The next chapter! I hope you like it, please let me know!

I don't own the characters or places!


When he entered the house, John already knew that something was wrong. Incredibly wrong. He could hear Sherlock pacing upstairs in a speed that was nearly maddening. Something had happened. Did Sherlock already know about the attack on John? But that couldn't be possible, otherwise his boyfriend would have been there immediately. No, it had to be something else. John remembered Moriarty's threat and began to feel uneasy. He'd mentioned three people to Sherlock.

He'd considered not bringing Mrs. Hudson her milk straight away (after seeing his reflection in a window, he'd noticed that there was blood on his forehead), but now he couldn't stop himself. So he knocked on her door and entered without waiting too long for a reply. When he heard her voice coming from the bathroom, he felt relieved. "John, is that you?"

"I brought you the milk, Mrs. Hudson!" He called back, now glad that she was distracted and couldn't see him. "I'll place it on the kitchen table."

"Thank you so much! You should go upstairs and see what Sherlock is up to, he makes terrible noises!" So she'd noticed Sherlock's behaviour as well.

"I'll do that." After a short goodbye, he grabbed his bag again and made his way upstairs. He didn't even reach the top of the stairs when the door to their flat flew open. Sherlock was standing there, looking at John through wide eyes.

"John!" He sounded horrified and before he could process what was happening, Sherlock took the bag with the groceries from him, grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. Once the door was shut behind them, the bag fell to the ground and Sherlock was in front of John, looking at him closely. His hand moved to John's temple carefully, examining the injury. "I'm going to kill him." He muttered while doing that. "If I ever get the chance, I'll do it. I swear to you."

"Sherlock, it's fine." John muttered, but his boyfriend was already dragging him towards the bathroom.

"You're not fine. Someone attacked you. Two people, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to surprise you. An ambush. You have a terrible headache and your stomach is hurting, where one of them kicked you. I'm really going to kill them." Sherlock kept muttering insults and threats under his breath while he cleaned the injury on John's forehead carefully.

"You won't kill anyone." John threw in. "They only wanted to scare me, nothing else."

"They wanted to scare me." Sherlock corrected him firmly. He looked at John with a calm expression on his face, but the look in his eyes betrayed him. "It worked quite well."

"Sherlock..." John took his hands, only to realize that they were shaking slightly. "What happened? You were running around when I got home. I already thought Mrs. Hudson -"

"Not her." Sherlock breathed in deeply. "I was with her the entire afternoon. I only walked upstairs about an hour ago. She said she had to get ready for meeting a friend and I knew that you'd return soon." Suddenly, he looked angry. "If Mycroft wouldn't have called, I'd have realized that something was wrong earlier..."

"What did he say? Mycroft?" John interrupted him, the uneasy feeling back with full force. Tell me, how is John? Or DI Lestrade? Your landlady? "It's Greg, isn't it?"

"He's in the hospital." Sherlock's voice sounded hollow. "They attacked him with a knife. He'll be alright." He added hastily when John already wanted to jump to his feet. "They didn't hit anything vital."

"When I didn't get home in time..." John's mind was racing.

"I thought something happened to you." Sherlock admitted with a nod. "I knew it would be of no use to follow you, if you would have taken the direct way, you'd already be back. And calling you also seemed to be a bad option, considering you were being followed."

John reacted without thinking about it. He wrapped his arms around Sherlock and pulled him closer. To his surprise, Sherlock only inhaled shakily and hid his face on John's neck. His hands were grabbing the back of John's shirt tightly. By now, John knew him well enough to know that Sherlock was terrified. If the reality of Moriarty being dangerous didn't hit him until now, things changed after the events of the day.

"I'm fine." John whispered and stroked Sherlock's back slowly. "Next time, we'll be better prepared. It won't happen again."

"There won't be a next time." Sherlock whispered against John's skin. "We have to stop him."

"We will." John let it sound like a promise. "I love you, Sherlock."

"John." Suddenly, Sherlock's lips were on his and John couldn't help himself. His eyes fluttered shut and he kissed him back, opening his lips to let Sherlock's tongue enter his mouth. It wasn't one of their usual kisses, filled with longing or passion. This one was full of desperation. Sherlock kissed him like he thought they'd never get the chance to do so again. And John did the same. He buried his hands in Sherlock's hair, grabbing the dark locks tightly. It made the detective groan and deepen the kiss, if that was even possible. Sherlock's hands were still on John's back and he knew that most probably, he just didn't move them because they were still shaking.

When they parted, they looked at each other for a long time. "We will end this." John said seriously. Until now, he'd felt relatively calm. Mostly due to the shock from being attacked. But slowly, he was also getting angry. No, even furious. How dare Moriarty make Sherlock feel like this! He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the pain in his stomach and his throbbing headache. "Come on." He said, holding out his hands to Sherlock, who took them and let John pull him to his feet as well. "I assume the others are already in the hospital?"

