A Wife for Sherlock Holmes
Chapter 35 – Thy Kingdom Come
Marion looked down at the paperwork she had and then back up at her microscope. Molly stood nearby watching her. "What are you looking for?"
Marion blinked. "I am not sure." She looked over and saw another woman working in the lab. "Who is that?"
Molly smiled. "She is Dr. Nathara Colquhoun." She said. "Bit of a loner and works with retiles."
Marion nodded and rose to her feet. She walked to the woman in her lab coat. The woman wore glasses and had her hair pulled back in a severe bun. She looked like a librarian more than a scientist. "Hello."
The woman looked up. "Hello."
"Molly tells me you are into retiles."
The woman paused and looked up at Marion. "I am a herpetologist and toxicologist. Of course I love reptiles."
Marion smiled. "I have not seen you before."
"Dr. Colquhoun is here on loan to the zoo from Dublin." Molly said smiling. "She is working at the London Zoo. They have some new exotics and she is caring for them."
"Along with a fellowship at Barts. If you excuse me, I have some tissue samples that I have exposed to some venom. I left them elsewhere." The woman said to Marion and got up and walked out of the room.
Molly smiled. "She is always a bit terse like that, sorry."
Marion lifted a hand. "It is all right. I am used to it."
ZzZ
Marion looked out the window of 221B Baker Street.
It had been a month since Sherlock had murderer Magnussen. Marion was not sorry for the death in the slightest, but when he was given his ankle GPS again and allowed to return home, they had talked, well into the night about her past. She no longer wanted to hide from him what she was. She explained her connection to Mary and she explained what she remembered. She, however, added there were some parts that were missing and she did not know why. He had suggested a trauma, her violent captivity and gang rape would have likely been the cause.
Silence had taken them for a time as Sherlock sat thinking as did she. He then leaned forward to her and kissed her mouth, pulling her into his arms. He held her, just holding her, letting her know he was real as his hands rested on her back, holding her. She had turned her head up and they kissed again, long, gently, needing to express the deep love there, without words. Sherlock had shifted bringing her under him and looking into her eyes he gently removed his clothing and her own. She had watched him. Then the silence was filled with the soft sighs and moans that were lover's vocabulary.
Nothing else was needed.
She lifted the cup of tea that Mrs. Hudson had brought.
She frowned, thinking as she watched the traffic.
She heard a noise and turned to see Sherlock walking into the room, dressed, but wearing his red dressing gown. She smiled, looking at him as though to confirm that he was real. He fluttered about the room putting things back in order. Women had lived in his home without him for far too long, but most of the things were not moved, just there wasn't as much dust or dishes lying around at the moment.
She sighed and turned lifting her violin and started to play a soft melody.
Sherlock paused and looked up at her. Her eyes were closed as she played. It was Mozart. He blinked listening. It was oddly soothing, but then he went to his own case, lifted it, and joined her. Her eyes opened, startled, but then she smiled as he played with her, standing nearby.
Mrs. Hudson listened from the stair way. She dared not disturb the moment between the pair. Sherlock murdering Charles Magnussen had been kept from the papers, but Marion had seemed stressed. Sherlock had as well, though they had little to go on for the moment. Just the "did you miss me" message seen all over England.
The two finished.
Marion smiled at her husband as he kissed her cheek affectionately and then they both heard the door open. Mrs. Hudson turned and then continued up as Mycroft appeared with Jericho right behind him.
Mycroft gazed at the pair as Sherlock sighed seeing him. "Well, brother, dear. What is the verdict?" He sat down as Marion went to Mycroft.
"Can I get you two some tea?" She asked.
Sherlock's phone chimed. He looked down. Mary is in labor and delivery. Are you coming?
Marion turned to face him.
"I am afraid this will have to wait." Sherlock said lifting a hand to his brother as Mycroft was about to speak. "Marion come, Mary is in labor."
Marion nodded moving to get her coat.
Mycroft stared at the pair of them. "You can't just leave?"
"It is the Watsons, Mycroft." Marion said. "I will make sure he stays in the room." She said.
Mycroft looked unconvinced. "I will be monitoring."
