A Universe of Possibilities - Teenlock/Johnlock/Mystrade

Chapter 8- Madness

Despite the rising levels of stress and anticipation, particularly in three specific dorms in the B hall of Baskerville's, three uneventful weeks passed.

October came with gusts of cold air and heavy autumn rains, keeping spirits rather down overall, but otherwise life was normal. Teachers handed out homework, students misbehaved, Mr. Dixon was a dick; everything was business as usual. No murders. No suspicious incidents. Nothing interesting at all.

This drove Sherlock Holmes absolutely mad.

It was on one particularly cold, rainy afternoon that John entered his dorm after lunch to find Sherlock smoking by the open window, through which the strong winds and scattered raindrops entered, chilling the entire room.

"What the hell, Sherlock?!" John yelled, marching over and slamming the window shut. "Are you trying to catch pneumonia?!"

Sherlock held up the remaining portion of his cigarette. "I was merely being polite. I know how you hate it when I smoke in our room, so I was-"

John interrupted him by grabbing the cigarette out of his hand, opening the window again briefly to throw it out, and slamming it shut once more. "When I said that, I was implying that you should stop smoking. Not that you should smoke through an open window during a storm!"

Sherlock didn't respond. He just retrieved his pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket and pulled out another one, but John confiscated it as well, along with the entire pack. "Stop it," he said. "You don't need to smoke."

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Well, because it clears my mind, it helps me focus, and I'm fucking BORED!" He jumped up from his chair at the last word. "I'm bored and confused, John, the two worst feelings in the world! Why hasn't he done anything yet? What the bloody hell is he waiting for? I see him everyday in the halls, going to his classes and looking all smug like he knows exactly what he's doing, while I sit here going through the same information over and over again, and it's never enough to deduce anything I don't already know! Is this his plan? To torment me? Just keep me waiting and waiting until I'm driven to insanity?!"

Before John could respond, their door opened a few inches and Molly poked her head in. "Is everything okay in here? I was just coming back from lunch and I could hear the yelling all the way down the hall."

"We're fine, Sherlock's just panicking again," said John. "Come on in."

Over the past few weeks, Molly's friendship with Sherlock and John had grown to the point where she was around their room fairly often, no longer so prudish about being in "the boys' wing". Sometimes they discussed what Moriarty's plans might be, other times they just chatted. She was really quite fun to have around, actually.

"So, I'm guessing there haven't been any new developments-"

"Don't remind him," John muttered, as Sherlock was still pacing frantically and cursing Moriarty under his breath. "Sherlock, you've got to calm down. Stressing yourself out won't solve anything-"

"You don't get it, John!" Sherlock yelled, kicking his desk chair over. "I have one of the most exciting criminals I've ever encountered right at my fingertips, but I can't act until he does. Maybe I should just go over and-"

"No!" John interjected right away. "We've been over this, and you're not risking your life like that!"

One of the first things Sherlock had done after discovering Moriarty was hack into the school's student records and find out his room number: 203 B. Since then, he had been tempted several times to simply pay him a visit, but John had always been there to make him see reason. "This is the boy who burned his baby sister alive," John would remind him. "There's no reason to believe that he wouldn't be ready to kill you the moment you knocked on his door!"