Dear God, He's Gone and Done It

by Shortstakk7932

Is it possible that the unshakable Sherlock Holmes has fallen in love with someone other than himself? Usual Sherlock players an OC. Rated T for now, but reserving the option to make it an M later. Changed cover image. If it is your work, and I have offended, kindly let me know and I will remove it. Thanx.

16. Dear God, He's Gone and Done It 16

Dear God, He's Gone and Done It: Chapter 16

Recap++++ "Moran is the Butcher!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SH~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With that Mary snatched her mobile out of her pocket and began sending rapid fire texts and running out of the building.

Mycroft unlocked a drawer on his desk, withdrawing a small box, and using his thumb print he was able to open the lock on that box. Inside was a hand gun he kept for emergencies. Then he began to make his way out of the room, grabbing Imogene by the arm and pulling her along with him.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Anthea, have a car take Imogene to Baker St. I want her to spend time with Mrs. Hudson. Sherlock and John will be following us shortly. You ride with her, you stay with her. I want two other agents to join you there; Edward and Phillip, preferably."

"Yes sir."

"Mr. Holmes! What is going on?"

"I'm getting you to a place of relative safety. You have no worries, Anthea is highly trained; she was responsible for much of Lila's early training when she first joined us. The other two agents are there as a safety net."

"You haven't answered my question."

"No time. We have to find Lila and we have to do it now. Our timetable has just moved up substantially. Go with Anthea, please."

"Wait, sir….Mycroft."

"Yes?"

"I don't know if it will be of any help right now or at any time in the future, but….Lila, when she was a girl she was almost deathly afraid of the dark and of snakes, and she isn't big on spiders. Her father used that knowledge every chance he got to make her life hell. If this Moriarty person is half as evil as you claim, he will figure this out, and it may not take him long."

"Thank you, Imogene."

"You'll bring her back to me right?"

"Of course I will. Now, if you'll excuse me." With that Mycroft gave Imogene a brief yet courteous bow and made his way to catch up with Mary.

Mary stopped texting and opted for a phone call. It was apparently to their acquaintance, Piri. She was speaking rapid fire Turkish to the man before hanging up and turning to Mycroft as they made their way to the bunker below Diogenes.

"John and Sherlock will join us in ten minutes, maybe less. I took the liberty of calling Lestrade and providing them a police escort; your brother will just have to suffer the panda car."

"Right."

As soon as they entered the bunker, Mycroft walked over to the racks and pulled out a couple of scrolls; two road maps of London…one was for his use and one for Sherlock's…and a stack of blue prints. He tossed these on a table and got to work unrolling one of the maps while Mary tacked the other one up on a wall, flicking on a lamp near the spot she chose. Mycroft got out some markers of varying colors and began to circle areas that he knew had old warehouse districts. He fired off a text to one of his minions to send him everything they could find of the security camera footage from around the pub where Bar….Lila had been last, and any from the surrounding area that they thought might be pertinent.

Mary was sending and receiving texts from various sources that she had to try and track down where Lila had been taken and to see how much back up they could muster on such short notice.

Sherlock burst through the door, John hustling behind him, with no warning.

"Mycroft, what the hell is going on?"

One of the Ice Man's goons shut the door after seeing that Sherlock and Dr. Watson were completely in the room.

"Good of you to join us brother dear. Dr. Watson, I'd say good morning, but…."

"Mycroft." The man in question heard the edge in Mary's voice.

"Yes, quite. Sherlock, I need for you and John to watch this carefully. Make no comments until after you have watched it all. The entire thing only takes about three and one half minutes. Sherlock, what I need from you specifically is anything you can tell me about the surroundings…the back ground noise that you might pick up, etc. John, I need a trained eye to tell me what you think of the condition of the subject."

"Subject?"

"Yes." With that Mycroft pressed the play button on the video and stepped away to give them both a moment to watch it; in the meantime he went back to studying the maps on his desk and flipping through the information that he had about any abandoned warehouses in each district.

Less than five minutes later, John came up and started looking over the maps to see what work had been done already; Sherlock was rewinding the video to continue to study any details that he could find.

"John, how did you find our friend to be?" Mycroft asked mildly curious.

"At the time that video was filmed she seemed to be alright. A bit intoxicated, but if she drank as much as Moriarty claims….I don't know what they drugged her with, but the side effects seem mild enough. I didn't notice any physical injuries. But the lighting was shit. What do you have going on here with the maps?"

"Going through them marking off the warehouse districts….."

"He won't be that obvious. What has Barbary always wanted, more than anything?"