Sherlock was pulling on his suit jacket. "As always brother mine." He pulled on his coat and scarf and followed his wife out the door.
Mycroft shook his head as he heard a noise. Lizzy was coming down the stairs. She rubbed her eyes. Her uncle chuckled and walked to her. "Hello, sweetheart."
"Uncle Mike!" She smiled at him.
He chuckled and looked at Jericho before hugging her. "I will be back." He told her as he looked at Mrs. Hudson. "Can you be good for Mrs. Hudson? Keep your brother out of trouble?"
"Yes." She smiled.
He nodded and met the eyes of the landlady before walking out the way he had come.
Marion looked at her phone as they traveled toward the hospital. "I will need to go to Barts" She said.
"Oh?"
"Lestrade said there is a package for me at New Scotland Yard."
Sherlock looked at her quizzically. "And…"
"I need to see what it is." She looked at him. "Coming?"
"Is that in the rules?" He asked.
"Mycroft knows where you are within feet and you are in my company, an agent. Can't be too bad can it?"
He chuckled.
They arrived and went to the mother's unit on the third floor. John met them at the door. "Hi!"
"How's Mary?" Marion asked.
"Well. They gave her an epidural so she isn't in much pain. Come." John said.
Sherlock followed the other two watching.
Mary was sitting on the bed as Marion smiled at her friend. "Hey."
"Hey yourself." Mary smiled. "Are you okay?"
"Yep." Marion smiled. She walked to her friend's side as Sherlock stood by John.
Molly was already there feeding Mary ice chips. Marion smiled at her friends and sat down as they instantly started to talk about female things. Molly had given up on having children of her own, but she lived through her godchildren whom she loved playing auntie to.
It was two more hours before the little girl, named Rose Sherlolly Watson came into the world. Marion and Sherlock had smiled at the nickname, the combination of Sherlock and Molly, the two nurses as they spelled Marion who had gotten broken finger from Mary gripping her hand too hard. Marion watched from the sidelines as a nurse bound her hand and cheered when Rosie came into the world with a howl.
John was also sidelined as he fainted as soon as Rosie crowned. The man had been fine with the births of Sherlock's children, delivering Lizzy into the world and assisting with Kerrin, as well as dozens of others, but his own child, he fainted.
Marion smiled as he came to as her hand was bound. She looked at him. "Are you all right, John?"
"Yes…wow. I have never…"
Mary was smiling at him as she held the little bundle in her arms.
Sherlock stepped back to allow his friend to see his daughter. He laid a hand on his shoulder. "She is beautiful, John. In the newborn sense." He said wrinkling his nose a little.
John laughed happily. He and Mary were talking quietly as they had tears of joy in their eyes. Marion took her husband's hand. "We are godparents." She said softly.
"Yes."
We turned to leave and walked out. Mycroft was there waiting. He lifted a letter. "You have been officially reprieved." He said nodding to Jericho behind him.
Jericho knelt and undid the ankle GPS locator and Sherlock looked at his brother. "That was fast, even for you, brother mine."
"The judge saw no reason to go to trial when it was clearly justifiable homicide due to your wife being under threat in the house."
"But I wasn't…"
Mycroft lifted a hand. "Yes, you were. Jericho and I found you bound, beaten, bare-breasted in a chair in a room. I know the details are fuzzy for you after the trauma." He said evenly.
Marion blinked and nodded then. "I took a crack to the head. Sorry, things are not very clear."
"So the incorruptible will even lie." Sherlock said leaning close to his brother.
"Intelligence is a lie, brother mine. It is a story of events and the lies to cover them."
Sherlock blew out a breath. "So now what?"
"You continue being Sherlock Holmes and your wife continues to work for me."
"But she finished the task you laid out for her…"
"She is still needed. Her skills…are rather valuable."
Sherlock was about to say something, but Marion lifted a hand.
She walked passed Mycroft and Sherlock followed casting his brother a look. He caught up to her as she called for a cab. It was a long silent ride home. She paid the driver and got out. He cocked his head watching her as she went to the door.
He came to her in a couple short strides and pushed the door shut. She looked up in surprise. "Marion. Out with it. What is going on?"
