Chapter 13 - Coming Back to Life

We'd been home for a week and in a strange way life had changed so much, yes we were living together in the same house, but now it was our home, our first home together as a married couple. I don't think I'd stopped smiling in a week.

I was headed out for a run in Hyde Park. I can't say I enjoyed running, but it had been part of my rehab routine, a focusing exercise, so once I'd got clean I kept up the running as a daily reminder, stay clean and focused, keep positive.

I put my head phones in, turned up Muse and jogged along the street, turned left down Marylebone Road, down Baker Street and turned right into Hyde Park. As I entered the park I picked up my pace and ran faster, pushing myself as hard as I could. I ran round the Serpentine once and back round to the east of the park back up Park Lane. As I ran, I wasn't concentrating on the world around me, and I ran straight into a woman. We both stayed up right and as I took my head phones out to apologise I noticed who it was.

"Angie! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to run into to you."

"Percy?! Oh it's fine, no harm done." I smiled at her, and felt something brush against my ankles, I looked down and saw a very cute dog. I bent down to say hello.

"You must be Toby? I hope my ass of brother is being nice to you, if not chew his files or steal his dressing gown."

"How are you doing Percy?" Asked Angie, I looked up at her, slowly standing and realising all the harsh words between us had been futile, our friendship was so much more important.

"Really good thanks. How are you?"

"Not bad thanks." She sounded unsure. How had we got to this?

"Fancy getting some coffee, if you've got time? We should catch up."

"Sure, that would be nice. When?"

"Now?" I suggested.

"Okay." Angie gave me a small smile, I felt so guilty, our friendship was always so strong.

We walked to one of the outdoor cafes and sat down. We sipped our drinks, hoping the other would start the conversation. I bit the bullet and opened the questioning.

"How have you been really Angie?"

"Honestly?" I nodded. "Not great. Life with Sherlock has been tense, he's running hot and cold all the time, it's driving me mad. Life is ticking over though, not everyday is bad."

"I know what you mean." I replied.

"Do you?" A hint of the hurt leaking into Angie's voice.

"Ang, I'm so sorry, for what I said that day, I didn't mean it. You are such an important part of my life, I've been miserable without you." A pause descended between us. I thought I should tell her. "I told Jim about Seb."

"Really?! What did he do?"

"I've never seen him so angry, he left me. I think I caught a glimpse of how dark he can be. Three weeks, he left me for three weeks. I didn't know what to do, Greg was a bit of a hero."

"I'm sorry Percy."

"It was my own fault. Jim forgave me though, we got married a week ago. Mycroft was there, he walked me down the aisle. I wished you could've been there."

"You're married?! Congratulations. You're happy though?"

"Blissfully happy."

"That's all the conformation I need. I'm sorry too, I over-reacted."

"It's all forgotten, though, maybe I'll wait a little to tell Sherlock."

"Probably for the best." Laughed Angie. I looked at the time.

"I better head home, I really need a shower."

"Alright, I'll see you soon, and congratulations again."

"Thanks Angie, see you." I waved and put my headphones back in and finished my run. As ran back up Park Lane and then along Wigmore Street, up Portland Place and home, I felt lighter. I had my best friend back. I smiled and ran extra fast to share the good news with Jim.

I opened the front door and was greeted by Jim, who swept me into a tight embrace and passionate kiss.

"Have a good run?"

"Yeah very, I ran into Angie, literally. We sorted everything out. It's good."

"Glad you got it sorted. Did you tell her about us?"

"Yes I did tell her that I married the most amazing man in the world and she sends her congratulations."

"Most amazing man in the world, really?"

"Yes. If you let me go though, so I could have a shower, I would be eternally grateful."

"Only because you asked so nicely Princess." I giggled and pecked Jim on lips. Jim let me go and I headed upstairs to our bedroom to shower and change. We had been staying in recently, it was nice to have time to ourselves and reconnect properly, even though we had put our separation behind us, we still had a few things to work out and spending our night snuggled up on the sofa watching a movie or reading in the library we were becoming closer than ever.

"Saturday night, a load of friends and a dinner party. What do you think?!" Asked Jim as bounded into the kitchen and wrapped his arms round me.
"Yeah sounds great. Any particular reason for a get together?"

