Contact High → Sherlock Holmes (BBC) [on hold]

{ twenty }

The door to Sherlock's room slammed. Carmen started down the hallway, but John got up and caught her arm, "Leave him be." Carmen frowned at John, "I--." John sighed heavily and pulled her back into the living room with the others, "Leave him be."

In his room, Sherlock quickly unwrapped the small present. Inside the red box was Irene's own camera-phone. He turned it over in his palm, curiously inspecting the screen and the sides. It was the actual phone, not a fake. He held it tightly as he frowned, staring into the distance. Quickly, he dialed Mycroft. The phone rang twice before his brother answered.

"Oh, dear Lord," Mycroft sighed, "We're not going to have Christmas phone calls now, are we? This was Carmen's doing, wasn't it?"

Carmen finally pulled away from John's grip and walked down the hall. She paused in front of the closed door. If she focused, she could just barely hear Sherlock's deep voice. "I think you're going to find Irene Adler tonight," Sherlock said quietly. Carmen gently opened the door, carefully slow so it wouldn't creak.

"We already know where she is," Mycroft's tinny voice declared, "As you were kind enough to point out, it hardly matters."

"No, I mean you're going to find her dead," Sherlock said lowly. His voice was rough with an emotion Carmen couldn't place. He hung up the phone and turned to the door. Carmen stood half-way in the doorway. Her red dress looked black in the low light of Sherlock's room. "You okay?" she asked carefully.

Sherlock paced a moment, "Yes." He shut the door in her face, leaving her alone in the hallway. She didn't dare open it again, though he hadn't locked it. Her eyes flooded with tears as she stared at the blank white door. She could hear him pacing inside.

Slowly, she turned and leaned her back against the closed door, sliding down it to sit in front of it. John walked down the hallway and gave a sad little sigh. She looked pitiful, leaning against the door in her beautiful dress. John realized she was crying, though he wasn't sure why. In all honesty, she wasn't sure why either.

John walked over and squatted down next to her, "Carmen?"

She turned her face up to him. "Come back to the party," John pleaded. Carmen shook her head, turning and staring into the distance. They both could hear Sherlock pacing angrily in his room. A beautiful woman waited outside his door for him, and Sherlock paced in his room over a cruel creature such as Irene. John frowned and wiped a stray tear off Carmen's cheek, "He's awfully stupid sometimes, isn't he?"

Carmen gave a watery smile, "Completely daft."

John gave her a stiff nod before standing and heading back into the living room. Carmen heard Sherlock's pacing stop, and she almost fancied she heard him sitting on the other side of the door.

Sherlock was sitting there, though Carmen thought it was just her imagination. He leaned against the door and sighed. Never before had the deduction of someone's death hit him as hard as it had just now. Surprising, because he hadn't thought much of Irene in the first place. Passably clever, passably pretty. He could hear Carmen sniffle outside the door, and he realized with a start that maybe, just maybe, Irene wasn't the person he was so upset about.

Carmen couldn't keep to herself. She was making him... feel things. Things he hated. The way his heart beat faster when he saw her in such a beautiful dress. The way he had felt heat steal over him with a simple touch of her hand; let alone the sick swooping feeling he got from the kiss she had given him--his lips still felt raw from it.

But then Irene had anchored him back to earth. Death, swift and sure, had taken another victim. And that was the reason he was upset. To care for someone, in any way, only led to hurt. They would leave, one day, John and Carmen. They would hate him, like all the others. Call him a freak. He was just something new, a novelty to catch their fancy for a bit. He frowned as he thought about it. Carmen would leave one day, it was best to never forget that.