Story Bin

The Other Sherlock

"Yes, but I'll get to that in a second." Sherlock sighed, clearly unhappy that he had been interrupted. "There was scuff marks on the floor, indicating that something had been dragged across the floor. As you had collapsed in a natural position, I knew you hadn't been moved. Now that you've said that there was a body in the room, we know what it was."

"Then we come to the matter of you collapsing." Lestrade continued.

"Yes. Lestrade, the cylinder please?" Lestrade checked his pockets, and found a bag containing a small cylinder, shaped the same way as a tranquilliser dart would be.

"When we found you, this was sticking out of your neck." Lestrade explained as he handed it to John.

"See if you can tell me what it is. I'm sure you won't have too much trouble." Sherlock said as he looked around. John opened the canister, and took a sniff of the contents, sending his head reeling.

"That's... that's liquid cocaine." John's hands shook as he tried to put the lid back on , and he nearly dropped the whole thing. Sherlock caught it before he could, however.

"My faith in you was well placed. Yes..." Sherlock held the dart up to the light. "This was filled with liquid cocaine, knocking you unconscious from the sudden rush of a new substance in your system, sending your body into shock."

"But the thing we don't know is where it came from or why." Lestrade stepped in. Sherlock turned to him, with the look of 'You are such an idiot Lestrade' on his face.

"The window. Someone shot it through the window. You seriously didn't notice that it was open?" Sherlock said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No!" Lestrade shouted back, "I didn't because I was too busy with the fact that John was lying unconscious on the floor! Or didn't YOU notice that?"

"Of course I bloody noticed! It was the first thing that I saw when I entered the room. I'm not stupid." Sherlock huffed.

"Yeah, I think we all know that, since you like to make it so clear that you are so much smarter than the rest of us." Lestrade quipped, with heavy sarcasm. And whilst these two were having their little row, John saw a figure standing, partly in shadow by the door. He tried to get up, but wobbled very unsteadily as he tried to stand. Donovan walked over to him, and helped him to stand. They both went unnoticed by the bickerers, standing only feet away from them.

"Maybe you should stay sitting down, Dr. Watson." She suggested.

"If you are going to continue on with an 'I told you so' styled comment, I'm going to hit you." He threatened in reply. Donovan held up her hands in surrender.

"But, at least you can see where I'm coming from, right?" She asked. John rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so. But, maybe you should stop those two before they start hitting each other." It was Donovan's turn to sigh.

"Right." As she left to stop the argument, John kept heading towards the door, as he could still see the figure. What he didn't realise was, was that the voices had stopped completely.

"John! What are you doing?" John jumped in fright and turned around very suddenly to face Sherlock. Lestrade took the opportunity to leave.

"Yes Sherlock?" As he looked at Sherlock, he saw a new addition to the group at the back of the room. It was another Sherlock. John turned around to look behind him, and the figure that was there, had gone. Trying to rub the sudden stiffness out of his neck he faced forward once more. The Other Sherlock held up one finger and made a shushing motion. The Real Sherlock took a couple of steps towards Watson and grabbed his shoulders gently.