"Well we haven't really celebrated our wedding with any of our friends yet." He smiled.
"Very true. This will be great fun." I was getting excited, we had had an unconventional wedding, that was perfect for us, but it was very small. So partying with our friends would brilliant.
"I'd have no problem with Angie and Sherlock coming if you'd like them too, I promise to behave." Smiled Jim, knowing I'd especially want Angie there.
"I'll call Angie and ask her." I paused thinking of Seb and how generally awkward and unpleasant it would be having him the. "Seb isn't coming is he?"
"No. He's never stepping foot in this house again if I can help it. Anyway he won't be a good dinner guest; he can't use the fingers on his left hand or his wrist on his right hand." I winced; the anger lacing Jim's voice was scary.
"When did that happen?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know but curios none the less.
"At two o'clock this morning, that's who was at the door. I had to have words about touching what didn't belong to him." His tone was enough to remind why Jim was still so angry with Seb.
"Oh, right." I understood. "So how many are we having over, we can seat 12 including us. Therefore, us, my brothers and Angie makes five. How about your cousin Andrew and his wife Sara?" I asked changing the topic to lighter things.
"Yeah that would be nice; we haven't seen them in a while."
"That makes seven we can sit five more. Is there anyone in particular you'd like to invite? Your parents?"

"Too short notice for them to fly over, we'll go and see them at Christmas. I'd like Rob to come, we were best friends at school and Uni, I think I would've asked him to be best man. How about Issy?"

"Yeah, we haven't seen Rob in months. Oh, of course Issy has to be there, it wouldn't be right without her. So, we're up to nine."
"We could invite that slimy Anderson bloke and Mycroft, Sherlock and I could make him squirm?"
"As much as I'd love to witness that, he is never coming into our home."
"Okay, but one day can I scare him a little bit?"
"Yeah of course, I do every time I head to Scotland Yard; apparently, Sherlock is vile to him! Serves him right. More importantly, whom else are we inviting? I swear we have more friends than 9 people, two of which are us and two who I am related too."
"We do, but it's who do we want to share getting married with?"
"Good point. Of course, Jasper, he gets on with everyone and he's easy in the eyes." I said, trying not to laugh.
"Oh I have competition?"
"Maybe?"
"Is that a challenge?" Smiled Jim, his hands sneaking up my ribs as he began to tickle me. I squirmed and ran around the kitchen island into the living room, Jim caught me and landing on top of me on the sofa, again tickling me. I was screaming with laughter.
"Stop...stop...please, I concede, you are the one and only man in my heart!" I finally got out, breathless.
"Just as you are the only woman in mine." Jim said back, love shining in his eyes. The dinner party planning forgotten for a time as we lay on the sofa in each others arms, kissing and whispering sweet nothing's to each other, both eventually falling asleep.

When we woke, it was dark outside. We both looked at each other grinning.
"I need to call Angie, seeing as we are having this party tomorrow"
"Alright I'll leave you to it, fancy something to eat?"
"No thanks, just some tea."
"Okay love." Jim pressed a kiss to my forehead and went into the kitchen. I pulled out my phone and called Angie.

