Hey! Phew! You all seemed to like the last chapter which is pretty awesome! Thank you for the lovely reviews and all the follows too! Over 200 now! I'm so glad you're all liking it :) This chapter takes us back to St Bart's after what happened with Olivia...
Tiredness was beginning to settle onto John's eyelids, making them feel heavy. It had been hours since they had gotten up early doors to see Sherlock off on the plane and now they were heading into the end of the day and John was beginning to feel it.
However, he couldn't blame his exhaustion on sheer lack of sleep, what he had seen and learnt today had all taken their toll: Moriarty returning, Molly being in trouble, a woman being shot in front of his eyes, and as he looked at his wife, who was leaning against the wall outside the staff room, he saw that she seemed just as worn out as him.
"You look tired Mary." He said quietly and she smiled at him tiredly before humming in agreement. "Why don't you go to Baker Street? You can keep Mrs Hudson company, no doubt she's worrying." He suggested and Mary looked at him with a frown.
"I want to help." She replied and John sighed.
"I know you do but you saw what just happened in there to Olivia. It's dangerous Mary and before you say anything -" he held his hands up to stop her as she opened her mouth to protest. "I know you can look after yourself but can you just let me be your husband for a minute and let me worry about you?" He finished and Mary looked at him for a moment before nodding her head slightly in defeat.
"I can take you if you want." A voice to their right surprised John and they looked around to see Dale still standing there.
"Erm... but you don't have your cab do you?" John asked and Dale took out his phone.
"Yeah, he left it outside St Bart's. Look." He replied and gave John his phone who read the message on it.
'Cab left outside St Bart's. Thank you, she loved the surprise.'
Both anger and confusion filled him as he read the text, the first emotion coming from how Moriarty was obviously trying to taunt them and the second because he had no idea what made Sherlock think Irene was back.
"How does he get 'Irene Adler' from that text?" He asked and Mary looked at it before shrugging.
"I don't know but he seemed pretty certain didn't he? You know Sherlock, they'll be something in that text that we're not clever enough to pick up on." He responded and John snorted.
"I don't even need him around anymore to be told how stupid I am." He joked and Mary hit his arm before turning to Dale.
"Baker Street then. Thanks for the lift." She said and John stepped towards them as they went to turn.
"Hold on a minute." They turned to look at him, waiting for him to elaborate but that was all he could say. He wanted to tell Mary that he thought something wasn't right, his gut was telling him that he was missing something obvious and he didn't like it but with Dale standing there, he wasn't sure how.
"It's fine John. I'll let you know as soon as I'm with Mrs Hudson okay?" Mary replied with a smile before leaning forward to place a gentle kiss on his lips. John raised his eyebrow, still feeling uncertain but gave in anyway. He knew it was pointless arguing with her.
"Okay. See you later. Love you." He said, his voice still showing that he wasn't satisfied.
"Love you too you silly, over-worrying, lovely man." She replied before she and Dale walked away from them, each step they took making John feel uneasy but just as he was about to run after them, the door to the staff room opened and Lestrade stepped out to stand next to John.
"Nothing in there that's of any use to finding out who did it." He said, tiredness coming through in his voice too. "Or anything on the roof apparently. My team have been up there searching but nothing so far." Greg sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "God John, she was right in front of us. Poor girl." He looked up at John, with determination in his eyes. "We've got to get that bastard." Greg said firmly as his phone rang, prompting him to get it out answer it.
"Norman, what have you got?" He asked into the phone and walked away down the corridor just as John's attention was caught by a flash of a white coat disappearing into the door at the end of it, leading into the lab. John was sure that most of the staff in the area had been evacuated so he wondered why someone had sneaked back in. He frowned and followed, passing Greg and miming to him where he was going. Greg nodded but let him continue alone.
He slowly opened the door and looked inside. It seemed empty enough but the sound of someone rummaging in the corner made him stay in the room. As silently as he could, he walked in, wishing that he had brought his gun with him. As he reached the middle of the room, he heard a crash of something falling on the floor, followed quickly by a man cursing loudly.
John grabbed the nearest thing on the desk that he could as he moved to the room at the end that he was sure the man was in. His heart was beating but he wasn't sure why he was worried. The whole day seemed to have put his nerves on edge. He came to the door and peered round, seeing the man he had heard, crouched on the floor and grasping a laptop, paper and files around him and as John came into his view, he looked up at him with startled eyes.
John put his free hand out in a gesture of peace, hoping not to scare him into doing anything stupid but there was a wild look in the man's eyes that he had seen before and he knew what was about to come.
"Are you alright?" He asked but the man didn't answer, his hand hovering over the laptop as if unsure what to do. "Do you need any help?"
