Sherlock; The Case of The Hound and The Fox

[YamiNoTenshi22]

So this is a story between me and Takoda Enjoy! I'm going to post the first three on here and we'll start from here.


Setting: Season 2 Right after the Scandal event a new adversary had risen known to the media as Red Vixen. Stealing various jewels and government information in the most secure locations with hardly a trace. Little is known of the person and it's up to Sherlock and John to find out who she is and just what her motives are.

Things were getting a bit out of sorts lately, she thought as she took a deep breath; slipping her whole body through the doors of the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center. She didn't like when things got strange, reminded her too much of the past. It reminded her too much of St. Paul/Minneapolis. Opening her deep blue eyes in the dark, she felt a slight sting but after the moment passed she was comfortable again. She stared at the large room, looking ahead she spotted the stairs leading out from the front. It was then a vomit inducing nervousness was creeping up her throat. She had been doing this for years and had never felt like this. Her attitude about this sort of thing had always reined confident; she was the best of the best in her field...maybe that's why he picked her. Again...

But then again, he was rather peculiar himself. She had to tell herself he wasn't looking to destroy her just to accept his proposition. That, and the money was just too much to resist. Alexandria Scott Yates is her name, and thieving, assassination, and hacking was her trade. She pushed her thick black frames onto her nose as she approached the head offices unbeknownst to anyone looking at her fake glasses, she had the map of the place and possible exists showing to her eyes.

The petite redhead was rather unnoticeable in the sea of London Citizens. Small, although a bit curvy with a hint strong muscle, she pretended to be shy and reserved. She never spoken, never flirted (although there were a nice few men she'd like to get to know, in more ways than one), and always worked hard and never made any waves. Her blue eyes and round cheeks made her appear innocent. In her late 20's her wardrobe consisted of normal business attire and she always wore her hair back in a bun, she was always under the radar. She was an intelligent woman although reserved who just moved to London. No friends, no family, hell, even her English accent seemed to have everyone fooled.

Alexandria took a deep breath as she swung open the door to the room in which the display of computers and files had shown. To which her earpiece had started to voice into her ear.

"Did you get in all right?" A male sang into her ear making Alexandria roll her eyes before she pressed her hand to her ear.

"Yes, yes- my god you're worse than Em when it comes to worrying." She chimed quietly as she came to the stop in front of the desk, carefully started to boot up the computer and lock picking the drawers of the file cabinets, even more so to not setting off any alarms.

"I am not! Also for the record I am not wearing the hat."

Alexandria only felt herself mentally sigh, of course he would be like that. Yet, a smile spread on her lips as she chimed back.

"Oh come now, I think it would look cute on you. And Em worked so hard to the point of exhaustion for it to look perfectly pink and flowery. How can you say no to an adorable bundle of Joy? She's only seven." She stated; slowly keeping her hand steady as she pulled the drawer open. The files that Jim had needed were quite bright compared to  the dull light on the desk.

"I'm not wearing it. I'm a villain, villains aren't cute. Jesus one pat on the head and suddenly you're an Uncle who is technically a half brother." The male barked back making Alexandria suppressing back a good chuckle or two before she injected.

"Admit it you love her, you are wrapped around that little girl's finger and I betcha you are indeed wearing that hat."

"Please. Teasing Sherlock, now that's something I can't get enough of. Emily, is a little pink obsessed Gremlin. Don't feed that brat after midnight will you." He again growled as Alexandria  then laughed loudly, for a moment or two before she whispered.

"Awww how did you know she loved the movie Gremlins?"

"Oh for god's sake! Just get the bloody damn files and get back here Red Vixen!"

"Stop calling me that. God, it's bad enough the Media has to make me some sex symbol but coming from you is just even creepier." Alexandria barked as she quickly grabbed the files and hacked into the system, getting all the data that she could. Her small back pack felt like she was carrying a ton as she looked around her trying to remain unnoticed and not appear nervous.

By the time she made it to the door she needed that would lead her to a different exit of the building, her heart was full of anxiety. Using a skeleton card key, she quickly swiped the card and slipped into storage area. On the other side of storage was an emergency exit. She began to sprint towards the door, nervously fiddling with her key to her bike.

