Sherlocked

Rose

“Do you think I am afraid, Rosy? You’re desperate enough to risk your own life, but do you know what? I will plenty of pleasure from the knowledge that Sherlock’s precious little pet will be gone. And he’ll have it all on tape to relive at his leisure.” Moriarty taunted me, and I started to regret having him attached to me.

My hand didn’t waver away from him as I addressed Sebastian. “It won’t be enough for you, though, will it?” I smiled at him, even as I remembered what he had done and almost done to me. “You need his help to get rid of some unpleasant people, don’t you? And if he dies, the right people don’t get killed, you don’t get rich, and you will still be at the bottom of the criminal food chain. Did you really think that Sherlock would care for someone who wasn’t smart enough to figure out a few things for herself? I’m known for being deceptively intelligent. You, on the other hand, need Jim Moriarty to survive. Without his brilliant mind and his connections, you’re nothing but a petty thief and a murderer.”

“Honey, you’re making me blush,” Moriarty said, batting his eyelashes.

“Deactivate the bomb, Sebastian. I know you have the magic switch. Moriarty would never be stupid enough to carry it around. And you’re the only person he trusts enough to involve in the inner workings of his plans. If you help me, you might actually have a criminal career after this. You could become the new Moriarty.”

“How do I know you won’t just put me behind bars?” he asked, fidgeting slightly. I knew he was starting to consider what I was putting in front of him.

“I could say Moriarty orchestrated the entire thing on his own. No one would ever be the wiser.”

“If you betray me, I will hunt you down and sssskin you,” Moriarty hissed to Sebastian, who took a step back away from the doorway.

“He won’t be doing any sssskinning from inside a prison,” I mocked. “And who knows, once he’s gone maybe you can take over his little enterprise. And what’s better, I will tell Sherlock Holmes that you are off-limits.”

Sebastian’s eyes flickered from me to the gun to Moriarty and back again. His hand went into the pocket of his slacks, and he withdrew a small makeshift remote. He pointed it up at the sensor and hit a button, and the sensor turned off.

Sebastian smiled until, despite all my golden promises and silver-tongued words, I raised the gun at him instead.

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Sherlock

We arrived at the warehouse mere minutes after Rose called. Mycroft was able to track the phone call. If it hadn’t been for that I wasn’t sure if I would have ever been able to find her on my own. There wasn’t enough to go on, and it wasn’t like one of Moriarty’s usual games. This game he never intended for me to win.

I led an entire team, some from Lestrade’s police force and some far more shady agents that Mycroft had at his disposal. We quickly dispatched the guards that were stationed around the warehouse, and once inside, the place was deserted. I had a feeling Moriarty wanted to make this as intimate as possible.

We rounded a few corners, and I was about to lead the men around another corner when I heard voices.

“…you won’t just put me behind bars?” a male voice asked.

“I could say Moriarty orchestrated the entire thing on his own. No one would ever be the wiser.”

The sound of Rose’s voice made my heart clench. I remembered the last words I heard her say. I couldn’t remember the last time someone had said those words to me.

I motioned for the other men, who were a couple of meters behind me, to stop as I listened to the conversation to progress.

Clever girl. She had found a way to play with her strengths. She had always been able to read emotions so well, even my own well-hidden ones. She was telling him everything he wanted to hear, and he was drinking it in.

When I heard the gun shot, I sprung from my hiding place behind the wall, and the others followed closely behind me. It was pure and utter chaos as agents and policemen flooded into the cavernous room, blocking my vision of the small doorway on the other end where Rose had been standing next to Moriarty. For the first time, I was terribly frightened and confused.

I pushed past the throng of people and finally released a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. Sebastian was sprawled out on the ground, a gunshot wound in his chest, his blood spreading rapidly beneath his body. He was breathing gurgled breaths as his chest cavity filled.

I looked up and saw an exhausted Rose had cuffed herself to Moriarty. She had seen the use of something as small and insignificant as a tiepin, and used it to gain the upper hand.

“You were wrong about this one, Sherlock,” I heard Moriarty say as my attention turned to him. I didn’t have the voice to ask him to explain why he made such a remark.

I just watched as Lestrade un-cuffed Rose from Moriarty and placed a new set of cuffs on Moriarty as several men carried him away. Mycroft had taken the gun from her hands and was wiping it clean. The agents took down the camera that filmed the terrible ordeal.

Carefully, one of the agents removed the bomb from Rose’s chest, and as he did, an enormous weight seemed to lift from her, leaving her exhausted as she collapsed.

I caught her in my arms, lifting her in one fell swoop as I started to carry her away from the scene. “You found me. I knew you would,” she muttered, staring up at me with tired blue eyes. One was nearly swollen shut.

I passed Mycroft, who caught my gaze. I merely nodded at him, holding onto my Rose just a little bit tighter before I carried on my way out the door.

I carried the beautiful, broken woman out to the waiting ambulance, sitting with her as we drove to the hospital.