The Baker's Detective

| The Return and the Email |

Sherlock doesn't discard the shock blanket over him, even though he's stopped shaking.

His mind was racing the entire time, and he couldn't figure out what to do. Then Lily said "trust" and he knew she had an idea.

Everything she said should've hurt him, he knew, but he couldn't believe she was being truthful. Something in her eyes told him so. And then when he got up there, they had their plan. Mycroft was sending someone — Sherlock's phone had buzzed in his pocket, though he never looked at it. Who else would it be? They could stall.

When Moran put the gun in her hands, everything happened in a matter of seconds. Shots were firing, and Sherlock saw Liam out of the corner of his eye run towards the scaffolding. He looked back to Lily for a few moments, wanting to run towards them, to save her, and then he was falling, smacked his face, and a bullet was whizzing above his head. Liam had pulled his feet out from under him.

He got to his knees as Lily nearly shoved Moran out of the window, and then someone outside took the shot. He disappeared before anyone could find him, but they all knew it was one of Mycroft's contacts. Mycroft himself was there before the ambulance arrived.

Sherlock held Lily until they had bagged Moran's body. He knew she couldn't see that, that it would haunt her. Once they descended the ladder, both of them were sat in the back of the ambulance and given shock blankets. Lily's wrists were raw from the rope, but otherwise she looked unharmed. A bruise, however, is forming on Sherlock's forehead.

"It's quite becoming, brother mine," Mycroft says. "And who's to say whether it will swell to the size of a golf ball."

"He'll be alright. We'll ice it," John says.

Liam walks back over; he was on the phone with their parents. "They're on their way."

"They really don't have to-" Lily weakly protests.

"But they are." He takes her hand.

"Mrs. Hudson's racing over as we speak," John adds.

She looks over at Sherlock, though she doesn't say anything. She's still shaken up, understandably so. His mind has been so out of sorts he hasn't said much to her at all. There was commotion and officers everywhere.

He looks at her now, allows him to fully believe that she's okay. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

He takes a deep breath, closes his eyes. The relief that she's okay mixes with the devastation that he's ruined this. The one woman he really believes he's fallen in love with and he's ruined it. "I understand if you would rather not... go out with me anymore because-"

Her arms wrap around him. "You saved my life."

Sherlock opens his eyes. "But he was coming after me. I put you in danger-"

"You saved my life. If you hadn't come, he would've-"

"You're not hearing me."

"You're not hearing me."

"But Lily-"

Liam steps forward. "Listen to her, mate. You saved her life. And I don't think she wants to break up with you."

Lestrade, having been talking with another officer, turns around. "So this is official, then? No one tells me anything."

"I was not aware, either," Mycroft says. "Although I suspected."

Sherlock shakes his head, fights his growing hope. There's just no way. "But I-"

Lily takes his hand. "It would be pretty stupid to break up with you, especially over you saving my life. Oh, and thank you, Mycroft, John, and Lestrade. You also helped saved my life."