman there looked up, "Sherlock Holmes." He told her before she could question them. His eyes narrowed challengingly when her eyes drifted from him to John and stayed there just a second too long. The woman, at seeing his glare, quickly looked him up.
"Yes, Mr. Wilkes has been expecting you." She said. "I'll have someone show you to his office." Before Sherlock could deny the offer, another Beta, this time male, appeared next to them.
"Please follow me." He said before turning and walking away. Sherlock sighed, took John's wrist and followed the Beta. They were lead up another escalator to the elevator. In the elevator, the Beta pressed the button for the top floor. Whatever had happened happened on the top floor, not easy to get in and out unnoticed. Once at the top floor they were lead through a large room where most of the employees of the trading portion of the bank worked. There were only a handle full of offices lining the walls. "Mr. Wilkes will be with you in a moment." The Beta informed them as he ushered them into Sebastian's office before leaving. Sherlock lead John to a chair and gently pushed him into it.
"I'm fine standing." He argued, yet remained seated while Sherlock glanced around the room. Moments later Sebastian Wilkes, an annoying Alpha, walked in.
"Sherlock Holmes." He greeted sounding happy to actually see Sherlock. He was sure that the only reason Sebastian was happy to see him was because he was going to solve their break in without having to go to the police and cause a scandal.
"Sebastian." Sherlock greeted back.
"Hiya, buddy. How long has it been, eight years since I last clapped eyes on you?" Sebastian said as he took a 'discreet' sniff of Sherlock. His eyes widened before looking at John and, not so discreetly, checked him out. Sherlock felt his hackles rise at that. His scent was clearly on John so there was no mistaking that John was off limits. But then, this was Sebastian who believed he had the right to everything and that if he wanted something he would be allowed to have it. Sherlock would just have to prove him wrong.
"This is my partner, John Watson." Sherlock introduced laying a possessive hand on John's shoulder, happy that the Omega didn't say anything about it. Sebastian gave him an unbelieving look.
"Partner? Really?" He challenged.
"Yes." John answered firmly, setting a hand on top of Sherlock's, silently claiming him. Sebastian raised a reprimanding brow at John. Sebastian never did like the idea of Omega's being out spoken and independent, he preferred them to be subservient and stay at home.
"Yes, well." Sebastian said tight-liped, obviously barely holding in a snide remark about John. He pulled at his suit collar, obviously uncomfortable with John in his work space. Sherlock caught a glimpse of his watch, two days off. Traveled around the world. Twice. "Grab a pew." He ordered Sherlock who bit back the urge to be childish and remain standing. "Do you need anything, coffee, water?" Sebastian asked John. Sherlock bared his teeth at the Alpha, John was his to take care of.
"No." John said through clenched teeth. John did not want to be taken care of as an Omega. Sherlock sat down and took John's hand, sending a silent message to Sebastian that John was off limits.
"So, you're doing well. You've been abroad a lot." Sherlock stated causing Sebastian to smirk proudly.
"Well, so?" He asked.
"Flying all the way around the world twice in a month." Sherlock said. John looked at him ready and eager to hear the deductions.
"Right." Sebastian scoffed. "You're doing that thing." He was checking John out again with a condensing smile. "We were at Uni together, and this guy here had a trick he used to do." He was trying to put John off of him. To bad it would work. John loved his deductions.
"It's not a trick." Sherlock growled out causing Sebastian to roll his eyes. Why had he accepted this case again?
"He could look to you and tell you your whole life story." Sebastian told John.
"I know. It's how we met. It really quite fascinating." John said smiling softly at Sherlock while squeezing his hand. Sherlock gave John as small wink before smirking at Sebastian who didn't seem to know how to react. It would seem he isn't used to being ignored by an Omega.
"Put the wind up everybody, we hated him." Sebastian growled out, trying to get John to pay attention to him. Sherlock's smirk widen and he sat up a little straighter. John didn't want any other Alpha, and Sherlock was going to make damn sure it staid like that. "We'd come down to breakfast in the formal hall and this freak-"
"I don't believe we're here for you to try and bully Sherlock, Mr Wilkes." John growled out shocking Sebastian. It was the first time an Omega dared to speak to him like that.
"Enlighten me, Sherlock, 'two trips a month, flying all the way around the world.'" Sebastian growled out ignoring John. That pissed John off. No one pissed John off. "You're quite right. How could you tell? Are you going to tell me there's a stain on my tie from some special kind of ketchup you can only buy in Manhattan?"
"No, I..." Sherlock started glancing at John when his hand began to tremble. John wanted to hurt Sebastian.
"Maybe it was the mud on my shoes?" Sebastian continued with a taunting laugh.
"I was just chatting with your secretary outside." Sherlock said and John's hand stopped trembling. "She told me." John glanced at him with questioning eyes but remained silent about his lie. A tense and angry silence fell over them before Sebastian broke it with a forced laugh. Sherlock had pissed him off.
