I hoped that Lestrade would be here when we needed him. I practically told him where we were going but he's probably the thickest person I knew so it might take him all day. If it did, I would need a backup plan, but with me and Sherlock working at only half capacity, I was sure no plan would actually work. 

 "How's your hand?" John whispered to me as we followed Zane and his goons through more streets and alley ways. 

I looked at my swollen hand and gingerly crossed my arms over my chest to prevent him from seeing it. "It's fine." I would pay attention to it when this was all over.

<>

John then pulled back my coat to see my graze. "Rori, this will need stiches," he said with a frown as he looked at my bleeding wound.

I pulled my coat closer to my body so John couldn't assess the damage any longer. I knew what shape I was in, I didn't need his help to tell me. 

"Oh Rori, will you come please walk with me?" Zane asked ahead of us.

 "Yes princess," I said as I struggled to keep up with his speed.

 "So I thought we could have a chat." He wrapped his arm around me like we were best friends.

His jabbed his arm into my wounded side sending pain up and down my body. It caused me to cry out in pain and almost fall but Zane caught me before I hit the ground.

"Got you good, didn't I?" he said with a chuckle as he held me up.

I pushed him again from me with a frown even though I struggled to regain myself. "Cheese off."

He smiled. "Fine then, we won't be mates. So I know what you're trying to do. Come up with some big plan to save everyone here but if you try to do anything more of that funny business, I won't think twice about smashing that pretty pink head in." 

For as long as I knew Zane, I knew that he would never kill me. He had some kind of connection with me that I didn't understand. I knew he was violent but he never even once threatened my life. I knew he was being honest with me now and it sent shivers down my spine. I knew that this was going to get messy and there was no way out of it. We walked in silence for another good 10 minutes until we ended up in another warehouse looking boat yard.

 "Open it," Zane said impatiently to me.

Without saying anything I got on my knees and used my good hand to open the door. Because I only used one hand it took twice the time and Zane started to get impatient. "Stop faffing around. What's taking you so long?" he snapped down at me.

"My hand isn't in it top shape right now," I said as I fiddled with the lock.

"Hurry up."

A minute more and I was able to break in. When the door opened I hoped with all my might that it was going to be empty but to my disappointment there was one large boat in the middle of the building. It looked old, like from the war and I knew we had found it.

I almost felt giddy as I stared at it. After months of looking and following clues we had finally found it. Something that I didn't even think was real for the longest time was right in front of me. It took my breath away. I was frozen in amazement as I tried to savor this moment. After all the sacrifices that I had made, it was worth it. It was completely and utterly worth it.

 Zane Shoved me out of the way causing me to fall to the ground because I was blocking the doorway.

 "I found it," he said just as amazed as I was. In this way him and I thought the same, we got a thrill from doing this kind of work. This work excited me and I don't think it would ever change.

 "Here," John said and helped me up from the ground.

 "Thanks."

"John, why don't you do a loop around the outside of the building to see if anyone is coming?" Zane said as he turned to John.

 He looked at me and then Sherlock as if to make sure we were ok before he said, "Fine." He turned on his heels and walk out of the building leaving me with Sherlock, Zane, and his men.

Fear started to work its way back in when John left. We found the boat but this is where the adventure ended for me. He didn't need me anymore. I was now expendable.

I had to do something. He didn't deserve this treasure after all the things he had done. I didn't want him to even look at the treasure let alone get some of it. I looked around and listened for any nose that could sound like a cop car but gave up after a minute. Lestrade wasn't here and I needed a backup plan.

I looked at Sherlock and gave him a look that he knew well, follow what I do.  I wanted to set one final plan into action. I didn't want Zane to go any farther. Even though he did threaten me, I had a small hunch that he wouldn't follow through on it. He liked me too much for whatever reason.

I trailed right beside Sherlock as I watched Zane look around at the building in awe. His two men were just looking at the ship in boredom; obviously Zane didn't tell them what was in the boat and that was his downfall. Because his men had no idea what was here, they weren't paying attention to me and Sherlock. Zane was in his little land of make believe, so we could easily take out his men before Zane had time to react. "Ready?" Sherlock whispered into my ear.

 "One."

 "Two." He clenched his fists ready to attack.

 "Three," I said out loud and attacked the smaller man as Sherlock tackled the other one to the ground.

I pushed the thought of pain as I ducked when he threw one of his fists at my head. I tripped him in the process. He got up quickly and elbowed me in the gut causing me to curl over in pain. I took a step back from him and when he turned his back towards me, I ran into him and shoved him to the ground making him hit his head on the gray cement.  

I turned around and smiled. Not too bad. The plan actually worked. Now we just needed to take out Zane. My smile dropped however when I saw Zane holding at gun at Sherlock.

"STOP IT!" he yelled at both of us with a wild look to his eyes and his hair in all different directions. "I am tired of you botching my plans. This is the last time this is going to happen." He pointed the gun at me and my chest tightened as I looked right down the gun barrel. This was not what I was expecting, but then again this was Zane. "Goodbye Rori."

