Distant Minds {{Sherlock Rp with Circledude5}}

[Circledude5]

Sherlock couldn't've slowed down, even if he'd been bribed with six "eight cases". Because when Sherlock Holmes was in the middle of something, he was in the middle of something. And that meant that he would work literally day and night until he came up with the solution.


Once, he'd gone nine days with no food or sleep, simply sustaining himself on coffee and tea during one particularly challenging and fascinating case. When he'd finally caught the kidnapper, he'd immediately moved on to one of his bacteria experiments and promptly collapsed on the stairwell (he had been on his way to go collect samples of algae from the Thames, but never made it out the door). When John had come back from clinic that evening, he'd panicked slightly, thinking that his flatmate had ingested or inhaled some sort of toxic substance before realising that that the big idiot had pushed himself to the limits of exhaustion until he dropped. Sherlock slept for a solid seventeen hours after that.


That was not a memory Sherlock liked to hear John retelling.


"Molly, in about ten minutes, another body will come in. When it does, I need you to do a full autopsy and a tox scan." Sherlock said very quickly and very excitedly, "Can you do that?"


"Um, yes. I should be." Molly said, a bit timidly.


"Excellent! Wonderful! And also I need to use the lab." He held up the ID he'd taken from her coat.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera and John ran in at the end of the conversation. Sherlock was delightfully puzzling. He seemed not to care about anything and then something interesting popped up and he was off like a rocket.


She walked up behind John and watched as Sherlock held up a card the obviously wasn't his. She grinned and shook her head incredulously at his nonchalance.

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock turned towards the lab and swiped Molly's card to get in. "Come on!" Molly, wringing her hands, went in after him, followed by both John and Ciera.


He prepared the equipment, laying out the vials containing the swabs, setting up the microscope, grabbing a stack of sterilised Petri dishes and a rack of test tubes. Sherlock didn't know why he wanted to, but he intended to see just how well his new acquaintance performed in a lab. As she appeared in the doorway, he waltzed over and held out one of the vials containing a mouth swab.


"Test this for hydrogen cyanide." Sherlock instructed, "If he died of hydrogen cyanide exposure, you should find some."

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera shrugged and pulled on a pair of elastic gloves before taking the vial and walking over to the table. She mixed a solution together quickly and put a few drops into the vial.


In theory, the solution would covert the cyanide into a gas and then would trap it in a base, which had been mixed into the solution. The cyanide should have then reacted with a second substance and become luminescent when exposed to light. She held up the vial and watched as the fluid began to give off its own eerie glow. "Cyanide it is." Ciera commented as she brought the vial back down.

 

[Circledude5]

"Cyanide it is." Ciera said, causing Sherlock to look up from what he was doing sharply.


"What did you say?" Without waiting for an answer, Sherlock strode over and took the vial from her hand. Indeed, it was glowing slightly. The victim was poisoned by hydrogen cyanide?





Sherlock was shocked. He'd been expecting her to come up with nothing. The entire purpose had been to see what she would do when she was unsuccessful in finding one thing. He had found what he had been expecting to find; his swab had tested positive on containing the VX toxin. "Fascinating." He murmured. "A combination of VX and hydrogen cyanide."

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera raised an eyebrow. "But why would someone use a combination of the two? Either would have been lethal on its own." Ciera murmured to herself. "Unless they were only put there to hide the real cause of death."


Thinking about it, it did make sense. From what she had heard, until now the initial cause of death was believed to be a single gunshot wound to the chest. Steps had been taken every step of the way to divert anyone from looking any further into the cause of death. Then there had been the last body. Perhaps both of these toxins were simply another diversion.

 

[Circledude5]

"An odd sort of double bluff..." Sherlock considered the idea. Yes, it did make sense. The possibility that Moriarty was behind the whole thing accounted for the use of rarer and less-common substances. Perhaps another there was another substance in use? But what else could possibly go unnoticed? Ah. That would make sense.


Realising he couldn't see anything, he turned vision back on and looked at Ciera. "That's certainly a possibility."


Sherlock looked around the room for Molly and saw her standing about eight feet away from the counter that he had been working on. "Molly, when that body comes in in approximately two minutes, could you also be absolutely sure to look for DNA cell damage in the oesophagus, stomach, and lungs?"


"Um...yes." She said. Sherlock nodded once before looking back to Ciera.


"The thing is, they were definitely poisoned. There were clear signs that this one vomited, and there were obvious indications of over-active salivation and mucus production." Sherlock said, not really to her, but rather to sort of lay out his information verbally.


[oh yeah also if I start to reference something you don't completely understand (the new substance is PO210 by the way) sorry I'm kind of chemistry-geeking out right now]

 

[Shadow Cat]

((Omg me too. I am loving this))


Ciera looked at Sherlock as he laid out the information. "So I'm guessing you have an idea on what the actual cause of death might be?" Ciera said as she walked back over to the table and took another sample, running another test to see if any other chemicals were used in case they meant something later.


Looking up, she said, "Hm. That's odd. Strychnine. It's like someone took a chemical cocktail and dumped it down this guy's throat."

