Posted by Bowen Cates on 4/3/2008, 6:05 pm
24.207.121.197
Chapter 21: In Which Theodore Lightens the Mood
The moment the door’s lock clicked into place Theodore ran over to Lestrade, ignoring the snickers of the guards and fell to his knees in silent desperation.
“What’s wrong with him?” he demanded, gesturing at 2103 Holmes.
The inspector turned her head to face him, she had a large bruise starting across her cheek and her right eye looked a bit tender.
Theodore was so horrified that he lost his balance for a moment and tumbled backward, hitting the back of his head on the floor. The guards snickered.
“What did he do to you!” he gasped, righting himself.
Lestrade smiled tiredly and tightened her grip around the detective “well, to make a long story short…Moriarty pulled out an ionizer, shot Holmes of the past, but I decided to get in the way of him shooting Holmes of the present.”
“You mean you tried to stop him?” his eyes widened.
Lestrade’s smile turned into a full-fledged grin for a moment, but she concealed it quickly, apparently not wishing to aggravate the sensibilities of the guards, who at present surrounded them.
“Well, it was stupid, as a result he ended up using maximum stun, wrecks havoc on the nervous system, see what I mean?”
She let her grip on Holmes go a bit, and it was immediately apparent that the detective was not – as Theodore had noticed before – only sweating, but shaking as well, he also seemed unaware as to where he was or who was holding him.
“So, that’s what’s wrong with him? Moriarty shot him with an ionizer?” Theodore had a strange urge to vomit.
“Ya, about six inches away from his ches.t” the inspector’s jaw set suddenly, rage kindling suddenly inside her, igniting the whites of her eyes until her spirit burned from them like hot ash. She took a deep breath and continued.
“Any closer and the zedder might as well have set it for kill, his twin didn’t get it so bad but…well, we haven’t seen him since, Moriarty had his thugs take him back down the hall. Then he shot everyone else too, lower setting, but I don’t think he’s willing to risk us being able to talk to each other.”
She adjusted her grip around Holmes again and propped him up a bit better against her shoulder.
“It wouldn’t be such a big deal if Watson was operational…but as it is, well, I’m just glad he’s so stubborn.”
Before Theodore could open his mouth to reply, Deidre cut in suddenly from behind them “Inspector, that ‘uge green tank out there, was that the one Mr. ‘Olmes was brought back in?”
Theodore had almost forgotten that anyone else was in the room. Lestrade’s bruise and Holmes’ condition had been monopolizing his attention.
Upon turning around to face her, he could see that her eyes were desperately wide, as if trying to communicate some other meaning then her words had suggested, Greg too was looking at her as if willing her to succeed in conveying her message.
Lestrade looked at Theodore, she seemed confused, it was obvious to him that Deidre already knew the answer to that question, and that Lestrade knew she knew…what then, could be the purpose of her asking it? Not to mention the fact that it seemed irrelevant to their current situation.
Lestrade nodded despite her confusion “ya…it is.”
“But it was empty” Deidre continued, “You said Hargreaves filled it with water.”
“Ya…”
Greg cut in; he was sweating a great deal and seemed to be choking on his own words. Theodore had never seen a more desperate looking soul in his life “that doesn’t make sense Deidre, how would he breathe?” he gasped out, trying and failing to gain composure.
Theodore could hear the guards muttering “stupid kids.”
Suddenly Lestrade’s face lit up, even behind the growing bruise, one could tell that she had found something in her companions’ seemingly meaningless babble that he had not.
She looked at him, trying desperately to convey the meaning of it all, her eyes wide with what could only be dread.
“I forgot, we didn’t tell you about that did we Theo? Sorry.” and then, turning to Greg “Hargreaves put Holmes in the tank, put an air mask on him and filled it up to the top with water, you’re right, he would have drowned if he hadn’t had the mask on.”
Another guard started muttering back to his companion “is it just me? Or are they goin’ ‘round in circles, no wonder the yard ‘as a reputation for stupidity.”
Theodore didn’t understand…Lestrade knew perfectly well that she had told him about that upon his first arriving in 2103…Then, all at once, it hit him what they were trying to say.
He nodded quickly to show he had understood, and for all three of them the tension became noticeably eased.
Just then, Holmes, who was still being held in a sitting position by Lestrade, let out a low moan, and his right arm strained violently.
Moriarty had kept his word all right, not one drop of blood had been spilled, Theodore had never felt so murderous in his entire life.
Suddenly, before Lestrade could stop him, the detective began to mutter.
“Knows…he knows…Lestrade…tell the boy he knows.”
Lestrade looked up at Theodore in bewilderment, but then directed her gaze back to her charge.
“Holmes…I don’t understand,” she told him, as gently and as quietly as she could.
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