A/N: Here you go!

3

An Old Friend

Sherlock smirked. "Been a long time, eh, John?"

John simply stared. "Y-you…" He slowly walked up to Sherlock, examined him for a second… and then punched him square in the nose. "You bloody IDIOT!" he bellowed. "You SELFISH LITTLE GIT!"

Sherlock staggered back. After a second, he let out a low chuckle. "Good to see you too, John. But I do believe we have some business to finish before we finish the happy reunion."

Turning towards the girl, he nodded. "Sherlock Holmes."

"I figured," she replied. "Natsumi Hinata."

"Japanese?"

"Yeah. Nice on the name origin guess."

"Oh, it wasn't a guess," he replied smugly with a smirk. "John, stop trying to have a row with me and pay attention to the situation!"

John nodded shakily. "Right." Pulling the gun back up, he hesitantly walked up to the girl- Natsumi- side by side with Sherlock before spinning so the three had their backs pressed together.

"I miss doing this with Giroro," Natsumi whispered.

"Who?" John asked.

"Nobody."

Sherlock's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything more on the matter. John scanned the room, looking for any sign of movement. He heard footsteps running down the hall, and then the police burst into the room, DI Lestrade in the middle of the group. He instantly went slack-jawed. "Sh-sherlock?" he gasped.

"I can explain later. For now, let's get this girl safe and checked over."

John smiled. People could say what they wanted, Sherlock Holmes did have a heart.

After Natsumi had been checked to see she was unharmed, the matter came as to where she would stay. Since she lived in Japan- halfway around the world- she clearly couldn't be sent home right away.

"You do realize that there's still trouble out there," Sherlock said to John. "Moriarty's on the move again. And I thought I had hunted them all down. This isn't good. This definitely isn't good."

"Wait- hunted them down? And what do you mean, Moriarty's on the move? Isn't he dead?"

"Yes and no," Sherlock replied. "James Moriarty's dead, but it appears his followers have formed a network they've named after him."

Chills ran down John's spine. "Just lovely." Then he paused. "One more question: why did you jump off that building? And how did you survive?"

Sherlock sucked in a breath. "Moriarty had hit men stationed to kill you, Lestrade, and Mrs. Hudson. The only way I could save you was to jump, make them believe I was dead. And then I had to hunt down Moriarty's men, make sure they posed no threat before I returned. But-" Here he sucked in a breath. "Apparently there are still some out there." He seemed peeved to admit he had failed at something. "I'm sorry, John. For losing some of Moriarty's men, for having you believe I was dead all this time, for just showing up again. I'm sorry for everything."

"Three years, Sherlock," John hissed angrily. "Three years, and you think you can make up for it with 'sorry'?"

Sherlock sighed. "We can talk about this back at the flat." Spinning around, he approached where the police and medics were talking with Natsumi.

"Can I call my mom?" she was asking.

"Of course," Lestrade replied. "But if you don't mind putting it on speaker, so that we can ask her a few questions." He passed her his phone, and she quickly dialed a number.

"Kon'nichiwa, hinata no jūkyo," a weary voice said on the other end.

"Fuyuki! It's Natsumi. By the way, you might want to talk in English."

A gasp on the other end. "Nee-chan!? Oh thank god, where are you?! We've been scared to death! When your college called and told us you'd gone missing-"

"Can you get Mama?"

"Of course. Hang on. Mama! Mama! It's Natsumi!"

John heard the faint sound of running feet on the other end as he approached the crowd. Then,

"Oh my god, Natsumi! Sweetie, are you okay?" a motherly voice exclaimed on the other end. "Where are you?!"

"Calm down, Mama. I'm fine, I'm in London, I'm with the police, I'm fine."

"What happened?!"

"Ma'am, this is Detective Inspector Lestrade. May I explain and ask you a few questions? I assure you, Natsumi is fine."

"Sure. Of course."

Lestrade gently took the phone from Natsumi and turned speaker off. He began speaking slowly and reassuringly until finally, he said, "Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much, ma'am." He handed the phone back to Natsumi.

"E, ē, watashi wa shitte iru," Natsumi said in Japanese. "Sate, sugu ni anata o sanshō shite kudasai." She gave a weak smile and hung up before passing the phone back to Lestrade. "Mom said it was fine for you all and me to decide where I'm staying."

Suddenly, John blurted out, "Mrs. Hudson has an empty flat above ours that Natsumi might be able to stay in." Now that there was no idea as to who was in Moriarty, he felt very uneasy leaving this girl with someone else. "Here, let me call her."

"John-" Lestrade began.

"Please, just give me a moment."

Lestrade reluctantly nodded as John pulled out his own phone and dialed Mrs. Hudson's number. "Hello? Mrs. Hudson?"

"Oh! John, dear, what-"

"A girl's been kidnapped. We just got her into custody. Is it okay if she stays at 221c tonight?"

Mrs. Hudson made a quiet sound of pity. "Of course, tell her she's quite welcome. Oh, and I have some things from when my daughter was her age. She can borrow those until we can get her some clothes of her own."

John nodded. "Thank you. Goodbye." He hung up, then turned to Natsumi and Lestrade. "Mrs. Hudson's fine with it."

Lestrade sighed. "Very well. But Sherlock," he said, turning to the consulting detective, "You owe us an explanation first thing in the morning."

Sherlock nodded, clearly not in the mood to argue. "Very well."

Natsumi hesitantly got up, pulling the orange blanket she had been given tighter around her shoulders. "So… should we go?" she asked. "I'm exhausted."

"Of course," John replied. "By the way, Mrs. Hudson- our landlady- has some clothes for you to borrow."

Natsumi gave him a small smile. "Thank you."

John then turned to Sherlock. "You should probably stay inconspicuous for the time being. You have no idea how many haters you've obtained over the past-"

"Actually, I do."

John sighed. "Will you just shut up? Come on, we need to get back to the flat. You too, Natsumi."

End note: A little note on what the Japanese said in this chapter means, using the all-reliable (NOT!) Google Translate.

Kon'nichiwa, hinata no jūkyo: Hello, Hinata residence.

E, ē, watashi wa shitte iru: Yeah, yeah, I know.

Sate, sugu ni anata o sanshō shite kudasai: Okay, see you soon.