For John Watson

[howdull]

[Sherlock is still finding pieces of the melted laptop in the carpet.

It had actually been quite an ingenious booby trap to be devised by a fourteen year old boy with only household chemicals to work with but, as Sherlock surmised, rather overkill to keep his mother from finding his extensive porn collection. Not one of their more illustrious cases, but it had been quite entertaining to watch both the boy and mother's faces as he revealed that he did know the how and why. He lost interest after the mother started shouting and John started shouting and the whole thing turned tedious.

He rather thinks John won't actually be doing a full write-up of this one on his blog.

It's been two days since their last case and he's beginning to get more than a little antsy. Lestrade has sent him nothing, just a boring hit and run that he refused to even leave the flat for, and nobody interesting has appeared through the blog. Said blog he is currently scrolling through on John's laptop, having borrowed it again.

He did ask, it's not his fault John hadn't been in the room at the time.]

Bored, John.

[He doesn't even know if his flatmate is even in, but that's hardly a necessity for him to actually speak to John. Frustrated, he throws the laptop across the room to hit the wall, where it summarily breaks. Which is where he can be found whenever John appears, sulking amidst pieces of laptop, both from the melted one of their last case and John's poor broken one.]

Comments

[gallowshumour]

[She's really trying not to be too afraid right now, but it's hard.]

I got through to DI Lestrade, and he says-- there's been bombings in some of the tube tunnels, the one we're in is totally blocked off. That can't be a coincidence.

[jumpthegun]

Shit. [Except that means...]

Have they shut down the tube completely?

[Maybe turned off the third rail? John's not sure they would, but he can hope. Maybe there are doors in this section with access to maintenance tunnels.]

[gallowshumour]

I don't know, the line was really bad and that's all I managed to find out before we got cut off. But... I guess so? I mean, they can't try and dig through the blocked tunnels if the rails are live, can they?

[It's a real effort to keep her voice low when she wants to give in to the rising panic, but causing a mass stampede of other passengers really won't help.]

[jumpthegun]

Water... [He turns from Molly and calls out:]

Does anyone have a bottle of water?

[The woman in the suit who'd offered her hand sanitizer sighs and raises a water bottle.]

It's for him, isn't it? [She motions to the injured man as she steps over to hand it to John.]

No, not quite.

[He uncaps the bottle, turns to the door and promptly squirts some of it out across the tracks. John waits for the crackle of electricity.]

[gallowshumour]

[The water spatters harmlessly on the tracks with no sign of live electricity, which probably explains why the other man is injured but not dead, he must have hit only moments before the live rail got turned off.

One of the other passengers leans over and frowns in alarm.]

Why is the line dead? What's happening, why would they cut the line?!

[jumpthegun]

[This is one of those times that John feels it's appropriate to lie.]

I'm not sure, but it's probably something to do with us being stuck. There might be some sort of issue with getting an engine back down here, so they're having to come in manually. Or there might be maintenance tunnels they're sending people through and need it to be safe. I'll go check and see if I can find a door. That's probably our best bet for getting out of here quickly. We need to with the state that man's in.

Molly, can you stay here and keep an eye on our man there? [He nods to the one who's been electrocuted.] I promise I'll only be a few minutes. I won't be going that far.

[Mainly because he's not well enough for an extended journey.]

Meanwhile, you lot, we might need a crowbar, so look for what you can.

[gallowshumour]

[Molly had already had her mouth open to tell someone else to take over in here, but she shuts it again with a very disapproving and disappointed look. He shouldn't be heading out there alone, and they both know it.]

Five minutes and then I'm coming after you.

[It's a low warning, before she turns to the nearest passenger with a forced brightness.]

Right! Crowbar! Come on, everyone, let's get looking, you heard what Dr. Watson said.

[jumpthegun]

[Molly's the closest thing to a doctor after him. If that man wakes up, John would prefer at least one of them are here. But he nods to her conditions and he's off. It's not really hopping off the train, but he gets down carefully and uses the light from his mobile to try to see. into the darker areas. His first goal is to reach the wall so that he can start scanning it for handles or hatches, anything that's an obvious entrance that they could use.]

[gallowshumour]

[There's no visible exits in the nearby vicinity, but the track disappears into the darkness in both directions, and there's a split in the tunnel up ahead where a different line joins this one.

The light from the mobile catches on an arrow on the wall, drawn in white chalk and pointing down the left fork.]

[jumpthegun]

[That's... odd. John looks back toward the train, wondering if he should call for Molly. No, if there's danger, he wants her staying in there, honestly. It might not be the most sensible, but it's the right thing for her. She's been through too much already. He pauses at the fork for only a moment before following the chalk arrow.

He's reminded of Caroline's first victim, the chalk on the ground leading to Harry. His heart starts thumping faster.]

[gallowshumour]

[A little bit further along, there's a child's alphabet book missing the first few pages. It looks battered, and possibly like it might have been run over by a train at some point.

There's a light up ahead and the chalk arrows keep pointing that way.]

