Chapter 8 The Catch

AN Though it took longer than I expected, I'm glad to be back. Sorry to keep you waiting so long. I do hope you enjoy the chapter (despite the gruesome murder, sorry I brought that one up). A very good friend of mine offered her help as my beta reader. Thanks Lady Lily.

Though the four were accustomed to death and dead people, the act was so violent that they had to look away. It was so hard not to interfere. The only thing they could do was catch the murderer. The only consolation in this kill was the fact that the killer had strangled his victim first so she didn't feel a thing.

At some point the stabbing had stopped and the killer rose from his spot. His hands and clothes were one bloody mess and though the light was somewhat off in the alley, they could see a satisfied expression on his face. One more time he looked at his 'piece of art' and then turned around to walk away. This was their cue. They rose from their hiding place and would have caught the killer immediately if not for John tripping over a piece of wood lying there, which made him fall down , dragging a lot of wood with him in his fall. The noise warned the killer and he started to run away. The three immediately followed him. John was extremely pissed. Now they could have caught him and he screwed up. He rose to his feet and started running after them.

The killer was fast but so were the Doctor, Molly and Sherlock.

While chasing the murderer, Sherlock wondered why he never noticed before that Molly was a capable runner. She always was so quiet and 'mousy'. He never thought she would like to run. Probably learned it from the Doctor. He remembered the day she ran off with him, when the Doctor ordered her to come. She had changed after that and still he hadn't noticed.

While running Sherlock asked Molly: "I didn't know you're such an excellent runner. Do you run a lot?"

"Not now Sherlock," Molly breathed, "later. I'll explain later."

The murderer ran into a busy street where despite the late hour some coaches were still driving through. It didn't matter to Sherlock. He would do anything to stop Jack from killing again and some traffic surely wouldn't stop him from catching this bastard. He was close now to the murderer. He stretched out his hand to catch him at his coat, but suddenly saw Molly next to him jumping the man. He tumbled down under the weight of Molly's body while Sherlock stumbled to a halt with outstretched arm and a look of surprise on his face. The Doctor reached out his hand to help Molly up while trying to hold down the man at the same time. Meanwhile the man had drawn his knife and tried to cut his way out of the assault. Molly immediately pulled herself away, but couldn't prevent herself from being stabbed. While rolling away from Jack, she almost got run over by a black coach. Sherlock immediately noticed the tear in Molly´s black dress, blood streaming down her right arm. Both men ran over to her and the Doctor helped Molly up and brought her over to the pavement. Jack took advantage of this distraction and ran away, diving into a nearby alley. While the Doctor and Sherlock fussed over Molly and her bleeding arm, John appeared at the scene.

"John" Sherlock exclaimed. "Molly has been stabbed."

John didn't need any encouragement. Though he couldn't run as fast as Sherlock and the Doctor, he had just been a few meters behind them and had seen it all. It had surprised him that Molly was just as fast as Sherlock. Then she had scared him to death when she decided to jump the man. The thought occurred to him that Molly was just as crazy as Sherlock when it came to chasing and stopping criminals. She risked losing her own life without so much as batting an eyelash. Just a walk in the park. He tried to delete it, but it was too late. The thought had settled in. He wondered why Sherlock never had noticed Molly's split personality. When he approached Molly, the Doctor had taken some kind of pen with a light at the top out of his pocket and pointed it at Molly's arm and then looked at his pen.

"Just a scratch, Molly. But next time," and there he could hear some worry in the Doctor's voice, "please, don't do such a thing. You knew he had a knife. Next time, wait till I have disarmed the man. Right?"

Molly giggled. "Right."

John looked at Molly. Was she in shock? That Jack guy had just tried to kill her and she was giggling. But when he took a closer look he saw that her eyes were clear and her body language normal. When he thought it over, she was no different than they were. After all, they had giggled at a crime scene as well, when chasing that cabbie. John took Molly's arm and decided to disagree with this Doctor. A scratch. No way. Look at all that blood. But a thorough inspection told him that that Doctor was right. How? He hadn't even held Molly's arm. He just waved his pen over it. John had thought that Molly would definitively need stitches, seeing all that blood, but luckily it was just a scratch. Though it needed cleaning and bandages. Something he didn't bring along on this journey. He had to wait till they were back inside the TARDIS. He assumed that her friend would have such stuff inside his box. O right, he was an alien. Great excuse. Though maybe that man had another pen to spare. It certainly would be handy while examining his patients.

Now that Molly was in capable hands, Sherlock turned around to see where the killer had disappeared to. He wanted to pursue him again but the Doctor stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"Leave it, Sherlock."

"What?" Sherlock's voice thundered. "Are you insane? You brought us here to this particular day just to make us watch a murder and then let the killer go?"