"Hello Baker Street! Fancy coming over for dinner?! We're having an informal wedding reception and I'd love for you and Sherlock to come. I promise Jim will be on his best behaviour." I greeted and offered simultaneously.
"Sure, we'd love to! I'll try to make sure Sherlock behaves, too." Replied Angie, also laughing.
"Mycroft will be there so he'll help." I replied with a laugh, just picturing all the possibilities of insane situations that could happen with both my brother and husband in the same house together! "Great, 7:30 tomorrow night! I can't wait to see you!" I added.
"Me too! We'll be there!"
"Brilliant, oh and you'll get to meet some of my friends from College."
"Great!" I thought, I had better ask before we got off topic.
"Is there anything Sherlock won't eat?"
"I have no idea."
"Can you find out, I'm already making a veggie dish as an extra."
"He's not a vegetarian, I know that much, and he's not allergic to anything. He says he'll eat whatever is served." Angie added. "Wait...Seb isn't going to be there, is he?"
"No, Seb is Jim's least favourite person at the moment. I heard Seb has a broken wrist."
"Good. Just making sure." a small pause and Angie asked. "How did he break his wrist? Actually, I don't want to know."
"He touched something that didn't belong to him." I repeated Jim's words.
"Oh. Okay. Did you break it, or did Jim?"
"Jim did, I only found it about it yesterday. I can't say I care."
"Well, why would you care? He deserves it. He deserves a lot more, actually."
"I agree, but I think Jim was being merciful, he broke his trigger wrist and four of his fingers. He won't be using a gun for a while. For Seb that's punishment enough."
"Good." She sounded relieved, then she added. "Oh, he's still stalking me."
"Seriously if I see him I will kill him. He's cracked in the head. I'll talk to Jim and see if he can do anything, I won't have him ruining anymore happiness." I was angry on her behalf. Seb had crossed too many lines recently. If he was going to do to Angie, what he did to Sally, then I had to stop him.
"You don't have to do that. He's actually stayed a good distance away from me. Although a couple days ago, he ran right into me. Didn't stop, but...he knew what he was doing. Was his wrist broken then? If it was, I hope it hurt when he ran into me."
"I do, I can help and I will. He's overstepped the boundaries one too many times. We had to change the locks on our house, twice. It's his left fingers and right wrist. Did he take anything?"
"No, he didn't take anything, but he 'dropped' his phone. I didn't even realise it was him until I picked up his phone and the background was, uh...an old picture of...well, me and him, like 10 years ago. He must have dropped it so I'd know that is was him."
"He's so creepy. He turned up at the house at like 2am this morning, I don't think I've ever seen Jim so angry. I thought he was going to shoot Seb on our front doorstep."
"I'm surprised he didn't." She paused and added. "You know, he even followed me to America!"
"Seriously?! What is wrong with him?! When I first met him he was really nice, he got a bit odd when Jim and I started dating, but otherwise he's always been fine."
"I know! The first year we dated, he was so sweet and everything, it seemed perfect! And even after I found out about his... 'occupation', it was still kind of good, a little tense, but not too bad."
"I've been trying to work out what made him snap!? I can't work it out. He did get dumped recently, he was seeing an actress, she got a role in L.A. and left to peruse her career, he got all mopey, but didn't seem that bothered."
"Maybe it's my fault. Maybe he just wasn't my first major relationship, maybe I was his first. And I dumped him. With good reasons, but still. Maybe it's affected him, maybe he keeps losing girls and now he's becoming controlling because he doesn't want to lose another one? Or that's just my psychology class from college talking."
"Maybe a bit of both. I turned him down three times before he introduced me to Jim, also I after the 'incident' I told him I wouldn't date him by choice if he was the last man on earth. Maybe we broke him?! But he's always been a ladies' man since I met him, girls have always thrown themselves at him. He must have dated at least 15 women and that's not including the many one night stands."
"But he wasn't like that when we were together, never looked at other women. But we were together basically every day, I'll admit, we were close. It's my fault. Oh my gosh, it's all my fault. I ended all that, and he just snapped. It's my fault."
"Sweetie, please don't blame yourself, it is NOT your fault. He is broken in the head, not by your or my actions, but because he needs help, he needs psychiatric help." I replied, worried that Angie was blaming herself for something that was out of her control, she was the victim.
"Then why did he only start acting like this AFTER I broke up with him? I'm not saying that breaking up with him was wrong, I'd never change that decision, I should have done it long before I did. But it makes sense."
"He may have done this before he met you! About four years ago, there was this girl called Sally, Seb and Sally dated for about six months, but she found out about what Seb and Jim did and freaked out. She left Seb. He went very strange, got quiet and moody, about a month after they broke up I got a call from Sally saying someone had been in her flat and left her a message, I went over and recognised Seb's handwriting. I confronted him, but he stalked her more and more until she got a restraining order. I told Jim about it, Seb kept breaking the restraining order. Jim had to be 'persuasive' to get him to stop. Sadly a year ago I heard that Sally had got married, but Seb found out and her and her new husband were both shot in the head on their honeymoon. He is sick and broken Angie; it's not your fault. I won't let him hurt you." I wondered if I should've told her about Sally, but it was necessary to make Angie understand it wasn't her fault.
"And now he's stalking me. God knows why he's waited ten years to put his attention back on me, but...Maybe I need to tell Sherlock. I mean, if Jim couldn't stop him from hurting that girl...oh my gosh, I'm gonna be sick." Angie's voiced was scared.
"Stay calm Angie, it's gonna be okay. I'm not gonna let him hurt you, he'll have to kill me and Jim and John and Sherlock and Mycroft before he's allowed to hurt you." Her fear made me angry, I was going to protect my best friend.
"If he does the same thing he did to that girl, he will kill me and Sherlock, and he's always wanted to get back at John for getting him kicked out of the army, and you've rejected him and he's mad at Jim..." Angie was going panic, I needed to calm her down.
"I shouldn't have told you that story, I just wanted you to understand that you aren't to blame, that Moran is sick. Sherlock and John are tough cookies, they will be fine and they will look after you. Don't worry about Jim and I we can look after ourselves; we're unbreakable especially if we are together. I promised to protect you when we were kids, that's not gonna stop now."
"Thanks, but that's not gonna stop Seb from getting what he wants."
"You'll be safe sweetie, I promise. Jim and I will stop him."
"That won't stop him. And what if he does something to you? He's gotta know you're my best friend. What if he doesn't want to kill me, he wants to torment me?"
"You're strong Angie, he won't break you. He won't hurt me either."
"If he does something to you, he just might. We were together for over two years; he knows practically everything about me!"
"I promise he won't, he may know something's, but you've changed and grown a lot since then. Don't let him into your head." I was really starting worry, if Seb had managed to freak Angie out this much already then he needed to be stopped, he thrived on mind games, scaring his prey into submission before striking like a snake. Weirdly that's why he worked well under Jim, Jim made Seb solve lots of puzzles before he got to take his shot to keep out of trouble.
"I know, but he knows an awful lot. I was so stupid back then!" I could hear the guilt and frustration eating into her voice.
"No you weren't, you were in love. Do you have any idea how much Jim knows about me, it's scares me sometimes that knows every secret and every little detail of my life. I know I married him and I love and trust him with my life, but when you were with Seb you felt the same, there is no shame in it. You've moved on and fallen for the man that suits you now. Just be happy in the now, the past will die down again. Honestly, I feel somewhat responsible."
"Why would you be responsible?" Asked Angie, confused.
"If I hadn't done a job for Mycroft that introduced me to Seb and if I hadn't become friends with him and fallen in love with one of his closest friends he wouldn't ever have a connection between us and maybe he wouldn't have found you again. Oh I don't know, I just feel responsible for your safety." I really felt guilty, I had to keep Angie safe, and I could protect her from the bad.

