His Great Game (Sherlock x Reader)

Chapter 15: Part of the Team

(Your POV)

For the rest of the day, I followed the boys around, inserting my opinion when necessary. In fact, that's how most of the following days went. I helped out the boys at Janus Cars, the morgue, Kenny Prince's house, the Thames River, the Hickman Gallery- basically everywhere. I laughed when they laughed; on rare occasions I happened to be the cause of the laughter. I cringed when they cringed, like when the bomb went off when the woman on the phone said too much. I solved problems alongside them, happy to know that my skills actually made me useful.

My life had become a mess, truly. But, truth be told, I rather liked it. We were a good team, the three of us. The brains, the brawn, the beauty; Sherlock, John, and I, respectively. Over the past few days, I'd grown closer than ever with the boys- Lestrade included. He was pleasant enough, though I couldn't say the same for Donovan and Anderson (I preferred to call them tweedledee and tweedledum). It could now be easily said that John and Sherlock were my closest friends, which was great, seeming as I hadn't had any friends when I moved to London not even two weeks ago.

Thus far, everyone has been shocked by Sherlock's sudden openness with me, other than John, but I find it rather normal. As far as I'm concerned, he's just being friendly. He hasn't made any attempts for physical contact of any sort since his apology. For now, I'm content with having made a friend of Sherlock Holmes.

It's been two days since Sherlock and I settled our dispute, making this only the fifth day I'd stayed with him and Watson. Funny, it seemed so much longer than that. Right now, the three of us were stepping out of the crammed cab at the Vauxhall Arches. I checked the inside pocket of my trench coat, making sure my concealed gun was still there. It was.

I looked up at the sky and gave a soft gasp, freezing in place. Away from the city lights, the sky was beautiful- an impossibly dense field of stars littered my view. I didn't even know this many stars existed until now.

Sherlock stepped up beside me and followed my gaze. "Beautiful, isn't it?" He said softly.

"Yeah..."

John had fallen in line next to us and was admiring the view as well. "I thought you didn't care about things like that, Sherlock."

There was a moment of silence, and I shifted my gaze to Sherlock, who was staring at me intensely. "Doesn't mean I can't appreciate it." His voice was soft. I could feel my cheeks growing pink, and I was suddenly very thankful it was dark outside. Giving a small smile, he turned and entered the arches, John and I in tow right behind.

John turned his focus to the case. "Alex Woodbridge had a message on the answerphone at his flat- a professor Cairns?"

"This way." Sherlock said simply, guiding us through the halls.

John and I looked around the area in disgust. Everything was run-down and overall had a gross feeling. Why are we here again? "Nice!" John said sarcastically. "Nice part of town. Er, any time you wanna explain."

"Homeless network- really is indispensable."

"Homeless network?" I chimed in.

"That homeless woman I received the slip of paper from earlier- I know you noticed, you just didn't question it. She's part of my network. My eyes and ears all over the city."

"Ah."

"Oh, that's clever." John's voice was still sarcastic. He's just really not in the mood tonight, is he? "So you scratch their backs and..."

Sherlock's voice was riddled with amusement. "Yes, then I disinfect myself."

I chuckled. "Rude." With a smirk, Sherlock pulled out a flashlight and began waving it around. We didn't see much, mainly just homeless people settling in for the night. Suddenly, in the distance a shadow of an incredibly tall man formed.