Sorry for that super long wait! I just wanna give a special thanks to all my followers and favorites, enjoy!
5
The next morning John spent longer than usual in the bathroom. He didn't really want to admit it but it was for Sherlock. He brushed his teeth longer and used the mouthwash he hardly ever used, and he also shaved the nonexistent stubble on his face. I do shave for Sherlock Holmes he thought. He gave himself final checks in the mirror and headed out the bathroom. Sherlock looked up from the newspaper he was reading and smirked as John came out. Dammit he thought. John forgot who he was trying to impress, clearly Sherlock just deduced why he'd spent around 8 extra minutes in the bathroom. Trying not to blush John went to the kitchen.
"Breakfast?" John asked as he put two bagels in the toaster, cleverly avoiding the eggs. After all he'd just spent 8 minutes working on his breath and he defiantly wasn't gonna ruin it now. He also turned on the kettle and grabbed his mug.
"A slice of toast please." Sherlock said. He'd waited for John to get out of the bathroom so he could eat with him. He'd been in an inner turmoil for so long about John. He'd never show emotions, he'd never accept emotions, and then he met John. Of course at first he was able to keep himself away, but he let his walls fall lower and lower each day, till he realized he was completely exposed to emotions around John Watson. About John Watson even. After around two extra minutes of waiting Sherlock knew that John returned the feelings Sherlock had. He grinned as he picked up the morning paper, he figured it would be a while till John got out. He'd set the paper down and went to the kitchen.
"I'm going to Lestrade today to check on the news about Moriarty, would you like to come?" Sherlock asked with slight more interest in his voice than usual. John had noticed that.
"Of course," John said taking out his bagel and putting in Sherlock's toast, "wait…would you mind if I take Shirley too?" He asked as he poured the water into his mug adding in the tea bag.
"No not at all." Sherlock said grabbing his jam. He actually liked Shirley, she wasn't loud, and she didn't cry or fuss too much. He had also made it rather clear with John, once John even saw him playing peek-a-boo with her. He would never forget the smile on both their faces. It had just been a couple minutes before he was playing peek-a-boo when Sherlock started ranting about how the game could amuse her, "You're acting as if you've disappeared, you're going to make her believe people can disappear. They can't, don't you think I would've tried it with Anderson by now? We should teach her how to play chess" and he went to his room and brought out a chess board. John laughed as he remembered he left his phone downstairs in Mrs. Hudson's flat so he went to go get it, by the time he was back at the door he heard Sherlock say 'peek-a-boo' and Shirley laughing. He came in and saw both of them giggling over the chess board.
Sherlock's toast popped out of the toaster and snapped John back into real life. John handed Sherlock his toast and he spread jam over it and took a bite and John sat down with his bagel and tea.
"Oh Sherlock did you want any tea?" John said feeling bad about not asking him sooner.
"No thank you John." Sherlock said and took another bite of his toast. He turned around and saw Shirley fussing in her crib, "Would you like me to feed her?" he asked turning his head back to John.
"Oh no Sherlock you don't have to." John said but Sherlock had already got up and finished his toast heading for the fridge. He had kept the fridge adequately clean for Shirley. He tried avoiding experiments with body parts, but when that failed he put them in containers and put them on a different level then Shirley's food. He picked up one of the small bottles of milk and headed towards Shirley's crib.
"Good morning." Sherlock said as he picked Shirley up from her crib. She bunched up Sherlock's shirt in her hand and babbled. Sherlock smiled at her. John sat in his chair drinking his tea smiling away at his gorgeous detective feeding his child. Sherlock was actually a good parent, John thought he would try avoiding children but he loved Shirley. Once Sherlock finished feeding her he handed her to John to get her changed while he put on his coat and headed out to hail a cab.
When John came out he saw Shirley wearing a pink and green plaid onesie. He walked into the cab smiling at the cabbie as he began to drive. He and Sherlock were sitting close, it had become natural for them now. John played around with Shirley and Sherlock would join in a few times mumbling the same noises she would make. When they got to Scotland Yard John reached into his pocket but Sherlock had already paid the cabbie.
"Sherlock I could have got that." John said feeling guilty; he hadn't paid for a cab ride in a long time.
"Nonsense, its fine." Sherlock said as he and John walked out of the cab heading into Scotland Yard to surprise Greg.
"Jeff!" Sherlock clapped his hands together once he arrived. Greg sighed.
"My name is Greg." He said, "Sherlock, what are you doing here?" Greg saw John with Shirley walking up from behind and his mood instantly changed. He went up and hugged John and John happily hugged him back.
"I'm so sorry about Mary, how have you been?" he said pulling away and poking at Shirley making her giggle.
"Thanks," John said with a sad smile, "I've been doing alright, Sherlock's helping a lot."
"I'm glad." Greg said looking back at Sherlock with a smile, "and who is this?" he said making baby sounds to Shirley. John and Sherlock locked eyes for a moment and smiled.
"Shirley." John said and Greg looked up to John then Sherlock smiling.
"It's a lovely name." He said playing with Shirley's hand, "Hello Shirley."
