Hello! Sorry for the wait again. I have literally no free time at the moment and I'm finding it hard to get the time I would like to focus on this. I want to end it well too so I'd rather spend a bit more time making it right. Hope you all don't mind
Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reviews! over 200 now! I did my dance to the Sherlock theme which was awesome! (maybe not the dancing though :P)
So everything is starting to get revealed now and this is definitely where I make up my own ideas. Hope you like!
John couldn't believe that the cab he was in could go in slower. Impatiently, he bounced up and down on his seat, occasionally asking the driver to hurry up but only getting a 'can't help the traffic mate' as a reply.
It had been ten minutes since Sherlock had got the text from Moriarty which meant that John had only twenty minutes to get to his wife before the house she was in exploded. He tried not to focus on what was at stake, on what he could lose as he knew the pressure of it would consume him and he couldn't let that happen. If he had learnt anything from Sherlock, it was that sometimes, emotions weren't always helpful. But then, John Watson could not simply discard them like he could.
"Bradburn Street." The driver said suddenly and John quickly thrust his hand in his pocket and pulled out some money before throwing it at him. Urgently, he opened the door, jumping out onto the road just as the cab came to a halt and scanned the nearby houses for the numbers. In front of him, he saw 14 and without a seconds hesitation, he ran down to the single numbers, his eyes catching 6 just as a noise came from within the house that made his blood run cold. What could only be a gun shot rang in his ears and he had to force his legs to not turn to jelly and instead run towards the house.
He didn't even register as he ran to the door that there was no-one there to greet him, no team that Lestrade had sent to back him up as he walked into a house rigged to explode. At that moment, he didn't care about anything except Mary because the woman he cared most about in the world was now only a few steps away from him.
It hadn't taken more than a few moments after Moriarty had said his last words to Molly for her to suddenly feel herself being dragged backwards as a needle pierced the skin on her neck. She had instantly blacked out, the last image she saw being Moriarty's smiling face looking down at her as she fell to the ground.
Now, as she came round, she found herself sat on leather chairs in what could only be the back of a car. She blinked a few times and felt the glint of the streets lights from outside hit her in the eyes, causing a headache to erupt suddenly. After a few moments, her surroundings became less blurry as she managed to regain her vision and she realised that whatever had drugged her had obviously only been a small amount just to stop her from fighting back.
"Finally awake?" A familiar woman's voice said from next to her, causing Molly to look to her left, her eyes falling on a pair of legs that ended in black heeled shoes and ran upwards towards a black figure hugging dress and before Molly's eyes had even reached her face, she knew who she was sitting next to.
"Irene?" She asked uncertainly and the woman smiled slightly, her lips still the red shade from before. "Where are we going?" She asked and Irene rolled her eyes.
"He warned me that you would ask that." She muttered and Molly frowned in confusion before realising that she must have been talking about Moriarty. "I have no idea, do you really think that Jim Moriarty tells me all of his plans?" She asked rhetorically before sighing and turning herself so that she was leaning more towards Molly.
"All I know is that we don't have much time so you have to listen very carefully Molly. Do you understand?" Irene asked and there was an urgent tone in her voice that Molly hadn't heard before, making her shake her head to try and focus before she nodded confidently. "Good." Irene replied before pausing for a moment, the expression on her face telling Molly that she seemed to be thinking carefully about what she was going to say next.
"Moriarty is going to make Sherlock choose."
"Choose?" Molly asked and Irene nodded, holding Molly's gaze with an intense look.
"Choose someone to die out of the people he cares about most. If Sherlock Holmes can care about anyone." She continued and Molly felt her breathing stop, knowing exactly what Irene was going to say next and interrupting her before she managed to, her voice monotone and cold as she did so.
"And he's going to choose me."
Mary waited patiently for Dale to get out of the cab, her gaze fixed coldly on the house that they had just stopped outside of. It had to be here of course. The one place that she had tried to forget since starting her new life. This was where it had all started and so to her, when it had finished, she had locked it away in her mind tightly, never to be visited again. And now Moriarty was making her.
