I do not own anything. Few characters and storyline is original. All rights go to BBC Doctor Who, BBC Sherlock, CW Supernatural, and the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Pre- The Great Game

Post- 11th Doctor

Prologue

More Than Vermilion, Less Than Red: Scarlett

"Not only don't I know who I am, but I'm very suspicious of people who do know who they are. I am sometimes ten or twelve people a day, and sometimes four or five people an hour!"

- Tom Baker

Parents don't often tell their children that, once they start kindergarten, they'll be in school for the next 12 years. In Scarlett Bathurst's case, it was her grandparents who never told her. They forced a knapsack onto her back in the year 1959, and unbeknownst to her, she'd have the weight of school-related pressures on her shoulders until 1972. Scarlett didn't have a trouble in the world before her first day in a state-required educational environment. In fact, she didn't even know what a 'worry' felt like until she was thrown into the world of education. As far as her grandparents were concerned, they thought Scarlett would embrace the new environment, since she had never been to a public school. However, her first year of schooling didn't go as smoothly as they, or Scarlett, anticipated.

Before kindergarten, her grandparents told her stories about how many friends she'll make. They tried their very best to persuade her that school was exactly what little children needed in order to grow up correctly like there was nothing more valuable to an individual than getting an education. They made it sound absolutely appealing to a five year old. She was told stories of arts, crafts, and songs. Once the school year began, Scarlett realized that that was all they were: stories.

Little Scarlett never had much contact with other girls and boys her age before the first day had started. The thought of meeting other people didn't frighten her in the least, because she didn't even think about it until she shuffled her way through her elementary school's dauntingly large doors. Kindergarten sounded like an amusing place that she was forced to attend. Up for the challenge, the five year old didn't put up a fuss. She was nervous for reasons she didn't fully understand but this was a completely new experience for her; it was a different perceptive on what's out there in the world. One day she's 'borrowing' her grandmother's makeup to look like a grownup, and the next day she feels like she's enforced to be one. The dramatic change in environment happened so quickly that she didn't even have time to ask the question pertaining to why it was happening to her in the first place.

Her first experience on her own wasn't too bad… in the beginning. Confused, Scarlett took a random seat in the classroom on day one. The teacher encouraged her to get up and mingle. Scarlett wasn't too pleased that an adult approached her within the first ten minutes of her first day. She had absolutely no idea what to do and wanted instruction… but from anyone besides the teacher. She was already nervous about approaching other children; an adult approaching her felt even more nerve-wrenching. To make sure the teacher didn't bug her for the rest of the day, Scarlett explored the room and pretended to 'mingle'. The other kids were playing with toys or looking at picture books. She felt pretty lonely and wanted to introduce herself, but her anxiety prevented her from doing so. Her nervousness made her mind spiral to this place and that. She thought about how she would approach someone or what they'd think of her. Thoughts arose about how many people were staring at her when she first came into the classroom. As she invented her negative thoughts, she couldn't help but think about how to avoid the situation altogether. She thought about when the day was going to end and what she should be doing at that very instant instead of just standing in the middle of a classroom with shaky hands. She was unsure as to when her grandparents were going to pick her up that day or if they even would; that thought only heightened her anxiety. Scarlett wasn't used to this change; the change of worrying only caused her mind to race more than it should. Unfortunately, the child was like a newborn rabbit, unsure of what to do, in the hands of a human stranger.

Taking a deep breath, she took her teacher's advice and approached a boy in a cowboy, Maverick outfit who looked up at her. She tried introducing herself, but the Maverick boy just gave her a disgusted look and the cold shoulder to go along with it. Feeling regretful about even bothering him, she moved onto someone else now that her confidence had somewhat boosted. At least she had experienced rejection for the first time so she now knew what to expect. She later joined a little girl who was playing with a tea set; Anita was her name. Scarlett spoke what was on her mind about how nervous she was and how much longer it was going to be until she could go home. She had always been a quiet girl to begin with so it took all her effort to get out that much. It turned out that Anita was missing her father just as much as Scarlett was missing her grandparents. In fact, Anita whined about being scared more than Scarlett had. She thought it was for the best to stick with Anita, since they were both experiencing what Anita called 'homesickness'. Nonetheless, Scarlett was just happy that she found someone to talk with… even though she soon discovered that that was all Anita does: talk. She talked about the most random of things: flowers, dogs, dinner guests, cookware, etc. She talked about how her father drove her to school instead of taking the public school bus. She talked about everything and anything she could think of. All the other kids were living in their own worlds, so Scarlett decided to be content with her newly found friend. Despite her being longwinded, Scarlett was perfectly content with Anita; at least she knew someone.

