Chapter Three: The Date

The car ride was ten minutes long, the sniper never saying a word. Sheryl slid down in her seat, making a weird sound from the leather. She wished John was there. He would start a conversation, which would at least distract her a little from her boredom. She was reduced to watching the cars pass by. it wasn't interesting whatsoever. John looked very worried when She had gotten in the car. He had probably thought of the "Worst-case scenario", which probably ended up with a bullet through Sheryl's skull. That definitely wasn't going to happen. I mean, Jim and Sheryl were rivals, but he wouldn't do anything as idiotic as kill her. He said it himself that wasn't going to kill her. Jim also sent his obviously best sniper to fetch Sheryl; to reassure that he wasn't going to kill her. So, why is he doing this? If not to kill her, then what?

The Sniper pulled up to Angelo's. He got out and opened the door for her.

"Thanks." She mumbled under my breath.

Sheryl could see Jim through the window. He was wearing one of his Westwood suits, as usual. He was on his phone. His facial expression was blank.

"Here goes nothing." She sighed as she walked opened the door.

A I came into the building, he saw me and walked to me, "Ah, Hello, my beautiful," He took her right hand, "Sheryl Holmes." He took her knuckles to his lips and kissed them.

Sheryl glanced away from him, "Jim.." I said in an ice-cold tone.

he winced at the cruelty in her voice "Oh, Sherly... So cruel, so cold... But whatever~!" he threw an arm around Sheryl's waist and lead her to the table.

She blushed a bit. No one had done that to her before, so she wasn't at all prepared for it. She didn't slap his hand away though, it felt... nice. She put a hand on her cheeks, they were warm.

"Dammit." She grumbled almost inaudibly.

Almost inaudibly.

"What's that, my dear?" he asked, looking towards Sheryl, he noticed her pink cheeks and smirked, "You're blushing~."

She pretended didn't know, "What? No, I'm not blushing..."

He laughed a little as he pushed her chair in. Jim then sat close to her. Dangerously close,"I know what you're thinking: I'm with the sexiest man alive right now~!"

She laughed a little, "Um, wrong..."

He had a strait face, "Hm... that's strange... I'm usually right about these things..."

"Well you weren't this time!" she said, looking down at the table.

Jim laughed again, "Calm yourself, love... So, are you wondering why I would ask you to dinner, out of the blue?"

She glanced at him, "Actually, I am..."

He smiled, "Well, I asked you here because I wanted to... as you say, 'conduct an experiment'"

Experiment... that word usually didn't make her panic, but when Jim said it, the way he said it, it did, "What experiment... is this?"

Jim's expression turned serious, he took my hands in his, "Me saying... I love you."

Sheryl froze. Did I hear him correctly? She thought, Jim Moriarty just said "I love you." to me?

"Y-you... love me?"

He nodded, "Ever since I started the Game, I had fallen for you."

"I... I don't know what to say... " She genuinely didn't. No one had ever said that to her before. Her mind was conflicted. One part was screaming "He's the most brilliant man in all of the world! You two would make a great pair! The detective and the criminal! You love him and you know it! Just admit it!" She was assuming this was her female nature calling.

Then, there was another part, also screaming, "Are you kidding me?! He's the man that almost killed you and your best friend! He's probably trying to deceive you!"

She decided to listen to the first part. She knew that he almost killed both her and John, and he might, just might, be trying to deceive me. If he is... so what? It's an experiment after all, there is always the negative and the positive outcome.

"I can speak for you then..." He cleared his throat, and put on his 'Girl voice', "Oh, James, I can't help but feel the same way!"

I smiled, his "girl voice" wasn't very accurate... it was just a higher version of his own voice.

"Someday, I hope to be Mrs. Moriarty, it's my one true dream!"

Sheryl was straining herself trying not to laugh.

"And then we'll have kids and name them all after serial killers!"

Dear God. She thought, He had practiced this...

He stopped, "How was I?"

She laughed lightly, "You were close..."

Jim looked at me hopefully, "Close enough to be right...?"

"Yes, close enough to be right..." She smiled warmly, "So... What do we do now? I'm new at this sort of thing ..."

He smirked, "lucky for you, I'm not. Now... I was thinking maybe... a little lip-locky for Sher-locky?" Jim gave Sheryl a weird smile.

Should I copy that smile? I asked myself, Fine, I will.

She copied the smile, "Sure!"

Jim laughed, "What are you doing, darling?"

looked away from him, embarrassed, "Sorry! Like I said... I'm new at this..."

"Your doing just fine, My dear." He lifted her chin and made her look at him. He had a playful smirk on his face.

