CHAPTER 7

After silence fell in the car again, and Sherlock and John had fallen asleep, Arthur took his first proper look at Sherlock. It's not often one dislikes a man they've never met before, but Arthur was willing to make an exception. The man was not only obnoxious and arrogant on the outside, but considering his and Merlin's past-

It had taken almost a month after Merlin and Arthur had become friends for him for Arthur to realise the connection between Merlin and Sherlock. It had taken him longer to realise how much of an impact the man had had on Merlin's life.

He walked into their shared dormitory only to hear the sound of broken down sobs coming from the bathroom.

"Hello? Merlin? Are you ok?"

When no reply came, he knocked on the door lightly before pushing it open, revealing the gangly teen sat on the bathroom floor holding a crumpled newspaper article in his hands.

"Merlin, what's wrong," he said, sitting himself down beside his distraught roommate and wrapping an arm around his thin shoulders.

"It's nothing, I'm sorry I bothered you."

"It doesn't look like nothing," Arthur gently replied, rubbing his thumb on Merlin's arm.

"I don't want to bore you with my sob stories Arthur." Merlin sniffed, his voice wavering on the word bore as though it held some significant meaning.

"C'mon Merls, it couldn't possibly bore me. We're friends after all!"

Little had Arthur known how much those words had meant to his roommate back then, but after Merlin had broken down against Arthur and revealed his past, his fight with his brother, the effects of both Sherlock's betrayal and death, his attempted suicide, everything. It had turned out that day had been the one year anniversary of Sherlock's death, and the memories had been too much to cope with.

So of course Arthur was going to be resentful against the man who had hurt his best friend so badly, no matter what the relation he was to Merlin. He could put up with Sherlock until they find Merlin. And Sherlock better had make it up to Merlin when he returns, he thought to himself, or else he'll have he'll to pay.

Cornwall was exactly what John had expected and despised; hot and crowded. It was places like this that brought on his PTSD, and so he usually avoided locations like this. But this is for Sherlock's little brother, he reminded himself, and he steeled himself onward.

"So where do we even start?" asked Arthur, glancing around every so often as though Moriarty would just jump out from behind a building, Merlin in tow.

"As I said earlier, Moriarty is clearly holding Merlin near water,"said Sherlock. "We know it also had to be somewhere to do with boats, because not only were those industrial shipyard chains holding Merlin to the chair, but there was also a speedboat, a 2011 Yamaha FZR if I'm not mistaken, something commonly used for water sports, although more likely to be owned privately that in a company. Therefore Moriarty has Merlin kept either at the beach, within a small warehouse, or at a shipyard."

"Brilliant," said John.

"Bloody creepy,"declared Arthur.

"There's one slight problem with that methodology, dear brother. There are 97 beaches in Cornwall and 4 major shipyards, there is no way we can search them all," said Mycroft.

"But we don't need to. On the way here I searched the current owners of Yamaha FZR's in Cornwall, and out of all those beaches only two have private storage sheds large enough to hold both a boat and Merlin, with only one of them currently in use, down on Loe Bar road. There is also currently the sister boat, nearly identical to the FZR, the FZS, in one of the docks, the Square Sail Shipyard."

"Let's go then," said John enthusiastically, "Time's wasting!"

Loe Bar road was not what Arthur had expected. The road was essentially a dirt track which lead up to a cliff that overlooked a private beach, and on top of which sat a large shack which he presumed must be the boat shed.

"There it is," pointed Sherlock. "I presume it's locked so I need a small pin preferably or a pen lid."

"We're can't just break into the boat shed Sherlock," John huffed with exasperation at his roommate's idea.

"I've broken into harder places John. Like that time you left your bedroom door locked to conceal the chocolate skull you'd bought me for Christmas this year."

"That's not what I meant Sherlock and- hey! You can't just break into my room just so you can sneak a peek at your Christmas present, which I am now reconsidering giving you! As I was saying we need to ask to come up with a plan, in case Moriarty is in there, or if Merlin's hurt."

"Why don't we try knocking on the door and see who answers it, before we break in?" asked Arthur helpfully.

"Oh yes, why not! In fact, let me just ring Moriarty and invite him round for tea!" Sherlock replied in a snarky tone.

"Oh shut it Sherlock, it's your fault Merlin got caught in the first place!" Arthur snapped back at him, his frustration at their lack of progress and Sherlock's know-it-all attitude angering the teenager.

"Oh really, please elaborate that for me would you Arthur."

"Fine then, I suppose I'll have to seeing as you're too stupid to deduce it for yourself. The reason he left yesterday was because he didn't know how to handle seeing any of you. He hasn't got a massive self-esteem in case you haven't noticed, something which is also your's and Mycroft's fault."

"I have no idea what gave you that impression and the reasons behind it," Mycroft began, but Arthur quickly interrupted.

"Of course you don't, because you were never there for Merlin. Oh sure, you tried to bribe away Merlin's affections with money and power, but Merlin isn't like you, like either of you, he needs attention and affection as well. I suppose though you still aren't as bad as Sherlock here, who purposefully abandoned his brother and essentially told him he was worthless then deserted him. Oh yes, Sherlock" he jeered at the look of shock on the detective's face. "I know all about how you treated Merlin in the past. So don't try and act all high and mighty when you don't even have the right to. I'm done with your help," he finally declared, storming off back towards the city centre. "I can find Merlin on my own."

Sherlock stood there in shock, his eyes unreadable to the two other remaining men, whilst John walked in a subdued manner towards the boat shed door. He twisted the handle, which surprisingly opened up to reveal an empty building, aside from one crisp sheet, which he picked up before reading it out loud.

"Nice try, but not good enough. Guess your skills of deduction aren't quite as good as you think they are. M." He sighed and slunk down to the floor.

"Fantastic. We are still no closer to finding Merlin, Sherlock's turned catatonic again, Arthur's run off and we've only got-" he glanced at his phone screen, "- 18 hours left. Just bloody fantastic."

Sorry the update is late and unbetaed, I was at a friends 17th last night and stayed over at hers, and I'm sorry for last nights AN, I was writing with only 4 hours sleep, and had just spent over 5 hours typing up the Crucible for my AS Drama. So, thank you for bearing with me.

I'd like to thank all my reviewers; feathered moon wings, superwholockvengerson-serenity, Booksquirm, Sabha, battlemaiden518 and a particular thank you to CaptainXena-Mation, who took the time to review all my chapters during this week :)

And now for the promised news, I'm afraid this is the beginning of the end of Nursery Rhymes :( there are now only two chapters remaining, plus the epilogue! I've loved every minute of this story, and have rarely been struck by writers block, which is a huge deal for me. Now for some slightly better news, I have already begun structuring the sequel, so there will hopefully only be a short waiy. Unfortunately, I am trying to finish some of my other stories first, as I've left them on hiatus for far too long, so they will take priority over the sequel.

That's all from me for now, thanks for reading, and don't forget to review for sneak previews of upcoming chapters :) See you all next week!