John wanted to eat lunch with Sherlock, but he knew that he would be sequestered until he was done testifying. He wondered who was going to testify after Sherlock; he guessed it would either be Lestrade or Donovan. Mycroft would be an ideal witness, but John also thought that Sherlock would never forgive him if he did testify. Not wanting to leave the courthouse, he went down to the cafeteria and nibbled on a sandwich. He managed to eat half of it before going back up to the courtroom. The cry of "Court rise!" came within a minute and another usher led Sherlock back in.

John hoped Clark would come up to the stand and not Harvey; not only was Clark worse at cross-examination, Harvey knew how to be mean. Nonetheless, he wasn't surprised when Harvey went up to the stand. "You work with the police?" she said to Sherlock, not bothering with even one casual question.

"Sometimes." Sherlock visibly drew back, knuckles going white from clutching Hamish.

"Why do they ask for your help?"

"I can figure out things they can't." It was a very modest version of what Sherlock really did, but Harvey narrowed her eyes as she looked at him.

"And when the investigation in this case began they called you?"

"No they didn't."

"Then how were you able to get involved in this?"

"I heard about the investigation from someone else and went to talk to them myself."

"Was the Yard happy with this?"

"No," whispered Sherlock, who looked like a scolded child.

"But they let you proceed?"

"I was the only one who got her to say anything."

"Who's her?"

"One of the victims." Sherlock used the term as if he wasn't sure if he was allowed to call any of the victims by name.

"What did you do to make the victim say something?"

"Nothing in particular. I asked her some questions and tried not to put an answer in her mouth." Sherlock seemed calmer now, probably because he was being asked about his work rather than himself.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's easy to phrase a question in a way that suggests one type of answer. I try not to do that."

"But she did tell you something about whatever had happened to her?"

Sherlock visibly tensed. "Some things."

"Like what?"

"What happened when she first met the person. I told her if she could do that without saying anything about that person it'd be fine. So she did that."

"Did you mention to her your past history?"

At first Sherlock just looked at Harvey with wide eyes. Only after a few seconds did he croak "Not then."

"Not even to encourage her to talk to you?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because she wanted to tell someone already; she just didn't know how to do it safely."

"And how did you know that?" Harvey narrowed her eyes as she looked at him.

"That's my job, to know those things."

"So you just looked at her and knew?"

"No. I observed several things about her and deduced that." Sherlock was now closer to his normal self, obviously more relaxed. "Her father hadn't done it - she initiated affection with him because she knew he wouldn't do anything she didn't want. She had a family picture there to remind herself that her family would be harmed if she said anything."

"When did you talk to the next victim?"

"A few days later."

"Where?"

"The offices of Scotland Yard."

"The Yard let you question him?"

"Yes. At that point the previous victim had already opened up to me, which she hadn't done for anyone else. Therefore, I was likely the best chance of getting this victim to say something."

"And did he?"

"Yes, after a time."

"How did you get him to talk?"

"I asked him some questions about his life in general and after some time he asked why I hadn't asked him anything about the case yet."

"And what did you say?"

"I asked if he wanted me to ask him about it." Sherlock went on to describe the first conversation he had had with Phillip. "The whole interview was tape-recorded, so I presume that you've heard it." A few people chuckled, but Harvey merely gave Sherlock a cold stare.

"Did you bother to investigate whether he had committed some crime?"

"No, of course not, because I had no evidence of one other than his vague allusion to doing something wrong."

"So you didn't try to figure out if someone broke his arm to stop him from doing something?"

"There was no evidence of that in the first place. And no criminal complaint to go on, for that matter. You can't prosecute someone with only what he said." Sherlock glared back at her. He seemed much more like himself then he had been at any point in the last six months, almost like none of it had happened. Even Hamish had been pushed to one side. "Even if someone is making that claim now it's interesting they waited that long to say so."

"You didn't find his actions familiar?"

"I did." The old expression vanished as if it had been chased away with cold water. "Which is why I thought he hadn't done anything wrong."

"So it would surprise you to hear that Dr. Martin said you both tried to do the same things?"

Sherlock sat there for a few seconds looking stunned. He pulled Hamish back towards him. "Yes."

"Were you aware that Dr. Martin went to have a chat with your mother before your brother came home from school?" Harvey grinned in a way John did not like one bit. This must have been her plan all along - make Sherlock feel somewhat at ease before dropping a bomb on him.

"Yes."

"Do you know why?"

"Because someone I knew talked to Mummy." Sherlock's use of the childish term combined with the stuffed animal in his hands made him seem even more vulnerable.

"Do you know what he said?"

"No I don't."

"Do you know why he went to talk to her?"

"I said something to him."

"And why did you do that?"

"We were at the supermarket and we saw Her there."

"But why did you say something to him after that?"

"He said that I acted oddly around Her."

"Do you know what Dr. Martin said to your mother?" In contrast, Harvey's constant use of K's formal title called up the very image of respectability.

"No," whispered Sherlock.

"So it would be a surprise to you that Dr. Martin said she was worried about you?" Sherlock shook his head at Harvey, apparently unable to speak, and Harvey went on. "Do you think that you engaged in any unusual behavior when you talked to Dr. Martin? Anything of concern at all?"

"Maybe... I was... since I was fourteen then I remembered what She had said about how we could get married when I was eighteen. I kept talking about it."

This was clearly not the answer Harvey had been looking for; she frowned. "Did you want physical affection from Dr. Martin?"

