The Detective's Dilemma

HI! Just a little something I've been hemming and hawing over. Rated T For Abusive past and a possible rape case later, maybe a death. ummmmmm...please Review, I like criticism but no flames please, it's my first Sherlock fic. Please Enjoy.

Oh and PS yes this character is alot like my other one for X-Men but she isn't the same she is different. I just happen to find the combination of black hair and purple eyes interesting...Anyway sorry to interrupt. Please enjoy.

btw Porpora means purple in Italian. Now i'll shut up. Enjoy ;)


The clouds hung over the night, heavy and filled with the promise of rain as business picked up for the small inn and bar on the edge of Sussex County. Inside it was lovely and warm with a roaring fire in the bar/sitting area. The waitresses were having a busy night, the kind that promised lots of tips, but one of them wasn't paying as much attention to her customers as she normally did.

"Lily!" Marie said sharply snapping her fingers in the young woman's face.

"Wha-…Sorry, I'm daydreaming, what did you want?" Lily asked blinking at the brown haired and eyed older woman. Marie, the owner of the small inn for nearly forty five years, still had deep chestnut brown hair that was cropped short about her ears even though her sixty some odd years should have darkened it to grey. She was a sweet woman who reminded Lily a lot of…well definitely not her own mother, but of someone's mother who loved them very much.

"Table seven is screaming for alcohol, table two's order is ready, and oh for heaven's sake…" Marie said staring at the person who'd just walked in. Lily followed the older woman's line of sight to see the tall, dark, brooding man who'd shown up three days ago to check in and had only come down at night to drink. Lily couldn't help but feel sorry for him because, in her experience, whenever someone drank as much as he did, they were always depressed. She could see it in his face sometimes, a certain tragic sadness but then he would smile, like he had a joke that no one else was in on.

"He's been coming in and ordering the same thing for the past three days." Marie said huffily passing table two's food to her as Lily smiled slightly.

"Oh come on, you're just upset because he never orders your fabulous cooking, admit it." She replied with a trace of humor as she fixed the plates of food on a tray.

"It's not natural."

"I've gone days without eating before, you never bat an eye."

"When's the last time you went without food?"

"Exactly six months, two days, four hours, fifteen minutes, and forty three seconds." Lily replied as Marie sighed.

"That was before I met you, Porpora." Marie said using the Italian pet name she'd come up with in reference to Lily's extraordinary eyes.

"Come on, ten quid that I can get him to eat something, twenty if I get him to eat a full dinner." She said in response as she hefted the heavy platter. Marie smiled shrewdly to herself as she turned away from the younger woman.

"Thirty quid and whoever loses will do all the cleaning for a week without complaining, if…" She stressed as Lily paused to listen. "You can get him to eat a full dinner and have an actual conversation with him."

"You are on." Lily said happily as she hurried off with the food.

Sherlock Holmes sat in front of the fire, fingers steepled in front of his face as he stared into the flames. He was thinking about Moriarty, of all people, and the last time he'd seen the man. The scientific part of him could completely understand why he'd killed himself. He'd removed the only loose variable that prevented him from his goal…the absolute destruction of Sherlock Holmes. But there was the other side of him, that other side that had become increasingly and annoyingly larger in his brilliantly analytical mind ever since he'd met John. The part that couldn't forget, would never forget…

Moriarty reached to shake his hand and then swiftly brought the gun he had been concealing up to his mouth and fired. Sherlock heard himself shout but was unable to do anything as the only person to have ever bested him fell back on the roof dead for all the world to see from a bullet. His mind raced as he tried to come up with something, anything, to stop his friends from dying. He came to the last, the only, conclusion that was possible. He remembered climbing up onto the side of the roof and looking down before dialing his friend…no, his best and only friend's cell phone number. He remembered talking, he remembered the fear, and he remembered…

"Hey." A feminine voice said interrupting his thoughts. His head jerked to the side before he took a deep breath and turned to regard her. She looked so ordinary with her head bent over a pad of paper, scribbling something down. Her hair was pure black, usually well taken care of, but today was pulled back into a hasty braid that reached the middle of her back as though it was just an afterthought, most likely was. Her skin was pale and smooth. Hands, soft, used to more refined pursuits with long arms attached, covered by black long sleeves. Her legs were just as long and enclosed in similar black pants. He didn't even need to see her face to read her like a book and she didn't even know it, he thought as he looked at her with indifference.

