She had successfully started to talk to the other people, apparently telling a story or joke that made them all laugh.

"Ah, here he is now!" she announced. I felt all the eyes look at me and I sort of stared with awkwardness.

"Hi." I muttered. Maybe I was able to be polite and persuasive with one man, but not with a whole group.

"Come sit down Sherlock, we were just talking about you!" Molly said happily, her smile making me cringe. I hoped it was all an act to get their money, because I hated crowds and attention. Nevertheless, this was for John's life, so I sat next to her on the couch and looked at the intimidating people around me.

"Where was I, oh yes, so we're all extremely confused, because usually he just hides in his room and scowls at everyone, but now he was acting really weird, pretending to be an alien or something." Molly said. Oh great, not only was she making me look like an angry person (which I was, but they didn't need to know that), but she was making me look like an idiot as well.

"Ah yes, this..." I said, pretending to smile.

"He didn't last long of course, because he could barely get a sentence out before he was on the floor laughing." Molly finished. The sponsors laughed, as if that was the most hilarious thing they've heard. "So he goes back to his room and a couple of minutes John comes out, completely ignoring us and starts licking the window." She broke into a fit of laughter along with them, as if it were as funny as she made it sound. I remember that, she wasn't laughing, she had been really confused. "And then he complains it tastes like chicken and walks back to the room. By now I was so confused, so I decided to check on the two of them just to make sure they weren't on drugs or something," she took a moment to catch her breath, "And when I come in Sherlock is about to lick John's foot!" she exclaimed. The room exploded into laughter, some man's champagne spilling over the floor but he didn't seem to notice. I smiled shyly, not seeing the big deal, it wasn't all that funny. "Turns out they were playing truth or dare, but I thought Sherlock turning into an alien was more likely than Sherlock playing a game." Molly admitted. The sponsors got over their laughing, sighing and catching their breath.

"I'm not that much of a grouch!" I defended. "I can have fun!"

"Sherlock I think that could be considered a joke also." She pointed out, getting some chuckles.

"So John Watson right? The one with the necklace who talked to the cameras?" one of the men asked. I guess that was quite popular, even Harry the drunk had pointed it out.

"That was so sweet." A woman exclaimed. I blushed a little bit at that being called sweet, but I guess it was going to work to my advantage.

"Well, I guess we both miss each other a lot." I shrugged.

"I understand you two were close." another man commented. I looked at Molly, who gave me an encouraging nod.

"Ya, I guess we turned into better friends than either of us expected." I shrugged.

"It must have been hard saying goodbye." A woman commented.

"You have no idea." I said with a small laugh.

"He sort of freaked out, I don't know what happened in there before hand, but he was a real mess, we had to sedate him from crawling up the tube to get to John." Molly explained. I blushed, looking at the floor in shame.

"That's so adorable!" the woman exclaimed.

"It's not adorable." I snapped with annoyance. The woman just laughed, as if I was adorable. I looked at the screen on the TV, about done with these people. I didn't care if they had money or not, all they wanted was to get a nice laugh or sob story and pretend to be fresh out of cash. There wasn't much action going on apparently, so they were playing clips from past years. I saw me on one of them, looking up in confusion as the hovercraft came down. I had no idea that I had been the last one alive, I had only killed one person, I thought for sure this torture would go on for a life time. I looked pretty good actually, in a totally rugged starved and beat up kind of way. My hair looked good at least, being blown around by the engines. I hoped John's hair looked that good. I had problems, serious problems. Molly was telling them some other story, I wasn't really paying attention, but the sponsors were starting to lose interest, walking off, watching the TV, or eating food from the platters. After a while Molly decided to call it quits, we said our goodbyes and then got back on the elevator. I was just thankful to see another bloody color other than white.

"That went okay." she decided. "At least they stuck around for a little while, most people see mentors and run."

"That was annoying, do I have to play the sob story roll?" I asked.

"Of course, that's what they want, completely made up stories or humor, love, and sadness. Sorry to say but you have all of those." She pointed out.

"I have sadness, that's it, so shut up." I snapped.

"Oh stop pretending Sherlock, you know a lot of people care about you, you're just too grumpy to see it." she insisted. I frowned again, it was true that I was grumpy, but my fan club wasn't exactly stretching out the door. Yes my family loves me, they kind of have to, and I know Molly and Mrs. Hudson cared for me, that was five. Add John as the special someone that's six. Wow, I was popular. The elevator dinged open and as Molly gave her pass back to the secretary I pocketed mine when they weren't looking. I didn't know when I might want to use it. Neither lady noticed, and we walked easily out of the building. 