"So to answer your question I've come for Moriarty." Sherlock said, waiting for a good time to interrupt them. Greg sighed.
"Sherlock, we really have been trying to find him, we'd call you the moment we found anything." Greg said clearly meaning to go on but Sherlock didn't want to hear a speech.
"You're not going to find anything without out help. John and I will be investigating today." Sherlock said heading to one of the computers, "Just keep Anderson away." Greg seemed ready to argue but just sighed, there was no way of keeping out Sherlock Holmes from an investigation.
Sure enough, two hours later a murder was reported and Sherlock sprang up saying it was a clue to find Moriarty. He and John ran ahead of the rest of the group and got into a cab and headed towards the murder sight.
Once they were all there Sherlock began to observe the body on the ground while the rest of Scotland Yard inspected the ally. 5"4 man visiting the country from somewhere in Australia. Sherlock continued observing the tiny details when he briefly looked up and saw John smiling at him. He looked back down at the body and his head shot up again to John. His smile continued for a brief moment and then he turned his head pretending to be watching something. Sherlock grinned for just a moment before facing the body. He'd made sure to file away John's smile in his memory palace. It was so full of passion and admiration. He knew what it meant when ordinary people smiled and looked away. Scanning the body Sherlock saw a folded piece of paper sticking out of his pocket, he took it out and unfolded it expecting it to be some sort of clue as to where this man was, or where he was going but instead he saw a note.
Dearest Detective,
I do hope that this time you've found my note, it's been quite a nuisance placing all these letters in the pockets of the dead. I'm running out of people. Soon I will have to start killing at random, and that's no fun if you won't be able to find me. Connect the victims to find out whose next, you have till Friday. I'll be very disappointed if you don't get it, it's a rather long time to figure this out. I hope to see you soon Sherlly.
-J.M
The game was finally on Sherlock thought. It'd been weeks since Moriarty's return and Sherlock's been racking his brain about trying to find him. Now the time has finally come for him to reunite with his archenemy.
"Lestrade!" Sherlock called for the detective inspector, "How many murders have you gotten since his return?" Lestrade turned himself Anderson and began walking over to Sherlock.
"I believe this is the seventh one. Why?" The other detective asked. Sherlock got up and showed the paper in his hand, not letting Lestrade actually read it but letting him now of its presents.
"Moriarty. He was behind all of them. How could you not call me?" Sherlock asked shoving the note in his pocket.
"We didn't think he was behind them." Greg said hoping Sherlock believed him, he did want to call Sherlock but it was a delicate case. He was pretty sure he knew the link between the victims but he didn't want to call Sherlock and John until he was absolutely positive.
"I want you to show me the files you've made for the case." Sherlock said walking out of the ally to hail a cab, "Come on John!" Sherlock called as he and Lestrade were entering the cab. Lestrade got in first, kindly taking the front seat while Sherlock waited for John to get near the cab.
"It's Moriarty." Sherlock said as John got in through the other door holding Shirley in his hands. When John got in he sat himself closer to the middle. Sherlock noticed and he slid next to him taking the note out of his pocket and handing it to John. He curiously eyed the note before taking it from Sherlock, his fingers brushed over Sherlock's but he managed not to smile. Sherlock watched as the color drained from his face. He looked back up at Sherlock with a look of horror and disgust.
"How many?" was the first question John asked, and Lestrade turned his head to try and face him,
"This was the seventh one."
"Seven murders and you didn't think about calling us!" John shouted ignoring the fact that the cabbie was probably getting nervous. Lestrade looked embarrassed and looked down to the cab floor.
"I wanted to." Lestrade said loudly, but not quite shouting, "But this case was different and we didn't want to call until we were sure of the facts." John calmed down and stayed silent for a few seconds with a questioning look in his eye.
"What could be so special about this case that you couldn't tell us?" John asked clearly still annoyed. The cab driver was driving a bit faster than usual, maybe because he thought he was driving around lunatics, so they were pulling up to Scotland Yard. Lestrade paid the cabbie before either of them could even reach into their pockets.
"I really was going to call you," Lestrade said as he opened the door, "I'm sorry."
They got out in silence, even Shirley stopped babbling just for a moment. Once they entered Scotland Yard though, she continued he babbling, which actually slightly lightened everyone's mood. Lestrade went to a drawer and pulled out a large file. He gave another apologetic look at Sherlock and John before opening the file and pulled out seven images of people.
"Russell Grant, Amelia Crestwood, Felix Jones," Lestrade said each name and slid over there picture, "Susan Oliver, Daniel Stansfield," Lestrade paused and picked up the two remaining pictures, "And Anthony Knox, the man we just saw. Now all of them used to work for Moriarty, and for some reason we think he's the one killing them, and the case started about a month ago…" Lestrade paused and put the last picture down on the table, "with Mary being the first victim."
Dun dun dun! I actually didn't mean for this chapter to tae such a morbid turn. Before I started I actually aimed for this chapter to end with some johnlock (Very very fluffy) but I ended up with this. Hopefully I can add some Johnlock in the next chapter which should update very soon now.
Q: How do you guys feel about the chapter lengths?