The door beside her opened and she flicked her gaze up to the nervous looking cab driver.
"Come on." Dale stammered and Mary looked at him with a cold stare before sighing and getting out of the car slowly. She walked past him and let her eyes fall back onto the house as she began to walk towards it, her heart beating faster and her legs become more and more stiff as she neared the door. She did not want to be here. She reached out for the handle but her hand froze in mid-air, not managing to make herself touch it before she spun around to face Dale, hoping to use his nerves to her advantage.
"Dale, come on, you don't have to do this." She tried, forcing warmth into her voice. "We can both go to the police together. Lestrade and Sherlock, they can help you, they can keep you safe from Moriarty. You don't want to do this really Dale, do you?" She asked and she saw something give in his eyes and when he replied, his fear was audible in a slight tremor of his voice.
"He'll hurt my children. If he knows I've helped you, he'll kill my children." He whispered and Mary took a step forward and placed her hands on his arms gently.
"We can keep them safe. I want to protect my child too Dale, why don't we do it together?" She pressed, smiling at him but to her disappointment, he took a step away from her and reached into his pocket, his shaking hand emerging with a gun which he pointed at her.
"There's nothing you can do to save them from him so please, don't make this harder and just go in the house." He ordered, his voice slightly stronger and Mary sighed before turning back to the door.
"Of course. He gave you a gun." She muttered to herself before reaching for the handle and walking inside, the memories of the past hitting her like a wave as she made her way through the hall and into the living room. As she went through the doorway, she reached up to flick the light on and a dim orange glow gave the room a little light so she could see what was around her. There was no furniture around and the walls had strips of wallpaper hanging off them. The carpet was frayed and there were marks of damp lining the ceiling, it looked like it hadn't been lived in for years but the sight of it being so run down and abandoned made Mary feel even worse than she thought she would have.
"To the wall over there." Dale said, pointing the gun at the back wall and Mary looked at him coldly before walking over slowly and turning back to face him when she stopped.
"Do you even know how to use that Dale?" She asked, nodding her head towards the weapon. He didn't answer. "Because straight away I can tell you that you're holding it wrong. You fire that and it will miss your target completely. You're not confident with it so you can't use it properly." She said, folding her arms and watching as his nerves grew. She wasn't sure if this was the best tactic or if scaring him would just make him more jumpy but she had to try something. "Why don't you just put it down before you hurt someone? I won't run, look at me, how can I?" She asked, gesturing towards her stomach but Dale just lifted the gun higher, his hand trembling even more than his voice.
"Please stop talking." He said and Mary lifted her hands up, trying to keep him calm.
"I'm just warning you. People are looking for me Dale, people who know how to use one of those much more than you do. If you try and fight them, you'll lose. Now, don't be silly and put it down." She argued but just as she finished, her heart leapt as Dale fired the gun into the corner of the room, the bullet hitting the wall and bouncing back towards the door.
"Just be quiet or I'll use it again." Dale warned but Mary couldn't find it in her to blame him. Moriarty's threats had obviously terrified him and she knew how it felt to do things because of fear.
"Just hear me -." She tried but Dale took a step forward and straightened his arm so that the gun was pointing right at her.
"Just shut up!" He shouted before the door to the room suddenly burst open, cracking on the wall loudly and making Dale spin around towards it frantically.
"John!" Mary shouted as she realised that her husband was in the doorway. "Careful!" She added just as John clocked the gun in Dale's hand. Quickly, John jumped to the side just as another shot echoed around the room as Dale tried to shoot at him, the look on his face as he did so telling Mary that he had lost control.
"Woah woah woah, Dale. Wait!" John yelled, holding his hands up in a kind of surrender pose. "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm not armed, look." He said, turning his hands and patting down his pockets but Dale looked wild and continued to point the gun directly at John.
"I can't let you take her." He stammered and pointed at Mary with the hand holding the weapon, making John step towards her but stopping when the gun came back to him.
