It Started With Stealing | Sherlock Holmes

44 - Burning & Building Bridges

Sherlock and Elizabeth had ended up falling asleep on the sofa together.

The detective didn't quite know how it happened. He knew that he was holding her one moment, then she had talked to him more, giving him more details about what had happened and then they were lying back on the sofa the next, with him cradling Elizabeth in his arms. She had fallen asleep, and he assumed he had fallen asleep too as one moment there was no light streaming through the windows and the next there was.

Elizabeth was still sleeping and the sun had risen higher now. He didn't want to move and disturb her because he knew she needed the peace.

The more he had thought about her admission of her worries that he would hate her, the more he tracked it back to Mycroft and all his hounding of her. All the snide and callous comments he had made about her going to prison if she did something wrong or didn't help him with the operations really did get to her. The consequence of not giving trust in order to receive it was becoming clear.

He feared that if her own worries continued, she would end up distrusting them entirely and may refuse confiding in himself and John.

Sherlock feared he would lose her.

And all because of Mycroft's stupid pestering.

The sullen thuds of John's feet rushed down the stairs. They were faster and more frantic than usual. The detective frowned.

Something was wrong.

"Sherlock?" John spoke with urgency in his tone as he practically tumbled into the apartment.

He looked towards the kitchen first, and then to the sofa where he paused a moment, stunned by the sight he saw. His brow raised in disbelief of what he was seeing. He knew they were essentially together now (he didn't care if they didn't say that yet, he knew they would be eventually), but it still shocked him to see the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, the 'high-functioning sociopath', actually showing his more human side and actually allowing the humanity in him to be seen.

"What's wrong, John?" Sherlock prompted him.

"Uh..." He blinked, hard, "The - the news. There's something you should see on the news...what happened last night?" John quietly gestured to Elizabeth.

Sherlock looked down to the still sleeping thief. He could see her eyes were still puffy from the crying which made him all the more upset by the fact that he would have to disturb her.

So, he put the effort in not to do so.

With a silent sigh, he considerately removed his arm from under her and as carefully as humanely possible moved her off him. He sat up slowly and had John help him up off the sofa. When he turned back around to look at Elizabeth, still asleep, he was satisfied with his successful efforts at not waking her.

He brought John out of the apartment and shut the door soundlessly.

"After you left, she had told me she had seen Moriarty while we were on the case."

"She what?"

"You heard me. I'll catch you up after you tell me what happened?"

"Did she say where she met him?" John asked as they went up the stairs to his apartment.

"Yes, why?"

John stayed silent as he led Sherlock into his room where the television played the news:

"At 11:30pm last night, fire services were called out to the Belle Vue apartment building, in the centre of London, where a fire consumed six floors. Luckily, all residents have been accounted for, with very few injured. It is believed that the fire was started by a knocked over candle that set alight one apartment snd then spread..."