That's basically what the rest of her kindergarten days consisted of after the first day… as far as Scarlett could see. It was rather boring and never quiet. She had to wake up early and leave her grandparents' house to wait at the bus stop. She had to go through an exhausting morning routine just to get on a bus to go to a boring building filled with adults and rude children in order to learn how to read worldly things, such as words, calendars, and rules. Playtime with Anita was the only slight upside to Scarlett's kindergarten days. Even her friendship wasn't as grand as she had initially hoped; it was the opposite of what she expected from the stories her grandparents told her. She enjoyed her company in a lonely world, at first. Everyone around her, including her friend, seemed like a nuisance to her now that school wasn't such a new concept to her anymore.

It was amazing how many words Anita could get out before having to take a breath. Scarlett had concluded that Anita likes to hear the sound of her own voice, but that's alright; Scarlett was more than pleased to listen. It gave her an excuse to never have to talk. She got to know her friend fairly well throughout the year just by listening and watching her every move.

The two of them would sit beside each other during playtime while fiddling with a tea set. Not focusing on what her friend was aimlessly blabbering about, Scarlett would often guess what Anita's life was like. She could daydream to herself about anything, but it's kind of difficult when all she hears is Anita's voice… which makes Scarlett unwillingly think of nothing else but her friend. The first thing Scarlett would analyze is her friend's appearance. Anita always wore bright colored dresses and some were even made out of silk. Scarlett thought that perhaps her family belongs to a high-class part of society.

Whatever 'society' means.

Scarlett heard her grandparents say it over the dinner table one evening. In fact, Scarlett recalled her grandparents also saying 'posh' instead of 'rich'.

That must be what Anita is: 'posh'.

Scarlett also took notice to a pearl necklace that she wore every day.

Most mothers, nowadays, wears pearls, but Anita's looks like the real deal. All the more reason to think she's 'posh'. If Anita is so 'posh', why is she at a public school?

Scarlett assumed that Anita talks so much because no one listens to her at home.

Daughters talk more to their mothers than fathers, so Anita's mother must ignore her. However, Anita wears a necklace that would most likely had been her mother's, so Anita's mother must've given it to her. She must not ignore her that much if she gives her daughter such valuable possessions. On the other hand, Anita is constantly playing with the school's tea set and talking about domestic things like being a housewife. She must not be able to do those things with her mother.

Scarlett figured that Anita's mother could've also left her husband or is deceased. That must be why Anita talks to Scarlett so much.

Her father might ignore her and has sent her to a public school for an easy and cheap way to get her out of his hair. Or simply, because his wife took all the money with her either to a foreign getaway or to the grave. Anita has to go to school, regardless of the financial status of her parents. Anita had an attachment to her mother. That's probably why she wears the necklace that her mother might've given her.

However, these are just assumptions Scarlett would make while she would be blocking out Anita's boring gibberish. Adults may think that making these assumptions is a rude practice for any child to be doing, but Scarlett was convinced that they do the same when children are talking to them.

It should be no surprise that Scarlett has a habit of making up stories in her mind when she's bored… which is almost all the time. Given that the school year was inevitably drawing to a close, Scarlett didn't find new experiences scary anymore. In fact, her initial anxiety has led her to view everyday instances as dull. She chose to never experience that kind of feeling again, and the fact that fellow peers have no mercy for her has taught her that there's no point in experiencing fear anyway. She was only five years of age, so it's not like she had any reason to express such thoughts or even begin to know how to. She only just learned the alphabet. After much thought, she had concluded over the past year that feelings are much more complicated than any word could ever describe. It's only a personal dilemma to be silent and believe that it's best not share feelings. It's a personal victory to just not have feelings at all, so silence isn't a choice but a normality. Proving that she takes those thoughts seriously, she lets her imagination get the best of her as an alternative to being socially active. That's not how majority of children act, so peers tend to question her grandparents' parenting abilities while witnessing Scarlett's antisocial behavior.

