Title: The Cavalry to the Rescue
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (BBC)
Rating: G
Length: 945
Summary: John Watson and Greg Lestrade together go to rescue Sherlock and Hopkins (who also seem to be together).
A/N: Follows on from Sausages to the Left of Them, Corn Snacks to the Right

Greg Lestrade and John Watson were discussing which pub to move onto when they left the Met party when John received a text: <Come at once. Underwood Warehouse>

He showed Greg the message.  “Do you know where that is?”

“Yes, it’s down river.  I’ll drive you.  I presume the text was for both of us.”

“Undoubtedly.  No point in sending two texts when one will do.”

Greg led the way to his car, and as they drove off he put the blue lights on.

“Do you think that’s necessary?” John asked.

“If his Lordship had everything under control he wouldn’t have sent for you.  I’ll switch them off before we get there, we don’t want to alert anyone to our presence, but they’ll get us through this traffic much faster than otherwise.  You can tell me what you know of the case while I drive.”

“I’m assuming it’s the one Gregson brought the other day.  One of the problems Sherlock’s been working on was the disappearance of a bag, presumably lost overboard from a river bus.”

“Given the map we half ate I’d say you were right.  Gregson did mention something to me about it.  He wanted to know if either of the missing men had turned up dead, which they hadn’t.  He said there were a lot of minor details which didn’t fit with anything.”

“That’s the one.  Sherlock told Gregson he could think of four or five ways in which the details could connect, but he’d need to test them out.”

“And we conclude that with Hopkins’ help Sherlock’s worked out where the disappearing bag went.”

“Yep, and they’ve found the bag, and rather more besides,” John said.  “All of which is typical Sherlock.  But I thought you said this Hopkins was a sensible and reserved officer.  He’d hardly be likely to charge off into danger like that.”

“I don’t know him that well.  He’s always been very efficient when we’ve needed information and he has a reputation for being a stickler for doing things correctly when on the job.  Mind you, that’s entirely reasonable, safety on the river is important, as is safety when abseiling down the sides of tall buildings.  However, anyone who can build a map using party food clearly isn’t entirely conventional.”

John laughed.  “And put the two of them together …”

“And you have to call in the cavalry.”  Greg had switched off the blue lights and now pulled up in small car park.

As John got out he said, “I thought we were going to park somewhere unobtrusive.”

“No-one’s going to notice two blokes getting out of a car in a car park.  We’d have more attention if we parked in a side street.  And besides,” Greg looked up from peering through the windscreen of the car next to his, “this is Hopkins’ car.”

They walked together down the pathway.  Suddenly Greg stopped and grabbed John with one arm, whilst pointing with the other.  Two fast motor launches were leaving the warehouse and turning down river.

At the same moment they heard a voice say, “Well, that’s the lot.  Time we were off too.”

Greg had pulled his warrant card out of his pocket when the speaker and his companion came round the corner and, on seeing Greg and John, began to run in the opposite direction.  John and Greg quickly overhauled them, John rugby tackling one to the ground whilst Greg grabbed the other.

Greg picked up a length of rope which was lying on the floor and passed it to John.  “Can you tie them to that pole?  They can stay there until we’re ready for them.”

Entering the warehouse they started to look for Sherlock and Hopkins.  Since there was no-one else around, John shouted out and was relieved when there was an answering shout from Sherlock.  They followed his voice to the far corner.

“You’ll need to take the lift to come and get us,” Sherlock called.  “It’s a bit like a giant dumb waiter.  It’s operated by hauling on the ropes, but you can only reach the ropes if you’re on the lift.”

John and Greg stood on the platform and hauled themselves up to where Sherlock and Stanley were waiting for them.

“How come if you can only operate the lift when you’re standing on it you were stranded on the third floor?” John asked.

“You can reach the ropes from the ground floor, so they hauled the lift down deliberately leaving us up here,” Hopkins explained.

“Did they know who you were?” Greg asked.

“Fortunately not.  They assumed we were kids messing around and so left us here to ‘teach us not to play in abandoned warehouses’,” Hopkins replied.

“We’ve left two men tied up outside, but we’ll need to do something about the boats which sailed,” Greg said.

“That’s all dealt with.  I texted my sergeant.  The boats should by now have been stopped and boarded.”  As Hopkins spoke his phone pinged.  He read the message and grinned.  “Excellent!  Everything worked like clockwork.”

“Apart from being trapped on the third floor of a warehouse,” John said.

“Oh, that’s had its good moments.  And we knew you’d rescue us.”  Hopkins grinned at Sherlock.

The four of them got onto the lift and Hopkins expertly took them back down to the ground level.

John and Greg walked to the entrance and then stopped.

“Now where are they?” Greg asked.  “It can’t take Hopkins that long to tie the lift ropes up again.”

They turned round to see Sherlock and Hopkins kissing in the middle of the warehouse floor.

“So that’s what they were doing while they waited for rescue,” John said.