~~~
When John Watson gets back to his small hotel room he sits down on his bed thinking. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone and goes to the sent messages. He finds what he's looking for and he reads the message.
If brother has green ladder arrest brother.
SH
John, clearly confused, walks over to his computer and opens it up to the search engine. When it loads, he types 'Sherlock Holmes' in the search bar.
~~~
"Hello." Sherlock says to John, who is waiting at the front door of 221B, as he gets out of the cab after it stopped outside of Speedy's Sandwich Bar and Café on Baker Street.
"Ah, Mr. Holmes." John says turning around and spotting Sherlock paying his cab fare.
"Sherlock, please." He shakes John's hand and they both walk up to the door and Sherlock bangs the knocker.
"Well, this is a prime spot. Must be expensive." John observes looking up and down the street.
"Mrs Hudson, the landlady, she's given me a special deal." He explains looking all of the street waiting for the door to open. "Owes me a favour. A few years back, her husband got himself sentenced to death in Florida. I was able to help out."
"Sorry, you stopped her husband being executed?"
The curly haired man finally looks at John. "Oh, no, I ensured it." Sherlock replies knowing on the door.
"Sherlock!" A kind old woman says while she was opening the door and Sherlock walks over and gives her a nice hug.
"Mrs Hudson, Dr. John Watson." Sherlock introduces as the two of them shake hands.
"Hello." John says.
"Come in."
"Thank you."
"Shall we?" Sherlock gestures and the three of them walk inside. Sherlock rushes up the stairs and waits by the flat door for John.
Eventually, the crippled man gets to the door and Sherlock opens it for him and leads him inside. Sherlock stands off to the side and John limps around looking at everything in the room.
"Well, this could be very nice." John muses nodding his head and looking around the cluttered living room that, unbeknownst to John, is already decorated and full of Sherlock's things. "Very nice indeed."
"Yes. Yes, I think so, my thoughts precisely." Sherlock agrees. "So I went straight ahead and moved in."
"Soon as we get this rubbish cleaned up." John trails off while he talks over Sherlock. "Oh. So this is all-"
"Well, obviously I can straighten things up a bit." Sherlock says slightly flustered as he starts to fix things up a bit. He grabs some papers of cases he is working on and sticks them on the mantle and stabs them with a knife.
"That's a skull." John says pointing at it with his cane while looking at the scull on the mantle.
"Friend of mine." Sherlock explains then looks back at it with an awkward expression. "When I say friend," He trials off.
"What do you think, then, Dr Watson?" Mrs. Hudson asks walking into the room. "There's another bedroom upstairs, if you'll be needing two bedrooms. The other room down the hall is already taken by a sweet, young thing. She just moved here this morning and she said she'll be moving in in a few days."
"Of course we'll be needing two bedrooms." John cuts in to Mrs. Hudson's little rant.
"Oh, don't worry, there's all sorts round here. Mrs. Turner next door's got married ones." She whispers. "Oh, Sherlock! The mess you've made." Mrs. Hudson chastises lightly as she walks in and sees the kitchen. The table if full of test tubes and bottles and flasks full of weird liquids and objects.
"Wait, what is it about this new girl?" Sherlock questions sharply turning to Mrs. Hudson.
"Yes, she's moving in down the hall soon and you need to be kind to her." Mrs. Hudson points a wrinkled finger at Sherlock. "She has no family and is all alone, so please, now that you already know, be sensitive around her."
"Ugg, fine." Sherlock rolls eyes.
John grunts as he leans down and fluffs up a British flag throw pillow. He turns and sits down in a chair that faces its back towards the kitchen.
"I looked you up on the internet last night." John tells Sherlock.
"Anything interesting?" Sherlock asks lightly standing up fully and facing him.
"Found your website. 'The Science Of Deduction.' "
"What did you think?" He asks getting excited that John wants to talk about it; however, upon seeing the look on John's face, Sherlock's smile turns into a grimace.
"You said you could identify a software designer by his tie and an airline pilot by his left thumb?" John repeats the things he remembers from Sherlock's blog.
"Yes." Sherlock confirms. "And I can read your military career in your face and your leg, and your brother's drinking habits in your mobile phone."
"How?" John asks hoping to get an answer this time but Sherlock just smiles and turns back to his computer.
"What about these suicides, then, Sherlock?" Mrs. Hudson says walking back into the room with the paper in hand. "I thought that'd be right up your street. Three exactly the same."
Sherlock walks over to the window listening to the police car pull up outside of Baker Street. "Four." He corrects quietly. "There's been a fourth. And there's something different this time." The detective muses watching a grey haired man get out of the police car and walk into 221B Baker Street.
"A fourth?" Mrs. Hudson questions curiously but before Sherlock could answer her, Greg Lestrade pounds up the stairs, two at a time, to the flat of 221B where Sherlock, John, and Mrs. Hudson are.
"Where?" Sherlock asks turning around to meet him.
"Brixton, Lauriston Gardens." Lestrade says with a sigh.
"What's new about this one?" Sherlock asks really quickly. "You wouldn't have come to get me if there wasn't something different." He finishes knowingly.
Lestrade sighs again. "You know how they never leave notes? This one did."
~~~~~~~~~
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