 

[Circledude5]

[everything; it's all chemistry and physics. It's why I like them so much]


Sherlock had watched her as she ran the test, his mind racing. He was starting to connect things in his head. "Strychnine, cyanide, and VX. I need those tests from Molly, but I think I know...I need to test the swabs I took from his nose. That will hopefully prove to be conclusive. Why did I only take two?"





He was going to test them for the toxins found on the swabs from the mouth. If they were found in the nostrils, it would mean that the chemicals had been inhaled. If not, then they had only been ingested. Sherlock supposed it didn't really matter, but then again - it gave more clue as to how the killer operated.

 

[Shadow Cat]

((I love chemistry but I'm more of a sucker for theoretical physics and quantum mechanics. I guess I just like contemplating the improbable.))


Ciera turned as she finished and put the vial on the rack with the rest of the samples that had been tested before turning back to Sherlock.


"So why exactly did you bring me along? I mean I'm assuming it wasn't just to run the tests, as you or Molly could have done that I'm sure. And you said yourself that you didn't particularly enjoy my presence. You aren't even telling me everything. You both obviously know much more about this M than you're letting on. So why exactly am I here?"


Molly had gone to conduct the autopsy, leaving the trio waiting for results. They weren't doing anything else, so she assumed it wouldn't hurt to ask.

 

[Circledude5]

[a lot of theoretical physics and most of quantum mechanics has to do with chemistry]


Sherlock looked at her blankly as he composed his answer carefully. He acted extremely proud, he knew that. John liked to call him egocentric and narcissistic, which, in all honesty, did hurt. It was sort of a coping mechanism for him. With all the anxiety of life, the stress of trying to stay out of complete insanity, he'd always tried to just be normal. But no, according to his father, he had and always would be broken.


He had been wrong. Again. She wasn't boring, and for the first time since he'd first encountered Moriarty, he felt that maybe, maybe, she understood. Of course, that's not what he said. What he said was, "You've proven to be less of an imbecile than Anderson, I have yet to find reason to insult your every verdict, and you at least know how to handle evidence an a crime scene properly. And I only have a vague idea of who this 'M' is, I assure you."

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera nodded, the thought crossing her mind that there was obviously much more to him than met the eye.


She turned back to the samples, a few things crossing her mind. The strychnine was a neurotoxin, causing convulsions and spasms. It would be quite the scene for the observer. But viewing a death from any of the toxins found would have been a scene on it's own. And for all they know, there could be more.


"Tell Molly to collect a few more samples from the mouth and nose for testing. Just in case we're missing chemicals and they turn out to mean something later."


She paused for a moment before saying, "And I'm sure I'll be promoted soon. I don't think I'll be working under Anderson long with my qualifications."


((I know, which is why I also enjoy chemistry,but I like branching out to larger categories that most people don't stop to think about. Hence theoretical physics.))

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock thought he'd heard Ciera say something, but was too busy pacing in his mother's office to focus on what she had said.


VX


Hydrogen Cyanide


Strychnine


Why would the killer use two neurotoxins with essentially the same effects? Well, that wasn't entirely true. Those exposed to VX would probably only have time to vomit and get themselves covered with facial fluids before death. Well, if exposed to the gas, anyways. Both hydrogen cyanide and strychnine would take longer to kill. So if they'd all been introduced at the same time, the VX would have proven lethal first. But the question still stood: were all these poisons being used to cover up something else as well? Were they, like the gunshot, simply a smoke cover?


Sherlock thought about it. He had to get those tests back from Molly. How long would it be until she came back with the results? Why did he have to wait? Was there nothing to do? This was so irritating! He just wanted to -


"Sherlock!"


John's voice broke off his train of thought. He suddenly became aware that he had been pacing rather violently and stopped abruptly. He put his hands down from where they had automatically gravitated underneath his chin, turned his head to look at his flatmate.


[ah, of course theoretical physics always draws them in. I had a very long conversation about this with one of my good friends, but the fact remained that I still corrected her multiple times on the composition of atoms in our collab story]

 

[Shadow Cat]

((I can't even have discussions about these things with my friends. They don't exactly share my interests. I do have one though who likes discussing the possibility of time travel, so I teach her all I can lol))


Ciera had been lost in her own train of thought. Her mind was essentially grasping at straws trying to figure out what the chemicals actually meant. Of course if they were missing any, than that might change their collective meaning all together.


Or perhaps the chemicals were just hiding the real cause of death. And if that were the case, then it was a good bet that the real cause of death would lead them somewhere, and if not to the killer, then it would at least provide a stepping stone.


"Sherlock!" John's voice came rushing through the thoughts and her head snapped over to see why he had spoken.

 

[Circledude5]

[yeah, I try to choose friends who will actually wish to talk to me about what I enjoy...if you like space-time travel, I found this excellent paper by some professors who are also huge Doctor Who fans. I'd send you the link, but I'm on mobile...]


John was at the door, "For God's sake, you both look insane. I'm going to the canteen. Do you want anything?"


