Elementary Fic: Times is Hard
Title: Times is Hard
Author: kitmerlot1213
Word Count: 1050
Fandom: Elementary
Paring: Joan/Sherlock friendship, OMC
Genre: Horror/mystery/friendship
Rating: "R" for swearing and violence
Warning: This is a horror story involving cannibalism, so there are parts that are gory. It’s not overly graphic but it is bloody and it is disturbing.
Disclaimer: This story is for fun and no profit. I do not own any of the characters from Elementary, Sherlock Holmes or Sweeney Todd--I'm just borrowing them briefly.
Summary: Joan and Sherlock meet up with a baker and things don’t go so well.
A/N: I’m sorry that this is a couple of days late-I had my story planned but I couldn’t write it out until I came back from my vacation. This was written for the spook me ficathon and it’s a rather disturbing story full of bloodiness and cannibalism and there are a couple of Sweeney Todd references. Enjoy!
Once upon a time, in another life, Joan Watson had been a surgeon.
She helped to medically fix what was wrong her patients, and in turn, helped them to live better, healthier lives.
She’d been proud of her work, proud that she’d been responsible for saving so many lives.
But then because of one horrible accident, she’d ended a life and forever altered the lives of her patient’s family and friends and she knew that she had to stop being a surgeon and never practice medicine again.
And here she was now, three years later, kneeling on the floor of a bakery, trying to stop a woman from bleeding out.
Joan could vaguely hear the sounds of a struggle happening somewhere behind her in the kitchen, but all of her concentration was on tightening the tourniquet around the woman’s wrist.
Her eye was drawn to the strange looking wound and it took only a matter of seconds for her to figure it out: the woman’s wrist hadn’t been open with a knife or sharp blade, but rather disturbingly, with a set of teeth.
Feeling sick, she took a deep breath before calling out, “Sherlock, how much longer before the paramedics get here?”
Joan heard a shuffling sound to her right, and she quickly turned. “Sherlock, this woman’s losing blood, we’ve got to get her…”
Any words she was about to say died because standing in front of her wasn’t Sherlock, but the madman they were trying to catch.
He wasn’t a big man, he stood no taller than 5’7, but he had a powerful build and Joan could see the muscles on his arms bulging underneath his blood-stained apron. He was in his late thirties, with straw colored hair, pale blue eyes and a nondescript face.
The only thing remarkable about him was his smile, which was bright and welcoming whenever his customers came in to buy his bread and pastries or his special meat pies.
Except now his smile was cold and calculating and the butcher knife he held gleamed in the gloomy light of the bakery.
But before Joan could even speak, the baker started to talk. “Now girlie, wait your turn, Miss Sally's up next.”
He looked lovingly down at the injured woman. “She’ll do nicely in some pot pies I’m planning.”
Joan couldn’t stop the shudder that ran through her. “You’re one sick bastard you know that?”
The baker, who had the unfortunate name of Benny Barker laughed, the madness he managed to hide finally coming out. “I’m sick, am I?! Who’s the one person on this block who helps feed the homeless on a daily basis?”
Joan snorted in derision. “You’re only fattening them up so that when you kill them, they can make more meat pies for you!”
“Well there is that,” Benny conceded. “But at least I’m trying to clean up this city.” He turned to give her a challenging look. “What are you doing to help?”
“I help by putting killers like you behind bars!” And before he could even react, Sherlock struck Benny with his own rolling pin, knocking him out.
~~~
Detective Bell looked close to throwing up when Sherlock and Joan started to relate how they figured out that the local baker was targeting New York’s homeless population and killing them.
It had something to do with Sherlock noticing the correlation of the increase of cans and glass bottles littering the area and the decrease in the disappearance of dogs and cats.
What they hadn’t realized was that the secret ingredient in Barker’s Famous Meat Pies were people.
The fact was brought home when Sherlock and Joan broke into the bakery to search for clues and instead of finding the place empty, they’d found Benny Barker sitting on top of a woman and eating her arm.
His face was covered in blood while he tore pieces of her wrist off with his teeth. He’d been concentrating so deeply that he hadn’t heard them enter.
