Chapter Four: Conversation with a Killer

In the backseat of the killer's cab, Tetsuna fought to maintain the neutral mask she used throughout her middle and high school days. After he first brought her to London, Sherlock taught her how to act if ever she got kidnapped.

Rule one: Alert Sherlock, if possible.

Rule two: Remain calm.

Rule three: Do not provoke captor.

Rule four: Do not tell captor anything.

Rule five: Protect yourself.

She'd realized she'd been kidnapped when she saw Jennifer Wilson's pink phone on the front passenger seat. As quietly as possible, she pulled her own mobile from the pocket in her skirt and texted Sherlock before the cabbie could see. I'm okay, she told herself. Sherlock is going to find me. I'm okay.

Before too terribly long, the cab rolled to a stop. There were identical white buildings in front of them, and the sign read Roland-Kerr Further Education College. Following the cabbie's example, she climbed out. "Why are were here?" she asked, voice steady.

The cabbie, an old man with old, tattered clothes, smirked. "It's open. Cleaners are in."

He ushered her into the left building, up several flights of stairs, and into an empty classroom. They both took a seat. "So," she said, "you're just going to kill me now?"

"No, my dear," said the cabbie. "I'm going to talk to you, and then you're going to kill yourself."

"The fuck do you mean Tetsu got kidnapped?!"

Sherlock held his mobile away from his ear as Aomine began yelling. "Aomine, I need you to calm down. We're tracking them now, and you're close to them. Can you, Kise, and Momoi go look for her?"

"Tell me where the fuck she is right now!"

"Thank you. I'll text you the address." Sherlock hung up before Aomine could begin yelling again and climbed into the police cruiser with Lestrade and John."

"Fine," Tetsuna said, trying to summon Sherlock's arrogance and swagger. "Let's talk." Sorry, Sherlock. I'll be breaking a few rules.

The cabbie leaned over the table. "Tell me abou those Miracle friends of yours. Are you still on good terms?"

"Yes. I just had dinner with some of them, actually."

"Why?" He sounded genuinely curious. "They threw you away like a broken toy." The words sent a jolt of shock through Tetsuna's system. How did he know that? "Especially that Daiki character. He used you to become strong and tossed you aside when it was convenient for him. And he always has that Satsuki girl hanging off him. Doesn't it make you mad? Don't you want to get back at them?"

Tetsuna's tongue felt heavy as she said, "I forgave them a long time ago."

"Then why didn't you go back to being Daiki's shadow?"

Oh, God, she couldn't breath. How did he know these things? "I—I wanted them to go back to the way they used to be. I wanted them to love basketball again."

"You're lying," the cabbie said matter-of-factly. "Sure, you may believe that's why you did what you did, but deep down, you wanted to beat them. You knew how much it would hurt them to lose, and you wanted to do it anyway."

"No! I never wanted to hurt them!"

"Yes you did, luv. You wanted them to know the pain of losing something precious to them. To do that, you became a monster—you trained that Taiga and you high school team to become monsters just like them."

Tetsuna squeezed her eyes shut, as if that would drown the sounds off. "Stop it!" she cried.

The cabbie smugly reached into his coat and pulled out two bottles, each containing a single, white pill. Before he could speak, however, he and Tetsuna were startled by the sound of footfalls in the hallway outside.

The police cruiser had barely stopped when John and Sherlock exploded from it. Satsuki was shaking, clearly hysterical. "Kichan and Dai-chan went into different buildings to look for Tetsu-chan!"

Sherlock put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "Thank you for waiting for us. Go wait with Detective Lestrade. Dr. Watson and I will handle this."

Satsuki nodded, eyes shiny with tears. "Please bring them back!"

"We will."

"So this is Daiki Aomine," the cabbie said, his gun pointed at the newcomer. "Please, take a seat! Tetsuna and I were just having a conversation about you and your friends."

