Hey everyone sorry it took me a little longer to update than last time. I hope enjoy and get ready for another Super Lucky Bonus Chapter! Oooo and before I forget. I don't own Harry Potter characters. You'll understand later.
Carmella looked a little worse in the car than she had in the flat. She held tightly to the door and her eyes were closed by the time John came out and slid in next to Sherlock. Once inside the cab started off.
"Are you car sick?" John asked Carmella but she didn't answer.
"Ear plugs." Sherlock said simply.
"Ear plugs? What about them?" John asked watching Carmella wince as a car went by beside them.
"She has ear plugs in, her hearing is more sensitive." Sherlock said demeanor cold as always.
"Of course, the virus." John muttered to himself.
The cab ride was quite as they traveled to Baskerville. Carmella seemed to relax more and more the further they traveled from the city. She once removed her ear plugs but it was clear that the engine was still too loud and put them back in before falling asleep.
"I wonder what it's like." John muttered looking out the widow.
"What what's like?" Sherlock asked staring up at some loose thread on the top of the cab ceiling.
John looked over to Carmella who was sleeping with a look of discomfort on her face, "What it's like to know how long you have left on Earth."
"We don't live forever." Sherlock said indifferently and pulled at the loose thread.
"I know, but, "John started and looked a little sad while looking at the sleeping woman, "We never know when we'll go. Be it tomorrow or in thirty years. She knows that she'll die, and at that how she'll die and that it won't be pleasant."
"We could crash right now." Sherlock said and tugged the thread free, "We could be in a horrible crash and know we'll be in pain or simply die. Then we'd be in the boat as Carmella but she doesn't fear it like most." Sherlock twisted the thread in his fingers effortlessly, "Most people fear death, we are such fragile things, but she faces this with some sort of higher calling or prowess knowing that if not this, something else."
John had to let that sink in. If not this, then something else. Sherlock was right, he had lived to combat and often thought he'd die but once that was over what? His visions of himself dying from a bullet or a hand to hand combat bout with some unknown man had faded and now it was being blown up or killed by one of the enemies Sherlock had made. If it wasn't that then it was something else. He knew he was going to die, if not in a crash or gun fight then old age. If not that…something else.
"Careful John," Sherlock said, a smirk forming on his lips, "I can hear the gears in your head turning to fast."
"Shut up!" John said punching the consulting detective in the arm.
At last they had arrived in the town of Baskerville and the cab's sudden stop seemed to have awakened Carmella. She sat up, rubbed her eyes then removed her ear plugs. She paid before getting out of the cab into the small town.
She stretched out, "I'll call to have someone get us." She said heading in to the small inn.
John got out the cab followed by Sherlock, "Hope we can get another look at that lab." Sherlock said fixing his scarf.
"I don't," John sighed, "Not after last time."
"Oh don't pretend you didn't have fun in that cage." Sherlock said into John's ear only to receive a sharp and decisive punch to the cheek.
"That was not fun." John said, a light pink on his cheeks, "You used me as guinea pig and scared me half to death."
"Oh come now it wasn't that bad." Sherlock said rolling his eyes.
"You try it then! You take that gas and be in a cage scared half to death!" John shouted.
"Um," both men turned to see Carmella standing behind them pointing to her mobile phone, "Turns out my phone works and someone will be here in a few- ok I'm sorry what was all that?" Carmella said shaking her head.
"Nothing." John said turning red and looking away from Carmella.
"Our last visit here we got a nasty dose of some gas and it was-"Sherlock began.
"Stimulated by fear and a stimulate; H.O.U.N.D I know." Carmella said shrugging.
"You know? How long have you known?" John asked spinning back around.
"We aren't officially," Carmella used air quotes for the word 'officially', "transferred to Baskerville for another few weeks but we've been here for a month working on the cure."
"So you've heard the gossip." Sherlock conclude.
"But of course, I may be from England but I was trained in America for good gossip." Carmella chuckled.
The conversion would have gone on but a large hummer like vehicle pulled up and out of the driver's seat came a fully clad solider and saluted.
"At ease." Carmella waved and got in the car, "Oh and my friends are coming along."
"But-"the solider began.
"I still out rank you, that makes this an order." Carmella said a biting edge in her voice.
"Of course." The solider got back in the driver's seat as John sat beside Carmella in the back and Sherlock sat in the passenger's seat.
"What do you rank?" John whispered as they started off towards the base.
"Oh I don't, I just said that once and now they all just do what I say." Carmella whispered back, "Works wonders when I want coffee."
John chuckled causing Sherlock to look back but he didn't ask; he really didn't care either way. The ride was a little rockier than either of the men remembered but it had been a while. Carmella slid her ID card up to the diver and once cleared inside the solider stopped at the lab and Carmella was once again the first to get out.
