Betaed by the superb sethrox9730! :D
Thank you for the reviews and favourites.
So guys remember that plot twist I was talking about? After hours of typing, deleting and re typing Here it is!
PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.
Sherlock rose before John, with the aim of making his lover breakfast in bed. Just as he found the essentials for cooking the sound of a gentle knock of the door reached him. Placing the items down, he moved towards the door careful not to wake up John before he had served him his breakfast. On the other side of the door, Mycroft stood with a file in hand.
"What do you want?"
"Data on Jim Moriarty, thought you may like a look?" offered Mycroft as he pushed the folder into Sherlock's hands. Sherlock eagerly opened the file to view its contents.
"Do be careful Sherlock. If not for my sake, for John" pleaded Mycroft in an unorthodox way. Sherlock's head snapped up from the file as he heard Mycroft mention John's name.
Sherlock simply nodded in acknowledgement he and his brother had never been able to properly communicate how they felt, too many years of having the idea of emotions being weak drilled into them. Mycroft patted Sherlock's shoulder as he turned to leave.
Shutting the door, Sherlock became engrossed in the file, John's morning breakfast completely forgotten about.
John groggily plodded into the living room in search of his lover. He was greeted with the sight of Sherlock, pinning pieces of paper to the wall in an elegant spider-diagram.
"And all this would be?" inquired John.
"A three patch problem," replied Sherlock, holding up his arm to show John his nicotine patches. Rolling his eyes, John stepped towards Sherlock in attempt to wrap his arms around him.
Sherlock avoided the contact, muttering a simple answer of "busy.". Huffing in an annoyed manner John proceeded to fix himself a morning coffee, leaving Sherlock to carrying on with whatever he was doing. Sherlock let the paper he was holding drop and float to the floor as he followed John into the kitchen.
"It's Moriarty, do you remember I told you that I used him before I met you? Well it seems he may be planning something. Although I'm not sure of what it is yet," stated Sherlock as he reached out to John. Leaning into the touch, he gently pressed his lips against Sherlock's to show him comfort and love.
"What ever happens, or what ever this psychopath has planned, we will get through it together," smiled John as he finished making his coffee.
Sherlock watched John go about his daily habit as he thought about the threat Moriarty posed to them. Sherlock didn't know whether he could face the idea of John being severely hurt or even killed because of Moriarty. They would just have to wait and see what Moriarty's first move was before they could properly act.
Vibration. Text message.
'Crime scene, you coming? -GL'
"John! We have a case!" shouted Sherlock as he rushed around the flat, collecting his coat and scarf. John soon followed him out of the flat in search of an available cab. Sherlock gave the address and slightly bounced in his seat in excitement. The prospect of a new case was far to spine tingling for Sherlock to stop moving, nerves high on electric of the possibility of new facts.
As they arrived Lestrade stepped toward the cab to greet them.
"Sherlock you can't just bring your friend here to a crime scene, it's not decent," commented Lestrade as he pointed to John's presence.
"This John from the Christmas party. John is actually Doctor John Watson, therefore he shall be helping me on cases from now on and if you have a problem with that I'm sure you can work out this case by yourself" snapped Sherlock.
Lestrade sighed in defeat, he needed this man. The yard's success rate was down and he couldn't risk losing his job, not with a divorce to pay for.
"Right. We have a male, aged between 35-40, found in this abandoned warehouse by a local security firm. But I warn you boys it's a tad grim in there. The man is not only naked but it looks like a sex act gone wrong. I decided to call you out here just to rule out murder" replied Lestrade as he lead the way towards the warehouse.
The whole of the set up of the body hit John all at once. Naked man, hanging upside down from a metal apparatus, leather binds attached to the wrists of the corpse and blood. So much blood. Then John observed the face of the man.
"Shit. No.. No," wheezed John as realized who the corpse was. Sherlock and Lestrade spun to face John.
"You know him?" asked Sherlock, trying not to overwhelm his partner with too many questions.
"Yeah. His name is Mike Stamford. Fuck. I only just saw him a couple of days ago."