Scarlett's parents passed away when she was only a year and a half due to some tragedy that her grandparents never speak of. They always told her that she was too young to know or understand. It didn't bother her that she didn't remember them, but she was still able to be raised by the family from her father's side. Scarlett's grandparents' names are Mr. Douglas and Mrs. Emma Bathurst. Young Scarlett had always heard her grandfather call her grandmother 'Emmy', so that's what she calls her around the house as well. The two of them live with Scarlett in Brooklyn, New York… Kingston Avenue at Crown Heights to be exact. It's a white paneled house with forest green shutters and a clothes-line along the side of the front yard. If the local real estate magazine were ever looking for a model home to use as their cover page, the Bathurst house would be the star. Although the other suburban homes that surrounded them were much fancier, their home doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. It was a small home that sat behind a sidewalk, just like everyone else. The Bathurst family got lucky with the home that they purchased many years ago and hasn't moved since. The home may need improvements here and there but beautiful flower beds and a happy family make it blend into the environment just perfectly. Scarlett never questioned why they live there or how it came to be. She just knew that their little, one-floor house with a small front-yard was home.

Scarlett spends time with her grandmother for the most part. Being a stout woman in her early 60's, she'd always do whatever she felt like. If she wanted to buy a pet, she would. If she wanted to go on a 10 day vacation for no reason, she would. If she wanted to move to Europe at a moment's notice, she would. However, that just wasn't her way. A devotion to her husband and granddaughter was enough to satisfy her on a daily basis. Not feeling too adventurous in her old age, she's turned into a bit of a housewife. Like their granddaughter, the Bathurst grandparents weren't social bugs. Scarlett would help her grandmother with chores, such as laundry and cooking. Mrs. Bathurst kept a flower garden along the front of the house and Scarlett would assist her whenever she felt like it. Emma Bathurst's bold personality was something that was unknown to her granddaughter, because Scarlett has never really seen her do anything other than housework. To Scarlett, her grandmother was just a sweet, skinny woman with blue eyes and straight white hair, with remains of blonde color hidden at the tips, who always took care of the house. She could always tell that her grandmother was around because the aroma of the house smelled of Emma's jasmine perfume. It always confused Scarlett as to why her grandmother would wear perfume, which her husband always buys her, around the house when all she does all day is do housework. Nevertheless, the scent of jasmine always gives Scarlet a sense of nostalgia.

Scarlett found the chores involved in taking care of the household as a bore. Everything to her was boring. That was she favorite word, because it was the only word she knew that described everything: boring. She always complained of being bored. Unfortunately, she had no other choice but to be just that. She'd try to find ways to occupy herself as any child would do, but in the meantime, she had a tendency to try and hide from her grandfather.

It's not that Mr. Bathurst was an intolerable fellow, but he had a disheartened atmosphere about him. Scarlett could tell that her grandmother desired his attention, but it was unclear to Scarlett as to why she'd leave her alone with her grandfather on rare occasions. Her grandfather would tell his granddaughter that Emmy likes to go to Prospect Park for some alone time. Not knowing what that meant, Scarlett took it as a sign that her grandmother likes to avoid him too… on occasion. Honestly, Scarlett felt that she could approach him with anything but his whole being was never there. He seemed distant and Scarlett could tell. The longest conversation she has ever had with him was when she asked him about a box that he always kept on the end-table by his lounge chair. In fact, he had boxes all over the place… including his inner coat pockets. He's even accidently leave them in his trouser pockets on laundry day. Their conversations usually involved his routine smoking sessions in the living room and discussing what those boxes were made of… for lack of a more interesting topic. He'd always tell her that they were made of nacre but she never had a clue what that was. All she could do was ask. He wouldn't ever let her touch them or look inside. In other words, he wasn't much for keeping interesting conversations. Mr. Bathurst would speak when spoken to when confronted with a question but not a word more. The only story he ever had to tell was one from his honeymoon. However, a story about a fistfight with a military bloke on a ship to America wasn't exactly thrilling to an elementary-aged child. Plus, stories from one's past is often repeated too many times to be enjoyable anymore. If Scarlett was to remain with only one memory of him, it would be of watching him smoke his pipe while reading the newspaper in a dimly lit living room.