"If there's anything you need please let me know." The nameless solider said as John and Sherlock also got out.
"Of course." Carmella said not really giving him much mind as she headed for the secure door and swiped her ID.
Sherlock and John followed close behind as Carmella seamlessly weaved her way through the bustle of the labs. It seemed like ages before they got to the elevator, while Sherlock had kept up easily John had seemed to topple over a tray of medical equipment a few paces back while Carmella and Sherlock where waiting for the elevator doors to open.
"Look what you've done!" a woman shouted wearing a white lab coat and a plain black blouse and jeans on.
"I am so sorry I didn't mean to, please let me help." John said going to pick up some shards of glass.
The woman smacked John's hand away, "You fool! You can't touch any of this!"
"Oh do calm down Alex." Carmella said joining the two on the floor.
The dark haired, petite woman glared behind her red horned glasses. She stood at her full height, which was a head shorter Carmella and glared some more at the taller woman, a perfectly cold look on her face.
"I thought you were on leave." She said acidicly.
"I am; I'd like to show these two reporters the lab, seeing as though I am the head researcher on the project." Carmella said; face indifferent until the end where she crossed her arms and her face held a smug look.
Alex looked thoroughly annoyed until her face as well changed, a dark light filling her eyes, "Oh dear Carmella!" her volume increased causing the taller of the two to wince, "How dreadful it must be to have this virus, do your reporters know that?" she said near shouting.
Sherlock put a hand on Carmella's shoulder to keep the woman from springing and clawing the other woman's eyes out, "Actually yes, that is why we were so interested, aren't we Ron?" Sherlock said looking over to John.
John, who was picking up only the metal tools, looked up with a look on his face that was clearly saying 'you must be kidding me', "Um yeah, that's right Harry." John came up with lamely.
Alex looked over to John and Sherlock rolled his eyes while Carmella suppressed a laugh but when Alex looked back the two were composed.
"Harry?" Alex looked at Sherlock, "And Ron?" she said looking at John, "Are you kidding me?" she asked Carmella raising an eyebrow with a skeptical look on her face.
"What? They can't have common names?" Carmella came back with.
"Harry and Ron? What paper do they write for? The Hogwarts Express?" Alex asked crossing her arms, barely containing a smirk, "Who's the editor? Snape? Or maybe Dumbledore?"
"Oh yeah that's really funny." Carmella said glaring at Alex.
"Oh come off it. You're always reading those damn books and know you expect me to believe two reporters named Harry and Ron have come here? Please you just want back in the lab." Alex bit back.
The air was tense between the two women and cold. But Sherlock being Sherlock broke the tension.
"Ron and I are from the London Times Health and Wellness column. Dr. Cobromance told us of this deadly virus and how the cure was coming along." Sherlock lied smoothly.
John was shocked he hadn't known what Carmella's last name was but Alex still looked unconvinced, "The she should have told you we're nowhere near completion of the cure to be published yet." She said.
"That is true she told us but we wanted the good doctor's take on it before her untimely demise." Sherlock said patting Carmella's shoulder.
"Humph, good doctor my foot." Alex said and snatched the tools from John's hands, "I'll be down in twenty."
"Don't rush on my account." Carmella growled, "Please." She said when Alex looked back to glare.
The three got on the elevator, once the doors closed Carmella started to rub her temples.
"Well, she is delightful." Sherlock smiled, looking pleased with himself.
Carmella looked back at Sherlock who was standing behind her and John stepped aside once he saw the pure hate and disbelieve at Sherlock.
"What. Did. You. Just. Just. Say." Carmella said through gritted teeth.
"I said she was delight-"
Sherlock was met with a punch to the underside of his jaw. In the split second when it happened his and John's eyes widened. The woman for being so sick could punch. Sherlock stumbled backwards in the tight quarters only to hit his head against the opposite wall.
Carmella cracked her knuckles, face passive as John looked in shock from Carmella to Sherlock, only a few choking sounds where the only thing he could muster.
"Deduct that, bitch." Carmella spat at the elevator doors, "We're here." She said and got off the elevator.
"Lord! Sherlock are you alright?" John asked looking over the taller man.
Sherlock started to laugh, it was unnerving to John, "God she can still hit!"
"God, she must have hit you hard." John breathed and escorted Sherlock off the elevator and looked over Sherlock's jaw, "Can you see alright? Not getting tired?"
"Oh John relax." Sherlock said pushing John's hands off of him, "I'm fine, I've taken more than a few blows from Carmella, I must say I didn't think she'd hit me right away like that."
