Ashes, Ashes

Plagues and Plights

- c h a p t e r   t e n - 

When the cab made it to the crime scene, Sherlock glanced over to see Emma's current condition. She had indeed shed several tears while sitting next to him and waiting to be dropped off. There were some black trails etching their way across her face from her eyes, but he decided against saying anything about them.

Emma wanted little more than to start shrieking and sobbing and making a huge fuss over the deal. But the one thing she'd learned was that no one listened when you were screaming so loud over anything. She wanted justice for herself and to make everything work out without a hitch, but that wasn't going to happen because of all of her tears.

To put it simply, she'd become aware that very few people gave a damn about her or anything that happened to her. She'd been able to get Maddie on her side for quite a while, and that had been absolutely marvelous while it had lasted. Now, however, it seemed to be falling apart at all of the seams.

Emma wanted nothing more than to simply run away from it all and never have to face any of it ever again - but she couldn't. Her feet felt like they were blocks of lead that could only go on a certain path, and that path was following right behind Sherlock and straight into her doom. There was nothing left for her to do.

"I'm coming out first," Sherlock said. "I highly doubt you would do such a thing, but don't even think about running. There are plenty of police who would want to arrest you if they realised you were guilty at all."

"So you're not going to turn me into the police, then?" Emma asked, attempting to keep her voice as light as possible.

"Not yet," he said. "But it's of no matter right now."

"Then I'm going to end up arrested, eventually," she said.

"Well, yes. You committed a crime and admitted to being guilty to it. You and this Madison Coates are both going to be arrested for theft. Your sentence will not likely be too harsh, but it will exist."

"Oh, God," Emma said, her eyes starting to water. "What about Maddie? What am I going to do about Maddie?"

"You're going to be able to talk to her about it all yourself in a moment," Sherlock said. He lead her into the crime scene, where a single dark haired woman was standing, waiting for them to come to her.

"Maddie, I'm sorry," Emma said, tears jumping into her eyes and making her voice quiver. "There was nothing more I could do."

But no matter how much Emma blubbered out apologies, Maddie wouldn't listen. Maddie was fixated on Sherlock and wasn't going to take her eyes off of him any time soon. Emma, however, was too busy drowning within her own thoughts and feelings to properly notice what was going on with her at first.

She hadn't so horrible about anything in such a long time, and at least she typically could grab Florenz to hold on to when things truly got terrible. Now, however, Emma was alone. She couldn't get any sort of help from either Maddie or Sherlock, not with the feelings she was going through.

But her own reverie could only last so long before she noticed that something was truly amiss right in front of her. She realised with a start that Sherlock and Maddie were staring at one another, not unkindly. There was something going on, something she didn't know about.

"Sherlock Holmes," Maddie said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "I suppose I should've seen this coming sooner. I only wish we could've been reunited under better circumstances."

"We've been reunited under worse circumstances," Sherlock replied. "Be glad that at the current moment neither of us are in danger of imminent death. You must agree that our situation could be much worse."