Molly Hooper had tried to get Sherlock to leave the lab for a good half an hour now,the staff were now annoyed at Sherlock's lack of interest in everyone but the kidnapping case he had just finishing solving.
"Mercury!" Sherlock exclaimed, as he whacked his hand on the table, waking John up who had just started to nod off.
"Huh?" John said, rubbing his eyes, as he came back to reality.
"Mercury!" Sherlock repeated. "The papers are painted with mercury obviously." Sherlock stopped and smiled. He had finished the case.
"Bloody hell, how long have we been here, is it Christmas yet?" John muttered whilst checking his watch.
"Woahh look at the time! Come on Sherlock, we need to get back to Amy, have you found what you were looking for yet?" John exclaimed, his eyes widening at the slightly later time he had told Amy they would be back.
"Lestrade, the kidnappers used mercury papers, the hungrier they get the more sweets the children gobbled down." Sherlock said ringing Lestrade up on the phone, as he finalised the case.
"Sherlock, why is someone torturing kids?" John asked appalled by the emaciated children they had found, lying surrounded by sweet wrappers earlier on in the day.
"Fairy tales..." Sherlock muttered to himself with John overhearing.
"Fairy tales?" John asked looking puzzled.
"Why would someone want to make fairy tales come to life?"John asked totally baffled. Checking around the room for anyone listening in.
"Someone that thinks this is all a game obviously." Sherlock replied back, his eyes searching the Petri dish in front of him for more fairy tale clues.
"Seems to me like a lot of people want to play games with you Sherlock, could it all be one cause?" John questioned already knowing the answer.
"When are we just going to have a day off" John said as he sighed, rubbing his eyes, still half asleep.
John stared out the window, appalled by the murderer's style,knowing full well who was behind these sick attempted murders.
John's blood boiled when he thought about that psychopath,his enjoyment in making people's lives misery, this was a game John didn't want Sherlock or himself to play anymore.
The night was starting to surround Bart's hospital windows asa shadowy figure appeared in the doorway, leaning against the door frame silently watching them work, her voice barely audible over a whisper.
"Sherlock, errm I'm really sorry but we are closing up the pathology lab now, it's nearly 12 pm and people are starting to complain about you." Molly said, her meek voice barely heard over Sherlock's loud sighs.
"Dull" Sherlock replied loudly, ignoring Molly.
"You really shouldn't whine John, it's unbecoming of you." Sherlock said eyes still locked to his microscope.
"The killer, as I said before, obviously has some strange fetish for fairy-tales, although I am surprised at how obvious his patter is, if this is who we think it is, he wants us to find him John" Sherlock muttered giving John a glance, before sinking into deep thought, after seeing John's reaction to this news.
"Come on Sherlock, let's go and check onAmy, you've already solved one murder, leave it at that today yeah?" John reasoned with Sherlock, after seeing how difficult Molly was finding it to tell Sherlock to leave the premises.
"Fine" Sherlock said with a grumble as John was trying tolift him out of his chair. "John please stop that, I can get out of a chair." Sherlock said with a bored tone, pulling himself out of the chair and picking up his blue scarf, wrapping it around his thin neck once.
He picked up his coat and shrugged it onto his shoulders, the strong smell of Amy was present on his coat.
He tried to decipher the smells,something to occupy his bored mind..." Coconut, women's perfume...Unusualbrand...foreign" He muttered under his breath, enjoying the fact the odours were puzzling him.
"Amelia Pond, the puzzle to solve." He thought to himself as he readied himself to leave.
"You can take a separate cab if you're going to whine like a child John." Sherlock declared as he strode out of the door in front of John, not even pausing to see if John was following.
Sherlock had forgotten to hold the door open for John, almost causing him to walk straight into it.
"Sherlock!" John exclaimed, annoyed at Sherlock's hurry for everything.
The lights were being switched off around the premises as the corridors were becoming darker with every step.
John hurried along as he rushed outside after Sherlock,muttering under his breath.
"I'm worried about Amy being on her own for so long" John said as they climbed into the cab "she hasn't sent me a message telling me she got back to the flat okay.
Check yours Sherlock" John said with worried expression plastering his face, holding his head against his hands as he started to panic.
Sherlock decided to check his phone as John spoke, having not even listened to John's speech.
INCOMING MESSAGE:
TEXT MESSAGE:
Come and save your damsel in distress
J.M
X
Sherlock's expression changed, confused by the rage he was feeling over this text.
"Sherlock?" John said, watching Sherlock's expression change as he eyed his phone.
"Sherlock what is it? Is something wrong with Amy?" John tried again, scared of the expression of uncontrolled anger now visible on Sherlock's face, he'd seen that look before.