[jumpthegun]

[There we are, then. John looks around for anything he can use as a weapon. There's really nothing that's coming quickly or easily to hand. He should have waited for that crowbar. Or he should go get Molly.]

Damn it.

[John mutters that to himself as he pockets his phone and creeps as quietly as he can toward the train. He'll try to get a look in the windows for any signs of movement before going around to the door.]

[gallowshumour]

[Down near the top of the train is where the light is coming from. Caroline Matthews is sat in one seat, face covered in blood and eyes open and staring in the glassy film of death.

Moriarty is sitting in one of the nearby seats, apparently doing a crossword in an abandoned newspaper.]

You might as well come in, Johnny boy.

[jumpthegun]

['Damn it' doesn't cover it. Not by a long chalk.

This is a bad situation.]

It's Dr. Watson. [Steeling himself, John heads around to the door.] People do know I've gone from the other train. So, unless you want your ex-girlfriend taking a cast to your face, you might want to just surrender now and we can see about getting ahold of Detective Inspector Lestrade.

[He doesn't look at Caroline, just sweeps his gaze across Jim to assess the threat of him before checking the rest of the carriage. With his luck, this thing is going to be packed with explosives.]

[gallowshumour]

[There doesn't appear to be any visible explosives, but there are smears of blood on some of the handrails and seats that suggest something awful might have happened to the few people unlucky enough to take this train.]

You've convinced me, how can I ever stand up to the might of meek little Molly with her arm in a cast, and stern Doctor Johnny who can barely stand up? It's all up, a fair cop, take me in guv'nor.

[He holds his wrists out as if for cuffs contritely, fingers crossed on one hand, and then mock gasps and holds that hand up.]

Well, look at that, my fingers were crossed. I guess I don't surrender after all.

[jumpthegun]

[John's expression just remains cold through Moriarty's display. He's not going to acknowledge that he's in less than ideal shape for this confrontation.]

What did you do to the people on this train?

[He's not even going to bother being surreptitious about it as he pulls out his phone and checks it to see if there's a proper voice recording function. It's just a cheap thing Molly picked up, so he's not entirely hopeful, but he'll try. In the meanwhile, he'll offer a misdirect:]

And I'm guessing you were tracking phones again. Was it mine or Molly's?

[gallowshumour]

[He waves a hand to dismiss the question as unimportant. Really, who cares how he knew? It certainly wasn't the phones, not this time. He watches as John obviously starts recording him, lips twitching a little higher in amusement. He's a resilient one, isn't he? He might have made a good toy himself, if he hadn't already chosen who his pet was going to be.]

You might as well come and sit down. I know you're very intimidating, hiding out in the shadows and pretending the big bad wolf doesn't scare you, but it's much more civilised to sit and share a cup of tea.

[His grin gets wider.]

And maybe if you're good, I'll answer your questions.

[jumpthegun]

[John remains where he is, tries to stand up straighter, even though it hurts. He's not going to be a good boy and sit on command.]

I'm not thirsty, thank you, and I think I'll stand. What exactly are we doing here?

[gallowshumour]

We're changing the rules of the game, Caroline was getting to be a bit of a liability. A, B, C, D, Dull, am I right?

[It's more that she'd been overextending her allowed influence, trying to get him more and more involved, and he had to punish her for what happened when he got caught and interrogated.]

It's a new board now.

[jumpthegun]

[John can't help his temper hopping the rails as he snaps.]

My sister is dead, my flat is destroyed, my flatmate and one of my friends were almost murdered, some random kid was almost murdered, and I'm being investigated for war crimes I didn't commit. This is not a game, you bastard!

[gallowshumour]

You mean you're not having fun?

[He looks faux surprised, still not moving from his position reclining on one of the seats.]

Because I'm having a blast.

[jumpthegun]

[Right, okay. He's finished playing and he wants the man to show whatever the hell his hand is now. That's clearly not going to happen with just talk. John will stalk over to Moriarty and grab the front of his shirt if he's able.]

Either get to the point, or I'm going back to the other train, Mr. Moriarty. You're not nearly as funny as you think you are.

[gallowshumour]

[He pouts with a small sigh, not bothering to try and resist being grabbed.]

You're not very observant, are you? That's why he's more fun, it's a real game when we play together. Or it will be.

[He already said what his point was. It's not his fault if John didn't get having a blast might be taken literally as well as figuratively.]

[jumpthegun]

[John's brows furrow in confusion for a moment. He looks up and around the carriage. There's a dead body, there's blood, there's Jim right here. Why are they alone?]

I know you've blown up the tunnel at either end the tracks. So... what? You're planning to trap everyone down here 'til they starve or something? You made it down here. You're going to show me the way out. And then everyone else is coming with us and I'm handing you over to DI Lestrade.

[gallowshumour]

I think it's probably better if we sit and talk, actually.

[He grins, and there's something just a little manic in it.]

Now that you've stepped onto the carriage in that oh-so-manly way to threaten me, you've activated the weight related pressure pad beneath us. If we step out... kaboom. Fun, right?