Don't Be...Dead

21- Waking

I was going to wait a day or two before posting, but as I'm going on vacation for a few days here it is....

~Trisha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(John)

Beep...Beep...Beep... The sound went through my body, controlling everything from my breathing to the heartbeat. Then I felt it. It started as a dull headache but slowly spread, turning into a throb and worsening until eventually I felt about to burst.

Painfully, I forced my eyes open a crack. I was...What? In a hospital? That seemed about right. I was lying on a metal bed with dull white sheets pulled halfway up my chest. There was a small nightstand next to me with a vase of flowers on it. As my eyes focused I saw Sherlock sitting next to me in a white plastic chair. How long had he been here? Obviously he hadn’t left recently. His dark hair was rumpled and stubble was forming on the lower half of his face. Sherlock’s eyes were rimmed with dark circles and he still wore the purple shirt from the party, though he had taken his suit jacket off and over his chest was a dark stain. Currently he was sleeping, snoring slightly.

"Sherlock?" I reached for him but the IV on my hand restricted my motion. "Sherlock?" I called again, loud enough for him to hear this time.

His eyes opened at the sound of my voice. "John!" Sherlock jumped out of his chair and leaned in to hug me. My breath drew in sharply from the pounding in my head and he pulled away from me. "I’m sorry." He said, sitting back down in his chair.

"Sherlock, what happened? How did I get here? I remember leaving the party, but after that..."

Sherlock sighed and hung his head, "John... I think I should tell you about what actually happened before I... Before I jumped."

I frowned, my brow creased. "Sherlock, I don’t understand..."

He sighed. "Moriarty. He’s why I jumped. You know his snipers, the ones set to shoot anyone I came into contact with? He had them trained on Lestrade, Ms. Hudson and..." his voice faltered a little "and you. Moriarty was going to have them kill you had I not jumped. He shot himself so the snipers couldn’t be called off. So I jumped." He smirked. "Well, sort of. I spent the time I was gone hunting down all of the snipers. I thought I had them all. I was going to wait another month or two before coming back, to make sure you were safe. But then you said you were moving out. I couldn’t risk that." He wiped a tear from his eye. Sherlock Holmes was crying. "I was too busy worrying about you going away from me when I should have been worried about your safety. I’m so sorry."

"Okay, stop. Just stop. If you say sorry one more time I will get out of this bed and punch you." Sherlock chuckled. "So what actually happened?"

His face fell. "The bullet. It grazed your scalp. You were lucky, shouldn’t cause any permanent damage. Still, you gave me quite a scare. I’ve been here four days waiting for you to wake up."

Four days. I had been out four days. And Sherlock hadn’t even left my side in that time. "Did you mean it?"

Sherlock frowned, his brow furrowing at my question. "Mean what?"

"What you said. As I was passing out. You said..." he raised an eyebrow and I took a deep breath. Just spit it out. "You said you loved me."

He frowned. No, don’t do this to me. "Of course I meant it." I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and indescribable bliss filled me. "John, about that night. I am so sorry about what I did, kissing Irene. I shouldn’t have-"

"Come here," I said, cutting him off. He froze and moved over to stand right next to the bed. I motioned for him to come closer and he leaned down. Grabbing his shirt with the hand not attached to my IV, I pulled Sherlock down and placed my lips on his. The monitor behind me beeped faster. I let go of Sherlock and smiled. "That’s for saying you love me."

I heard a click and looked up. The door opened and Molly walked in. In an instant she took in the scene and realized what had just happened. "Oh! I’m so-I’ll just-" she turned around to leave. Sherlock turned his face to look at her, not moving his head away from mine.

"What are you doing here Molly?"

"They heard Johns monitor increase. I was stopping by to check in anyway so I said I’d find out what happened. I didn’t expect- I leave you two alone." she turned and walked out. Once the door clicked shut, Sherlock turned back to me. "Now, where were we?"

I smiled and brought my left hand back. Mustering as much strength as I could, I punched Sherlock squarely in the face. He stumbled back away from me, rubbing his jaw. "THAT was for saying you’re sorry again. Those words don’t fit you."