athena ➢ sherlock's daughter

Chapter 23

Moriarty and Heartbreak

Athena was finally home from school on her last day at Avalon. Warmth had spread through her entire body, and it kept a smile on her face the whole day. So when she walked inside the flat, she called out, "Sherlock? Can we go to that record shop downtown?"

He called back in a rather discomforted and forced voice, "In a bit. Go visit Mrs. Hudson for a while, will you? I'm a little busy at the moment."

She placed her backpack on the floor next to the staircase and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What?" she mumbled to herself. Then, to Sherlock, she said, "Mrs. Hudson is out. She's been on holiday all week with her friend Linda."

"Oh, come now, Sherlock. Let me see my favorite girl," a Scottish voice said just loud enough for her to hear. She knew that voice anywhere.

"Keep her out of this," Sherlock growled.

"Hush," Moriarty said. "Athena, dearie, you can come up. I'd like a word."

He was going to hurt her. That was obvious. If he truly was going to try to burn the heart out of Sherlock, then she absolutely was in danger. She had to keep her wits about her and made some good decisions. "A-Alright! Just give me a mo down here. Mrs. Hudson asked me to feed her cat."

With that, she went into Mrs. Hudson's flat and locked the door. Locked doors couldn't so much for her since he was a trained criminal, but it could buy her some time. From there, she pulled out her cellphone and called Uncle Mycroft.

He answered on the first ring. "Yes?"

She inhaled slowly. "Uncle Mycroft," she breathed as quietly as possible. "Moriarty is upstairs with Sherlock. He wants to see me: I think he going to try to kill me."

"I'll have some men there in exactly one minute. Where are you?" His voice was straining for control.

"In Mrs. Hudson's flat. I told him I had to feed the cat." She was still very quiet, fearing that Moriarty may hear her if she raised her voice.

She could picture him frowning a little bit. "That was very smart. Stay there. My men will be there in thirty seconds."

He hung up after that, leaving Athena alone in the flat with twenty seconds to go until help arrived. She decided to text Sherlock and warn him. It was a code they had made long ago in order to let the other one know they were safe. It meant "Mycroft has men on the way."

"Je suis en sécurité maintenant." It was French and translates to "I am safe now."

Just as she heard Sherlock's phone ding loudly above her, the front door opened quietly and someone began to pick the lock to Mrs. Hudson's flat. Athena knew it was probably Paul (her favorite security man), but a small thought of danger gnawed achingly at the back of her mind.

When the door swung delicately open, she was relieved. It was Paul, and he was frowning quite deeply at her. "You alright, kid?"

"Never better," she said sarcastically.

Upstairs, she heard a couple shouts and and few thuds, and she flinched. And then BANG! A gun went off, and more yells followed until she heard footsteps come quickly down the stairs. Paul shoved Athena behind him and he acted as a wall between whoever it was- presumably Moriarty.

She did her best not to cower behind him, she tried hard to stand tall and appear unshaken by the events, but she truly was. This was absolutely terrifying.

"He's escaping!" one of Mycroft's men yelled.

"File out!"

"Paul," Athena whispered shakily. "what's going on?"

He turned to face her and looked down at her obviously struggling frame. "Don't you worry. I'm here to keep you-AAH!"

A bullet whizzed past Athena's head and into Paul's chest beside his armpit. Without even giving a second thought, Paul shoved her behind the kitchen counter and fell in beside her. "Call your Uncle, kid. Call him and tell him there's a sniper we didn't account for."

She nodded and fumbled with her phone. "Okay... Okay..." Eventually she had Uncle Mycroft on the line and was explaining what she was supposed to. Once she finished, her voice was still shaking and she said, "I'm so scared. Paul's been hit. I haven't heard anything from Sherlock, and John's not home. It's just me and Paul here."

She could feel Uncle Mycroft's anger through the phone. "I'll have another man there in a minute. And that sniper won't make it to tomorrow. You stay down, understand me? Stay down and listen to whatever Paul tells you to do."

"Okay. Alright. Uncle Mycroft, what about-"

"I'll deal with him soon. I have to go, darling, I'm so sorry. Be careful."

∞

Athena was later sitting in the living room with John and Sherlock, sipping her tea quietly and reading The City of Bones. Things had calmed down at 221B. All the shattered glass and stirred dust was cleaned from the flat, all the windows and cups and assorted items that had broken in the commotion were replaced. The trio was simply resting and mulling over the day.

In the thick silence of the room, Athena couldn't help but notice that Sherlock was staring directly at her with a concentrated look on his face. She glanced back down at her book and continued skimming. Simon had just been kidnapped by some vampires when she looked back up to Sherlock, and said in a small voice, "Where were you?"

He blinked at her in puzzlement before putting on a straight face. "Nowhere, Athena. Don't worry about me."

She hummed in annoyance as a response and flipped the page before standing restlessly. "I'm going to my room."

Once she had closed the door behind her, she immediately crashed on her bed and pulled out her phone, dialing Riley's phone. He answered on the third ring, which was only a bit unusual.

"Yeah?"

"Can you come over?"

Riley sighed a little bit. "Athena... I'm on a date..."

She sat there a bit stunned. "You're on a what?"

"A date," he explained clearly.

"What? With who?"

He inhaled slowly through his nose and exhaled equally as slowly. "Don't hate me. Please, please, please don't hate me."

She pursed her lips and said in a grave voice, "Who is it, Riley?"

"Trinity..."

"I'm sorry, what? Trinity, the bitch who spent the last four years tormenting me, Trintiy?"

"Look, she's actually really lovely-"

"No. No. How about you shut the fuck up? You know- you fucking know what you're doing! Don't talk to me. Don't apologize or anything." She smashed the end call button and threw her phone across the room.

Tears were falling down her face as she pulled a pillow into her lap. Removing her glasses, a tear fell on the lens, and she knew right then that this could be it. Her friendship could be over.

No. No. Riley would come around. She always had Riley. Riley was hers, goddammit, not Trinity's. Even if he betrayed her, she'd take him back, because he was hers and she was his, and that's the way things were supposed to be.

She could hear her phone ringing off the hook, but she didn't care. She couldn't bear to speak with him right then. Perhaps the next day, perhaps next week. But right then, she was going to wallow in her feelings and sob over her best friend because it had been a long day, and she fucking deserved it after that.

As she sat there crying, she realized, no matter what Riley did or said, she'd always take him back.

And she might just be irrevocably, undeniably, unsolicitedly in love with him.