A New Mystery at 221 Baker Street

Chapter 80: Back Again

Episode Transcript provided by Ariane DeVere/Callie Sullivan

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Sherlock jolted awake as the flight attendant shook his shoulder. "Sir, we've landed,"

"No, no, not now," Sherlock mumbled to himself as the captain of the plane walked up to him. He took a quick breath, realising that she resembled what he imagined Lady Carmichel as. His thoughts about the captain's resemblance quickly disappeared from his head when he felt a reassuring warmth around him. Alice. It was only now that he realised that the victorian version of himself lacked her. How he had missed it was a mystery, yet a part of him knew that something was wrong.

Once Alice release Sherlock from the hug, she knelt to get on eye level. "Don't you dare think that I forgot what your wrists look like right now. Your life is not your own. Please, now that you're back, no more. Please," she whispered. Her relief that he was back on the ground was mixed with her disappointment.

"Well, a somewhat shorter exile than we'd imagined, brother mine. Hardly adequate given your levels of OCD," Mycroft scoffed as he entered the plane after John and Mary.

"I have to go back!" Sherlock exclaimed, still sitting in his chair. "I was nearly there! I nearly had it!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Alice asked, moving to the aisle so Mary could sit down. in the chair across from him.

"Ricoletti and his abominable wife! Don't you understand?"

"No, of course, we don't," Mary said, holding her baby bump as she sat across from him. "You're not making any sense, Sherlock,"

"You've only just been told about Moriarty's return," Alice said, "The Ricoletti case isn't going to help you solve this one,"

"Wait, what's the Ricoletti case?" John asked.

"It was a famous case from a hundred years ago, lodged in my hard drive. She seemed to be dead but then she came back," Sherlock answered.

"What, like Moriarty?"

"And yourself," Alice mumbled to her husband.

"Shot herself in the head, exactly like Moriarty," Sherlock confirmed.

"But you've only just been told. We've only just found out,"

Sherlock unclipped his seatbelt. "So? It's been five minutes since Mycroft called," He turned his head to his brother, knowing that if he said the next words to his wife, that exile would have been the safer option. "What progress have you made? What have you been doing? You should have some theories by now, Mycroft"

John scoffed. "More to the point, what have you been doing?"

"I've been in my mind palace, of course. Running an experiment: how would I have solved the crome if I had been there in 1895?"

Both Mycroft, who was now sitting down in the seat diagonal from him, and Alice frowned. They knew he had taken something, but they were unsure how much was in his system.

"I was there, all of it, everything. I had the details all perfect, I was immersed,"

"Of course you were," Alice, disappointed, gracefully took her husband's phone from his hands and unlocked it.

"You've been reading John's blog. Specifically the entries about how you two met and 'A Study in Pink"," Mary commented, as she glanced over at the phone before Alice walked over to stand behind Sherlock. And unlike her husband, she saw the look Alice and Mycroft exchanged with each other.