It Started With Stealing | Sherlock Holmes

9 - Splitting At The Seams

When Sherlock had realised that the red dot was the sight of what he presumed to be a sniper rifle (judging by the fact that the bullet had come through the window) he knew he had to do something. John was fine, he wasn't stood in front of the window, but Elizabeth appeared to be the target. He couldn't let their only willing source of information from Moriarty's network die. Or was it something else? No, he was protecting their source, he convinced himself, for the purposes of information only.

Elizabeth's breathing was shaky but she looked up at Sherlock with a grateful look. She wasn't expecting him to become her bodyguard at all but she was relieved that he had at that moment.

Although the same couldn't be said for Shaun.

"Christ!" John hurried over to Shaun who was lying on the ground near them.

Sherlock looked to the side to see Shaun writhing in pain. Sherlock may have saved Elizabeth but in doing so, he had let Shaun take most of the bullet. Sherlock hissed as he moved his arm off of Elizabeth to discover that the bullet had just caught his arm, and went straight through, embedding itself in Shaun's chest instead.

"Oh my God, Shaun!"

Elizabeth scrambled out from underneath Sherlock to be by the side of her friend. John was busy placing pressure on the wound but Elizabeth looked around frantically. She didn't know what to do to help.

"The bullet hasn't gone through, it's blocking most of the blood. Find something to block the wound with." John instructed.

"Liz - "

John shook his head at Shaun, "Don't talk."

Before she could leave her friend's side though, Shaun grabbed her arm, "You carry on,"

"Shaun, don't. You'll be alright."

"You'll get - more, as well - as yourself, killed."

And then his grip on her arm became limp. The shine of life in his hazel eyes faded and he lay there unmoving. John checked his pulse but slowly drew his hands away from Shaun's neck and wound. Elizabeth looked at Shaun, his bright yellow suit now stained with dark crimson blood.

"Shaun?" She shook him slightly, "Shaun."

She choked back a sob, shaking her head in disbelief. Only moments ago Shaun was alive and talking and now he was - dead. The tears silently streamed down her cheeks as she looked up to John and then to Sherlock.

Silence fell across the three of them for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth." John spoke up solemnly.

There was a pause.

"No, no, you're not." She gulped.

John frowned. Sherlock still said nothing.

"As long as it's nobody you care about, right?"

Sherlock opened his mouth to protest but Elizabeth beat him to it.

"Taking down Jim's network is gonna cost lives but as long as they're not the lives you care about." She took a shaky breath as she looked back to Sherlock, "You only saved me because I - I had the more important information, right? I have the contacts. I have the 'expendables'. The people I know might not be on the right side of the law but they are still people with families and lives and worth more than stupid government systems could ever see. Shaun has a brother who is never going to understand why his brother died because Shaun committed the crimes he did to keep his brother out of this life."

Neither of the two men spoke.

"And I'm expendable to both sides. Maybe not now for you, but I will be. "