'I WON'T go to jail. I WON'T go to jail. I'm the best I'm the best~'

She kept repeating her favorite mantra over and over again to herself as she quickly took off her fake specs and started to fiddle with the wires to deactivate the alarm. After a few unsuccessful attempts, adding up to at least minute or two  minutes longer than her record time, she was able to disarm the door's alarm.

"Jesus, Christ of all Saints!" she cried to herself, feeling relieved. By this time she had completely dropped her accent, ready to hop on her bike and drive anywhere to get away from this and go soak in a bath as a treat to herself. Just as she was going to push the door open, she felt someone grab her wrist. Her heart jumping into her throat, she spun around to see the man in the wool overcoat looming over her.

She felt like she was drowning in her own lungs, for only a moment before slipping back into her accent, "Can I help you with anything Hound?" she inquired innocently, making her hand into a fist. "Did the Queen tell you to fetch?"

Alexandria looked up into his eyes as she saw a slight smirk appear on his lips, his reply was of course smugly in a harsh voice, which seemed to tease her.  Once again she was within his grasp and she always hated it when he had her like this. His voice rang in her ears and she could feel her blood curdle at that moment.

Curdle or simmer? She couldn't tell...

In that moment, she felt anger surge throughout her body. The damn detective was not going to be the one to take her down today. Or any other day since they had started this Fox and Hound game. She sighed, "See, this is quite annoying wouldn't you agree? How about just letting me go and we both can pretend this didn't happen." She reasoned as the grip on her wrist only tightened making her hiss before she shrugged.

"Well, I tried to be reasonable." With that, she swung her fist up as high as it would go, ultimately connecting with the detective's nose.

She giggled a little, slightly amused but then she noticed him fall to the floor on his knees and she felt sick to her stomach once again. This wasn't supposed to happen but damn if she didn't have a great right hook. She looked to see him writhing in pain before her, blood leaking down his hands.

"I'm sorry...That must have hurt your pretty face." She said quietly, slight shame sneaking its way throughout her body. Although, he was a looming tree man detective, his face was quite perfect and delicate. Like a painting she had stabbed a knife into, ripping its way down a canvas, and completely destroying its beauty and wonder.

"I wasn't really planning to do that but he made me. Don't hate me for it. Tell you what, next time you nearly catch me I'll give you a freebie swing. Until then- tata."

