Valiant {Book Two of the Incandescent Trilogy}

Chapter Five: Chemistry

A/n: And with this chapter, we're finally starting to pick things up, and by God, I am excited. Also, Katie McGrath was cast as Charlotte "Charlie" Holmes, Michael Fassbender as Sebastian Moran, Billie Piper as Rachel Hale, Claire Holt as Dani Wolfe, Helena Bonham Carter as Emma Carver, and Naomie Harris as Donna Wright. I'll leave it up to you to guess their roles in Valiant.

Also, does anyone remember Jackson Moriarty? For anyone who doesn't, he was Jim's older brother with whom Amelia had a thing with until Jim got jealous and made her kill Jackson.

CHAPTER FIVE: CHEMISTRY

"What are you doing?" Sherlock exclaimed, jumping to his feet. The phone in Amelia's hand went flying the other way as he slapped it out of her hand. She heard a sickening crunch, the screen shattering as it colliding with the wall. "Who were you calling?"

She stared at him, then said, "Okay, so apparently dying made you even more paranoid. Didn't think that was possibly, really." Amelia ground her teeth. "I was going to call John."

"Why?"

"Because, oh, I don't know, the man we both thought was dead isn't, not really-"

"What do you mean 'not really'?" He practically spat his words at her, eyes flashing with something that Amelia had only ever seen in Jim's eyes. To this day, she couldn't determine what it was. It wasn't quite anger, but rather something volatile, like the stillness just before two unstable substances reacted when combined. Perhaps that was all they were now; two highly destructive chemicals that ignited a dangerous reaction from each other.

"Well, it's not like you're the same person, is it?" Her voice cracked in the middle of her sentence, and she had to look away for the briefest of moments to compose herself. "You pretended you were dead for two and a half years. Do you think that was easy for me? For John? For anyone of us?"

"Do you think it was easy for me?" Sherlock shouted, memories of being locked up in a cold, damp cellar flashing through his mind. He could practically feel the metal pipe digging into his back with every swing of the guard's arm, repeatedly shouting at Sherlock to tell him what he was doing there.

But Amelia didn't know any of this. "I'm sure you had a really rough time." she sneered.

Sherlock watched her, refusing to tell her what had happened to him. "You can't tell John." he said finally. "You can't tell him I'm alive." He avoided meeting Amelia's eyes as she stared at him, mouth open. Even he, in his limited understanding of the most basic human emotions, knew that keeping such a secret from her brother would be impossible. He knew that Amelia was far closer to her brother than Sherlock was to his. Mycroft would not hesitate to lie to Sherlock and vice versa, but the Watsons had a bond that not even Jim Moriarty himself could break.

"Who are you?" Amelia choked out. "I don't even know who you are anymore."

"Amelia-"

Amelia cut him off before he could finish his sentence. "No. Don't. Just don't. You wouldn't have even told me that you were alive unless I was supposed to be leaving for New York, and now you expect me to keep this from John."

"That's not true."

"Don't lie, Sherlock. It's unbecoming."

"You're the spy." he hissed. "You are a hypocrite, Amelia. You want me back, then you want me to go."

"I wanted the man I loved back, not you." Amelia ran a hand over her face. "I can't do this. You're either telling John, or I will."

"Fine!" Sherlock cried out. "I was lying. I didn't come back because I felt like I needed to after two and a half years. I didn't come back because I missed you. I didn't come back because I wanted to apologise. I didn't come back because after all these years of dismantling Moriarty's network you were finally safe." He grew more frantic as he spoke until Amelia could barely decipher what he was trying to say.