Hey guys! For once this seems to be a decent length for a chapter :D This wasn't at all in the original idea, but oh well! Characters have their own ideas about things sometimes! Feel free to drop in a review, I'd love to know what you think of this so far!

Enjoy xxx

Sherlock charged out of 221B, closely followed by John. Both of them made attempts at hailing a taxi, both failed. It seemed most cabs were full tonight; and they'd have to walk some of the way. Sherlock, having far longer legs, seemed to be going at full pelt, he was bobbing and weaving between people, darting across roads and only stopping once or twice for John to catch up. Unfortunately for John, while all this was going on, his shoulder had decided to act up. This only happened every now and then, but only when John needed to be somewhere in a hurry. He could feel the tendons aching just between his collar bone and shoulder socket. He rolled his shoulder a few times, and then picked up speed to catch up with Sherlock.

The detective looked at his blogger. "Are you all right?" He asked, showing concern wasn't normal for Sherlock, so John would try to remember this moment. "Yeah, fine," He threw the comment away, "Just, the sooner we get to a cab, the better." Yet again, neither one of them could get a taxi to stop. After about ten minutes of trying, they decided to walk further.

"This has never happened before, John." Sherlock stated, his eyes darting around for an answer. "Perhaps it's been rigged, perhaps there's a code within the streets, perhaps-"

"I'm going to stop you there, Sherlock." John spoke louder than usual, taking Sherlock away from digging into his mind. "There's no code. This has happened before, remember the harpoon?"

"Oh, right."

"Yes, and none of the cabs took you then. Come on, let's find the tube." And with that, John turned around and marched off, with Sherlock trailing behind. Both men hated the underground stations, there was just something off-putting about it. Maybe it was the crowds, or maybe it was the black soot that appeared every time you blew your nose the next day, they would never know. Tubes certainly weren't the highlight of anyone's day.

(*0*)($.$)(O.o)

Louise hated using the tube. It was the easiest way for her to get around, though. The underground wasn't as creaking and worrying as the buses, and it wasn't as intimate as a taxi, but it was full of people who didn't give a damn about you. Louise was fine with that; she didn't give a damn about them. She had decided sometime last month that it was having watched 'American Werewolf in London' that had unsettled her the most. Of course it wasn't real, but you never know.

She dodged between passengers exiting the train as she made her way onto it. For once there seemed to be a seat left, and of course she took it without a moment's notice. Five minutes later, a heavily pregnant woman waddled into the carriage. No one had left yet, and no one looked up to see her panting and sweating, apparently exhausted. No one responded still. Louise sighed, and got up, looking over to the woman, "Do you want to sit down?" She asked, trying not to sound too polite. She didn't want to use her normal accent, as it would be deemed too posh and she didn't really want to be categorized today. "Oh, thank you," Said the other woman gratefully, maybe louder than it should have been, she gave pointed looks to the people who specifically watched her suffer standing up and completely blanked her. She sat down as Louise moved to hold onto a bar by the door.

Two stops later and Louise was half squashed against the door and half squashed against the pole next to it, holding on for dear life. She didn't think this many people could get on a tube carriage, apparently she was wrong. There were so many people all confined to this one little space, Louise felt like she would scream if she didn't escape soon. She didn't like people all that much, well, she could cope, but in these last few years she had grown less tolerant, less forgiving. Luckily she would be getting off at the next stop, and she'd be free to go where she pleased. The train slowed and eventually stopped, people started heaving in the carriage; and all charged when the door finally slid open, forcing Louise to practically fall out –

And land on John Watson. He looked just as surprised as she did, and she picked herself up, brushing herself down. John wasn't alone; Sherlock looked down to Louise, with the beginnings of a smirk on his face. Sherlock Holmes never smiled, and never looked this cheerful to see anyone. The two of them must have been on a case. "Ah, Louise, coming along then?" He asked, leading the girl back onto the train, much to John's dismay. When all three of them were in, the door shut and the train started up again. There was more room now, but they were still uncomfortable. Louise looked at the two men, surprised to say the least "What are you guys doing here? Neither of you ever take the tube." She said, waiting for an explanation

"Well, we couldn't get any cabs and we're in a bit of a rush." John replied "We're off to do something dangerous, which certainly isn't suitable for a fifteen year old girl to join us on" His last sentence was aimed specifically at Sherlock who looked almost hurt. "Come on, John. Like I'd actually let Louise get herself hurt, she's not that stupid anyway. Are you?" He looked at the girl, who tied her hair back and zipped up her fleece. "No, I'm not. But what are you two doing, anyway?" She asked, she seemed to be expecting to go with them, and John seemed to be the only one against it. John explained their plan whilst Sherlock interjected at points, saying it wasn't actually that dangerous, when you thought about it. When John had finished, Louise looked up at him, rubbing her palm with her thumb, a habit neither of the men had seen before.

