"How can you have been so stupid John" Sherlock looked out into space in his mind palace pose.
"She barely got through what happened last time she was alone with them and now you've given her over willingly?"
Molly was in the kitchen and came out with three mugs of tea.
"Don't be mean to John" she admonished as she past him a mug, "It wasn't his fault and he couldn't have done anything to stop them anyway, and you underestimate Squish, she'll be ok"
Sherlock looked at her and took her hand in his, "What did she tell you again" he asked looking at John
"All she said was, Dan Brown Angel and Demons. Any ideas?"
Sherlock looked at him witheringly, "8 so far" John could almost taste the sarcasm in his voice and was almost relieved when the door once again.
The two men who had taken the girl away, walked in. They looked exceedingly nervous and were holding hands tightly. Sherlock rose quickly and crossed the space between them in a step. He stood in front of the smaller man and his eyes were black pits.
"Where is my daughter" he asked, the room seemed to get colder and the man took an involuntary step awkward against the force that was being exuded from Sherlock. The big man now stepped between the two men and spoke brokenly
"She gives us message for you" he said, his accent was more pronounced then his friend's John thought and Sherlock also took a step back.
"And" he said raising one eyebrow. The small man sighed and stepped forward again.
"She said to tell you, Stan Lee, X-Men the Last Stand and Selena Gomez, The Muppets. It means nothing to me; I hope it does to you." They turned to go and the shorter of the two exited the room swiftly, but the other paused at the door and looked back at Sherlock.
"I am sorry" he said, "For when she was hurt." And then he too left quickly. Sherlock looked at the door for a minute then appeared to reawaken from his reverie. He turned back to John
"Ok, 3 ideas" he said, somewhat ruefully, "and none of them are particularly plausible. What does she mean? Who is 'Selena Gomez'? Why is that significant?" He slammed himself down onto the sofa beside Molly who sighed and laid her head on his chest.
"Selena Gomez is an actress and a pop musician" she said, "She was Justin Beiber's long term girlfriend and she cameoed in the Muppet Movies with a load of other people" Sherlock's eyes closed for a second and then reopened quickly.
He gently moved Molly and then looked at her, his eyes alight with the excitement of the game.
"The setting for Angel and Demons is the Vatican, Stan Lee and this Selena Gomez woman both made cameos in films- Vatican Cameos" he said excitedly, and John quickly caught the reference
"That's an old army code word." He said, "It means 'everybody duck', they used it in World War 2 if a guy walked into a base with a knife or something" When he saw the look that Sherlock gave him he said, somewhat annoyed,
"I was in the army Sherlock; I didn't just make it up to impress you and I was actually interested in the training they gave me!"
Sherlock just shrugged, "Anyway, Squish and I also use the same code word in situations where um, physical force needs to be used."
"You mean when she's about to kick a guy in the bollocks?" John asked innocently. Sherlock turned to him furiously, but his voice when he spoke was his normal smooth, sarcastic baritone
"Yes John, 'when she's about to kick someone in the bollocks', couldn't have put more elegantly myself"
"So what you reckon she's kicked Moriarty and Moran in the balls?" John sounded incredulous at the thought of Squish going up against them.
"Well I think I did a bit more than that" a voice said from the door; Squish was leaning against the doorframe with a grin on her face. She walked into the room with her hands in her pockets,
"how could you idiots, not notice that Sasha and Sergey left the door unlocked?"
"Sasha and Sergey?" asked John, "First name terms?"
"They're a very nice couple and I really hope they get out of this shit alive" she replied, "Now get your shit together we've got to go"
Molly got up as did Sherlock; John took their empty mugs to the kitchen and washed them up. When he came out again the looks that came at him made him pause. John held up his hands in surrender
"I know it's weird but I don't like to leave a mess.
"The army really fucked you up didn't it?" Squish commented as she peered out into the corridor.
"And John if you really want a demonstration of why you shouldn't sound so surprised that I could actually beat someone up, I'm happy to oblige, but for your information Moran has got a dislocated and, most likely broken, knee and Jim's handcuffed to a radiator, so I think I'm good"
The party trooped out into the corridor and stood looking down in it as if hoping for a friendly sign to point the way. Squish slipped in between John and Sherlock and said,
"So, anyone have any idea which way to go?" They all looked at her incredulously.
"You mean you don't know?" asked Molly, "I thought you had the plan?"
Squish looked back equally incredulously, "he's meant to be the genius" she replied, waving a hand in Sherlock's general direction, "I'm just the plucky young girl who helps him out. I got us this far, now he gets us out" She gazed at John and Molly happily and looked bemused as they exchanged worried expressions, "don't worry he has an excellent sense of direction, like a pigeon"
Sherlock, who was by now half way out of sight turned and said, "A pigeon? That's the best you could come up with?"
The three of them ran to catch him up, Squish replied
"Well you're long legged, considered an annoyance to society and always find your way home. You basically are a giant pigeon."
Sherlock didn't say anything but his forehead furrowed in annoyance and he then continued down the corridor swiftly. Squish winked cheekily at John as they followed behind him.
John, Molly and Squish all jogged to keep up with Sherlock, as he strode off confidently through the maze of corridors and white doors. Eventually they arrived at another white door which Sherlock opened confidently and revealed a flight of stairs, which he immediately went up. The other three followed him more cautiously and emerged incredulously onto a bustling London street.