John and Mycroft looked at him blankly, thinking.

"Come one Mycroft, I expect better out of you. I know John can be excessively dull…."

"Oi!"

"A family."

"Thank you, Mary."

"And love." By the end of her statement, Mary was staring at Sherlock pointedly.

Sherlock merely rolled his eyes at her blatant attempt to get under his skin.

"The point is he won't take her to a cold warehouse. He would take her to an actual house; most likely abandoned, but not necessarily. Either way, the symbolism wouldn't be lost on either one of them. Abandoned house would be a symbol of the abandonment in her life. A house that still has a family living in it, though likely on vacation, will have pictures on the walls, decorations etc., reminding her of the life she will probably never know. Likely Moriarty thinks it will be a cheap shot to her emotional well-being."

"Great, so now we have to focus on residential areas instead of industrial. This is going to be a needle in a haystack."

"Not necessarily John…."

Before Sherlock could continue, there was a knock at the door to the bunker.

"Come in,' Mycroft answered carefully.

"I was told you needed me. I came here as soon as I landed." Piri entered the room.

"Piri, good to see you. I am told that you will be the best chance we have to find Barbary."

"I can only do my best sir."

"What do you know so far?"

"Only what Mary relayed to me over the phone. That bastard, Moriarty, has her and that he has sent you a video message giving you up to twenty-four hours to find her or he will pass her on to the highest bidder."

"Yes. Any thoughts?"

"Well, I know for a fact that Khaled is going to be the highest bidder. He's going to make sure of that.' Piri saw that Mycroft has arched a questioning eyebrow. "He intends to get rid of his competition."

"How?"

"There will be a society function coming up soon, within the next three days. Khaled has people placed on the inside; kitchen staff, waiters, you name it. He has arranged to take out as many of them as he can through poisoning; it will likely be a poison that will metabolize quickly, so it would be next to impossible to identify on a tox-screen. For anyone that he can't poison quietly, he has a few girls that can take care of loose ends."

"Oh yes, I have heard. I am required to attend. Do you know any of the intended targets?"

"I know you and Sherlock are at the top of the list. Beyond that, my informant didn't bother to say."

"What else?"

"I have heard that he plans to do away with Moriarty when their partnership is over. He's paid him a great sum of money to acquire the girl and keep his thumb on the two of you. But once Khaled gets what he wants, he will want to kill Moriarty."

"I wish him luck with that."

"Mary?" Piri looked at her oddly.

"It seems as though Moriarty has The Butcher working for him."

"Oh that. Khaled lent out The Butcher's services to Moriarty. Once their work is completed, that bastard goes back to Khaled. That will probably be another bone of contention between Khaled and Moriarty. Moriarty has grown quite attached to having such a blood thirsty demon on his payroll. He will likely want to make some sort of trade; Barbary for The Butcher. But, it will never happen. Khaled is not a man who likes to make deals such as this. He doesn't do trading. Unless you plan to pay for what you want from him, he will not even look at you."

"Do you have any idea where they might have taken Barbary?"

"I'd wager that they are somewhere in Earls Court, Collingham Gardens. Just upscale enough that Moriarty won't break out in the poverty sweats anytime soon."

"You sure?"

"If I didn't know you better Mycroft, I would be hurt by that."

"Alright, which house is our best bet?"

"Number 5; the family is on holiday, Majorca I think. They left three days ago and will be gone for another week and a half."

"Right. Well, then what are we waiting for?"

"Back up. There are at least three men there; Moriarty, Moran, and a third man. I don't know him, he's new talent, I think he is called Torrance; but I don't know what his skill set is yet. You won't get very close with a man like Moran…The Butcher….looking down the scope of a gun. He will pick you off faster than you can snap you finger. We will need extra men. Some of them can go in from the back of the property. If we can get someone through the terrace on the third floor around back they can make an entrance through there. That will offer a bit of a distraction. Perhaps we can at least get rid of one of them that way. It would give the rest of our men a chance to go in through both entrances on the ground floor."

"Very well; we should begin to make our way to Number 5 Collingham then. I will personally lead the men taking the front entrance."

"Sir…"

"Mycroft"

Piri, Mary, John, and even Sherlock protested all at once.

"I want Moriarty dealt with; I don't want him to be given the chance to escape and come back to haunt us later.

"Hardly the point Mycroft."

"Mary, in case you forgot, I started my early days as an agent. I do know how to take care of myself." This was said as he checked the ammunition in his weapon and grabbed two more clips to boot.

