"So what do we do?" John asked Scarlett as they sat in the back of a cab on their way to Canary Wharf. Both of them had high heart rates and the fear of what they could find was looming upon them.
"I don't know," Scarlett replied. "You normally go with Sherlock...doesn't he have an itinerary for this type of thing?"
"You're not at work now Scarlett," John told the girl with a faint smile. "We don't have a time for everything and Sherlock rarely has a plan in hand."
"Brilliant," she said sarcastically and looked out the window, trying to think of what they should do when they arrived at the large building and took the elevator up to the fortieth floor.
"Well we can't exactly walk into the floor where his offices are, can we?" she checked with John and he shook his head in agreement.
"No," he said. "And I don't think we should take the elevator either. There is always a chance that someone could be watching. I am sure he will have men in the building too."
"Agreed," Scarlett replied and looked in her bag for anything which might help and she smiled at a memory she had as she pulled out the pepper spray and handed John a can.
"And why do you have two cans of pepper spray in your bag?" John asked her. "And why haven't you used them on Sherlock yet?"
"My brother always stashed one in my bag before I went out on a date...he was like that," she shrugged. "I can't believe I still have them living in there."
"It's like Mary Poppin's bag that thing," John pointed over to it as she rummaged around in it, looking for her purse so she could pay the cabbie.
"So the plan?" Scarlett asked him and paid the fare, climbing out and looking onto the large building in complete and utter disillusion.
"Wing it," John simply said and took her hand as they walked into the building.
...
"Very good to meet you Mr Holmes," a distinct Cockney accent spoke to Sherlock as he was told to sit in a chair opposite the man, the desk the only thing between them. Two men stood behind Sherlock, guns poking out their pockets whilst the consulting detective paled slightly and ran a hand through his hair, adjusting the collar on his shirt as he somehow managed to look bored.
"I'd say the same," he drawled, "but under these circumstances I don't agree."
"You're very much to the point, aren't you?" Ian Morris chuckled at the rhetorical question. "But I've heard that you are."
"What else have you heard about me?" Sherlock asked. "I do know how people love to gossip."
"I've heard that you're a very intelligent man, Mr Holmes," he informed Sherlock. "That you have very few friends and yet you have multiple enemies.
"Enemies tend to be much more exciting, don't you think?" Sherlock replied. "Friends just tend to do what you ask them to."
"And I am afraid you have made an enemy out of me, Mr Holmes," Ian shook his head. "I did warn you, but, you didn't take my advice."
"I'm not a fan of taking anyone's advice," Sherlock replied. "Only my own."
"Clearly," the man replied in a low voice. "And I am very sorry that I am going to have to be the one to kill you."
"You don't seem sorry," Sherlock replied.
"Okay I'm not," Ian chuckled. "In fact...your death is quite big news in our business. It seems there are many people who want you dead."
"Oh, who?" Sherlock wondered.
"Just think of everyone you've helped to put away and then the list shall be easy for you to figure out," Ian spoke.
"I shall have a think about that this morning then," Sherlock replied and yawned, looking out onto the dark morning sky of the thirtieth of December.
"You do that," Ian told Sherlock with a nod. "You may also want to think about how you're going to die."
"I know that already," Sherlock rolled his eyes. "If you really want to surprise me then you should think about making these walls soundproof."
"You heard?" Ian checked and Sherlock nodded.
"About how you plan to attach a bomb to me whilst I stand and watch the celebrations of New Year opposite the London Eye and then detonate the bomb when the clock strikes midnight? Yes, I heard."
"Snazzy, isn't it?"
"Typically droll," Sherlock replied. "Moriarty did that months ago."
"Jim was a good friend of mine," Ian shook his head in slight sadness. "I think he'll be pleased to hear how I plan to kill our favourite detective."
"Consulting," Sherlock reminded him and Ian rolled his eyes.
"And do you honestly think I shall stand amongst all those people and wait to be blown up?" Sherlock asked and Ian chuckled darkly.
"What makes you think you have a say?"
"Boss!" a sudden voice shouted into the room and the door opened. Sherlock turned in his seat and his face dropped.
"Get your hands off me!" a woman snapped whilst a man's hands remained firmly around her waist, dragging her into the room. Behind, there was another suited man dragging in a small blonde by his upper arm.
"We found them lurking in the floor above," the man holding the girl spoke and Sherlock rolled his eyes.
"Didn't you think to go higher than one floor?" he asked them. "There's always a chance you will be heard. Especially in a big building like this."
"Quite clearly that thought never crossed our mind," Scarlett snapped at Sherlock as she motioned to the tall man who had hold of her. "Or else we wouldn't be in this situation."
"I take it you're Miss Jenson?" Ian asked her and she looked into his eyes.
"I take it you're Ian Morris?" she asked him boldly and he smiled, standing up and looking at John.
"And Dr Watson too," his smile became broad. "How very brave of you to come here tonight."
"Technically it's morning," Scarlett replied and he walked over to her, taking her chin into his hands and making her look at him whilst she wriggled in his henchman's grip.
"Very feisty, aren't you?" he chuckled.
"I just don't appreciate being near scum like you," she replied and Sherlock stood up, raising a brow at her. Since when did she become so bold? Normally she was as shy as a mouse. When she was in a life and death situation with Moriarty she had been begging for her life.
"Hold your tongue," Ian warned her and he suddenly slapped her across the face as Sherlock rushed over to her and pushed Ian from her body, taking her into his own arms as the man holding her let go.
"Don't touch her," Sherlock warned him. Scarlett felt the consulting detective's pulse quicken as he held tightly onto her and she glared at Ian.
