Detective Inspector Addison Hart looked over the sea of reporters and inwardly sighed with relief that it was Detective Sergeant Sally Donovan who was handling the press and their questions and not her. Dealing with the press was a tedious job and she hated it with a passion. Addison shared a weary look with Lestrade as Donovan tried to keep order and tried not to roll her eyes as the reporters all shouted questions at once.

Three people dead after ingesting the same poison. It had turned into a media circus.

"-preliminary investigations suggest that this was suicide. We can confirm that this apparent suicide closely resembles those of Sir Jeffery Paterson and James Phillimore. In light of this, these incidents are now being treated as linked and the investigation is on-going but Detective Inspector Lestrade will take questions now."

Lestrade nodded quickly at Donovan before taking a question from a reporter in the front row, "Detective Inspector, how can suicides be linked?"

"Well, they all took the same poison. They were all found I places they had no reason to be," Lestrade explained, leaning forward "none of them had shown any prior intentions…"

The same reporter shook his head, "But you can't have serial suicides," he interrupted, frowning slightly at the Inspector.

"Apparently you can."

Another reporter put his hand up and spoke before Donovan could say anything, "These three people, there's nothing that links them?"

Addison could see that Lestrade was already getting agitated and met Donovan's eyes quickly "There's no link we've found yet but…we're looking for it. There has to be one."

Text message alerts echoed around the room and everyone looked down at their phones, feeling her own vibrate, Addison tried to keep her face expressionless as she looked at the message, "How can you work with these people?"

"If you've all got texts, please ignore them!" Donovan asked, her tone indicating she wasn't happy as she slammed her phone down on the desk.

"It just says 'Wrong.'"

"Yeah well, just ignore that," Donovan replied trying to keep her temper in check, "if there are no more questions for Detective Inspector Lestrade, I'm going to bring this session to an end."

As the reporters all muttered amongst themselves, Lestrade looked at Addison pleadingly and she gave him a shrug: she couldn't do anything about the texts, she certainly couldn't stop Sherlock from sending them. God knows how many times she had asked him to stop riling up Scotland Yard's police force.

"If they're suicides, what are you investigating?"

Lestrade looked ready to call it a day and Addison felt sorry for him, this had been a hard few months for him as the Chief Inspector had put Lestrade in charge, "As I say, these suicides are clearly linked. Um…it's a….it's an unusual situation but we've got our best people investigating."

Everyone's phone went off again and Addison let out a quick exhale of amusement as her screen lit up, "I hope he doesn't mean Andersson."

"Says wrong again?" the reporter asked raising a confused eyebrow.

Donovan shared an exasperated look with Lestrade before clearing her throat, "One more question."

A female reporter with glasses, stuck her hand up immediately, beating everyone else to it "Is there any chance that these are murders?" she asked curiously, "And if they are, is this the work of a serial killer?"

"I…I know that you'd like writing about these, but these deaths do appear to be suicides," Lestrade answered curtly, "we know the difference, the poison was clearly self-administered."

"Yes but if they are murders," the female reporter continued, refusing to give up on her angle, "how do people keep themselves safe?"

Lestrade seemed to grow tired "Well, don't commit suicide," he replied irritably before Donovan groaned quietly and covered her mouth.

"Daily mail," she whispered and closed her eyes while she shook her head at his answer.

Trying to make his answer better, Lestrade sighed and leaned forward on the desk "Obviously, this is a frightening time for people, but all anyone has to do is exercise reasonable precautions. We are all as safe as we want to be."

Once again, the phones went off and Addison avoided looking at hers: a smiling 'police-officer' wasn't the best photo to be put in the papers, although it would probably amuse Sherlock. Giving her a look, Lestrade stood up and thanked the reporters for coming and Addison followed him and Donovan out of the hall and ran a hand through her hair as the three of them waited on the elevator.

"You've got to stop him doing that," Donovan growled as she paced in front of them with her hands on her hips, "he's making us look like idiots."

"If you can tell me how he does it, I'll stop him."

"Can't you say something to him?" Donovan directed at Addison, "He'd listen to you."

Smiling weakly, Addison shook her head, "Trust me, he wouldn't," she glanced down at her phone again and looked over the message, "you know what he's like…"

"Need to speak to you. Urgent. Now – SH."

