Sherlock
"Evans! Leave him!"
"NO!" came the tearful woman's voice as she placed pressure on the blown stump of flesh.
"Evans, there are insurgents all over this area!" shouted the commander, "We have to move!"
"No!" she said tearfully looking down at the man before her, he was scared…in all there time together, she had never seen him scared, but he was going to die if she didn't stem the bleeding.
"Evans!" The captain grabbed her backpack and tried to pull her back. "Were surrounded and Evac is here! We have to move, now!"
"I am not leaving him!" she shrugged of his hand and looked down at her fiancée who was trying to say something. "I love him." She whispered.
"But we have to go!" the captain said pulling her back again.
"Let me talk to her." The wounded man said. With his remaining hand he pulled her in closer.
"You have to let me go." He said. Lily tearfully shook her head.
"No." she said. "No, were going to get through this, where going to go home and live in that cottage we always dreamed of with the stupid windows where our kids can play football in the back garden." He smiled weakly.
"You can still have that." He whispered as shots fired over their heads. "You can, I…I can't."
"Yes, yes you can!" Lily shouted tearfully.
"Captain, get her out of here." He said fighting back his own. He reached down to his belt and pulled out his hand gun.
"NO! JON!" shouted Lily as the captain pulled her of him and dragged her back towards the waiting Chinhook while she was kicking and screaming.
"Look after her captain." Said Jon turning round and firing.
"JON!"
Lily woke up abruptly in her bed. She was breathing hard and her pyjamas where caked in sweat, she pulled the duvet off her and sat on the edge of the bed and looked around her bedsit. She ran her hands through her hair and fingered the chain round her neck with Jon's ring on it. Lily breathed deeply and got back onto the bed, hugging her knees in the process.
Another nightmare, though they were weren't as frequent as they had been in the last few weeks when they did they were stronger than ever before. Tears started to fall from her cheeks, she missed Jon. She missed waking up next to him in the morning, she missed his scent, his touch, everything. After sheading her tears, Lily got back into bed and closed her eyes. She knew she wasn't going to get any sleep anytime soon but at least it was semi peaceful.
"Another sleepless night?" Lily was curled up on a chair looking at the rain batter the windows of Doctor McGonagall's. She had been up since her nightmare drinking tea waiting for her appointment. At around six she opened her laptop and looked at the blank page of . She had spent hours looking at it, but couldn't think of a single thing to say.
"How's your blog going?" she asked. Lily shuffled on the chair. Her hand going down to finger the ring on her chain again.
"Yeah, good." She said she cleared her throat awkwardly. "Very good."
McGonagall smiled wryly and made a note. "You haven't written a word, have you?"
Lily's gaze went to her note book, her green eyes narrowed.
"You just wrote 'Still has trust issues.'" Said Lily pointing at the note book. McGonagall pulled it up.
"And you read my writing upside down. Do you see what I mean?" Lily looked away from her.
"Lily, you're a soldier, and it's going to take you a while to adjust to civilian life; and writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you." Lily looked at the rain again sadly. It was raining the first time Jon had told Lily he loved her, in their barracks after a stupid row that Lily couldn't remember now.
"Nothing interesting happens to me anymore." She said sadly.
Lily was walking through the park, she wrapped her coat around her more tightly and let the autumn breeze brush her neck and chin. Everything she did just reminded her of Jon all the more, walking to the shops, the cinema, and the park. Everything just reminded her of what she had lost, all her friends tried to understand what she was going through but they couldn't.
"Lily? Lily Evans." Lily turned to see a woman sitting on a bench, she was plump while wearing a beige overcoat but her face looked familiar. Lily turned round to face the voice.
"Dorcas, Dorcas Meadows? We were in Saint Bart's together." Lily recognised her now.
"Ah yes, Dorcas, hello." She said holding her hand out to shake it. But before she could Dorcas enveloped her in a huge hug. Lily was a bit taken aback and hugged her back gingerly.
"It's been an age." Said Dorcas finally letting go. "How you been? Last I heard you went abroad somewhere getting shot at." Lily could feel a chill running over her shoulder.
"So what Happened?"
"…I, got shot." Said Lily quietly.
Lily and Dorcas where now sitting in the park with a cup of tea for Lily and coffee for Dorcas. Lily had always been a coffee drinker, but, ever since Jon…
"So are you still at Bart's then?" asked Lily, trying to make conversation.
"Yeah." Said Dorcas chuckling, "Teaching now though, Bright young things like we used to be. God I hate them." Despite herself, Lily laughed along with Dorcas. It felt nice to laugh again, although it left as quickly as it came.
"So what about you?" asked Dorcas, "Just staying in town till you get yourself sorted?"
"I can't afford London on an Army pension." Said Lily pulling her coat round her more.
"And yet you can't bear to be anywhere else." Said Dorcas knowingly. "That's not the Lily Evans I know."
"I'm not that Lily Evans anymore." She died with John in the sand in Afghanistan. They both drank in an uncomfortable silence. Lily looked down at her hand to find it shaking, she gripped her fist to stop it. Apparently, it was a side effect of the PTSD.
"Couldn't Pete help out?" asked Dorcas. Lily laughed again.
"Yeah, like that's going to happen." Said Lily sarcastically,
"Why don't you get a flat share?" suggested Dorcas. "There a plenty going in London."
"Who would want me as a flatmate?" asked Lily. Dorcas laughed. "What's funny?" asked Lily.
"You know, you're the second person who's asked me that today." Said Dorcas. Lily looked at her confused.
"Well…who's the first?"
James opened the body bag and inhaled deeply.
