Look out for the <>!

"Rori! Wake up!" I heard Sherlock pound on my door the next day.

I frowned into my pillow. "Go away!" I shouted and put a pillow over my head. I heard the door open and Sherlock stood in the doorway. "Leave me alone!" I said and threw my pillow at him. I looked out the small window in my room and saw the sun wasn't even up yet. I went to bed so late last night, I was planning on sleeping for at least another hour.

"There has been a death! We have to go, now!" he said with a silly little grin on his face like he always got when there was a case to work on.

"But the sun isn't even up." 

"Murder doesn't sleep my dear Rori."

"How poetic," I said sarcastically and rolled out of bed, knowing he wouldn't stop until I went with him. I looked at my black sleep plants and my white T and decided it wasn't worth trying to look any better than what I was now. I found a hair band on the bed stand and put up my hair with not much effort and said, "I'm ready."

"Good." Sherlock said with a smile, not caring what I looked like. He just needed my mind and as long as that was working that was all he cared about.

<><>

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"Next time, don't wake me for petty crimes," I said madly at Sherlock as I looked down at the man with a gunshot wound in his chest. The area around me seemed to buzz with some form of alertness or excitement but I felt like half of my mind was still in bed, asleep.

"This isn't petty. Look," Sherlock said and kicked the man's hand and saw that he had a piece of paper in it.

"He was a note taker?" I said blankly and yawned, still trying to wake up.

I watched him pick up the note and unfolded it and read it out loud to me. "They are on to me, Rori Anderson is behind this. She did it."

"So what." I made sure to keep my composer even though I felt my ears turn hot. I knew this was Zane's doing. He killed someone already and decided that he wanted to blame this on me. I was getting in his way and he wanted me gone. If this got blamed on me, would be behind bars, unable to solve the case. After the threat was eliminated, he was home free.

Sherlock didn't say anything instead he just looked at me oddly, as if accusing me of something I didn't do.

I made a face at him. "what? I was sleeping! I didn't do anything!"

It didn't take any of us long until we were all in the Police headquarter. I sat on a metal chair in the same room I had question people in before. This time I was the one being question.

"Do you recognize Mr. Kapellhof?" Lestrade said to me as he paced around the room. He had been asking me the same questions for the last 30 minutes.

I frowned at him. "For the last time, no, not one bit. I didn't know him. I didn't do anything!" I stood up and looked around at the empty room. I had been in this room loads of different times but this time it felt so different. I was the one being accused for something I didn't do and had no idea what was going on. What pissed me off, is that after all I had done for them, it didn't take them long to accuse me because of some silly note.

As Lestrade asked me pointless questions, I stayed locked in my own mind, trying to solve the puzzle of Zane's motives. The only thing that kept ringing in my mind was Kapellhof. He was the one I was supposed to find. Zane got to him first, got all the information out of him and killed him. He was ahead of me in this game. I couldn't help but think that if I found Kapellhof sooner maybe I could have saved him from this death. Even if Zane did this, Kapellhof's blood was still on my hands.

"But why did he write that note?"

"He has a girlfriend named Rori Anderson too and she was spiteful?" I guessed in a snarky tone.

He took a seat in front of me as he looked at me, trying to read my mind. He pinched his lips together and let out a long sigh. "This isn't funny."

"If this wasn't funny, I wouldn't be here. I didn't do anything! Just ask Sherlock! He saw me walk into my bedroom last night and he woke me up in the early hours to go to the stinking crime scene!" 

Lestrade took a deep breath in. He was getting just as frustrated with me. He stood up from his chair and walked out of the room without another word. I was trying his patience.

I looked at the mirror on the other side of the room with a frown. "I know you're listening to me Sherlock, this is not how I wanted to spend my morning." I said looking at my reflection in the mirror, knowing that Sherlock was behind that.

I let out an exaggerated breath and sat back down. "You're not winning brownie points here."

Pissed was an understatement. I couldn't believe that they weren't taking my word. Out of everything I did for them, this is what I got. I always guessed that Lestrade never fully trusted me, this just cemented that.

Another couple minutes went by then Lestrade came back into the room. "You can go," he said with a sour face.

I leaned back in the chair I was sitting at. "Thank you." I held back a smile and got up, knowing I would get out of here sooner or later. Sherlock must have done some kind of black magic to get me out.

"But I'm going to put you on house arrest."

I frowned at him. This had to be all of Zane's plan. Even if I wasn't behind bar's, house arrest was going to slow me down. "Is this really necessary? Think Lestrade, why would I kill someone? You should know me well enough to know that I didn't do it."

He shook his head, not believing me. "This is not a choice."

I bit my lip, knowing that I was not in a position to argue. "Fine." I mumbled then walked out of the room to face Sherlock. He looked awkward and stiff. Something happened that I didn't know about. I shot him a look that could kill and resisted the urge to punch him jaw.

"Come on," he said stiffly to me then turned on his heels.

As soon as we got out of the building I threw myself at him and slugged him in the face.

He pushed me off him then whipped the blood from his mouth. "Do you really think I wanted to do that back there?! Lestrade wanted to put you on a tracker. I convinced him not to!" he shouted at me.

"Then what the hell are you doing!? This is all Zane's plan. You know how much this sets us back? Zane is winning? He already found Kapellhof and he killed him before we got any information out of time."

Sherlock shook his head at me. "I don't think this is the Kapellhof we're looking for. I already looked into him, he never served in the war. Rori, this is ply to distract us."

I paced on the street out of anger. I shouldn't have been so stupid and stood up to Zane in the first place. Finally after all that I built, it would all crash down because of him. "And it's working."

Sherlock grabbed me by my shoulder and slapped my face.

I felt the sting instantly as I brought my hand to my now hot cheek. "What the hell Sherlock." 

"You need to calm down."

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Sherlock right. I needed to cool off. I frowned at him. "This is all going downhill too fast. Now Lestrade is now going to be watching my back. He's going to get into this mess now too."

"That's not going to happen. I'm going to do all I can to protect you and him from this blowing up in our faces."

I resisted the urge to say, I don't need your help. But the truth was that I did need his all of help with this. "Ok."

<><>

I was laying on the floor doing nothing of importance since I was under house arrest a few days later. It was driving me all insane. I was so bored I even attempted to memorize the whole Russian alphabet. Just as I was about to start singing at the top of my lungs Sherlock walked into the door after being gone all day. I shot up and looked at him eagerly. This was the last day I was under house arrest and I was waiting for Sherlock to have good news about the case.

"The evidence is incriminating," he said to me with a frown.

I slumped my shoulders forward as I looked at him. I was wrong about Zane being sloppy. He could still destroy me even when he was frantic. "What does this mean now?"

"I don't know. Lestrade said that he is going to put a tracker on you but I wouldn't be surprised if they come and lock you up in a matter of days."

"It's that bad?" I sat back on the ground not believing the words I was hearing. Once again I was framed for something I didn't do and this time there was nothing Sherlock could do to fix it.

"I'm not going to let them take you away."

"Then what is your plan?" I asked helplessly, waiting for Sherlock to plan the rest of my life if needed.

"Death."

I raised my eyebrows at him and suddenly questioned his sanity. I instantly wondered how this one-word plan could possibly turn out good.