Posted by Bowen Cates on 3/9/2008, 9:18 pm
24.207.121.197
Chapter 15: In Which Holmes’ Worse Fears Are Realized
“It would seem that Mr. Bamfield has been of greater assistance than we could have anticipated” 2103 Holmes admitted, addressing himself.
“Then you could have, you mean, of course” returned his counterpart with a playful glimmer in his eyes.
“That slight has been inevitable since I interrupted you earlier this morning has it not?”
“Indeed.”
“Theodore you may cease to chuckle in that self important manner.”
“Sorry sir” he apologized quickly, catching himself as another wave of laughter began to take control.
He couldn’t help it, at home he had always wished for a double of himself, he had thought that it would be fun, to have a friend that loved everything you loved, did everything you did, he had never thought about ever disagreeing with himself.
The four of them had arrived back at Baker Street about fifteen minutes before. Watson and the three irregulars had beaten them by about half an hour. Now the entire group was sitting together in a little knot by the fireplace; 2103 Holmes in his usual armchair, Watson in his, 1800 Holmes, disguise removed, and clothed in his traditional Victorian garb, in a woven basket chair that Theodore was sure was the same one mentioned countless times in the stories.
Theodore himself, along with the three irregulars, were seated in the oaken chairs that had been pulled away from the table. Lestrade, as overbearing as ever, was leaning against the doorframe with a decidedly purposeful look on her face.
Theodore couldn’t help but think that she was glaring at him, after all, he had lived up to his insinuation of earlier, he had done better then she had, maybe not by himself, but still…
He found himself locked in competition with this woman, he couldn’t understand it, he really should like her, she had helped both Holmes’s, she had brought 2103 Holmes back to life…and yet, and yet…
“Well Theodore?” it was 2103 Holmes, quickly he pulled himself back down to earth.
“Sorry, I was thinking.”
“Yes, as I observed.”
Jeez, couldn’t Holmes cut him a little slack once in a while?
“Could you say it again?” he asked, cheeks ablaze.
“Very well, I was saying, now that Powell’s motives have become clear, a change of plan is called for-”
“Sorry?” Theodore had an urge to clean out his ears “did you say that we know why Powell made the time machine?”
“Indeed I did” 2103 Holmes smiled secretively, evidently pleased with the effect that his words and wrought on the subject of his attention.
“Well? What is it?” Theodore prompted, leaning forward with anticipation.
“Indeed Holmes, I think we should all like to hear what you have to say” Watson said, while looking strategically from one of his friend to the other.
Theodore could hear Deidre whispering again, “I think I missed somethin’, what’s this plan we’re changin’?”
Wiggins shrugged; Tennyson was too busy listening to 2103 Holmes to respond to his friends.
“Lestrade?” 2103 Holmes turned to the inspector, catching her eye meaningfully “perhaps you would wish to explain to your audience how the matter stands?”
Theodore felt sorry for her, the way Holmes had said ‘your audience’…he knew what was coming, he could just hear her ‘uh…I dunn-’
“It’s you isn’t it?” she asked, staring at her addressor with an air of comprehension.
Shocked, all Theodore could do was wait for the detective’s reply.
“Indeed, would you care to elaborate on that for those of us who have not yet been included in Theodore’s recent discovery?”
“Uh…well…” she straitened her shoulders, took a breath and began to speak, this time with a new energy, the likes of which Theodore had seen only once before.
“You, Holmes, you’re what this is all about, when Powell heard that I’d gone to Hargreaves to get you reanimated he flipped.
“It was one more discovery taken away from him, I’ll bet that he’d been working on rejuvenation long before this, probably ever since he got wind of the fact that Hargreaves was.
“The problem was that it’s almost impossible to find bodies that have been preserved” she added thoughtfully “and new bodies are hard to get because only a few of them are given to science by their Wills or by the person’s families. And even after that, only the ones that the hospitals and research centers don’t want are given up for privet experimentation.”
1800 Holmes nodded and 2103 Holmes waved his had for her to continue.
“Well, it was only a matter of who could get the test subject first, and when I came to Hargreaves - with your body Holmes - well, he had his subject.
“The only thing is I don’t think he even knew about Powell, him working on the same thing, I don’t think anyone did, otherwise it would have been on the news along with Hargreaves the day I decided to talk to him.
