John was sitting on the sofa when Squish inched out of Sherlock's room. He watched as she slumped down next to him and gently patted her on the shoulder.
"Hey" he said, "you ok?" She looked up at him.
"As long as all their clothes stay on while I'm within 10 metres I will be" She smiled dryly, "Yeah I'm fine."
"You sure?" he asked, "Isn't it a bit weird. You know, your dad's girlfriend being here?"
She let out a bark of laughter, "That's what you're finding weird about this situation John?" He looked at her then smiled wryly.
"Well when you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous"
She sighed, "It is a bit weird though. He hasn't had a girlfriend before John. He barely ever lets anyone touch him. Barely lets ME in. So to see him like that with her… it's strange."
John nodded, "I know, but" He hesitated, "at the risk of sounding like a Sandra Bullock movie, he cares about you more then you'll ever know. He needs you." He smiled at her and gave her shoulder a squeeze.
She smiled back at him and got up. "I'm going to get into fresh clothes." She looked down at herself, "and a shower." She walked towards the bathroom that John had recently vacated and turned at the door,
"You're a good man John Watson and I have not got a clue why you put up with all our crap." He laughed as she closed the door behind her.
When she came out with her hair damp and wearing t-shirt and jeans, John was reading in his armchair. She leant against the doorway and smiled at the normality of the scene. Then jumped out of her skin as the door opened and the two men who had Sherlock had spoken to outside the other room came in.
One of them, the smaller one spoke in a thick Ukrainian accent.
"We have come to take her to the boss" he said pointing at her so there was no doubt as to whom he meant; John stood up and was shaking his head.
"No way, absolutely not"
But Squish laid a hand on his arm
"It's ok John, I don't think this is going to take long" she glanced at the man and he shook his head.
"That's what worries me" John pulled her around so he faced away from the two men, "you can't expect me to let you go alone into the arms of psychopath? Sherlock would never forgive me!"
"At this moment we don't have much of a choice." She walked towards the door and offered a smile, "Just tell Sherlock, Dan Brown, Angels and Demons" She exited the room, leaving John feeling very worried.
The strange party made its way down the corridor that twisted and turned its way into a straight line. After they had been walking for 5 and a half minutes Squish broke the silence.
"So he's your boyfriend then?" she nodded at the tall hulking figure on her right, the smaller man on her left looked around nervously.
She laughed not unkindly, "I doubt very much that he doesn't know already" she said gently, "Actually it might be the reason that you got hired in the first place, he likes to play games with us and you two are a good start."
The thin man hesitated, then said in an undertone, "I am very sorry, you got hurt, we didn't know that would happen"
"Your friend here didn't really do anything about it" an icy layer had slithered into her voice, "he held back someone who could've helped me" The man shrugged apologetically
"We don't want any trouble you see; just do what the big boss tells us, but little girls getting hurt? Not what we signed up for, we finish here, we get paid, we go" The girl looked at the man strangely.
"What's you name" she asked
The man looked puzzled, "Sasha, and he is Sergey"
"Where did he find you then Sasha?" she asked, "the hired hands with a conscience?" The man grunted non-committedly.
"We work in nightclub, long hours, and bad money. Then Mr Moriarty comes, say he will give us £9000 each for one job. What can we do? We say yes and when we are paid we will have enough for a small house by the sea."
She looked very sad at this and shook her head.
"Oh the best laid plans of mice and men" she murmured as they took a sharp left. The big man- Sergey, now spoke.
"You think we stupid" he asked, his voice surprisingly soft for a man his size. She looked him right in the eye.
"I think I've pulled too many of Mr Moriarty's employees out of the Thames to believe you're getting to the little house by the sea."
The two men exchanged a look as she continued, "You want my advice? Just go, leave. Take me wherever you've been told me to take me, and then get out of here, don't get paid, just go and maybe you'll live to see the house by the sea."
They came to a sudden stop outside another white door marked office. The two men looked at her in astonishment. She hesitated for a second, "Do you have a pen and a bit of paper?" she asked hurriedly.
Sergey scrabbled in a pocket and produced a receipt and a leaking biro. She took it and scribbled something on the receipt.
"Go to this address and ask for Brian. Tell him that Squish has sent him two of the best bouncers in the business." She thought for a second, "It'll probably help your case if you hold hands as well" She passed the smaller man the paper and the pen. He took it and looked at the address.
"Why." He asked, "We haven't helped you"
"Do you want too?" she asked, they looked at each other and then both nodded, "Tell my father, Stan Lee, X-men the last stand and Selena Gomez, the Muppets "
They both looked puzzled then nodded. She beamed a smile at them and offered a hand.
"Good luck" she said with a smile, and as each of the two men shook her hand solemnly, neither of them noticed as she slipped a long thin knife out of Sasha's pocket. They looked at each other again then at her, as she quietly slipped inside the door and it closed with a resounding click behind her.
Jim was sitting at an antique desk with shelves all around him and was working at a laptop; Moran was leaning on the desk and jumped up when she came into the room.
"Where are those Ukrainian fuckers?" he asked peering into the hall, "I told them to mop up after Green and then come see me" Squish said nothing and looked at him with ice in her eyes. Seb shrugged and pulled a chair out, so that she sat down opposite Moriarty. Moran positioned himself behind the chair, between her and the door. Jim closed the laptop and looked at her over his fingertips.
"So honey, how've you been?" he asked nonchalantly, "The good doctor been looking after you?"
