It Started With Stealing | Sherlock Holmes

29 - A Conversation With Mycroft

Later that morning, the three were sat around the table in the living room. John was finishing his breakfast, Elizabeth was drinking her coffee and Sherlock read the newspaper. Mycroft stood by the fireplace, facing them all, a frown on his face after having been caught up with the situation regarding the laptop.

"How couldn't you have known?" Mycroft aimed this question at Sherlock, "Having explained it to me, it sounds too obvious to have missed."

Sherlock scowled at the slim man but said nothing. As if it wasn't enough that he had been blaming himself but now his brother was blaming him for the mishap too. Elizabeth couldn't stand it but still didn't speak, just glared at Mycroft as Sherlock had been doing. John couldn't have this conversation again though.

"Look, Mycroft, we've already discussed it. Emotions were running high at the time and we were all distracted with one thing or another. It was an easy mistake to make." He tried to argue for his friends.

"In that case I understand it was an emotional error on Sherlock's part," He paused, staring at his brother with fire in his eyes, "Which rarely happens with you, Brother Mine."

Sherlock said nothing but his jaw notably clenched when Mycroft accused him of being too emotionally unfit to have noticed an obvious thing.

Mycroft then looked to Elizabeth, "So rarely, in fact, that I think someone intended him to miss it."

Elizabeth retaliated, a stormy look in her eyes, "I didn't lie about it. I didn't even know about it until I found it last night."

"And what caused you to think of such a thing only last night?"

Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak but decided against it. Internally, she panicked, knowing that lack of speech would seem suspicious. Thinking back to the dream she had in which Mycroft also had a part in accusing her, she felt the tears prick her eyes. She faced away from Mycroft.

At seeing this, John answered for her, "Think about it, Mycroft. Why would she purposefully endanger her contact - her friend - like that?"

"Do you ever think that perhaps she lied to you, John? Perhaps, somehow Moriarty contacted her and also tasked her with infiltrating us. Perhaps on the night of the masquerade, it was her job to rat out traitors to Mr Moriarty's cause."

Sherlock stood suddenly, shouting, "That's enough, Mycroft! Clearly, Brother, your deductive skills are failing because Elizabeth hasn't been lying to us. And here I thought you had the higher IQ out the both of us!"

Mrs Hudson could be heard at the door, concerned for everyone's wellbeing in the room, "Is everything alright? I heard shouting. You're not all fighting are you?"

She gingerly made her way into the room, looking around at the state of the apartment. While she wasn't a housekeeper, she did a lot of housekeeper-like things. Elizabeth found it quite sweet of her really.

"Everything is fine, thank you, Mrs Hudson." Sherlock answered in an attempt to calm his rage.

The elderly woman nodded and made her way to the kitchen. Of course, she was curious as to what was going on, so why wouldn't she find a way to listen?

Everyone in the room remained still. John was stunned by Sherlock's outburst. Elizabeth felt the guilt twist her stomach for having lied about the phone call, Irene and her meeting with Jim. And here Sherlock was, defending her, and yet clearly it was his own deductive skills that were failing. Mycroft stood his ground, albeit a little surprised that his brother had yelled at him like he did, but also because of how he had defended her.

He spoke clearly and calmly, "I do have the higher IQ, Sherlock." Mycroft said with such a glare that Sherlock slowly sat back down in his seat, "And that gives me the right to play devil's advocate seeing as she has successfully pulled the wool over both of your eyes."