“So Hargreaves brings you back” she continued, her eyes frosted over as if she could see it all in front of her at that very moment “and that drives Powell wild, he looks through a bunch of hospital files, but he can’t find a test subject.
“So what does he do? He decides to go back, to make it so he can be the one to reanimate the world’s greatest detective…he begins to build a time machine, but this guy has been keeping up with Hargreaves for ages and has wasted all his money on it.
“He has the thing planned out…he…he…gets desperate.”
She had almost stopped for a moment, unsure about what came next, the eyes of everyone in the room were glued on her and she must have been feeling the heat of their gazes. But just as she had been about to give up 2103 Holmes had nodded encouragingly at her, and it had been enough to restore Lestrade’s fire.
“Ya, he gets desperate. He needs funding, but he doesn’t have permission from the government to make the machine, and he knows he won’t get it, so he goes to someone who has means of getting money”. She paused again
“But what I can’t understand is if he was going to try to re-bring-back Sherlock Holmes why he would want to get involved with Moriarty…”
“May I suggest” began 1800 Holmes at the nod of his counterpart “that Moriarty presented himself to Powell - whom he knew from the beginning, was engaged in the making of a time machine - under a false name, and appearance?”
“Oh, okay, that makes sense” she did not seem to find this suggestion at all annoying but jumped right back into the narration of her remarkable statement.
“So, he asks Moriarty, who he doesn’t know is Moriarty, but then…” she seemed to be mulling things over for a moment, then a sudden gleam of understanding burst into life behind her eyes.
“But then he figures out who Moriarty is! And realizes he’s in a lot of zedding trouble! How can he get rid of this guy? He’s under the power of the greatest criminal genius of all time! He cuts Moriarty off! Won’t accept any more money from him, figuring on it being stolen!
“I’ll bet Powell promised him that he could use the time machine once or twice as a swap for the funding! Moriarty really wants that time machine! He needs it cause he wants to go back and stop Holmes from ever coming back to life! Probably by killing me and blowing up Holmes’ corpse….
She did not seem at all sensitive to that fact that both Holmes’ might find the thought of being blown up a bit unnerving.
“He does the only thing he can! He breaks into Powell’s lab and steals the plans for it! But something goes wrong, he knows the guard won’t be along for a while cause he knows the house like the back of his hand from all the times he’s met with Powell in secret…but maybe the guard was early or the theft went slower then planned…or…or maybe Fenwick messed up!
“So the guard sees him…and, that’s where we started off, but…but…the thing is did the assistant know? And he just told the kid” she said, indicating Theodore as though he were a lamp or a chair “'cause he didn’t want to get thrown in the slammer, or is he innocent…?
“He is innocent.” 1800 Holmes interrupted “as I believe I have already clarified.”
“Oh ya, sorry, I forgot” she shrugged “So am I right?” she asked glancing around eagerly.
“Indeed” 2103 Holmes affirmed, “I think it extremely probable that that is how events occurred, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
“Wow!” Theodore had to admit that Lestrade had done a very nice job; he wouldn’t have given her credit for it had he not heard it himself.
“Well done inspector! Really superb!” Watson was all smiles; he began to applaud, the irregulars joining in and then Theodore.
But Lestrade wasn’t looking at them, in fact, her gaze was focused entirely on 2103 Holmes, Theodore couldn’t see why at first, but then he noticed something different about the detective’s face…it was so slight that you could hardly make it out But it was there all the same. Theodore had had to rub his eyes in order to be absolutely certain.
2103 Holmes, was smiling, a real smile, and although it had lasted only a second or two, the point was that it was there. It wasn’t like the smile 1800 Holmes had given Theodore…no, this smile had a whole new meaning, and Theodore didn’t like the look of it one bit.
Ripping his eyes away from the detectives face Theodore looked over at 1800 Holmes, and almost fell off his chair, he looked absolutely mortified. His eyes were wide with horror and he was even whiter then when he had been shot. Now there was no denying it, 1800 Holmes had seen the same thing on his future self’s face that Theodore had.
Affection.
Not an encouraging friendship ‘you did very well’ kind of affection, but a real man and woman type of thing.
Theodore felt distinctly sick…
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