AN: Sorry for the delay dears; my laptop actually died on me just after I posted the part-1. And only today I got it repaired. So well anyway, I am posting the part-2 now. But it looks like this chapter-10 is going to be atleast a three-parter now. And it's mostly because I seem to have pathetic 'Precise writing' skills! :/

And yes it was written in a terrible hurry; so please pardon any errors that you may find.

WARNING : Non graphic depiction of a crime scene.

CHAPTER 10

BACK TO CHASE!

PART-2

...But realizing all these things now was not much useful as his shift was on till at least 6 'o' clock in the morning. And he couldn't even suddenly bail out saying some excuse or the other since most of the other senior doctors were on off due to some new variety of flu virus doing the rounds. And therefore there were only 1 other junior doctor and 1 intern on duty in the Trauma ward that night.

So as much as he hated to, John sadly had no other choice but to dash Sherly's excited hopes about having a nice late night take-away dinner and movie that night...

When John told that to Sherly, she just went suddenly silent altogether; increasing John's guilt manifold... So he then promised her that tomorrow whole day they could do everything she liked including tracking down Lestrade and pestering him at his crime scene. The last part thankfully however earned a mildly happy chuckle from her, easing John's guilt at least partly.

Then just as he hung up the call, he decided to some rectifications of his mistakes. And the first thing he then did was to call Lestrade.

...

Lestrade who had just started to fall asleep again, cursed all the stupid stars that ruled his fate and picked up the call without bothering to see the caller ID thinking it must be from the Yard. But when he heard John's voice on the other end, he panicked thinking something bad must have happened to Sherline, if John was calling at such an odd time and said, " Is everything okay John? Is Sherline fine?"

"Oh, sorry Greg didn't want to scare you. Thought you did be awake anyway after Sherly's untimely and scary alarm... But guess I woke you up again, eh?"

"Ah...yes actually you kind of did mate. But hey now that I am awake anyway, tell me why you called? And if it is to say me not to kill your dear friend, then I would need a good bribe of quite few drinks to spare her this time, I will tell you that before itself! Seriously she made my voice sound so horrible that even I was scared of it! And for the record, I sound great when I sing!"

John who was laughing added, "Hey atleast you didn't get death glares from a grandma for celebrating her poor husband's freedom now, did you?" He heard a snort from the other end in reply. He then continued, "Well, actually I kind of did call you for her sake mate... She really needs a case to keep her sanity. And now that she is finally entered into her second trimester, it is a bit more safe than the first for doing physical work. And I do not have the heart to restrict her to the house anymore when there is no actual immediate danger to her health. And moreover I have been acting like a complete fool and neglecting her company and leaving her alone in order to work more shifts here at the hospital. So I was kind of hoping that you would give her some case of her type; you know something twisted and complicated to keep her interest for atleast a day or two?"John said the last words with a hopeful voice.

Lestrade: "Well John, when you put it like that, how can I refuse? I actually do have a case which I wanted her opinion on; but I thought it might not be good to get her too excited on a chase in this situation and was keeping it on a back burner till now. So well, I guess will call her tomorrow and give her the details then. And mate hope you will accompany her too; I don't want her running behind a killer all alone now, okay?"

John: "Thank you so much mate! I owe you one. No wait, I will treat you and your new girlfriend tomorrow itself, what say? There is that new stylish Italian restaurant which had opened near the hospital few days back; I have been planning to try it out since then. So if you both are free, we can all go there for dinner."

Lestrade answered with mirthful voice, "Well I will ask my 'new girlfriend' as you deliberately put it and if she agrees, then we have a deal mate."

John laughed and then ended the call after apologizing to him once more and bidding him goodnight. He was really hoping that tomorrow he could somehow makeup for all the stupid mistakes he had been doing so far and bring a smile on Sherline's face.

...

Sherly was actually dejected that John couldn't make it that night. But then she was hoping that tomorrow even if not Lestrade by himself, atleast John would somehow manage to persuade him to give her a nice interesting case. And thinking about all the excitement about the next day, she did not even know when she fell asleep.

...

The next day Sherly thankfully woke up to a call from Lestrade instead of the usual yell from Mrs. Hudson or John to get up and eat something. Lestrade informed her that he had a case for her and asked her to come to the Yard by afternoon to come and get the case files. But Sherline as expected asked him why she couldn't she come in the morning and get it from him. And he replied that he was on another case at Westminster just then. So as expected, Sherline did not waste another moment to get up and get ready for the new case that waited for her at Westminster!

As Sherly came fully dressed for a chase and yelled John's name, all she heard was silence. So she went to room to check if he was so crashed after yesterday night's shift that he was still sleeping, but found that his room was untouched. Then just as she was going to dial his number, John himself called. He said that he had been held up due to a multiple accident case and since most of the victims were still in a critical stage, he would be home by only around noon at the earliest.