And with that, she slipped out the door and began running as quickly as she could down the street, hoping to disappear into the darkness as she made her way further downtown.
~~~
"Sherlock?" John called peeling the sweat soaked jumper from his body. The streets of London were deserted of people at the late hour and it seemed summer heat even then was dreadful but John didn't want the sun and had left the clinic early after hours of zero patients. John's eyes found Sherlock's usual black trench and blue scarf hanging by the door an indication he should be home.

"Sherlock?" the doctor called again almost hearing crickets as a response.

He isn't home! That rarely happens!

John thought excitedly looking around the flat in a new light. It was like a theme park! All the things he could do and without hearing the loud complaints of his flat mate. John laughed out loud. Striping off his shoes and socks the ex-soldier strolled through the rooms marveling at the differences he noted.

No strange smells, no complaining, no pouting, no violin music (though he didn't mind that much even at 4 in the morning), no consulting detective's childish demands! John felt like a kid in a candy store! What should he do first? Walk around in his boxers? Cook something? LISTEN TO LOUD MUSIC?!

LOUD MUSIC!

John hurried back into the living room over to the dusty, neglected stereo system. Plugging in his phone John spun the volume dial up radiating Metallica through the speakers. Laughing John spun around playing an air guitar. He could hear nothing but the music in his ears! After several minutes of dancing around the room John jumped on some of the furniture doing fake stage dives for a pretend audience.

If Sherlock were here...

John stopped that thought from forming. No, right now it was his time Sherlock got every other minute of the day! John told himself going back to his head banging feeling bubbling excitement.

And the the bubble turned to worry, it was so early in the morning after all. As much as he was happy Sherlock wasn't around he couldn't have Mrs. Hudson suddenly waking up to loud music that could wake the dead; with careful thought he quickly turned the volume down several notches. There. Loud enough for him and slightly not normal, yet quiet enough for Mrs. Hudson to not die of a heart attack.

An hour later John was sprawled over Sherlock's chair The Piano Guys now emulating through the flat with his eyes closed he listened to the music. Out of the corner of his eye John caught sight of a dark figure sitting on the couch. Startled John stumbled barely keeping himself from falling. Sherlock was back and sitting comfortably on the couch his piercing eyes watching John.

The doctor's face burning several shades of red as he scrambled over the coffee table to the stereo ending the noise. A thick silence fell over the room Sherlock continued to stare at him his face completely blank not realizing just how battered his friend's face looked. Slowly easing his way closer to the couch John didn't look at his flat mate mortified what the man has witnessed of his Flatmate's taste in music.

"Sher...lock...I ...I...can...explain?" he stammered though he had nothing, couldn't think of a single logical thing that would make the situation any better.

John stood there awkwardly eyes on the floor feeling like a scolded child though no one had spoken. That was until he did a double take, the face indeed looked battered making John quickly went to his friend, his doctor instincts kicking in as he asked in a rushed tone.

"Sherlock? My god what happened to you!?" But before John could do much else Mrs. Hudson was at the door, along with a rather tall lanky man who leaned on his umbrella.

"I'm sorry boys he just... Walked right in." Ms. Hudson apologized before retreating back into her own flat.

And there stood Mycroft.

Snobbish, as he always was, "I don't think you've gotten any better at talking to women, Sherlock."  John only glared as he took his seat back down next to Sherlock while Mycroft decided to allow himself in.



+_+_+_+_+_+_
For the last few months the puzzle that was Moriaty had been annoying him. Mostly because for the infamous consulting detective having his arch-nemesis not be the Government, [aka Mycroft] that had effectively managed to allude himself from at least to where he was located even from his Homeless Network. He pressed his fingers to his lips, sprawled on the couch for the moment, with, not one, not two, but six nicotine patches along his forearms.

Sherlock needed more really, Moriaty was more like a few boxes worth of nicotine patches, with a sauna of smoke kind of problem. He was clever, but no criminal had ever outsmarted the detective. He was a bloodhound to the puzzles that followed him thus why he had created the website really. Though thanks to Watson's blog his infamous nature had gone from counseling detective to celebrity status. Thus cases were no longer as challenging, it was more along the lines of...well something who was cheating on who or where did something go. When he did get the big cases he solved them faster than he would have liked in some instances.

Afterall there was only so long before his mind palace had additional needs to attend to. Though he opened those steely blue eyes towards the back of the chair as the recognizable sound of a text filtered through. Of course it wasn't the audible lusty tone that The Woman had programmed in into place but the stereotypical silent vibrate. He had sent his homeless network crawling along the streets for something that might prove interesting. Rather than words there was a simple image of a woman with a tight bun and glasses.