Suddenly she looked up and his mind went completely blank as her unusual purple eyes locked in on his blue grey ones. Her face was aristocratic but softened by the persistent smile around her eyes. On the surface her eyes were kind and gentle but something hard glittered behind them that, although he would never admit it, intrigued the hell out of him.

"What would you like, Mr. Watson?" Lily asked with a half smile as the man in front of her swallowed.

"Scotch." Sherlock replied after breaking eye contact with her.

"Alright, anything else?" She said as she wrote down his order.

"No." He replied turning back to the fire as she disappeared.

When Lily finished telling the bartender his order, she leaned against the counter and breathed heavily. She'd never seen anyone like him before. He looked at her like she was a puzzle to be put together. It was unnerving to say the least and, in a strange way, fascinating.

"Here ya go, Lil', one scotch." The bartender said with a flourish as he placed the drink in front of her.

"Thanks, Harry." She said absently picking it up. As she walked away Harry watched her closely with dark eyes and smile.

"You should watch out for the bartender." Sherlock said as Lily arrived back at his small table. She glanced behind her as she set his glass down, and then turned back with her half smile.

"Harry? He won't hurt me." She said looking at him.

"So sure?" He asked in a condescending tone.

"Yes. Just as I am sure that you haven't eaten anything since you've got here." She replied as he shook his head and smiled.

"Don't miss much do you, Miss…?"

"Lily, just Lily. I have no last name, Mr. Watson. John Watson, that's what you told Marie your name was, right?"

"Correct."

"You don't look like a John Watson to me."

"No?"

"No, you look more like a Holmes." She said flatly, her eyes sparkling with laughter as Sherlock's face fell. "A Sherlock Holmes."

"Proof?" He asked at length. Lily pulled out a small picture from her the back of her pad of paper and held it out to him. He examined it for a moment before throwing it into the fire with a glare.

"I really hate that hat." He said looking mad.

"I found it on Dr. Watson's blog. I'm the only one with internet access and a printer." She said with a wink. "I read the blog and your website once in a while."

Sherlock stood up.

"Well it was nice here but I think…"

"Oh sit down, Mr. Holmes. I'm not going to tell anyone you're here. I don't have any tricks up my sleeve. I probably would never have approached you but you're insulting Marie by not ordering her food."

Sherlock scanned her, looking suspicious before finally sitting back down in his chair. She pulled out her pen and put the tip down, looking up expectantly.

"What." He said looking confused.

"Look we can do this the easy way or the hard way." Lily said as Sherlock rolled his eyes.

"This…" He said holding up his scotch glass.

"Hard way it is…You're getting the full pasta dinner. Soup, entrée, and dessert. And if you don't eat it all, I will go to Marie and tell her who are. She'll throw you out, she doesn't like being lied to. It's supposed to rain tonight." She interrupted scribbling down more words on her pad as Sherlock looked annoyed.

"I won't…"

"It's free."

"Fine." He acquiesced as she flounced away with a wide smile.

The food wasn't terrible, Sherlock thought as Lily brought out the soup and pasta. It was actually really good, given that she'd had to threaten him so he'd eat it. Finally, after most of the patrons had left, she returned to his table with a large bottle of scotch and two chocolate sundaes.

"So how was it?" Lily asked sitting down across from him as she poured a generous helping of scotch into two glasses and handed him a spoon.

"Decent, not like Mrs. Huds-I mean not like a friend of mine's cooking." Sherlock said sounding dispirited as he looked at his full scotch glass. She sent a mild glare at him before taking the glass and downing it before handing him a spoon.

"Eat your sundae." She said as he looked at her petulantly but complied with her order.

"I don't like chocolate."

"Everyone likes chocolate."

Sherlock stuck his tongue out at her to which, of course, she had to retaliate. She couldn't hold her own for long and involuntarily started laughing.

"I get ice cream and you get hard liquor, hardly a fair trade." He said with a satisfied look on his face as he began eating it.

