30 minutes ( a sherlock fanfic )

Chapter 5

John was eating lunch with Mike when he got a text summoning him to a suspect's house. Except it was more one of those 'I'm going, and it may be best if there's some back up, considering this man has violently killed four people already' texts rather than 'this interrogation should be fun, wanna join in?' texts.

A sort of foreboding text if you would.

The kind of text that made John jump in a cab and wriggle in his seat, wishing the London traffic could just disappear.

The kind of text that made John jump out of the cab as soon as they arrived, throw notes and penny's at the driver, and knock as he opened the door, rather than wait for someone to come invite him in.

That kind of text.

"Sherlock?" he called, developing a bottomless pit in his stomach that he hoped had more to do with eating and running immediately after rather than a foreboding sensation of something about to go wrong.

But there was a dull thump and John rather lost hope for that theory.

He dashed to where the sound came from, spotting a flash of what was probably the tail coat of the assailant. But there was no time to chase him because Sherlock was lying on the floor motionless where he had just been dropped. He had been the dull thump.

"Sherlock?" he called again, much more panicking this time, rushing to his side and checking his pulse and respirations. He was not breathing.

"Dammit Sherlock," John muttered with creeping hysteria, unknotting that stupid scarf from around Sherlock's neck. He must have been choked with it.

When it was loosened John kneaded Sherlock's breastbone with his knuckles, praying it would work.

It did, to a certain extent.

Sherlock gasped for air, wheezing horribly. But he was breathing.

Breathing was good.

John had somehow dialled 999 on his phone while doing all this. How he did he wasn't sure, and was surprised when someone picked up.

He paused when asked for his location.

"I don't know," he stammered.

Noises came from the front of the house.

Shit.

"Sherlock?" A familiar voice called.

Lestrade, John thought in relief.

"In here!" he bellowed. "Did you bring paramedics?"

Lestrade appeared in the doorway, smiling and replying "Of course with Sherlock, we should just get him his own set..." but trailed off as he spotted the consulting detective on the floor, still wheezing, still bleeding from a large gash in his forehead.

"Bloody hell," he muttered. "Donovan! In here!" he yelled down the hall.

The paramedics rushed in only a second later.

John backed out of their way, listening to the medical chatter he was so comfortable with, and was not at all reassured by it.

Some of it stuck.

Some of it didn't.

"We need to intubate..."

"Hypoxia..."

"Load him..."

Sherlock was rolled out on a stretcher. John followed in the ambulance. The paramedics didn't say anything to him. He was quiet and not in their way. He was practically invisible. And he was fine with that. As long as he got to stay with Sherlock.

They arrived at A&E, Sherlock rolled out with a clatter, one paramedic bagging him, keeping an eye on the monitors and lines, and the other pushing the stretcher while a stream of vitals came out of her mouth, directed at the doctors who ran out to greet them.

"...male found down, not breathing. His scarf was wrapped around his neck from being choked by an unknown assailant. He started breathing again when it was removed. We tubed him for respiratory distress and low sats, and because we were worried about swelling. Bleeding from a head wound. Pulse is strong, BP is 110 over 83..."

John mostly stopped listening there was he was kept behind swinging doors that Sherlock disappeared through.

Then Lestrade appeared and Mycroft, and it was a grey and miserable blur until he fell asleep at Sherlock's bedside and woke up early the next morning.

Sherlock had awoken the third day and John had been hopeful.

Now on the fourth, he was growing more worried again. Sherlock was awake, but there was something else.

Something very, very wrong.

// Sorry for not updating, exams *sigh* hope you liked ^_^ \\