Repens

The questions had seemed never ending and she only answered two questions truthfully- she was in fact only visiting London and she had been following the two men. Everything else had been simple lies that a child could have seen through. Some of her answers weren’t even logical. If they didn’t outnumber her, she knew escaping would be no trouble. But if she tried to sneak past the seven of them and was caught, they could kill her or worse.
The ugly one returned with his horrible grin and studied her from her small bare feet to her pretty eyes. She had never wanted to spit on someone so badly in her life, even if the result was a hammering smack to the cheek. He watched her thoughtful expressions and brought his face closer to hers until their noses almost touched.
Grabbing her chin with his large coarse hand, the ridiculous man whispered, “Those two have fifteen minutes to get here before I have my way with you.”
A million replies danced on the tip of her tongue. But which would bring her the greatest pleasure and be the greatest insult to her captor?
Stephanie took a breath but was interrupted before the words were spoken.
“I really don’t think that would be entirely proper, do you?”
The large criminal looked behind the girl to see a tall man lurking in the doorway. His gaze turned back to his prisoner for a few seconds before he called out to the rest of his gang. Stephanie tried to remain neutral to her savior’s arrival, though her heart was pounding and unusual butterflies filled her stomach. For a moment, she felt like a princess locked up in a tower protected by a dragon being saved by the handsome prince- she had never understood those stories until now. All her prince had to do was slay these dragons.
The other six bullies emerged from the small room with all sorts of weapons. It was effortless to observe Sherlock’s being outnumbered. One of the enormous thugs made a comment about the tall man being outnumbered. The moment was becoming tense for the nervous hostage until a slight grin appeared on his calm face. Sherlock only nodded and a gunshot sounded from somewhere in the rafters. The gunshot made the large sized men cringe. Looking over her shoulder Stephanie wondered if they were truly the oversized armatures she had them pegged for from the very beginning- all tough guys that couldn’t back up their big talk.
“Here’s how everything will go, gentlemen,” Sherlock announced calmly with his hands behind his back, hiding a gun no doubt. “My friend is going to come down and take the girl as London’s finest officers escort you to brilliant little cars with shiny lights on top.”
“We aren’t going anywhere and neither is the girl,” the leader growled, fearlessly pointing his gun towards Sherlock. The other brutes followed their leader’s example, swinging and loading their own weapons to use on the cocky legend.
“You all are quite dull and this entire scheme was horribly planned. How long have you all been in business? Judging by your low quality outfits and weapons, I’m going to say this is your fourth or fifth job. Am I correct?”
“The next job will be cleaning up your scrawny little bones we tear off limb by limb,” the largest one of the group yelled from the back.
Sherlock couldn't help rolling his eyes at their big talk.
“You all will really be doing yourselves a favor by simply walking outside and surrendering. Every criminal is ashamed to be in the same profession as you lot. A courtesy would be done to the criminal masterminds of London if you surrendered and spent a while in prison to form a more elaborate scheme,”
He waited for a moment and gave the idiots time to be reasonable. When they did not budge, Sherlock snapped his fingers and a swarm of officers surrounded the group of ridiculous kidnappers.
“Lock this laughingstock gang up where they will not be able to further embarrass themselves,” he ordered as handcuffs were pulled out and those who struggled were beaten or forced onto the ground. John’s name was called and Watson suddenly appeared.
The calm doctor ran directly to Stephanie and released her from the tightly knotted bonds. Still a bit shaky, Stephanie stood up and threw her arms around John thanking him for coming to save her. Watson blushed as he embraced the brave beautiful girl.
When they parted he couldn’t help but chuckle, “You told them your name was Cassidy?”
“Well, I had to have a bit of fun with them, yeah? There were no computers around for them to look me up, none of them had smartphones, and I didn’t have a single piece of identification on me,” she grinned.
“Unbelievable.”
They marveled at the silly situation and then walked through the maze of officers and cursing felons.
John and Stephanie made it to the nearest street when she glanced behind them and asked, “What about him?”
“Oh, Sherlock? He’ll come at his own time. He won’t be satisfied until he tells the detectives exactly what happened and what mistakes your new friends made. Their future plans will be painfully obvious and anyone involved in those plans will be behind bars before morning. That’s what he does, what he lives for.”
“And you just come along for the ride?”
“Well, I play a bigger part most times. From what he explained to me, these men hadn’t a single idea what they were doing. Their size was the only thing in their favor to use against you.”
“Yes, I was aware. That was the most irritating bit of all. Outsmarting them would have been effortless. But I didn’t particularly feel like being torn to pieces or slapped around all night.”
“Can’t blame you.”
“So was the case solved?”
