Save Yourself

Darkness. Darkness everywhere, enveloping me, swallowing me hard. Cold darkness, the heavy smell of iron, water dripping on my forehead. Water? No, blood. I felt a deep gash on my head, nearly screaming when my fingers found the source. My legs were bound, but my hands were free.

Where the hell am I?

I thought long and hard, but my mind was a muddled mess. The last thing I remembered was having dinner with John and his new girlfriend, then heading to bed. A dream? No, this couldn't be a dream, but it did feel familiar..

My hands found the ropes and my stomach lurched. Breathing quickened, heart raced. I leaned over the best I could, trying not to vomit on myself. I managed to swallow it before it came up. Disgusted, I groaned. I knew not where I was, but who put me there. Only one person could tie that knot.

"Figured it out yet, Kara?" A voice laughed from the corner, "Or, rather, deduced it? Isn't that what youre new boyfriend does?"

A light switched on. His face shone down at me. They say the devil comes in a beautiful form, and that Derek did. Gorgeous from head to toe, well-dressed. I watched him wiping my blood from his hands onto a handkerchief, lest he not dirty his expensive suit.

"Fuck you." I muttered.

"Oh no, that hasn't happened for a very long time, has it, dear?" Derek pulled a chair from the corner, the sound of it scraping the ground sent me into a furious migraine. He checked his watch, "Let's see how good your new boyfriend is at finding you. Ah, it's been four hours already, perhaps I'm smarter than this Sherlock?"

"He's not my boyfriend, Derek. Leave him out of this."

"You thought you could run from me, didn't you? Thought you were smarter than me? Don't you know better than that, Kara? Don't you know..." Derek paused, pulling out his phone, smiling a disturbing grimace, "Well, your dear Sherlock at least knows you're missing. My men have seen him skirting about the city like a chicken with it's head cut off. I'd have guessed he'd find you by now. I did leave him a great, big clue."

"And what is that?"

Derek smiled, but didn't answer me.

"So, tell me, Kara," He took this moment to stand up and begin pacing the length of the room. My eyes scanned, but I found no windows or doors. If they were there, they were well hidden in darkness, "Why did you run?

My eyes habitually rolled, "Oh, you know, perhaps it was the constant trying to murder me, or leading me to think you murdered our daughter."

"Oh, well, you did break my heart."

"You don't have a heart, Derek."

"You made me believe I did," He sighed, deciding his handkerchief wasn't good enough, before pulling out hand santizer, "However, though I have literally tied you down, the time I try to metaphorically do so is long gone. You've ruined your good graces. While running broke my heart, killing four of my men utterly infuriated me."

"I warned you not to send anyone after me. I warned you, even if you sent Evan."

"Don't you dare speak his name!" Derek shouted, running forward to slap me near my cut, sending more blood pouring down my face.

"Had I known you loved him, I would have prolonged his suffering." I spat the blood from my mouth, aiming for his trousers, unfortunately missing, "Derek, you were messing with biological warfare. What did you expect me to do? Say that's okay honey, see you at dinner?"

"You knew from the beginning my finances weren't of the, ah, moral sort."

"I couldn't allow you to put our daughter at risk."

"I would never harm her."

I laughed, "But I suppose murdering her mother is healthy?"

Derek shrugged, smiling. He moved across the room again, pushing a hair behind my ear, before kissing my cheek lightly.

"What's unfortunate is that your dear Sherlock is going to know every horrible detail, his heart will be broken. And then he's going to watch you die."

"You've made one terrible mistake, Derek."

"And what is that?"

I smiled at the man before me, whispering, "Sherlock doesn't love me."

An alarm went off in the distance, lighting the room in flashing red, causing Derek to whip his head around. He immediately signaled for two men who had been hidden in darkness to be sent out the doors at the end of the room. It was hard to make out anything, but it appeared to be some type of abandoned factory or warehouse.

"It appears your detective has arrived."

"Consulting detective." I corrected, laughing as Sherlock and John sprinted into the room.

"Where the hell are my men?!" Derek shouted, staring in disbelief, "Took you long enough."

"Sorry, Kara, we had to stop for lunch." Sherlock mocked.