I always told myself it was better me than others, but looking at the gun, I knew I didn't want my life to end. I couldn't let Sherlock's life end though and have his death on my hands. No, this was the end of the road for me and I think it always had been.

I closed my eyes as I let out one final breath, not thinking anymore. Giving up. "No," Sherlock shouted as my eyes flew open to see him starting to run over to me. In a second the gun that was pointed at me changed directions and went off with a bang, echoing through the building.

I watched Sherlock's dirty white shirt as it started to get covered with blood. I turned to Zane with rage, I was going to kill him. "WHAT DID YOU DO!" I shouted at Zane. Sherlock clasped to the ground. "What did you do?!" Zane had fear in his eyes as he started backing up from me. I made a lunge for him, and he shot off running the other way.

I had to make a choice, get Zane once and for all to stop this from happening again or stay with Sherlock. Without thinking twice on it I ran over to Sherlock who's face had gone completely white. His white shirt was now red. "It's going to be ok," I said as tears blinded my vision. With shaking hands I searched the knocked-out goon that was closest to me and got his phone then called 999. I told the operator what happened and where we were but when asked to stay on the line, I dropped it so I could tend to Sherlock.

"It's going to be ok." I put pressure to his wound and saw blood seep through my fingers.

 "You already said that," he said lightly as he grimaced in pain.

"You're such an idiot. You should have let me get shot." My hands were shaking, and my arms felt like jello, as I knew I couldn't stop the bleeding.

 "Don't be a fool," he said and closed his eyes. "You don't get to choose."

I slapped his face and his eyes opened imminently. He frowned as he gave me a look that said 'what the hell' but his expression changed in a second to something I couldn't read. Any other day I would have liked to slap him silly, but this was not the way I wanted it to be. "Don't close those eyes. Look right at me. You can't die." This was not going to be our goodbye.

 "Everyone dies." 

I shook my head as tears welled up in my eyes. He was giving up too easily. This couldn't be our goodbye. I wouldn't let it. "But you can't, you can't leave me Sherlock. You're my family. You said that once to me. Remember. You can't leave family. You can't leave me," I blubbered as tears ran down my face. I head police cars and sirens. "Just a little longer, Sherlock."

 "SHERLOCK!" John yelled as he ran up to us.

I looked up at him and with a shaky voice said, "I-I can't- can't..... stop the bleeding." I looked at my blood covered hands and felt them shake. Sherlock was going to bleed out here and there was nothing I could do about it.

John dropped to his knees right beside me. "Let me," he said and took my hands away and replaced them with his.

I nodded then scooched away until my back hit the wall a few yards away. I put my knees to my chest, making me feel safer as I watched the ambulance people come and take Sherlock away. This was all my fault, every second of this and if Sherlock died, it would be another death at the hands of me. For someone that avoided guns, why did everyone keep on dying around me? I shook my head, I couldn't have him die. I needed him too much.

As I cried by myself, no one seemed to notice me. All of them too busy with clean up and questions. That was until John came with a yellow blanket in his hands.  I wiped tears from my eyes and looked up at John with a frown.

 "Here," he said and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. "Are you cold?"

I nodded, knowing that if I opened my mouth, I would just blubber everything. He couldn't see me this weak and defenseless, yet I was letting him. My walls were down for all people to take jabs at me and I couldn't bring them back up.

John sighed then showed me the compass, pin, and key. "I found these. I'm going to keep them safe for now." He said as he sat down next to me. He then took my bloodied hand and looked at the bruising across my wrist and hand from when Zane's man slammed me against the door. "Does it hurt?"

 Again I nodded.

 "I think it's broken." He opened my coat to look at the graze. "We need to stop this from bleeding anymore."

I looked at him in silence. How could he be so calm? I was falling apart but he seemed so levelheaded.

"You know, he's going to be ok."

I just looked at him then wiped more tears from my eyes. I couldn't stop them from coming and I had given up on holding them back. I saw the blood from Sherlock's wound. I was sure he was going to bleed out before he made it to the hospital. This was not going to be ok.

Lestrade walked up to us with a face that was unreadable to me.  "What the hell is this?" he said and looked at the huge submarine.

 "It's nothing. I don't know why Zane led us here," John lied to Lestrade as he stood up from the ground.

 "What happened Rori?" Lestrade asked, not believing John's cover up.

I looked up at him with wide eyes and shrugged. I felt like my mouth was clamped shut. I wasn't going to talk, and I didn't want to.

He sighed and looked at John signaling to follow him. They walked a little bit away from me and started talking, about what? I did not know, but I was guessing it was about me. After a minute later John came back. "Come on, let's get you fixed."

So there you go! another chapter to this great story! hope it was to your liking! sorry this was late, I am in Kiev Ukraine right now and as you know, it's kind of a revolution zone here. I have been stuck in my flat for the past couple days but I have had loads of things to do and I kind of forgot about this. well anyhow hope all is well where all of you readers are.

Cheers,

Darla H