"Don't feel like that. So much happened between us that he would have found me somehow. I know I was in love, but I was still stupid."
"I'm so sorry Angie. I wish I could make it vanish."
"Me too. Well, actually, not really, cause otherwise me and Jess would have never met."
"I know what you mean, I wouldn't trade anything for the years I've had with Jim." I smiled at the thought, every bump and hiccup had been worth it for the years of companionship and love. "We'll be alright if we all stick together, we all need to forgive each other and be a united front. He won't break us."
"Sherlock and Jim? Seriously? That'll never happen. They're both too proud. You don't have any idea what you're suggesting." The snort of derision didn't go unnoticed.
"It will take some persuasion, but I know it will work." I had to believe this, if we stuck together we could beat Seb. "If they put their childish feud aside and worked together, well the world wouldn't know what had hit it."
"Yeah, it'd be a miracle, and miracles don't happen."
"Maybe we have to believe they can?"
"I've never seen one. Plenty of room in my life for miracles, I haven't seen one."
"I will not admit defeat. He will never win." I knew I wasn't going to persuade Angie right now, but maybe, sometime soon, everything would work, we would unite and stop something so much worse from happening.

"I'm not saying that he wins, I'm just saying that Sherlock and Moriarty are never going to team up. They're 'arch enemies'." Replied Angie.

"You never know there may come a time where they need to work with each other instead of against." I hoped it would be because they wanted to and not they were forced to.

"That'll be the day. But I think it'll take something a lot scarier than Moran to get that to happen." Angie was probably right, but I could try.

"I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. I'll suggest it."

"Well good luck with that. We'll see you tomorrow night."

"Okay, bye." I said.

"Bye." Angie sounded defeated as I hung up. I was really worried about her and this whole Moran situation.