A/N - my apologies for the delay in posting the next chapter! I'm technically on holiday in Wales where I get to see the sea everyday for the next few days 😄

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John was home to view the spectacle that came next.

He was sat in his arm chair A - wondering where Sherlock was and B - curious to know where Irene was and C - worrying about where Elizabeth had gone. She wasn't supposed to leave without one of them - so where did she go? Mrs Hudson had said that Sherlock left long before the two ladies but hadn't actually seen the women leave at all. Did she go to meet with Moriarty again? The possibility of that concerned John deeply as who knows what the psychopath may do to her if she approached him again.

Thankfully his question was answered when he heard the slam of the front door downstairs and the thundering of feet up the stairs. John stood as Elizabeth stomped into the room, her face red with transparent tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Elizabeth, thank God you're o - okay - what happened? What's wrong? Where’s Sherlock?"

"Ask him forgodsake, John, and leave me the hell alone." She snapped out mid-sob as she made a bee-line straight to Sherlock's room, slamming that door too.

John was stunned. His head turned to the door as he heard more running up the stairs to then see Sherlock hurry into the room, disregard John completely and head straight for his own room.

What had he done?

He knocked on the door, a very rare look of desperation on his face as he begged, "Elizabeth? Please, please listen to me. Let me explain."

To his utter surprise, Elizabeth whipped the door open again, that look of pain in her eyes echoing in his own. He didn't like to see her like this. He wanted to comfort her. But how could Sherlock do that when he had been the cause of her pain?

John just watched the scene unfold, confounded.

"Explain then. Go on, explain if you're so confident that it will help this situation."

"I - " Sherlock took a breath, "Elizabeth, you're right, I do like Irene but not in the way I like you."

Elizabeth scoffed, but continued to listen.

"I knew what Irene was doing. I knew she was trying to seduce me."

Her lips quivered. He better be getting to the point quickly.

"But I only allowed it to happen in the hopes of getting more information, in the hopes of finding out more about her. She was letting the walls she built up down. It was the perfect opportunity and I could not miss it. I am sorry you saw what you did between Irene and I this evening, but it helped. It helped me solve the case. And now Irene is gone for good."

Elizabeth's hurt gradually turned to hatred as he spoke.

"Those things I said to her, they were all to test it. To make sure I was right. And I was!" He couldn't fight back his impressed smirk at himself, "What I said meant nothing - it was all for the case."

Elizabeth looked down at the floor, shaking her head. She laughed through her tears in disbelief.

"You, Sherlock Holmes..."

Sherlock knew it. He knew she would forgive him after he explained. It made sense to her now. He could tell.

But Elizabeth looked up at him, abhorrence active in her gaze, "...Are a cold, cruel and callous man."

Sherlock was taken aback.

"My God, your ego is ridiculous...I might not have liked Irene but how can you possibly think that exploiting her feelings for you is going to make this all better? In fact it makes it worse knowing you weren't so fucking clueless all the time. She hurt you, I know that, she had you wrapped around her little finger and you wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine - I understand that. But the way in which you executed your so called 'plan' was wrong. She could die Sherlock! Even Irene said she may not even last six months."

"Mycroft will lock - "

"Do you really think she'll willingly let that happen too?"

"I - "

"And I'm not going to lie, but wanting to get close to her to get 'more information' makes me wonder if what we had was even real. Did you hope to find out more from me too? Did I disappoint you in becoming a destructive, dangerous, chemical defect? Was I jeopardising your intelligence with emotional weakness, making you lose all your twisted, silly, little games? Was I an experiment to test your ideas out on?"

Sherlock just stood there listening. He truly had screwed this up now.

"I used to think you were a crap sociopath. But at least I know the truth now. Thank you for the final proof."

And with that the door was slammed shut on him again. He flinched at the sound.

John's mouth was agape. What had Sherlock done? Where had they been? Where was Irene now? Sherlock never flinched. He was like a man of steel - nothing could frighten him so easily except his own feelings of course.

Sherlock's heart ached. He didn't like it. Didn't want to feel like this.

Damn his arrogance.

Damn love...

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Once Elizabeth had slammed the door shut, she leant against it as if fearing Sherlock would try to force his way back into the room. But she knew he would never do that. She slid down the door, bringing her knees to her chest and just sobbed silently.

The best thing she had, she had lost.

And still, her heart ached for the sociopath.

But how was she to know if what they had had been real in the first place? What if it was a lie? The doubts kept rolling in. But then so did the doubts about her doubts. If it truly was a lie, then how come even Mycroft seemed to believe it? Surely he would be in on it if they were just experimenting with how to get more information out of her?

She wished there was something, anything for her to do, to distract her from feeling like this.

And then she remembered.

The phone number...

But could she really do that to them, even after everything they had gone through?

She wanted that distraction. If it was stealing then that would merely be a bonus.

But could she do it?

Could she do that to them?

