Say Something

Holly Jolly Christmas

Trigger warning: Mentions of rape and suicide; Spoilers for 13 reasons why (lol), smut

Originally I wanted to post this over the christmas hollidays...now it's fabruary-

Kate's a bit taken aback when she wakes up in Sherlock's room the next morning. But then she remembers last night's events and curls into her- well, Sherlock's, blanked. She absorbs his smell and presses her eyes shut tightly.
Her night was rather restless, but Sherlock didn't sleep at all as it seems. She slowly stretches and moves to get up. When the warmth of the blanked leaves her body she notices how cold it actually is in the flat and since she's only still in her bathrobe from yesterday she just steals a sweater and PJ-pants from Sherlock. If he wants to complain about it, she won't care. She's cold.
Kate leaves the room to find Sherlock and John leaning over John's laptop at the kitchen table. They both turn their heads to her at the sound of the door.
She gives them a weak smile, hugs her arms closer around her body and approaches them. "What are you two up to?"
"You were right." Sherlock states - his hair all over the place.
Kate walks past him to get the cereal from the drawer beside him and gently brushes over his back with her hand. "I usually am. What about exactly?"
"There's more behind Hannah Beckley's death." He looks at her.
"What did you find out?" Kate eagerly walks up behind John to look at the laptop screen.
Sherlock gets ready like he's about to hold a presentation in school. "I was just filling John in. First up we have general bullying. This boy-" John pulls up a picture of a teenage boy on the laptop. "Justin Felton. Honestly more a victim himself than responsible for Hannah's death. Mom's an addict and he's only holding up due to his rich friends for which he took some compromising pictures of her." John pulls up the pictures. Up-skirting as it seems. Disgusting. "But that was childish drama."
"Still an asshole-move." Kate comments as John opens a picture of a white-haired boy and a dark-skinned girl beside Hannah. "I know them! I saw them in Baker Street before!"
"Jessica David and Alex Stanley." Sherlock continues. "The first friends Hannah made at school. Alex joined in later after moving here and the three were inseparable for a few months. But for some reason, Jessica decided it would be a nice idea to date Justin."
"Ouch." Kate grimaces.
"Also boring teenage drama, I bet I can find a Drama Show in the telly right now that is more interesting. Anyways: The friend group fell apart and Hannah was left alone."
"Why did Hannah and Alex stop being friends?" John frowns.
"Apparently there was some kind of list going around at school, rating the girls for their sexual skills and Alex rated Hannah even though they never slept with each other. Since then, her reputation of being a 'slut' was carved in stone."
"Kids these days." Kate shakes her head.
"She also had a stalker." Sherlock signs for John to click on the next picture and there's a picture of another boy, he looks a little less 'famous'. "Tyler Donal. Obviously more of a bullying-victim himself. She was nice to him and he got excited to talk to a pretty girl. He's a hobby photographer and she offered to let pictures taken of her."
"What kind of pictures are we talking about?" Kate raises an eyebrow.
"Harmless ones." He directs John to a folder of the pictures. They're really harmless portraits in the park.
"He followed her home and took pictures of her changing several nights."
"Ew."
"He stopped at some point."
John klicks further and some stalker pictures are seen till it ends with a picture of two girls kissing. One of them possibly Hannah?
"Courtney Crispin." He shows a single picture of an Asian girl with short hair on his phone to them. "Closeted lesbian. Probably only closeted because she's adopted by two gay men and doesn't want to fill in the controversial stereotype. Hannah was hoping for a possible new friendship with her and they had a sleepover so Courtney could help Hannah confront the stalker Hannah claimed to have. At some point, they must've kissed and Tyler shot a picture and it was leaked to the whole school. No one ever identified the girls as Hannah and Courtney, but Courtney still got scared and ended their new friendship in an unfriendly way."
Before John or Kate can ask how one can end a friendship friendly, Sherlock rambles on.
"Marcus Collin." he sighs, already annoyed about this whole drama. "He pressured Hannah on a Valentine date. Let her wait at the restaurant for half an hour and then showed up with his whole friend group. Only tried to get into her pants or at least make it seem so to his friends."
"However: Zach Dean." Another picture of a large Asian boy. "He's from said friend group but less of an asshole than the rest. He's just a coward. Hannah and he secretly dated over the summer but he broke her heart when he didn't want them to go public and any of his friends to know hence to her reputation."
Kate huffs in disbelief.
"Ryan Shepard. He became something like a gay best friend for a short period. They got closer at a poem group and he wanted to encourage her writing and published it against her will. Her writing has a spicy twist and the whole school ended up laughing. She ended that friendship and wrote poetry then."
"This is making my head spin." John sighs.