"Okay, okay. I won't. I won't, just stop pointing that thing at us alright?" John replied and Dale looked at him for a moment before stepping backwards away from them, the gun still pointing at John but his grip on it a little less firm.
"You okay?" John asked Mary after a moment and she nodded at him before her attention was taken back to the doorway and she let out a gasp of relief.
"Molly!" She exclaimed as the figure of the timid pathologist came into view but her relief was soon short lived when she saw another woman enter behind her who she had never seen before.
"Irene Adler." John said in recognition and Irene smiled at him.
"Nice to see you again John. It has been too long." She replied as they moved into the room, Dale switching his gun so that it was pointed at the new arrivals but Irene merely rolled her eyes.
"Oh please." She responded before moving her own hand away from behind Molly, showing that she was holding her own gun. "I'm with Moriarty." She added with an exasperated tone. "Plus, I promise you that if you try and shoot me, I will shoot you first. Honestly, you look like a child holding that thing."
"Molly, are you okay?" John asked and Molly looked at him, her expression calm as she nodded and Mary was glad that they only had Dale to worry about when it came to losing control. "And you?" John added, his voice suddenly full of hatred as he turned to Irene. "Working for Moriarty now? I should have known that loyalty meant nothing to you."
"Yes, you should have known that." Irene replied simply. "But I bet you can't understand why anyone would want to betray the wonderful Sherlock Holmes." She added with a patronising tone before she turned to face Mary. "Tell me, what's it like having to share your husband?"
"Fine actually. The three of us are like one big happy family." Mary replied coldly, feeling an instant dislike build for the woman as she smiled back at her with her painted lips.
"Wow, he's got you too." Irene said, shaking her hand. "He is good at playing you all to his advantage isn't he? Well, one of you is about to regret ever becoming close to him." She added, and John took a step towards her.
"What is that suppose to mean?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"All we be revealed soon I'm sure." She responded just as a noise from the front door to the house made them all turn to face it. "Ah, in fact, I think we're about to find out fairly soon."
Mary waited until she saw another figure appear at the door, her eyes making out Greg Lestrade's face as the light from the living room fell onto his face.
"Molly!" Greg exclaimed in relief as he walked in before he saw everyone else in the room. "John, Mary. Are you guys okay?" He asked but a man's voice from behind him answered before anyone else could.
"Could we skip all the soppy reunion stuff otherwise I might make Mr Holmes' choice for him." Mary squinted through the light and as Greg moved towards Molly, she saw the face of the young man who had bumped into her at Scotland Yard earlier that day come into view.
"Norman. Of course." John said, his voice lined with irritation and Lestrade looked at him with a sort of apologetic expression.
"Don't pretend like you knew I was in on it. You just didn't like me because I bumped into your dear wife." Norman replied before he turned to face Mary and slowly made his way towards her. However, as he walked, Mary only noticed that he wasn't carrying a small pistol like Irene and Dale, he was carrying a rifle and the way he held it told her that they weren't dealing with an amateur. This man knew what he was doing. "Enjoying the trip down memory lane Mary?" He asked, emphasising her name to tell her he knew it wasn't her real one.
"You stay away from her." John said from the room but Norman just ignored him.
"I didn't think you'd remember me, I was only a boy last time we were here. Our first job." Norman continued, his gaze not straying from Mary's face as his words flooded her, bringing with it dread and realisation all at once.
"Oh my God." She whispered and he smiled.
"Got it now?" He asked and John frowned as he took a step towards them.
"What? Who is he?" He asked and Mary cleared her throat to try and force her voice to work.
"His name isn't Norman, it's an acronym of his real name." She replied, pausing a moment to look at the man again, hardly believing what she was seeing. "His name is Nathaniel Moran."
So, I thought that Moran is a great character and that Lord Moran was a bit wasted in TEH so I came up with my own idea. I really hope you all continue to stick with it because I'm so grateful for your support and also very thankful to you all for being so patient.
Let me know your thoughts!
