Beauty and the High-Functioning Sociopath {#PFCC2k16}

Say Something, I'm Giving up on You

Later that day, Alex was finally getting some sleep. She was sprawled across Sherlock, who was sitting on a chair with his feet up on a table in the lab. He was drumming his fingers nervously on her lap. John's phone rang, which woke both him and Alex up. John answered the phone.

"Yes, speaking." He said. "What? What happened?! Is she okay? Oh my God! Yes, I'm coming!"

"What is it?" Alex asked, stretching. 

"Paramedics! Mrs. Hudson, she's been shot!" John said.

"Oh, God!" Alex said. She jumped off of Sherlock's lap.

"How?" Sherlock asked, completely calm.

"Probably one of the killers you managed to attract." John said. "She's dying, you two, let's go."

"You and Alex go. I'm busy." Sherlock said.

"Busy?" Alex said, gaping at him.

"Thinking, I need to think." Sherlock said.

"Doesn't she mean anything to you?" John asked.

"She's my landlady." Sherlock said, shrugging.

"She's dying, you machine!" Alex yelled. "Why can't you stop being such a freak?!"

Sherlock looked at Alex. She had never said anything so hurtful before. Alex looked like she had only just realized what she said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!" Alex said.

"No, don't apologize, you're right!" John said. "Sod this. Sod this. You stay here if you want to be on your own."

"Alone is what I have. Alone protects me." Sherlock said.

"No, friends protect people." Alex said. She and John walked out. Sherlock flinched as Alex slammed the door shut. His phone chimed and he took it out of his pocket.

I'm waiting...
- JM

Sherlock grabbed his coat and went up to the roof. Moriarty was waiting for him. Sherlock could hear "Staying Alive" playing from Moriarty's phone.

"Well, here we are at last. Me and you, Sherlock." Moriarty said. "And our problem, the final problem. Staying alive! It's so boring, isn't it?" He stopped the music. "It's just staying. All my life I've been searching for distractions, and you were the best distraction and now I don't even have you because I've beaten you. And you know what? In the end, it was easy. It was easy. Now I've got to go back to playing with the ordinary people. And it turns out you're ordinary! Just like all of them. Oh well. Did you almost start to wonder if I was real? Did I nearly get you?"

"Richard Brook." Sherlock murmered.

"Nobody seems to get the joke, but you do." Moriarty said.

"Of course." Sherlock said.

"Attaboy." Moriarty said.

"Richard Brook in German is Reichenbach. The case that made my name." Sherlock said.

"Just trying to have some fun." Moriarty said. Sherlock drummed his fingers in the pattern that Moriarty had the day he'd visited the flat. "Good, you go that too."

"Beats like digits. Every beat is a one, the rest is a zero." Sherlock said. "Binary code. That's why all those assassins tried to save my life. Because it was hidden on me, inside my head. A few simple lines of computer code that can break into any system."

"Told all my clients, 'Last one to Sherlock is a sissy.'" Moriarty said.

"Yes, but now that it's up here I can use it to alter the records." Sherlock said. "I can kill Rich Brook and bring back Jim Moriarty."