Eastern Winds (JohnLock)

Chapter 23 - Rupert Stevens

Sherlock's P.O.V;

It wasn't long after Mycroft's arrival that I began to loose the will to live. Yes the man was the smartest in the room, but I was certainly not far behind. How could one man be such a patronising git all the time? John had to stiffle laughs because of the constant eye rolls. Yes the man was helping us prepare a plan which ensure our saftey but that didn't make listening to him any less insufferable.

Once Mycroft decided that John, Greg's and also my own idea's about gaining access to where Moriarty had chosen to reside were worthy of his time we had accounted for most possibilities. We would survive this. Unless of course the man had something more extravegant than we could possibly imagine planned. After all this was James Moriarty, the consulting criminal, although his job title lacked origionality, he certainly did not.

"Look Sherlock, Just remember this Rupert bloke could just be an authour, so don't go in all guns blazing because you could give him the fright of his bloody life!"

"Gregory, I assure you, my little brother is correct when he confirmed Mr. Stevens to be Moriarty. There would be no other suitable allias for the man, we could blow up the house and be entirely sure we had got the right man. Unfortunatley the collateral damage would be regretably large so we must go in on foot." At least Mycroft was begining to show a little faith in me, after all I had destroyed the man's network completly, dealing with every last vermin that worked with Jim. I deserved some gratitude from time to time

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It wasn't long until Mycroft had his men surround 6 Quarry Hill in which Moriarty had been living. The man must have known we were coming, after all, he never misses a trick. Well, Except for one... It had not been hard to fake the fall, then again, it clearly wansn't hard to fake shoot yourself either. Lestrade insisted both he and Mycroft would come into the house too, he believed us to be outnumbered or at least at some disadvantage according to Moriarty's past. After an argument that lasted the entire journey to the estate to join the vast number of Mycroft's men I finally caved and agreed they could come into the house with us.

John and I stood hand in hand at the bottom of the garden's pathway which lead to the front door. I was extremely aware of the closeness of my brother and the detective insepctor to myself, their fronts almost pressed against mine and John's backs. I was even more aware of the unhealthy number of snipers pointing at the house infront of us. It was a show home, the architecture matching the rest of the houses on the estate, all made from the same bricks that had been coated in which paint to look 'minimalistic' and 'modern'. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "This is deffinatley Jim Moriarty." I used my free hand to cup John's face, bending down I kissed my blogger softly and breifly, the taste of John lingered on my lips as I tugged at his hand leading him down the path to Moriarty's house.

The front door was unlocked so I pushed it open, there was no point in subtlty, the man would know we had the house surrounded and he knew we were coming, why waste time in sneaking in? I heard the familiar tune of Bach floating from the sitting room situated at the back of the house. Walking down the corridor towards the delightfully depressing melody, John's palms began to sweat, I squeezed his hand before feeling him relax into my hand. I was not going to let the one man who made me feel human be torn away from me by the one man who had made me a monster.

Upon opening the door into the lounge area the music stopped abruptly. "Please, Rupert. Do not stop playing on our account, you know how Bach hated an unfinished piece." As the four of us entered the room the man we had come to see was hidden behind the piano he sat at. The symphony soon came to an end and the petite man stood from behind the piano so that he could see us. In the irish drawl we had grown to hate he uttered the four words that had been playing on our minds since his return.

"Did you miss me?"