C A L M

Teeth

After a quiet cab ride, the four arrived at the crime scene, Sherlock leading the way with Elliot in tow, John and (Y/N) following behind. Lestrade lifted the tape but stopped Sherlock once he saw he had the kid with him. "Um, Sherlock?" he asked, causing the detective to stop.

"What is it, Geoffrey?" he asked, stopping, causing John to almost run into him.

"It's Greg," Lestrade said, before he shook his head, realizing it wasn't worth it. "You've got the kid again?"

"Yes."

Lestrade obviously wasn't very satisfied with that answer. He crossed his arms and sighed. "Why?"

This time, (Y/N) spoke up. "Hi, Detective Inspector? I'm (Y/N), Elliot's mother." she stuck out a hand for him to shake, which he took. "Sorry for suddenly popping up into your case, but Sherlock invited us along, and Elliot has taken quite well to Sherlock-"

Lestrade held up a hand. "It's alright, Miss (L/N). Thank you for the explanation." he bit his lip. "Why did he bring you along again?"

"She's a history teacher, George." Sherlock spoke boredly. "Even your pea brain can put two and two together." and with that, Sherlock walked onto the crime scene. John pulled (Y/N) along as Lestrade called out, "It's Greg!" after him.

There were many different teams crawling all over the crime scene. Sherlock led the way, holding Elliot's hand. He spoke to the little boy softly, explaining what each person did, and why it was important they were there, even though they were idiots compared to him. Elliot soaked in every word, beaming from ear to ear as he listened and asked questions.

John nudged (Y/N)'s shoulder, and she turned to look at him. His hands were in his pockets. "I've never seen him like this with anyone before, especially kids." he spoke, gesturing to Sherlock and Elliot.

(Y/N) studied the two boys ahead of them, a small smile on her lips. "Never?" she asked. "Elliot must be special, then."

John nodded and smiled at that. "Very special."

They had reached the crime scene, and Sherlock gave (Y/N) Elliot's hand, standing back as they studied the body. Like the others, it had been disemboweled, and a message had been scrawled in blood on the stone wall. This guy was definitely a Jack the Ripper fanboy. While John and Sherlock invested the body, (Y/N) and Elliot went over to examine the message. The three of them worked in silence, before (Y/N) went wide-eyed and held Elliot's hand tightly. "Sherlock." she harshly whispered.

"Not now, (Y/N). We'll get to the message in a moment." he replied, still hunched over the body.
"Sherlock!" she harshly whispered again, and he ignored her. Elliot looked up at his mom, and she knelt down to him. "Stay with John. Mommy's gonna go look around." he nodded, and went to go hold John's hand, claiming he was interested in the body.

Once she was sure Elliot was safe, (Y/N) headed down the alley to see if she could find anything. The message was weird, sure, but the biggest clue in it was that the killer hadn't left this set of alleyways yet.

Alley after alley, turn after turn she walked, searching for another clue or hopefully a person in the shadows. So far, she was believing that maybe she was wrong, that this was a dud, but then, she spotted something.

On the ground in one of the offshoots, was a knife. Obviously discarded by their killer. Question was, where was he now? (Y/N) took around the alley and found another message scrawled on the wall, in reference to the original Jack the Ripper's "How I Did It". The alley had been quiet, but now there were footsteps echoing through the small space, and (Y/N) looked around for a place to hide, but a voice stopped her. "There's no need to run away."

 (Y/N) finally locked on to the figure, holding the weapon tightly. There he was, Jack the Ripper 2.0. "You're him."

"Brilliant observation." he spoke. "So, want to know how I did it?"

Well, it was nice that he got straight to the point. (Y/N) chewed on her lip and her grip on the knife slowly lessened, and he took a step forward. "Yes." she finally spoke, and she regretted it when a wicked grin lit up his face.

 "Then I'll show you." he made a lunge for the wrist that held the knife, and (Y/N) was too slow with her reflexes. She tried to pull her wrist out of his grip, but he was too strong. They fought for control of the knife in the small alleyway, and (Y/N) was frantic. She was trying her best to keep herself alive. Using what strength she had, she pushed him into the wall, still trying to free her wrist.

 It wouldn't budge. "Shit," she breathed silently, and then, the knife flew out of her hand and onto the ground. Time seemed to have stopped. Then they were lunging after it, (Y/N) hitting the ground first and getting the knife, however Jack the Ripper 2.0 was on top of her, holding her wrists again. The blade of the knife was aimed for her womb, and her eyes were wide.

What happened next went by in a blur. The perpetrator, Jack the Ripper 2.0, was body slammed by John to get him off of (Y/N), and Sherlock was there to grab her upper arm and pull her out of the alleyway. Lestrade and his team rushed in to arrest the Ripper, and when John emerged, he was panting and angry. "Are you alright?" he asked her softly, and she only nodded. She was desperately trying to catch her breath, still in shock about everything that had happened.

"Mommy!" Elliot's voice brought her out of her haze, and she knelt down to embrace him tightly.

"I'm okay, Elliot." (Y/N) whispered to him. "Everything's okay."

And not long after, Lestrade emerged from the alleyway, dumbfound. "We've been following this creep for weeks with no leads, and you just happen upon him in an alleyway?"

That did make (Y/N) chuckle. "Lucky, I guess." she swallowed, then looked between the three boys. "I think he intended for me to be his third victim."

No one disagreed, especially with how the events had played out. "Even so, thank you for your help on the case, Mrs. (L/N), and I hope to see you around some time." Lestrade gave her a smile and dismissed the three of them.

(Y/N) held onto Elliot and walked with the boys, on edge. She wasn't about to have her life put in danger again, especially when Elliot was there. Hailing a cab was no problem, and soon they were back home in 221b. Before they went their separate ways, however, Sherlock stopped (Y/N).

"Thank you for your help today," he spoke. "I should have listened to you when you first tried to get my attention. I apologize that because of that, your life was put in danger."

She smiled softly. "It's alright, Sherlock. You saved me in the end, and that's what matters."

He matched her smile, and both her and Elliot a goodnight, heading up the stairs. (Y/N) unlocked her flat and stepped inside, making sure it was locked. "Alright Elliot, time for a bath and bedtime." she said, and he hurried off to get his pajamas. All the while, all she could think about was how Sherlock had come to pull her out of that alleyway while John kept the Ripper down on the ground.

How heroic.

And with that, she stepped into the bathroom to help Elliot wash his hair.

Don't know if I'm gonna make it out alive

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A.N: Hello everyone! I hope you've enjoyed CALM so far! I'm having lots of fun writing it, and this is arguably one of my favorite chapters.

As of today (8/9/2020), I'm hopefully starting the end of this story. I've been in a bit of a writers block, but now that I've gotten situated with a desk to work from, I'm hoping that I can write the end of the story to publish soon. Chapter 8 is currently being written.

Anyway, that's enough of an update. Please feel free to like, share, and comment! Reading your guys' comments always, always, always, makes my day. And if you want more Sherlock stories, you can check out my recommended list (titled Sherlock), or you can read my other two Sherlock stories: 'Youngblood' (another 5SOS x BBC Sherlock) or 'Keys and Strings' (a dodie x BBC Sherlock).

Until next time,

~Em