"Same." Kate agrees. "The single incidences seem minor, but add that all up- "
"I haven't even come to the turning point yet." Sherlock interrupts her. "All that was takeable."
"What happened?"
"I don't know exactly yet. But there was a party at Jessica's and something really horrible must've happened."
"Why do you think that?" Kate questions his deductions for the first time in this whole explanation.
"Because, after this day Hannah was completely different. So were Justin and Jessica."
Kate frowns but Sherlock already moves on.
"Also after the party, an older girl, Sheri Hood, drove her home. But they end up in a small accident. Shery ran over a street sign and then just drove off. Later that night another student driving back home from the party lost his life due to that missing sign. There's a call to the police from a nearby gas station, it must've been Hannah, but it was already too late."
"Couldn't that have been the incident that happened that night and changed everything? Hannah feeling guilty?" Kate mumbles out between shoving the dry cereal in her mouth while Sherlock is explaining like it's popcorn.
"No. The night in general was just really bad for her. But the other thing definitely includes Justin and Jessica."
"There is also always this boy around. Clay Jenkins. They worked together at the movie theatre for a while, were friends but also not really? He had an obvious crush on her but I'm not sure if something ever happened between them. But even after all that. I think Hannah was still able to cope somehow."
"Just spill."
"I believe- well, actually I'm pretty sure and as you know I'm right at least 99% of the time-"
"Sherlock!" Kate warns him.
"Alright: She was raped."
"What?" Kate gasps. "By whom?"
"Bryce Walter." Sherlock just states the name and keeps his eyes on John's laptop screen.
Kate follows his gaze and takes in the boy in question. She's not a high-functioning sociopath but even she can sense that there's something dark and evil about him. He smirks cockily at them from the pic and Kate's gut turns inside out. "How do you-?"
"Her phone records show that she was at his place one night this fall. I found pictures of other friends of his, there was a small get-together at his house. Parents were out of town. I don't know why she was there. Not only did her grades drop dramatically after that day. All pictures taken after that day show a different Hannah. There are three different Hannah's." He points at a folder for John to open and they see 3 pictures beside each other of Hannah. "The first one is- just Hannah I guess?" It's one of the portraits Tyler took. She looks happy. "The second one is after what happened at Jessica's." It looks like a selfie she took herself. Her smile looks rather forced and her eyes tired. "The last one is only from about two weeks ago at a school trip. The whole way she holds herself just screams sexual abuse."
"Her eyes look just-"
"Lifeless." John finishes and Kate nods.
"Oh also her father cheated on her mother for some time and I believe Hannah knew and the family had money problems. Anyways: I want to talk to Jessica, Justin and most of all Bryce before calling Lestrade. Bryce's whole characterization just fits a rapist too well. The other people that I can tell were still in the same house by the phone records do not fit. I believe that he may also be involved in the situation I talked about before, involving Jessica and Justin at her party. We will also talk to the school because I couldn't bother them tonight."
"I-" Kate collects herself for a moment. "Can't believe you did all that alone last night? How?"
He smiles proudly at himself. "You were the one who forced me onto that case against my will. I just wanted to get it over with."
"You have to admit it's not as boring and black and white as you thought."
"Yes."
"So how did you find all of this out?"
"Social media." He puts his phone as well as John's on the table. Only now John notices his phone is missing. "It's impressive how kids post everything these days. It wasn't hard actually. I just had to create a whole timeline and social media profile for everyone Hannah interacted with over the past two years."
He steps back out of the kitchen and waves towards the wall above the couch that is so often used for the current cases. Kate steps out of the kitchen to take a look at it. It's full of the pictures he just showed them on the laptop. It looks like a timeline, with several Instagram screenshots and even text messages? Kate decides not to ask about how Sherlock got them.
Kate blinks and steps closer. "Yeah 'just'."
"It's surprising what social media personalities can tell. I don't know how most of the secrets I told you are still secrets?"
"Because..." Kate turns around to Sherlock, tears swelling in her eyes because she can't believe how over the top Sherlock went with this. "...most people can't deduct every hair on another person's body."
"That's fair." Sherlock shrugs.
"If they could we would make even less coin." John chuckles.
"Thank you for doing this. It means really much to me. And it's also kinda hot how you pulled it off." Kate smirks and puts her arms around his neck dragging him down to her.
"Really?" He smirks before kissing her.
John just clears his throat. "Let's just remember that there's a dead girl that went through hell."
Sherlock and Kate separate and she leaves to get ready so they can pay some visits to those "kids".