They’d both run at the pair, with Sherlock knocking the man off his victim and Joan focusing on saving her life.
Unfortunately, Benny got a lucky punch in and he temporarily dazed the detective, but Sherlock soon railed and they were able to subdue the cannibal and save the patient.
Detective Bell looked down at his note pad, nodding to himself. “Alright, a good nights’ work you two. I’ll need you down at the station tomorrow to take your statements.”
He smiled when Joan barely controlled her sigh of relief at being able to finally go home.
As they left the bakery and walked down the street towards their brownstone, Joan startled Sherlock by grabbing his arm. “Halloween’s tomorrow.”
Sherlock huffed in agreement. “Why yes it is Watson.” He quirked a curious eyebrow in her direction. “Run out of your hidden supply of Reese’s Peanut butter cups?”
She arched an eyebrow back at him before speaking. “No, I was just wondering if this time of year contributed to Barker’s psychosis.”
Sherlock huffed out an annoyed breath before answering. “Watson, Halloween did not make Benny Barker into a murdering cannibal nor did the full moon or the fact that his mother loved watching The Silence of the Lambs.”
His pointed look left no room for uncertainty. “There are people in this world who are violent psychopaths and Benny Barker was one of them. We’ve put him away, and now there is one less predator walking the streets.”
They’d finally reached Stamford Street and they simultaneously turned toward the brownstone but before they reached the door, Sherlock smiled gently at her. “Halloween is a wonderful candy filled holiday but in can’t influence people who aren’t already violent to kill.”
~~~
Nell Todd watched the newscast about the cannibal Benny Barker and she shook her head sorrowfully.
The bloody fool had been doing it all wrong because everyone knows you don’t kill people in the bakery but rather in a separate building, like the bake house.
Nell congratulated herself, glad that she watched the evening news before getting ready for bed.
Tomorrow would be that start of a whole new career for her.
She even had the name of her bakery all set up. “Auntie Nell’s Pie Land.”
Yes, tomorrow was going to be a lovely day.
Author: kitmerlot1213
Word Count: 1050
Fandom: Elementary
Paring: Joan/Sherlock friendship, OMC
Genre: Horror/mystery/friendship
Rating: "R" for swearing and violence
Warning: This is a horror story involving cannibalism, so there are parts that are gory. It’s not overly graphic but it is bloody and it is disturbing.
Disclaimer: This story is for fun and no profit. I do not own any of the characters from Elementary, Sherlock Holmes or Sweeney Todd--I'm just borrowing them briefly.
Summary: Joan and Sherlock meet up with a baker and things don’t go so well.
A/N: I’m sorry that this is a couple of days late-I had my story planned but I couldn’t write it out until I came back from my vacation. This was written for the spook me ficathon and it’s a rather disturbing story full of bloodiness and cannibalism and there are a couple of Sweeney Todd references. Enjoy!
Once upon a time, in another life, Joan Watson had been a surgeon.
She helped to medically fix what was wrong her patients, and in turn, helped them to live better, healthier lives.
She’d been proud of her work, proud that she’d been responsible for saving so many lives.
But then because of one horrible accident, she’d ended a life and forever altered the lives of her patient’s family and friends and she knew that she had to stop being a surgeon and never practice medicine again.
And here she was now, three years later, kneeling on the floor of a bakery, trying to stop a woman from bleeding out.
Joan could vaguely hear the sounds of a struggle happening somewhere behind her in the kitchen, but all of her concentration was on tightening the tourniquet around the woman’s wrist.
Her eye was drawn to the strange looking wound and it took only a matter of seconds for her to figure it out: the woman’s wrist hadn’t been open with a knife or sharp blade, but rather disturbingly, with a set of teeth.
Feeling sick, she took a deep breath before calling out, “Sherlock, how much longer before the paramedics get here?”
Joan heard a shuffling sound to her right, and she quickly turned. “Sherlock, this woman’s losing blood, we’ve got to get her…”
Any words she was about to say died because standing in front of her wasn’t Sherlock, but the madman they were trying to catch.
