Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Life

Chapter 13- Part 2

Hola mis amigos! You ready for part 2?

Let's go!

The door slammed closed and it took a few seconds until Sherlock came racing over to us, dropping the pistol, falling to his knees and ripping the explosive vest off of John first.

"All right?" Sherlock asked as me and John struggled to catch our breath, unzipping John's vest as he spoke, "Are you alright?" he asked again, more urgently this time.

"Yeah- yeah, I'm fine." John managed

"Sarah, are you ok?" Sherlock focused on me now, gripping me gently by the shoulders; then sliding his hands down my arms to my hands. I held onto him for fear of passing out and just managed to reply

"I'm fine." as he tugged on the zipper in a desperate attempt to get the jacket off and away from me. "Sherlock. Sherlock! Don't pull so hard, you might trigger the bomb yourself and I don't think either of us would enjoy that very much.". He heeded my warning and pulled the jacket off slightly gentler but with the same amount of urgency. Once both items of clothing were off of me and John Sherlock skimmed them along the tiled floor.

"Jesus." John whispered, yanking the earpiece out of his ears. I did the same. Sherlock picked up the pistol from where he dropped it and half- ran towards the door that Moriarty had disappeared through. Suddenly, John's knees buckled under him and he staggered towards the nearest changing cubical, using it as a support as he mumbled "Oh, Christ." and dropped into a squat, bracing his back against the cubicle's edge as I raced towards him.

"John! Oh, God, are you alright?" I said bending down in front of him.

"Yeah, I think so. Just... Give me a minute."

"Ok.". Sherlock returned from investigating Jim's exit and began to pace up and down near me and John. I watched him as he came and went. He was so distracted that he must not have realised that he was scratching  the back of his head with the business end of his loaded gun.

"Sherlock?" I asked, trying to catch his attention

"Mmm?" was the blunt reply I got in return

"Are YOU ok?"

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. Fine."

"You sure? You don't seem fine."

"Of course I am." there was a slight pause before he started talking to John. "That, er... thing that you, er, that you did; that, um..." he cleared his throat before continuing, "... You offered to do. That was, um... Good."

"Sherlock," I said again, "You might want to put that gun down before you accidentally shoot yourself in the head.". He looked at me confused, looked up, finally realised that he had the weapon against his cranium and lowered his hand although he had terrible jitters as he held the gun by his side. I could tell that he had no control over himself at that moment, he didn't know what to do with himself.

"I'm glad no- one saw that." John said as he stared blankly ahead of himself over my shoulder. No sooner had he lowered the gun did he lift it again so that he could rub his chin whilst looking at John in confusion.

"Hmm?"

"You, ripping my clothes off in a darkened swimming pool. People might talk." John still wasn't looking at Sherlock but I was so I saw him shrug. Sherlock replied to John:

"People do little else."

"I saw." I said with a grin, trying to regain my normal character. The boys looked at me and then, finally, looked at each other, grinning. Me and John let out a short burst of laughter before leaning on each other in preparation to stand up. Before we could move, the red laser beams from Moriarty's snipers danced over mine and John's chest. I could physically feel the blood drain from my face. John looked down at the light and then looked at me, his face filled with horror.