"No, the TARDIS brought us here, but that's not the point" the Doctor sighed.

"Enlighten me" Sherlock snarled.

"That coach that almost hit Molly stopped near the entrance of that alley over there where Jack dived into and if you hadn't been so distracted by Molly, I'm sure you would have noticed that somebody stepped out of it and followed our Jack. You will never hear anything about Jack again after tonight."

"That's not good enough Doctor. Who stepped out and in what way is that person fit enough to catch him? There were four of us and we didn't catch him. What has that person got that we don't have?"

Suddenly the Doctor gave him a very big smile. The sparkle in his eyes told Sherlock that the Doctor knew this person and that in fact he was a little reluctant to let them in on this secret. "Experience" he said, "experience, since the dawn of time. Oh yeah, I forgot" he said, "and a sword and a very big appetite."

John had heard this comment. "What?" His unbelief was definitely detectable. "A big appetite? Do you mean" and the word came out hesitantly "like diner?"

They couldn't believe it but the Doctor's grin grew even bigger. "Well Molly, if you're ok, then we can head back to the TARDIS."

"No," Sherlock commanded. "Not until you tell us what we want to know." His body language made it very clear that he wasn't going anywhere till he got a proper answer.

The Doctor saw their faces and said: "All right, the person who's chasing Jack now, is the great detective."

"What great detective? I haven't read anything about a great detective who was detecting in this time period. If he was great, then something should have survived over time."

"Well," the Doctor said, fidgeting his earlobe, "to be exact, it isn't a he, it is a she. The person who left the coach was Madame Vastra. She's a homo reptilia. That explains her preference about food. And now that she's on Jack's trail, I'm sure she'll catch him. We know for a fact that after Mary, the killing has stopped and that nobody found any trace of The Ripper. My conclusion. Madame Vastra will take care of him. Well, not really take care of him. She will take care of herself. And my guess is, because she's a lizard and a woman and married to another woman who had been her maid, that's why you haven't found any evidence about her. People! Never gonna change. Ok now? Can we go?"

Sherlock and John blinked. Molly looked at them and shook her head as if to say: 'you could have expected this. After all, you are traveling with an alien in a blue box through time. Now that you've stepped back in time, you saw things others will never see. Then you must accept that things are no longer as you ever believed they were.'

"Right" John said, "let's go back to the TARDIS. Molly needs some bandages." He straightened his back and turned around, heading back to the TARDIS.

Before Sherlock could do anything, the Doctor offered his arm to Molly and said: "come Molly."

Molly took his arm and walked off with the Doctor, leaving Sherlock behind.

'Right' Sherlock thought. 'That didn't go well. Since when do I become distracted by a wounded Molly? Could it be that I...?' Here his thoughts stopped. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with an explanation for why he had run to her and for being so relieved when John appeared at the scene. 'And then a lizard woman following a serial killer? Eating him?' He blinked a few times as if to arrange all this information, but he knew for now he couldn't arrange it properly. It was all too 'odd'. He started to follow them.

When they went into the TARDIS, the Doctor told Molly to take John to the sickbay, which was conveniently near the console room. Molly took off the top part of her dress while John searched for bandages and alcohol to clean the wound. When they were done Molly led him back to the console room and said she was going to change into some comfortable clothes, which meant her own.

When she walked back into the console room all three men looked at her but she had only eyes for the Doctor. She noticed that the Doctor looked concerned though he was disguising it quite good. But she knew him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me Doctor, I can see you're worried about something. What is it."

"Well, to be honest, the TARDIS won't leave."

Molly raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean, she won't leave."

Instead of answering her he walked around the console, fidgeting his earlobe, striking his hand over his chin, mumbling to himself. The others could hear: "what's wrong with you girl. Why won't you leave?" Suddenly the Doctor exclaimed: "Aahh, that's it. You're telling me that there's something else! I thought it was because of Jack that you brought us here, but that's not it. It's something else." His faced beamed with delight.

Molly understood and said "Ok" and wandered off to the dressing room again.

The other two just stood there as if the Doctor was pulling their leg by exclaiming that they couldn't leave because the TARDIS wouldn't let them. They didn't believe a word. Sherlock thought that the Doctor had forgotten how to fly or maybe let the lights on so that the battery was dead now or some other poor excuse for why they couldn't go back to his London.

When Molly came back, she was wearing a beautiful dark red dress with a matching hat. She walked over to the Doctor, noticing both men looking at her as if they had never seen her before. Their expressions showed appreciation. She gave them a big grin.

"There's something I missed" the Doctor said. "Let's go back and see what it is." And off he ran, immediately followed by Molly, leaving two baffled men behind.