Sherlock nodded. "Mycroft hopes that Lestrade can leave again tomorrow. But John, you should rest -"

"Just get me some painkillers, then I'll be fine." He interrupted him sternly. "We have to talk to the others as fast as possible."

Sherlock didn't argue, but simply nodded. "It's time that we deal with Moriarty."


"Stop staring at me like this." Greg muttered, feeling Mycroft's gaze on him even if his own eyes were closed. He was lying in a hospital bed, the far too thick blanked wrapped around his body tightly. It almost felt like he was being crushed by it. "I'm fine." He emphasized slowly.

"You're not fine." Mycroft cut him off, his voice filled with anger. Anger that wasn't directed at Greg, which he was glad about. More than one nurse had already taken a step back when they'd felt Mycroft's burning look on them. Greg had always known that the oldest Holmes could be scary, but now he realized that he'd never seen him so utterly furious before. Not even when Moriarty had threatened Sherlock. "You were attacked, Greg."

"They didn't want to hurt me. At least not seriously." He threw in. "That man knew exactly where to attack me with the knife so it wouldn't hit anything important." He was sure that the goal was to scare Sherlock. To remind him who had the upper hand in this game they were playing. Once more, he felt concerned. After all, Moriarty had also mentioned John and Mrs. Hudson. After calling Sherlock some time ago, Mycroft could assure him that Mrs. Hudson was fine. However, Sherlock had no news from John yet. While it made Greg nervous, he knew that it was surely driving the detective insane.

"I'm not sure how that should calm me down." Mycroft frowned at him. "This was only the beginning. If we don't act now, Moriarty will do this again. With more serious consequences."

The concern that appeared on Mycroft's face when he said this made Greg's heart beat faster. He tried to sit up in bed slowly, but the wound on his side was still stinging. He sank back into the cushion again and ignored that Mycroft glared at him warningly. He'd already proclaimed that Greg's demand do leave the hospital the following day was foolish. "Come here, Mycroft." Greg said now, after realizing that he couldn't just stand up and hug the other man.

After half a second of hesitation, Mycroft moved closer and sat down on the bed carefully. Greg reached out and took his hands, squeezing them softly. "It will all work out." He was surprised to notice how sure he sounded. "We will stop Moriarty. Together. As a team."

Mycroft looked at their entwined hands for a moment. Then he focused on Greg's face. "We didn't make any progress until now."

"Because you weren't working as a team. At least not really." He pointed out. "I know that this isn't entirely your fault." He threw in hastily when it looked like Mycroft was about to protest. "But you have to trust your brothers in what they're doing. You can't always control everything, Myc. Not in a situation like this." He said it softly, a small part of him afraid that Mycroft might see his words as an insult. However, he only sighed deeply.

"It might sound foolish to you, but I still feel like I have to keep them out of all this somehow." He smiled slightly.

"It's not foolish." Greg argued. "It's only logical, considering that they're your younger siblings. We always wish to protect those closest to us. But it's not possible all the time. Sometimes, you have to take risks to achieve something. You can't shield them from this, Mycroft. Especially not since Moriarty is interested in Sherlock in the first place." He smiled. "I bet if you'd start working together properly, nothing could stop you. After all, you're the most brilliant men I know."

"You have too much faith in us." Mycroft muttered, though he relaxed a little bit.

Greg shook his head sternly. "I don't. I'm only stating the facts."

"Which facts?" Suddenly, the door to the room opened and Q walked in quickly, followed by James. They were both wearing disguises, just in case Moriarty was watching the hospital. Which shouldn't be possible, Mycroft had told Greg that Q had disabled all security cameras for the evening.

"That you should knock before you enter a room." Mycroft stood up from the bed quickly and Greg thought he could see a faint blush on his cheeks.

"James is a doctor. He can come in whenever he wants." Q pointed at his boyfriend, who was indeed wearing white clothes and a doctor's coat. Q, on the other hand, wore what looked like the clothes of a nurse. To Greg's surprise, the green colour matched his eyes.

"You both look ridiculous." Once more, the door to the room burst open and Sherlock stormed in, followed by John. Greg noticed a plaster on his forehead, confirming his assumption that he'd been attacked as well. "Everyone who sees you knows that you're not working here."

"We entered the building through the back door and made sure that no one saw us. I disabled the security cameras. All the stuff here is either working for MI6 or the government itself, so they won't talk. And you might have noticed that this room doesn't have a window." Q crossed his arms.

"We're just wearing the disguises for good measure." James threw in soothingly. "Moriarty is smart, we shouldn't underestimate him."

