A/N: sorry for the long wait guys, still trying to explain things out, will get into main story very soon, probably next chapter!
Chapter 5: about questioning
After hearing what John had said, Sherlock's always-operating-at-high-speed brain had a moment's breakdown. He held up his hand as if to scratch his hair, but in mid air, Sherlock made a 'oh God' face to his palm.
Sherlock felt that the feeling of being 'questioned' by John is very terrible, it was like his organized brain palace had being shaken to pieces by a gratitude 9 earthquake. And this to him is an unusual feeling he had never felt before, John could always get him to experience things he had never felt before. As to this, Sherlock curled up in his black couch, his hands together into a tower in front of his mouth, sinking into his mind palace, he need to record this experience down, crimes nowadays are based more and more on 'emotions', the technical type was never main stream anyway.
John after he had calmed his mind, is waiting for Sherlock to give him an explanation. But when he looked up, he saw Sherlock sitting in his couch, his eyes blank, his expression solemn, the typical 'Sherlock style'.
John is waiting, waiting for Sherlock to speak first.
Ten minutes later, Sherlock kept the same posture, and the same expression.
15 minutes later, Sherlock stood up, he picked up the violin he left on the table before, then went back to his seat. His hands plucked the strings unconsciously, and he himself – John stared at Sherlock's expression – fell back into his mind palace once again.
Half an hour passed…
John felt that his idea of "making Sherlock explain" is just too foolish. He is sitting not even a meter away from Sherlock, the couch under his butt is facing straight at Sherlock, not even counting that his eyes are fixed on Sherlock.
But Sherlock whose nerve is so sensitive to "crimes, deductions, experiments" had not for one second realized John's killer eyes.
Shouldn't that person who is sitting opposite him deep in thought right now be apologizing and explaining everything to him after his roaring fit?
Oh, he forgot, that's a normal person's reaction. Sherlock is not normal, he is a high function anti societist. John felt that he had glorified Sherlock too much in his weeks of sadness, and seemed to have forgotten the troubles he had brought him.
John decided to end this quickly. After he get his answer he's going to sleep, he has work tomorrow, however Sherlock can sleep to however late he wants.
"So," John cleared his throat, signaling Sherlock to come out of his mind palace for a few moments, to solve a "human being's" problem, "how are you…not…dead, no, should be alright?"
John struggled with the word 'dead', he still couldn't forget the moment Sherlock jumped down from that roof. He was sure that Sherlock no longer had a pulse, even if his brain was in complete chaos and his emotions terrible, but he's a doctor, how can his experiences be wrong?
"Oh, that wasn't me." Sherlock said it as if he was simply describing that "the filling of the dumplings he just had was not pork."
"Not you?!" John's head short circuited for a moment when he had Sherlock's reply, he jumped out of his couch out of surprise. "How can it not be you, the same curly black hair, the same eyes, the same clothes, GOD! He is you! And those wounds, those blood."
John struggled to make sense.
"He really wasn't me, he was just some random person Mycroft found from somewhere," Sherlock shrugged as he explained, "You know Mycroft is the English Government itself, he can do anything. Plus John, evidence from blood samples is only valid if it had been laboratory tested and compared to the person's DNA sample in file. Pure eye detection and analysis can't tell you anything, I thought this is common sense, ."
"Sherlock, we are NOT talking about how to obtain evidence." John felt hopeless. "What we are talking about now, is you."
"Me? What about me?" Sherlock seemed confused.
"No, it's about you jumping off that building to be precise." John stopped for a second before continuing. "From now on, I'll ask and you'll answer, no useless information, understand?"
"Understood." This time Sherlock was smart enough to have noticed John's threatening eyes.
"Very good." John took a deep breath, looking at Sherlock's 'I'm a good boy' stance, he asked his first question.
"I saw you jump off with my own eyes."
"Oh John. Why don't you understand what you saw with your eyes, aren't necessarily true. I did jump, but I didn't jump off the building."
"What!?" John is struggling to understand, that's not jumping off the building?
Sherlock smirked narcissistically, "This need to be explained from the start. Moriarty's final purpose was to destroy my name, then the fake genius kills himself, look, what an amazing title."
"Oh, I know this, Sherlock fast forward." John hurried him.
"So 'Sherlock dies' is necessary. Moriarty used everything he can to make this come true. First of all, create chaos, letting everyone know that he has a 'key' that can open any program. Secondly, he 'gave' the key to me, maybe hoping that one of the assassins will kill me."
Sherlock laughed bitterly, "However Moriarty probably thought that killing me like this is no fun at all, so he decided to do it himself."
"So he used me, Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade to threaten you?"
"Yes, so I must accept his threat, and jump off." Sherlock made the last conclusion.
John however doesn't seem to satisfy with this conclusion, "What do you mean and you jumped off! What about after you jumped off!"
John is about to go insane and Sherlock never talked about the important stuff.
"What about after I jumped off?" Sherlock repeated John's last question, then his face turned a weird colour, as if he just remembered something not very nice.
"What's wrong, Sherlock?" John asked worriedly.
"No, it's nothing." Sherlock really doesn't want to tell John that the way he jumped off was slightly off from his calculations, and he got a concussion and felt dizzy for many days afterwards. And that annoying Mycroft grabbed the opportunity and sent him back to their dear mother. He was 'tortured' by dear mother so much that he had to escape through the window.
"What do you mean it's nothing, Sherlock! I'm asking you what did you use to ensure that you don't die after jumping off a building!"
