Silence In Belgravia

A Silent Call

Sitting on the sofa of 221B, Rose decided to do one more thing before she turned in for the night, coming to the conclusion that it would be best to put all of the day's events to rest in one night.

Sherlock sat in his chair, thinking about what could have made Moriarty change his mind when he noticed Rose hand pulled out her phone as she stubbed out her cigarette. Picking up her now empty mug, she stoop up to go to the kitchen, pressing the call button and lifting the devise to her ear, waiting for who ever she was calling to pick up. Sherlock frowned; it was nearly two in the morning, who on earth would she call at this time?

The line was picked up and Rose smiled slightly at the answer. "Miss Spencer, to what do I owe the pleasure of this early morning call?"

"My apologies, Mr Holmes. I do hope I didn't wake you." She started off.

His reply however sounded like it was said through a smile. "Of course not, my dear, but did you have a reason for this call?"

"I thought you may want an update on the Bruce-Partington plans." She told him, thinking about the memory pen that she had stashed away in her room, glad that she had done so now.

Sherlock sat up at the mention of his brother. The plans? This cannot be a good phone call…

"I take it you have it then?" He asked, a slight smile in his voice.

"Indeed." She replied, carefully trying to avoid anything that would hint to Sherlock that she actually had the real plans just downstairs.

"I will send my assistant round to pick them up then, my dear. I would assume you are at the flat?" He asked, just to make sure.

"Yes, of course." She replied, making her way from the sink to the table, making sure to avoid anything that could be quite dangerous - most of what was in the kitchen/science lab - and taking a small evidence bag out of the box in one of the cupboards. She still didn't know where Sherlock had managed to get the box from.

"Well, she shouldn't be long, half an hour maybe." He replied.

Rose yawned, suddenly feeling the weight of several days lack of decent sleep catching up to her. "Alright, I'll wait up for her then. G'night Mr Holmes."

"Good night, my dear." He replied, chuckling at her tiredness, before she hung up.

The other Holmes brother however was confused by the call. Rose had hung up and gone down to her room for a second before coming back and sitting on the sofa with her laptop for a few minutes. That was all it took for Sherlock to work out what had actually happened.

He was partly happy that she had learned enough to fool him. Partly annoyed that she had fooled him in the first place. But there was one thing he didn't understand. "Why?"

She didn't look up from the screen of her laptop, expecting the question from him. "You know why, Sherlock."

"If I knew I wouldn't ask." He snapped. "Why didn't you give me the real one?"

She looked up then. "Because you would have given it to a master criminal. Even if he did want it, it wasn't yours to barter with!" She said, voice sharp but still the same volume as she usually kept.

Sherlock drew a blank then. He wasn't used to her arguing back with him, not over something this serious. He still had to have the last word though; he always did. "You couldn't have known I was going out though or what I was planning!"

"No, but I do know what you're capable of and at the end of the day you did exactly what I expected, didn't you?" She said quietly, tone a lot lower than usual, looking back to her screen. Just because she was right, didn't mean she liked it.

Sherlock just sat there, staring at the wall. He wanted the gun but Rose had made sure he put it away when they got back. He just couldn't see how he didn't see it, how she had tricked him. At least Moriarty had put genuine effort into his work; Rose had just switched a memory pen around! It was maddening.

Twenty minutes later, they heard the door bell call out through the flat, Rose getting up to answer the door, having just turned off her laptop off. Anthea stood there, phone in hand as always. As the door opened she looked up though. "Good morning." She greeted, surprisingly awake and dressed just as smartly as always.

"It will be when I wake up to it." Replied Rose, stifling another yawn as she took the evidence bag out of her pocket, giving the plans over to Anthea.

Anthea just chuckled, enjoying seeing the woman a little less hostile for once, taking the bag off her. "Sleep well then."

"Yeah..." Answered Rose as Anthea walked off to the car parked right outside the flat, closing the door after her.

Rose stood looking at the stairs before deciding that a lack of an alarm in the morning was precisely what was needed, turning to make her way to her room, all the while wondering if Sherlock would talk to her in the morning. She didn't worry though; he always ended up talking again after he had his little sulk.

Big child, was the last thought she had before she went into a sleep too deep to dream of the nightmares that were surely waiting for her.