"Ex-client?" muttered Sherlock discreetly, away from ear-shot of Lestrade.
John merely nodded, eyes transfixed on the naked limp body of a former client, hanging there like a piece of meat.
His left hand was slightly shaking from all the stress of the situation, John didn't know what to do. Sherlock's voice pulled John from his panic-stricken day dream.
"I have a theory. Moriarty, it must be. I have the file on him back at Baker Street. Please Lestrade, just give me some time to solve this," pleaded Sherlock as he reached out to physically comfort John.
Watching this loving exchange, Lestrade agreed. Not once had he seen Sherlock with anyone, he knew how self-destructive Sherlock was years ago, he wouldn't wish that on anybody. In that moment Lestrade knew he had to do as much as possible to help these two out.
"Get in then."
With that, the men were speeding towards Baker street in an instant.
One second they were driving front the crime scene and the next Sherlock was guiding John inside the flat. John was still trying to make sense of what he had seen. He had seen men die, friends taken in the heat of battle, but this was different. He hadn't been having sex with them and they hadn't been killed on neutral ground. Sherlock pushed John down onto the sofa while Greg made them a calming cup of tea. Grabbing the file, Sherlock flicked through it; throwing irrelevant pieces of paper across the room in anger.
"Do you think this could be all connected?" asked Greg as he came back into the living room with their tea.
"More than likely. Moriarty swore he would take his revenge."
"What happened?" Greg asked, shyly avoiding eye contact with both Sherlock and John.
Sherlock cleared his throat before speaking, this was going to be an awkward conversation.
"Well Jim Moriarty is a high end prostitute. I contacted him a few years ago in an extreme fit of loneliness. I refused to have sex with him. However, he become overtly attached to me. The man matches my intellect, no doubt about it. He made it sound like an attractive offer."
John was suddenly back in reality as he listened to Sherlock recalling the events, he didn't let him self interrupt as Sherlock continued.
"He practically stalked me in attempt to get me to change my mind. He tried to tempt me drugs and at one point having gotten so impatience tried to simply take what he wanted. He kidnapped me and force himself on me. It was unsuccessful, Mycroft found me just in time before anything could happen"
John was up off the sofa in an, instant back turned as he punched the wall. Hot, anger pouring through him.
"I'll kill him, fucking kill him" bawled John as his fist broke through the drywall.
Lestrade flinched back from John while Sherlock put everything down to see to his lover. He placed his hand on John's shoulder, the action had an instantly calming effect. Turning back to face Sherlock, John engulfed him in a hug, reminding himself that Sherlock was here and was safe. The room had grown silent as both the men had forgotten about Greg, who was still present in the living room as they fell into their own world. Sherlock ran his hand through John's lengthening hair as he whispered into his ear.
"You know that I love you, right?"
Nodding gently, John pulled back slightly to lightly kiss Sherlock. Greg shifted awkwardly in the chair as he waited for the men to finish. The movement caught Sherlock's attention. He gave one last light kiss to John then released him to return back to the work. John settled back down on the sofa, taking the forgotten tea to hydrate himself. Greg spoke first in order to get the case back on track.
"Anything useful from the file?"
"Nothing at all. I need to see the body again," replied Sherlock, throwing the file back down onto the table with more than necessary force.
"I'll just call Anderson to see what's happening," Lestrade excused himself from the room.
"Are you going to be up to seeing the body again?"
"Yes sure, I'll be alright. I've seen worse," commented John.
As the three of them walked into Bart's they were greeted by Anderson and his team conducting analysis of evidence that had been found at the crime scene. Sally was stood at the entrance ready to give full findings of evidence if Lestrade asked her. As eyes fell on Sherlock and John, both Anderson and Sally rolled their eyes at the consulting detective's presence, but didn't say anything.
"Sir, we found a message carved into the victim's body. The murderer must be German. 'Rache.' German for 'revenge.' He could be trying to tell us..." Anderson trailed off. But he could be on to something here.
