Later that day, Alex was finally getting some sleep. She was sprawled across Sherlock, who was sitting on a chair with his feet up on a table in the lab. He was drumming his fingers nervously on her lap. John's phone rang, which woke both him and Alex up. John answered the phone.

"Yes, speaking." He said. "What? What happened?! Is she okay? Oh my God! Yes, I'm coming!"

"What is it?" Alex asked, stretching. 

"Paramedics! Mrs. Hudson, she's been shot!" John said.

"Oh, God!" Alex said. She jumped off of Sherlock's lap.

"How?" Sherlock asked, completely calm.

"Probably one of the killers you managed to attract." John said. "She's dying, you two, let's go."

"You and Alex go. I'm busy." Sherlock said.

"Busy?" Alex said, gaping at him.

"Thinking, I need to think." Sherlock said.

"Doesn't she mean anything to you?" John asked.

"She's my landlady." Sherlock said, shrugging.

"She's dying, you machine!" Alex yelled. "Why can't you stop being such a freak?!"

Sherlock looked at Alex. She had never said anything so hurtful before. Alex looked like she had only just realized what she said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!" Alex said.

"No, don't apologize, you're right!" John said. "Sod this. Sod this. You stay here if you want to be on your own."

"Alone is what I have. Alone protects me." Sherlock said.

"No, friends protect people." Alex said. She and John walked out. Sherlock flinched as Alex slammed the door shut. His phone chimed and he took it out of his pocket.

I'm waiting...
- JM

Sherlock grabbed his coat and went up to the roof. Moriarty was waiting for him. Sherlock could hear "Staying Alive" playing from Moriarty's phone.

"Well, here we are at last. Me and you, Sherlock." Moriarty said. "And our problem, the final problem. Staying alive! It's so boring, isn't it?" He stopped the music. "It's just staying. All my life I've been searching for distractions, and you were the best distraction and now I don't even have you because I've beaten you. And you know what? In the end, it was easy. It was easy. Now I've got to go back to playing with the ordinary people. And it turns out you're ordinary! Just like all of them. Oh well. Did you almost start to wonder if I was real? Did I nearly get you?"

"Richard Brook." Sherlock murmered.

"Nobody seems to get the joke, but you do." Moriarty said.

"Of course." Sherlock said.

"Attaboy." Moriarty said.

"Richard Brook in German is Reichenbach. The case that made my name." Sherlock said.

"Just trying to have some fun." Moriarty said. Sherlock drummed his fingers in the pattern that Moriarty had the day he'd visited the flat. "Good, you go that too."

"Beats like digits. Every beat is a one, the rest is a zero." Sherlock said. "Binary code. That's why all those assassins tried to save my life. Because it was hidden on me, inside my head. A few simple lines of computer code that can break into any system."

"Told all my clients, 'Last one to Sherlock is a sissy.'" Moriarty said.

"Yes, but now that it's up here I can use it to alter the records." Sherlock said. "I can kill Rich Brook and bring back Jim Moriarty."

"No, no, no, no, no, this is too easy. This is too easy! There is no key, DUFUS!" Moriarty screamed, getting in Sherlock's face. "Those digits are meaningless. They're utterly meaningless. Is that what you think? A couple of lines of computer code are gonna crash the world around our ears? I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed in you."

"But the rhythm." Sherlock said.

"Partita number one!" Moriarty said. "Thank you Johann Sebastian Bach!"

"Then how did you-" Sherlock started.

"Then how did I break into the bank, to the tower, to the prision? Daylight robbery!" Moriarty yelled. "All it takes are some willing participants I knew you'd fall for it! That's your weakness! You always want everything to be clever. Now, shall we finish the game? One final act. Glad you chose a tall building. Nice way to do it."

"Do it? Do what?" Sherlock asked. He suddenly remembered. "Yes, of course. My suicide."

I never got to tell Alex that I loved her... Sherlock thought. I'm so, so sorry, Alex.

" 'Genius Detective Proved to be a Fraud.' I read it in the paper, so it must be true." Moriarty said. "I love newspapers. Fairy tales. And pretty grim ones too."

Meanwhile, John and Alex were running into the flat. A drill was whiring. Mrs. Hudson was standing by a man in a ladder. She looked perfectly fine.