"Hitting women around," she informed him, "is not a very manly thing to do."
"Get them out of my sight," Ian snapped at his men. "And make sure they don't go anywhere."
...
"I have to say," Sherlock drawled as he rested on the sofa in the prison room and looked at John and Scarlett, "that as far as rescue attempts go, yours is by far the worst I have seen."
"At least we tried," Scarlett mumbled. "It wasn't easy."
"How did you manage to find me?" Sherlock asked them. "I have to say that I am impressed you did so."
"Ask Scarlett," John couldn't help but allow a sly smile to escape his lips as he remained cuffed to the piping of the switched off radiator and Scarlett was cuffed to the handle of a desk drawer. Sherlock was the only one who was not restrained.
"I kind of knocked your brother out," she told Sherlock who managed to open one eye and look down to the floor at her.
"How did you manage that?" he wondered.
"Well he wouldn't tell us who Ian was or where he was and so I kind of pulled a gun out and got John to raid his drawers whilst I held him at gunpoint," Scarlett explained.
"And I managed to find Irene Adler's file and we found you from that," John concluded.
"Still doesn't explain why you knocked my brother out. Not that I am completely repulsed by the idea of doing so myself," Sherlock replied.
"He...Sherlock...he said that our baby had a lucky escape...that with my brains it had no hope..." Scarlett managed to tell him and he opened his eyes fully and sat up, looking over at her.
"He said that?" he asked her and she nodded.
"I just got annoyed with him," Scarlett explained. "He was being an arse."
"You should have just shot him," Sherlock replied in a slow drawl. "I may have done."
"You wouldn't have," Scarlett replied. "And I had thought of it."
"No one should say anything so harsh," Sherlock shook his head.
"And that's coming from the harshest man in London," John chipped in and Scarlett chuckled in agreement.
"Anyway," she shook it off. "Do you have a plan to get out of here?"
"When there are five armed men guarding the outside corridor and can see us visibly through the glass?" Sherlock asked her. "No, I don't have a plan."
"Aren't you going to think of one?" Scarlett asked him hurriedly. "I mean...we can't stay here forever...he will kill us..."
"It's only me he wants dead at this moment in time," Sherlock said slowly. "And he shall have his wish by midnight tomorrow."
"What are you talking about?" John asked his friend.
"He plans to place a bomb onto me on New Year's Eve...make me join in the celebrations and then when Big Ben strikes twelve he plans to detonate the bomb," Sherlock told them and Scarlett shook her head whilst John's mouth fell slightly open.
"That will make the headlines," John said slowly.
"I've made the headlines before John," Sherlock replied. "The excitement of doing so wears out."
"No," Scarlett said. "He can't...he can't do that..."
"Oh I do believe he can," Sherlock replied. "And at the moment I have no way out of here."
"There has to be a way," Scarlett began to cry slightly. "You can't...you can't..."
"Believe me, I can die Scarlett," Sherlock assured her. "I'm not invincible."
"Yes you are," she replied. "You're Sherlock Holmes...you've survived plenty before...he can't do this to you..."
"You need to calm down Scarlett," Sherlock told her, sitting on the edge of the sofa.
"Calm down?" she spat out and began tugging at the handcuffs, trying to break them off. "How can I calm down knowing...what he's going to do...to you..." she managed to spit out deep breaths whilst Sherlock knelt in front of her and rested his hands onto her cheeks, making her look at him.
"I'm going to try and find a way out of this," he told her. "I promise you that...but the odds aren't looking favourable at this moment in time."
"What will I do without you?" she sobbed and with her free hand she rested it onto his which was on her cheek.
"You will carry on looking after John," he told her and John rolled his eyes.
"I'm not a dog Sherlock," he told his friend who looked over to him and smirked.
"You're not nearly as well behaved as a dog," he told him and then looked back at Scarlett.
"I don't know what to do," she whispered. "Without you..."
"You've managed twenty six years without me Scarlett," he informed her. "And you can manage a few more I do believe."
"I can't," she shook her head. "I can't...I love you Sherlock..."
"I know," Sherlock replied and rested his forehead against hers, her hot panting breath on his cheek. "But you'll carry on with your life Scarlett. You'll wake up in the morning and keep drinking that awful hot chocolate, you'll go to work and manage to get through the day with that old hag Mary...you'll keep going out with your friends and getting drunk...stumbling into the flat in a happy mood at three in the morning...and you'll keep on cluttering our room with your clothes and make up...and one day...you'll forget about me."
"Don't be stupid," she snapped suddenly. "How can I forget about you?"
"Okay," he nodded. "Maybe not forget...but you'll move on...your life will continue and the world shall still spin..."
"Orbiting the sun," John interjected and Sherlock rolled his eyes.
"Regardless," Sherlock shook his head. "Time shall still go by."
"Please find a way out," she begged him and he nodded.
"I shall try," he promised her. "I shall try."
"You just can't die on me..." she whispered. "Not now..."
"I'd prefer not to die on you at any moment, never mind now." Sherlock informed her. "Maybe your life will be normal in the future."
"I don't care," she responded. "I don't want normal. I want you."
"I want never gets," Sherlock replied.
"I'm an exception to that rule," she told him.
"You're an exception to many rules," and then he kissed her gently on the lips, his fingers curling under her chin whilst John looked away for a moment, giving them what little privacy they could have.
...
A/N: Not long left to go now! In the next chapter the plan shall be put into action and we shall see the results! I have two different endings for the story but I favour one more than another so we shall see! Anyway, thank you to Che and eruptingearth who have reviewed today and thank you to anyone reading. Please do review!