Chapter 10
A/N: Public Service Announcement: Make sure your child wears a seatbelt.
The man scooped up the unconscious mini detective. John watched, motionless and filled with fear, he knew he should do something to stop this man, but he knew he was too small to fight.
"Got away from the tigers eh? Well your in the fryin pan now kiddo, seems our boss has it out for ya."
He unceremoniously flung the limp form into the back seat of his damaged car and got back in. John watched as the car speed off down the street, he was helpless.
"Mr. Holmes! Mr. Holmes!" The driver was finally able to free himself from the over turned vehicle and dialed for the police.
Mycroft was still unconscious when the ambulance came. A paramedic checked John over but he only had a few scrapes and a cut on his arm from when he climbed out of the car. Near by an officer questioned the driver.
"I dunno sir, I think there were two kids in back with Mr. Holmes, I didn't pay them much attention though."
"And you say the other driver got out, looked at the wreck and left?" He was jotting down notes on his notepad.
"That right sir. He might have taken the other kid, Im not too sure, I couldn't see it very well."
John had been focused on the conversation and didn't noticed as an officer taped the paramedic's shoulder as he adjusted John's shock blanket. "Moment alone?" The paramedic nodded.
"Hey there little guy, how are you feeling?"
"Like shite."
The officer frowned. "Erm, right…"
"I'll take it from here," Lestrade approached, "I know the kid."
"Who the hell raised that kid?" the officer muttered under his breath as he left.
Lestrade crouched down so they were eye level, "Are you ok?"
John looked down and shook his head 'no' and the D.I. frowned.
"Hurt?" Another 'no' gesture. "Sherlock?" John looked back up, eyes large and water, 'yes.'
"Shh, it's going to be ok." He wrapped his arms around John's small form with the orange blanket still on him and picked him up, pressing the boy lightly to his chest. "We're going to find him."
"Mycroft?" John sounded every bit like the child he looked like.
Lestrade rubbed the back of his head, "He'll be ok, he's gone to the hospital for now."
Sherlock woke with a throbbing in his head. It hurt too much to think about how he came to be in the dimly lit room with peeling wall paper. One moment he was safe in his brother's car with John by his side and the next his eyes were dimming with his head against asphalt. He tried sitting up and propping his back against the wall but a searing pain streaked through his back.
"Are you ok?" a small voice whispered from across the room.
Sherlock instantly regretted jerking his head up, only then feeling the dried blood on the right of his face and partially clouding his vision. "Where are you?" He began taking inventory of his injuries. Head wound. Possible concussion. Right arm bruised but otherwise fine. Stiff back- possibly from being transported after the fact. Badly swollen ankle. Overall- highly manageable.
A small girl stepped closer and better into his vision, Sherlock recognized her instantly. "Kidnapped for four days now."
She nodded.
Sherlock let out a small sigh, that's why he had been abducted. "But how did they know I would be in that car?…" he let his thoughts trail off as he noticed the girl cocking her head at him.
"I'm Cora." She was filthy and clearly not being well taken care of or fed regularly.
He eyed her over before responding, "Sherlock." It was strange to logically know he was an adult in somewhere in his thirties and at the same time the same age as this girl.
A loud creak came from just outside the bolted door sending Cora struggling closer to Sherlock for defense. 'They beat her then.'
John. Where was John? If these are the kidnappers from the zoo then they wouldn't have recognized him now that he was a kid giving us the advantage. Except that John would have forgotten what they looked like… But still, at least John is safe. Is he safe? He was in the car when it was hit after all.
Two sets of footsteps nervously paced outside the door. Finally a third set came became audible, still walking forward in a more determined manner. They were much softer then the other two pairs of feet. They paused, the door creaked open. He wasn't one of the two kidnappers whom Sherlock knew probably accounted for the other footsteps he heard, this man was much shorter. Something akin to pure delight filled his face as he took Sherlock in and somehow the boy had the over whelming feeling he had met this man before.
"My my, look at you."
Sherlock clenched his teeth, he still couldn't remember anything of his former life, but he knew he would likely be embarrassed to be seen as a frail child now. A quick thought popped to his mind, 'Is this the man John warned me about?'
"Did you make a little friend?" his voice was a high pitched hiss. Sherlock tried to draw his memories for where he knew that peculiar voice from, but he all he could compare it to was the judge turned villain from 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit,' curing his child's mind.
"I know who you are." A bluff.
"Do you know?" adrenaline filled amusement, half knowing the boy couldn't know and half hoping he did to further humiliate him.
"You're my arch nemeses."
The grin widened all the way out and he stepped closer to where Sherlock still sat half propped against the wall with Cora know cowering beneath him. Sherlock watched every movement with intent, determined not to show fear, it wasn't necessarily the smartest decision.
"Very good." He crouched down till he was only a foot over the boy's head and blocked out most the light from his vision.
A flash. A vision. A reel of film playing out just behind his eyes. A memory perhaps? This man was there, so was John. A pool? It didn't make sense. There was very little movement, mostly just talking.
I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to talk to you, then you're going to kill yourself.
No. That was from a different time. Before the pool? Sometime after? It seemed circular, like the ending and the beginning were somehow the same. A man talking, another dying. People die, that's what they do.
"Moriarty."
"Oh good. It will be more fun this way."