"Oh, John, Alex, you made me jump." She said. "Is everything alright with the police, has Sherlock sorted it all out?"

Things aren't always what they seem.

"We have to go, John!" Alex said, remembering Sherlock's words. They ran outside. "Taxi! Taxi!" 

The two of them got into the taxi and frantically told the driver to go to St. Barts. Alex hoped they weren't too late. Moriarty could have killed Sherlock by now.

"I could still prove you created an entirely false identity!" Sherlock said.

"Oh, just kill yourself." Moriarty said. "It's a lot less effort. Go on, for me. Pleeease?" He said in a high-pitched voice. Sherlock grabbed him and pushed him to the edge of the building.

"You're insane." Sherlock said.

"You're just getting to that now?" Moriarty said. Sherlock pushed him even farther. "Okay. Let me give you a little extra incentive. You're friends will die if you don't."

"John?" Sherlock said.

"Not just them, everyone." Moriarty said.

"This is insane." Sherlocks said.

"Everyone!" Moriarty said.

"Lestrade?" Sherlock said.

"Four bullets, four gunmen, four vicitms. There's no stopping them now." Moriarty said.

"Alex?" Sherlock asked, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"Oh, I'll make her death slow and painful." Moriarty said. "Unless my people see you jump. You can have me arressted, you can torture me, you can do anything you like with me, but nothing's gonna prevent them from pulling that trigger. You're only four friends in the world will die unless-"

"Unless I kill myself, complete your story." Sherlock said.

"You gotta admit, that's sexier." Moriarty said.

"And I die in disgrace." Sherlock said.

"Well, of course, that's the point of this." Moriarty said. "Look, you've go an audience now." People were walking in the streets, probably on a lunch break. Sherlock stepped up on the edge of the building. "Off your butt. Go on. I told you how this ends. Your death is the only thing that's gonna call off the killers. I'm certainly not gonna do it."

"Will you give me one moment, please? One moment of privacy? Please?" Sherlock asked.

"Of course." Moriarty said. He stepped away from where he was sitting on the ledge where Sherlock was also standing.

Sherlock stood for a moment. looking over the city. He was thinkng, hard. He then started laughing. His laughing grew louder and Moriarty stopped walking away.

"What, what is it?" He asked. "What did I miss?" 

"You're not going to do it?" Sherlock asked, hopping down from the ledge. "So the killers can be called off. Then there's a recall code or a word or a number. I don't have to die if I've got you." 

"Oh! You think you can make me stop the order? You think you can make me do that?" Moriarty asked. 

"Yes. So do you." Sherlock said.

"Sherlock, you're big brother and all the king's horses couldn't make me a thing if I don't want to." Sherlock said.

"Yes, but I'm not my brother remember?" Sherlock said. "I am you, prepared to do anything. Prepared to burn. Prepared to do what ordinary people won't do. You want me to shake hands with you in hell, I shall not disappoint you."

"No." Moriarty said. "You talk big. No, you're ordinary. You're ordinary. You're on the side of the angels."

"I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them." Sherlock said.

"No...you're not." Moriarty said. Sherlock smirked. Moriarty smiled. "I see. You're not ordinary, no. You're me. You're me! Thank you...Sherlock Holmes." Moriarty held his hand out. Sherlock shook it. "Thank you. Bless you. As long as I'm alive, you can save your friends, you've got a way out. Well, good luck with that."

Moriarty pulled out a gun. He opened his mouth and shot himself. 

"NO!" Sherlock cried.

It was too late. Moriarty was dead. Sherlock would be forced to kill himself now. He started panting. He had to kill himself now. Sherlock had thought he wouldn't have to. If he didn't do this, all his friends were going to die. Alex, John, Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson... Sherlock stepped up on the ledge of the building. Sherlock picked up his phone and called John. He felt like he was going to be sick.

"Hello?" John said. Sherlock was watching him and Alex running out of a cab and towards St. Barts.

"John." Sherlock said.

"Hey, Sherlock, you okay?" John asked.

"Turn around and go back the way you came." Sherlock said. "Also put me on speaker."

"No, we're coming in!" John said, putting Sherlock on speaker.

"Just do as I ask!" Sherlock said. "Please!"

"Where?" John asked.