They're at the school right when it opens.
"I called Hannah's mother last night." Sherlock announces.
"What? Sherlock-"
"I had to, I told her to not call the school and inform them about Hannah's death yet."
"Why?" John asks.
"Kate and I are going to pretend to be Hannah's parents and want to talk to the counselor."
"What about me?" John frowns.
"Find out where we can find Jessica, Justin and Bryce." Sherlock tells him before dragging Kate towards the school entrance.
"How am I supposed to do that?" John shouts after him but Sherlock pretends to not hear him.
Kate just shrugs at John and turns to Sherlock, barely able to keep up with his long steps. "Aren't we a bit young to be the parents of a 17-year-old girl, dear?"

He demands to talk to the counselor of the school right away. It's a friendly-looking male around their age. He shakes their hands and invites them into his office.
"How can I help you Mr. and Mrs.-?"
"Beckley." Sherlock says with a smile.
"Beckley? Are you Hannah Beckles's parents?" He frowns at them.
"Yes, we're worried about her. You see, we had her pretty young and it wasn't always easy. But we like to believe that she became a wonderful young lady, but lately we worry about her... mental health?" Kate explains, trying her best to sound like a shy but worried mother.
Sherlock acts like he wants to comfort her and takes her hands in his before addressing the counselor. "She's been so distant lately. Avoiding us. We just wanted to ask if you might know something since she won't talk to us?"
"I actually wanted to call you today. She came to see me yesterday and left me worried as well."
"She did?" Kate looks up at him. "What did she want to talk about?"
"She was very upset. Talking about how she felt lost, empty, lonely and that she feels like she's a problem for people around her, especially you. I'm glad you're on the same page with me here because I really think Hannah should consider therapy."
"What else did she say?" Sherlock presses further. Knowing he is hiding something.
"I'm not sure about one part and how to interpret it." He sounds like he doesn't want to talk about it.
"Maybe we can help you fill in the gaps." Kate offers, but it sounds more like an order.
"I don't know if she is comfortable with me talking to you about this, but since we're all concerned for her health: She was talking about her reputation at this school and how she attended a party a few weeks back. She admitted that she had an encounter there with a boy, but it was hard for me to tell what her problem was. I asked her if he forced himself on her and she said 'I don't know' or if she told him to stop and she said 'no'. So I'm guessing that she may have agreed to doing something with a boy that she now regrets? Maybe it wasn't what she expected or maybe she had feelings for him but he didn't?"
"What?" Kate chokes out. "You- you heard that and let her go? Silence is not consent during sexual intercourse, she was telling you that she got raped-"
"Misses Beckley, if a student is assaulted I have to involve the police of cause. But she never confirmed it was rape and didn't want to give me his name. That's where I'm hoping you could get through to her." He tries to justify himself.
"She couldn't give you a name, she didn't use the word but she described a rape." Sherlock states, his voice too calm for Kate's liking. Like he's short before explosion.
"I told her that if she didn't want to press charges, she can only learn to live with it and move on. Apparently, the boy will be off school soon as well."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kate is close to jumping over the table to strangle this man but Sherlock's hand on her arm stops her from doing so.
"It was the only other option. I offered to look for a program that could help her but she refused, got upset and was quick to leave."
"She came to you for help and admits she was raped and you just let her go?! Being the desperate mess she was?!" Kate is shouting now.
"Why didn't you call right away?" Sherlock doesn't break eye contact with the counselor.
"I- wanted to give Hannah some space to think about our conversation before forcing her to talk about this again and to open up about this to her parents. I was hoping she would come see me today because she changed her mind."
"I wish you called yesterday." By now tears are running down Kate's cheeks. She's not even acting anymore, hasn't since this man started talking about how he let Hannah down.
"Why?" He frowns.
"Because, Hannah would most probably still be alive right now if you did." Sherlock states.
He just stares at them for a moment. "What?"
"Hannah Beckley cut her wrists open last night with her father's razor blades after her last call for help was declined by you."
"I- who are you?"
"The name is Sherlock Holmes and I'm trying to find who's responsible for her death. Congratulations, you're one of them."
Before he can answer Sherlock gets up to leave his office, Kate is too shocked to say anything and just follows Sherlock through the school.
"Are you okay?" He looks down at her.
"Yes, sorry." She wipes her tears away. "I just can't believe the audacity of that man."
"The job really doesn't fit his abilities."