Glasses, he could tell based on they sat on her face that had no use to be there. "Well, well..." Came his tone as he thought a moment. There had been stories that the Fox might just make an appearance and based on his gathering intelligence that he had been amassing along the main living room wall of faces and locations along the busy streets of London it was only a matter of time before someone would slip, Swinging his form over the edge of the couch he moved with that long fingered grace to retrieve his coat before making his way down the stairs. "Mrs. Hudson! I will be return later!" He chimed.

"I'm not your housekeeper!" came the woman's reply, one that he pretty much ignored as he hailed a taxi to take him to the conference center so that he may just inquire about the specific female in question that had decided to grace the streets of London with her presence. In fact by the time he had arrived to find her lovely visage she was just sprouting her string of curses into the air for all of London to hear as he reached for her. "Didn't anyone tell you that you shouldn't run unless you have something to hide, Fox? Though you should really work on that accent you are starting to slip."

He mused aloud to her practically letting her stew for a moment. This wasn't the first time he had caught her but this would be the last time she was going to get away. Though he supposed that was asking for too much as she tried to state that they should be reasonable just as her hook met his face making him fall back to the carpet unconscious. Though he couldn't hear anything for the moment but muffled voices. It would be a long while before he would come to for that matter it seemed.

What had felt like minutes was more than likely hours judging by the sun as he rubbed his nose. Thankfully it wasn't broken but he could feel his skin was pretty tender. That would be the last the time he would underestimate her temper. She was one of the few people he had ever met who had never given him a chance to analyze her for her she was. It drove him slightly insane, yet she was also a grand puzzle that he also needed to figure out.

Dusting himself off he made his way back to his flat, only to find music and his partner in crime sprawled in his chair. Not that he blamed him, it was comfortable and was an ideal place to think. Sleeping though didn't seem like a grand idea though to each simple minded creature to their own. He pressed his fingers to his lips as he thought about the correspondence between himself and the fox, ignoring Watson as he started babbling, waving him off wanting nothing more than to sink into his mind palace.

Of course his darling brother was preventing him of doing just that as Mycroft strolled in, "I'm aware that you may think poorly but this is the first time she has returned to London in months. I think it'd be a little unusual for her to return with no reason unless she's connected to everything. Though I see that the British government thinks this is of utmost importance if they insist on chiming in."

[YamiNoTenshi22]

It started when it ended. Sure, it sounded cliche and like something you read in a trite romance novel, but looking back on it, it didn't really start until the day that Emily had gone to the doctors. It was just a simple cough, her lack of appetite, her energy drained; it then spiraled downward to hell. She could still remember the doctor's grim look, the fact of the price she couldn't pay for such treatment, how the cancer had spread so quickly in her little six year old sister, even touching her heart. Alexandria screaming until her voice gave out, screaming in her mind at the cruelty of the world that some Ungodly force had thrusted upon a child. With their mother dead two years prior, and their father long since gone, she quickly took the burden of guardian and used all of her Veteran Affairs benefits that she had from her time in the Military to only come short for her sister.

How terrible of a sister she was! In the most critical part of Emily's life; when her sister needed her the most and she failed. She failed in the worst way, by letting a little girl lay in a hospital bed and slowly die. Closing her eyes she slowly went from her full sprint to a slow walk as her mind swirled.

If it hadn't been that day filled with hope from Jim Moriarty; a man who she didn't even know was her half brother let alone one who can afford almost anything in the world. A dangerous man- but was a savior to her little sister. His offer of Emily's life only costed Alexandria to give her own life to Jim in service. Her military background and mercenary work had not only impressed her half brother but had even made him with almost giddy cheer that she had smarts to back with it.

Jim... If it hadn't been for him Emily would be in a grave right now and not at the manor,  sleeping away from a successful night of making a pretty hat for her 'Uncle'.

Opening her eyes to scan around the streets of London; how lively it has gotten with their signs, lights that now were only stoplights to direct traffic with a mixture of signs of various stores, the purity and quietness of London before the day started. It would have made Emily squeal in delight and plea for a blueberry scone.

