Title: Adventure in Rotherhithe
Fandom: Sherlock (BBC)
Rating: G
Length: 1,400
Summary: When John Watson hasn't seen Stanley Hopkins for a while he wonders why not.  It won't be long before he finds out.

"I haven't seen Stanley for a while,” John Watson commented. 

“He’s busy,” Sherlock Holmes replied.

“Even when he’s busy he still calls in here occasionally.  Is everything all right between the two of you?”

“As I said, he’s busy.”

“Well, he can’t be away, because we’re not looking after his blasted cat.”

“I can assure you Tilly is being taken care of.  By Stanley.”

There was a knock on the door.  John got up and opened it, letting in Greg Lestrade.

“Is Stanley okay?” John asked.

“Yeah.  He’s busy,” Greg replied.

“That’s what I said,” Sherlock added.

***

A few days later, John had a phone call from Sally Donovan.

“Sorry to trouble you, Dr Watson, but could you come over to Rotherhithe?” she said.

John sighed.  “Yes, of course.  What’s Sherlock done this time?”

“Thank you.  There’s a car on its way to pick you up.”

John had no idea what Sherlock was doing in Rotherhithe, since he had given no indication he was planning on heading in that direction when he’d gone out that morning.  However, that didn’t really mean much where Sherlock was concerned.  John picked up his medical bag and went downstairs to wait for the police car.

The driver of the police car wasn’t forthcoming when John asked him what had happened, merely stating he’d been told to take John to an address in Rotherhithe, so John spent the journey running through all the possible reasons why he’d be needed.  He had just imagined an escaped lion when the car pulled up outside a run-down building and the driver told him he was to go inside.

John opened the door and was greeted by Sally, who said, “Thank you for coming, doctor.  Basil here could do with some attention.” 

He noted the slight stress on ‘Basil’ and presumed Sherlock was using an alias.  He looked across the room and saw to his surprise Stanley Hopkins sitting with a couple of other men, with a uniformed police officer guarding them.  Since Stanley was the only one who looked as if he needed medical attention – he was holding an arm which was wrapped in a blood-stained cloth – he assumed this was Basil.

“I’ll need to get a better look at his arm,” John said.  “Can he come over to the window?”

“Yes, okay,” Sally said.

Stanley slowly stood up and walked over to the window.  John positioned two chairs so they would have their backs towards the other two men.  Stanley kept his arm below the level of the window, and John realised he was being careful to avoid a reflection.

John wondered whether the injury was fake, but when he unwound the cloth, he discovered it wasn’t.  However, in the process, Stanley passed over a small notebook.  John took the notebook and proceeded to clean the wound up, before dressing it with a clean bandage.

“If it’s kept clean it should be okay now,” he said.  “Do you want me for anything else?”

“No, that’s all, doctor,” Sally replied.  “You’ll find a driver waiting for you, to take you back.  Thank you for coming.”

John left the building, expecting Sally to follow him to retrieve the notebook.  She didn’t do so, so he walked over to the car.  He wasn’t greatly surprised to find Greg sitting inside the car when he got in, so he passed the notebook over to him.

“Basil gave me this!” he said.

Greg looked at the contents of the notebook and then pointed to the blood spots on the cover.  “Is he okay?”

“Yes, it’s a flesh wound in his arm.  I’ve cleaned it up and it should heal quite quickly, if he manages to rest the arm.”

“If all goes according to plan, this should be over soon and then he’ll be on leave, so he’ll be able to rest.”

“Have you ever known, er, Basil, to actually rest?”

Greg chuckled.  “No.  But at least not do quite as much.  Now, do you want to return to Baker Street, or would you like to hang around for the grand finale?”

“I might as well stay; you may need my assistance again.”

“Very true!”

The police car took them to a building slightly further along the Thames.  It was clearly a refurbished warehouse.  Greg led the way up to the third floor and into a room which had an excellent view of the river.  John saw Sherlock was already there, together with a couple of what he presumed were plain clothes officers.

Greg passed the notebook over, saying, “The final confirmation.”

One of the officers made a note of the details before speaking into his radio.  Sherlock glanced at the notebook and nodded, before pointing to the blood spots.  John shook his head and mouthed, “He’s fine.”

The other officer, who had her binoculars trained on the river said, “They’re on their way.”

At that point, a radio crackled, and they heard Donovan’s voice say, “Inspector Maclean, I wasn’t expecting you.”

Everyone’s head swerved to look at the radio, and Greg barked, “Ferguson, keep watching the river!”

They couldn’t make out what the reply was, but then Donovan said, “You heard the inspector.  He wants you three outside now!”

Sherlock was almost out of the door when Greg grabbed him and growled, “Stay here!  They’ll need you if there’s any further deviation from the plans.”  Turning to John he added, “Coming?”

John nodded and the two of them ran down the stairs before jumping into Greg’s car.

“With any luck Sally will let us know very soon which way Maclean was heading,” Greg said.  “We’ve had our suspicions of him for a while, but we never expected him to pull such a blatant trick.”

“Won’t he recognise Stanley?” John asked.

“He’s not river police, so with any luck he’ll never have met him.”

They hadn’t quite reached the main road, when John’s phone pinged with a message saying simply, ‘Excitement over.  Return here.  Assistance not required.’  John read it out.

Greg swung the car round.  Just as they parked another text came through just saying ‘Hurry!’  They sprinted back up the stairs, to find Sherlock and the two officers by the window, watching as two tugs apparently collided mid-river.  A launch then sped out to apparently investigate.

They couldn’t see exactly what was happening, but then the launch moved away.  It seemed to John as if everyone was holding their breath, and then, when the launch was too far from the tugs to get back quickly, several police launches, their blue lights flashing, surrounded all three vessels.

“Bingo!” Greg said.  “Right, there’s nothing more for us to do here.  You two get back to the station and I’ll join you in a bit.” 

The two police officers nodded and began to gather up their equipment.

“I shall go and see if Donovan needs any help.  Sherlock, John, I presume you’ll be coming with me.”

They drove back to where John had previously met Sally.  She was standing outside the building waiting for them, with a somewhat wet Stanley.

“Where’s Maclean?” Greg asked.

“You’ve just missed him,” Sally replied.  “They’re taking him for interview.  And Martins is helping escort the other two to the local police cells.”

“Stanley,” John asked.  “Why are you wet?  You weren’t when I saw you.”

Stanley grinned.  “When Maclean came to collect myself, as Basil, and the other two, he’d come by boat.  So he told the three of us to get in it.  He stood to one side to make sure we did what he told us, but with one foot on the boat and one on the shore.  I tripped on getting onboard and pushed the boat out a bit and he fell through the gap.  Since Sally had followed us out, she was able to restrain the man behind me, while the other was already in the drifting boat.  And then I pulled Maclean back out of the water, and with Martins’ help we hauled the boat back.  Maclean wasn’t very happy though!”

Greg laughed.  “Okay, Sally I’ll give you a lift back and we can drop John and Sherlock off somewhere en route.  Stanley, do you need a lift?”

“No, one of our boats will pick me up soon,” Stanley said.

“And that gives me just time to clean rebandage your arm again,” John said.  “Thames water will not have done it any good at all.”