Dinner

As soon as Moriarty's face had appeared on all screens showing Britain's digital media, Sherlock had been brought back from his brief exile. Mycroft had hoped that he, having the most knowledge of the criminal mastermind, would be able to solve the mystery, but Sherlock was unable to find anything. The problem was given to Britain's best computer hackers, who found the virus, but no way to trace it to its source. Sherlock had looked at the virus's code, but has quickly told Mycroft that he could find nothing of use. As much as the issue frustrated the government, it frustrated Sherlock more.

About a month after Dean's birth, two after the incident, John, Mary, and Sherlock gathered in the Watsons' apartment for supper. Sherlock seemed more distracted than usual and remained silent for the majority of the meal, to the point that he eventually stopped responding the the others' attempts at conversation.

"Sherlock," John repeated for the fifth time. "Earth to Sherlock."

Finally, the man looked at him.

"Mary was asking you about the case."

"What case?"

"The one you solved today."

"You were there. Why didn't you tell her about it?"

John rolled his eyes. He was a child, honestly. "Alright spit it out."

"What?"

"What's on your mind? You've barely spoken all evening."

"There's a pattern. It's binary. Moriarty tried to use it to trick me two years ago. It was in the virus in the public communications system."

"Moriarty's code was in the virus? Why didn't you tell Mycroft?"

"What could Mycroft have done with it? Obviously Moriarty gave it to the hacker to get my attention. The question is why. There was nothing else I could deduce from the virus, so I allowed Mycroft to give it to his professionals." The last word was spoken with none to subtle sarcasm.

"The code has been appearing in nearly all of our cases for the last month. The supposed UFO – the lights flashed in the pattern. The serial murders in the town houses – the numbers were scratched into all of the victims' floors. The elephant that escaped from the zoo had the code stamped on the tag on its ear.

"He's taunting me, but I can't understand why. He knew he was going to die and he had no reason to set this up if he couldn't watch. It would also mean he knew I was going to live. I don't know why he would have killed himself knowing his plan was going to fail. It doesn;t make any sense."

"Are you sure he's dead. I mean, I thought you were dead for two years."

"He's dead. It was Moriarty and saw the bullet go through his head. Molly did the autopsy herself."

Dean began to cry from an adjacent room. Mary sighed. "I'll be right back."

She left the room. "Was there anything else?" John asked. "Or just the codes?"

Sherlock said nothing. "Sherlock!"

The detective turned in surprise. "Yes?"

John sighed. "I'm getting cheesecake."

John walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to look for the dessert. As he was unwrapping the plastic covering, he heard the sudden scraping of a chair against the floor. He hurried back into the dining room as Mary came through the opposite door. "Sorry Mary, dinner was lovely," he said quickly. "Come along John, we have to hurry."

"Why?"

"I'll explain on the way." He threw John's coat at him. "Put your coat on. The game is on!"