Disclaimer: I do not own anything besides Christine and other characters not mentioned either in the books or series.
Rain was softly falling onto the sidewalk that runs along Bakerstreet. A woman walked hurriedly in direction of 221B, dragging two heavy suitcases along behind her. She arrived at the intended door, rang the doorbell and waited. And waited. She heard someone screaming from behind the door.
"Coming! Just a second." Then the door opened.
The old lady opening the door must be Mrs Hudson.
"Oh hello dear, can I help you?"
"Yes I believe so ma'am, I'm here to look at apartment 221C?"
"Oh yes of course, come in, come in!" She hurried the young woman inside. "I did not catch your name dear?" She asked.
"Oh yes, I apologize, Christine Jansen, I am John Watson's niece." Christine shook the landlady's hand.
"I remember now, yes, you called me two weeks ago, didn't you, about surprising John? Well dear, I haven't told him anything.
Christine laughed; she already liked the talkative landlady.
"I have just remodelled the whole apartment, it was very humid down there, so I had to clean it all up if I wanted someone in there. No one was interested, well up till now." She winked at the young girl following her.
She unlocked the door, and together they walked into the narrow hallway.
"Well as you can see, there is not very much room for a closet or anything here, but you can probably hang your coats here." Mrs Hudson said as she walked through the hallway into the living room.
"This is the living room. Everything has been painted, as you can see, the fireplace has been recovered, so it can be used, maybe nice during the winter, which will be coming very soon. It is already getting so cold outside."
The room was spacious and light, because of the two big windows on each side of the fireplace. The walls were painted a broken white, which was beautiful with the dark hard wooden floors.
"I wanted the room to be a bit more light and modern, maybe to attract younger people such as yourself Christine. Here you have the kitchen, it had to be redone, the last kitchen could not be saved, so everything will be working." The woman laughed.
Christine was too busy thinking. She was changing her life so quickly now, only arriving in London yesterday, and taking care that all her stuff would be here today. She had a feeling that she was needed here. And the person that needed her was her dear nephew John. She had missed him. They always had been very close in their youth. When Christine had to move away with her family to her father's country of birth, the Netherlands, because of her job, John and her kept in touch. But it was never the same. She had lived in London for a year during college, but that was the time that John was in Afghanistan. They wrote each other letters now and then, but it had stopped at one time. Both too busy dealing with their own lives. And then, last year, Christine was called by a crying John, telling her that his best friend had died. Had killed himself, by jumping of a building. The years of silence were soon forgotten, and Christine had called him a few times more. But she had just entered a very busy period, graduating from college.
Everything had worked out for her; she got a high score on her paper and graduated. Enjoyed her holiday with her friends, and just lived. But she could not shake the idea of John being unhappy. As an only child, he had been the only thing that had been close to a brother. It was like the gods above had heard her doubts; because last month she got a call from the company she had spend 6 months, doing her internship. They had offered her a job as a junior editor. And this was not a small job for a just-graduated-22 year old girl. This was a job by the magazine Vogue. Her life long dream had come true. But it had happened so fast that it scared her a bit.
But well here she was, walking through her possibly new apartment, just below her nephew's. She could not really believe it yet.
"Dear are you all right?" Mrs Hudson asked her worriedly.
"Oh of course, I'm sorry, just thinking." Christine smiled at the lady.
"As I said, the kitchen should be full functioning, you have space for a table, but as you can see there is also a bar that can be used to eat on. Now lets go take a look at the bedroom and accompanying bathroom."
She led the young woman to a door, left from the door to the hallway, and walked into the bedroom. It was as beautiful as the rest of the apartment, light and clean. Still smelling of paint. It had room for a queen-size bed, large closed, and some other small furniture.
"And the bathroom. Just as the kitchen it had to be redone, so everything is brand new."
The bathroom was painted a very light greyish blue, with mosaic tiles on the floor matching the colour. There was a tub beneath a window, and a loose shower in the corner. A toilet and sink were placed against the other wall. It was lovely.
"Well Christine, what do you think?" The landlady asked her kind of nervously. She was very eager to rent out this apartment, or it seemed.
