Despite the Odds

Chapter 19: Truth

At the Holmes residence

John stood by the wall as he glanced at Mary before saying awkwardly: "So, are you okay?"

She glanced at him in some surprise before asking sarcastically: "Oh! Are we doing conversation today? It really is Christmas."

John just silently dug out the flash drive from his pocket, showing the letters written across it: 'A.G.R.A.'. Mary's face fell, and she scoffed, asking with a quivering voice: "Now?"

John nodded and she stared at him incredulously.

"Seriously?" She asked even as her voice shook. "Months of silence and we're gonna do this," she spat as she nodded at the flash drive, "now?"

********

Five months earlier

Mary silently placed a flash drive on the table beside John's armchair, beside the 'Claire de Lune' perfume bottle that Marie had left as a clue for John before Sherlock called him to Leinster Garden. The clue that had made him realize why Sherlock had run away from the hospital.

They all glanced at it, and Sherlock frowned as he asked: "'A.G.R.A.' What's that?"

Mary glanced at Sherlock, before she looked at John and answered shakily: "Er ... my initials."

John's face set into another expression of hard anger, while Sherlock's lips thinned and he glanced at his friend concernedly. Marie had leaned back thoughtfully, her arms crossed as Mary added to John quickly, as though wanting to get this over with as soon as possible: " Everything about who I was is on there."

She paused then added bitingly: "If you love me, don't read it in front of me."

"Why?" John demanded, and Mary replied, her face twisting with pain: "Because you won't love me when you've finished. And I don't want to see that happen." She begged.

John stared at her for a moment, before he grabbed the flash drive and pocketed it with a sigh. Mary took a deep breath before asking Sherlock: "How much d'you know already? I can see Marie's already worked out who I am."

"By your skill set," Sherlock replied in a soft murmur, "you are, or were, an intelligence agent. Your accent is currently English but I suspect you are not."

He glanced at Marie, who nodded in confirmation.

"You're on the run from something; you've used your skills to disappear. Magnussen knows your secret, which is why you were going to kill him; and I assume you befriended Janine, in order to get close to him." Sherlock finished with a pained grimace.

Marie glanced at him worriedly, while Mary retorted: "Oh, you can talk."

"Ohhh. Look at you two. You should have got married, if it weren't for the other psychopath in the room." John said scathingly.

Sherlock's eyes had narrowed at him while Marie's face had gone blank as it only did when she was so shocked she couldn't control her emotions. John couldn't find it in him to care at the moment as he fought to stay calm, and Mary told him flatly: "The stuff Magnussen has on me, I would go to prison for the rest of my life."

"So you were just gonna kill him." John scoffed.

Mary replied harshly: "People like Magnussen should be killed. That's why there are people like me and Marie."

"Perfect." John muttered sarcastically. He stared at Mary as he demanded: "So that's what you were? An assassin? Like her?"

He nodded at Marie, who stiffened while Sherlock's gaze at John had now become just as harsh.