Chapter Four: Merlin
The man had bright blue eyes, very pale skin and a very similar face shape to Sherlock. He looks quite a bit like him. John stared at the man for a bit then looked at Sherlock who had gone very pale and eyes wide. It was unusual for the detective to be shocked by anything, he once stored a severed head in the fridge, not a lot shocked him but the sight of this young man had given him quite a shock.
"Hello, can I help you?" The young man asked. He looked at them with a slightly confused expression. I suppose this must seem a bit strange, John thought particually because Sherlock was still staring at him.
"Uh yeah. We were told there was someone new so we thought we should come find you." John said. What the hell is wrong with Sherlock?
"Why?" The young man raised an eyebrow, clearly more confused than before.
"I employ the homeless people of London to help me with my job" Sherlock said quickly. Sherlock had snapped out of his shock while John had been talking to the man.
"Are you not capable of doing your job?" The man replied.
"No love, not like that. We get him the information he needs faster than the cops can and he pays us for it." One of the women, who had spoken earlier, explained. The young man seemed to think about this for a couple of minutes. John really hoped that the young man didn't ask too many question that might be difficult to answer.
"Alright. I suppose that makes sense." He finally said. "The name's Merlin"
"I'm Sherlock and this is my friend John Watson." Sherlock replied. Sherlock must have thought that Merlin would be impressed by 'the great Sherlock Holmes'.
"Nice to meet you." Merlin simply replied, showing no sign that he knew who Sherlock was. Whenever this happens it always made John smile because Sherlock always assumed that everyone knew who he was, he had no reason to assume this but he always did.
"Nice to meet you to." John replied, knowing that Sherlock wouldn't. Merlin looked at them for a moment longer, then started to turn around. Merlin winced slightly while turning, obviously trying to conceal his pain but John noticed. "Are you ok?"
"Yep, never better." Merlin replied with a hint of pain in his voice. Looks like he's hurt his side or maybe it's his arm. John watched Merlin carefully trying to figure out where the pain was. Definately his side, John decided.
"I'm a doctor, let me look." John said. He had no idea how to convince Merlin to let him take a look, this was all he had and John really hoped it would be enough.
"The dectective and the doctor. Sounds like a bad tv show." Merlin joked. John continued to watch Merlin for a while, until finally Merlin sighed and shook his head. "Alright you win."
"You had better come with us then." Sherlock simply said and started to walk away.
A short time later they arrived at Baker Street. John showed Merlin to the living room amd gestured for him to sit down on the sofa. Merlin looked around him, taking in his surroundings and slowly sat down. Sherlock had gone into the kitchen to get together some files and start up one of his experiments. Merlin watched him carefully, not knowing what to make of the dectective, as he set up his experiment. John came back into the living room a couple of minutes later with a basic first aid kit, Merlin was still watching Sherlock when he came in.
"Ok. Where's the pain?" John asked although he was almost certain it was his side, it was still better to ask him.
"My side." Merlin said pointing at his side. John couldn't help but feel a bit proud of himself for figuring out where the pain was.
"Take of your shirt then." John said kneeling down infront of Merlin so that he could examine his side. Merlin looked at him for a second then took of his jacket and shirt. Merlin was dangerously thin and he had cuts and bruises all over his chest as well as a couple of faint scars. One of the newer cuts went from shoulder to shoulder and John couldn't help but wonder about what sort of a life Merlin has. "Where on your side?" John asked. Merlin pointed to the end of his ribcage, which his skin was pulled tightly across. John could see a yellow bruise forming where Merlin was pointing and there was another bruise just above it. John lightly pressed where the bruise was forming, which made Merlin wince, luckily there were no broken bones or any other serious injury. It was just a bruise, quite a large bruise, but just a bruise all the same.
"It's just a bruise. However you are dangerously thin, when was the last time you ate?" John asked. It must have been a couple of weeks ago or something.
"A few weeks ago I had some bread. There's still some in my jacket pocket." Merlin replied. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out half a slice of bread and handed it to John. The bread was dry, crumbling and had a little bit of mould growing on the crust.
"Wait here." John instructed and walked out of the room. Merlin could hear him walking downstairs. Merlin looked around the room he was in again, there were stacks of files almost everywhere, a violin and sheets of music set up by one of the windows. Next to the same window there was a tall bookcase, stuffed tightly with books of different sizes and paper sticking out between some of them. On the mantlepiece there was a pile of letters that had a knife stabbed through them and a skull which sat upon a pile of books. Merlin looked at the skull for a while and wondered where it had came from and if it was real or not. Merlin felt someone looking at him, he turned to see Sherlock watching him the same way Merlin had been watching him earlier. Sherlock continued to stare at Merlin for a short while, which felt like minutes to Merlin, then turned away to continue whatever it was that he was doing.
A few minutes later John came back followed by a little lady dressed in purple. She was carrying a tray with soup and bread on it as well as a cup of tea.
"I hope your not a vegetarian, it's chicken soup." The little lady said placing the tray down in front of Merlin.
"I'm not." Merlin assured her with a smile. "Thank you."
"Of course dear. What lovely manners you have, manners are something that's missing in this flat." The lady said looking at John and Sherlock, neither responded.
"That's Mrs. Hudson, our landlady." John said after she left. Merlin sat quietly and ate his bread, which was much better than the bread he had been carrying around, and soup. John watched him carefully, what sort of a life have you had? John thought to himself thinking of all the cuts, bruises and scars that Merlin had on his chest, which John was more than certain continued onto his back. John wondered over to Sherlock to see what he was doing. John saw Sherlock quickly put his phone away before he got over to him. Why's he acting weird today? John looked at Sherlock with a puzzeled look. Sherlock didn't address this and just picked up a file and walked over to Merlin. Sherlock put the file away in the small cupboard near Merlin and sat down in his black chair. Merlin had just finished his tea when Mrs. Hudson came back upstairs.
"All finished?" She asked Merlin smiling down at him.
"Yes, thank you. The bread was very good." Merlin replied grinning up at her.
"Thank you dear, I made it myself." She said proudly.
That's when Mycroft walked in.