For half a second, Sherlock's eyes flickered to John. "We don't." The detective stated flatly.

"What happened?" Greg asked loudly.

"I was being followed. Ran right into a trap." John grimaced. "I'm fine, though. They only hit me a few times, nothing serious. Unlike you. How are you feeling?"

Now five pairs of eyes looked at him. "I've had worse." He said truthfully. "The doctor said the cut will heal fast. Only a few stitches were necessary."

"We have to do something about all of this." Q muttered. "If this was only a way to scare Sherlock -"

"It was." The detective threw in.

"then we'll have prepare ourselves for worse to come." Q finished his sentence as if his brother didn't interrupt him.

"I agree with that." Mycroft nodded.

"He wasn't going to hurt us. At least not really." John muttered slowly and Greg nodded in agreement. So his best friend thought the same.

"It was a way to demonstrate his power." James agreed. "He wants Sherlock to be scared so he makes mistakes." The secret agent turned to him. "He wants you to get angry and do something stupid now."

"Like killing Moriarty." Mycroft stepped in front of his brother. "Which will be of no use, by the way. Once we have him, he'll be locked up for good."

"Doesn't sound so satisfying." Sherlock muttered. "He attacked John."

"He also attacked Greg, if I need to remind you of that, dear brother." Mycroft wasn't impressed by Sherlock's argument. Greg felt his cheeks heat up when he heard Mycroft saying his name with so much tenderness.

To everyone's surprise, Sherlock didn't argue. He just ran a hand through his already messy curls. "It can't go on like this." He said simply. "We need a plan. For real, this time."

"Which means you have to work together." John threw in without hesitation, a stern look on his face. "I don't care that there's this family competition about who's the smartest one you have going on. It doesn't matter right now. What we need is the three of you as a team."

"I never took part in that competition." Q muttered, earning a glare from Sherlock and Mycroft.

"If you won't start working together properly, he'll take us by surprise again." John added with crossed arms. "And I think that's something we all don't want to happen once more."

"He doesn't know about Q and me." James said. "We can use that to our advantage."

"Don't say that you can solve all this on your own." John looked at Sherlock warningly. "This time, it's different."

"You need our help, Sherlock." Q agreed quickly. When Sherlock and Mycroft turned to Q, the boyfriends used this moment to exchange secret smiles. Finally, they could get the Holmes brothers to work together!

"I don't like to admit this, but I think it's true." Mycroft said slowly. "We have to make a plan together. "

Sherlock turned to John. "I knew you planned this!" When Greg disguised his chuckle as a cough, the detective pointed at him. "All of you!" Before anyone could reply, Sherlock sighed deeply. "Alright, but we shouldn't start to make plans here."

"I'll be allowed to leave the hospital tomorrow morning." Greg explained.

"Then we'll meet at Baker Street at midday." Sherlock decided simply.

"Greg still needs rest." Mycroft looked unhappy about this, but by now, Greg knew him well enough to hear the resigned tone of his voice.

"I'll be fine." He threw in.

"Greg..." Mycroft was about to protest, but Sherlock interrupted him.

"Lestrade can speak for himself, Mycroft." Soon, the brothers started a quiet argument. While they talked, John and James both sat down on Greg's bed.

"That was good." James whispered with a grin.

"Actually, I'm a little surprised that it worked." Greg admitted. "I tried to talk Mycroft into working together with the others, but I still had my doubts."

"I did the same with Sherlock." John smiled slightly. "I'm glad they're finally swallowing their pride."

"How did you convince Q?" Greg raised his eyebrows and James chuckled softly.

"I didn't. He's just smarter than the others."

In an instant, Sherlock and Mycroft turned to them, both with raised eyebrows. "What did you just say?" The fact that they asked the exact same question at the same time made the others stare at them for a moment.

Then John jumped to his feet. "I think it's time for us to leave. After all, I need rest." He grabbed Sherlock's hand and began to drag his boyfriend towards the door. James and Q followed them quickly. Before the door to the room closed, Greg could see both couples walk in opposite directions.

Once the door closed, Mycroft turned to him with a smile. "I have to agree, this worked quite well."

Greg laughed. "You're impossible. All of you."

"Now that all this is settled, you should get rest." To his surprise, Mycroft didn't leave, but sat down on his bed instead. "Otherwise, I fear that you might fall asleep during our discussion tomorrow."

Greg smiled at this. "That might be true. You don't have to stay here much longer, Myc. I know that you have lots of work to do."

"I'm not ready to leave you out of sight yet." Mycroft looked uncomfortable when he said this. "After what happened today... I was scared, Greg." The last words were barely a whisper.

He took Mycroft's hands again. "Me too." He whispered.

They stayed like this for some time, until Greg finally fell asleep.