Look out for the <>!

The first thing I was aware of was that I was laying down in a warm bed. Sleep still having a strong hold on me, I didn't bother with opening my eyes. I already knew I was in a hospital by the smell of the room. Instead I listened to what was going on around me.

"The newspaper once again got it wrong," I heard a voice in the distance say but I knew that it was Sherlock who was talking. "I really think they are deliberately trying to miss inform the public. In their minds, they are doing the right thing. Bliss is ignorance they say. Clearly the case is not solved but I'm working on it." There was a sigh then some ruffling of papers and I knew whatever Sherlock was reading was now put it down somewhere.

I wondered how long had Sherlock been here talking. Did he think I was listening to him this whole time? I wondered if he had stayed with me since I was brought here.

"The bullet points you gave me helped. Of course you missed somethings but I knew what you meant and fixed them. We were just about to get him you see, but he got out from our fingers. I'll get him again though. I have no doubt about that much. He was sloppy."

There was a few more minutes of silence as I tried to wake myself. My eyes felt so heavy and I was temped to fall back to sleep again. After a little bit longer, I cracked open my eyes to look at Sherlock who was sitting on a chair next to my bed. "You mean you let him go?" I asked, my voice cracking. Sherlock always caught the guy, why did this one escape?

He gave me a small smile. "I got more important things to attended too."

I knew what he was talking about. He was referring me. All of his effort was brought to finishing the trail, he wasn't focusing on the smaller cases. "Like me?"

He just merely shrugged and then pulled out his phone. He typed a message and then put it back into his pocket.

"Good job on calling Lestrade, he came at just the right time," I said to him as I remembered what happened at the house. She had the upper hand. I was sure I was going to lose. I was going to be a slave under her, she was going to make me suffer. I wouldn't have been able stop Alice without Lestrade's help.

"It was all your plan. I just followed it," he said and pulled out his phone again to text someone.

"I am still thankful for your help." All the fighting, bombs, the bodies, Alice. Then it hit me, what happened to John and Trevor? I passed out before Lestrade brought them to the cars. Did they follow my advice and run? I needed to know if they were ok. They had to be ok. I shot up in the bed, feeling a sharp pain in my chest. I felt the room to spin, I felt like I was going to be sick. "Where's john and Trevor?" I closed my eyes to stop the spinning and as the spinning stopped, I was able to open my eyes again to look at Sherlock.

Sherlock gently pushed me back down into my bed, like John would have done. "Careful Rori, you need to be more careful with yourself. John is just next door. He's a little banged up but he'll live. And Trevor, he died."

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I looked sternly at Sherlock to make sure he wasn't lying. Maybe he was joking and Trevor would come out from the hall with a smile on his face. After all Trevor was always a jokester. I stared at Sherlock and I frowned at him as I realized that he was telling the truth. I looked at the ceiling to hold back tears then let out a cough to distract me. I wasn't going to cry in front of him. "How?"

"In the house. A gunshot wound to the chest."

"I didn't want him to die." Once again another death that was all my fault.

"Dying is a way of life. It's going to happen to all of us at some point."

"But I didn't want him to! He was my only family left! And now I have no one!" I said, raising my voice at him. I couldn't hold back the tears that ran down my face.

There was a minute of silence as I regained myself then Sherlock spoke up, "you have more than that as family."

"Yeah, like who?" I retorted at him, a little to harshly.

"You have John, Molly, Miss Hudson, and you have me. We're family no matter how dysfunctional we are. But if you think about it that's how families are," he said coolly as if I knew this the whole time.

I laid back in shock. I never thought about them being family but to come to it, I had spent more time with them then some of my real family. We all cared about each other in our own ways. Yes Sherlock drove me bananas and John was a goodie two shoes, but I don't know what I would do without them. Everyone in London that I knew because of Sherlock felt like home every time we were together. That was why I liked London so much, it wasn't about the city itself, but the people that lived here. They were my family.

"The doctors said that you can get out of this place by tomorrow."

"That's good," I said as I wiped a tear from my cheek.

After another minute Sherlock said, "what's the next plan?"

I looked at him and raised my eyebrows at his random question. "What do you mean?"

"Alice parish is dead. While she was beating you at the house Lestrade heard what she said to you. He is giving you a clean slate because of it. Also I gave him a few thoughts on the matter and he listened. You're free."

"What?" I said not believing my ears. I felt excitement fill me. This was too good to be true. This was another joke. I couldn't just be free, it was too easy. Lestrade wouldn't just let me go. It wasn't like him.

"You can do whatever you want now. You don't have to stay here."

I was silent for a minute as I thought about what I could do. I could do anything I wanted now. I could live, be, and do whatever I wanted to. I was fully free. The real question now was, what did I want to do? I did want to do some traveling, I hadn't gone to Russia in a while. I had heard that many things were happening there and I wanted in on that.

But did I really want to go? I liked what I was doing now. I found joy in it and I like the challenge of it all. I liked that Sherlock kept me on my toes. I liked London and the people that lived here. I liked solving crimes with Sherlock even though sometimes he drove me insane.

I looked at Sherlock and gave a small smile. It didn't take me long to figure out what I wanted to do. I had finally felt comfortable calling this place my home and I didn't want to leave this place any time soon. "I would like to stay here and work with you, if that's ok."

A small smile came to his face. "That's fine with me."

"Good."

"Speaking of which, I have John's laptop here with me, can you look over these case files and make some bullet points for it? It was helpful last time." He pulled out John's laptop from a laptop bag he had next to him. He handed the laptop to me and I gave a small chuckle. There were some things that Sherlock wouldn't never stop doing, one of those things was taking Johns laptop. I placed it on my lap and turned it on.

I couldn't quiet get it through my head that Alice was dead and the main mystery I wanted an answer to was solved. As much as it felt like it was the end to Sherlock and mine story, it wasn't. This wasn't the end, it was just the beginning. It felt new and fresh and I couldn't wait to get started.

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Hey guys! wow that was good, yeah?

well based on what some people have told me I am currently writing a couple more chapters to this story! YAYA (happy dance) well any how the next chapter should be put up sometime next week so that should be exciting! :)

Well thank you so much for reading this story, and commenting, and voting and what you guys do best! it really makes me smile!

well I have to do some math homework now so I'll let you go.

Darla H