Loving a Holmes

The Americans

John and I head out of the room, leaving Sherlock and the Woman, this Ms. Adler, in the room. Well, I did not leave willingly, John almost had to pull me from the room, whispering in my ear. "He has a plan, we need to carry out our end of it. Come on." When the two of us get into the hallway John grabs a magazine from the small table in the hall. "Do you have a match or a lighter?"

I pat the pockets on my jacket, pulling out a lighter that Sherlock must have slipped into my jacket, handing it to John. "He really does plan everything out."

"Most things, yeah. I can't imagine he planned to be with you in the manner he is, but here you are." John nods while I take a deep breath, my head reeling with all the things that could be happening in the room between Sherlock and Adler. John lights the magazine on fire and starts waving it around. "Hey, don't worry. Sherlock can barely handle one woman, I don't think he can handle two."

I nod and smile, still very worried. A few seconds later the fire alarm starts going on, and I can hear Sherlock from in the room. "Okay, thank you. You two can turn it off now."

John puts out the burning magazine and looks around the hall. "Trying!"

At that moment we hear a silenced gunshot and the fire alarm stops, we see three men dressed in all black coming down the stairs. They grab John and myself, but not before I notice the headpiece in their ears and that they don't have much on them other than the guns in their hands. They must have been listening to the conversation with Ms. Adler.

"What is with men and threes?" I roll my eyes.

I look over at John as we are forced into back into the room. I am happy to see that Ms. Adler still has Sherlock's coat on. The men then begin to speak, one pointing a gun at Adler, the other one John and myself as the leader addresses Sherlock. "Miss Adler, on the floor!"

"Don't you want me on the floor, too?" Sherlock looks over to the man.

"No sir, I want you to open the safe, Mr. Holmes."

Sherlock and I look the man up and down, commenting at the same time. "Americans, interesting."

Sherlock stops and looks down at me. I am on the floor between John and Adler. "Why would you care about whatever it is that Ms. Adler has?"

"Sir, the safe, now, please."

"I don't know the code."

"We've been listening, she said she told you. So I can only assume that you or your lovely counterpart here knows the code."

"If you've been listening, you'll know she didn't tell us anything."

"I assume I missed something. From you reputation, I assume you didn't Mr. Holmes. Nor did you, Miss Love."

"She's the one who knows the code, ask her!"

"Yes sir, she also knows the code that calls the police and sets off the burglar alarm."

Adler sighs. "Mr. Holmes doesn't..."

"Shut Up! One more word out of you, just one, and I will decorate that wall with the insides of your head. That, for me, will not be hardship." The leader sighs. "Mr. Archer, at the count of three, shoot either Dr. Watson or Miss Love. Take your pick, either will do."

John and I look to each other and then up at the man. "What?"

He begins to count as Sherlock protests. "One."

"I don't know the code."

"Two."

"She didn't tell me, I don't know it!"

"I'm prepared to believe you, any second now."

"Three!"

"No, stop!"

"Thank you, Mr. Holmes. Open it, please."

Sherlock turns to the fireplace, above which is the safe. As he punches in the code I try to think of what the code could be. When I realize what it was look over at Adler, giving her an acknowledgment of the brilliants behind her code. Her measurements. She smirks over at me and nods before we hear Sherlock speak very clearly. "Vatican Cameos!"

This had been a code word used between the boys used to declare danger was afoot. Since John had been in the military the two uses an old military saying, literally telling soldiers to duck and cover, back in World War II. When Sherlock speaks these words John, wraps an arm around me and swiftly moves me to the floor underneath him. When everything has calmed back down, the man behind John and I has been shot, Sherlock had taken down the man next to him, and Adler had a gun on the man behind her. Sherlock clearly wanted to keep things moving.

"Do you mind?"

"Not at all." Adler hits the man in the face with the gun, knocking him to the ground.

As John and I stand he looks over at the man who had been behind us. "He's dead."

I shake my head, "John, he got shot. Yeah, he's dead."

Adler steps toward Sherlock and smiles. "Thank you. You were very observant."

John looks at the three of us confused. "Observant?"

"I'm flattered."

Sherlock and I comment at the same time. "Don't be."

"Flattered?" John is still very confused.

Sherlock looks at the phone he's taken out of the safe, before heading of the flat, as John and I follow. "There'll be more of them, they'll be keeping an eye on the building. We should call the police."

I nod, walking up behind Sherlock and taking the gun out of his hand, firing it into the air. "Yes, they are on their way," I hand the gun back to Sherlock and march back into the house, very unhappy, not only about the situation with Ms. Adler but that I was just shown to be almost completely useless.

John shouts as I walk past him. "For God's sake!"

Sherlock follows close behind me back into the flat. "Shut up, it's quick. Madison, John, check the rest of the house, see how they got in."

John and I nod, heading to check the house, separating. When I get to a rather large bedroom I see the young lady who let us in, Kate, on the floor. "John! Sherlock!"

I run up beside her body and check for a pulse. John is the first to get into the room, followed shortly after by Sherlock and Ms. Adler. John looks over to me. "It's all right, she's just out cold."

Ms. Adler comes into the room, very calm and collected. "God knows she's used to that. There's a back door, Dr. Watson, better check it. Take Ms. Love just in case there are more of them."

The two of us nod and run down the stairs, before hearing something hit the floor above us. When the two of us get to the room again Sherlock is laying on the floor of the room, limp. I run up to him and support his head, as John stands next to me. "Sherlock!"

John and I look up to see Ms. Adler in the window of the bathroom. "Jesus, what are you doing?"

"He'll sleep for a few hours. Make sure he doesn't choke on his own vomit, it makes for a very unattractive corpse."

I brush Sherlock's bangs out of his face as he fights off drifting off and John continues yelling at Adler. "What's this? What have you given him?"

"He'll be fine. I've used it on loads of my friends. You know, I was wrong about him. He did know where to look."

"For what? What are you talking about?" John shakes his head.

"The key code to my safe."

"What was it?"

"Should I tell him, or would you like to, Ms. Love?" She looks at Sherlock and myself, as I glare at her. "My measurements." She leans back and falls out of the window, holding on to an extremely long silk curtain. I lean down and kiss Sherlock's forehead as he drifts off.