Emily, her only cheerful thing in her life that she would sell her soul to the devil for. Well, in a way she did. And she couldn't have been happier if it meant a little girl could smile at the day and cuddle her mighty Spyro Dragon at night. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a rather adorable tone of some game that she could guess was her sister's doing.

Roxas. She was sure of it, after all it was her sister's favorite song and the most requested when Alex played it for her on her violin. Smiling she again answered her iPhone with a cheerful tone, making sure that her breathing had leveled somewhat.

"Hello~"

"Did you get it?"

"Well, speak of the devil and he will appear," Alexandria giggled as her hand gently touched her bag that held the papers and disk."Yes, of course I did get it, dear Jim. I actually get things done, who do you think I am? Irene Addler?

"Good. Problems?" 

"Oh just little old Sherlock,"

"Sherlock?"

"Yea, but he won't be too much of a problem, poor dog got a broken nose. After all he didn't say please."

"Fantastic, naughty girl."

"You wore the hat?"

"Wh....I wore the fucking hat okay. And Emily took a photo of it." Jim drawled as Alexandria only giggled, but quickly quieted herself down before the voice rang against her ear. "Now, come on back and we'll get going on the rest of the show in about... Two weeks."

"Oh? I thought we were selling them."

"Don't be such a stupid cunt." Jim growled as Alex felt herself stiffen at the venomous tone behind it. Jim however, finished with a rather quick one-eighty turn of cheerfulness, "After all I don't need pretty little stones to make the world go round."

Alexandria calmed down a bit as she walked closer to her bike, "Ok, well I'm coming soon- We'll talk then and compensate my time off until you really need me."

"Oh honey trust me, I'm going to need you when the time is right. But more on that later."

Alexandria hung up when they said their laters and quickly got on her bike, giving a final glance at the direction of where Sherlock had most likely gone to. The man was most definitely pissed to the core, after all they had been at this Fox and Hound game for almost six months. A smile spread across her face as her thought slowly made her whisper.

"Once more, The Baker Street Dog out done by the Red Vixen, hmm I kind of like the sound of that. The news sure can come up with some great names when they put their minds to it. A true Fox and Hound game we seem to get ourselves into."

Turning on her bike she kicked the stand up, placing her helmet on and gloves before she gripped the handles. Making her bike roar to life before she skidded herself off to the country side, back to her safe heaven for rest and more planning.
++
"That doesn't look good," John commented pointing at Sherlock's nose. John could only shake his head in a disapproving way, quickly going into full on doctor mode. Moving for his room where he kept his medical kit, John grabbed it up, and made his way back to Sherlock. Ignoring Mycroft in the process, Mycroft, of course it would be him of all people. Mentally groaning he watched as the man stood by Sherlock's fireplace.

"No idea why you didn't wait for me. Although, I am going to point out that we now know three things." John then perched next to him opening up the kit across their laps. Before he went to work on patching his best friend he held up his hand and then his thumb.

"According to you; and only you, she has a fake accent, the papers call her the Red Vixen or The Fox, she is a good shot when she grazed your head," He then held up the fourth and final finger, "And, we now know that despite her size she gave you one damn good right hook. Or was it her left?" John smiled ignoring the attitude that Sherlock gave at the obvious points.

"Oh please, even I know that her accent is fake, it's obvious that she's American." Mycroft injected as John quickly remarked, "Fine fine, god knows it's always just you two." he went back to finishing up his patch work on Sherlock's nose before cleaning up their laps. "I just don't want to have any part of this case."

Mycroft only snorted as he was soon holding up the folder, "My dear Doctor Watson, I think it's something you want to be involved in. Lives are going to be at stake." it was then Mycroft handed it to John as he calmly spoke.

"We can't find much on this woman, but we did discover that her choice of weapons from the clip you did recover is that of military type. American, to which we already knew of this. As for her name, record, anything else is completely blank, although we are working with FBI and CIA to recover them. Someone of course paid Anonymous to delete her completely from existence."

"Wait, so if she's military, shouldn't the U.S have kept records of her service?" John spoke up, surprised and yet, not so since he had to patch up Sherlock's graze. Of course it would be someone with precise and excellent aim. Military, one of the best shooters a person can get. And, once more John found himself looking through the files or what there was as Mycroft only rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Again, no. trace. Most likely they had used the services of Anonymous. They are a group of hackers that when provoked and rouge can cause some things to be quite difficult to our investigations."

John sighed as he sat back and rubbed his tired eyes, realizing that the sunlight was starting to brighten through the curtains making him wish he had some coffee right at the moment. "So what do we have then?"