"I have no idea." She said.
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not." She said and tried to open the door again. He held it, bracing against it.
"Marion…"
"Sherlock…" She looked up at him. "You killed a man. How am I just supposed to let it go?"
"I killed a man to protect you, my family, and Mary." He said looking at her. "He was a terrible man. The information he had on you."
"I know exactly what he had on me."
He stood back. "So Mary killing him was okay, but when I put a gun to his head, it changes things."
"You aren't a killer. At least that was what I thought." She said.
He folded his arms. "I will do anything to protect the five of you."
She laughed. "Six."
"What?"
"You are forgetting John."
He blinked. "No actually I was forgetting Rosie." He said.
She shook her head and narrowed her eyes. She walked into the house and up the stairs. He sighed and followed. He walked up after her.
Once upstairs he shut the door and reached for her. She tried to knock him away, but he gripped her arms, pulling her against him. "Marion…Marion…" He said. "Stop fighting and listen."
"What?" She asked panting.
"I do not understand love. It clouds judgments, but everything I do, is out of love for my family and my one true friend."
She grunted and he held her tight to him.
"I know you do not understand. I barely do myself, but you are safe."
"Am I?" She asked.
"Yes."
"No." She said.
He blinked. "The Napoleon of Crime has fallen."
"And from his ashes the phoenix of Moriarty rises." She said.
He set her from him. "Are you angry or amused at that?" He asked.
She whirled. "Why would I be amused?"
He lifted his hand. "Your tone."
"For a master of sarcasm you seem to have a hard time hearing it in others." She said and walked down the hall.
He followed after removing his coat. "You are angry. Livid even, but I do not think this is all to do with me."
She turned. "I am scared." She admitted slowly. "Terrified."
"Of a dead man?"
"Of a man who has come back into the life of a man he wanted to see dead and took his own life."
"We need to solve that mystery as well." Sherlock said.
She looked at him. "Always thinking of the game, and not the players who matter."
He caught her arm. "That isn't true."
"Isn't it?"
He looked at her form and then suddenly pulled her into his arms, his mouth pressing to hers. She was so startled she didn't struggle at first. She then started to protest. He held her hard and walked her back to the bedroom. He shut the door with his foot and practically threw her onto the bed.
She looked up at him, aroused, angry, and looking ready to either rape him or kill him. He stared right back at her in challenge and she sat up. He stepped closer and her hand slapped across his face. The second didn't fall, as he caught her hand. He leaned close, staring at her.
"I hope you rot in hell." She growled at him.
"Well you will know. You will be with me." He smiled and pushed her back onto the bed, his hands quickly shifting to remove their clothing.
ZzZ
Sherlock stayed awake after their turbulent love making. She had not told him no, or stop, but part of him felt like it had been rape as he had held her down, pinning her expertly, and using unfair tricks to wed her body to him so that it betrayed her. He needed her to know his love. Understand his love. Understand everything he had done… She eventually relaxed and astounded him with a passionately and fiery surrender.
He touched his shoulder, wincing a little at the bruise she had left from biting him. She had never done that before. He looked at her. She was curled up, toward him, sleeping now. Her face was soft, none of the anger and hostility from before.
He sighed and leaned back watching her.
ZzZ
Bethany took a breath.
She had had a long day of belly dancing classes. She walked into her home, shut the door. She smiled as her cat came to greet her. Her husband was out of town to York for the weekend.
She smiled as she fed her cat and then opened a bottle of wine. She poured a glass and then started the bath. She stripped and stepped in, grabbing her favorite book, and stepping into the water. She sighed softly and then sipped her wine.
She then started to feel very warm. She gasped and tried to move, but suddenly could not. She whimpered and looked up trying to get away from the water. It had felt hot as it should have, but, this was too much.
She looked up terrified and unable to scream. Her tongue felt thick. There was a dark shadow. It moved across the room and gently laid a gloved hand on her brow before turning away.
She gasped, a long sigh, and knew no more…
ZzZ
Lestrade looked at the dead woman in the bath. Someone had called for an ambulance. When they found the door bolted, they had called for police assistance. The police had asked if someone needed help three times and then kicked down the door.