"Leave him alone!" Tetsuna shouted. Aomine finally got a good look at her and was startled by the tearstains on her cheeks and her bloodshot eyes.

"Aw, why not? The more the merrier, right, luv?"

Aomine slowly made his way to the chair next to Tetsuna's. As he sank into the seat, he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Oi!" the cabbie interrupted. "No talking! Now, Tetsuna, you're a smart girl. I'm sure you know what you have to do."

Swallowing thickly, Tetsuna said, "One pill is a placebo; the other is laced with arsenic. I take one, you'll take the other."

The cabbie smiled gleefully and put the gun back in his coat. "Very good! And even if you pick the bad pill, you'll still win a little, won't you? You'll just go to sleep, and when you wake up, you'll be with your family again."

Aomine sucked in a harsh breath. but it was Tetsuna who spoke. "Shut up."

"You'll never be hurt again," the cabbie continued. "You'll be happy all the time."

"Shut up..."

"You won't have to watch your best friend drape herself over the man you love."

"Shut up…"

"You'll never be a bother to Sherlock again."

"Shut up!" Tetsuna shrieked, covering her ears with her hands and very nearly collapsing in on herself.

The cabbie smirked. "Finally hit a chord, eh? Yes, you know all about all the cases he rejects to spend time with you. You know that he's completely changed his lifestyle to accommodate you and your little dog. He can't live freely now, all because of you."

"You bastard!" growled Aomine, fists clenched.

"Fast as lightning, the cabbie's gun was drawn. "I told you not to talk!"

Fingers trembling, Tetsuna reached for a bottle.

When John finally found Ryôta, the blond was looking through a window, face a painful twist of terror. "Kurokocchi!"

John rushed to the window. Tetsuna, Daiki, and the man John presumed to be the killer were in a room in the opposite building, and Tetsuna was holding a pill up to her lips.

He didn't think, his battlefield instincts took over. John drew his pistol from his belt, aimed for the man, and fired.

Sherlock ran into the room just as the cabbie fell.

Tetsuna slumped over in relief, dropping the pill onto the linoleum floor of the classroom. Aomine jumped out of his seat to catch her.

Trusting Aomine to take care of her, Sherlock barged over to the cabbie, bleeding profusely from the chest but still alive. "You're dying, but I can still make it hurt," he promised, bringing a foot down on the wound. "Tell me this: who sent you after Tetsuna?! Who told you to try to kill my daughter, you bastard?"

With an anguished cry of "Moriarty!" the cabbie took his last breath.

"Two years ago," Sherlock told John in hushed tones as the paramedics looked Daiki and Tetsuna over for wounds, "I got an e-mail from a girl in Japan. Her parents and grandmother were brutally murdered while she was away at a basketball tournament. I flew to Japan and easily discovered the culprit was an old opponent of her's out for revenge. The girl—she had no other family. I adopted her and brought her back to England with me."

"Christ on a bike," John breathed. "I—I had no idea."

"There was no way you could have. Today was the anniversary of their deaths, by the way. I'll bet the cabbie knew that and used it to his advantage." Then a dangerous look crossed his visage. "At least I have a name now."

"What?"

"Moriarty."

Tetsuna looked up with bleary eyes as Sherlock and John approached the ambulance. "Let's go home," the detective said. extending a hand for her to take.

Her pale face flushed. "I don't think I can walk," she admitted.

"I'll carry you," offered John immediately. Tetsuna looked a little surprised at first, but she gratefully climbed onto his proffered back and almost instantly fell asleep due to John's comforting warmth.

Aomine stood then, looking both men in the eye. "Take good care of her, yeah? That bastard said some really fucked up stuff to her."

Sherlock's eyes narrowed slightly. "We will, Aomine. I'm sorry for how things turned out tonight."

He shrugged. "Wasn't your fault."

