"Lestrade?" You questioned, looking around at the police searching through Sherlock's flat. Lestrade sat in Sherlock's chair, studying Jennifer's suitcase. Crap... you thought. This was going to get you into a lot of trouble once he found out you were the one who brought the case here. He could even get you fired from your job, if it made him angry enough. You'd done this in the past before: withheld evidence. Lestrade had let you off with angry warnings, but sharing evidence with someone else was a whole other story.
"What are you doing?" Sherlock said as he burst through the door behind you, seeing all the people digging through his belongings. He walked straight up to Lestrade, who was still sitting smugly in Sherlock's chair, looking rather amused.
"Well I knew you'd find the case, I'm not stupid." Lestrade said, staring at Sherlock then glancing back at you.
"You can't just break into my flat!" He yelled angrily, glancing around as he tried to defend himself.
"You can't withhold evidence, and I didn't break into your flat." Lestrade answered, leaning back into Sherlock's chair. You inwardly groaned, Lestrade was yelling at Sherlock and punishing him for something you did.
"Well what do you call this, then?" Sherlock gestured to all the people searching his flat. He wasn't telling Lestrade you'd brought the case here... maybe he was trying to protect you? You thought, studying him. He most likely knew that if Lestrade found out you'd found the case and didn't hand it in to the police, but instead shared it with him, that it could easily get you fired from your job. You weren't letting him take the hit for you.
"It's a drugs bust." Lestrade said, grinning. This caused an outburst from John who started laughing from beside Sherlock. You stood away quietly, from the moment you laid eyes on Sherlock you had known he was an addict, you deduced it from him when he had challenged you to. This just confirmed the seriousness of his addiction. Or at least how bad it'd gotten in the past.
"Seriously? This guy, a junkie? Have you met him?" John laughed, shaking his head. You bit your lower lip crossing your arms.
"John..." Sherlock started, trying to get John to stop talking. You looked up at Sherlock after that, wide eyed. He still did drugs... maybe not as often as in his past, but the fact he tried to cut off John showed there was indeed drugs held hidden in the flat somewhere. He relapsed when he needed to... he'd said the nicotine helped him think, it was possible Sherlock believed something stronger would boost his thinking beyond what nicotine could.
"I'm pretty sure, you could search this flat all day, you wouldn't find anything you could call recreational-" John was soon cut off by Sherlock.
"John, you probably want to shut up now..." He trailed off, catching your eyes as he looked away. You looked towards your feet, rubbing your arms reassuringly. You weren't going to say a word.
"Yeah, but come on..." John looked at Sherlock, who had a warning look on his face. "Y/N?" John asked, looking to you and you stood silent. John's eyes went wide when you didn't speak.
"No!" John yelled not believing that Sherlock could be a druggie. Based off of his intelligence, most people wouldn't guess he did drugs.
"What?" Sherlock asked, looking at him. He seemed to be becoming offencive.
"You?" John shook his head, almost in amusement.
"Shut up!" Sherlock yelled, annoyed with John. He then turned to Lestrade. "I'm not your sniffer dog." He stated, crossing his arms in a pout.
"No! Anderson's my sniffer dog." Lestrade gestured towards the kitchen and you looked to see Anderson. He waved playfully at Sherlock, very amused by the current situation. Sherlock spun around, glaring at him. You really hated that guy, always going out of his way to hurt his enemies. He used anyone he could to make himself look good.
"What I- Anderson, what are you doing here on a drugs bust?" Sherlock asked angrily.
"Oh, I volunteered." Anderson said snobbly to Sherlock with a smirk on his face. Of course he did.
"They all did. They're not strictly speaking on the drugs squad, but they're very keen." Lestrade said, looking at his crew. You scoffed, shaking your head. Even Donovan stood in the kitchen holding up a beaker. You hated her too, almost more than Anderson. She was very judgmental, always assuming things before she knew the facts.
"Are these human eyes?" She asked with a disgusted look on her face as she held the beaker up to the light.
"Put those back." Sherlock ordered her, waving his arms to where they belonged.
"They were in the microwave." She scrunched up her nose.
"It's an experiment." Sherlock explained, beyond frustrated. No one seemed to understand him. You couldn't help but continue to wonder why Sherlock hadn't said anything about you finding the case, this invasion of his privacy was your fault.
"Keep looking, guys." Lestrade ordered. "Or you could start helping me properly, and I'll stand them down." He said this to Sherlock, standing from the chair to walk towards him.
"This is childish." Sherlock groaned, shaking his head at the Detective as he walked around to make sure no one was ruining any of his things.
"Well, I'm dealing with a child. Sherlock, this is our case! I'm letting you in, but you don't go off on your own, clear?" Lestrade asked, watching as Sherlock walked back and forth across the room. You shook your head, pivoting on your feet as you waited for an opening to tell Lestrade the truth.
"Oh what, so you set up a pretend drugs bust, to bully me?" Sherlock stopped, getting angrily in Lestrade's face.
"Stops being pretend if they find anything." Lestrade simply stated.