"Yes, all the time. But She wouldn't always want to do that. I'd have to do a lot of different things to Her before I got a hug at the end."

"Did you ever get angry with her about a perceived lack of physical affection?" Harvey was clearly going somewhere, but it was hard to tell where.

Sherlock stared at Harvey with wide, frightened, childlike eyes. "No. I'd beg sometimes and She thought that was funny."

"Did you know that when Dr. Martin went to see your mother she had a large bruise on her cheek?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how she got that?"

"Yes."

"And how was that?" Harvey asked in an exasperated tone.

"A few days before She had... well, we were in Her bedroom and She'd done this thing to tie my arms to the head of the bed, with ropes. She was trying to change the knot on one of them and I moved and She hit her cheek on the bed post."

"And that was it? You and her hadn't had a disagreement near that period of time?"

"We had. I'd - I wanted us to go on a holiday together." Sherlock hung his head. "Just so we could be together and I could pre- imagine what it might be like when we got married. But She said no. She said it wouldn't be safe. I said Mummy wouldn't care and She said my brother would ask too many questions."

"Your brother. You care about what he thinks?"

"Yes." John couldn't help but feel surprised at that; he knew that Sherlock only outwardly pretended to hate his brother, but for him to admit that he cared about how Mycroft saw him was another thing entirely.

"Then why didn't you ever mention Dr. Martin to him?"

"I did a few times. I told him I loved Her."

"Why didn't you say anything else?" Sherlock said something that wasn't audible, and Harvey said: "Speak up."

He didn't speak much louder, but the microphone picked him up. "I was afraid."

"Of what?"

"What She might do to me if I said anything."

"Then if you were so afraid how is it that you said you loved Dr. Martin?"

"I did."

"But you were afraid of her?"

"Yes," he whispered.

"Why?"

"If She wasn't there no one would be with me and I'd be all alone."

"Was that what you thought was happening with Phillip Rodgers?"

"Yes."

"You didn't see a different thing that was similar between the two of you?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." Sherlock looked at her with confusion.

"You both had wanted the affection of a friend or parent, correct?"

"Yes," Sherlock blankly replied.

"And you both became upset when you didn't get it?" Sherlock nodded, still not understanding, but John had a horrible realization what Harvey was trying to get at. Just like she had implied that Phillip had really broken his arm because K had fought back his unwanted advances, she was going to imply that what Sherlock had told Victor Trevor was for a similar reason.

"Did you both want Dr. Martin in an intimate way?" When Sherlock merely stared silently at her, Harvey added: "You both say you spent a significant amount of time with her."

"I did," Sherlock said after a moment or two.

"Did you ever disagree about things?"

"Yes."

"Like what?"

"I said that before."

"You wanted things she did not?"

"Sort of."

"When your brother came home, why was he as upset as you say he was?"

"Because. He said he didn't agree. That I hadn't been telling horrible lies. That it was all true."

"And he didn't go to the police?"

"No."

"Although he thought a crime had been committed?"

As soon as Harvey asked that, Sherlock visibly snapped back into detective mode. "All he had were some vague claims that I had said something unflattering about a neighbor. There were no witnesses, no confirmed statements, and the alleged victim hadn't said anything. You cannot prosecute someone for what is essentially a rumor." Obviously he had distanced himself as "the victim," but if it helped him get through the trial John wasn't going to argue with it. It was at least good to see him act more confident.

Harvey didn't seem discouraged by his show of confidence. She frowned. "The same reasoning you used to not report what Phillip Rodgers said when he seemed convinced that you would arrest him?"

"Not the same thing at all. In that case I had no evidence there was a crime in the first place. In the previous one there were reported statements from the victim to another person. While you can't prosecute anyone on that, the involvement of the third party would add credibility to the claim of a crime."

"Why did you travel to Yorkshire on the twenty-sixth of February?"

Once again Sherlock's confidence vanished. "Phillip had given me a receipt from a supermarket. He had gotten it from Her purse and he realized it could be used to locate Her primary residence." He at least seemed to understand he could now refer to victims by name.

"Was there a name on it?"

"Both Her name and an address of the store itself."

"And how did you use that to find Dr. Martin's address?"

"I looked it up online, of course. No one in this day and age shops for food far away from where they live if they can help it."

"On a computer or your mobile?"

"The mobile. I was already out of the flat by then and wanted to get there as soon as possible."

"Do you usually directly confront people you suspect of a crime?"

"If I think it's needed."

"Did you confront Dr. Martin at all?"

"We talked," Sherlock said after a short silence.

"But she was arrested that day?"

"Correct."

"What for?"

"On suspicion of fraud relating to Her flat and accounts in names not Her own."

"Why?"

"She had reportedly been in that flat and had a receipt in Her purse that gave Her real name. At the very least it needed to be investigated."

Harvey scowled before moving on. "Were you present for any of the lineups in this case?"

"The first one. I explained the procedure to the victim in hopes of reassuring her."

"Nothing else?"

"I sat in the back of the room. She trusted me at this point and I felt my presence might help."

"So you weren't present for Phillip's lineup?"

"No, not at all."

"No further questions," Harvey said. John couldn't tell whether she was satisfied or not. Sherlock slumped down in the stand as Harvey went back to the defense table. He didn't move until the usher grabbed his arm, and then he sort of wobbled out as Lou made his way up to the stand.

As soon as Sherlock was out of sight and Lou was up at the stand he said the most shocking thing John had heard yet. "The prosecution calls Victor Trevor."