Under usual case circumstances, Sherlock would have refused, gone back to his microscope. But right now they had to wait for Molly to finish the autopsy and scans and that would take at least another hour and a half. And those tests would be their only leads. So, instead of declining, he said, "Coffee. Black. Two sugars."


John shrugged and grinned. Probably because Sherlock had that bad habit of neglecting his personal care when on a case and any indication of willingly ingesting a drink was good progress. Then, John turned to Ciera, eyebrows raised.

 

[Shadow Cat]

"Cup of Chai tea, one sugar." Ciera replied as she pinched the bridge of her nose in something between excitement and frustration.


There were so many possibilities, and not one could be confirmed nor denied until the autopsy was finished. Which would undoubtedly take at least another hour and a half. Until then the only thing they could do is wait. And as she had mentioned earlier, patience was definitely not one of her virtues.


She reluctantly pulled herself out of her thoughts in an effort to show John that she had not gone completely insane as he had said they both looked.


((It's completely fine because I'm on mobile as well.))

 

[Circledude5]

Sherlock took his coat from the door and settled on the floor against the cupboards of the back counter in the lab. He huddled into his coat and took out his phone again. He'd been reading a new publication about bees before his last case came up, and only just remembered about it. It was about how they were going extinct, and all the plants and foods that relied on them. He had just about...seven pages left. That would take a good twenty minutes. He would figure out what else to do after he finished reading his article.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera leaned against the counter and took out her own phone. She opened a few tabs on her browser and used one to get on a website that she often did HTML and CSS coding for the moderators. She then used another tab to pull a color palette before using the third to pull up the new set of requirements they wanted for the site. Switching between the tabs, she was soon completely absorbed in her work.

 

[Circledude5]

When he'd finished reading, Sherlock looked round to see Ciera hunched over her phone, tapping away furiously, a paper cup of steaming tea untouched by her elbow. John was frowning down at a newspaper, and Sherlock knew that he was having difficulty with a new crossword, picked up from the canteen no doubt. He stood up, causing John's focus to moved from the paper to him.


Another hour.


He felt rather than heard or saw John go back to the crossword again. He saw his own untouched coffee on the counter and took a sip, allowing the caffiene and the bitter taste to focus his mind. In the middle of his seventh, he got a sudden idea as to what he could do in the meantime and slammed the cup down with such force that half of what little coffee was left sloshed out. But Sherlock didn't pay it any mind, he was already racing out the door.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera glanced up suddenly as she heard something slam down on the table followed by a splashing sound. Sherlock was rushing out the door and John was still sitting, obviously startled by the sudden movement. "Now where's he going?" Ciera asked John who had stood from his spot. After a brief shrug, John rushed after Sherlock with Ciera close behind.

 

[Circledude5]

[oh, also mechanics]


Yes, he could have walked. Yes, he was sprinting down the corridor of a hostpital. Yes, technically that wasn't safe. No, he wasn't going to slow down. He had gotten an idea - not directly about the case, no - but he desperately needed something to do. He couldn't just wait for the results to come back in!


He was running to the supply room, which he had stolen supplies from plenty of times before. The one on the first floor had all the office supplies, and he'd managed not to spend a single pound on any of the twine, whitetac, or pushpins he'd used for the past year or so by just swiping a couple things every time he paid a visit.


He burst inside, and found a bespectacled medical student balancing a stack of Manila folders, staples, and sticky notes on one hand, while his other fumbled with his ID card. The student was startled by the entrance of the mad man in the big coat and decided that he should probably get to wherever he was going as fast as possible because the mad man in the big coat was glaring at him to get moving.


Sherlock pushed inside and emerged from the small room with a gigantic piece of butcher paper, a box of different coloured permanent markers, tape, thumbtacks, string, and, of course, whitetac. He dumped most of the supplies into an out-of-breath John's arms and then started briskly back for the lab.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera slid to a halt rather abruptly when Sherlock emerged from a closet with a box of supplies. She watched as he dumped the majority of the supplies into John's arms and then rushed past her again heading back to the lab. "Blimey." Ciera muttered as she turned on her heel and followed once again.

 

[Circledude5]

"Come along, John!" Sherlock said over his shoulder just as he rounded the corner.


He thought he heard John hiss a few of his choice expletives, but couldn't be sure. But then again, that would be quite like him.


He tossed the ball of twine from hand to hand and swiped one of Mike Stamford's cards to get back in to the lab, hearing a chugging John still muttering curse words under his breath coming down the hallway.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Ciera couldn't suppress a grin as she followed a step behind Sherlock as he darted down the hall, stopping only for a moment to swipe another key card for the lab. John was lagging behind with the bulk of Sherlock's supplies in hand. He seemed to be muttering something, but she didn't slow down to find out what it was. She did however slow down when her phone rang.


Slowing down as they reached the lab, Ciera lagged behind to look at the caller ID.


"Hey Anderson." She said as she answered the phone.

 

[Circledude5]

[post 100! Yay! ]


Sherlock left the door unlocked. He took off his coat and cleared off the floor by pushing all the stools and moveable items to the wall. He was just about to see where his two people had gone when the door swung open and Ciera walked in, on the phone. John followed a few seconds later with the box, and he shoved it back into the detective.