"Oh god, it's not Moriarty is it? What's the nutter gone and done this time?" John said trying to make a joke out of this new information, a bad feeling cemented to his stomach.
Sherlock doesn't reply to John as he shouts to the cab driver with more anger than intended
"221B NOW!" Sherlock growled at the Taxi man.
The cab driver looked startled and hurt by Sherlock's sudden outburst.
John tried to apologise on his behalf. They zoomed past the brightness of the lights of the high street, smudging in their vision as the Taxi man started to speed down the roads as quickly as possible.
Once they arrived at 221 B Sherlock hurtled out of the cab and bounded up the stairs.
"Mrs Hudson!" he yelled, looking around the flat for Amy, checking everything is in place; John followed frantically worried over Sherlock's reactions.
"Amy? Where's Amy? Shouldn't she be here by now?"John said in a panicked low voice, looking for Mrs Hudson as well.
Sherlock's phone suddenly goes off once more...
TEXTMESSAGE:
Leaving work to save her.
Tut tut Sherlock
Your sentiment is showing
J.M
X
"It's Moriarty, he has Amy somewhere." Sherlock said, scowling at his phone, hurt brandishing his features.
"Mrs Hudson!" he yelled again,impatient and annoyed now.
Mrs Hudsoncame up the stairs, looking worried and half asleep.
"What is it Sherlock?" She said, woken up from her nap, still in her nightgown, baffled at Sherlock and John's expressions.
"Oh god, oh no, poor Amy" John said after hearing Sherlock speak, his face in his hands, worried Sherlock wasn't thinking logically.
"Has anyone been in the flat!? Has Amy been back here?!" Sherlock shouts frantically in Mrs Hudson's face "Oh, no I don't think so,I would have known" Mrs Hudson stutters in fear at Sherlock's attempts to shake the answers out of her.
"Sherlock! Let go of Mrs Hudson!" John asks, prying Sherlock's hands from Mrs Hudson's frail shoulders.
"Where was she last?" John asked smiling at her as he frantically searched the room with Sherlock, trying to help Mrs Hudson speak at a normal tempo once more.
Sherlock dashed to his bedroom suddenly remembering John had said Amy could wear their shirts while she had none with her.
"Take is easy Sherlock. We need to work out where he has taken her, did the message say anything else?!" John shouts around the corner, trying to calm the rage in Sherlock.
"This is nothing to do with Amy being taken, just the annoyance of Moriarty...obviously" Sherlock thought to himself.
Sherlock noticed one of his white shirts had been taken...Amy.
Sherlock rejoined the search party in the front room, observing the flat with one scan of his eyes, homing in on a letter with neat handwriting that read.
Gone out for the day, shopping then heading to the pub.
Amelia xx
Sherlock picks the letter up, dissecting its every section.
The stationery used, colour, feel.
"Bohemian stationery, fountain pen, written at an angle, carrying something in her hand whilst she was writing, perfume smell still on the letter" Sherlock deducted.
"Mrs Hudson!" Sherlock booms at her, forgetting she is right next to him.
Mrs Hudson jumps out of her skin once more as Sherlock addresses her with his baritone voice.
"Did Amy say anything about going out?" John asked before Sherlock exploded with babble at Mrs Hudson once more.
"Err, she said yesterday she wanted to go back to that pub she liked, said had a nice drink there yesterday with that nice man you know Sherlock" Mrs Hudson began.
"Greg!" John shouted, clapping his hands together realising where she had been.
"Who the hell is Greg?" Sherlock asked, not registering who it could be.
"That's Lestrade's first name Sherlock" John replies in exasperation, his sighs visible as he pinches the top of his nose in annoyance.
"Oh." Sherlock said before thinking intently once more.
John rolled his eyes, "Look can we just get back to finding Amy here please, I think I know what pub Mrs Hudson is talking about, I've been there for a drink with Lestrade before when I've wanted to escape certain...errr..people."John finished as he looked sheepishly at Sherlock.
Sherlock having not heard a word of this started reeling off possibilities in his head.
"She was drunk last night, smelt of unusual smells, smoke, cologne...must be a pub,slight smell of wine and lime flavoured shots on her breath." Sherlock deducted, recapping last night, her kiss marking his cheek.
"John we need to go to a pub relatively near here" Sherlock said.
"Please try not to get distracted and start chatting up girls on the street who aren't interested in you whilst we work.
Sherlock began to complain as John put his jacket on once more.
"She must've walked there, Amelia doesn't know London that well...can't be far" Sherlock continued, shrugging his coat and scarf on, Amy's smell still lingering on the coat.
"Like I'm going to be able to chat up any girls with you around, you're like a walking woman replant" John joked trying to defuse the tension, grabbing his gloves and a notepad and pen, to jot down his observations.
