A/N: It has been ages since I posted a story. Seriously. What is with that?
I've always wanted to know more about Harriet, and this is my take on her character's back story.
Simply a one-shot. I won't be continuing this. Or maybe I will. I'm not sure at the moment. I just love Harriet Watson, and this is based purely off of my headcanon of her.
The third of June 1976, a little past midnight, a little girl was born.
Her parents called her Harriet, and wished her the best in life; they wished for all the usual things about being innocent, beautiful and lucky in love. To be above that of average talent, to be more than just ordinary.
A little while later, a little boy came into the family. Harriet stood by her mother's bed as her mother held the tightly folded bud in her arms, and introduced him as John, her little brother.
Harriet grew up, being forced to look over her baby brother. The pair grew up, never forming the brother-sister bond that their parents so wished for.
After a childish argument in which John hid Harriet's smurf collection, she took his action men and tossed them into the bin. She was angered when her parents took her brothers side, and grounded Harriet for taking something from her younger brother. John never returned Harriet's smurfs to her, so she ended up searching high and low for them, eventually finding them hidden behind stacked books.
During her teen years, Harriet formed a close relationship with a girl called Sally Donovan. Harriet found comfort in being with Sally, she had never had someone whom she could depend on until she had found her. Harriet would stay at Sally's after arguments with her mother got out of hand. Harriet thought of Sally as the older sister she had always wanted, but never had.
Sally and Harriet parted ways after finishing sixth form. Sally went off to London, determined to become a police officer for Scotland Yard. Harriet went off to Manchester, very unsure of who she was.
University was where Harriet started to discover who she really was. She felt strong attractions to both men and women on the campus, and ended up falling into bed with many of them. Harriet found herself not caring about person's gender, she didn't care about the rumour people spread behind her back. Harriet liked who she was, and held her head high.
But Harriet found herself overwhelmed in university fees, but Harriet being Harriet, was too stubborn to turn to her parents for help; instead, she started selling things on the market, soon working her way up to become a con artist. Through this, she met her friend Sebastian Moran, who may have accidentally put her on the route to bigger crimes. He was the person who showed her how to shoot a gun, and it was here that Harriet found herself. She liked the power she felt when she held the gun; when she found out about Sebastian's work as an assassin, the last thing he expected her to say was "I want in."
Later that same year, Harriet went to visit John for Christmas. Here, she met his girlfriend, Clara. Clara was a French girl who had moved to the UK when she was sixteen, and she and Harriet clicked instantly. On New Year's Eve, after John had gone to bed, Harriet and Clara shared a brief kiss.
The pair found themselves sneaking behind everyone's back to see each other, sharing many passionate nights and intimate days. Once John found out, it led to the biggest argument he and Harriet had ever had.
Harriet and Clara remained together through thick and thin, and Clara comforted Harriet when Sebastian and John both went off to Afghanistan. Sebastian was Harriet's best friend, and she felt completely lost without him, and although she and John didn't speak all that much anymore, Harriet was worried sick about him.
Harriet had never loved someone more that she loved Clara. She admitted that the relationship wasn't perfect – no relationship is. They fought sometimes over silly things, but they would always eventually make up.
But by this point, Harriet was working as an assassin for an Irish man called Moriarty, and one day when Clara answered Harriet's phone for her and received a call from one Jim Moriarty. The call confused Clara, but then the truth about Harriet's crimes came to light. Clara left Harriet after that night. Harriet felt like her entire world had collapsed around her, and soon started to drink. The drinking went on for sixth months solid, and didn't start to get better until Sebastian came back into her life and sorted her out.
Harriet sent the phone Clara has given her for her birthday to her brother, and went to live with Sebastian. She slowly got off the drink, and resumed her work as an assassin.
But soon came a choice that would almost kill Harriet.
She couldn't contain her anger when she found out that her best friend had strapped a bomb to her baby brother. The yelling and fighting led to Harriet packing her things and moving out.
She found herself a nice little flat on the west side of the Thames, and got a job as a waitress, but continued her work for Moriarty, refusing to even glance at Sebastian. As time passed, Harriet and Sebastian's relationship started to mend, and although she knew it was Moriarty she should be angry at, it was her best friend that attached the bomb to John, she couldn't find it in her to forgive him
Months passed, and John came to Harriet's for Christmas, and he told her what had happened over the past few months since he had started to live with Sherlock. He told her about the incident with the bomb, more than he had previously told her, but of course, Harriet knew more than he'd ever know.
Moriarty soon revealed to Harriet and Sebastian his plan to ruin Sherlock. His plan to convince the ordinary civilians that Sherlock was a liar and a fraud, who had just made up his cases to get popular with the media. Harriet rather liked this idea.
The plan went forward, and it went better than Harriet had expected it to. She was soon standing, disguised as a police officer, outside DI Lestrade's office, waiting for the call that would tell her to shoot Lestrade or walk straight out of Scotland Yard. She remembered begging Sebastian to miss shooting John if Sherlock didn't jump, to shoot him in the shoulder or the leg or anywhere else that meant he wouldn't die.
She waited patiently, and smiled to herself when she found herself walking out of Scotland Yard.
She changed quickly in the toilets, packing the disguise into her bag. Harriet made sure everything was packed and secure before leaving. But before she could, she walked right into Sally, who was in a rush due to Sherlock jumping off of the roof of St. Bart's. Harriet jotted down her number quickly and gave it to her, and walked out of Scotland Yard, a bounce in her step.
She stood by her brother at Sherlock's funeral, holding an umbrella over their heads as they lowered the coffin into the ground. Harriet turned to leave, and asked if John was coming. He simply shook his head, and with a deep breath, Harriet walked away.
Harriet sat in her living room with her legs resting on Sebastian's lap, leaning against the arm rest.
"Do you think it's over?" Sebastian asked her, not laying an eye on her.
Harriet shook her head. "I don't think we've seen the last of Sherlock, Sebby. You know what I think? I think he's gone and found a way to trick us into believe he's dead. At the moment, I'm thinking we'll be seeing Sherlock very soon."
A/N:
Ta da
That's it.
Maybe I'll write a series on Harriet, but I'm not sure yet. I have exams coming up, and I want to do well in those, so maybe I'll do one after they're all finished.
Review?