Last Chapter
It was later when they were in 221b, safely protected by Mycroft's men, that Sally remembered her gift for Sherlock. Anderson, Harry and even Mrs. Hudson had been brought to Mycroft´s house where they were safe with him and Anthea, but Sherlock had refused to run and so the rest of them had decided stay with him. Even though she would have loved to stay with Mycroft, she knew it wouldn´t have been fair to leave John and Greg alone with Sherlock, as agitated as he was. Not that he would ever admit that. He would shout at everyone, run around and start things, only to forget them a second later, seemingly having a better idea.
It was simply that Sherlock was afraid, and that told Sally that she should be afraid of Moran as well. But not only that, also a glance at the two murders he had committed and tried to put on Sherlock, told her that. The sheer brutality of them alone. Not to mention the few details in the file on him, which Mycroft gave her after she had asked for it, not backing off until she was allowed to see it.
No, Moran was definitely not a nice guy, there was no way around that. That and he was pissed that his boss was dead. He probably believed Sherlock had murdered him, which couldn´t have been further from the truth as Moriarty had offed himself, but that was the thing with true Psychopaths: they were living in their own world and would never listen.
And if they set to destroy someone, they would never stop.
Today according to Sherlock he had just played with them. Walking into the MI6 like that, pretending to be one of them; all of this just had been a game. It wouldn´t have been that bad if he wouldn´t have gotten new information. The surprise on his face when she turned out to be Sherlock`s ally had been genuine. Moran really hadn´t had any idea about that. But this gave him another person to aim for when he wanted to hurt Sherlock.
Sally didn´t regret her actions though. She´d have regretted them more if she left Sherlock and Mycroft to their own. John probably understood her in that regard and thought the same.
Being afraid of someone didn´t mean that she´d run after all. It would just make her more cautious.
A quick glance told her, that it was already past midnight and therefore Christmas Eve. Seeing that they all, but especially Sherlock, would need something to raise their spirits- Moran be damned- she rummaged in her bag for it and walked over to Sherlock, her present in hand.
„I found something." She stated and smiled. „ And I thought it would make a great gift for Christmas."
Sherlock snorted, still grumbling about the fact that Moran was again free, but Sally wouldn´t have it. „And you are never going to believe it." she added and Sherlock looked doubtful for a second, but then took the photo from her, inspecting it more thoroughly.
The small gasp that followed was anticipated by Sally, but not by anyone else and soon everyone was crowded around the picture.
„Is that..?" John asked as he realized what he was looking at and Sherlock and Sally just nodded. „Wow. That´s.." he stopped again, seemingly unsure what to say and Sally could relate.
It had been a few days ago, when her old photo album had fallen into her hands. What exactly had made her open it and look at the pictures again, she would never know, but it hadn´t taken her long to find this picture. The little girl in the foreground was grinning above all ears, looking directly at the camera. But that wasn´t what was important about the picture. It was rather what was in the background, more particularly behind her on the stairs, where two women were pictured, coming around the corner, being slightly blurry as they were moving. The two women, one of which had been her neighbour and the other she now knew from photos as Grandma Holmes, were accompanied by a little, curly haired boy. Sherlock was in front of them, looking directly at the camera, thus noticing that Sally´s mum was taking a photo of her daughter, but not caring that he was pictured as well.
Back then, Sally remembered, her mum had been slightly annoyed by the unwanted background, but had kept the picture as she had liked little Sally´s grin so much. Sally had cared, as she hated having her picture taken anyway and that only meant that there would be a need of more.
But today Sally was glad about that. She had even made a copy of the picture herself and put it into her wallet, to remind her that sometimes there were no coincidences. Sometimes there were things or people who simply were fate.
And after finding this photo, she was sure of it. She and Sherlock were fate. All the things that happened to them. The similar childhood traumas by the same man, them meeting again in later life and so on.
They were fate.
Bound to happen.
And somehow this even made her feel better.
Judging by the slight smile Sherlock was giving her, while the rest of them were still wondering about the photo, he seemed to agree.
Fate. That´s what it was.
And they were damn ready for anywhere it would lead them.
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So this has come to an end once more. To tell you the truth this story wasn´t planned, it was supposed to be Spero melior and a sequel, but Moran needed to introduce himself properly so this came out instead. I hope you guys enjoyed the ride and might be in for a third one?
Thanks go to all readers and especially the reviewers who made me go on with writing and of course to the ever rocking beta sevenpercent!