He wasn’t a big man, he stood no taller than 5’7, but he had a powerful build and Joan could see the muscles on his arms bulging underneath his blood-stained apron. He was in his late thirties, with straw colored hair, pale blue eyes and a nondescript face.
The only thing remarkable about him was his smile, which was bright and welcoming whenever his customers came in to buy his bread and pastries or his special meat pies.
Except now his smile was cold and calculating and the butcher knife he held gleamed in the gloomy light of the bakery.
But before Joan could even speak, the baker started to talk. “Now girlie, wait your turn, Miss Sally's up next.”
He looked lovingly down at the injured woman. “She’ll do nicely in some pot pies I’m planning.”
Joan couldn’t stop the shudder that ran through her. “You’re one sick bastard you know that?”
The baker, who had the unfortunate name of Benny Barker laughed, the madness he managed to hide finally coming out. “I’m sick, am I?! Who’s the one person on this block who helps feed the homeless on a daily basis?”
Joan snorted in derision. “You’re only fattening them up so that when you kill them, they can make more meat pies for you!”
“Well there is that,” Benny conceded. “But at least I’m trying to clean up this city.” He turned to give her a challenging look. “What are you doing to help?”
“I help by putting killers like you behind bars!” And before he could even react, Sherlock struck Benny with his own rolling pin, knocking him out.
~~~
Detective Bell looked close to throwing up when Sherlock and Joan started to relate how they figured out that the local baker was targeting New York’s homeless population and killing them.
It had something to do with Sherlock noticing the correlation of the increase of cans and glass bottles littering the area and the decrease in the disappearance of dogs and cats.
What they hadn’t realized was that the secret ingredient in Barker’s Famous Meat Pies were people.
The fact was brought home when Sherlock and Joan broke into the bakery to search for clues and instead of finding the place empty, they’d found Benny Barker sitting on top of a woman and eating her arm.
His face was covered in blood while he tore pieces of her wrist off with his teeth. He’d been concentrating so deeply that he hadn’t heard them enter.
They’d both run at the pair, with Sherlock knocking the man off his victim and Joan focusing on saving her life.
Unfortunately, Benny got a lucky punch in and he temporarily dazed the detective, but Sherlock soon railed and they were able to subdue the cannibal and save the patient.
Detective Bell looked down at his note pad, nodding to himself. “Alright, a good nights’ work you two. I’ll need you down at the station tomorrow to take your statements.”
He smiled when Joan barely controlled her sigh of relief at being able to finally go home.
As they left the bakery and walked down the street towards their brownstone, Joan startled Sherlock by grabbing his arm. “Halloween’s tomorrow.”
Sherlock huffed in agreement. “Why yes it is Watson.” He quirked a curious eyebrow in her direction. “Run out of your hidden supply of Reese’s Peanut butter cups?”
She arched an eyebrow back at him before speaking. “No, I was just wondering if this time of year contributed to Barker’s psychosis.”
Sherlock huffed out an annoyed breath before answering. “Watson, Halloween did not make Benny Barker into a murdering cannibal nor did the full moon or the fact that his mother loved watching The Silence of the Lambs.”
His pointed look left no room for uncertainty. “There are people in this world who are violent psychopaths and Benny Barker was one of them. We’ve put him away, and now there is one less predator walking the streets.”
They’d finally reached Stamford Street and they simultaneously turned toward the brownstone but before they reached the door, Sherlock smiled gently at her. “Halloween is a wonderful candy filled holiday but in can’t influence people who aren’t already violent to kill.”
~~~
Nell Todd watched the newscast about the cannibal Benny Barker and she shook her head sorrowfully.
The bloody fool had been doing it all wrong because everyone knows you don’t kill people in the bakery but rather in a separate building, like the bake house.
Nell congratulated herself, glad that she watched the evening news before getting ready for bed.
Tomorrow would be that start of a whole new career for her.
She even had the name of her bakery all set up. “Auntie Nell’s Pie Land.”
Yes, tomorrow was going to be a lovely day.