Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Life

Chapter 23

A/N: First of all: OH. MY. GOD. I come back to find that this story has 1000 views?! This is amazing! Thank you so much! And secondly, I know I haven't updated in a while and I'm really sorry. I just haven't had any inspiration so I think I'm going to be putting this story on hold for a couple of months so I have time to build up some chapters to upload. I'm also working on a new story based on Captain America: The Winter Soldier so I may be uploading some chapters from that in the mean time. :)

"Hands behind your head. On the floor. Keep it still." One of them came over to me and dragged me across the room by my left arm and then proceeded to shove me to the floor by the side of and apologetic John, who had been hauled in from the hallway by another of the men, and Irene, who had been pushed to the floor by the man behind her on the command of another who had his gun aimed at Sherlock. All three of us had pistols held to the back of our heads. This all felt oddly familiar.

"Don't you want me on the floor too?" Sherlock asked

"No, sir, I want you to open the safe." the American gunman said in reply

"American. Interesting. Why would YOU care?" Sherlock commented when he'd clocked his accent.

"Sir, the safe, NOW, please."

"I don't know the code."

"We've been listening. She said she told you.". Through all of the back and forth between Sherlock and whom I had deduced to be a CIA agent I took a moment to glance at John and it seemed that he'd had the same idea. I caught his glance and he raised his shoulders in a slight shrug. Clearly he had no more of a clue as to what was going on here than we did.

"Mr Holmes doesn't-" Irene began but was soon interrupted by the agent

"Shut up. One more word out of you- just one- and I will decorate that wall with the insides of your head. That, for me, will not be a hardship." Sherlock glared ferociously at him as he spoke but then he said something that made both him and me feel less annoyed and more terrified. "Mr Archer. At the count of three, shoot Miss Cook."

"Oh my god," I whispered as my eyes widened in panic and I cowered when the tip of Archer's pistol dug into the back of my neck. Sherlock's did the same as his line of sight darted to me, horror written all over his face.

"I don't have the code." Sherlock became hysterical

"One."

"I don't know the code."

"Two."

"She didn't tell me. I don't know it!" he raised his voice

"I'm prepared to believe you any second now.". Sherlock looked over at Irene who lowered her gaze to try and make Sherlock realise what I had. He quickly shot a glance at me and I nodded minutely to confirm that she was telling the truth.

"Three." the agent said. I squinted my eyes as I heard the trigger of Archer's gun slowly being retracted

"No, stop!" Sherlock shouted; I breathed a sigh of relief when the gun was pulled away from my neck. Holmes became distant and, for a just a moment, I could see inside his mind. I could see the metaphorical cogs that everyone has running a mile a minute, trying to figure out the order of the numbers that he needed to type in on the keypad. I pulled my new found vision outwards slightly to study his face. There were tears that were threatening to become visible to everyone else and beads of perspiration that were beginning to form on his temples. He collected himself and stole at look at me before turning to the safe. I saw him relax when his eyes caught mine and then I pieced everything together. That kiss at his flat, all of the sly glance that he didn't think I'd seen, him trying to get to know me better. Sherlock didn't send me away because he hated me, he sent me away because he was scared of all of his new feelings. Sherlock loves me. Oh my God...

"Vatican cameos." was the first thing I'd heard after that shocking revelation to myself and before I knew it my body dropped to the floor and I heard Archer groan and fall. I took the opportunity to grab his gun from his hands and turned around to see Sherlock grab his guard's gun and flip it so that the silencer was in his grip; he then proceeded to smash the butt of the weapon across his face. Impressive (and a little bit sexy but shhh... Don't tell anyone I said that). John was also up and struggling in his assigned agent's grip so I moved myself to stand behind the sofa and shot him at an angle that was sure to hit the agent's heart but not hurt John at the same time. My calculations were perfect and John's guard went limp as my bullet came out of the other side of him and John wriggled out of his grasp.

"Thanks." Watson panted

"You're welcome." I smiled.

John moved over to the man I had just shot and checked his pulse just to be absolutely sure and confirmed that he was, indeed, dead.

"Thank you. You were very observant." Irene spoke up

"Observant?" John whispered to me in confusion, I shook my head in reply, indicating that it wasn't of any importance to the current situation. Of course it was because we would all have been dead if either me or Sherlock didn't realise what she meant but John didn't need to know about that.

"I'm flattered." she said to no-one in particular

"Don't be." I said bluntly and she shot me a glare in return.

"Flattered?" John was still utterly bewildered but it didn't really matter. Sherlock and I were still focused on what was going on around us and had walked briskly outside, removing the silencers from our guns as we went. Once John had realised that we were on the move he hurried to catch up with us and, panicked, said "We should call the police."

"Yes." Sherlock said before we both fired our pistols into the air

"On their way." we said simultaneously and grinned at each other before heading back inside with John trailing behind us complaining about how "he doesn't know why he puts up with us" and that "Jesus Christ, you'd think we were made for each other". I had to chuckle to myself. John was quite the character.

When we got back into the living room Irene was looking into the safe but turned around to face us when she heard our footsteps. She looked confused and at first I wondered why before I took a look into the safe myself.

"Sherlock, isn't there supposed to be a phone in here? It was definitely here. Where is it?" I started to panic. What if someone had come in and taken it while we were all outside? It wasn't Irene, I could tell that by the beads of sweat that were forming on her forehead.

"Well that's the knighthood in the bag." Sherlock said with a smug grin, casually tossing the phone into the air before catching and pocketing it again.

"You little shit." I smirked at him, shaking my head loosely.

"Ah! And that's mine." Irene said whilst holding out her hand, expecting to receive her phone when all she got was a sly look from Sherlock.

"Was." he whispered, sauntering proudly out of the room.