They began to walk towards the street, only for John to stop short when he spotted the man who'd kidnapped him earlier on in the evening. "Sherlock, that's—"

"I know," said Sherlock impatiently as he kept walking. When he reached the man, he said, "Hello, Mycroft."

"Ah, Sherlock," said the man—Mycroft. "Is Tetsuna alright?"

"Sherlock gestured to the sleeping girl on John's back. "As you can see, she is perfectly safe."

"Is she? I will still have to tell Mr. Akashi about this, you know. You know how insistent he is."

Sherlock growled, "I'm pretty sure I know when my daughter's well-being is balanced. She had a scare tonight, yes, but in a few weeks' time it will all be just a bad memory."

Mycroft gave the detective a patronizing frown. "Really, Sherlock, can we just end this childish feud? We just might be on the same side, you know."

"Funnily enough, I've never seen you as my ally."

Mycroft heaved a sigh. "You know how this feud upsets Mummy."

John's mind blanked as Sherlock began speaking defensively. "Wait," he said, "who's Mummy?"

"Mother," Sherlock bit tersely. "Our mother."

"You're brothers?"

"Unfortunately," Sherlock confirmed.

"And this really is a childish feud?"

"Quite," said Mycroft.

Sherlock scowled. "Try not to start a war before we get home; you know what it does to traffic." With that, the lanky detective pushed past his older brother. John hurriedly followed after, trying to watch easily so he wouldn't wake Tetsuna.

Nigou met John, Sherlock, ad Tetsuna at the door as they entered 221B, whining softly. "I'm sorry to ask this, considering how tired you must be," Sherlock said as he removed his coat, "but could you take Tetsuna to her room? It's just up the stairs."

"Yeah, of course." John shifted the girl so she was higher on his back and headed towards the stairs, trying to be careful of Nigou, who was underfoot. She didn't stir even as John climbed, the old wood creaking with his every step.

Tetsuna's room was sparsely decorated. The single bed, nightstand, desk, and bookcase were all white wood, a basketball rested in the far corner of the room, and the only picture on her wall featured a younger her with who John presumed to be her parents and grandmother.

John laid tetsuna down on the light blue comforter of her bed, rearranging her limbs to try to make her sleep more comfortable. Nigou hopped up onto the bed and curled up next to his mistress, resting his little head on one of her hands and whining softly.

"Don't worry, mate," said John, reaching down to pat the puppy's head. "She's gonna be fine."

When John got back downstairs, Sherlock was sitting in his chairs, hands folded under his chin. "I, uh, put her in bed. Nigou's up there with her."

Sherlock started a bit before he turned his head to look at him. "Ah yes. Thank you, John."

And then it was silent but for the sound of their breathing.

The next morning was oddly still. John awoke in his new bed, wrapped a robe around himself, and wandered into the living room, where Sherlock was splayed out of the couch. Deciding his stomach took precedence over anything else at the moment, he walked into the kitchen, cleared some of Sherlock's lab equipment from the counter, and began to make breakfast.

Just as he was serving the eggs, he heard the slap of bare feet on hardwood floor and the panting of a dog. "Good morning, Dr. Watson," said Tetsuna's sleepy voice. "That smells really good."

John smiled to himself and turned around. "Mor—what the hell happened to your hair?"

Tetsuna's hair, which had been silky and smooth, albeit a bit ruffled, last night when John put her to bed, was sticking up at outrageous angles. The girl blinked sleepily at him and said, "This is how my hair always looks in the morning."

"Really?"

"Yes. It takes me half an hour each morning to brush it."

John stared at in in shock for a few more seconds before wordlessly passing a plate of eggs to her. She hummed in the back of her throat, reach around him to grab a mug of tea, and trotted off to the living area to eat.

Before long, Sherlock woke up, his dark curls tidy. He took a sniff, blinked, and turned to John. "Did you cook?"

"Erm, yeah," John replied, flushing. "I woke up early and decided to make myself useful."

"Pass me a plate."

Grinning, John complied.