"Right. Down to business." Sebastian growled out. He wanted them both out of his office. "I'm glad you could make it over, we've had a break-in." He stood up and began leaving the room with out pausing to wait for them. "Sir William's office, the bank's former chairman. The room's been left here like a sort of memorial." He explained while quickly leading them out of his office and through the main room to the biggest office on that floor. "Someone broke in late last night."
"What did they steal?" John asked.
"Nothing." Sebastian growled out hating talking to an Omega about this. "Just left a little message." They came to the office door and Sebastian had to use his keycard, that he already had out, to unlock it. Always kept locked. In the office two spray painted symbols were noticeable. One symbol was on the wall next to the portrait of the formal chairman, and the other symbol was across the eyes of the portrait.
"Show me the security footage." Sherlock ordered. This wasn't just any graffiti. It was a lot of trouble to get in here undetected just to graffiti a wall and portrait. Sebastian growled before turning and leading them back to his office, thankfully leaving the office unlocked and open. Once back in his office, Sebastian quickly signed into his computer and pulled up the security footage. The footage a was still frame taken every sixty seconds. And the culprit wasn't on any of the cameras.
"Sixty second apart." Sebastian pointed out switching between the frame without graffiti and the frame with graffiti. "So, someone came up here in the middle of the night, splashed paint around and left within a minute."
"How many ways into that office?" Sherlock asked.
"Well, that's where this gets really interesting, but for that, we'll have to go back to the reception desk." Sebastian informed and Sherlock motioned for him to lead the way. And within minutes they were huddled around a computer behind the reception desk as Sebastian pulled up the security log. "Every door that opens in this bank, it gets logged right here. Every walk-in cupboard, every toilet."
"That door didn't open last night?" Sherlock asked as Sebastian pulled up last night's logs to show that, no, the door had not opened at all the day before.
"There's a hole in our security. Find it and we'll pay you, five figures." Sebastian said and Sherlock notice John trying not to look interested. He balled his hands at that and shoved them into his coat pockets, they were not that desperate for money. Sebastian pulled out a check and held it out for Sherlock to take. "This is an advance. Tell me how he got in. There's a bigger one on its way."
"I don't need an incentive, Sebastian." Sherlock growled out before storming away, he had a mystery to solve, and it wasn't how the person broke in. What Sherlock was more interested in was why? What were those symbols? Who were they for? And what did they mean?
Sherlock quickly made his way back up to the trading floor and into the chairman's office and took pictures of the symbols. As he was taking the pictures, he took note of the balcony. He didn't recall seeing that as one of the many doors being monitored. Sherlock opened the balcony door and stepped out onto it. They were on the top floor. It would be difficult to climb up to the balcony. Difficult, but not impossible. Especially if they climbed from another balcony.
Sherlock quickly reentered the office, shut the balcony door and exited the office though the door. He shut the office door, it locked automatically. Now, it was time to see where on this floor someone could easily see the symbols. He began going up and down the cubicles. But either a screen or pillar was blocking the symbols from view. And then, in an office off to the side, he found the perfect view, the only view, that allowed him to see both symbols clearly. Whatever those symbols were, they meant for the owner of this office.
On the door of the office Sherlock found the nameplate 'Edward Van Coon' (worked the Hong Kong trade) and took it. He needed to speak with this Van Coon as soon as possible. He had all that he needed here. It was time to leave and find Van Coon.
Sherlock quickly located John patiently waiting for him by the elevators. "Let's go, John." He said taking him gently by the wrist and lead him into the elevators. The ride down was silent as Sherlock began to try and figure out the puzzle. When the door opened him and John exited and began heading for the first set of escalators.
"Two trips around the world this month." John said obviously curious how he deduced that out. Sherlock smirked at him. "You didn't ask his secretary, you said that just to irritate him."
"He made you mad." Sherlock told him softly.
"Thanks." John whispered after taking a second to understand what Sherlock meant by that. "So, how did you know?"
"Did you see his watch?" Sherlock asked taking John by the hand as they got off the first escalator and began to walk towards the second one.
"What about it?" John asked.
"The time was right, but the date was wrong. It was set two days ago. Crossed the date line twice and he didn't alter it." Sherlock informed as they stepped onto the second escalator.
"Within a month? How did you get that part?" John asked.
"New Breitling. Only came out this February." Sherlock said and smirked when John breathed out his amazement.
"Do you need to sniff around here for a bit longer?" John asked.
"Got everything I need to know. That graffiti was a message." Sherlock told him. "Someone at the bank, working on the trading floors. We find the intended recipient and..."
"They'll lead us to the person who sent it." John finished.
"Obvious." Sherlock pointed out.
"So, out of 300 people, I'm sure you were able to narrow it down. So, who is it meant for?" John asked and Sherlock smirked at him.
"Pillars." Sherlock told him as they reached the bottom of the last escalator. "Very few places you can see that graffiti from. That narrows the field considerably. And of course, the message was left at 11:34 last night. That tells us a lot." He explained as they exited the bank.
"Does it?" John asked.
"Traders come to work at all hours. Some trade with Hong Kong in the middle of the night. That message was intended for somebody who came in at midnight." Sherlock pointed out as he pulled out the name plate and handed it to John. "Not many Van Coons in the phone book. Taxi!"