A/N: I'm so sorry I haven't written in so long! I have the WORST case of writer's block. The good news is I got a completely different story out of it, ?Book #15. If you haven't, go read it. Please!

Sherlock thought it best to find out as soon as he could where Ben is. Luckily, he knows someone who knows Ben and knows where he may be.

Sherlock slowly knocked on the door to Harry's room. Harry called for him to enter and he quickly jumped inside the room.

She watched him and laughed. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just…uhm, I have a question."

"Sure?"

"Do you know where your friend Ben is?"

Harry laughs. "Why? Got a little crush?"

"Of course not," Sherlock confidently answers. "I just…we were having such a pleasant conversation at the party and he left so abruptly."

Harry looks at Sherlock like he's lying. "Alright, I'll keep your secret. I actually haven't talked to him since the party. He said he was going out of town."

"Did he say where he was going? For how long?"

Harry laughs again. Sherlock ignores it.

"Uhm, no he didn't say where. He said a few weeks, I don't know how long for certain."

"Does he travel a lot?"

"Yeah. For different things. I had just gotten back from somewhere a few days before the party."

Sherlock doesn't believe that he went anywhere, not since he knows when he murdered Danny.

He nods in understanding anyway. "Alright, thanks Harry."

"If I hear from him, I'll let you know."

"Great, thanks."

Sherlock leaves the room as quickly as possible, and just as he's closing the door, John hops up the stairs.

"What were you doing?" John hesitantly asks.

"Just chatting with Harry."

"Uh, okay," John says, walking over to his bedroom door.

Sherlock decides not to tell John that he was asking Harry about Ben, because the less he talks about Ben each day, the happier John is. Sherlock can tell John still wants Sherlock to tell someone about it, but he doesn't bring it up.

An entire week goes by of this. There's still tension over them though, like a black cloud hanging overhead.

"You need to tell someone," John whispers late at night in bed.

"I can't," is all Sherlock says.

Sherlock knows he should focus on his studies for the last few weeks of school. He doesn't want to, but when his dad says, "Sherlock, I'll ground you all summer if you fail anatomy." he figures he should get a move on.

Their last assignment for the class is a three-person team creating a teaching unit about a system of the body.

Unfortunately, the teacher makes the groups herself and doesn't let John and Sherlock be in a group. To be fair, Sherlock knows, the other two couples in the class don't get to be in a group together either.

Sherlock's group is himself, a boy named Jack, and a girl named Danielle. He sighs in disappointment when it's announced; Jack is a friend left behind of Vince's, his old bully. He looks around the class to Jack and Jack is leaning back in his chair not paying attention. He looks over at Danielle, who is looking at Jack with even more anger than he feels.

At the end of class, Danielle walks up to Sherlock as he's packing his backpack.

"So," she says, "Do you want to get together at my house, yours, or the library?"

"Well...we have two weeks?"

"Yeah, so we should get together at the library, then at one of our houses to write it all up and-"

They hear footsteps behind them. "What's up, nerds?"

Sherlock and Danielle share a look of disgust before they look up at Jack.

"What're we chattin' about?"

"Well-"

"That you're going to do the work and I'm going to put my name on it? Perfect."

Danielle and Sherlock share a glance again.

Jack shifts closer to Danielle and begins to put his arm around her. "Actually, maybe you and I could get together and do a little studying-"

"Don't touch her," Sherlock demands before he knows what he's saying.

Jack looks at Sherlock again. "You got somethin' to say, fag?"

"Yeah, and I just said it." Sherlock stands and slings his backpack onto his shoulders. "Don't touch her."

Jack steps up to Sherlock. "You got a problem, kid?"

Sherlock laughs at the sheer stupidity of Jack. "Stay out of my face too," Sherlock says. He steps back, away from them. "Come on, Danielle. I'll walk you to class."

He glances back at Jack once before they exit the class, and Jack has a shocked look on his face. No doubt Jack is surprised that Sherlock actually stood up to him, even Sherlock is surprised he stopped Jack from making Danielle even more uncomfortable.