"So, how is this going to go down?" Derek answered, leaning against my chair, while pressing a gun to the side of my neck, "You know, I never thought I'd be fighting over a girl again..."

Sherlock seemed to give me a you really dated this guy? look, but I rolled my eyes in response.

"Just give us Jos-... Kara back and we'll leave it at that, okay?" John offered.

"As if it were that simple. You see, I know she wants the daughter, too. Which I just can't have. But I do think our time today is running out, so if you'll excuse me... We'll have to meet again on better terms."

The lights shut off, sending us in darkness. I felt the coolness of the gun disappear just as the alarm sounded louder. This was typical Derek behavior, an escape when things got too tight on his end. After about two minutes, the alarm turned off and the lights turned back on. John rushed over to me and began releasing me from the ropes, immediately looking over my head. Sherlock stood in the distance, looking angry.

"Where is he?!" Sherlock shouted, clearly angry, "We had him!"

"He does that." I sighed, standing up and rubbing my ankles where the circulation had been cut off.

"Are you alright?" John asked, I nodded a yes, "I'm going to go call a cab. I get no reception in this damn building."

"Be careful." I called after him. Just as soon as John shut the door behind him, Sherlock ran over to me at top speed, shaking my shoulders and scaring me.

"JOHN BE CAREFUL? WHAT ABOUT YOU?"

"Sherlock, what are you doing?!" I pulled away from him, "I don't know how I got here! The last thing I remember is going to bed!"

"I shouldn't have been out last night... If I had, I would have heard them take you. I hear everything that goes on downstairs, I would have..."

His voice softened, Sherlock stared at the ground, running his hands through his hair in thought. After a few moments, he looked back at me. He pulled his scarf from his neck, placing it on the cut on my forehead to stop the bleeding, holding it there with one hand, the other behind my neck. It made it hard to breathe, being this close to me.

"Don't blame yourself, Sherlock."

"I have to... I am to blame."

"You're not. Derek would have found a way, he always does."

He bit his lip, "I thought I swore to protect you."

I moved his hand from my head, taking the bloody scarf from him, now shaking my own head.

"How could you, Sherlock? How could you protect someone who you don't even know? You weren't even aware of my name until yesterday."

Silence spread between us as we stood there in the near-darkness. One hand holding his scarf, the other holding his hand. It was as if the quiet and darkness shielded us, giving us a newfound strength to say things we'd been waiting to say.

"I don't have to know, Kara."

"But you should. You should know. I want you to know, so I can know if you hate me or not. I mean, if you are capable of loving someone like m-"

"I'm fully capable of love, Kara. It is, however, shown in different ways than others..." His voice drew off, as if he had never considered loving another person. Even the word 'love' sounded strange on his tongue, as if he were speaking a foreign language, "I cannot see you hurt again. I will do everything to protect you."

Tears sprung forth in my eyes yet again, this time I wasn't sure if it was from happiness or sadness. Ever since I'd met him, as much as he infuriated me, I 'd always wanted some kind of approval from Sherlock. I'd wanted to see some kind of human emotion. And I'd wanted to be the person to do that for him.

I held my breath, knowing what I was about to do could change everything for better or worse.

"I know entertaining the thought of a relationship with you will never happen, Sherlock Holmes. We both know you're far too selfish and self-indulged for that, but...I'll hate myself forever if I don't do this."

Sherlock stared at me, raising an eyebrow. I dropped the scarf to the ground, grabbing onto the buttons of his coat, pulling him into me. My lips met his, I'd sworn the alarms started going off again, but they were all in my head. What's more, he didn't flinch, stop me, or pull away. His arms seemed to hang at our sides, unsure of what to do, until I wrapped mine around his and he'd done the same.

Part of me considered I'd passed out from blood loss, that this simply could not be happening. Not only had I spent half a day being tortured, but here I was now, kissing human robot Sherlock Holmes. I chased those thoughts from my mind, pulling myself farther into the kiss. A cough came from the side of the room.

We whipped away from each other, both sputtering words out, pretending that it hadn't just happened.

A very confused John stood at the end of the room, "Cab's.... here?"