No sign of a problem in the flat, other than the dead woman in the bath. Her skin had degraded from the bone in places and there was a spilled glass of wine on the floor and a book also.
Sherlock walked into the flat with John close behind him.
Anderson looked up at him from where he was knelt by the wine. "Don't touch the water." He warned.
Sherlock nodded and looked about the room. "I know this woman." He said gently touching her face as he looked at her. He turned her head to him a little. "How do I know this woman?"
He pondered that as he looked about and then saw the mirror. "I need a steamer." He said looking at a smudge mark as he cocked his head.
"A what?" Lestrade asked.
"A steamer. There has to be a clue on the mirror."
"No one leaves clues…" Anderson said.
"Only those who want to be found do." Sherlock said.
John was knelt down by the victim's hand. "She was holding the glass as she died."
"Poison?" Lestrade asked.
"Possibly, but why poison the water too?" Sherlock said.
"Apparently she was having some marital problems with her husband." Lestrade said. "Neighbors said there was fighting, yelling, banging about…"
"Oh so her husband is a tosser?"
"No marks of that on the body." Sherlock said. He looked up. "Must have been verbal, or she was the aggressor."
Lestrade nodded. "Possible, but she is a rather petite woman."
"Verbal then." Sherlock said. "Threw things, not beating her."
A policeman brought a steamer for steaming suits to Sherlock. He nodded and then lifted it, making steam on the mirror, revealing words.
The first to fall
What a doll
Dances like a goddess in spring
Who knows what else the season could bring
A warning this to those that find
There will be others in kind
A Muslim Mary will come to pass
Even as an assassin waits in the grass
The one with bodies knows
So the story goes
John quickly wrote it down, stealing Lestrade's note pad. He blinked. "What the hell is this?"
"A riddle." Sherlock said.
"Of course, but…"
Sherlock turned and then looked up at the ceiling. "I Owe You." He said, mostly to himself.
"What?" Lestrade asked.
Sherlock pointed upwards. IOU was scratched into the ceiling panel.
John's eyes widened. "Oh, God!"
ZzZ
Sherlock sat in Lestrade's office looking at the pictures. Lestrade came in. "Her name is Bethany Holbrook, belly dance instructor and substitute teacher. She was American. Her husband is flying back from York."
"That is a good alibi." John said.
"Yes. Dozens saw him there."
"Good alibi." John said.
"Indeed." Sherlock said. "'Who knows what else the season will bring'" He is going to kill again."
"Is this Moriarty?" John asked.
"It can't be. I watched him shoot himself. The head wound killed the man there." Sherlock said.
"IOU."
"Yes that is puzzling, but then the message on every telly was as well." Sherlock said. "A warning…he was talking to the person who found this." He sighed. "Clever man."
"Man?"
"Statistically more likely, even with her small build that a woman could over power." Sherlock blinked. "Though the poisoning of the wine, that is a female trait." He looked. "The poisoning of the water. That took work."
"You are admitting this killer." John hissed.
"He is all over the map on his pathology." Sherlock said. He blinked and looked down. "This drug in the wine was not enough to kill her, just enough to incapacitate her." He looked at Anderson's notes. "Acid in the water. "I will burn you'." He said.
John blinked.
Lestrade looked at the poem. "What kind of killer names his next victims?"
"The kind that kills for sport…or pleasure." Sherlock said. He blinked. "Muslim Mary? There is no Muslim Mary. Mary is a Catholic thing."
"My Mary?"
Sherlock shook his head. "Mary isn't Muslim. She is Catholic."
"Muslim Mary?" John blinked.
Sherlock's head snapped up. "Oh!"
He moved and reached for the door.
"Sherlock. What is it?"
"Go to Mary and Rosie!" He said. "Take them to Mycroft to keep them safe."
"Are they under threat?"
"I don't know."
"What aren't you telling me?"
"Muslim Mary…Mary in Arabic is Miriam…"
John's eyes widened. "Marion!"
Sherlock was already out the door and running to catch a cab.
ZzZ
John and Sherlock got to 221B.