"Oh, John, no one survived jumping off that building."
"SHERLOCK!" John yelled at him not being able to stay calm any longer.
"Alright, John." Sherlock made a surrender pose, "I'll tell you."
"I made Molly fake my death certificate." Sherlock talked in his super fast speed. "The night before I decided to die she asked me if there's anything she could help me with I was waiting for her to say this so I told her to make a dead me she completed all the procedures herself I don't know if Mycroft helped or not."
"But…but when I felt your pulse it felt like a real person…" John said to Sherlock.
"Of course it's a real person." Sherlock seemed to have grown a sudden interest in scorns, he grabbed a piece and studied it in his palm.
"Pffff—real person! From where!" John spouted out the milk tea he just drank after hearing Sherlock's explaination.
Luckily Sherlock reacted in time, and saved his favourite night gown from getting covered in milk tea.
"Be careful, John. As I have said, Mycroft found him, I don't know where he came from, only God know."
"Then when did you guys make the exchange?" That's what John couldn't understand, he saw Sherlock jumping off with his own eyes. It's the truth, no doubt.
"John, do you still remember when I called you, I told you not to move from that spot?"
John had a moment's pause, and nodded, "You did say that."
"That's a blind spot." Sherlock smirked his victor's smile. "That's a double blind spot, John. Not just to you, but to the assassin that was aiming at you."
John: "Assassin? Me?!"
Sherlock: "Yes, how naive of you to think that Moriarty's threats are merely words. Not just you, there's a traitor in Lestrade's office, the repairmen doing repairs for Mrs. Hudson, they are all pieces of Moriarty's plan, if I don't 'die', they will take action."
"What's with the blind spot?"
"From where you were standing you can clearly see me jumping down, but you can't see me falling on the ground." Sherlock thought for a moment, and then added, "Of course I know that if you saw me jump, you will definitely try to get over to me, so I got someone to crash into you to make sure that when you got up, the only thing you see is a nearly dead or dead Sherlock Holmes. Then that assassin will also think that I'm dead, since he was only focussing on you."
"Crash into me? What I saw?" After John heard Sherlock's answer, he can feel the negative feelings building up inside him, "What can't you just tell me?"
"No, John. I must ensure this place's secrecy. So, I can't tell you, I'm very sorry." Sherlock apologized sincerely.
"Alright, I accept your apology. But don't THINK ABOUT ESCAPING! Sherlock, I haven't finished yet." John warmed the slightly impatient Sherlock, who just started walking around in the room like an irritated cat.
Sherlock scratched his head, obviously irritated.
"Sherlock, no one has your brain, so give your idiotic friend more time." John said calmly, right now he just wants to figure out this 'faked death' thing.
Alright, Sherlock was slightly persuaded by John and sat back down into the sofa, he is glad to show off to his friend his amazing brain, and also willing to give John a little more patience.
John: "So you jumped down, and landed where?"
Sherlock: "The rubbish collecting truck, it was parked there, filled with air cushions.
John: "So you were just looking at me?"
Sherlock: "No, I think I lost consciousness, you know, concussion."
"Oh, that's good." John's voice was filled with relief. He thought if Sherlock was watching from the sides at his obvious I-am-a-lost-kid-I-don't-believe-this face, he will definitely look foolish.
"Then the person that impersonated you, is he alive?" John's questioned with hesitate, knowing Mycroft, if it's for his beloved brother, he might just…
"Of course he's alive, otherwise how did he roll over to that spot, and posed?" Sherlock raised an eyebrow, offended by John's idiotic question.
"But, his pulse?" John's eyes fell on the tiny ball Sherlock suddenly got out of nowhere, he pressed it to the inside of his arm, signalling John to come forward, "you can try again."
John pressed his hand on Sherlock's wrist for his pulse, it's very very faint, an almost non-existent jump.
"So John, don't concluded that someone's dead if you can't feel his pulse, even when they are bashed in the head, you can't be sure they are dead unless they have been incinerated. It's only a pulse, there are many ways to conceal it. This is only one of the easiest ways. Using this tiny ball and press against the artery in the inner arm, forcefully stopping blood flow, will cause a decrease in pulse frequency. This is very easy to see through, dear John." Sherlock explained to John while he played catch with the little ball. *1*
"Thank you very much for supplying this doctor common sense, Sherlock." Why did John feel that Sherlock's hidden messenger it to mocking that he is not a qualified doctor?
"Then, anything else that need to be explained?" Sherlock asked.
John thought for a moment, and shook his head: "No more, Sherlock, you are free."
"Oh, great, then experiment, I need to do my experiment." Sherlock jumped up, and started to look around the room for his experimental equipments.
John stood up from the sofa and stretched his arms, he reckon the information he received today is a bit too much, considering his work tomorrow, John looked at his watch.
It's currently 8:24pm, yes, John felt it's time for some sleep, he has work at six tomorrow, he need to sleep early.
On the other side Sherlock is flipping the room upside down, muttering, "Oh my instruments, where have you gone?"
Walking towards his bedroom a thought flashed through John's head, he stopped and shouted at Sherlock, "Hey Sherlock, you still haven't told me where you went in the past few weeks!"
Hearing John's shouts, Sherlock's decision was to turn around and run downstairs, "Mrs. Hudson, where did you put my instruments? Mrs. Hudson!"
Obviously, Sherlock chose to ignore John's question.
A/N:
*1* about this ball stopping pulse thing, i just made it up and i don't know if it will actually work or not, so don't copy and don't try.