A few months before…

Mary sat in the waiting room at Magnussen's headquarters, twiddling her thumbs nervously. She was for once and for all going to tell Magnussen that no one else in the world had the guts to do: take his blackmail and stick it up his fucking arse. It will be a good feeling when she finished. How she will do this? Let's just say she had a few recordings of their conversations from the past. It was going to be difficult to pull off, but if she played her cards right, she would never have to worry about this crap ever again.

"Magnussen will meet you in a few minutes." Janine's Irish lint brought Mary back into reality. She was holding two mugs of tea in her hand and handed one over to Mary. She took the tea gratefully.

"Thanks." She said as she took a sip from what her mother always said was God's greatest gift to humanity.

A few minutes later Magnussen entered the room. Mary could feel her pulse quicken. She was still a bit afraid about the outcome, though. You could never be to certain with Magnussen.

He gave her his iconic horrifying smile. "Ah what brings you here Ms Morstan?"

Mary closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. "That is a matter which I would like to speak to you in private."

Magnussen stood back to allow Mary to walk past her into his office. She did not meet his eye as she walked past him, but she knew that he was staring at her. It took everything in her to not turn around and run out there instantly. But she had to do this, not just for herself, but for her soon-to-be husband.

Once she made it to the room and sat on the chair, her back rigid. Magnussen closed the door.

"So what brings you here today?"

Mary gulped. "I-I," she cleared her voice. "I am here to tell you that I am done working with you."

Magnussen raised his eyebrow. "Again? How many times is this now? Seven? Eight? I have lost count. My dear Mary," He clutched the chair she was sitting on. She could feel her spine crawl with his breath touching the back of her neck. "You know that it is impossible. Just think about what your fiancé would think about his wife-to-be is not an orphan or an innocent nurse, but in fact an assassin. Just think of the whole of England knowing that there was a murderer hiding in plain sight."

"Yes, but this time I have something to counter back with."

"Oh is that so?" He said as he loosened his grip of the chair and strolled around to face her, trailing his fingers down the arm of the chair, occasionally brushing them against Mary's arm. When he faced Mary he leaned in very close.

She hated when he did that, but before she couldn't do much about it. If she even breathed the word "sexual assault" to the police, she would be chucked into prison without a flick of his finger. He had so much fucking power that he abused it made her physically sick to even know him. She couldn't stand up to him before, but now, now she had the evidence to get his arse in prison.

Mary nodded, avoiding his eyes as much as was humanly possible as she brought out her phone. She unlocked it and found the file with the recordings. She played back a conversation they had a few weeks back, when he asked her to dispose of a snooping journalist.

"If you take me down, I swear to God I will bring you with me." She leaned back, and smiled. She slowly felt her confidence grow within her. She knew that he wouldn't take that chance to reveal her if it meant jeopardising his position. "And we don't want that now do we?"

He cocked his head as he pushed away from her, much to Mary's relief. "Well Ms Morstan, I am impressed. I truly am."

Mary felt a blossom of hope growing inside of her. She allowed a sly smile stretch across her face. This meant the end of her enslavement to this maniacal, blackmailing bastard and she could finally be left alone without having to look over her shoulder.

"Really? Oh well, if that is the case, then, we can go our separate ways…" She was about to get up, when she felt his grasp on her arm.

"What the Hell!?" Mary exclaimed. She tried to pull away from him, but his grip tightened on her arm. It felt like he was cutting off her blood supply.

He let out a low chuckle. "Oh dear, dear, dear, Mary! Did you really think that it was going to be that easy?"

"What do you mean?" The more she tugged the harder he gripped her. He leaned forward closing the gap again. She tried hard to squirm away from him. If learning from being in a few torture sessions had taught her anything, it was not to show fear. But this time it was especially difficult.

"Oh what I mean is that it is going to take a lot more than a threat and a recording to deter me."

"But…" Mary began, but Magnussen cut her off.

"But what? You thought that you could take someone like me down with that? My dear," his voice dropped low as he whispered in her ear, "you must be more delirious than I thought."

Mary wanted to scream loudly. She wanted to take out the hidden knife in her boot and stab him to death with it. But all she could do was to glare at him.

"You want to know why that wouldn't work? Well," He traced his fingers through her hair and down her neck. Mary took everything in her to not throw up. "You see, I have a grip over most of the police force and the judicial system. Every single one of them has a nasty dirty secret that they wouldn't want to get out. Some have little ones, like cheating on their partners, or they lied to get into a group of friends, while others have committed some serious offences like murdering someone, or robbing money from a bank. All of those secrets are equal in their eyes though, and none of them want to get it out. All information comes trickling back to me and a very few actually know about that.

"So if I tell the world about your misadventure, none of them are going to take notice of your claims, or if they do, they will say that you are making wrongful accusations about me. Each and every one of them are not going to take the chance for their lives to be ruined. I hopefully made my point."

Mary's heart fell down into the dark depths of her soul. She had completely ruined her chance. All of her cards have been dealt and he had the stronger hand. He was going to destroy her reputation without mercy and take all of the winnings with him.

"Mary this is the last time you defy me. I am tired of going through this every time with you that you cannot leave me until I say so. I am tired of making threats to scare you. So I am going to deliver on them."

Mary's face paled, "No! Please no!" Her head was flashing through with a thousand of images of John and their life. They were supposed to have a normal life without any of this crap in it. She also had a brief glimpse of Sherlock, fighting for her freedom but coming to no avail.

Magnussen picked his phone out of his pocket and started to dial a few numbers.

"Please no Magnussen! Please I will do anything!"

Magnussen stopped before he pressed the last number. Mary saw the wheels turn in his head, and that seemed to scare her more than anything else.

He put the phone down. "Anything you say."

"Yes I will kill whoever you want."

"Oh Ms Morstan, we have tried that before, and look how that turned out. Although," He tapped his fingers against his leg. "I do like the sound of you begging." He gave her that grin, that goddamn grin. It was the sickest one she has ever seen.

That was when Mary realised what she had done. He seriously couldn't be suggesting what she thought he was suggesting. "No no no. Anything but that! Please do NOT make me do that!"

"Well you have that or I will have your fiancé killed and have his death blamed on you. How does that sound."

She felt bile rise in her throat and her stomach violently churn. She had to either give herself up or John, and she was more afraid for him than for her reputation. Her world had crashed around her and there was only one way to survive it.

She bent her head in shame. "I will go with option one." She barely managed to say.

"Oh sorry, I didn't catch that." He cupped his ear.

"I said I will go with option one!" She said forcefully.

He smiled, "Oh I thought so. Meet me at my house around eight. Oh and if you have any thoughts about skipping our arrangement, remember I will have one of my other assissins have a sniper trained on John Watson. Now leave me."

Mary simply stormed out of the room and slammed the door.

Hi ho my Bokkies

TRIGGER WARNINGS for the next chapter, if you didn't get it from the end of this one. It is no doubt going to make some people uncomfortable and queasy and I do apologise for that in advance (I do not know if that is going to be from my inexperienced writing on such matters or from the actual content.)

I could really do with some comments about absolutely anything about my writing.

Love from the capefangirl!