Chapter 1 - Copper Beeches
Sherlock hummed to himself as he entered the flat. His conclusions about the rapidity of bruises forming on a dead corpse were correct. And now the day stretched before him, dull and infinite, much like one of Mycroft's Chancellor of the Exchequer anecdotes.
Wonder if I could re-wire Mrs Hudson's...
No. Wait.
A female cologne tickled his nostrils. Delicate and Ambitious. Not his landlady's. Hers was Soft and Maternal with a sprinkling of Inappropriateness. He took a tentative step backwards onto the landing. The kitchen door was open. Mrs Hudson always made a point of closing that door.
"Oh, Sherlock, the mess you've made," she had often complained regarding the kitchen. Since the human lung explosion of 2011, she had insisted he keep that door closed on a sort of semi-permanent basis.
John! he thought, his heart leaping a tiny bit. But...no. The perfume. Not the one John's fiancée wore anyway, had she accompanied his ex-flatmate. Mary's was Confident and Deceitful.
But back to identifying this particular scent. Cleo de Thebes. A young woman's choice.
Sherlock slowly walked through the kitchen door, his eyes rapidly scanning the kitchen. The bar stool was out of place. The seat now faced the wall upon which his eye-chart was displayed. And then he remembered: Mrs Hudson's new lodger, and the challenge he'd issued her when he'd encountered her on the staircase earlier that morning. She'd made some pathetic request about needing their wifi password, and Sherlock had told her she could find it in his flat. A sort of treasure hunt. Now who didn't enjoy those? Surely she hadn't succeeded!
He strode over to his laptop on the living room table, logged on to the router's status page, and checked the attached devices. There, underneath the names of his notebook, his phone, and Mrs Hudson's desktop was the device name CopperBeeches.
Sherlock closed the lid of his computer slowly, a smile growing from one corner of his mouth.
Clever girl.
He placed his elbows on the armrests of his chair and leant back, steepling his fingertips to his mouth. Is she clever? Why is she clever? Or did she receive information from Mycroft? Because surely she'd been planted by his brother to spy on him. Sherlock had practically brushed past her this morning, not really wanting to acknowledge John's replacement.
He raised his eyes to the ceiling, where he imagined she would be, in John's rooms upstairs. He'd just have to find out how clever.
John's laptop had been unimaginatively assigned the name John's laptop. So what was Copper Beeches, and what was its significance? I think I've just found myself a new case, Sherlock thought, his mind navigating the ways and wonders of interrogating new lodgers.
#
Author's Note:
This is an AU, which means I've taken the characters and setting of BBC's Sherlock but I've created new adventures for them. My story doesn't take place before, during or after any particular season, but it was originally written after season 2. The main antagonists, Moriarty, Adler, etc. may appear at some stage in an entirely different context. And Sherlock hasn't faked his own death. At this stage in my story, Sherlock and John did live together, and share in adventures, but John has now moved in with Mary Morstan, his fiancee, leaving his rooms upstairs vacant. I made them "rooms" rather than a single bedroom because there's a whole floor up there! It's a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. And Sherlock is not a virgin, as you shall see.
I should add that this story was originally written and completed as "Copper Beeches" but I started rewriting it and separating into three main storylines, along with one over-arching plot. I should also point out, that the old reviews now don't line up with the chapters they were orginally written for (and there were also more chapters in the original story than there are in part 1... so reviews actually go up to chapter 83).
There will be a third part at some stage, but each existing part does reach its own conclusion. It does get quite deep and dark in some places, with very adult themes, so if that's your cup of tea, then pull up a chair and grab a plate of gingernuts! Thanks for your interest!