"I'm clean." Sherlock said. Still, you stood quiet watching everything happen. You knew Sherlock might be clean.... but you knew a man like him wouldn't get rid of everything. He had to have some backup drugs hidden somewhere. They always did.
"Is your flat? All of it?" Lestrade asked, clearly not believing a word that came out of Sherlock's mouth.
"I don't even smoke!" Sherlock yelled, pulling up his sleeve to reveal the nicotine patches, trying to prove a point. Lestrade pulled up his sleeve showing Sherlock, he also had a nicotine patch. Sherlock's point deflated and you crossed your arms shooting John a look.
"Neither do I!" Lestrade exclaimed. Finally he looked up at you. "What are you doing here then, Y/N? Did you know Sherlock had the case?"
You hesitated as Lestrade studied you. This was it. This was where you told him the truth and he called off the search on Sherlock. You owed Sherlock that at least. "Well that's what I needed to discuss with you. It wasn't Sherlock who-"
Sherlock quickly cut you off. "I asked her to come with me somewhere... just now. She had no idea about the case." Sherlock lied easily. You glanced at him, why was he covering for you? From the time you'd known him, you knew he wasn't the type of man who'd care if you lost your job. Heck, you couldn't care if you lost your job, you'd find a new one easily with your credentials.
"He's lying. I found the case and convinced Sherlock to come back here in order to study it. Wanted to get a look before your crew tampered with it." You honestly told him.
Lestrade looked at you a long time before he let out a sigh. "Of course you did. Fortunately for you, you work at a facility so I can't do anything about that. Sherlock on the other hand..." You were all silent, and you glanced over at Sherlock wanting to question him on why he had lied.
"Well, we all need to work together, now. We've found Rachel." Lestrade finally spoke, buttoning his sleeve back up, along with Sherlock. You perked up at this, listening to Lestrade.
"Who is she?" You and Sherlock asked in unison.
"Jennifer Wilson's only daughter." Lestrade told you. You immediately got lost in thought.
"Her daughter? Why would she write her daughter's name? Why?" Sherlock looked at Lestrade in question.
"Never mind that, we found the case." Anderson said, looking at Sherlock. Sherlock turned his head to look annoyingly at Anderson. "According to someone the murderer has the case, and here it is, in the hands of our favourite psychopath and his girlfriend."
"Yeah, like if he was the murderer he'd be stupid enough to say that in front of that many witnesses. Sherlock's behaviour doesn't match that of our evidence. Did you even take a criminal psychology class?" You quickly told Anderson who looked a bit taken aback. He wasn't used to being called out like that. You assumed your explanation was good enough to tell him you weren't involved either.
"I'm not a psychopath, Anderson. I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research." Sherlock added before he turned back to Lestrade. "You need to bring Rachel in, you need to question her. I need to question her-" Sherlock was interrupted.
"She's dead." Lestrade told him. You gasped at this, your pacing intensifying.
"Excellent! How and when? Is there a connection? There has to be." Sherlock exclaimed.
"Well, I doubt it, since she's been dead for fourteen years. Technically she was never alive." Sherlock looked confused at this and you shook your head, thinking. "Rachel was Jennifer Wilson's stillborn daughter, fourteen years ago. " Lestrade told you, you looked up at him furrowing your eyebrows, this didn't make any sense. You needed to think! You groaned, rubbing your temples in thought.
"No. No, that's not right. Why would she do that? Why?" You questioned, throwing yourself down onto the couch, sitting indian style.
"Why would she think of her daughter in her last moments? Are you sure she's not a sociopath too, Sherlock?" Anderson said.
"Not a sociopath, just no emotions, but close enough I suppose." You simply stated, closing your eyes trying to think. "Besides, she didn't think about her daughter, she scratched her name on the floor. She was dying, it took effort, it would've hurt! She was trying to tell us something!"
"Sherlock, you said the victims all took the poison themselves. Somehow he makes them take it. Maybe he... I dunno, talks to them. Maybe he used the death of her daughter somehow..." John started, throwing out an idea as Sherlock started to pace in between John and Lestrade. He occasionally passed by you, as you still continued your own thoughtful pace.
"Oh, but that was ages ago. Why would she still be upset?" John cringed at Sherlock's choice of words as everyone in the room became silent, staring at him. You looked at all their stares, wondering the same thing Sherlock must be thinking.
"What? I don't understand." You asked them and some of them shook their heads at you. You frowned, you didn't get it. You didn't like being confused.
"Not good?" Sherlock questioned, stopping to look at John.
"Bit not good, yeah." John told him. You shrugged, continuing to pace.
"Yes, but listen! If you were dying, if you'd been murdered, in your very last seconds, what would you say?" Sherlock asked John.
"Please God let me live." John told him.
"Oh, use your imagination!" Sherlock exclaimed.
"I don't have to." John said. He'd been in war. He was often put in situations where he was staring death right between the eyes.
Sherlock stared at John a while before starting again. "Yes, but if you were clever, if you were very clever... Jennifer Wilson, running all those lovers. She was clever, and she's telling us something!" Sherlock yelled, starting to pace again alongside you. Nobody seemed to understand, but you and Sherlock could figure this out together.