"A pattern."

John looked over at the photos upon photos of her in various places, some he recognized in London, others in places that he was sure as hell never really seen before. Looking up at Mycroft he only sighed, "So? What patterns?"

"Each gem she has stolen has been donated to the museum by an Ambassador of a different country. Another thing-"

"What about the Canary Diamonds? Those were the first one's that was stolen? Sherlock didn't the owner come-"

"Please, no interruptions and irrelevant to the case at hand." Mycroft injected as he tapped his umbrella twice before he continued on, his movement pacing around while John sat back in slight irritation at the man's arrogance.

As he listened to how the gems were stolen in ways that almost seemed like magic but were nothing more than technology that only government agents would have. So the girl must not only had some sort of military background but possible mercenary work or even agent type of freelance with computer skills of a hacker. As for the gems he could only deduce that they were warnings as to who the Vixen was going to kill. Red was the Russia, Blue was America, Green was China. Each country had also invested in a world research facility in England that would research in cures for diseases and rare illnesses.

"So, we have about two weeks to find her." Mycroft finished as John blinked, "Two weeks before she has the perfect opportunity to kill them all in one night. Do try to not make too much of a mess Sherlock. Mummy would be displeased if she has to hear another incident on tv again."

Mycroft tapped the floor once more before he turned to leave, "Oh, and Sherlock- try to not let her affect you as The Woman has." Mycroft smirked at the all knowing little smirk of his before he left the two men alone in the room.

Bastard.

"How can anyone just simply vanish out of the records?" John asked, feeling lost and quite honestly frustrated that this woman was causing so much disturbance for almost no reason whatsoever.

He opened a manila file once more and on the coffee table, spread out more pictures of the woman, all of which were almost the same, hair tied back, business attire, almost too classy and... Yet, she was plain as day. "A woman doesn't start stealing precious gems out of the blue..."

He looked closer at one photo, one rare one that had her hair down. Sitting on a park bench but she seemed to be watching something. He sighed as he tossed it on the coffee table. "Sherlock I don't get it, at least with Addler we knew what it was she wanted.

[TakodaVega]

"Only after saying one thing and meaning another. The Woman had her way of doing things as I do of mine," came Sherlock's voice as he settled with his hands hands on the table. He really needed to get more nicotine patches, as the Vixen was starting to become a multiple box problem and one simply would not be enough to crack the case at hand. What's worse he did not like to be bested, it made him crave things beyond the patches.

Then again women seem to have that effect on his life, sans Molly and Mrs Hudson. He was starting to wonder if this was a trend. "As for the vanished records, if you recall The Woman knew what the DNA specialist liked and made sure to disappear, until it became inconvenient for her," he reminded John as he examined the photos. They wouldn't do as the real thing but he was certain that he could puzzle together why exactly or at least have a clue about why she was doing it. "Consdering Vixen was act first think later, I think this is dealing with something personal for her. She doesn't seem the type of person who would want to steal without any reason and killing a man for them?"

He closed his eyes again as a memory of The Woman filtered into his mind, she had always wondered if she'd cut herself on his pretty face with those cheekbones. Then again the Vixen aimed directly for the nose which he pinched again to be sure it truly wasn't broken. He needed to think and frankly everyone was being too loud in their thinking. What really did go on in those silly little heads with their assumptions? "SHUT UP!" he growled folding himself into the chair. He was tempted to get his violin and compose while he thought about the problem with The Vixen. This case was proving to be more difficult than he liked, however he had to admit had she perhaps some color to her lips there may have been an improvement.

[YamiNoTenshi22]

Every single day.

Every single day it's the same.

Never did anything change, this was just the way of the world.

“All right, so what now?” Alexandria's voice buzzed in and out of Jim’s consciousness. As he laid there on the couch, he felt dizzy. What point was there in focusing? His finger twitched for the trigger of a phantom gun.

“Hello~ Earth to Jim."

"I'm paying attention," he growled in a low gravel voice. Getting up slowly before he straightened his suit out with a few simple tugs as he then stood up. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb. Oh how adorable his half sister can be, the most beautiful image of his late mother to be sure. She had the red hair, stunning blue eyes that he wished he had. But enough about the past, now was to focus on the future of how he can cause as much chaos as he can. He was bored after all.

”Jim,” she paused. “Those gems are just crumbs aren’t they. You, you… Those were given to the British museum from America, China and Russian ambassadors aren’t they?”