They find John arguing with a group of teens in the schoolyard.
"I'm impressed, John." Sherlock admits when they join them.
Kate immediately recognizes the teens as Jessica, Justin and Bryce.
"How did you manage that?" Kate asks John.
"Wasn't hard. They were sneaking out of school with alcohol."
"Nice."
"You're not school security?" Justin questions John with a frown.
"That's Sherlock Holmes." Jessica tells him. "I showed you the blog."
"What does the great Sherlock Holmes want from some school kids?" Bryce Walter slurs. His voice just sounds like he looks. Kate wants to puke.
"You all know Hannah Beckley?" John starts the interrogation.
Justin and Jessica nod confused.
"Sure we know her, what about little Hannah?" Bryce says in an almost mocking tone.
"Miss Beckley killed herself last night." Sherlock states casually.
"What?" Jessica is genuinely shocked.
"God knows her life wasn't the best the past two years for several reasons and rumours that you probably know of, but there's a bigger picture we believe you can help us with." Kate explains as calmly as she can.
"Miss David." Sherlock addresses Jessica whose head snaps towards him. "You held a party at the end of this summer. Something happened there, I analysed all pictures of that evening I could find online to recreate the evening."
Jeez.
"There's a time of 15 minutes where all three of you and Hannah Beckley disappeared at the same time. Mr. Felton here was the first to return and he looked like he saw death himself. Then Mr. Walter returned, looking as cocky as ever. Miss David never returned and Miss Beckley returned short after Mr. Walter, looking even worse than Mr. Felton and left quickly. Since Mr. Walter is obviously a rapist-"
"Hey! Shut it you bloody-" Bryce starts to protest and walks up to Sherlock.
With two easy grips Kate has him on the ground, kneeling on his back. "What were you going to say, dickhead?"
"Please Mr. Walter you check off the whole list. Not getting enough love and attention from your oh-so-rich father, so to comprehend that you have to make yourself feel powerful in other aspects of your life. He also likes to call you a faggot whenever you fail a simple task so there is a big need to find a way to reassure yourself of your masculinity. It started early on with manipulation. Mr. Felton is the best example of that. He's your little pupped. Impulsivity and anger outbursts, verbal and physical violence without provocation, threatening others with dire consequences, teasing behaviour especially in school - it's not a secret, it's all on social media. I can go on for ages...Anyways-" Sherlock turns to Jessica and Justin. "I have reason to believe that Miss David was raped that evening. You're quite obviously dealing supcontionally with some repressed trauma and Mr. Felton has definitely secrets about that evening." He steps closer to said boy and circles him. Deducting him. "You know what he did. You let him."
"Sherlock-" Kate drags Bryce on his feet, handcuffs him with the handcuffs they stole from Greg the other day and hands him to John. "This is a sensitive topic."
"That's bloody bullshit." Jessica snaps at Sherlock before turning to Justin. "Justin! Say something- Say that they're lying!"
But the boy just stares at her, unable to breathe and tearing up. "I- I'm sorry-"
Jessica's face goes through all states of horror till her eyes land on Bryce and she starts to hyperventilate.
"Kate. I think it would be best if you take Miss David home now. I'll call DI Lestrade."
Kate nods and makes sure Jessica gets home safely. She helps her explain the situation to her parents as best as she can right now and once she's sure Jessica is all set and in good hands leaves for Scotland Yard.
Press is already hiding out in front of the building, but since Kate is alone no one seems to pay attention to her.
She's cleared by security to go up to Greg's division where she finds Donovan pacing back and forth in the hallway. "Hello there."
"If it isn't the 'Mysterious Mistress'." She greets Kate who rolls her eyes.
"Got thrown out?"
"The usual." Donovan actually smiles at her. "They're in room 3. That boy is a real handful."
Kate nods and knocks on the door to interrogation room 3.
"Stay out, Sally!" Greg's voice sounds through the door.
"It's Kate."
The door opens a few moments later and she finds Greg, John, Sherlock and Bryce with his lawyer in the small room.
John closes the door behind her again.
Bryce is sitting in his chair looking as confident as ever in his fancy school uniform. The sight alone makes Kate aggressive.
"Did he confess?" She asks and Greg shakes his head.
"He's not saying anything for a fact. Thanks to his paedophile, tax-evading lawyer." Sherlock states.
"I'm going to leave with my client now." Is all the lawyer says to that and gets up.
Greg doesn't even try to argue. He knows they don't have enough to hold him.
They just watch them leave the building.
"What about Justin?" Kate asks.
"He's next door with a police therapist. Like I said he's more of a victim himself which is obviously no excuse but he testified. He brought Jessica upstairs because she was really drunk and when he wanted to leave Bryce came in and claimed that he can have her as a thanks to everything he ever did for Justin. Hannah must've seen something because he said that she was really weird towards him and Jessica afterward and tried to talk to them several times."
"Maybe she didn't know who it was? But heard what happened. What's gonna happen to Justin?"
"It's 'ard to tell." Greg shrugs. "We 'ave to wait and see if charges will be pressed by Jessica David."
"I talked to Hannah's mother. They're thinking of sewing the school and Mr. Walter." Sherlock informs Kate.
She huffs in disbelief. "That's gonna be a long nerve-wracking process."
"But thanks to your stubbornness they know the reasons for Hannah's actions." John tries to cheer Kate up.

