John woke up with Sherlock still in his arms and looked at the clock on the wall. It was midday and they both should really be getting up and doing things, but he couldn't leave this and they didn't have anything to get back to anyway. After a few more minutes like that, he thought he should probably let Lestrade know that he was wrong and Sherlock was never a fake and he should definitely punch Anderson and Donovan in the face. Multiple times. With a chair. He tried to slowly, gently move Sherlock off him but to no avail.
"John?"
"Mmm?"
"Where were you going?" John could see panic all over his face. Oh God, Sherlock thought John was leaving him.
"It's midday, Sherlock."
"And?"
"I should probably try and get my job back."
"Why?"
"So I can earn money, to buy food and pay rent and do other normal human things…?"
"Oh. I thought…Never mind."
"Sherlock, I wasn't leaving you. I promised." John smiled at him reassuringly and Sherlock finally relaxed. "Anyway, we should probably let Lestrade-"
"NO!" Sherlock shouted, scaring John. "THEY WON'T JUST KILL YOU, BUT HIM AND MRS HUDSON TOO…I can't, we can't tell them yet."
"Oh. Sorry. I forgot."
"We, I have to defeat Moriarty's soldiers."
"Hold on. We have to defeat them. Together. I'm not letting you run off on your own. You might do something stupid like get yourself killed. I'm not letting that happen."
"John."
"Where do we start?"
"John."
"D'you reckon they'll all be in Britain or will we have to go overseas?"
"John!" John finally shut up and looked at Sherlock
"Yes?"
"You have to let me do this."
"Are you insane, Sherlock? I'm not going to leave you alone."
"John." Sherlock said warningly
"You're not leaving me. You, you can't. You promised. You promised, Sherlock!" Sherlock couldn't stand seeing John so hurt and he gave up. At least this way, if either of them got hurt the other would know immediately. He kissed John and said softly
"I promised, John. I won't leave you. I promise."
"Thank you." Sherlock pulled John up with him and walked to the kitchen to make coffee. It was unusual for him to do anything, but this was a very unusual situation. Also, he would do anything for John, so making coffee wasn't really that much of a big deal.
"When do we start?" John interrupted the silence "Today?"
"It's rather soon, don't you think?"
"The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can punch Anderson and Donovan in the face. By the way, you were on the telly a while ago. People were protesting. For you. Saying they believed in you. Isn't that good?"
"I saw. They know nothing about it."
"Yeah, but they're trying."
"They shouldn't."
"What? They were just trying to help-"
"THEY SHOULDN'T! DON'T YOU SEE?" Those stupid protesters were ruining everything! Why couldn't John understand? "THEY ARE BRINGING ATTENTION TO ME! MORIARTY'S SOLDIERS WILL HAVE SEEN THAT! THEY COULD'VE FIGURED OUT THAT I AM ALIVE!" His voice dropped to little more than a whisper "They could've killed you."
John rushed towards Sherlock just before he broke down and wrapped his arms around the shaking man.
"Come on, Sherlock. We've got a network to destroy."