"It is a great apartment, but I think you would already have a long waiting list now it has been remodelled?" Christine asked carefully. She really hoped she could get this place, it had the perfect location, for her work, and for John of course, and it was beautiful. And then the price. It was practically heaven, for someone with a new job.
"Actually no. I have waited for you Christine, to come and take a look, since you called me two weeks ago. You're John's niece after all, and I think he needs you since, well, since -"
The woman's eyes started to fill with tears. Christine could feel all the hurt and all the anger rolling of the woman. But she let herself feel the woman's emotions for now. She had been talking about 'the fall', meaning the day Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective had taken his own life.
She pulled the tiny lady into a hug. "It will be al right Mrs Hudson, everything will be al right at the end, you'll see."
The woman calmed down, and Christine let her go. Then she briefly closed her eyes and closed herself up again, letting go of the other's emotions. She took a deep breath, and pushed it out heavily, letting go. Now, she could feel herself again. Steadily standing with both feet on the ground.
"Oh silly me." The landlady said, and she walked out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, into the living room. "Well, miss Jansen, what do you think?"
"When can I move in?" Christine answered with a look of mirth in her eyes.
"Oh this is fantastic!" Mrs Hudson exclaimed happily. "You can move in this afternoon if you want to, are you possessions already here? It will be so nice having another girl here." She laughed.
"I just have to call and check what time my stuff will be in London, then I will send them here immediately, then I also need to pick my other things from the hotel." Shit. She had forgotten about her cat: Legolas. Yes she had named her cat after the Lord of the Rings character. It was a joke at the time, but it had kind of stuck, and the cat seemed to like it. "Uh, Mrs Hudson, I forgot to ask you something."
"What is it dear?"
"Is it allowed to have pets? I have a cat, he is very sweet, loves people, and very easy." Christine began to hurriedly tell the lady.
The woman laughed. "It is fine Christine, he sounds lovely."
The girl blushed. "Thank you."
"Now lets get up for a nice cuppa, and you can sign the contract."
John was not at home. Mrs Hudson had told her that he was at work, and would be home around 7, and it was only 4 yet. Christine knew he worked with his girlfriend Mary. As far as she knows, they were still doing great. Mary had helped John a long way already. Mrs Hudson promised her that she would not tell John that Christine had rented the apartment; she would surprise him herself tonight.
She signed, all the boxed were spread around the living room. The movers had brought everything in around 2. They had even helped her setting up all the heavy furniture. The only thing left to do was unpack everything.
Starting with all of her clothes, the dragged the boxes into her bedroom. She unpacked everything, laid it down on her bed, before deciding which should be hanged, and which needed to be folded. Her shoes, which were way to many, would go on the bottom. Then she went unpacking her towels and other stuff for in the bathroom. And so she moved from room to room.
After 2,5 hours of unpacking it was almost done. The rest would she be doing tomorrow. It would be Saturday anyways. "Meow." Legolas had jumped next to her onto the sofa.
"Hey buddy, what do you think, you like it." He purred in response. She scratched his ears and he laid down in the corner of the sofa. His usual spot. She laughed.
Then she heard someone opening the front door "Mrs Hudson!" John screamed.
Christine felt hear heart beat in her chest. He was home already. She was excited to finally see him. She took a final look at herself in her large mirror in her bedroom. Her straight ash grey hair, which almost seemed silver, came to her waist. It had taken her ages to grow it out. Always being one for changing her hairstyle drastically. Her bright green eyes seemed to sparkle. She always wore simple make-up. Only a bit of concealer, a bit of blush, and cat eye black eyeliner.
Sometimes she wore lipstick, another addiction of her, but she was not in the mood today. Her leather black skinny jeans and white satin blouse where simple, but sophisticated. She nodded. This would do.
She walked through her hallway, opened the door and peaked outside. No one there. Good. Silently she climbed up the stairs. John's door was slightly open. Hoping he would not hear her yet, walking through the hallway, she arrived at the door. And knocked. She heard some ruffling from somewhere farther into the apartment before the door fully opened.
"Yes, can I help you?" John didn't seem to recognize her at first.
But then she saw the look in his eyes change. "Christine?"