"Who are you?" The man stammered and John took a step closer.
"John Watson. I can help you if you want." He replied, regretting using his real name instantly as the fear that was in the man's eyes intensified and before John knew it, the man was running at him and he was knocked backwards onto the floor. John shouted and quickly got to his feet as the man ran over him, still clutching the laptop under his arm. He followed quickly, dodging the various pieces of equipment that the man was throwing into his path to try and slow him down. They reached the door and the man stopped for a second as if searching for another way out but John was nearing him swiftly so the man threw open the door and ran through it, thrusting it shut into John's face who tried as fast as he could to follow him through it.
To John's relief, he saw Lestrade still standing in the corridor, a look of confusion on his face as he saw the man rush past him which changed to realisation when he saw John behind him.
"Laptop. Get the laptop!" John yelled and Greg muttered something into his phone before quickly shoving it into his pocket and running after the man.
The corridor was clear except for the occasional police officer or medical staff and the man pushed these people into the middle of the floor as he passed them to try and throw Greg and John off course until one of them saw what he was doing and tried to stop him but to John's surprise, Greg yelled in protest.
"No! Let him go, just get the laptop!" He shouted and the police officer faltered in confusion giving the man a chance to wiggle his way around him. John managed to slide past the officer as Greg was held up momentarily but the man was slowing and it was becoming more and more difficult for him to manoeuvre around people that were looking at them with interest, giving John enough time to catch-up to him.
Just as the man went to turn the corner, John jumped and grabbed the man's shoulders, pulling him down onto the floor as Greg caught up to them, helping John with the struggle for the laptop and soon enough, they managed to prise it from his hands before standing up and away from him, looking down at the man's face which was even more terrified than before.
"You can go. But if there is anything on here linking you to anything that happened in there," he pointed to the laptop and then down the corridor to the staff room, "you'll answer for it. Understood?" Greg asked and the man nodded quickly. "Alright then. I'd hide if I were you." He added and the man took no time to wait, standing to his feet and running away from them like his life depended on it and when Greg turned to face John, he was faced with a look of confusion.
"Why'd you let him go?" John asked and Greg shrugged, breathless from the running.
"You saw what happened to Olivia when we cornered her and there are apparently people all over the place who are Moriarty's spies. All it would take is for one of them to tell him we've got that guy and it'd be curtains for him. This gives him a chance. And besides -." Greg nodded his head at the laptop that John was holding whilst waving a card that he held in his own hand. "We've got the laptop and I've got his ID card. We can find out his number from his records here and trace his phone." He finished and John nodded.
"Impressive." He replied and Greg pulled an 'it was nothing' face but seemed to be enjoying that John's compliment was finally directed at him and not Sherlock. John sometimes got the impression that Lestrade felt like a bit of a third wheel when he was with them on their cases. "Anyway, shall we?" John asked after a moment, waving the laptop in the air before leaning against the wall and opening it.
John smiled as he saw that the page that the man had been looking at was still up and he quickly scrolled through it, frowning as he realised that none of what he was reading made any sense to him. It was just rows and rows of numbers, none of which were linked to any kind of description or any clue to what they could mean.
"Mean anything to you?" He asked as Greg looked over his shoulder.
"Nothing. But I know someone that might." He replied and John nodded.
"I'll text him." He said, pulling out his phone.
"No, not Sherlock." Greg responded, smiling when John looked confused. "Norman. He's great at codes, especially numbers so if it's anything like that, he's our man. We'll take the laptop over to Scotland Yard now." He explained but John continued to write his text.
"I'll still tell Sherlock to meet us there. I think he'll want to know about this." He replied and Greg nodded before turning and walking down the corridor, getting his own phone out and placing it to his ear as John followed him.
"Yeah, Donovan. Whatever Norman is doing, tell him to stop and get him in my office, I need him to take a look at some numbers we've found. We'll be there soon." He paused for a minute as John heard a mumbled, reply that he couldn't make out from Sally Donovan over the phone. "He might be coming too I'm not sure yet but best behaviour if he does alright?" He responded to her and John could only guess that she had been referring to Sherlock.
"Still doesn't like him does she?" John asked and Greg rolled his eyes in response.
"He's not her favourite person no, which means I get constant grief from her whenever he's involved." He replied, shaking his head in exasperation as they walked out of St Bart's, John clutching the laptop to him and not being able to shake the feeling that someone somewhere was watching them. Now they knew that Moriarty had people all over the building, he didn't feel secure and he hated not being able to trust anyone.
What's on the laptop? Why is it important? Is John just paranoid? All will be answered in the next chapter :P
