The sight of John staggering while he clung to Sherlock as they made their way outside made the consulting detective wish there was still one of the kidnappers left he could vent the fury he felt on. By now Mycroft had surely already secured Birch and taken care of his wounds. Hopefully they would take a very long time to heal. Sherlock pursed his lips at the thought of that man in disgust.
One hand wrapped tightly around John's back they slowly ascended the stairs. His gray eyes were on John the whole time, though he was trying not to look at the wounds all over John's body. He couldn't stand to look at them.
It was his fault they were there.
John stopped when they stepped outside into the sunlight, drawing in one ragged breath. Most of his weight weighted on Sherlock and he was glad for that in one way. It made it feel more real that John was back at his side.
"I never thought it could be so nice," John began looking up at the sky, squinting his bloodshot eyes at its brightness "to feel the sun on my skin"
Sherlock didn't know what to reply and instead tightened his grip around John's waist. The car stood there waiting to take them back home. In that moment Sherlock was glad for Mycroft's men. They wouldn't ask questions or urge him to take John to the hospital because Sherlock was too exhausted to deal with an annoying cabbie or any of that sort right now. All he wanted was to bring his doctor back to their flat and don't leave him out of his sight ever again.
Through the whole ride to Baker Street John's head rested on his shoulder, his hot forehead slightly touching Sherlock's neck. The consulting detective was certain that John wasn't asleep but no one said a word. And when they finally reached their flat John moved back into an upright position so that Sherlock could step out of the car and help John do the same. The way up the stairs was tricky and John grunted in pain when he had to put pressure on his injured leg. Sherlock tried to ignore the lump that formed in his throat every time he heard it in the, apart from John's hard breathing, quiet flat.
Leading John to his favourite armchair Sherlock studied the pale face once again. There were dark circles under his eyes, a bit sweat glistening on his skin, stubbles on his chin from not shaving in the last few days.
"I'll get you some painkillers" Sherlock hurried off to get them and a glass of water after John was seated and his hurt leg positioned on the table. When he returned John gave him a weak nod of appreciation before taking them.
Sherlock felt the urge to bend down and wrap John in his arms tightly and never let go of him again just to ensure that no one would ever take John away from him again. The consulting detective blinked as if that would help to get these thoughts out of his head, but they were stuck there. If anything the desire to do so just became more urgent. His body felt like a magnet being drawn to John.
He bend over towards John, but instead of doing what every fiber of his body screamed for he took the now empty glass out of John's shaky hands, his fingers touching the doctors and hurried into the kitchen to put it into the sink. He remained there for a few seconds trying to bring this emotion under control. It was completely and utterly irrational. Sherlock frowned and stared at the hand that had held the glass. He felt an odd sensation lingering where he had brushed John's fingers.
"Sherlock?" John asked when the seconds kept ticking by and Sherlock's body moved of his own accord when he sensed a hint of panic in John's voice, his discovery cast aside for the moment.
"What's wrong?" he asked almost breathlessly, rushing back into the living room.
"No. Nothing. I- it's just. Sorry" John stuttered and sighed, moving his hand over his face "You didn't come back and I just- it's stupid really"
"No, it's all right," Sherlock said reassuringly, his voice unusually soft "I'm here and I won't go anywhere" he sat down in the armchair opposite of John and his blue eyes moved to look at him. Neither of them said anything. They just looked at each other, enjoying the reality of sitting together in their flat, still alive and just there, together.
"How did you find me?" John broke the silence.
"After you-"Sherlock cleared his throat awkwardly "After they kidnapped you and destroyed your mobile phone Mycroft called me and told me that the tracking device in it stopped working I went to its last location"
"Mycroft had a tracking device in my mobile" John pinched the bridge of his nose "No, of course he had" he shook his head in exasperation.
"After I got there I found a note with a riddle, telling me that if I wanted you back safely I'd have to do what they wanted and wait for the next message" Sherlock paused and took in a deep breath, remembering vividly all the details of what followed.
"The following day I got a DVD with- you know" Sherlock gestured towards John and the doctor twitched involuntarily "At the end of it there was another message in which the criminal told me that he wants me to find some paintings that were stolen. Purely out of boredom and his deep passion for art as he wanted to let me believe" he scoffed, temper rising. There was another pause before Sherlock carried on, voice calmer "But of course that wasn't his real reason"
"No?" John interrupted in a joking manner, raising an eyebrow. Without a doubt a feeble attempt to lighten the mood. He looked as tense as Sherlock felt. The consulting detective shook his head.