"Never mind Sherlock, any new ideas about the case?" Lestrade asked, pushing the button then sighing, "This is one big bloody headache."

Donovan leaned against the wall and shook her head "We've been over the case files so many times we know them off by heart," she said indicating to Addison and herself, "I think we should take a break and start fresh tomorrow. We've all been going non-stop since this started."

"Sounds good to me," Addison said trying not to yawn, "I feel like I haven't slept in weeks."

Lestrade sighed, "Well, as much as I would like to agree with you ladies, we sadly need to get back to work and crack this case of the Chief Inspector's gonna have my head."

Donovan and Addison shared an annoyed look but followed Lestrade into the elevator and pressed the button down to the basement to get the car. Addison closed her eyes while she sat in the back and leant against her hand, tuning out Donovan and Lestrade in the front but she felt like it had only been five minutes before they had arrived back at New Scotland Yard.

Almost in a daze, she made it back to her desk and reluctantly opened the case files on Jeffery Paterson and James Phillimore and tried to force her brain to work. "Here, thought you could use this," Addison looked up to see Donovan in front of her and holding out a cup of coffee, "it's gonna be a long night."

"My favorite kind," Addison replied sarcastically, taking a grateful long sip of her coffee, "thanks Sally."

"No problem, maybe you should talk to the freak," Donovan added in a low voice "help us solve this quicker as much as it pains me to admit it."

Turning back to her work, Addison read over several reports before her train of thought was stopped by her phone going off. Picking it up, she smiled slightly when she seen that it was Sherlock and wondered why he was calling. He usually just texted.

"Do I need to read out the definitions of 'urgent' and 'now'?" Sherlock muttered, sounding slightly out of breath and also annoyed at her "I texted you ages ago."

Addison frowned as she read over statements from friends and families, "I'm at work Sherlock," she said calmly "I can't just leave for one of your 'emergencies'-"

"Why are you saying it like that? This could be an emergency, how do you know it's not?"

Glancing around, Addison made sure no one was paying attention to her "Last time it was because you needed a cup of tea and Mrs. Hudson wasn't in. How is that an emergency?"

"I'll give you that one," Sherlock admitted grudgingly "I guess my situation isn't a real emergency."

Addison couldn't help but snort at his comment, "Is the great Sherlock Holmes admitting that he was wrong? I should really have this phone call recorded."

"Sarcasm does not suit not, Miss Hart," Sherlock muttered but she could hear the amused undertone, "I presume that Donovan wasn't happy about my texts?"

Addison glanced over at Donovan who was at her desk, angrily writing a report, "She was furious that made a mockery of us in front of the reporters," she tried not to smile "even asked me to get you to stop."

"And will you?"

"Will it do any good?"

She heard him chuckle, "I knew there was a reason I kept you around. You would have been tolerable company at the morgue."

"Why are you at the morgue?"

"Checking out an alibi."

Addison rolled her eyes, "Of course, I should have realized," she frowned when she heard someone else's voice and then guessed that it was Molly, Sherlock's fan girl.

"So bad day was it?"

Biting her cheek to stop her laughing at the obvious attempt at flirting, Addison allowed herself a moment of wickedness and listened in. "I need to know what bruises form in the next twenty minutes," Sherlock said curtly, ignoring Molly's previous comment, "a man's alibi depends on it. Text me."

"Listen I was wondering… maybe later… when you're finished of course-"

"You're wearing lipstick," Addison couldn't help but snort at Sherlock's curious tone and caused other police officers to look at her surprised "you weren't wearing lipstick before."

"I… uh… I refreshed it a bit."

"Right… sorry you were saying?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to have coffee."

"Black, two sugars, I'll be upstairs," Addison stifled another laugh and shook her head as she heard Sherlock start walking up stairs, "now, where were we?"

"You can be quite stupid at times," Addison muttered, pushing her brown hair out of her face before taking a large gulp of coffee, "for someone who is meant to be the smart one."

"I am the smart one," Sherlock snapped and then huffed "I thought you were supposed to be at work?"

"I am at work," Addison looked up to see Lestrade heading her way, "I better go, have fun at the morgue."

"Drop by Baker Street tomorrow, I need to talk to you."

"See you then."