Sherlock however didn't think this was right. He knew that Moriarty would be taking revenge in some form, but to literally spell out his intention was far to simple for a psychotic genius.
"Yes, thank you for your input," hissed John.
All eyes were suddenly on John, waiting for at least an explanation.
"It's 'Rachel' not 'Rache'. It's the name of his mother, people called her Rache for short, she died a few years ago. It was concluded that it was caused by tetanus but Mike always thought differently but could never prove it," John stated, numbly staring at the crime scene photos.
"John you are brilliant. An amazing conductor of light. Of course, the murder of Mike served only as a distraction. He want to watch me dance to his puzzles."
Sherlock's phone buzzed, pulling it from his pocket he observed the message.
'9 Hours - Love from Jim xoxo'
Showing the others the message, Sherlock now had a conclusive lead on the case.
"The game is on!" shouted Sherlock as he dragged John away from the lab.
Sherlock waltzed into Molly's lab startling the poor girl, John followed just behind.
"Molly, I need some old case notes from an autopsy from a women called Rachel Stamford," he lightly demanded, Sherlock stepping toward various test tubes.
"I'm not sure I can do that, Sherlock," Molly quietly replied, her voice tinged with shyness.
"Oh Molly, your hair looks nice parted that way," lied Sherlock, gently grinning to cover the devious attempt to get Molly to submit to his demands.
Molly turned slightly away from the men. She nodded once, as she left the room to gather the notes for Sherlock.
"You really shouldn't to that to her," stated John, ready to shout at Sherlock if required. Sherlock simply stared at John as if he was speaking in another language. John was going to have to explain social etiquette to Sherlock.
"Playing with people's feelings just to get what you want is plain cruel," grumbled John.
Sherlock instantly felt bad, not for what he done to Molly but for annoying John, he had already had a trying day with the death of a friend. Sherlock didn't want to cause him anymore pain.
As Molly returned clutching various files the creak of the opening door was the only sound with in the lab. Sherlock moved fast to take the files off of her in eagerness. Sherlock pulled the postmortem photos from the file, observing the body of Rachel Stamford.
Sherlock gestured for John to look at the photos, as he needed his medical opinion.
"The cut on her hand it's deep. Would have bled a lot right?"
"Yeah," John answered quickly, slightly uneasy that he was viewing photos of a friend's dead mother.
"But the wound's clean. Very clean and fresh. How long would the bacteria have been incubating inside her?"
"Ooh, eight to ten days. The cut was made later," divulged John remembering his medical knowledge.
"Look here cat claw marks.."
"Yeah, I remember Mike saying she had bought a new cat a few weeks before her death, bound to be a bit jumpy around her, a claw mark is almost inevitable."
"Anything else?"
"She had live in carer, if that helps?"
Sherlock pulled out his phone and began to put in a favor to the home office. After a few moments of texting Sherlock had his answer.
"This was revenge."
"Who wanted revenge?" asked John, brow furrowed in confusion.
"Maria, the live in carer. Rachel Stamford had written her into her will, but a few weeks later later they had an argument and Rachel threatened to take her out the will"
"Wait, wait. What about the tetanus and the claw marks?" counter-acted John.
"The cat doesn't come into it."
"So how did the carer kill her?"
"Botox injection. It's a diluted form of botulinum, among other things. Maria was also employed to give her regular facial injections. I was owed a favor at the Home Office my contact gave me Maria's internet records of purchases, she has been bulk ordering Botox for months. And then upped the dose when her plan was in danger of failing."
"Brilliant, absolutely marvelous. How does this link with Mike's death?" questioned John.
"It doesn't. I suspect Moriarty had Mike killed to highlight this other crime. A kind of like a good Samaritan," replied Sherlock, closing the file on the case. John didn't like the use of the words 'good Samaritan'. Moriarty had taken a life in order to create a puzzle for Sherlock and he didn't like this one bit. Sherlock efficiently arranged a meeting with Lestrade to discuss his findings. Without even a goodbye to Molly, they were on their way to Scotland Yard.
Please review and favorite!