"All right, so what do you want me to do?"

Sherlock's eyes lifted, while John's widened. They both looked at each other, Sherlock shrugged. "It's her choice." John puffed up, and looked at the taller man with authority. "Well it shouldn't be – no offence," he interrupted himself, looking to Louise "None taken." She replied without hesitation, and John continued. "So, we're off to catch a man, who obsesses over women, only a few years older than the one we have here, he threatens them, tortures them, then murders them. We have a girl here who's pretty, young, and a perfect target. What, do you plan to use her as bait?" He had raised his voice to Sherlock, not caring now if other people were listening. The detective was silent; he took a breath, and gestured to Louise. "Why don't you ask her about it?"

John turned to Louise, and is expression softened. "Louise, don't feel that you have to do this, you can go home any time you like. You said yourself, it's near the end of the month, and you've got plenty of information. It's not fair for us to put you in this position." He looked at the girl; he did sometimes forget she was only fifteen. She looked away for a moment, then got out a purple phone and fiddled around with it, only looking at John when she had finished.

"My phone has a security setting, if something's gone wrong, I press the volume button four times, and it'll call three emergency contacts, and it'll dial 999. You'll be able to hear what's going on, so it should be fine. Not that I'll get into any trouble, mind you. I've lived here forever, I know what I'm doing." She put the phone away. John considered this, and then spoke in a stern voice.

"You won't wander off?"

"No,"

"You will stay in public areas, and stay seen?"

"Of course,"

"You'll listen to everything we tell you?"

"Yes!"

"I hope you mean it, because I'm not going to explain to your family what happened if you get hurt."
"Damn it, I can take care of myself, I won't do anything stupid, and I'll listen to you at all times. Are we finished now?"

John couldn't see Sherlock looking pleased at the girl's attitude, the moment he turned around the detective completely changed his face, appearing innocent. They were silent for the next few stops.

More people continued to bustle onto the carriage, the three of them struggled to stay together, but Louise was just in sight, they could keep an eye on each other, even though they were constantly split apart. Sherlock and John were still by the door, as it opened in another station approximately twelve people barged in, around seven of them hitting John's left shoulder as they went. His scarred shoulder; and Sherlock knew it would still ache sometimes. Each time John winced, Sherlock found himself almost wincing too, but there was nowhere to move. Most people were stuck in their positions now. As more people rushed in, they threatened to bump into John again, and before Sherlock knew it, he was hovering over John, both arms around him, holding the doctor out of harm's way.

Neither man knew what was going on, John was only aware of being pinned down by his friend. He looked up to see Sherlock looking directly back at him. John's stomach gave a small jolt, which he decided was due to either the dodgy sandwich at lunch, or Sherlock making him jump. It couldn't be anything else. Yet they had never been this close before, and Sherlock seemed to be far closer than he needed to be to protect his friend. He didn't seem to know what he was doing either. The two of them said nothing for a moment, they just looked. John had never noticed this much about Sherlock until now, his face seemed to have more lines that usual, which John guessed was from stress of cases. John could analyse ever curl on his head, the shape of his face, and his eyes. John already knew Sherlock had blue or grey eyes, but on closer inspection, they seemed almost green. Not just boring green, like most people, but pure, John had never seen such eyes.

"Uh, Sherlock, they're gone now, I – uh – think I can move about myself now,"

Sherlock blinked, bringing John back into focus, and then looking around at the other passengers. "Yes, of course." He rushed, before straightening up a bit too fast, and smacking his head on the roof. The men looked away from each other, and didn't talk.

After what seemed to be the longest trip in history, their stop finally came, Louise managed to push her way out to join the other two. They all went up the stairs, out of the station, and into the street.

"So, where to?"