“For the most part. The one behind all of this, the leader of this sorry mob, got away. That will kill Sherlock but the master criminal’s disappearing act had nothing to do with you. The detectives from Scotland Yard will find him soon enough.”
They shared a small grin and were both glad that it was all over. John hailed the next available cab and they made their way to Baker Street. The ride was silent, each in their separate thoughts. The good doctor paid the driver and walked the girl to her aunt's door. Without a word Stephanie gave him another hug.
“Thank you again, Dr. Watson.”
“No problem at all. If there is anything else I can do for you, simply let me know,” he added, trying not to blush.
“There is actually one thing.” She was slightly embarrassed for even entertaining the thought, but she just wanted to know. “Was he worried about me?”
John’s hopes and heart sank simultaneously. She had just given him two hugs since regaining her freedom but she still wanted to know about his best friend’s reaction to the entire occurrence.
“Sherlock has very few feelings about anything or anyone. He is either bored from not having a case or entirely consumed in whatever case he is working on. There isn’t much in-between the two.” The next thing he had to say was hard for him to get out. “Tonight, he displayed more concern than usual and that was a rather large deal. He didn’t say anything but to answer your question, yes; I think he was worried about you. Goodness, I was worried about you.”
She softly giggled, amused by something. “The Scarecrow and the Tinman, the pair of you- one cares about everything and the other seemingly has no heart.”
“Guess you could call us that,” John smiled, rolling his eyes at her girlish analogy.
“It’s not a bad thing to care, John. Having someone like you around, with your large heart, is exactly what he needs. He’s lucky to have you,” she stated in a sweet sentimental tone.
“I suppose. I feel like the lucky one. He keeps me around and I haven’t the slightest idea why.”
“It’s your heart, John You have a very special loyal caring trustworthy heart.”
“Well, thank you, Miss Thomas. Goodnight,” he grinned. She had built him up and had given him some things to think about. He opened the door for her and nodded with one last farewell.
“Oh, John,” she called before walking into her aunt’s flat. He quickly turned on his heels to face her in response. “If you have a special someone, take her out tonight. A man like you deserves a nice date while Sherlock is on his own date with Scotland Yard.”
John smiled and pondered on the idea for a moment. “You know, I think I will. You don’t think it’s too late to grab a bit of grub?”
“Nonsense, go have some fun and relax,” she giggled as if his question were absurd. He gave her a nod of gratitude and walked back outside. Once at the street edge, he put his cell to his ear, said something in a lover’s tone, and grabbed the next cab.
“Have a wonderful night, doctor,” she whispered with a smile. The door handle was turned and her aunt screamed happily.
Their reunion was wonderful and her aunt seemed to be more relieved than she was, even though she had been the hostage. A short version of the story was told over a nice warm meal and cup of tea. They talked a bit more and it was suddenly late.
“Well, I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you are alright. I would have gone crazy if something would have happened to you,” the sweet older woman sighed.
“We don’t have to tell my parents if you don’t want to. I would rather them not know.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t!”
“Deal!”
“Deal.”
They hugged and kissed one another before the land lady was off to bed. Stephanie sat at the kitchen table with endless thoughts running around her head. It had been quite a day- much more entertaining than the trip with her parents would have been. When she heard someone come in, an hour had gone by since her aunt had gone to bed. Listening for the steps, she knew it was him. But he probably didn’t want to see her. After all, he probably blamed her for missing the most important villain of the case.
She began to stare into her lukewarm tea and even thought about heating it up but a warm cup of tea didn’t seem worth getting up for. She was just now getting comfortable and finally feeling relaxed. Still in her own thoughts, she remained sitting there and staring into her cup. Her phone suddenly buzzed with a text message, probably her mother telling her goodnight or something. When she opened the message, she couldn’t control the buzzing sensation that suddenly filled her chest.

Come up when convenient. –SH

With a smile, Stephanie quietly tiptoed to her room and changed into something more attractive. She wasn’t sure what would happen once she joined him upstairs but she certainly knew what she was hoping for. Silly predictions filled her head as she put on a slightly tight pair of skinny jeans and a navy blue tank top. A brush was quickly run through her thick hair and a bit of eye make-up was slapped on. He would notice everything but she didn’t think he would be analyzing her in that particular way tonight. This would be their first time together since they locked eyes. He didn’t even have the stomach to look at her all tied up and anxiously waiting to be untied. And then there was what Watson had said- Sherlock had been nervous.
When she found herself presentable, she left her phone in her room and made the short trip up the steps. In a matter of seconds she was at the door of the great Sherlock Holmes, at his request.