Sherlock opened the door and found Marion with the children on the floor. "We need to go to Molly's house."
"What? Why?" she asked.
"We just do." Sherlock said reaching for Lizzy.
John looked at Sherlock. "I will take Kerrin. Meet you at Mycroft's later."
Sherlock nodded as John lifted Kerrin and then put him in his car seat and then lifted his diaper bag.
Marion looked at Sherlock curiously as he lifted Lizzy.
"Where is Mrs. Hudson?"
"Out."
He nodded and lifted his phone texting Mrs. Hudson with one hand. He then carried Lizzy downstairs. Marion followed.
"Sherlock what is going on?"
He shook his head and called a taxi. He saw John and Kerrin into it and then looked about. He called the next one. As it stopped he bustled Marion and Lizzy in.
He gave the address and then looked at Marion. "You are in danger. We need to get Molly and go to Barts."
They arrived at Molly's flat. Sherlock got out and Marion did as well with Lizzy with them. Marion noticed there were only a few people on the street, but then two men appeared from around a van.
Sherlock gasped and dodged as a man ran between them with a knife. "Get in the house!" He cried to Marion who took a step back, but another man was behind her, grabbing her.
"Mommy!" Lizzy cried.
She narrowed her eyes, looking at her daughter. She threw her head back, knocking into the man's face, stunning him. He cried out letting her go. Marion pushed Lizzy to safety behind a railing as she turned. Wearing dress shoes and the clothing, it was confining. She pulled off her suit jacket and ripped off her blouse revealing her tank top.
She charged the man as he lifted a knife. She dodged him. Krav Maga was the skill of combat against an armed opponent and she blocked and then ducked low, hitting the man's stomach, and sweeping his legs out from under him. She was not unscathed. She had several minor cuts from the blade and a graze to her stomach. All were superficial even if they ached and bled.
The man fell with a yell. Marion put her foot on the knife as it clattered away. She took it in her hand and looked at the man. "Nice little blade." She said looking at him wildly. She smiled and drove it into his throat, watching him. "Never threaten my child." She said watching him try to speak as blood bloomed to his lips.
Marion looked down almost sadistically. She had forgotten how it felt to kill someone. The thrill, the rush, she blinked as her adrenaline kept the pain at bay. For now. She closed her eyes against the odd high she felt.
Marion turned her head.
Lizzy was standing there, watching her mother with muted horror and fascination. She pulled Lizzy behind her as she hissed in pain. She looked about for more. This was Molly's flat. What the hell was happening?
Marion looked at Sherlock as he turned to her and then looked up toward the flat. "Molly!" He gasped and ran. Marion followed, pulling Lizzy with her.
Sherlock came to the flat and found the door slightly open. "Molly?!" He cried coming in and almost running her over.
"Sherlock? Sorry. I was running late and I forgot my mobile and…" She said.
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her looking about as Marion came to them.
Molly gasped. "Marion?!"
"I'm okay. They are just scratches." She said.
"What happened?"
"We were attacked outside your flat." Sherlock said setting his friend from him. "The question is why…"
Marion heard something. "Sherlock."
He looked and pushed Molly and Lizzy into the flat and closed the door as he nodded to his wife. They went to the stairs. Standing at the bottom, in a long coat and looking up at them was Jim Moriarty. He smiled at them.
"A pleasure to see you again Sherlock. Apparently you are still on the side of the angels." He said looking up at Marion. He winked. "Welcome back to my Kingdom."
"You son of a…" Sherlock vaulted over the railing and hit the wall of the stairwell.
Moriarty shifted and walked to the outside and got into a waiting car. Sherlock ran out followed by Marion and he looked out the window. "A pleasure as always Sherlock." He tossed something to the ground. He smiled. "See you soon my dear." He said blowing a kiss at Marion.
It rolled to Sherlock's feet. Sherlock dropped down, breathing heavily and lifted the apple. IOU was carved into it and Sherlock looked up at the car as it drove away.
"What does it mean?" Marion asked him.
"Moriarty is back and the game is on!" Sherlock said turning to look at the door where Molly was standing with Lizzy. He then looked at his bleeding wife and touched her cheek.