I've taken on a murderer, Sherlock says. He smiles quickly, then realizes how awful that is, so he stops.

Sherlock and John decide to work on their projects during their free time, so the next day, Sherlock meets Danielle at the library. He's worried about going there, just because the last time he was there he saw a murderer, but he goes anyway.

They work well together. Danielle is very nice and makes him feel very comfortable, plus Danielle is very good at anatomy. She understands that he's not, so she lets him have the simpler parts of the project.

They're sitting together at a table, looking through books and writing notes, silent for almost an hour before Danielle speaks.

"Sherlock," she says, turning to him, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Uhm...sure."

"How do you get boys to like you?"

Sherlock laughs so loudly that someone shushes him from two isles over.

"I'm-I'm sorry," he says, calming. "What?"

Danielle frowns, then buries her face in her hands. "I just...I saw this cute guy a few isles over and...I don't know, he was cute. But he didn't look at me. He was..."

Confused, Sherlock asks, "He was what?"

"He was looking at you."

Sherlock blushes. "He was?"

"Yeah. He didn't even notice I was next to him, he was staring at you. After what you did for me with Jack, I guess I should have stopped him, but-"

"No no, it's okay. I just...a guy like that, I don't think you should want him to notice you."

"I thought of that too, but I mean in general. John is extremely attractive and people just like you a lot."

"They do?!" Sherlock asks. "What?! Why?!"

Danielle laughs. "I don't know, that's why I'm asking you!"

Sherlock laughs too and shakes his head. "I don't know. I don't do it on purpose."

"Well," Danielle says, turning back to her book. "If you have any secrets, tell me."

Sherlock laughs again. "Alright. I will."

Danielle looks up from her notes again and checks the books at the table. "Oh shoot, I got the wrong book. I need number 22, not 21."

"I'll go switch it," Sherlock offers, taking the book from her and getting up from the table.

He happily walks through the isles to where he needs to go, flipping through the book and nearly humming. He feels so happy for some reason, and he wishes he knew why. Maybe it's because he hasn't thought of Ben in a while and the lingering 'maybe he's lurking in every shadow' isn't a thought anymore. Maybe this is relief; maybe Ben is gone-

"Hello, doll."

Sherlock drops the book in hand. "Ben."

Ben pushes himself off the shelf he was leaning against. "When a friend of mine texted saying she saw you here, I had to come for myself."

Sherlock leaves the book, stunned into a stiff position. "Why?"

"To make sure you're...alright."

"Alright?"

"I can tell you've been thinking about me, and I've been thinking about you."

"You have?"

"Sometimes, when you do something bad, you fear that the people who know what you did is going to tell. You understand, don't you?"

Sherlock nods.

"I had to make sure you're using that information wisely."

"I...I don't understand."

"Jesus, Holmes, I'm making sure you haven't told anyone. You're bad at this. Don't you watch movies?"

"Are you...here to kill me?"

Ben laughs. "No. Just to check up on you."

"I haven't said anything," Sherlock says too eagerly.

"Apparently," Ben replies. "I'll leave you, then. But I'll be in touch."

Sherlock just stands still as Ben turns around and walks out of the isle.

Not much scares him, but the fact that he hasn't heard from Ben in weeks and he just shows up here is unnerving. He leaves the book he'd dropped and rushes back to the table where he left Danielle.

Luckily, she's still there and still alone, so Sherlock sighs relief.

"Geez, you okay, Sherlock? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Sherlock slowly nods. "Sure, yeah. I'm okay."

Danielle laughs. "Where's my book?"

"Oh, I, uh-"

Danielle shakes her head and stands. "It's fine, you sit. You don't look very good. I'll go get it."

Sherlock nods and sits, then Danielle disappears into the isles of bookshelves. He runs a hand through his hair and takes a deep breath, willing away the knot in his stomach.