"How fresh?" he asked. Marlene walked over, to him, she seemed giddy in his presence, maybe it was the unruly black hair coupled with the long black coat and suit without a tie that did it for her.
"Just in this morning." Said Marlene, "sixty seven, natural causes." She said as she walked round the body, "I knew him, he was nice." James nodded and turned to face her.
"Excellent." He said, "We'll start with the riding crop."
Marlene flinched each time James smacked the corps with varying degrees of force. When he was finished he rearranged his suit and placed the crop back.
"Bad day was it?" asked Marlene jokingly.
"I need to know what bruises appear in the next twenty minutes." He said, not picking up on the banter. "A man's alibi depends on it, text me." Marlene played with her fingers nervously as James put his coat on.
"Listen…" she began. "I was wondering: you know, when you're finished whether you would like to-"
"You're wearing lipstick." Said James abruptly. Marlene was caught a little of guard by the observation. "You weren't wearing lipstick before."
"I, er…refreshed it." Marlene said nervously. She then looked over at him flirtatiously, but he was now back writing into his notebook.
"Sorry, you were saying?" Marlene snapped back to reality, remembering about coffee.
"I was wondering whether you'd like some coffee?" she asked, looking at James intently. James snapped his notebook shut and turned to her.
"Black, two sugars please, I'll be upstairs." James swept passed her shell shocked face leaving her alone in the morgue.
"…Okay."
James was let a few drops of acid fall onto the petri dish. He placed in under the microscope and studied the reaction. He noticed the door opening but didn't look up. They moved around the room before settling.
"Looks a lot different from my day." Said Lily.
"Hah, you have no idea." Said Dorcas.
"Dorcas, can I borrow your phone?" asked James, "Mines got no signal."
"What wrong with the landline?" asked Dorcas looking for it.
"I prefer to text." Said James still not looking up from the microscope.
"Sorry, left it downstairs." Said Dorcas turning out her pockets.
"Here." Lily fished her phone out of her pocket. "Use mine." James looked up from the microscope and at Dorcas before walking over to Lily.
"Oh, thank you." He said taking the phone from her out stretched hand. James looked to Dorcas again.
"This is an old colleague of mine." Said Dorcas, "Lily, Lily Evans." James started to text while Lily looked around the room. James's eyes flickered towards her before going back to the phone.
"Afghanistan or Iraq?" he asked. Lily turned to Dorcas who had an all knowing smile on her face. Lily turned back to James who was still texting.
"Excuse me?" she asked. James now looked up at her fully.
"Which was it, Afghanistan or Iraq?" James asked again. Lily looked over to Dorcas again and then back at James amazed, yet violated.
"Af-Afghanistan, sorry but how did you-"
"Ah, Marlene." The door opened and Marlene walked in with two cups of coffee. "Brilliant coffee thank you." He said taking it off her and placing it on the side. "What happened to the lipstick? He asked, Marlene flushed and looked away.
"It, er, it wasn't working for me." She said lamely.
"Really?" said James, "I thought it was a big improvement. Now it looks, too." He motioned with his hands "Small." Marlene stood silent.
"…Okay." James walked back to his workbench.
"How do you feel about the violin?" he asked. Lily saw Marlene walk out of the door and then to Dorcas who was smiling smugly. Lily suddenly realised he was talking to her.
"I'm sorry…what?" asked Lily again.
"I play the violin when I think, which is a lot and talk to myself for days on end, which I do a lot of as well." He said holding up a test tube. "Would that bother you, I think prospective flatmates should know that worst about each other." Lily turned to Dorcas.
"You, you told him about me?" Dorcas shook her head.
"Not a word." Lily turned to James with a glare.
"Well then who said anything about flatmates then?" she asked accusingly.
"I did." Said James walking towards his coat and taking it of the coat stand. "I Told Dorcas this morning that I must be a difficult man to find a flatmate for. Now here she is just after lunch with an old friend, clearly just home from military service in Afghanistan. Wasn't that difficult a leap." He finished. Lily nodded, it certainly did make sense.
"How did you know about Afghanistan?" asked Lily quietly.
"I have my eye on a nice place in central London." Said James, ignoring Lily's question. "Together we can afford it, the landlady owes me a favour." James applied his scarf and checked his phone. "We'll meet there tomorrow evening; seven o'clock. Sorry – have to dash. I think I left my riding crop in the mortuary."
Putting his phone into the inside pocket of his coat, James walked past Lily and headed for the door.
"Is that it?" asked Lily. James turned back and questioned her with his eyebrows. He moved a little closer to her.
"Is that what?"
"We've only just met, and now where going to see a flat together."
"Problem?"
Lily looked at Dorcas who was still smiling while she herself was smiling in disbelief, how could any else not see the disorganisation at this proposition.
"We don't know a thing about each other." Said Lily. "I don't know where we're meeting; I don't even know your name."
James looked closely at her for a moment before speaking
"I know you're an Army doctor and you've been invalided home from Afghanistan due to losing your fiancée. I know you've got a brother who's worried about you but you won't go to him for help because you don't approve of him – possibly because he's an alcoholic; more likely because he recently walked out on his partner."
Lily was stunned, she tried to stand tall but really wanted to cry, how could someone she barely knew figure that much about her from only being in a room with her for less than five minutes.
"I think that's enough to be getting on with." Said James walking towards the door again. He walked halfway through the door before turning back to face Lily.
"The name is James Potter. And the address, is Two, Two, One, B Baker Street." He click winked Lily and turned to Dorcas, "Afternoon." Dorcas held her hand up to acknowledgement as he walked through the door, she turned to Lily who looked on amazed at him.
"Yeah, he does that."