A/n: Thanks for all the feedback!

Chapter 4 -

As he entered the coffee shop, John realized how tired he was. The crime solving duo had chased a serial killer all over England. So far there had been a murder in the first eleven of the most populated areas in the United Kingdom.

Over the past six months there had been eleven murders across the UK. They had been on the go for three months trying to track the murderer down. Sherlock was frustrated and John was exhausted. They had been moving from city to city trying to find where the killer was going to strike next for two weeks now. Sherlock had only been contacted after seventh victim. Since the murders were spread out of all in different cities, the different units of police had only contacted each other after several murders had happened. Victim number one had a large number one carved into his chest and the second one had a number two. After that they were all in sequential order. Sherlock continued to complain he hadn't had enough data. They had tried, but they didn't know where the killer was picking his targets from. Too many variables Sherlock had said.

Now the two of them were wandering around the eleventh largest city in England looking for a coffee shop from a certain chain. Sherlock deduced that the killer was picking his victims from those locations. After talking to the fifth victim's wife, Sherlock knew that victim frequented the chain. They checked with all the victim's families and all of them had been to the shops on the night they died. They had tried going at it on their own in several different cities, but they were only two people and couldn't cover every shop in town. This time they were working with the police. The local police were checking out the other stores, but Sherlock and John were making their way to the one Sherlock was sure the killer was going to use.

"It is centrally located to the largest car parks in the city. It also has several construction sites nearby which is where we have found the other bodies." Sherlock explained. John followed as usual. He trusted Sherlock's instincts to lead them to the right man. It was also separated from the rest of the chains by a large distance. They sat in the coffee shop ordering drinks and food for a couple of hours before John became bored. Sherlock continued to offer bits of information about the patrons, but John could only listen to the observations so long and read the paper so many times. It was dark and raining outsides which made it difficult to observe the people on the street as well.

"How long until close?" John asked. The coroner estimated each person had died just after one in the morning. Sherlock suspected the killer picked up each victim near close in order to have the fewest number of witnesses. Employees would be busy closing and patrons would be too busy trying to finish their drinks to pay attention.

"Another twenty minutes," Sherlock supplied. He continued to watch the scene around him. They lapsed back into silence. Suddenly Sherlock stood up and walked out of the door. Up ahead John could see a small blonde woman following a man down the street. The two of them turned a corner and Sherlock took off at a run. John was hard pressed to keep up with those long legs this time. They rounded the corner and the man had pulled a knife on the young woman.

"Stop," John shouted. The man pushed the young blonde aside and broke into a run. The two took off running after him again. They were led in a along chase across several blocks, around corners and along alleyways.

They finally caught up with him around the docks. This city was along the coast and the docks were large to accommodate the industries that kept this area thriving. The murderer continued to run down the water side street with Sherlock right behind him. John had fallen behind a few strides when a woman had opened her car door and knocking him down. He saw Sherlock follow the man out onto the docks and onto the first boat. Neither one seemed to care they were jumping from private boat to private boat but John followed their progress from the street.

John quickly called the police officers that were stationed at the nearest chain store. They would be here in a few minutes. He hoped he could cut off the criminal when he eventually ended up on shore at the other end of the dock. He followed them up and down the docks and tried to keep up with them as they crossed the water. The wind and rain were making the chase difficult for both of them. The boats bobbed and rocked in the water as the two men jumped from one to the other. John's heart tightened as Sherlock slipped and slid on the boats. They continued to move farther and farther from the shore as they kept jumping from boat to boat.

John followed the suspected murderer's progress from shore then ran out on to the dock and met him when he jumped off the last boat. He struggled with the man exchanging blows until he knocked the man down. The suspect was half unconscious when John pulled him to his feet.

"Sherlock I could use your handcuffs now." John received no answer. He turned around looking for Sherlock, but the man was nowhere to be seen. "Sherlock!?"

His chest tightened and John let the man drop and jumped onto the boat. He jumped to the next boat and heard shouts from the water. Sherlock's form was in between the two boats and he was shouting nonsense. John tried shouting down to him but received no answer. Sherlock was obviously struggling to keep his head above water at this point. John quickly kicked off his shoes and jumped into the water near Sherlock.

"Don't you know how to swim?" John grunted as he grabbed his friend's lanky form and started to pull in back toward the dock's edge.

"Not him. NO! no no no…. Not him." Sherlock mumbled. He seemed barely conscious. John finally reached the beams of the dock. He pulled himself half out of the water with one arm and looked around for help. The police were finally pulling up and he started shouting and waving. The officers helped him and Sherlock out of the water and called for an ambulance for Sherlock. John was starting to panic.

"Sherlock, what happened? Did he hit you? Drug you? Did you fall? Did you hit your head?" John began to lightly smack Sherlock's face in an attempt to snap him out of the daze and keep him awake. As he did so, Sherlock seemed to rouse himself a bit, but just as Sherlock's eyes met John's he shouted again and fell back into John's arms unconscious. A lump was forming on Sherlock's forehead. Somehow he had hit his head. He wasn't bleed though. Still the random sentences and words were unconnected which worried John. Concussion? Skull Fracture? Brain trauma. John's brain was full of medical knowledge and his thoughts continued to jump from bad to worse.

Finally an ambulance pulled up and the medics loaded Sherlock into the back. He still was unconscious. Panic overtook John Watson as they drove to the hospital. They managed to bring Sherlock out of his blackout, but he continued to mumble nonsense about boats and Him. He seemed like he was in shock and his eyes were distant. Over and over Sherlock mumbled "Not him."

Once they reached the hospital John dialed Mycroft. Since he wasn't family, John couldn't get much information out of the hospital staff. He explained what had happened and some of the things Sherlock had been mumbling. Mycroft seemed extremely tense while he asked about his brother's current condition. "Yes, he'll be fine, but no one knows what he is talking about."

"I'll be there by morning." Mycroft's voice was tight and his responses short as they hung up. John settled in for a long night at the hospital. As doctors poked and prodded Sherlock, John tried to sleep in a chair outside.