...

John hadn't slept a wink for almost 24 hours by that morning. He had been on a continuous shift the previous day. And now since the victims, out of which one was a small boy, were all mostly in a critical condition and since the other doctors who had come back to duty only that morning, needed to be briefed the cases properly, he decided to wait atleast for few more hours to see whether they would be in a better condition before he finished the duty for the day.

Even though he had been planning on returning home early to catch some sleep and then call Lestrade for the case he had promised, so that he could go on a chase with Sherline, he knew that the current situation needed his attention more. He knew that sometimes duty does come first especially if there were lives at danger...

But nevertheless, he was feeling immensely guilty for not being able to keep his promise. And he just hoped that Sherline understood the situation and would forgive him for that.

...

But John didn't have to worry himself so much because luckily for him, Sherline did understand that fact despite what she said about the so called 'caring lark' of his, earlier. She now knew that when lives are at stake, almost nothing else should matter; especially now after spending three years in sabbatical for saving the lives of the people she cared.

So she said to him that Lestrade had called her few minutes back with a new case and she was going to Westminster to meet him there. And that after finishing his duty if he was feeling well enough to come for a chase, he could join her there. She told him that she will message the address later and ended the call.

Sherline then scoured the internet to find what was the breaking news in the Westminster locality, to zero in on Lestrade's case and to find its address. Atlast after few seconds of searching, she found a possible location and left for there.

...

When Sherline arrived at the crime scene, even before she noticed anything or anyone, what she saw was a shirtless man lying on the floor with frothy saliva pooling on the floor, near the door. She then scanned the room for something and when she found the item she crouched down and inspected it with her magnifying glass; all the while not touching any surface. Then after thoroughly checking the item to her satisfaction, she gave an accomplished smile evidently solving the case with that final glance.

But as she was getting up from her crouch, she suddenly started to feel nauseated and rushed to the bushes outside the house.

And just as she was straightening herselfback after being sick, she found that someone was extending some tissues to her. She took them gratefully and wiped her face. And when she turned to face the person to thank them, the face of the person she saw, completely surprised her.

And since Sherly would never give that credit to anyone, she tried her best to hide that fact. But evidently she had failed miserably if the loud mirthful laugh was any indication.

Sgt. Sally Donavan then said playfully, "Seriously Freak, your acting capabilities have gone down the drain without much practise I guess. Because if you continue like this, then even I would have to start to doubt my 'you are a certified psychopath' theory... Now wouldn't that be sad, hmm? " She then gave her a bottle of water after that.

Sherline who was trying her best to manage her embarrassment said, "Sally, I see that Scotland Yard is as useless as it had been three years ago and is still continuing to employ people like you. Pity that. Well anyway, I see that you are doing well. Steady boyfriend?" And then she took the offered bottle and drank a sip form it.

Sally surprisingly only smiled and said, "You know what? I actually missed these acidic talks from you. And guess it will be even more interesting now that pregnancy hormones are surging through your body. I know it because it almost turned me into a Godzilla for few days that even Lestrade maintained few feet distance from me during those days. It is really funny when your boss orders you staring at the wall behind you, unable to maintain eye contact with you!" She laughed good-naturedly.

Sherline who was surprised again, added, "Oh so you and your boyfriend have a baby? And I hope Anderson is not your boyfriend by the way, because I would really have to pity that baby then."

Sally proudly said, "Actually Allan is one and half years old. And his father is not my boyfriend, he is my husband. And no, Anderson is not my husband. But I hope his wife doesn't hear you saying that, because she is actually due to deliver their baby next month. And yes, before you say anything else let me tell you that they just reconciled a year back after continued grovelling from him which lasted almost 2 years. So if you would be kind enough not to spoil their currently settled life, I would surely be grateful to you!" She then proceeded to show her a shining wedding ring which was hung on a chain around her neck.

Sherly had no idea how she could miss so many things all at once. But she then thought that since Sally often was at crime scenes which required wearing gloves, she must have been wearing the ring around her neck all the time; hence missing the vital clue of ring imprint on her fingers.

Anyway, she somehow managed to get her wits back on time and decided to end the awkward conversation. So she simply said, "Well, I need to go inside and tell Lestrade that I solved the case before your stupid forensic team destroy all the vital clues and bag in all the wrong ones. And well, ah... thank you for these." She said the last words indicating to the extra tissues and bottle of water in her hand and walked towards the door.

And just as she was entering the house again, she heard something that sounded like, "Good to have you back." But she was sure it must have been her hormones playing trick on her and brushed it off her mind.

AN: I will hopefully update the next part tomorrow. And yeah reviews do encourage me to write faster. So *hint hint* *wink wink*. ;D