Clique of 221B

Chapter 23: Sherlock's a Mess

A few hours later, you, John, and Greg are sat at a table in a police interview room. Things went dramatically wrong very quickly. I step outside for two minutes! You and John are on one side, Greg on the other.
"Did you know?" Greg asks John. John shakes his head,
"Of course I didn't."
"You didn't see him take the scalpel?"
"Nobody saw him." Turns out when you were out of the room Sherlock had been about to attack Culverton with a scalpel until John stopped him.
"So you didn't know what was about to happen."
"Of course I didn't know."
"Well, there must have been some build-up. He didn't just suddenly do it." John leans forward,
"Look, I didn't know he had the bloody scalpel." Greg reaches across to switch off the recording device in front of you then leans back in his chair with a tired sigh,
"Ohh, Christ!" He pauses before adding, "I keep wondering if we should have seen it coming."
"Not long ago, he shot Charles Magnussen in the face. We did see it coming." You nudge John and frown at him. I'm not sure if Greg knows all about that incident. But he doesn't give much of a reaction so he must know. "We always saw it coming. But it was fun." Someone knocks on the door. Greg turns towards it,
"Come in." The door opens and a police officer comes in.
"Sir. You probably want to see this," she says. She puts a laptop onto the desk and you all lean over to look at the screen which is showing a latest news report.
"Harold Chorley reporting earlier today. Mr Smith stated he had no interest in bringing charges," a voiceover informs you. The footage cuts to Culverton talking to a reporter,
"I'm a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I'm a big fan. I don't really know what happened today. To be honest, I don't think I'd be standing here now if it wasn't for Doctor Watson."
"Is it true he's being treated in your hospital?" A reporter asks him from off screen.
"It's not actually my hospital. Well, it is a little bit my hospital..." He smiles. "Uh, but I can promise you this. He's going to get the best of care. I might even move him to my favourite room." He smiles again. You and John both frown at this. I really hope he doesn't move Sherlock to his favourite room. The mortuary.
"Culverton Smith earlier today." The reporter concludes. Culverton raises a cheery thumb to the camera. Weirdo. The police officer stops the footage and leaves the room with the laptop. John sits back in his chair, looking down at his right hand. Greg stands up,
"He's right, you know. You probably saved his life." John is still looking down at his hand,
"I really hit him, Greg." As he looks up at Greg as you look at his hand, his knuckles are scraped and bloody. "Hit him hard."

Later on you're stood outside Sherlock's hospital door. Nurse Cornish who you remember from earlier goes in and you follow her.
"Oh, hi." She says to John. John has his eyes fixed on Sherlock, he turns his head slightly and opens his mouth a little but then closes it again. The nurse walks to the other side of the bed, "Just in to say hello?"
"No. I'm just in to say goodbye." So that confirms my thoughts that John is leaving. What am I going to do now? My job is to keep an eye on Sherlock but I can't just leave John. Not now.
"I'm sure he'll pull through." John briefly smiles tightly, his eyes not moving from Sherlock. "And yeah, he's made a terrible mess of himself, but he's awfully strong, so must look on the bright side." She walks around him to the other side of the bed. John is a couple of steps away from the end of the bed. He nods, letting out an almost silent,
"Hm." You look at Sherlock's face. A cut over his eyebrow has been stitched up and his left eye is bruised and swollen. "Well..." John clears his throat. He walks towards the chair near the side of the bed, he holds up a crutch to show to her. "Parting gift." He leans it against the back of the chair.
"Oh, that's nice. A walking stick." She says.
"Yeah, it was mine from... a long time ago." Mycroft told you about John's limp from when he first met him. A psychosomatic limp. It stopped after his first night as Sherlock's flat mate. And everyone thinks it's John who is good for Sherlock. John turns to walk away just as the phone on the bedside table rings. At the same moment your phone buzzes. The nurse answers the phone as John opens the door.
"Hello? Ward seventy-three." After listening a bit she calls out, "Oh, Doctor Watson?" John is out the door but then pushes it open again and looks in.
"Hm?"
"It's for you." You look down at your phone,
'I'm back in London, get a lift with John. I've sent a car, it's downstairs waiting for you. -MH'
John walks over and takes the phone from her,
"Hello, Mycroft." You hear Mycroft's voice over the phone tell him,
"There's a car downstairs." John hands the phone back and walks out.
"I'm coming with you." You tell John.
"You called Mycroft?" He asks.
"I didn't call Mycroft, Mycroft called me." He sighs. By now Mycroft will probably know that Sherlock has been back on the drugs and he is not going to be happy about it.