Beauty and the High-Functioning Sociopath {#PFCC2k16}

It's an Ear Hat, Alex!

We've arrived at The Reichenbach Fall...can't say I'm too pleased. Theme song, you ask? It's "Sally's Song" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Please excuse me while I go curl up in a hole and die because parts of this are going to be unbearable to write. Ready, fandom? *joins hands with fellow Sherlockians* The game is on!

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Alex burst into the flat, sobbing. She grabbed Sherlock's coat and wrapped it around herself, breathing in his scent. It was so comforting... But she was never going to smell his scent again, never going to feel him hold her again, never going to hear his baritone voice again, never going to see him play the violin while dancing around the flat again. Lou, who had grown a considerable amount, walked up to her and whined. He didn't understand.

"Why, Sherlock, why did you do it? I could have helped you out of it!" She asked, sobs choking her. She expected no answer from Sherlock. Why?

Sherlock Holmes, her best friend and the man who had told her he loved her, was dead.

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(Three months earlier)

Sherlock, John, and Alex stood together, smiling unaware of the horror that was going to face them in three short months. Sherlock wasn't smiling. Only John and Alex. 

"Falls of the Reichenbach, Turner's masterpiece." A man said. "Thankfully, recovered, owing to the prodigious talent of Mr. Sherlock Holmes."

There was a small round of applause. Alex and John looked to each other. They had helped quite a bit and they were getting no credit.

"And John and Alexandra Watson." Sherlock said.

"A small token of our gratitude." The man smiled, handing Sherlock a small, red box.

"Diamond cufflinks. My cuffs have buttons." Sherlock said, rattling the box.

"Dude!" Alex said. She looked to the man. "He means thank you."

"Do I have-" Sherlock started.

"Say it." Alex said firmly.

"Thank you." Sherlock said.

A few weeks later, they had rescued a banker who had been kidnapped. Now they had to get gifts and take pictures for that. Alex and John once again expected no credit unless Sherlock said anything.

"Back together with my family after my terrifying ordeal." The man said. "And we have one person to thank for my deliverance: Sherlock Holmes."

The man's kid, who looked an awful lot like Harry Potter in Alex's opinion, handed Sherlock a small box wrapped in blue paper. Sherlock shook it.

"Tie pin. I don't wear ties." He said.

"Shh." Alex said.

A couple weeks after that, they had caught a fugitive who had been on the run since the eighties. This case had been for Lestrade. 

"Peter Ricoletti, number one on Interpol's Most Wanted list since 1982." Lestrade was saying. "Well, we got him. And there's one person we have to thank for giving us the decisive leads with all his customary diplomicy intact."

"Sarcasm." John whispered quickly.

"Yes." Sherlock nodded.

Lestrade smiled as he handed Sherlock a small package. "We all chipped in."

Sherlock unwrapped it, hoping what he deduced had been wrong. It was a deerstalker hat. He had been right. He still plastered a fake smile on his face. The room filled with laughter.