It Started With Stealing | Sherlock Holmes

96 - The Ambassador's Children

A/N - I will finish this before 100 chapters, I will finish this before 100 chapters...

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Nurses came and went from her room and a police officer had been stationed outside the door to her private recovery room. Not that she would be going anywhere for a while without assistance. She didn't say anything, eat anything or ask for anything because she wanted it to be over. Without Sherlock giving her the chance to explain and having seen that look in his eyes, she knew he wouldn't talk to her again.

Elizabeth shut her swollen eyes as she felt the tears dare to fall again.

And the doctors said she had been lucky to get to the hospital when she did. She would laugh if she knew it wouldn't hurt. Lucky? What a joke because this wasn't lucky. No, what would have been lucky would have been being given the chance to explain. That was all she wanted because had she done it sooner, perhaps she wouldn't be in this mess. Perhaps Sherlock wouldn't hate her and perhaps others wouldn't think her a liar.

She began to wonder if John did understand that she was trying to save him.

There was a knock at the door and to her slight shock, she saw Rita coming into her room.

She was dressed in black and white checkered trousers and wearing a long sleeved top, only daring to show the now healed scars on her face, neck and hands from the acid attack. It wasn't horrific but different, not vastly noticeable but the texture was disturbed enough that, if someone were closer to her, they would be able to tell that it was a scar from a burn. The bottom half of her face simply had more of a red and white tint to it.

"Elizabeth." She greeted quietly.

The thief had no words though. She watched the ex-surgeon approach her bed. Inhaling, Rita gazed around the room, taking in the drip, the beeping monitor, the ghastly drain, the bloodstained bandages and the look of numbness on Elizabeth's face.

"I owe you an apology - " She corrected herself, "Apologies."

She still said nothing, just looked away, looked at the plain, uninteresting ceiling.

"The last time we were here, I wasn't fair to you. I asked you to do something that I shouldn't have asked you to do. I'm sorry." Rita spoke gently, "And for faking my death, that I apologise for too though Cleo said she told you in which case I thank you for keeping quiet."

Elizabeth still didn't respond.

"Which then brings me to my last apology," She took a breath, "You - and Sherlock, of course - helped us to realise that we liked each other. And I wanted Mycroft back." Rita paused, trying to gauge how she would react, "I told Mycroft about you joining the gang."

This time Elizabeth turned her head to look at Rita, anguish raging in her stormy eyes.

"I told Mycroft that they planned to initiate you. I told him that that would be when there would be the most amount of thieves from the gang in one spot. I told him about the stashes." Rita spoke honestly, "Because I love him and because I wanted to earn his trust again."

Elizabeth wanted to yell.

"What I didn't tell him though, was that it was Moriarty's plan to kill you during the initiation. At least that was what Cleo told me. But I didn't tell him that because I didn't believe that was Moriarty's true intention."

"Get out."

"Elizabeth, I'm not done - "

"Get. Out."