I deleted it! Why would I delete it!?
Come back! Come back! Come back!
I need to know who that was!
Sherlock's mind was screaming for answers that only it could provide. If he could remember.
"Sherlock?"
Sherlock felt a hand on his shoulder, and his concentration broke.
Not important. Deal with that later.
John- I mean, the man, is still missing.
Focus.
Sherlock was going to say something, but tried to early, and due to his still being partially in his mind, only a "Hm?" came out.
"Are you alright?" Lestrade asked. "You just stopped walking. Did you figure something out?"
With some difficulty Sherlock dispelled the distraction in his mind. He shook his head to get rid of the remains of it.
"No, not yet." Sherlock said. "Sorry."
Lestrade stared hard at Sherlock who had by now started to walk again, still staring down at his phone, his thumbs pecking at it as he looked up various things that Lestrade could find no connection between.
He never apologizes.
"No," He said, "something's distracting you, I can tell."
"Nothing that can't wait until later." Sherlock said, not looking up from the article he was reading.
Lestrade watched him. It was really quite amazing how quickly he could read, his eyes just scanning line after line, never looking back to make sure he read the thing correctly. He seemed to absorb the words rather than just read them. Lestrade could almost hear the gears spinning in his head.
"So... What do we do then?" Lestrade asked.
Sherlock pulled out his phone and watched the video again.
Building with metal roof near train tracks is all I've got so far. I need more.
What can I see?
I see... Dust on the floor. Wooden floor, old, worn. Walked on a lot. The chair is old, wooden seat and back. Not very comfortable. Flash of lightning... there must be windows somewhere.
What do I hear?
Sherlock closed his eyes.
Thunder, fluorescent lights, rain on metal roof, a clang.
What is the clang?
Metal hitting metal...
Not small pieces, large.
Then a sort of scraping sound.
I've heard it before, but I can't remember where.
Think. Think. Think.
Sherlock was pulled out of his thoughts by a hand on his arm.
"Sherlock,"
Sherlock glanced up at Lestrade.
"as you know, we probably don't have a lot of time." Lestrade said gently.
Tell me about it. Sherlock thought.
"You've been a detective for awhile now. You're not a newbie anymore, you've solved more than enough crimes to know what you're doing." Lestrade said. "There's nothing wrong with going on your gut once in awhile. We're sort of running on nothing right now."
"But..." Sherlock hesitated.
"Sherlock, you've got to put a pause on this," Lestrade pointed to Sherlock's head, "And just for a moment, pay a little attention to this." Lestrade pointed to Sherlock's chest.
"We're running on nothing right now. We have no useful evidence, or at least if we do, you haven't told me, and we have no leads. Anything you can get, whether you can trace the source of it or not, will be helpful." Lestrade said. "We could at least get a starting point."
Lestrade tapped the phone in Sherlock's hand, restarting the video.
"Remember." Lestrade said. "Talk it out, let me know what you're thinking. And at least try to speak in English, could you? I'd prefer not to be entirely lost."
After a moment, Sherlock managed to convince himself to voice his guesses.
"We're looking for a building, a very large one, metal roof, part of the floor is wood, but a most is concrete. It's near train tracks, in fact, it's next to them." Sherlock said. "There's... there's a lot of metal there, in the room beside them. Two doors, one closed, one open. Windows... there are windows, two maybe? Two windows on the wall to the right of them. We can't see them, but they're there. You can see the light from the lightening coming through them."
"Alright." Lestrade said. "Now, what are we looking for?"
Very large building + concrete floors + lots of metal things + clanging noise + scraping noise + next to train tracks = What?
Sherlock closed his eyes for a moment, searching his mind for all places that fit that criteria.
"It's... It's..." Sherlock looked up at Lestrade. "We're looking for train repair depot."
"Well that should make it easy." Lestrade said. "An abandoned train repair depot."
Sherlock shook his head. "Not abandoned." Sherlock said.
"Alright then... working train repair depot..." Lestrade sighed. "That makes it a little harder. Any parameters to work with?"
"All depots within 100 miles that were closed due to either unlisted or suspicious reasons." Sherlock said. "Eliminate the largest ones."
Lestrade and Sherlock walked into the morgue, and Molly and Jayden both glanced up at them.
"Sorry for the delay." Sherlock said. "I need your help Jayden."
"With what?" Jayden asked.
"You're good with computers." Sherlock said, more as a statement than a question.
"Yeah, so?"
Sherlock glanced up at Lestrade.
"If we don't find the spot by morning I'll get him onto a computer." Lestrade confirmed.
"Morning?" Sherlock asked, his eyes narrowing in confusion.
"You're both going to rest for a few hours." Lestrade said. "Jayden and I have been catching naps where we can and snacking as we work, but uh- you've got to get some sleep. Getting a little food into you wouldn't hurt either."
Molly took a few steps closer to Sherlock, brushing the hair out of his face, noticing the gleam of sweat on his forehead. Her hand slid down, gently caressing his cheek in concern. Sherlock hadn't responded to the action, and while he didn't seem to be pleased by it, he didn't seem to be displeased either. After a moment, he slowly pulled her hand from his face.
"He's right, you don't look well, Sherlock." Molly said, taking his wrist. He tugged it away once he realized she was taking his pulse.
I've got to convince him he needs to take care of himself. Molly thought.
How?
He's only going to listen to me if I've got facts.
Alright...
Molly quickly scanned Sherlock for physical ailments.
"Your heart rate is quick, and I'm going to guess your blood sugar is getting quite low. You've lost at least 2 pounds since all this began, and that was only 4 days ago. You're also getting dehydrated, which is probably what is causing your headache." Molly said factually.
Headache? Sherlock thought, as he used his mind palace to flip his pain sensors back on.
What head-? oh.
Ow.
Sherlock became aware of a throbbing in his head, which shifted to a sharp pain every time he turned his head. Disliking the sensation, he turned the pain receptors back off.
"I-" Sherlock was cut off by Lestrade before he could even begin the next word.
"Sherlock, this isn't a request." Lestrade's voice was firm and uncompromising. He glanced over at Jayden. "Come on."
A/N: Well there's the next chapter. It was a tad boring I'll admit, but I'm setting you up for a more interesting one, so hold on to your seats and try not to get too impatient with me! ;)