It was strange to see taxis driving and almost running over people the way only London taxi drivers could. Bitchy women in fur coats and designer handbags strutted down the street like overdressed peacocks, European nannies pushed prams with squalling babies; life continued around them.
"Do you have a phone?" Molly asked John, then at the other two, when he shook his head. Sherlock scoffed
"Dull" Squish grabbed his arm as Sherlock walked towards the milling crowd.
"What are you going to do Sherlock?" she asked warily, "I don't want a repeat Lestrade's lecture on why I should check your pockets for illegal firearms before we leave the house" Sherlock raised an eyebrow
"I'm going to ask that nice Russian nanny over there if I can borrow her phone, as you can see she's just broken up with her girlfriend and as the phone isn't in use right now because she only uses it to text her now ex-girlfriend, I'm sure she would be kind enough to let me call Lestrade. On his personal number"
"Oh. Right" she let go of his arm, "please, carry on"
He sauntered over to the woman who was distractedly pushing a pram containing a screaming baby while gazing longingly at a 10 year old Nokia that was decorated with sparkly nail varnish and stickers, he talked to her for about two minutes and the came back to them triumphantly brandishing the phone like a trophy. He dialled a number; with the same flourish that pianist has after finishing a particularly hard concerto then began talking quickly into the mouthpiece.
"Lestrade? Yes it's Sherlock. Where are we? We're by Postman's Park, yes we do need picking up. The two 'bad guys' are either incapacitated or gone. I'd guess that at least one of them has disappeared but I wouldn't like to say for sure. Yes, we'll stay put. Goodbye" He hung up and looked rather pleased with himself, "It's all going rather well, isn't it?" The sound of sirens could be heard approaching them and Squish breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.
It wasn't over. It turned out that Lestrade had been about to turn the investigation into a murder enquiry, a fact that Sherlock found incredibly funny and said 'proved the incompetence of the British police force', but what it meant that there was paperwork to fill in and then Mycroft needed to talk to them.
So now she was trying to stay awake by pouring coffee granules on her tongue. The adrenaline that had been keeping her ticking over had now completely dissipated and with nothing to distract her, she was able to concentrate fully on the pain in her back. They had been taken to a conference room with a long wooden table in the middle of it. Stacks of paper were piled up on the one side and Lestrade was working his way through it.
Slowly.
Sherlock and Molly had gone (at Molly's request and Squish suspected that they were deliberately dawdling) in search of coffee, leaving her and John to wait in a silence. John saw her flinch a little as she leant against the chair and leant across the table
"We'll go straight to the hospital as soon as we're done, and get you some pain killers" he promised. She groaned and threw her head over the back of the chair, so that her hair fell away from her skull.
"John, neither Moriarty nor Moran were there by the time Lestrade got to them, there was one CCTV camera that managed to catch me and Sherlock getting into a car and none that even saw you or Molly. Donavon and Anderson think we're making it up to protect Sherlock, basically making it our word against theirs. So I don't think we're finishing here anytime soon."
John sighed, "Just try and stay awake" Her eyes were closed and he wasn't even completely sure that she had heard him but he persevered. "Please?"
She opened one eye. If anyone in the history of the world could project pure, undiluted sarcasm into the opening of an eye, John thought, it was the daughter of Sherlock Homes. He heard her give a small whimper as she sat up again.
"Ok but I swear if Anderson starts talking about how I should have a social worker again, I'm tweeting about him and Sally and then I'm putting it up on the blog along with those photos that Sherlock took and then I'm calling the Sun with the photos. Anderson may not be Prince Harry but a sordid affair in the upper ranks of Scotland Yard will sell"
John frowned, "I thought I got Sherlock to burn those photos?" Squish did at least have the decency to be embarrassed.
"After the effort I went to get the damn things? That tree outside Donavon's flat was high you know. And that spy camera was difficult to install. And Sherlock didn't distract them for long enough and they both came back. Together." She shuddered dramatically. "I saw things John. Things even I don't want to believe"
At that moment Sherlock and Molly came back in. Molly was clutching a tray of polystyrene cups and passed two down the table.
"Here" she said smiling at the pair of them, "Hopefully this'll keep you awake for a little bit longer" They took the cups and sipped them gratefully, both grimaced at the taste. Squish stuck her tongue out.
"Hot!" she said as she tried to look down at it. Sherlock turned to Lestrade.
"Really Inspector, how long are you going to keep us here?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, "We have all been questioned and there really isn't any reason to keep us here other than your ego"
"My ego?" blustered Lestrade, "Really Sherlock?" As the two men began to trade barbs, Squish groaned again, this time in frustration.
"It's gonna be a long night" she sighed, laying her head on the table. By the time her coffee had cooled down, she was half asleep. By the time Mycroft arrived at New Scotland Yard, both her and John were asleep. By the time Lestrade had finished his paperwork, all of them even Sherlock was asleep.
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Hello, it seems I always finish on people falling asleep but anyway. I only have a few chapters of this thing left and thought I would let you know. I have a few ideas about a possible sequel but I'm not sure yet. If you do want this story to continue leave a comment or PM me. Thank yoooooou xx