And there was another aspect that he had grown fond of in his sister, she wasn’t ordinary and stupid. No, if she was to be in any relation to him of course she would have to have cunning, and a hint of mischievousness of course. He gently moved to stand, he may not very tall, but he is rather good looking. His hair was slicked back and his face has sharp features. He stood with an air of importance, taunting silently with some unspoken secret. This man was a king. No, he was more than that. He wasn't an ordinary king among men. No, not ordinary in the slightest; inside his shadow was a beast waiting for a worthy opponent to show up. He wouldn't just kill you. He would devour you. He was king of the monsters.

He grinned when Alexandria  finally figured out the beginning part of his plans. “Now, you’re starting to get it. You almost had me worried dear sister.” He patted her head as she felt her spine tingle with fear. Just why?

“In a month time there will be quite an assembly here in London, would be ashamed if something happened to the Ambassadors. Especially so close to Christmas.”

Alexandria couldn’t help but take a deep breath and sighed in realization. “Red Vixen is going from jewel thief to assassin overnight isn’t she?” Part of her knew it was going down that path and yet, she felt her stomach turn in both worry and fear for just how down this dark rabbit hole she had gotten herself into.

“I love papers, the great Sherlock Holmes can’t capture the elusive Red Vixen! And she has already stolen how much? 50 million pounds worth?” Alexandria gave a small shrug, unsure nor did she really care about it. Jim however only glared at her reaction, but his smile returned as he wrapped an arm around her.

“Dear sister, you’re worn, working the last six months and giving Sherlock such grief is no easy task. Hell, you even might have given The Dominatrix a good run for her money and she nearly had all of Britain on it's knees.” He purred as he kissed her temple, “Rest now. Perhaps we shall plan later.” Alexandria only shook her head feeling her heart scream for sleep now that the adrenaline rush died off long ago.

“Em-“ She started as he placed a finger on her lip, along with a cooing shush. Shaking his head as he started to lead her to one of the large bedrooms.

“Rest first, I will have one of the maids tend to little Emily until you are fully rested, perhaps some of the fresh air will do good for her hmm? After all that time in the hospital, I bet that she missed the sun.” Jim stated as he opened the door to her room for her, noticing the smile on Alexandria’s lip as she turned to him.

“Thank you.”

“None needed- if anything, I should be thanking you. Without you dear, I couldn't possibly have what I needed and I couldn't have Sherlock off my back for so long as you have done. If anyone deserves this well earned rest it's you.” he spoke quietly before leaving the tired woman to her own idleness. ‘Yes, dear sister, I have so much to thank you for in the future.’
+_+_+_+_+_

John simply shook his head, his mind echoing. 'Sherlock can’t face the fact that someone has outsmarted him. Either that or he’s really letting her get away.'Still, he bit his tongue from speaking that too loudly, the case of how it went down with Addler too fresh for Sherlock. Watching him for a moment he spoke almost carefully, keeping his words even as to not let Sherlock get worked up on the case.

“Sherlock you should just let the cop’s catch her. Maybe Lestrade will allow you to question her when she’s being held in a cell.”

He was about to go on before he noticed a close up of the woman, picking it up he examined it carefully, easily he started to point something he hadn’t noticed at all until now, "Bags under her eyes, could be indicating she's not sleeping well. Now why would a jewel thief not manage to get sleep? If it was a guilty conscience the gems would have been turned in."

He then went back to the photo that he previously picked up, looking over it once more as he eyes blinked in recognition.

“Wait, I know this place.” His eyes wondered over at the map that Sherlock had above the couch, his finger easily landing on a park in north London area. “Here, this is the park that a lot of school children would go to when I was working at the clinic. Wait. Why would she go to a park? Just what kind of person is she working for anyhow?” 

John couldn’t help but give Sherlock a knowing look, the kind that would make him wish he didn’t know who they were talking about. He bit his inner cheek as the silence seeped among the two men. Jim Moriarty was a man who wouldn’t even have to be mentioned and yet people of the crime world would know who he was. An opposite man to Sherlock, a consulting criminal- or so he called himself when they first met him at the pool and he held John with a strapped bomb.

“If he is- Then this case has just become more dangerous and harder on us... Er- you.” He corrected, realizing that Mycroft had indeed snagged him to become more involved in the case. John couldn’t help but want to capture someone who was almost unknown to anyone or anything. The thrill of the chase was too much to not pass up.

“So then, what do we do? Where is her next target?”

He looked back at the photos and then the place where he had pointed to on the map. “I still think there’s something else that we’re missing… Something that we can’t just figure out. Why?”