"Are we ready to go then?" Mycroft looked around him. "Sherlock, I want you and John to be there on site, but stay back by the vehicles. Once we neutralize the situation you will be called in to do what you do. John, I may need you to give her a quick check over until an ambulance arrives."

"Mycroft, what about the society function? Should we not arrange to have Khaled's people replaced somehow?"

"True." With that he fired off a text to Anthea to get together with some other agents and go over the guest lists and the list of people and businesses who would be working the event. Mary turned to her phone and sent a text to Yasmina indicating that she should be extra careful to keep her eyes open at the morgue today and why. Of course the young lady protested and demanded that she should be there. Mary showed Piri the messages and Piri sent his daughter a text making sure that the order for her to stay with Molly Hooper in the morgue came not only from Mycroft Holmes but also from her father. She would never ignore an order from her father.

After this everyone readied to go to Number 5 out at Collingham Gardens; on a good day it could take an average of nearly 15 minutes travel from Diogenes. With Mycroft Holmes at the helm it may take less; traffic lights would have to be altered at the very least.

With Mycroft's magic wand they were able to make the trip in just under ten minutes, meeting their emergency response team nearly a block away from the house so they could discuss the tactics that they would use. With that being said, it had still been nearly ten hours from the time Mycroft received the video until the time they arrived on scene. The head of the response team went to argue with Mycroft about him leading the attack from the front, but at Mycroft's withering glare, he decided it might be in his favor to shut his mouth and nod in agreement.

One of the walkie-talkies that they had crackled to life; the man they had perched on a rooftop across the street from Number 5 had been checking things out with binoculars; both thermal and traditional sight. Suddenly apparently, the man on the roof saw someone leaving the house, alerting the rest of the team to the goings on.

"Sir."

"Yes,' Mycroft was practically itching to know whatever had happened.

"Someone is leaving the premises; it looks to be Moran. I still see three people in the home. According to the heat signals I am guessing two men and one woman. Sir, the woman is not in a seated position. She is down."

"Thank you. Keep your eyes open. Watch your back."

"Of course sir."

The decision was made that there had been enough talk and it was time to move in. Mycroft had to all but tie Sherlock down to get him to stay put. The only thing that kept him from it was the fact that Sherlock was a bit of an escape artist when it suited him and it would do no good except to waste more time.

"Wait until we have cleared the area, I will let you know when it is safe to approach."

"Mycroft…"

"Besides, from what I have been hearing she's no longer any of your concern." Sherlock would have advanced upon his brother had the arched eyebrow from Mycroft not stopped him in his tracks, leading him to believe that someone had told Mycroft about his argument with Barbary earlier. As he turned away to join the others the last thing that Mycroft was able to hear clearly at all was John's voice asking Sherlock what on earth he had done to Barbary now. If he had time, Mycroft would love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation; John's reactions to his brother's social ineptness were usually quite priceless.

As planned part of the squad went around the back of the property and had a couple of men scale the back terraces to go through the upper level. It would actually be a boon to their plans if either Moriarty or this Torrance fellow were to hear the men make some noise; it would cause them to become distracted and possibly split up.

Inside the house, Moriarty gave Torrance the order to check the house again. He knew Mycroft Holmes wasn't likely to leave one of his toys lying around for long and would be there at the fastest possible moment if he had been able to figure out where they were hiding.

Through his earpiece, Mycroft heard the lookout alert him to the fact that he could currently only see two heat signals coming from the same room.

"I think it is one of the men and the heat signal that I believe to be the woman. I have lost the second man. Give me a moment to locate him."

It only took a couple of seconds for the lookout person to find the third heat signal.

"Sir, it looks as though the third heat signal is coming up the stairs. The men need to get inside and get into position quickly to take him down."

"Understood." Mycroft had lifted his left wrist close to his mouth to return the message. With that he sent a message via hand signals to one of his men that were stations near the corner of the property so they could relay that to the other men.

The men received the message and had fanned out all over one particular room; luckily it was a bit dark in there so they would be harder to spot. As Torrance rounded the corner he was taken down immediately, being thrown to the ground, and hogtied. As he was being secured, another man held a chloroformed rag against his mouth to keep him quiet and then gagged him. Once he was completely neutralized for the moment, they began making their way through the rest of the house room by room.

As they made their sweep, the men could hear a woman's voice scream.

With that one of the men spoke into his wrist transmitter.

"Sir, we have secured Torrance. But Moriarty has our agent. We just heard proof; she screamed."

"Understood. Continue to sweep the rooms and await for further instructions."

"Yes sir."