Look out for the <>

"You're driving me bloody mad! You know that?!" I shouted at Sherlock as he laid on the couch of our flat five days later. He was released yesterday and he was already driving me up the walls. Yesterday John and I finished moving the rest of treasure and now it laid on the floor of my rented flat in Brixton. I planned on selling it slowly when I needed it. I already gave a share to John and Sherlock. Sherlock refused it, saying that he had no need for it as long as I worked with him. As for John he said that he would finally buy his flat that he was renting. 

After everything said and done, it seemed like life started to slide back into place like it was before this whole thing with Zane. 

"Then go somewhere!"

"No!" I shouted back at him knowing that I had to keep an eye on him. Today was my sitting duty, John was tomorrow.

"Then deal with it!" he said stubbornly as the threw a ball at the wall just so he could catch it when it came bouncing back.

My phone buzzed, Lestrade was requesting my presents. I frowned at Sherlock. I was sure he would be fine for just a few hours.  I would be back in no time. "That's it, I'm going." 

"Good."

Oh I could not believe him. "Good!" I slammed the door shut behind me. "Him. I can't stand him," I vented as I walked down the stairs.

"He's just as frustrated as you are. Just give him some time. He's just bored," Miss Hundson said kindly to me.

"I know he is, that's when he's the worse." I said to her. "I have to run an errand. I'll be back as soon. Call me if Sherlock gets worse."

"I will sweetheart," she said as I walked out the front door.

I walked out to sun shining in my eyes. It felt great that the long winter was starting to go away. I looked at my watch, I was going to be a little late. I started running down the road and stopped when I got to the Baker Street Tube. I didn't want to answer the hard questions Lestrade was going to ask but I had to face the music at some point.

I hopped on the Tube and in a matter of 40 minutes I was walking down the street to the Scotland Yard head quarters. I looked at the large building in front of me with a frown. I had to prepare myself for what was next. As I let out a breath, I walked in. I got into the elevator and as I got out on the right floor Lestrade saw me right away.

"Rori, great, come in," Lestrade said to me as I walked into the office, finding a seat. This conversation would be along one, I was sure of it. "Alright, let's cut to the chase. You don't want to be here and neither do I so let's get this over with. Zane framed you for the murder?"

I nodded at him. That was easier than I thought it would be. I thought I would have to fight for my innocents a little more than this. "Yes. Did he tell you that?"

"Yes, he said that it was his fault."

"Wow, ok. It was. But I didn't think he would tell you that."

"He spilt a few secrets when we said the right things," Lestrade shrugged like it was no big deal.

I frowned, knowing that Zane must have something up his sleeve. This didn't feel right. "That's odd. He normally never talked."

"He did for us. But he didn't tell us why did you lot were at the boatyard."

This is the question I had been waiting for and I already prepared an answer. "I have no idea." I said and shrugged. I practiced this script 100 times in my head. "He led us there. I don't know why I just know he wanted us there. Maybe he lead us there to kill us? It was a quiet place, no one would notice our bodies there for a while. It would be enough time for him to leave the country."

Lestrade nodded at me, taking my answer as the correct one. "Yes, maybe," Lestrade said and leaned back in his chair to think about it.

I wrinkled my nose as I thought about it. Zane was up to something not good. "Do you have the tape about Zane's interrogation?"

"Yes."

"Can I have a copy? I want some closer, after all, he did almost kill me. I'm still looking over my shoulder thinking he'll be there with a gun."

"I'll get you that copy now," he said and got up from his chair.

"Thanks. So is that all the questions you have for me? I need to get back to Sherlock." 

"Yes, that was all. Thank you." he said as he led me out of his office. "James! Get the tape of the interrogation."

An older man came up to me and handed me a copy of the interrogation on a CD. "Cheers," I said to both of them then left the building.

I walked down the road to get back to the flat. The weather had started to warm up and I think we would have an early spring. The little green buds of flowers were starting emerge from the ground but it was still chilly. I turned to look at buds with a smile, happy the spring was finally starting to come. That was when I literally ran into someone.

"Ow. Watch it," I said as I rubbed my stitched side gently.  I looked to see who was so dunce to run into me and looked into Kale's eyes.

"Can we talk?"

I took a deep breath as I thought of Sherlock waiting for me at the flat. Kale always seemed to run into me at all the wrong times. I hadn't seen Kale in what felt like so long but yet I didn't want to talk. We needed to sort out what was happened and I didn't want to think about those memories any longer. "Sure." I said before I knew what I was agreeing to.

"Coffee?"

"That sounds great." I remembered the last time I saw him and how he didn't follow me. I followed him to the closest coffee shop and walked in with him. 

"Two coffees please," he said to the man over the counter and smiled politely at him.

He took the coffees from the counter and found an empty table were we both sat down at. "I'm sorry that I didn't come with you the night at the museum. You have to understand what Zane told me. He said that you died because he took everything away from you. He said that if I didn't follow him, he would make sure I had nothing to live for as well."  

"You're afraid of your brother?" I asked, frustrated at him. I stood up to his brother and survived. He could have joined my team. We could have been a team, but instead he left me alone.

Kale gave a cynical chuckle. "Yes, I'm afraid of him, the only man on earth I'm terrified of is my own kin. Tell me you feel the same about my brother."