"I'll have you know many women find me attractive John" Sherlock replied back, as he stepped outside 221 B observing the pavement outside their house.
"Yeah, but then you open your mouth" John smirked as they walked out into the cold night air, observing the floor with him.
"She went this way." Sherlock stated, as he started to briskly walk down the road.
Sherlock pulled his coat collar up to his cheekbones as John zipped his jacket up to his chin.
It was late, 2 o clock in the morning now as the early light of morning started to embrace the world around them, the cold night air visible as they spoke to each other, a light orange glow around them.
Sherlock paused for a second to launch into his recorded memory files in his mind, as he remembered every pub close enough to Baker Street.
He remembered Amy's love for the unusual, her love for heritage, and her Scottish nature shining through.
"Where would she go?" He asked in his mind, still oblivious to the fact that John knew the pub already.
"Sherlock."John began as they arrived outside the now desolate Irish pub, the shamrocks were still glinting in the window as the sun was starting to rise over the park nearby, the orange glow touching everything without shade.
"This is where Lestrade goes when he wants to errmm...escape people." John said,aware most of the stress Lestrade felt was usually from Sherlock's outbursts.
"You don't have to lie badly to me John, I know he comes here to escape me" Sherlock said, taking in every detail of the pub from the outside, not at all bothered by this piece of information.
"Yeah well can you blame him" John said noticing two men, still drunk and slumped around the corner of the pub, sick resting under the bearded mans chin, staining his beard with lumps of orange carrot.
"Lipstick marks John." Sherlock began, as he searched around the pub, noticing John's expression at the idea of breaking in.
"Amy always wears red lipstick!" John added turning around,after checking the men were still breathing, to stare intently at the lamppost with Sherlock, now right behind him.
"Really John you are a genius, how is your IQ level so high?"Sherlock asked jokingly mocking John, disdain clear in his voice.
They continued to search the outside of the pub, Amy's lipstick matter now stored away in Sherlock's Petri dish.
They started to walk back, when Sherlock spotted the alleyway next to the pub.
He started rambling off speech to himself. "possibilities, statistically more likely, Scottish,likes danger, girl alone, Lestrade." Sherlock muttered under his breath.
"John, Amy wouldn't know how to get back using the main streets would she?" Sherlock asked, already aware of the answer.
John walked up to look down the alleyway Sherlock was pointing at.
"Lestrade would've taken her the quickest way home, because she was in such a state." Sherlock continued. "Process of elimination, suggests something statistically more likely, Amy would've used her brain to try and recall her memories of walking with Lestrade." Sherlock continued, as he and John started to walk down the alley way dappled by the orange glow of daylight,as it shined through the holes in the fences and trees.
"And obviously Amy pretending to be the brave Scottish girl she thinks she is would be stupid enough to walk down here?" Sherlock questioned his theory, looking at John for confirmation.
John was checking the other lampposts, assuming Amy would've kissed every single one or left some clue.
"Please don't tell me you think she would've left us clues on every lamppost John? Really you do baffle me with your quaint ideas sometimes." Sherlock smirked at him as he continued to hurry through the alleyway, scanning the fences, trying to shut out the worry of what Moriarty had planned.
"Sherlock look!" John exclaimed as he came across the apple under the lamppost lit up by the daylight. Sherlock rolled his eyes.
"Urgh this fairytale game of his is starting to try my patience." Sherlock exclaimed roughly picking up the apple scowling to himself.
"John I am also collecting the gravel from underneath our feet for samples of vegetation on their shoes, if you would move out the way, I don't want to have to assume you are the murderer now do I?" Sherlock said to John, danger in his eyes, as he shooed John out of the way.
He started crawling on his hands and knees as he collected matter from the floor, the floor was now slightly damp from the early morning dew.
John held the apple up in front of him, rotating it as he spoke, as he tried to decipher the smiley face.
"Why a smiley face?" John asked Sherlock who was still scouting around the floor for clues.
"That part I'm not sure of John but..knowing Moriarty, it's probably a sick little game he has for us to play, Urgh Dull." Sherlock sighed through his words as he picked up more matter from the floor, pocketing the vegetation into another Petri dish, before placing it in his coat pocket.
"Quick back to 221 B, I need my microscope!" Sherlock exclaimed as he rushed out of the alley way clearing not waiting for John.
"Sherlock!" John shouted at him as Sherlock pushed him out of the way and quickly ran out to the clearing.
John paused for a second to think to himself before he picked himself up from the fence he had just been thrown against.
"Why does Sherlock seem so desperate with this case?"
When something tells him in the pit of his stomach
..."It's not just about finding Moriarty."