Her eyes fell on the wardrobe opposite the bed. Without thinking about it again, she crept over, opening it and pulling out the boots she had worn with her Halloween costume. After not finding the slip of paper in the first boot, she successfully fished it out of the second.

She rubbed her thumb over the number for a moment.

Could she do it?

Elizabeth slipped her phone out of her pocket as she knelt there. She unlocked her phone and headed to her contacts.

She didn't have to do this.

The thief knew she was better than this.

Hesitating to type in the number, she looked back at the bedroom door, picturing John consoling Sherlock in the living room. Had she been too harsh? Was she overreacting? She looked away, her spark of hurt reignited.

No. She wasn't wrong.

But she wouldn't completely turn her back on them either.

So she added the number, her plan in motion the moment she sent her text:

<I'm in. - E.P.>

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

"She's in."

"Finally." Moriarty voice drawled over the phone, "What do you plan to do next?"

"Well, we can’t throw her in the deep end straight away otherwise she'll know something is wrong. Like I said, Mr Moriarty, we have to take it slow."

"How slow?"

"Patience is a virtue. If you want this to work, then you will simply have to trust me."

Moriarty didn’t reply.

"Do you trust me, Mr Moriarty? Because if not, we can call this whole thing off - "

"No." He spoke quickly, "I trust you. Just don't let me down or I swear you will regret it."

She rolled her eyes at the empty threat. He needed her for his plan to work and he knew she wasn't afraid of him. To her, his bark was worse than his bite.

"I hear you loud and clear."

"Good."

She frowned at the line not being hung up, "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

"You know not to harm her?"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Mr Moriarty. Now if that's all, I have places go, people to beat and things to steal if you don't mind. We'll chat again soon I'm sure."

"Have a good evening, Ms Black."

"I always do."

Finally, Moriarty hung up. Ms Black sat back in her chair, content with their deal. If all played out well, Elizabeth really would suffer with a true tragedy. She almost didn't want it to happen. But you had to do what you had to do to look after family. Earning money and building up her network would ensure their stability in more ways than one.

Ms Black placed her phone on the table, running her hands through her curly locks before picking it up once again. She typed a quick message and sent it off before pushing her chair away from the desk to leave.

<Speak soon. - C.B.>

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

"Are you sure about this plan?" Sebastian asked Jim for what felt like the umpteenth time.

Jim had sprawled himself across the sofa in their little houseboat after the call had ended. He seemed more lethargic than usual after putting his plan into action. The continual longing for Elizabeth to return to them and 'their side' had done this to him. How could one little thief do this to him?

His right hand man knew the network would continue to suffer if he didn’t miraculously pull Jim out of this rut soon.

Jim's eyes met with Seb's and he sat up, painfully slowly as though he had aged another fifty years just lying there. Then he patted the seat next to him, beckoning his sniper to join him. Which he did. Seb probably had the power, that many longed for and few got, where he could probably refuse the offer but he didn't really feel like testing it.

Once Seb was sat on the sofa beside Jim, the psychopath just leaned his head on Seb's shoulder. He was still. Unmoving. The sniper was awfully confused.

"Jim, I asked a question." Moran spoke quietly.

"Hold me."

Seb, at hearing the request, looked down at Jim resting on his shoulder. For once he could have sworn he was seeing a rare childlike innocence about the psychopath. He did as he was asked and wrapped an arm around him.

Silence echoed save for the tick-tick-ticking of the clock in the houseboat.

"I used to do this for her." Jim finally admitted, his voice sounding overwhelmingly lost, "When she used to come back from the jobs I gave her, we would sometimes sit together after...I should have never sent her to them. I should have sent one of the others. But do you know why I sent her, Seb? Because I knew she wouldn't kill them if something did happen. And I wasn't finished playing with the Holmes boys and their little Watson just yet but because of that she's gone."

Seb sighed, he couldn't be like this forever, "Jim, if she's causing you this much trouble just say the word - I'll grab a gun and - "

"YOU WILL NOT KILL HER, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Seb had barely registered the fact that Jim slipped out from under his arm and was now right up in his face screaming words at him. He still never stirred. Seb had nerves of steel - especially after working with Jim. The psychopaths nostrils flared as his dead eyes burned holes into Seb.

Seb sighed, "Even you said it yourself - Elizabeth is a weakness to you."

"And I will sort this, but in my own way." Jim hissed, sitting on the floor in front of the sofa, "This plan is for the best and you can trust me on that, Sebastian."

"But can you trust yourself? Because I don't think you're looking at this as objectively as you should be." Seb stood up, heading to the door of the houseboat, "I'm going on a walk. See you in a bit, Jim."

Elizabeth was tearing Jim apart bit by bit.

Seb just wished Jim could see it for himself.

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A/N - Do you have a favourite male character (besides Sherlock, John and Moriarty lol) in the series? And do you have a favourite female character?

My fave male character apart from those three would have to be Lestrade - I think I just relate to him as I, too, believe that most things are not my division 😂

As for a fave female character again I genuinely can't choose - there are so many strong female personas in the show and I love them all too much to decide 😭