"Yes, Kale, I did and I wanted to change. I challenged everything he lived for and I beat him at his own game. I didn't back down even though I had melt downs at night because I was terrified what would happen next. Zane is a monster and I wanted to put a stop to him regardless of my fears. It was the right thing to do."

He took a deep breath and said, "Aurora."

He didn't completely agree with me. Once again we were not on the same page. He probably would never understand me fully. "Don't Aurora me." I stood up from my seat. "Look, clearly we are two different people. If you're going to keep picking the winning side not because its right then clearly we are to different for each other," I said, ready to leave him alone in this coffee shop.

 "Please don't do this."

<>

"Prove yourself Kale. I feel like I have to keep on proving yourself that you are worth it. Your bright and smart and caring but you need to pick where you stand and I can't see you until you decide. Goodbye Kale." With that I took my coffee and left the shop.

Once again I walked down a road to get back to Baker Street with tears in my eyes out of anger, frustration, disappointment, and sadness all at once. I felt like my head was going to explode. I didn't want to do that. But Kale needed to understand what side he is on. He couldn't just flip flop around when he felt like it. I made a choice on my side as soon as I decided to stay with Sherlock. If he wasn't going to choose a side than what we had was over. 

Before I opened the front door of the flat, I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. Even with the pain killers Sherlock was on, I was sure he would be able to see that I was crying. I then opened the door and walked up the stairs to get into the flat. 

The stairs cracked like they always did when I walked up them as if telling Sherlock I was coming. My fingers hit the door knob and I let myself in. Asleep on the couch was Sherlock. His hair was a mess on his head and covering his eyes. It was getting long, he needed a cut.

Happy to know that I would have some privacy, I walked over to his laptop and popped in the CD that Lestrade gave me. It took a second to load but when it did Lestrade came on screen. "Name," Lestrade said calmly on tape. The camera then turned to face Zane with a black eye. I wonder who did that. Whoever it was a Dench.

"Zander Cleary."

"What are you watching?" Sherlocks voice said from over my shoulder making me jump.

I paused the video. So much for privacy. "Zane's interrogation video. Do you want to watch?"

Without a reply he got a seat next to me and sat down and I hit play again.

"Did you attempt to kill Rori Anderson."

I watched his face twist to the side as if he was thinking about what he was going to say. "Yes." he said.

"And you did shoot and try to kill Sherlock Holmes."

"Yes." He spat.

"Did you kill Mr. Kappelhoff."

"Well technically I didn't kill him, I had one of my men kill him. But yes it was on my command. Rori got in the way and it was the easiest way to get rid of her." he blabbed out. He wasn't even thinking about what he was saying anymore. His words weren't planned or concise, he was now saying what came into his mind.

"Why is he being so honest?"

"What was she in the way of?" Lestrade's voice rang out.

Zane looked at the table and then smiled widely at the camera and my stomach dropped. He knew I would see this. Suddenly I knew what he was playing at. "You'll have to ask Rori about that one. She knows and I'm sure she's just dying to tell."

It took me all I had not to swear at the computer. "Damn it." Now Lestrade knew I was hiding something. I needed to cover this ship up. I needed to come up with a plan that wouldn't ruin me. I had to maybe even tell some of the truth.

We watched the video on repeat for the next hour trying to pick out anything that was odd. It was all honest and I had no idea why. The only thing that was really out of place was saying that I knew all of the story. It was the truth but why was he telling Lestrade that? What would he gain from that?

I looked at my phone after watching the video for the fourth time. I knew Zane and the man in the video wasn't Zane. "Zane doesn't make sense."  This tape wasn't what I was thinking about. What I had said to Kale all came out of my mouth so fast, did I really mean all of that?

"Something else is on your mind as well."

Yup, drugs were wearing off. He was reading me better. I walked over to him and handed him a pill and a cup of water. "Take this. Nothing is on my mind," I lied.

He took the pill and then said, "Come on Rori, I know when you're lying. Spit it out. I can still see it on your face even with the drugs I'm on."

I let out a sigh, there was no use lying about this now. "I broke up with Kale. I'm tired of making up excuses of why he keeps leaving me." I said and shrugged trying to make it look like no big deal. I had changed so much since coming to live with Sherlock. I saw myself living in London forever. I wanted a family, I wanted a repetitive life and Kale wouldn't give that to me.

I waited for him to say some sarcastic remark or say something like, 'I didn't like him anyhow' but all that came out of his month was, "oh."

"Yup." 

"You think you'll give him another chance?" he asked, really caring about the answer I would give him.

"I don't know." I wanted to but he needed to prove he would stay on the right side, the good side. He needed to make me want to trust him.

As soon as I said that Sherlock's phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket to look at it. "Lestrade wants you back in the office. More talking."

"Codswallop. That man, do I need to hold his hand for everything?"

Sherlock merely smirked.

Zane told Lestrade that I knew the answer to his main question but I was lying to him about it. At some point he was going to break me down. I needed a better story. "Zane wants me to tell Lestrade.  If he found out about the treasure I would have to give it all in. Then I would lose this game. That Zane was playing."

"So what do you suggest?"

"Tell him the truth and watch it burn."

man! sorry this is late! everything has been kind of busy and I was on holiday for a week so it took me a longer time to write this. only one more chapter after this one! I know, crazy right?! well enjoy it.

DarlaH