Sherlock (but from a Johnlock POV){ON HOLD}

SIP: ✨One✨

Various cars drove past, paying no attention to the teenager who'd been standing there, waiting, for about 5 minutes now. He was getting worried. Jimmy was taking too long.

Gary stood in the middle of the sidewalk, glanced around, then started walking back in the direction his friend had gone, trying to go as fast as he could without running.

-

Tears ran down Jimmy's face as he stared at the bottle of pills in his hand, the glass cold and smooth to his touch. He was shaking. His heart was pounding out of his chest. He glanced around at the sports center from his seat against the window, then back at the pills.

He unscrewed the lid, failing the first couple of times for how much his hands were shaking, and took a pill out. He stared at it, unable to hold back a sob, and raised it to his mouth.

~~~

January 27

   The music was loud and the lights were bright and the crowds were chaotic at the party that was being held at a public venue. A sign propped against an easel showed that it was to celebrate 'Your local MP, Beth Davenport, Junior Minister for Transport.'

   One of Beth's aides walked out of the party room, away from the pounding dance music, and to her male colleague standing at the bar. He gave her an exasperated look. "Is she still dancing?"

   The female aide chuckled a bit and leaned next to him against the bar . "Yeah, if you can call it that."

   "Did you get her keys?"

   She held up a set of silver keys. They jingled cheerfully whenever they moved. "Got 'em out of her bag."

   The man smiled in satisfaction and relief. He looked back out into the dance hall, searching for Beth, and frowned. "Where is she?"

   Beth had escaped the venue, slipping outside in the cool air to the car-filled parking lot, devoid of any humans.

   She stood at the side of her car, digging in her purse for her keys. She sighed, looking up to the sky when she failed to find them, and stared around helplessly.

   She could still hear the music from inside the venue and see the colorful lights swirling inside through the windows.

-

   Somewhere, on the grimy floor of a portacabin on a building site, Beth was sobbing hysterically, her face soaked with her own tears as she stared at something very small on the ground.

   She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to do this at all.

   Yet she had to.

   Beth, still crying, reached towards the glass bottle of pills on the floor.

~~~

   Detective Inspector Lestrade shifted in his seat at the police press conference, occasionally glancing at his colleague beside him, Detective Sergeant Sally Donovan, as she addressed the crowds of people holding cameras and notepads.

   "The body of Beth Davenport, Junior Minister for Transport, was found late last night on a building site in Greater London," she was saying. "Preliminary investigations suggest that this was suicide. We can confirm that this apparent suicide closely resembles those of Sir Jeffrey Patterson and James Phillimore."