"So we'll stop back at the flat for lunch, and then we can go out at night to get some more sponsors." Molly decided.

"Thank god, I can't take this suit much longer." I growled, pulling the tie off in a vicious yank, which made a girl on the other side of the sidewalk walk into a light post. We went back to the tribute center lobby, where Greg was still there, trying to talk to a girl that obviously wanted to talk to him as much as I did. We rode the elevator up, where lunch was on the table and Mrs. Hudson was in the living room, watching the TV.

"You two were both on!" she said happily.

"For what?" Molly asked. I already knew, but I kept my mouth shut.

"Oh, I guess it's a bit dull so they were showing a lot of the previous victor's last stands." Mrs. Hudson shrugged. I sighed, not liking to remember that.

"Is John okay?" I asked anxiously.

"As far as I know, but I think the dehydration is hitting all of the tributes." She guessed. The TV was now showing a tribute hiking up a hill or rocks. My guess was they were walking right up the volcano, but I could be wrong.

"Do you think the volcano will erupt?" I asked.

"Of course, it's volcanic for a reason." Mrs. Hudson said.

"Viewers love lava." Molly shrugged.

"What if it gets everyone, what would they do if they all die?" I asked, just hypothetical.

"Well I guess they all die and that's the end of it." Mrs. Hudson said. I frowned, that would be miserable, but maybe not as bad as seeing another person get fame and riches for killing John.

"Lunch got here way before you did, and I must say it's been tempting." She said, changing the subject. I threw my tie on the couch and sat at the table, looking longingly at John's empty chair. What I wouldn't do to have him sitting right there. Mrs. Hudson and Molly both loaded up their plates, and even I had a couple of potato chips, the first food I've had since John left. I tried to listen to the TV, which was sitting behind me at the moment.

"There's John!" Molly exclaimed, almost spilling her cup of orange soda over the table. I ran to the TV in a panic, sitting so close to the screen I felt like I could reach out and touch him. He was poking around the bushes again, looking desperate. It was at the bottom of a hill, so I knew he was searching for water. His face was paler than usual and his movements were sluggish, signs of dehydration of course. Now I was very worried about him, I hadn't seen any water in the entire arena, with any of the tributes. It switched away to the tribute climbing up the mountain, who was currently rock climbing up big boulder-like rocks.

"He's thirsty, he's looking for water, we need to get a sponsor to give him some, please, how much is water?" I asked.

"It's really expensive since the tributes really need it and it serves no entertainment purposes. It's actually one of the most expensive things there is." Molly mumbled.

"Great, how do we get that money?" I asked hopefully.

"Well we can try the sob story again I guess." She shrugged. I grabbed my tie off the couch and started tying it in a frantic knot.

"Let's go!" I decided, clicking the elevator button.

"Where are we going, I'm not done with my lunch!" Molly defended, stuffing the remainder of her chicken salad sandwich in her mouth and waving good bye to Mrs. Hudson as she ran to join me in the elevator.

"Can you give me a second?" she asked after she swallowed, digging lipstick and a mirror out of her purse and refreshing it.

"We need to get John water." I said simply, walking out of the elevator with a fast pace. Molly struggled to keep up, stuffing the lipstick in her bag and jogging in her high heels.

"Where can we go where sponsors will be?" I asked.

"I don't know, maybe a sports bar?" she shrugged.

"Rich people hang out in sports bars?" I asked.

"Everyone does." She groaned, as if it were the most annoying thing in the world. "But now there are no sports on, the games pretty much is all they watch." She pointed out.

"Get as much money as you can." I insisted, now following her down the street to where ever this bar was. She led me to a thick wooden door, and when we stepped inside it smelled like beer and peanuts. The room was dark and there were a couple of tables, but the bar itself was enormous, men and women all sitting on stools and talking loudly. The music itself made my ears hurt. But she was right; the games were on the TV, like every other TV in Panem. Molly went right up, sitting in a stool and ordering something. I took the chair next to her, watching as the bar tender poured her a glass of wine.

"Anything for you sir?" he asked, handing her the glass. I opened my mouth but Molly just slapped my arm.

"No thank you. You are way too young to be dinking Sherlock!" she exclaimed. I just frowned at her and looked to my left. There was a guy sitting there, he looked young, with dark hair and was sipping at a beer on the table.