"There." Sherlock said.

"Sherlock?" Alex said. 

"Okay, look up. I'm on the rooftop." Sherlock said. John and Alex looked up.

"Oh, God!" Alex said, a sob coming out of her. She was comtemplating the idea that her calling Sherlock a freak had driven him to suicide.

"I...I can't come down, so we'll just have to do it like this." Sherlock said.

"What's going on?" John asked.

"An apology." Sherlock said. "It's all true."

"What?" Alex said.

"Everything they said about me. I invented Moriarty." Sherlock said.

"Why are you saying this?" John asked.

"I'm a fake." Sherlock said, beginning to cry. Alex took the phone.

"Sherlock!" She said.

"The newspapers were right all along. I want you to tell Lestrade, I want you to tell Mrs. Hudson and Molly! In fact, tell anyone who will listen to you that I created Moriarty for my own purposes!" Sherlock said.

"Okay, shut up, Sherlock, shut up." John said. "The first time we met, the first time we met, you knew all about my sister, right?"

"Yeah, and you knew all about David when you met me!" Alex said.

"Nobody could be that clever." Sherlock said.

"You could." John said.

Sherlock laughed dryly, a tear dripping down his face. "I researched you, John. Before we met, I discovered everything that I could to impress you. And, Alex, I sent some of my Homeless Network to spy on you. It's a trick, it's just a magic trick. Things aren't always what they seem, Alex."

"No. Alright, shut it now!" Alex said, starting to walk into the building.

"No, stay exactly where you are! Don't move!" Sherlock said.

"All right." Alex nodded, backing up.

"Keep your eyes fixed on me! Please, will you do this for me?" Sherlock asked.

"Do what?" John asked.

"This phone call it's, uh...it's my note." Sherlock said. "That's what people do, don't they? Leave a note?"

"Leave a note, when?" Alex asked, feeling absolutely sick.

"Alex, I need to tell you something." Sherlock said. "Put me off of speaker."

"What is it?" Alex asked, obeying Sherlock.

"Alex, I...I love you, Alex. I'm so sorry you got involved. I never meant for that to happen." Sherlock said, a sob forcing it's way out of his throat. 

"I love you, too, Sherlock." Alex said, realizing that she truly loved Sherlock too. "Please, come down so I can kiss you."

"I can't. I love you. Remember what I told you." Sherlock said. "Put me back on speaker."

"Sherlock, get down here now." John said.

"Goodbye, John." Sherlock said.

"No, don't-" John was cut off as Sherlock hung up.

Sherlock tossed his phone to the side. Alex felt like she was going to be sick. Sherlock had just told her he loved her, and now he was going to kill himself.

"SHERLOCK!" She and her brother screeched.

Sherlock spread his arms and fell.

"Sherlock..." Alex murmered. "No. Oh dear God, no."

She wanted to look away, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from Sherlock's falling body. He hit the ground and his neck snapped. Alex couldn't get the sound out of her head. John and her started towards the body, everything in slow motion. A cyclist crashed into them. Alex had seen the body. She couldn't get that out of her head now either. Blood was pouring out of his head. Alex recovered quicker than John. She got up and ran towards the crowd of people that had gathered.

"Sherlock...Sherlock..." She muttered as she walked towards the body. "I'm his girlfriend, let me come through! Let me come through, he's my boyfriend!" 

"Let me come through, I'm a doctor!" John said. "No, let me come through, please, he's my friend!" 

John picked up Sherlock wrist and took his pulse. There was nothing. Alex wouldn't believe it. She tried too. Nothing. Tears began to pour down her face. She tried to shake Sherlock's body, but people pushed her and John away.

"This can't be happening! I'm dreaming, it's just a nightmare! Alex, wake up! Wake up!" Alex screamed, fisting her hands in her hair. "Wake up! It's not real! You're dreaming!"

"Mm, Lord, no. God, no..." John said.

Alex slumped to the ground and puked as Sherlock's body was loaded onto a gurney. His eyes were still open. His piercing blue eyes that had looked at Alex with such fondness and adoration. A shock blanket was wrapped around her. She pulled it around her. She had a thought that just couldn't be true.

Sherlock Holmes was dead. 

---------------------------

... *wipes eyes and blows nose* So sad...