Fight for Me

Chapter 25

Sherlock returned to the flat only to find that Lydia had not moved from his spot. He raised a brow at her, but all he received was a look of fake innocence as she smiled back at him. John's eyes darted between the two of them, wondering how long it would be before Sherlock decided to murder her. That may have been a bit extreme, but still, John knew how protective Sherlock was over his seat.

"So Mrs. Wilson's off to prison then, is she?" Lydia asked Sherlock, running a hand through her wavy brown hair. Sherlock gave a nod and crossed his arms, looking at her in annoyance. "Well, that was a bit of a mistake coming to a detective for help in a murder that she herself committed. I'm assuming you were rather bored by it all. I've been reading John's blog, it seems it takes quite the case to actually interest you."

"Correct, that case did not serve as stimulation to my mind, but what is really of interest to me is having my chair back."

"Oh, this thing?" Lydia gestured to the arm chair she was draped across as though she was completely oblivious to the detective's wishes. "But there are plenty other places to sit in this flat."

"Exactly, so I suggest you choose one of them."

John sighed at their behavior and turned to Lydia, "you might as well just let him have the chair, he'll probably throw a temper tantrum if he doesn't get it back."

"Why is he so attached to this arm chair in particular? I mean, it's nice and all, but really not worth getting so possessive over." Lydia directed her words to John only, annoying Sherlock to the point where he strutted over to the chair and easily picked Lydia up bridal style. She let out a sound of protest and scrambled to get out of his arms, but he held her tight until depositing her on the couch.

"Rude," Lydia muttered, sending Sherlock a glare. However, he did not seem to care, claiming his armchair and pulling out his mobile. John once again looked between the two of them, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Sure Sherlock was usually a right git, but this was different. This was almost playful, although he was positive that wasn't Sherlock's intention. He certainly didn't know enough about human nature or, god forbid, flirting, to realise how is actions appeared to the observing eye.

At that moment, Lydia's mobile went off and her eyes lit up upon seeing the call was from Zoe. But afraid that they would need to discuss business, she glanced up at John, "do you mind if I take this in your room? I have a feeling Sherlock will attempt to eavesdrop and would like to maintain a bit of privacy."

"Er, yeah, of course," John replied, sending a glance to Sherlock who did not let it show that he had been listening, but John knew better than that.

Lydia disappeared into the room upstairs and Sherlock was filled with the urge to follow her. As though reading his mind, John quickly spoke, "absolutely not, Sherlock, she went up there for privacy. I am not going to let you follow her."

"John," Sherlock whined, lowering his mobile as he looked over at his friend. "The call is probably important to the case, that's why she didn't want me listening in."

"No, Sherlock. You know, some people just don't want you to scrutinize every part of their life. She was excited by the call, it was probably just one of her friends."

"Exactly, they're going to discuss the Rose Foundation and perhaps help me tie it to Moriarty."

John sighed, "Sherlock, you don't even have any proof that the Rose Foundation has done anything wrong. Maybe we just misread Lydia's performance at the gala."

With that, Sherlock stood from his seat and removed some papers from the drawer of his desk. Dropping it onto John's lap, he spoke, "sorry, John, but your old friend is indeed a smuggler."

"What do you mean?" John questioned, looking over the papers in confusion. "This isn't evidence, Sherlock, these are all written in your handwriting."

"Yes, they're a copy of the file that Mycroft has on them. He wouldn't let me keep the file, national security and all that, so I made a copy in my mind and then wrote it down so that I would have the leverage I needed to get the truth out of Lydia."

"Have you told her about all of this then?"

"Not yet, I'm working on getting her to trust me. Then I'll show her my hand and hopefully she'll be more inclined to tell the truth."

Meanwhile, Lydia was recounting what happened at the gala to her to her three friends. Even though they were not video chatting, she could telling that they were all listening with horrified expressions painted across their faces. She let out a sigh as she finished, "I'm sorry I had to go into so much detail, but I needed to convince you that we need to keep this all secret for now, ok? If we go to the authorities now, we'll be dead before we are actually able to prove anything."

"But, Lia, they nearly killed you," Zoe argued, making Lydia curse her stubbornness. "You may have died if I hadn't run into Sherlock at the fundraiser."

"Well, I'm not dead, Zoe, and I was given time to think while in hospital. We don't have to keep serving them forever, I promise, but just long enough for them to think we have submitted, preferably once you're back home so we can get protection. Then we can go to Sherlock and help dismantle the Rose Foundation without them suspecting a thing. Just, please, give it time. I don't want to see any of you get hurt, we have to be smart about this."

"So we're not just giving in, right?" Lawrence asked for clarification.

Lydia nodded her head out of habit, but quickly remembered that she was on the phone. "No of course not, we're still going to fight, we're just going to let the spotlight get off of us for a bit first."

A silence followed Lydia's words and she feared that they were going to do something rash without her. Of course, she would know immediately if they tried to get in contact with Sherlock, but she feared that that would be already too late. Sherlock would already be assured that she had been lying to him the entire time.

Finally Zoe spoke up, changing the subject, "where are you staying, Lydia? We just got another call from the Foundation and we'll be travelling the States for a bit."

"Er, I'm actually staying with John and Sherlock for the time being. It's a bit dangerous with everything going on, but John offered me their couch for free so I certainly couldn't have said no. But I'm not letting Sherlock know anything, at least not yet. Especially with you going off to the States, it's too dangerous. I can't risk angering the Foundation."

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(A/N): Bit of a filler chapter, but I wanted to update y'all on the status of her troupe and give you a fun little squabble over Sherlock's armchair! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!