"What you mean, making sure that I don't bleed to death after your pet breaks my ribs again?" she said acidly, "or do you mean using the medical supplies you blackmailed Sherlock into getting?"
"Yep, that pretty much covers it" Jim laughed coldly, "Don't tell me you haven't been enjoying our little game?"
She looked at him with a dark calculating gaze, "What's this really about Jim? Because I don't believe that even you would go to this much trouble just to play with Sherlock."
Jim looked back at her, his own gaze a mirror image of hers. His lip curled into a cruel smile, "Then tell me what this is really about. Little Holmes"
Squish's eyes closed and her mind began to race. A million possibilities ran through her mind like an eagle chasing a rabbit. She could hear Sherlock's voice telling her to observe and remember everything. Every word, every smell, every sight, they all linked together. Then the eagle swept downwards and caught the rabbit in its talons. Hey eyes snapped open. She said one word and from the look on Moriarty's face she knew she was right.
"Mycroft"
Jims smiled again and motioned for her to continue.
"That's why Seb was there at the party wasn't it. Not to threaten us, though I guess that was a bonus, but to see if you could break into to Mycroft's study. It's been a busy time for Mycroft, for once he's been bringing work home and I know that his club was broken into a few weeks ago. And that's why we're really here isn't it?"
Jim raised one eyebrow and she pressed on, "Mycroft for all his secrecy is still one man, and like most of us he uses one password for everything. His safe, his phone, even his room at his club. The Diogenes club uses a password known only to the computer and user. The computer is nearly impossible to hack, I know I've tried. You realised that you didn't have a hope in hell of guessing it and you also knew that there isn't any way that Mycroft would give it to you regardless of how you threaten him. So you got the only other person who will know it and then you got the means with which you can threaten him."
Jim clapped slowly. "Bravo" he said mockingly, his eyes gleaming with mischief and malice.
"I think that we can count that performance the success of Sherlock's experiment, though I wonder what he really achieved with his little enterprise." Now it was Squish's turn to raise an eyebrow,
"All he succeeded in doing is creating a useful bit of leverage. Because of you, I'm going to be able to control the British government, and any criminal with half a brain cell is going to realise how easy it is to probe Sherlock's weak spot. It's sad really; he's turned you into a victim for the rest of your life"
To Moriarty's surprise and annoyance, Squish appeared to find this little speech funny. A grin split her face and a giggle escaped her.
"Is this the part where you laugh manically and reveal the rest of your evil plan as I slowly inch towards the shark infested pool" she asked and continued to laugh even as Moran pulled her head back and hit her across the face.
"What can you possibly be finding funny about this situation?" Jim looked astonished as Squish suddenly became serious again and her mouth twisted into a sharp curve.
"That you think I'm a victim." She said and suddenly began to move.
She stood up briskly and kicked the chair backwards into Moran's kneecaps. As he fell forward slightly she slammed her elbow into his ribcage before bringing it sharply upward into his chin.
She heard the bone crunch and felt the floating rib give way beneath her hard elbow. She quickly turned and kicked the chair away from them and bringing her heel up, she slammed it down again into Moran's already weakened kneecap. He went down with a loud cry of pain as his joint slipped from its position and he crumpled on the carpet.
Jim watched this with a mixture of shock and anger and kicked the desk out of the way savagely. For a few seconds neither of the two moved, and they weighed each other up like cats in an alleyway. Both knew the fight that followed would be vicious and bloody and each was prepared for it in full.
Then Moriarty moved faster than a king cobra on a desert plain and punched the girl in the stomach viciously and then as she was winded, followed it up with a hook kick to the back of her knees, which caused her to fall forward onto the carpet.
From her position on the floor, Squish kicked upwards with both feet and was rewarded with a bang on target, blow to the groin. Jim fell on the floor and Squish stood up gracefully, slipped the knife out from its hiding place up her sleeve and placed it just above Jim's Adams apple.
"Didn't think you were naïve enough to think I wouldn't kick you there if I had half the chance" she said cheerfully, "Now isn't it amazing how much I remember about the key points in you anatomy, points where I could stick this lovely little knife and you'd die a long and agonising death? You know, Sherlock taught me about stiletto knives when I was 5, I didn't think I would remember all 22 points"
"Do it" Jim hissed, "Prove you have the guts to do it. Think about how much safer you'd be. How much safer Little Miss Molly and Johnny Boy would be if I wasn't here. Think about how much safer Sherlock would be. Because I promise if I don't leave here in a body bag, then I will not stop till you are all ash on the wind."
Squish's face changed slightly, she didn't lower the knife and she still kept the tip on Jim's throat but something died in her eyes and she said absently, "I guess we'll all be cinders then won't we." And slammed the knife into the wall where it quivered like a leaf in the breeze.
After cuffing Jim to the radiator with a pair of Lestrade's handcuffs that she'd stolen from Sherlock's bedside cabinet, she turned her attention to Moran who was still lying prone on the floor. She crouched beside him and watched as he looked at her with pools of loathing. She reached out with the tip of the knife and traced his jaw with it.
"You've scarred me for life" she whispered and continued to look at him as his rattling breath became almost non-existent, "I won't ever be able to forget you or what you did no matter how hard I try because I'll be reminded every time I look at myself in the mirror, so I think it's only fair that you don't forget me either."
With that she slashed with knife on his right cheek and then again, creating a cross from which a red ribbon pooled onto the floor.
She looked back at the two men as she reached the door and then turned and sprinted out of the room and down the corridor.