When his shift was over he was allowed to leave his bosses office and go home so he grabbed his coat and left. He hailed a cab as he was in too much pain to walk. The cabbie looked at him with concern as his face was a mass of bruises and was covered in blood. When they arrived he went to pay the cabbie but he said it was fine as Watson was finding it hard to find his wallet as everything had started to blur, so he thanked the man and stumbled badly to the doors of 221B and opened them. Sherlock had been looking out of the window and had seen the bruises and blood covering his friends face when he went under one of the street lamps and could see that he was having trouble walking so he ran down the stairs to aid his friend. He arrived just in time to see his friend collapsing and managed to grab him before he hit the hard marble floor and lowered him to the ground. He finally took in the full sight of his friend and was not pleased in the slightest. He had obviously been beaten again due to the mass of bruises and the blood covering his face. He picked his limp companion up and carried him up the stairs and again placed him on his bed. He got the first aid kit from the bathroom and removed his friends coat, jacket, waistcoat, suspenders, shirt and bandages to reveal a load of new bruises and he found that he had another two broken ribs if not more. He then cleaned the wounds on his friends back again with antiseptic so they didn't get infected and wrapped his torso in bandages again and dressed him in a pj top. He then cleaned and bandaged his friends wrists which had cuts and burns on them from being bound with rope. He then removed his pants to find that his friends leg also had new bruises on it. He was about to put some pj bottoms on Watson but saw that he had blood on the back of his thighs and his boxers which made his heart ache as he realised his dearest friend had been raped. He then noticed a white substance around his mouth which must have been cum which made him certain his friend had been raped. He cleaned his friends legs, bum and mouth which made it a good thing that he was unconscious, and dressed him in some warm pj bottoms and again covered him with blankets and again sat at his bedside waiting for him to awake. He felt really sorry for his friend as someone must have been blackmailing him because he would have told him about it otherwise or stood up for himself. He then thought about who could be blackmailing him. He had his suspicions but he wasn't certain. He had bought something in town today that would get the truth out of his friend but he didn't want to loose his trust, so he would ask him first. He fell asleep not long after his thinking session and woke up at 8:30 to find Watson still unconscious. He again tried to rouse his friend.

"Watson" he said as she shook his friend. "Watson, what did I say about being lazy?"

He was again rewarded as his friend moaned and his eyes opened.

"Sherlock, where am I?"

"My dearest Watson you are back in Baker Street"

"How did I get here?"

"Well you came in a cab and stumbled to the front door and collapsed in the doorway, luckily I caught you before you hit the floor"

"Thanks Holmes"

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"I had a fight with a colleague at work" he lied

"Mmm I see, and at which point in the fight did he rape you?"

Watson paled and stayed silent and looked away from Sherlock in shame.

"it's nothing to be ashamed of my dear Watson. I just don't know why you won't tell me who's doing this so I can stop him and why he's doing it in the first place. I'm worried about you old boy" he said with concern evident in his voice

"I can't tell you and you don't need to be worried about me, I'm fine"

Sherlock sighed.

"I didn't want to use this Watson but you leave me no choice" said sherlock who then pulled a syringe out of his pocket and quickly injected it into his friends arm making him flinch.

Watson then tried to get up but was stopped by the pain it caused him, so he fell back against the pillows, feeling exhausted.

"What did you give me?"

"Truth serum my dear fellow so you will tell me the truth"

"No I can't"

"Why not?"

He really didn't want to answer but he couldn't help it.

"Because he will kill you"

"Who will?"

He stayed silent.

"Watson, who will?"

"My boss, Mr Nero"

Thats what he thought.

"Why is he doing it to you?"

"He hold me it was because his son had died so he needed someone else to play with and that I was the one he chose so I had to let him hurt me and if I didn't he would kill you"

"What did he do to you?"

"Um he raped me, beat me, whipped me, cut me, threw me into things like his desk or a wall (Sherlock then remembered the red substance on Mr Neros desk which must have been blood. Watsons blood), locked me in his cupboard, drugged me, broke my arm and when it first started he stabbed into the scar onto my shoulder which hurt a lot but it's healed now really"

Sherlock was shocked at the fact that this man had put his Watson through all of that suffering because he wanted a play thing and the fact that he stabbed into an already damaged part of his friends body which would have hurt a lot just like Watson said and overall he wad pissed with the fact that he said he would kill Sherlock if he didn't endure the torture and if he told anyone about it. He was going to kill his boss. Sherlock came out of his mind palace to find Watson laying on his side away from him and crying. He went over to his friend and lay him against his chest and held onto him, comforting him as he cried.

"Shhhhh it's okay Watson, it's okay"

"No it's not because now he's going to kill you because you made me tell you and I can't live without you, please don't leave me alone, please don't die, please, to many people have died because of me, please don't die, please"

Sherlock held him tighter as he knew his friend was also referring to the soldiers in war that he couldn't save.

"It's okay I'm not going anywhere, ever, okay? And I'm never going to let that man hurt you again"

Watson nodded and then relaxed into Sherlocks embrace, knowing for now, they were both safe. He fell asleep not long after that and Sherlock stayed where he was and fell asleep himself.