Song for the start of the chapter!

I walked straight to Mycroft's office with no fear of punishment. He was the one that let us all down. He was the one that told Moriarty where we were and that I was coming to find Sherlock. I wondered if he had been under Moriarty's finger from the beginning. Anger racked my body. I gave up myself to help him but it was all a scam. I just couldn't believe that I was so stupid to believe that Mycroft was on our side.

I opened the large oak door and frowned at the man behind the mahogany desk. He frowned back at me but remained silent. He knew he was at fault. "Mycroft. I think you know what I want."

He looked uncomfortable for a second then gathered himself. "I knew he had that building in town. I stopped it from being built the rest of the way. But he came to me. He had information that would send some of our people in Russia to prison and even to death. I had to give him a little information in return then he deleted the photos."

I shook my head at him. As if explaining himself would make everything alright. "Let me guess, those photos were about you," I said bitterly, knowing he was only after saving his own behind.

His face did not change. "They were of you and others. I couldn't let you die at my hand. I couldn't tell that to Sherlock. He needs you."

I tried to act like I was not surprised by this fact but I know I let my face slip. He was lying. There were so many times that I was in a situation that Mycroft sent me in and I was sure I was going to die. He wanted me dead. I know he did.  "Did he tell you anything?" I asked remembering that Mycroft would have a clue for me.

He looked regretful but I knew this had to be a ply for sympathy. "He said that he wanted to see you sink."

And in that moment I knew where he was. He had to be at the place where I faked my death so long ago. He was by the river. He wanted to see me sink for real this time. I turned on my heels and walked out but before I did, I stopped and faced him again. "Why did you give me an empty gun?"

"It wasn't supposed to be empty. It was my guard's gun."

Moriarty had more than just Mycroft on his team. Like Kale said, he was two steps ahead. I just had to be smarter but I wasn't sure if I could. With the weight of the world on my shoulders, I walked out without another word.

<><> 

It was cold outside even though it was the end of summer. I looked over the edge of the rail into the black murky river. Memories about the time I jumped into that water came rushing back. Back then, I was so terrified of doing it. I could jump this now and I don't think I would be scared. Moriarty killed me in so many ways, so taking the step forward couldn't be so hard. 

"Cold today eh?" Moriarty's voice rang out from behind me.

I turned around to face him. I looked around to see that it was only him that was present. "Where's Sherlock?"

He fixed his ball cap to fit better on his head. "Oh he's safe. Do you want to take a walk with me? We'll meet up with him." He started to walk alongside the river and started chatting like we were best friends, "I heard about your jump into the water here. That must have been exciting to see. Would you do something like that again?"

I didn't want to talk to him. I wanted to be the most difficult person I could be but I remembered what Kale said, 'not be yourself'. "I don't think I would. It's a bit cold for that," I said politely even though I didn't want to be nice about it. I couldn't be myself. I didn't want him to read me.  

"Yes, I guess you're right on the matter." We took a sharp left and down a dead-end alley.

Once we got to the end Moriarty said, "you know, you and Sherlock are bright." He said and then turned to see the mouth of the alley. I followed his lead, not sure what he was doing here. In the opening of the alley Sherlock came. He looked at little rough but for the most part alright.

"You good?" I asked him casually trying not to show concern, although my hands were shaking slightly, I didn't let them show.

He nodded at me. "Good," he said and walked past Moriarty towards me.

"So I was thinking about having an additional part to our little game. You have two hours to catch me. If those two hours run out." He paused and made an explosion noise with his mouth.  "Your first clue, here." He threw us a bag of what looked to be dirt. "Bye now." And with that he left us in the alley.  

I watched as he ran off, I wanted to follow him, but there would be a punishment if I followed him. If I took him out now, I was sure the building would still explode. No, we needed to follow his game to win, no cheating. I looked at Sherlock and his blooded lip with a frown. 

"I tried to run off," he said as he rubbed his lip, reading my mind. He smiled lightly. "It's nothing." 

I nodded at him. "We need to make a plan." He started walking off as if he knew the next plan already. I followed him with a frown, upset that he wasn't telling me it. "Where are we going Sherlock?"

We got out into the main road and walked to the nearest tube station when Sherlock finally said, "I need Molly's lab."

I nodded at him. "Of course." That was obvious. "But what do you think this game is?" I asked him as I looked at the people around us. Everyone here had no idea that we were doing all of this for them. They carried on their little lives like any other but if they only knew what I did for these complete strangers. Sherlock and I would be forever the invisible heroes. The thought set me on edge. I shifted in my seat and pulled my brown sweater closer to my body as if it would keep my safe.

"Moriarty wants revenge. He wants us to suffer." He wanted us to fail. "He wants building explode with us having a front row seat to it. That means he is going to make all these clues possible to break but impossible with the time he have us. But that's not going to stop us. We are going to stop him." He said and stood up from his seat as the Tube slowed to a stop.

I followed his lead and together we walked out of the Tube to the Hospital that was across the street and down the road from us. 

In no time we made it up to Molly's lab and without warning, we barged in. She jumped slightly in her seat and then smiled brightly at us. "Oh hello." 

"I need your microscope," Sherlock demanded to her.

"Of course. You know where it is," Molly said and moved aside so he could use her chair.

I sat down next to Sherlock as I watched him look at the dirt. I pulled my hair up into a bun so I could see better. 30 minutes went by and Sherlock stood up from his seat and let out a sigh in frustration. He walked behind me, probably to get something from the counter. "This can't be the only thing."

I frowned as I looked into the microscope to see the mud. Maybe after all we gave up, we will lose this game. I couldn't help be feel saddened by it all.

"It's just river dirt. There's nothing special about it." He said and paused in mid thought. He was really trying to read into this but maybe there was nothing to read into. Moriarty did this to tease us. Suddenly, I felt a bee sting at the back of my neck.

