A Silent Game

A Silence Too Close To Home

Sitting in Lestrade's office the next morning, they were all thinking about the previous day's events. Rose had decided that she liked wearing the formal work clothes and had decided to wear her other one today, a clean pair of black trousers to go with it, along with her ankle boot heels. She decided that it would be what she wore for working with Sherlock from now on and she would have to pick up some more shirts soon, perhaps in a few different colours.

John sat in the chair next to her, Lestrade sitting behind his desk and Sherlock facing the glass wall of the office, his hands pulled up to his face, palm to palm, fingers twitching every few seconds.

"She lives in Cornwall." Lestrade was saying. "Two men broke in wearing masks, forced her to drive to the car park and decked her out in enough explosives to take down a house."

"Jesus…" Whispered Rose as she heard the story, Sherlock going to stand behind John as she did so.

"They told her to phone you." Lestrade said, looking towards Sherlock. He handed Rose the devise. "Check the read out from this - pager."

"And if she deviated by one word, the sniper would sent her off." Sherlock said, still walking around the room, heading back to the glass wall.

"Or if you hadn't solved the case." John chipped in.

"Oh…Elegant!" Complemented Sherlock, confusing the others.

Rose frowned though, looking to the man. "Elegant?" She couldn't find any angle that could be considered elegant with this case.

Lestrade had a better question though. "What was the point? Why would anyone do this?"

Sherlock had an answer for this one it seemed. "Oh… I can't be the only person in the world who gets bored." Rose sighed at this, knowing he was right, but still not liking the answer.

The pink phone beeped just then, drawing all eyes to Sherlock as he was hiding the screen form their line of sight. "You have one new message." They heard, followed by the same pips as before, just one less.

"Four pips now?" Rose asked.

"First test passed, it would seem." Answered Sherlock. "Here's the second."

He showed them the picture that was now filling the screen, showing a car with a licence plate and the doors open.

"Looks abandoned, wouldn't you say?" Asked Sherlock rhetorically as Lestrade took the pink devise.

"I'll see if it's been reported." Muttered the DI, going to do just that, leaving the three of them in the glass room.

The door opened, revealing Sally Donovan with a cordless phone in her hand. "Freak, it's for you." She said.

Rose frowned at the nickname, watching as Sherlock took the phone and went out into the offices. He was unaware of Rose following him out of the room.

"Hello?" Sherlock asked, suspicions swimming in his head.

"Its okay that you've gone to the police." Rose could heard the muffled words through the strangely loud phone, even though it wasn't on loud speaker. What she heard made her heart race, her breath hitch and her blood run cold, all at once.

Sherlock turned to see her pale face, noting the way her right hand was tugging at her wrist, as though trying to find something that wasn't there. "Who is this?" He asked. "Is this you again?"

A shaky voice answered and Rose felt her eyes well up at the voice. "But don't reply on them." Sherlock had a good idea how he was now speaking to on the other end of the line. Welsh accent, voice similar to Zach's, trying to hold back emotion; he had a very good idea of who the man might be.

Acting quickly, he gave a quick knock on the glass, causing John to look up. Sherlock flicked his gaze to Rose who was slowly inching forward towards him.

John looked up at the sharp tap and saw Sherlock indicate to Rose. The doctor knew immediately that something was wrong and shot out of his seat, running out of the room just as Rose took a step forward. Get her out of here, Sherlock mouthed, chin motioning to the exit. John threw him a confused look, while Rose took another step forward.

Sherlock saw that time was running out before she made a grab for the devise in his hands and he couldn't let her do it; she could compromise the entire case if she did, putting several lives in serious danger. Covering the mouth piece of the phone, he hissed to John, "Now!"

The sharp noise broke Rose out of her fear induced state and she made a wild dash for the phone. John caught her just in time, fighting to get her out of the door they were nearest to, trying to get her into the hall way.

Sherlock turned his back to his friends reluctantly, trying to concentrate on the bomber that wouldn't wait for them. "Clever you. Guessing about Carl Powers." The man shakily continued. "I never liked him. Carl laughed at me so I stopped him laughing."

"You've stolen another voice, I presume." Sherlock deduced.

"This is about you and me." The voice replied. But that wasn't the only thing the Consulting Detective heard.

"Who are you? What's that noise?"

"It's the sound of life, Sherlock. But don't worry…" The man started to sob. "I can soon fix that." The man collected himself it seemed, his voice a little steadier. "You solved my last puzzle in nine hours. This time you have eight." The call ended then, leaving Sherlock stood completely still, trying to process all that happened, could happen, and would defiantly happen; both with the bomber and his friends.

John wrestled his frantic friend out into the deserted corridor, but she tried to get back into the room. He held steady though, trusting Sherlock knew what he was doing. He pushed her against the wall, pulling her arms around her back. All the while she was murmuring cries of "No" or "Please." Sometimes both.

It broke John's heart to see the strong woman so broken and upset.

"Calm down, Rose." John tried to say in a soothing tone, but she only tried harder to push him off. "I don't want to hurt you, just calm down!" He said a little more forcefully.

As she felt the pressure on her arms get a little more forceful, she stopped to think for a moment. Fighting John will get you nowhere, she thought, a panicky tone even in the voice of her mind. But what do I do now? So she chose to do what she always did when she was in any sort of trouble or had any sort of problem; she made a plan.

John noticed that she was slowly relaxing, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself. "You alright?" He asked, knowing it was a stupid question but he didn't know what else to say. She nodded. "Okay. I'm going to let you go now, alright?" Rose just nodded again; she didn't trust her voice.

As he let her arms go, still wary of her making a dash to the phone again, he watched her closely. She rolled her shoulders again, rubbing her neck slightly.

As she rubbed her neck, she saw him relax slightly, seeing she wasn't going to make a run for the door again. He was standing slightly between her and the door to the offices anyway, so he would catch her if she tried. But that wasn't where she was going.

She counted to three in her head and then bolted, not for the door to the offices, but to the exit, heading out into the street. She silently thanked Sherlock for having her run about so much, allowing her to run a little faster than she used to be able to go. Pushing open the doors, she heard John's breathless shout of her name. She paid no attention, running out of the building and down the street, thinking about what turns to take to occupy her emotionally wrecked mind.

It wasn't enough though and she soon found herself throwing up into a nearby shrub at the thought of what was happening.

At the thought of the bomber holding Joe hostage.