Like Sherlock said Hannah's parents pressed charges against Bryce and the school for letting all those terrible things happen right in front of them.
John exposed all the reasons that led Hannah to her death on his blog without exposing names, since they were still dealing with mostly minors. Of cause people knew from the news about the accusations against Bryce Walter since his father is known in the high society of London. Sheri Hood has been pressed with charges as well and appeared in the local news. Hannah's parents decided against dragging Tyler Donald into the public spotlight for the bullying, but he's now getting the help he needs for his mental instability.
Now all they could do was to wait for the trials, just like they were doing with Moriarty.


The perks of traveling with Mycroft were that they could take a private jet to Scotland. Kate and John acted like important high society. Enjoying this way too much for Mycroft's liking. At the airport, they were picked up by the famous black cars that brought the older Holmes brother to Baker Street every once in a while.
An awkward silence lays over them in the car during the 30-minute drive to the Holmes house.
They stop in front of a cute red house in the middle of nowhere. Kate grins at John and they eagerly get out. Sherlock and Mycroft are less motivated to spend 3 full days with their parents.
When Sherlock's finally out of the car Kate already has her luggage and hands him his before taking his free hand in hers. With a reassuring smile, she drags him up to the house behind Mycroft and his driver/security detail/slave who carries his luggage. Sherlock holds her hand a bit tighter and John follows them quietly.
Before Mycroft can ring the doorbell the door flies open and Mrs. Holmes smiles happily at them. "My boys are home!"
She turns around to shout into the house. "William! They're here!" before focusing back on them.
Without hesitation, she reaches for Mycroft and drags him into a strong hug. For a woman with two sons that are of average height, she is quite small. Kate guesses they got those genes from their father then.
Mycroft is released after one kiss on each side of his face. His mother turns to his security detail and claps him on the back. "I hope he pays you enough. I would invite you to spend Christmas with us but he never lets me."
"It's inappropriate, mother." Mycroft states emotionless and takes his luggage from him.
Mr. Holmes appears in the entry and hugs Mycroft too before letting him walk past him.
Mycroft's security detail just nods to the group before walking back to the car. He'll be staying in the nearest hotel.
Kate can hear Sherlock sigh beside her and rolls her eyes, nudging him in the direction of his mother. The small woman reaches up to wrap her youngest son in a hug. Sherlock lets go of Kate's hand for that purpose.
"Oh Sherlock, I'm so happy you're here."
He doesn't respond so instead he also gets a kiss on each cheek before she hands him over to his father.
She turns to Kate with a grin. "Kate! I'm so glad you could make it!"
"Thanks again for the invitation! I'm really happy to be here and get London out of my lungs for a bit!" Kate walks up to hug her when she holds her arms open invitingly for her.
After a teddy-bear hug from Mr. Holmes Kate finds herself in the small entry of the house. Sherlock standing right in front of her. She looks around but it seems like Mycroft already disappeared to work. To her right she can see the kitchen/dining area, next to it is a closed door. On the opposite of the corridor is what seems like the living room and another closed door. Kate thinks that the closed doors must be the master bedroom and bathroom. At the end of the entry is a staircase that leads upwards.
Suddenly John pushes into the small area behind Kate and she can hear the door being closed. Now they're awkwardly squished in there with five people.
"Well, make yourselves comfortable. We have nothing planned for today. Dinner will be ready in about two hours!" Mrs. Holmes announces with a smile.
Faster than Kate can shoot a gun Sherlock is up the stairs and Kate turns around straddled to follow him.