He gets home.

Drops bags. Items bought from Tesco fall out and splay out over the floor.

The tin of tuna is the reason John gets the drop on his attacker.

With a grunt, the blonde man over balances, seems almost to turn his ankle.

John’s military training takes over. He couldn’t have analysed what happened in the following minutes.

When it is over, there is a strange blonde man on his floor, breathing shallowly. Bending, John feels for a pulse, ascertaining he is still alive before calling the police.

Strange, but it’s the first time London’s finest have been in his home since Sherlock…

John very carefully doesn’t pay any attention to Sally as she does her job. She doesn’t pay much attention to him either.

The apartment is horribly empty upon their removal of both themselves and his attacker. John finds himself considering he would have spoken to Sally had she come back then.

The time is 4 in the morning. Not an average time for an attack.

“A desperate maneuver after the news of Moriarty was let out.”

“Expected, given the circumstances.”

Funny. John thought that having his place watched would stop those circumstances from playing out the way they had done.

“Taking him in for questioning.”

Well, that was reassuring at the least. He thought about taking Lestrade up on that offer of a beer.

Then the message comes through.

It’s finished. Moriarty’s web is broken. My work is done, for now. Heading home. - SH

*

John stares into thin air. He doesn’t know what to do with this. He does not know what to do with this.

It’s half 4 am or else John might have considered calling his psychologist. No, not might have considered. Would have, and walked right on over there, right now. Maybe the walk would have cleared his head.

There was no head clearing. John didn’t know what he felt. All the work he’d done with the psychologist had been towards an end that it would seem was no longer relevant.

No…

John had seen him fall. It had to be a trick. It had to be…

Moriarty. Had to be. Which meant John’s attacker tonight… Was it really that much of a surprise his attacker had been part of Moriarty’s web, rather than some unrelated crazy figure prompted to a desperate act because of something on the news?

Yes. That made much more sense. John wished that the reasoning made him feel more steady.

That was when he realises his mobile phone is being clutched so tight its digging into the skin of his palm.

It vibrates.

A message.

Baker Street, five minutes.

No.

No no. Whether this is Moriarty, one of Moriarty’s games or -dear god- Sherlock himself, John doesn’t know he can handle anything else right now. Maybe ever. He clicks out of the message seemingly from Sherlock, thumb hovering over the key that will call Lestrade’s number.

In a removed part of himself, John considers it strange how he’s spent so much time and energy denying Sherlock’s death when, now faced with the very real possibility he was still alive, John is struggling against that as well.

He eases away from Lestrade’s number, going again to the message that seems to be from Sherlock. He stares at it a while, then prepares to make an answer to it.

You— God, Sherlock. How could you? All this time. All this bloody time you’ve been—

John hovers over that message for some minutes, only pressing the ‘send’ button when he realised he knows nothing better to say. What does one say on situations such as this? Since being around Sherlock, John has been in some pretty tricky situations, but he’d never thought… and there’s never *been* any situations like this.

Hyper sensitive in the aftermath of the fight he’s had, John hears a footstep scuffle outside his door. Tense doesn’t quite seem to fit the way John’s body feels. He becomes suddenly aware again of the five minute warning Sherlock gave him… five minutes before.

No - just stay there.

His fingers start to shake as he sends off that last message. Another message comes through for him and John realises, realises why his fingers start to shake.

He is starting to believe. The threat from Moriarty’s web of connections is over now, and Sherlock might really be back.