"You've mean she's hit you like that more than once?" John asked making sure the small framed woman hadn't done more than bruise the other man's jaw.
"Oh dozens, she used to get into rows with me all the time as children but not as many as with my brother." Sherlock chuckled and looked at John, "Really now, I'm alright."
"Are you two fucking coming?" Carmella snapped once again her raw British accent was clear in her voice.
"Glad to see that being in America improved your vocabulary." Sherlock chuckled only to earn another dark glare from the shorter woman.
"I'm sorry I didn't bloody hear you, you wanted a new black eye? Well it has been a few years since I've given you one; let's see if I've still got it." Carmella said rolling up she sleeves and Sherlock's smirk was only growing.
"Whoa now you two," John said getting between Carmella and Sherlock, "Your both acting like children."
"He started it." Carmella growled at which Sherlock stuck his tongue out at her.
"Sherlock behave!" John scolded, "I'll call Mrs. Hudson." John threatened.
"Oh what is she going to do?" Sherlock asked rolling his eyes.
John simply raised an eyebrow, "I'm sorry Carmella." Sherlock muttered.
"Yeah, me too."Carmella replied.
"Good, now then children if we can get inside. Play nice." John said eyeing the two full grown adults acting like five year olds, looking in opposite directions.
Carmella took a moment and slid the ID in card swipe and held the door, "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, after you." She chuckled.
"That's cute. Really adorable, you think hard about that one?" Sherlock asked, glaring down at Carmella.
"Sherlock I said behave." John said and pushed Sherlock inside.
Carmella followed and there was a fairly good sized lab sprawled out before them with a cooler at the far back emitting a hazy blue light, while the rest of the lab had cages for rats and mice as well as a monkey, all the cages had enough space for the animals to roam around and food for them as well.
A young man with a mop of brown hair, who looked a little mousy himself, was injecting a white lab rat with some unknown substance. He looked up, safety goggles blocking his dark eyes and nearly dropped the rat on the table.
"D-Dr. Cobromance? " He stuttered and put the rat in its small glass cage before coming over to Carmella, "I thought you were on leave." He said eyeing Carmella as if she was a ghost or some sort of experiment.
"Down Dmitri," Carmella said simply and pushed him lightly which might as well have been acid to the younger man.
He backed away quickly, fear in his eyes. Carmella looked saddened from John's point of view but only for a moment as her face composed into an emotionless mask, "Dmitri. That really is no way to behave; you know the virus is only transmitted through blood contact or some other sort of bodily fluid." Carmella said annoyance lacing her words.
"I-I know doctor, but I mean we can't be too careful, I mean we haven't really identified how the virus travels so well." Dmitri said removing his lab coat carefully and dumped it in a biohazard bag.
The sadness John thought he'd seen was replaced with anger, "The virus does not mix in with sweat, and it dies in open air. You are acting completely unprofessional." She said a near snarl.
Dmitri went to speak but once again Sherlock's hand went to Carmella's shoulder, "As I'm sure Dr. Cobromance will get to, we are reporters for the London Times and we'd like to interview everyone working on the tardus mortem vocationem project." Sherlock said smoothly, "May we?"
"Hold it hold it." Someone said and everyone turned to look as a blonde man came onto the scene.
He was holding a stack of papers and folders, jeans under his lab coat covered in an odd number of patches and goggles pushed up on his forehead.
"Carmella, you're not supposed to be within four hundred feet of this base until you-"
"Die, to be used as research." Carmella finished, crossing her arms.
The blond shook his head, it could be seen that he had a number of ear piercings, "I was going to say find the cure but that too."
"Sorry to let you down Jaiden but I've already put it in my will that my body is to go an old school friend for his uses and then cremated." Carmella smirked.
Jaiden ran a hand through his hair, "Aw come on we could use it to- wait, his uses? Don't tell me that he's gonna-"
"Finish that sentence and I swear the next person to get the virus will be you." Carmella said grabbing a syringe and popping the cap off in one swoop.
"Ok, ok easy now, I didn't mean nothing-"
"Double negative." Sherlock said looking into a cage filled with some rats.
"What?" Jaiden asked, "Hey hey! Don't touch that!" he shouted at John who had lifted the small glass crate with the rat Dmitri had been working on.
"You didn't mean nothing. That's double negative, what you should have said is 'I didn't mean anything' otherwise the words cancel out."
John put the cage down and Jaiden moved him over to stand near Carmella, "Ok look let's get this interview or whatever over."
"Wonderful," Sherlock said and pulled out his mobile phone, "Sorry I left my recorder in the office."
"You two should go in the office, you know don't want a chattering monkey in the background." Carmella said crossing her arms.
"Oh, um right this way." Jaiden said and directed both John and Sherlock to a back office.