Hello Detective

His Last Vow Part 4

I walked around the empty flat, waiting for Sherlock and John to return from the hospital. Mycroft was calling for backup to do a drug sweep due to his recent relapse. The place was quiet, eerily so. I hadn't walked these halls for weeks, but it felt as if years had worn them down, turning them dark and lifeless. Nothing like the flat I knew. Nothing like my home. It's like in their bones they sensed my absence. They revolted against it. I glanced towards the closed bedroom door, not being able to bring myself to open it. I missed him too much for that. The memories we'd made in that room would be too much to face now. Now I had to hold my mask high, I had to play my role and not become distracted.

Downstairs I heard the creak of the door slowly opening and prepared myself for the confrontation. It was never pretty when Sherlock and Mycroft went at it.

Mycroft was sitting at the bottom of the steps anticipating their arrival. I waited at the landing, not quite stepping into the light yet, using my last few moments to compose myself for the inevitable argument.

"Well then Sherlock, back on the sauce?" Mycroft spoke immediately as they entered the room, hoping to employ the element of surprise. But of course Sherlock was expecting him. He'd straightened the knocker, of course Sherlock would notice.

"What are you doing here?" Sherlock rolled his eyes, not in the mood for another insignificant lecture.

"I phoned him." John admitted.

"The siren call of old habits." Mycroft muttered disapprovingly.

"Old?" I raised a brow, taking a few steps down into the light. Mycroft turned to look at me, concern flashed across his face. He acted like Sherlock ever stopped using, but I knew better.

"You phoned him?" Sherlock asked John again, who wasn't in the mood.

"Course I bloody phoned him." John said, exasperated. Did he forget he just pulled him from a drug den? Of course he was bloody concerned.

"And her?" Sherlock asked, with malice in his voice, directed straight at me.

"Oh I'm here against my will, don't worry I'd never come here voluntarily." I retorted.

Sherlock opened his mouth to speak, but Mycroft changed the subject before he got a chance. He was too tired to deal with the two of us at eachothers throats.

"Now save me a little time. Where should we be looking?" Mycroft asked.

"We?" Sherlock asked, raising his brow.

"Mr Holmes?" The voice of Anderson echoed from upstairs.

The look of simultaneous anger and surprise on Sherlock's face caused me to laugh.

"Oh I take it back, this is going to be fun." I chuckled darkly. This is just what I needed. A good old Sherlock-Anderson standoff like the good old days. God things were simpler back then, even with the homicidal maniac who tried to blow me up.

"For God's sake!" Sherlock called up to Anderson, pushing past Mycroft and I while making his way up the stairs. The three of us followed in tow.

"Anderson?" Sherlock asked annoyed and exasperated, hoping that he'd misidentified the voice, only for it to be confirmed.

"Sorry Sherlock, it's for your own good." Anderson apologized as the rest of us filed into the flat. He stood next to who I assumed to be his new girlfriend, I recognized her from my trip to his apartment all those months ago.

"Oh, that's him, isn't it?" The girlfriend asked, "You said he'd be taller."

She turned and muttered her last statement to Phillip, but I knew that would strike a cord with Sherlock. Just like the hat, it was a delicate subject.