"Hello." I said quickly, trying to see if he would be willing to sponsor. He looked my way, smiling politely.

"Hey, I'm Jim, you?" he asked.

"Sherlock Holmes." I said. I heard Molly talking to whoever was on her side.

"No way! Sherlock Holmes, last year's victor right?" Jim asked with shock, as if I was some rare superstar.

"Ya, I think so." I said, making him chuckle.

"You were awesome in the games, I was sure you were dead but look at you now!" he said happily.

"Thanks, I guess." I muttered.

"Nothing personal mate, just the facts."

"I suppose you know this year's tribute then, John Watson?" I asked hopefully.

"Cute blonde kid right?" he asked. I squinted suspiciously at him; no one called John cute except me.

"Ya, him." I agreed.

"Ya I've seen him, he was talking to you right?" he asked.

"That seems to come up everywhere I go." I sighed.

"Well it made a big impact, no other tribute does that, and he sounded like he really missed you." Jim pointed out.

"Well, I hope he does." I muttered. Jim laughed as if that had been a joke or something.

"You two have a thing?" he asked with a small smile, hitting me lightly in the shoulder as if we had been friends for years.

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"That's a yes if I've never heard one." he pointed out. "Let me buy you a drink." He decided, flagging over the waitress.

"Oh, I really shouldn't, Molly will kill me." I muttered. He leaned over to see her sitting next to me and frowned.

"Girlfriend?" he asked.

"God no, just friend that keeps an annoyingly close eye on me." I muttered.

"Hey you, give me another beer!" he called. I looked over at Molly nervously as Jim handed me the bottle, but she was too in depth with the conversation she was having with whoever was sitting next to her. Jim popped the cap off for me and I almost wished Molly would yell at me, Jim was kind of too friendly, like Greg, he was annoying.

"So, you and John, how far has it gone?" he asked as I sipped the drink cautiously. It wasn't at all as mind calming as the whiskey had been.

"I said it's none of your business!" I insisted. Jim just laughed again, a laugh that didn't match his cold eyes.

"Hey Jim, I was..." a man walked up to him, but seeing me he stopped talking immediately. He had sandy dark blonde hair and looked like an ex-soldier or because he was very tall and muscular.

"Ah, Sherlock, this is Sebastian, Seb, this is Sherlock Holmes, last year's victor." Jim said, glancing at the man.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Holmes, always nice to meet a celebrity." He said. With that he took the seat next to Jim, great, now I had two weird people to deal with.

"So, as I was saying, John Watson, he's out there suffering, there's no water out there and I'm really scared for him, anything you two can invest would be appreciated so much." I decided, getting to the point immediately.

"Oh dear, sorry Sherly, we're victors too, District three." Jim said. Sherly? Really?

"Oh, sorry for bothering you then." I muttered, really wanting to get up and leave now.

"It's quite alright; we're just on a bit of a break from trying to get those rich lads' money as well. We don't have much to worry about, they're both Careers again." Jim shrugged, as if that made his life kind of dull.

"Even the Careers need water." I pointed out, looking up at the TV screen to prove my point. One of the other tributes, I don't know from what district, had actually found a small puddle of water and was drinking it so fast you'd think it was the last water on Earth, which, in this situation, was actually quite likely. I wanted to point out that she'd probably die from some bacteria since she drank it straight from the ground, and the Capital wouldn't just leave water clean like that.

"And they will find some, eventually, but for now they have the water in their foods to keep them going." Sebastian pointed out. I frowned, he was right of course, and the only foods that the Capital provides in those backpacks are dry things, like dried beef and crackers. I didn't understand what was so entertaining about dehydration, but it was definitely the #1 cause of death in the games.

"Have you gotten any sponsors yet? Johnny looks like he needs them." Jim asked me with a smile I didn't return. I was very much aware that John needed them, and I didn't like it when other people pointed out I was doing my job wrong. He made me very uneasy; he seemed like the type of guy who could kill you with a flick of his hand simply because he'd get Sebastian to do it for him. There was a sort of evil I could sense, behind his innocent smile and his friendly conversation.

"Not yet, only started this morning." I muttered. Sebastian whispered something into Jim's ear, and suddenly he looked rather worried.

"We need to get going, but I'm sure I'll be seeing you very soon Mr. Holmes." Jim decided, sticking out a hand for me to shake. I shook his hand reluctantly, and he just smiled at me and walked off with Sebastian.