7

Stacy had half-carried Greg Lestrade up another flight of stairs when finally help arrived. Two of Mycroft's team picked up the Inspector effortlessly, carrying him outside where an ambulance was already waiting. Stacy quickly brought Dobby to her car, and locked him in before returning to the ambulance.

One of the paramedics asked if she'd come along, but Stacy shook her head. She went in quickly though and caressed Lestrade's face with her fingertips.

His eyelids fluttered.

"Would it be okay if I checked on you later?" she asked.

"Yes, please do that."

Since he was half asleep Stacy dared to place a kiss on his forehead.

"Cute girlfriend you got yourself," the paramedic told Lestrade once she had left.

"Not my girlfriend," he answered, sounding a bit sad.

"You might want to force the issue when you're back on your feet."

With that the doors were banged shut and the ambulance drove off.

Stacy was wondering what she could do, when Mycroft Holmes approached her. She knew he was government, and these people never talked to her. However this one did.

"You have been down there with my brother and Doctor Watson," he stated rather than asked.

"Yeah," Stacy replied.

"Both Sherlock and the good Doctor fell into that pool down there." Mycroft Holmes made it sound as if they had just overlooked the pool and fell in by pure stupidity.

Stacy narrowed her eyes. "Are they okay?"

"Oh yes, quite all right. But they need dry clothes. Would you mind?" He handed her a bundle of sweatpants, shirts, socks and trainers, not a question but order in his voice.

"No, I don't mind." Stacy took the bundle and bounded down the stairs again, glad she had something to do.

Most likely they had gone to that bathroom to wash off the acid. Stacy hoped they were okay. That Mycroft person hadn't looked worried but he didn't seem to be the worrying type to begin with. Not thinking that knocking might be appropriate Stacy entered the changing room without announcing her presenceand found herself face to face with two very naked men. John looked surprised but seeing she brought clothes he even took a step towards her. Sherlock however had immediately turned around, closing his eyes in humiliation. John had stretched out his hands to the bundle of clothes but Stacy clearly stared past him. She had a clear view of Sherlock's backside as well as his front, thanks to a full-length mirror at the wall.

John grinned when he saw her hard drive going into overload.

"May I have these?" he asked, indicating the clothes she brought.

Stacy nodded, and with a last rather longing look at she left, a silly smile plastered to her face. She absolutely adored Greg Lestrade but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the sight of the consulting detective's body put on display like that.

Coming out of the ruined building she walked over to her car, legs still a bit wobbly. Maybe eighty meters away she saw Mycroft Holmes talking into his phone, when behind him a figure emerged from the shadow of one of the cars. Knife in hand, that shadow approached him.

Her next move was pure reflex. "Throw away your weapon or I'll unleash Hell." She had always dreamt of shouting that. The other dog's name, a mighty German Shepard was named Hell. And Hell she was. Dobby bit too but in a nice sort of way. Hell tore into her victims with almost supernatural power. She was known for crushing bone when she got really mad.

The shadow didn't stop, and Stacy tore open the door and showed Hell where to go by just pointing. Mycroft had turned around at her shout. He saw a dark clad figure with a knife sprinting towards him, and the dog almost flying towards that person. Within seconds Hell had caught her victim. It screamed when Hell tore into a shoulder.

Seconds later Stacy was there, pulling the angry dog away from the figure. As it turned out this was the woman she had kicked in the face. Two of Mycroft's men came running over, and arrested the woman. She bled and her shoulder was most likely broken. 'Serves you right!' Stacy thought, pulling out Hell's toy and letting her play with it.

Mycroft Holmes stood in front of Stacy, still somewhat shocked. He was not the type of man who got involved in action. He liked the security and serenity of his office. Incidents like this were the reason why he hated fieldwork.

"Thank you," he said simply.

Stacy smiled. "You're welcome. Almost even."

"Even?" Mycroft tilted his head. "I don't understand."

"Thank you," she put emphasis on the second word, actually grabbing hold of the forbidding looking man, kissing him on his cheek. "Thank you for letting me bring John and Sherlock their clothes."

The woman's face displayed quite clearly what she had seen, and though Mycroft didn't understand why so many people went nuts over his brother's skinny body he smiled. If that Stacy Coons was happy, his brother certainly was not.

"If there's nothing else for me to do, I'd like to check on DI Lestrade. Do you know where the ambulance took him?"

It took Mycroft one call to find out, and Stacy drove away.

oOo

One week later Sherlock and Greg Lestrade sat together in the living-room at Baker Street. The inspector still looked the worse for wear but he was healing nicely. He had been released from hospital two days ago but refused to go back to his flat. After a short discussion Greg had been allowed to stay in John's old room at Baker Street for a few days.

Mrs Hudson had been very pleased when he had shown up.

"Oh Sherlock, you finally got over John and found somebody else. But I never thought you," she looked Lestrade up and down, "would be his type."

"He's not my lover," Sherlock had snarled, leaving his landlady a bit surprised.

Lestrade had shaken his head. "Don't look at me. He's right."

The two men were now drinking tea while Lestrade was waiting for Stacy to show up. They wanted to go out to watch a movie and maybe have a drink later on.

Milton Banks had not been caught, and his daughter hadn't talked. It was still a bit of a mystery what had been in the Yard's vault that had been so very important to that man. The only item out of the ordinary had been a very new assault rifle that had been confiscated from a young man from Serbia only a week ago. The man had been caught with a small amount of drugs in an allegedly stolen car that belonged to a certain Milton Banks. Lestrade had made sure that the investigation team would look into that case very thoroughly.

Outside John had just arrived in front of 221B Baker Street when Stacy came walking along the street.

"Hey, good to see you." John kissed her cheek. "What are you up to?"

"Greg and I are going out for a movie and a drink." Stacy blushed slightly.

John smiled but stopped her before she could knock on the door.

"I hope you don't mind me asking but you seemed to be clearly... um... drawn to Sherlock. Greg is not a substitute, is he? I would hate to see him get hurt."

Stacy smiled. "One question, two answers. First, I have had the hots for Greg since the first time we met. Even when he was still married. He was of course way too decent to cheat on his wife. I have no intention of hurting him. Regarding Sherlock, I enjoy looking at a gorgeous body when I see one. But we both know that his heart is already taken, don't we?"

John was speechless but followed Stacy up the stairs. Right before he reached the flat he stopped though, pulled out his phone and dialed Sherlock's number. A tune rang out moments later, which left John with his mouth hanging open.

Dear readers, thank you very much for reading and reviewing The DI is Cast – and thank you very much again, Jack63Kids for being my Beta!

The fact that dear Greg made it home at last, doesn't mean the story is finished. There's more to come in this series, and some of it will be a bit not good for our favourite characters.

Stay tuned. ;-)