Sherlock's Long Lost Daughter {The LOST Chronicles, BOOK 1}

Chapter 4- Recovering

Sherlock's Pov-

John stared at me in shock of the news that Madeline had been poisoned. He didn't say a word. He just stood there, staring at the girl's lifeless body.

After a couple of minutes of silence, John finally started to talk. "Is she going to be ok?" He asked, with concern.

I looked back at Madeline, laying there completely motionless, almost like she was dead. "I think. Well, I hope so. I'm going to do some tests on the dart and try to find out what kind of poison it is to try and figure it all out."

I leaned over Madeline and touched her forehead. It was cold. In fact, she was freezing. "John, go grab some blankets from my room, we need to raise her temperature. She’s freezing." I instructed John. Without a word, John ran to my room. He returned about 30 seconds later with around five blankets.

"Um, is this going to be enough?" John asked me.

"If you put that many blankets on her she'll die of high temperature." I told him.

"Well, I'm just worried Sherlock alright, ever felt worry before, huh?" He came back at me.

"You know me John, I never care about anything, I don't feel sentiment for anyone or anything. Except now, I have her to make me feel sentiment and caring and worrying."

I took the blankets from John and used two of them to make Madeline a pillow and the rest of them I draped carefully over her to keep her warm. I grabbed the dart from the table where I put it down and walked into the kitchen.

"So that’s it, Sherlock? Your just going to leave her there on the sofa?" He said, frustrated with me.

"There’s nothing I can do at the moment John. I need to examine the dart.”

"Fine, look alright, Sherlock I've got to go out." He called to me as he went to get his coat.

"Yes, I could tell. You've brought a new shirt and had a hair cut. I didn't expect it was for me, obviously you are going out on a date." I replied teasing him. I could hear him laughing in his room. He walked into the kitchen.

"Well there’s no point in hiding it from you, you guessed anyway. Look, let me know if her condition changes."

"I'll text you." I replied adjusting the microscope. With that, John left.

After about 3 hours, John still hadn't returned and I was now sitting on my chair playing my violin to help me think. After all the investigating, I found out a few things. I found out the poison in the dart was Hemlock, indigenous to Europe. In which, death comes in the form of paralysis. This happened to be a weak concentration of it, from the experiment I did with a little bit left in the dart.

It won't kill Madeline, it just made her temporarily paralyzed. My mind was eased for the moment.

I put down my violin and picked up the dart from my pocket. I held it in my hands, turning it around in my fingers. I was convinced there was nothing else this piece of evidence could give me, until I noticed a small piece of engraved writing.

I got up and ran to my room, rapidly searching around in my drawerss and wardrobe for my magnifying glass. I eventually found it. I looked down at the writing on the dart to see some initials.

The writing was very tiny but I eventually made out what the letters were. I looked up from the dart in horror, in the process dropping my magnifying glass. I stood there in shock as the magnifying glass fell from my hands and shattered into pieces on the floor.

The initials were J.M. Jim Moriarty.

I felt a rush of anger and a sense of protection run through my body. Moriarty had poisoned my daughter. He was back and he knew about my daughter and knew it would hurt me. But this is just a warning. Moriarty doesn't do a half job, he didn't kill Madeline this time but he will.

From this moment onward, I made a vow to myself that I would never leave Madeline and I would always protect her, no matter what.

I went back into the living room and sat on my chair. I picked up my violin and started to play the song I had written for Irene. She reminded me a lot of her by the way she carried herself and the way she spoke. I watched over Madeline for a couple of hours not moving one inch from my chair, playing my violin to pass the time. I started composing a new song, in which I would title Madeline's Theme. I was a quarter of the way through composing when I saw Madeline's leg move. I dropped what I was doing and ran over to her and knelt beside her. "Madeline? Madeline?" I called out her name quietly. She opened her eyes and locked them on mine, she tried to sit up but failed. I stood up and gently helped her to sit up on the sofa. "I'm afraid your going to be a bit sore and stiff for a few days." I said to her with care.

"Why, what happened?" She questioned me.

"Well to put it in simple terms, you were shot in the back of the neck with a poisoned dart and you passed out and you were temporarily paralyzed but not to worry it should wear off in a few days," I tried to reassure her.

"Ok," she simply replied to me.

“Look Madeline, I know that I haven't been a part of your life because I didn't even know that you existed. But I don't regret being with Irene and you being here with me right now. From this moment onwards, I want to be a part of your life. I want to care for you and look after you. I want to be your father, if you'll have me?” I expressed to her. She looked at me with a straight face then a smile started to appear on her face.

"I would like that very much," she happily said to me with tears starting to form in her eyes she reached out to me and embraced me with a hug. At first I just sat there, but then my I lifted my arms up and wrapped them around Madeline embracing the hug. We hugged for a few minutes then we both pulled away.

"So! Fancy watching some crap television and getting something to eat?" I asked her. She smiled at me.

After about 20 minutes of debating, we both ended up deciding to watch Eastenders and get John to pick up some chips on the way home from his date.

John's Pov-

I was having such a nice time at the restaurant with Katrina. She was such a nice, beautiful, funny woman. I was enjoying my date thoroughly, until I received a text.

I excused myself from the table and went and stood near the kitchen and read it.

"Madeline awake, if convenient come to 221B...If inconvenient come anyway.. and bring a couple of portions of chips with you."

That cheeky bugger, I thought to myself. Yet, I couldn't help but smile. Madeline was alright. I went back to the table and made up an excuse to Katrina and apologized. I told her to finish her meal and I gave her some money to get a cab home.

With that, I dashed off out the restaurant to a couple of door down to the chip shop. After I got the chips, I caught a cab back to 221B.

I went upstairs to find Madeline and Sherlock sat on the sofa together with Sherlock's arm around Madeline in a protective manner.

"I thought you didn't like Eastender's, Sherlock?" I questioned him whilst walking into the room.

"I didn't say I didn't like it, more the fact that it is too easily predicted." He replied to me, without taking his eyes off the screen.

Madeline looked at him. "How can you tell what’s going to happen, then?"

"It's simple, you see that man on screen he has a crease in his shirt which suggests that he has got dressed in a hurry, suggesting that he is having an affair with the woman he keeps looking over to when he thinks her husband isn't looking." He replied to her. “You see, but do not observe."

"Wow, that’s amazing! Will you teach me?" She pleaded to him.

"What, deduction? Yeah... sure." He replied smiling at Madeline. I handed out a portion of chips each to them and sat down at the table and began to watch Eastender's with them.

Madeline's Pov-

I was so happy right now. This was what I had dreamed of since I was a small child. To be with my father. I didn't even care that I had been poisoned or temporarily paralyzed or even much that my mother was gone. I accepted it and moved on. Nothing was going to ruin this. Me, my father and John against the rest of the world.