Sheryl winced at the flush of her cheeks. Accelerated pulse. Sweating palms. Erratic heartbeat. Dammit this was all his fault!
She tried to regulate her breathing as Jim's lips grew closer to his. His brown eyes darkened as he snaked and arm around her waist and pulled her closer. As he distance between them grew less and less, Sheryl found herself growing less and less capable of comprehensible thought, and when their lips met, every fact, figure and statistic escaped her mind.

Jim didn't go through the formalities of kissing, or whatever they were. He had immediately slipped his tongue in. Sheryl closed her eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck. she leaned on the wall, allowing him to have full control of the kiss. She wondered why he hadn't done this sooner, kiss her. It was like the rest of the world faded at it was only him and Sheryl, no one else. It was like they were in their own universe. It was pure bliss.

After a few minutes, Jim gracefully pulled away. He smiled at her, "How was that?"

Sheryl had a giant grin on her face, "Amazing."

He put a strand of her hair behind her ear, "Just like us..."

She nodded, "Yeah... just like us..."

Jim sighed, "Well, unfortunately there is one threat to our new relationship."

She tilted her head, thinking it was John, "John wouldn't do anything!"

He smiled, "Surely you haven;t forgotten... The Ice Man."

Sheryl scoffed, "I try to forget, I almost did..."

"Well, he is going to be quite a nuisance if he hears about this little scandal...Luckily, I have a plan to fix this."

"If it involved strapping him to a bomb, No." Sheryl said blankly.

He frowned, "Why not?! I thought you hated him..."

"I do... but he is still my brother. And besides, I'd never hear the end of it john finds out."

He sighed, "Fine.. I won't..." Jim checked his phone, his eyes widened, realizing the time, "Oh, my! well, time does fly when you're having fun!" He stood up and held his hand out to help Sheryl up. She took it and stood up.

Jim walked her to the car, the sniper was holding open the door.

Sheryl slid in, then Jim. The sniper got in the drivers seat, "Where to?"

"Take Sheryl to her flat first, Sebastian.." Jim ordered.

Sebastian began driving, 221B bound.


Sheryl came to her flat, sighed, and flopped in her chair.

"That bad, eh?" John inquired as he was blogging.

"Nope... actually, it turned out quite well."

"What did he want?"

"He uh... wanted to experiment with me..."

"Did he hurt you...?" John asked, concerned for his friend. He closed his laptop to listen what she had to say.

"No... " She stared at the ceiling,"He...uh... said he loved me and he kissed me..."

He paused, taking in what she had just told him, "Moriarty... did what?!"

Sheryl smirked, "You heard me."

"No... I don't quite think I did!" John said, in denial.

"Jim Moriarty told me that he loves me. Then we kissed." She said, speaking clearer and spacing out the words so he could hear.

"And your reaction was...?"

"I told him... well... indirectly told him... that I shared those feelings."

"So, I guess you two are a 'Thing' now? The detective and the criminal: lovers, or whatnot?"

She nodded, "You can put it like that, yes."

He shook his head, disappointed, "Well... I guess... I can't do anything about it...I don't have a say in your 'love life'... Only Mycroft does."

Sheryl had a You-reeeeally-shouldn't-have-said-that smile, " Not. Even. Mycroft. Has. A. Say. In my love life!" She spat, quite annoyed by the comment.

He put his hands up, "Sorry... That wasn't supposed to be said..."

"You shouldn't have even put the thought in your head!"

"Again, I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." She paused, "Staying on the subject of Mycroft, I'd appreciate if you wouldn't tell him about me and Jim..."

"Alright, I won't." John agreed, "I never tell him anything about you anyway..."

"Good. Keep it that way. I hate it whenever he worms his way into my life, with all of his fussing and meddling. He's just a bother to deal with." She crossed her arms.

"You know he cares about you, that's why he does that. He is always worrying about you." John said.

She frowned, "I know that, but he doesn't have to stick his nose in my business, he could just leave me alone and let me solve my own problems! He needs to know that I'm not a little, weak, child that needs her big, annoying brother to protect her!"

John opened his laptop to continue typing his new blog entry, "He's only doing what he thinks is right." He mumbled.

"But I don't like it."

"Then take it up with him."

"Fine! I will, next time I see him..."

Sheryl began processing what had happened on the date. Going over her observations during their experiment. looking at his facial expressions, no sings of deceit. His pupils dilated right before he kissed her... so he wasn't lying about being attracted to me. Attraction barely means love, though. He sounded very sincere when he confessed his feelings to her. He's also a criminal, so he could be lying about anything and everything. Sheryl will have to keep her guard up all the time while he's around. And when his feelings are proven to be sincere, if they are sincere, then, and only then, would she open up to him. but until then, she will sit back and let this experiment play out. But who knows? maybe he wasn't sincere, and this was just a way to sabotage her. Or he could really love her, and have feelings like an ordinary person. And if so, would he have other feelings, like jealousy. We'll just have to find out~!