The Other Side - BBC Sherlock Fanfiction

Chapter 5 - An Unlikely Photoshoot

Angel

Success! I’m uncharacteristically happy that Sebastian has been caught, not only does it mean that he is being put to justice but, it makes Jim’s force weaker. When someone close to the centre of a criminal web is caught .It sets everybody further out on edge especially if the victim doesn’t receive any help because if someone that close to the mastermind is left to their own devices then they certainly won’t be.

As far as I can tell Jim still doesn’t suspect a thing, which is definitely a good thing. If he did I’d be gone for sure.

“Angel? Come here will you?” Speak of the devil, I follow my ears to Jim sitting, as usual, at his computer.

“What?” I snap impatiently, “I was thinking.” He only smiles cheekily and nods in the direction of his computer screen. I peer over his shoulder to see something shocking – a Twitter page – and clearly my surprise is evident as he chuckles and opens his mouth to explain.

“I need to make the whole ‘Rich Brook’ thing as believable as possible and so I decided to make a Twitter profile, but I need your help with a profile picture, it needs to look normal (not my area of expertise). You think you can manage that?” A wicked smile creeps onto my face as I agree to do as asked. This shall be fun.

Just ten minutes later I have gathered my weapons of torture. Jim eyes them worriedly whilst I turn on some music, purely to annoy him. I place some clothes in his hands, a plain t-shirt and some jeans, which are not exactly his usual style. He takes extra-long to change into them so as to delay what comes next. There comes a point when he can’t put it off much longer and I instruct him to perch on the sofa, he reluctantly obliges.

I scrub his hair with a damp towel to get some of the hair gel out of it, this takes longer than expected. Jim questions the importance of his hairstyle and I reply saying “Slicked back hair is Jim Moriarty’s look, not Rich Brook’s, there needs to be a clear distinct difference.” I think that this is perfectly reasonable but he continues to grumble under his breath for a few seconds. Once I feel that his hair has been sufficiently un-gelled I give it a blast with the hairdryer before proceeding to ruffle it up with my fingers to give him a slightly just-rolled-out-of-bed look.

Satisfied with my efforts I reach back for my camera and hold it in front of me. I can’t resist saying “Say cheese!” before I take it, this earns me a scowl though which is really not the look I was hoping for, “Jim, you’re supposed to be a kids TV presenter but now you look like… well you look like you. Which kind of defeats the object of the photo, understand?” he nods obediently, like a child who has just been told off by its Mum. I thank him and ask him to smile, this time he does.

Over the next half an hour I take a load of photos in various poses, some with props like books or mugs. I then allow Jim to look through them to pick his favourite, he settles for one in which he is smiling cheekily from behind a book. Once he uploads it he turns to me with a fiendish smile upon his face. I look at him worriedly,

“Your turn!” My eyes widen in surprise, this was not part of the plan,

“What? Why?” I mentally plead that he is joking although it is very unlikely. He answers,

“Well if Mr Brook has Twitter then Mrs Brook needs one too.” I know that this battle is already won and say that I will change into something nice. I put on a random dress and brush my hair before returning.

“Good enough?” I question, although we both know that I’m not about to change again.

“Yeah, yeah. So I was thinking, seeing as you’re so invested in this believability thing, that we should  have your photo as both of us, aye. What d’you think about that?” he nudges be in the side, less than gently, expecting me to reject his proposal. Surprising both him and me, I agree saying “Okay, sure, I’ll get the door shall I?” right on cue the doorbell rings.

I’m enjoying this far too much. Once Atkins (Moran’s replacement) arrived for his interesting first task – taking photos for a Twitter profile – we researched all of the cheesiest couple poses and copied them. Needless to say that Atkins wasn’t exactly thrilled at having to take photos of us, but who cares. We eventually decide on one taken from behind us, where we are holding hands. This made me feel kind of uncomfortable, not that I let it show, as I usually avoid physical contact at all costs.