I jumped, and spun around to look at Sherlock with something in his fingers. "Ouch! What the hell Sherlock!" I shouted. I put my hand against the back of my neck and took it away to see red on my fingers. He drew blood. "What the hell was that for?"

"I wanted this," he said and held up a small pill looking thing. He looked at it intently as if this would solve all of our problems. I forgot that was in me, Sherlock I guess didn't.

"Great. Awesome. Well I'm going to get a plaster," I mumbled and stood up from my seat.

"I have one right here," Molly piped in and handed me one. I forgot she was still here.

I smiled lightly at her. "Thanks."  I said as I put it on my neck. As I did this, my phone started to buzz. I checked the phone and saw that it was a text from John. I wasn't surprised, he would have realized by now that I not coming home. I brought up the text expecting some irritated message but instead I got this,

Moriarty said to text you. here at 020 7946 0031 might hang you up. Come quick. You're on a timer.

I looked at Sherlock who seemed to be in his own little world. "Bloody great, Sherlock. He has John." I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to think what the text meant and what to do about it. Moriarty wanted us to get distracted and it was working. 

"I need to work on this," he mused as if it didn't even affect him.

I bit my tongue. How could he say something like this in a time like this? I shook my head. It was not worth saying anything, this wasn't worth a fight. No forget that. I wanted him to have it. He needed to hear this. I slapped him across the face to grab his attention. He looked at me with a frown. "You're an arse? You are a complete jerk that doesn't deserve any friends. It's amazing that you even have some. John could be dying and all you care about is that bloody chip! Fine, don't come. I can save him on my own."

"I know you don't need my help. You can handle it on your own. I trust you. But we need to solve both of these things. So split up, we have no choice." He paused for a minute and the words that I wanted to say to him completely dissolved from my mouth. In his own way he showed that he care, just sometimes I didn't get that. "What did the text say?"

I pulled out my phone and gave it to Sherlock. He looked at the text then said, "that's a phone number. It should be by saint James park. They have that area code. I would try the supermarkets first."

I nodded at him as I took my phone and put it back into my pocket. "Thanks." I watched as he went to Molly's computer and typed in the phone number. He quickly wrote down the address and handed it to me. "Thanks." I said again.

"Wait," Sherlock said and took out a small army knife from his pocket. "Take this." He handed it to me. "And be safe." 

<><> 

I got off the tube by Saint James Park and started to sprint down the road. I looked at the address again with a frown, suddenly very upset that I didn't have a smart phone. I knew it was a small road and it had to be a small store, probably independent, ran by a foreigner. Moriarty could easily play as a cop and be able to scare off the people that worked in a small shop more so than a larger more established shop. I got to a busy intersection and stopped. I looked around to see if I could find any small buildings of small shops around my area. 

My eyes caught a hold of a road that was the same as the one that Sherlock wrote down for me. I ran down it for a minute or two and stopped right in front of a small store, the one that Sherlock wrote for me. In the front window was the store phone number. It was the same one John texted me. 

I ran into the building to see no one around. Moriarty scared them off. "JOHN! JOHN WATSON!" I shouted, I waited for a response and sure enough one came.

"Rori, come quick," John shouted from the back room.

I ran into the back room to see it full of shelves of items but in the middle of the room was John tied to a chair. In front of him was a gun that was set to go off on a table a few yards away.

"Careful. It's set to go off when you release me," John said hopelessly.

He had no right talking like that. There was always hope. I shook my head at him. "No, we're not going to talk like that. John, we will figure this out." I looked at the contraption on the table. The gun was propped up and soldered to a table. Around the trigger was a steel cord that wrapped around a small lazy Susan and then wrapped around John's hands. I lightly touched the cord and felt the tension it held. We didn't have much time.

"I don't know how to get out of this. I have bene looking down that barrel of the gun for an hour now. I can't figure out what to do. And every minute that lazy Susan spins a little tighter and the tension gets increased."

I sighed. I didn't have time for an amazing plan. I had to come up with something quick. I looked at John's wooden chair. I could push it over. There could be the chance of one of us getting clipped by the bullet. There would be about a 70% chance of getting clipped. And if one of us did get hit it would be most likely minor. But what if we had some metal as a shield? It could deflect it. "John do you trust me?" I looked around for some kind of metal that we could use.

"With my life," he said confidently, a little too confidently if you ask me. He should not put that much hope in me.

I nodded. "Ok I have an idea but it's risky," I said and picked up a trash can lid. "I'm going to push you over. There is a chance that we could get clipped but it would only be minor."

John thought about it for a split second and said, "ok I'm for it."

"Alright." I put my hand on the side of the chair as I help up the lid in front of the gun. "Brace yourself." I pushed the chair over as hard as I could, hearing the gun go off and the bullet hit the lid.

I laid on the ground for a minute as I tried to regain myself. I heard John mumble something but I wasn't really sure what he said.  "John are you alright?" I asked as I got up from the ground finally.

"Yeah. Thanks," he said as he got his hands free from the cord.

I got up from the ground to make sure I was ok. I had no scratches on me, the lid must have worked. I smiled, that went a lot better than I thought it would. "Ok. I need to go back to Sherlock."

He grimaced as he said, "go back to Sherlock."

I looked up and down his body to see what was bothering him. My eyes stopped at the side of his calf that was red. He got clipped.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. Worry about Sherlock. Get back to him," John said brushing away his injury like it was nothing.

I didn't want to leave him like this with Moriarty running around. I needed to make sure he got to safety.  

John sighed, getting frustrated with me. "Just go Rori. I'm a doctor. I know when it's just a flesh wound," he said then gave me a smirk to easy my nerves.