Even when she isn't talking with him, she'd still stare at him and pinpoint random things about him that bored her… just like her friend from kindergarten. She doesn't care much for his blackish, grey sideburns and mustache. It doesn't make any sense to her why he'd keep those parts of his face so trimmed and proper and not let his hair grow out into a full beard. It only seems logical to her that he'd do that but he is just too prime and tidy. Emma could walk around the house in jeans and a t-shirt but not Douglas. He may be retired and in his early 70's, but that doesn't stop him from wearing a black suit every day. Scarlett knows that he has a more colorful suit in his bedroom closet that he calls a zoot suit, but he absolutely refuses to wear it. Scarlett just assumes it was a bad present from someone that he probably despised… or he just despises the suit itself. Regardless, her grandfather couldn't get any less exciting if he tried. That's why Scarlett was delighted about the end of her kindergarten year. Watching the red blaze of the fire in the living room fireplace made the already dark orange and brown interior of the room turn even more of a burnt orange color. The fire was the only light in the room, so that's where Scarlett would sit as she talked the lonely evenings away with her grandfather. Brown, wooden walls with a velvet red carpet gave the room a sense of dark negativity even though there was nothing menacing about it other than the overwhelming smell of smoke. Being stuck in that room with nothing but silence in the air wasn't exactly Scarlett's definition of a fun afternoon. With summer approaching for the year, she could spend more time with her grandmother in the garden and less time trying to beg her grandfather to do something fun with her. Reading her bedtime stories in his natural Irish accent is as fun as he gets. The end of school means a summer break and a summer break means outdoors.

Scarlett absolutely loves the summertime. Then again, no child in their right mind would love summer any less. She gets sick of being stuck inside the house 24/7. Scarlett has probably played with her Barbie dolls and Betsy Wetsy a million times. It wasn't that pleasurable to stare at her grandfather read the morning paper either. Even school wasn't enough of an adventure for her. It was a great feeling to know that she had no responsibilities within a certain time limit. Her grandparents knew she'd be outside for the next few months. She's been like that since as long as they can remember. The only time they ever force her inside is to eat… even if Scarlett insists on a picnic. Summer meant laying in the grass of their front-yard and staring at the clouds. It meant collecting leaves as money and selling mud pies to her grandparents. Living in a one floor home, there wasn't much of a backyard. They only had the front yard for Scarlett's summertime adventures. She'd always complain of being bored, but her actions and adventures in the front-yard during the summer proved to be quite the opposite of dull. She let her imagination take over her life all the time and wasn't as bored as she always said she was. To her grandparents, her behavior was all an act to get attention.

Scarlett's complaining has a reason behind it, however; it was most certainly not to draw attention to herself. In her mind, she had to make dull objects, which she had no interest in, seem interesting in order to not be bored. There wasn't too much she could do other than make the best of what she's got. For example, it wasn't much of a surprise to Mrs. Bathurst that Scarlett had such a green thumb; she takes after her grandmother. Aside from helping out in the flowerbed, Emma would catch her granddaughter simply staring at the grass or leaves on a tree. Without Mrs. Bathurst's knowing, Scarlett didn't truly find outdoors or wildlife to be overly fascinating, but there was always more to look at than indoors. She'd stare at the leaves and try to think things out for herself, even if she discovered more than her original thought.

Are all the leaves the same shade of green but look different based on how the sunshine reflects on them or are they all different shades? They all turn a darker green when the sun goes down, but the starlight reflections on them then make them a different, dark shade of green... if you get rid of light altogether, they're not even green; they're black. Do they even have a color when there's no light? If I can't see it, is it really there?

Unbeknownst to Scarlett, her alone time has developed her own understanding of things that other people know or thought about, even though she doesn't know or think that others have shared the same thoughts at one time or another in their lives. She enjoyed questioning everything around her in order to occupy her time. Scarlett would rip grass from the ground to see how deep the roots went or lay out in the sun to see how burnt she could get. She'd squeeze the life out of insects to examine their insides or tear the back off of twigs and lick the sap to know what it tastes like. To everyone around her, she seemed like a typical, soft-spoken child that had a love for the outdoors. Her grandparents were just grateful for summer days when their granddaughter looked happier than she has ever been for most of the year.

On July 19th, 1959, Scarlett's birthday, she finally discovered something that she genuinely found interesting. There was no faking it this time. This 'something' was so important to her that it left an imprint on her heart for the rest of her days; she just didn't know it at the time. Mr. Bathurst bought a new bedtime story, and knowing that Scarlett should be able to read it by herself soon, he knew she'd appreciate it. Scarlett's life turned completely upside down the day her grandfather bought her a child's book entitled, "Basil of Baker Street" by Eve Titus.