"No. The outlines of the plan were clever but its execution was done poorly. The riddle at the beginning had a promise of more puzzles and wit to follow, but no more came after it. So clearly that was the best he could come up with" His grey eyes flickered over John quickly, taking in every detail Sherlock could grasp to see if it was all right to proceed with his explanation or if it would be wiser to wait until John had rested a while. Surely he'd tell Sherlock if he wanted him to stop.
"Obviously his attempt to deceive me failed. After I had realized that he had tried to create a false identity through the messages the rest was quite easy to figure out" John frowned at him and gave Sherlock his 'you know perfectly well that it's not obvious to me so care to explain' face. Despite the current situation a smile tugged at the corner of Sherlock's mouth. Even when being dead tired and probably aching all over John, amazing John still had the patience to listen to Sherlock's elaborate explanation without snapping at him.
Something was nagging at the back of Sherlock's mind. That sort of nagging when he missed something he should have noticed right away. The smile died away when the reason of it slowly, much too slowly dawned to him and at the same time hitting him like a bucket of cold water. It wasn't only John's friendly nature that kept him awake in his chair, listening to Sherlock explain how he solved the case. Nor was it his curiosity. No. There was another reason.
John wanted to stay awake.
For the cause to that Sherlock could only guess. Once again the consulting detective blamed his lack of knowledge in the particular areas involving people and their feelings. Empathy was one of the things Sherlock sometimes wished he had when being with John.
Did John dread the nightmares would return after his torture? After the first few months John had spend in Baker Street, the nights when he'd woken up drenched in sweat had sharply decreased Sherlock had noticed and felt proud at the possibility that he had been the reason for that recovery. The consulting detective wasn't entirely sure why John wanted to stay awake. He felt horrible that he hadn't realized sooner that John was bothered by the thought of going to sleep.
People had all rights to call him names when he had been so preoccupied with himself that he had neglected John and not considered the effects the kidnapping and torture would have on John.
"Sherlock. Sherlock?" said consulting detective looked up "You going to continue?"
Sherlock nodded. "If he wasn't as clever as he wanted to make me believe there had to be something about those paintings he wanted to cover up, something he did not want me to notice. I did some research about the paintings but there was nothing unusual there. Forgeries wouldn't justify all that trouble so it had to be something else. Probably something he hid inside the paintings or their frames and it had to be something he needed back. Either because it was valuable or something illegal that could be traced back to him" John listened intensely but he wouldn't be able to fight the tiredness much longer by the looks of it.
"I was proved right when I found the last painting, the other two were just there to diverse me from the SD-Card hidden inside the frame. By then I'd already been fairly sure who he was and the SD-Card confirmed my deduction. Birch was in charge of the museum the painting belonged to. That means he could be sure to be the first person to see the painting and remove it before someone else could notice. The SD-Card was full of illegal transactions. Mycroft is currently taking care of Birch and making sure that he won't see the daylight again for a very long time" Sherlock finished hurriedly, already standing up and moving over to John who was pretty much already half-asleep.
"And I do believe it's time you go to sleep unless you want to fall asleep in your armchair"
"I'm not really tired yet" John said stubbornly, well aware that this wasn't fooling Sherlock.
"Why don't you want to sleep? Are you afraid of nightmares?" Sherlock wasn't sure how to approach the topic best so he went with just being straight forward.
"No, that's- that's not it" John said, fidgeting in his seat and looking everywhere but Sherlock. Sherlock waited patiently for John to go on.
"I'm afraid that if I wake up and think that I'm still there. That you didn't come" Sherlock was speechless for a moment, a weird feeling nesting at the pit of his stomach. He bent down and tugged at John's hand lightly, letting him know that he wanted to help him get up.
"Fine. I'll sleep with you in your bed. If you wake up in the middle of the night I'll be right beside you"
OMG I'm so terribly sorry this took so long. Completely forgot about it and then I was so busy with school that I didn't get to write. Sherlock was giving me a hard time here and I'm just reliefes that this chapter is done XD. Next chapter is probably going to be the last one.
Have a lovely day! =)