"I have a sundae too."

"I reiterate, hardly a fair trade."

Lily rolled her eyes at Sherlock as she downed the other glass before picking up her sundae and spoon. They ate in silence for a moment before Sherlock gave her a long suffering look that made her giggle into her ice cream.

"Ok ok, here." She said pouring him another glass and handing it to him. He tossed it back expertly before leaning back in his chair with the ice cream.

"Hey beautiful." Harry the bartender said walking over to put a hand on Lily's shoulder. "You staying late?"

"Yeah." She said shortly as Sherlock noticed how tense she'd become.

"Well don't stay to long." He said squeezing her shoulder hard before he left them alone. Lily had stopped eating her sundae and stared at the table, a vacant expression on her face while Sherlock scraped the bottom of his dish before grabbing the scotch bottle.

"He will hurt you." Sherlock said quietly as Lily snapped out of her reverie.

"How can you tell?" She asked shakily as she stood and took his dish.

"Elementary, my dear Lillian."

"I bet you say that to all the girls."

Sherlock laughed out loud for the first time in a long while. Lily smiled as she put the dirty dishes on the counter. He laughed like she imagined a fallen angel would, beautiful with a hint of darkness that was enthralling to listen to.

"So…how can you tell?" She asked returning back to sit at the table. Sherlock looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Isn't it obvious?" He said with a snobbish attitude.

"Would I ask if it was, Mr. Holmes?" She asked as he filled both their glasses again. Sherlock inclined his head in agreement as he sipped at his drink.

"I guess not." He replied pulling a face at her. "And it's Sherlock, Mr. Holmes is my brother."

" Alright, Sherlock." She asked leaning forward in her chair. "How can you tell?"

"The way he looks at you, like you're a possession of his. His right hand also twitches when he sees you, a reflex that betrays his intentions. If you aren't careful he'll take advantage of you."

"Don't all men?"

"No, not all men, just the bad ones." Sherlock replied as Lily snorted and laughed unreservedly.

"Name one." Lily said as she looked at her watch.

"Dr. Watson was…is a good man." He said as she smiled.

"True, and you're not so bad yourself." She agreed reluctantly before standing and picking up the scotch bottle and glasses.

"That's not what I hear." He said with a snort as she put the liquor and cups back in their places.

"What do you hear?" She asked moving her chair closer to the fire before sitting down again.

"Freak, Weirdo, idiot." Sherlock listed off in a bored voice as Lily giggled silently.

"I wouldn't call you a freak or weirdo, but idiot…perhaps, seeing as you didn't eat anything for three days." She said with a wide indulgent smile as he rolled his eyes. As she watched his face intently, she realized it was like seeing a mask slowly slip away. After awhile she could see past the façade of indifference to the subtle changes in his eyes that betrayed him. They sat looking at one another for a moment, each analyzing the other in their own way, before Lily finally spoke.

"You'll come down for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can take tea if you want, but you will come down to eat." She said as Sherlock smirked.

"If I refuse?" He asked with a know it all expression.

"If you refuse, I'll tell Marie your real name."

"Blackmail."

"I am a woman."

"Well let me see…" Sherlock said as he stood and pulled one of her arms forward, uncovering it to reveal thin paler then pale scars on the inside. "From the scars on your arms I know you were once a cutter, I believe it had something to do with childhood abuse. I also know from your long sleeves that you try to hide that fact from your boss."

"You wouldn't." Lily said as Sherlock smiled.

"Oh I would."

"Bastard."

"Fine, goodnight Lillian."

"Wait!" She said catching his arm before he left. "I…I can't let you starve. You're a guest, Marie would kill me."

"Alright…I'll come down for breakfast and lunch but I don't have to eat." He said with a pleased look as she glared up at him.

"And dinner?" She asked.

"If you eat with me."

Lily raised her eyebrow for a moment before nodding seriously as Sherlock smiled in satisfaction. He let go of her arm, inclined his head, and proceeded to walk out of the room.

"Goodnight, Lillian." He called back to her as she watched him curiously.

"Goodnight, Sherlock." She replied with a satisfied smile.