Chapter One: Rachel

I was tired, no doubt jet lagged from our flight and constant travel ever since we landed in the States. Sherlock had been relentless in his search for something he still had yet to reveal although the answer wasn't that hard to fathom, seeing as how we were in Montana. A rather obscure holiday travel location for most people. There was only one answer for his present mission.

"Sherlock, she did say she would return. I don't see why you're rushing around the world in order to bring her back. At this point in time it would be against her will." I yawned and rubbed my eyes as we walked down the sidewalk of the city's downtown. There was a church service getting out ahead of us and I stepped to the side to avoid most of the crowd.

"Strange. Don't you agree, John?" Sherlock asked; stopping and observing the people filing out of the doors and down the stairs.

"No, I don't." I replied, stopping and looking back at him. "Sherlock, Zoey left for her own reasons. She's a grown woman and is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She needed time to rest and recover so she figured it was the perfect excuse to come home and spend time with her family. I find nothing strange about that at all. It's perfectly normal."

"While I appreciate your concern for both Zoey and myself, that was not the subject to which I was referring to. Observe." Sherlock motioned towards the crowd.

A majority of the service attendees were standing on the sidewalk or stairs conversing in rather hushed tones. I was about to question Sherlock's interest in this specific group when I remembered that today was a Friday, not a Sunday. This eliminated the likelihood of a normal sermon. Upon further inspection I realized that most of the church goers were either dressed professionally in dark colors, or wearing black. Several were crying while being consoled.

"A funeral…" I said quietly. "Sherlock, we really shouldn't hang around when we are uninvited. It's quite rude to attend the funeral of complete strangers." I went to walk around the group on the sidewalk when Sherlock grabbed my arm to stop me.

As I turned to scold him I realized his eyes were locked upon the top of the stairs by the open doors. Just inside the foyer I saw a group of young women looking at a portrait that was propped up, surrounded by flower wreathes. The woman in the frame was quite young, in her early twenties most likely. It appeared to have been taken at some sort of party as she was dressed in nice casual clothes, her red hair pulled back into a ponytail and curled slightly. She had a beautiful smile, genuinely laughing in the snapshot.

"She was so young…" I mused as the girls surrounding the frame turned to leave. One of them was crying rather hard, the tears streaming down her flushed cheeks only to be wiped away by the friend beside her. It wasn't until I heard a familiar voice that I realized exactly why Sherlock had stayed for so long.

"I'm so sorry, Ana." The blonde said as she tucked a strand of light brown hair behind her sister's ear. "I know it's hard, and I'm sorry all this happened…"

Ana sobbed, attempting to dry her own eyes in vain. "They don't even know what happened! She was fine when I left the dorm to get snacks. But when I came back…"

"I know you two were close." The elder girl rubbed Ana's back in comfort, trying to usher her out of the building in an attempt to get her away from the source of her trouble. "She was like a sister to me too…"

The taller girl looked over and wiped her eyes once more, sniffing. "I'm glad you could come, Zoey."

Zoey turned to go down the steps when she looked up and froze, hand still on Ana's back. Her sister stopped as well and looked at Zoey for a moment to follow her line of sight. Once she spotted Sherlock and I, the younger McCarron's eyes lit up slightly.

"Isn't that your boyfriend?"

"He is NOT my…" Zoey responded firmly only to be ignored as the youngest of the McCarron's both took off down the stairs once the two boys also became aware of our presence.

"Sherly!" Kayden squealed as he missed the last two stairs in his haste, leaping over them without missing a beat. His short brown hair was as disheveled as his clothes as he slammed into Sherlock's leg, wrapping around it.

Ian was not far behind as he grabbed onto Sherlock's arm. "Sherlock! You're here!" His blue eyes sparkled in the April sun along with his golden hair.

Sherlock appeared a bit uncomfortable with all the sudden affection but managed to pry his arm and leg free and smirk at Zoey who appeared rather flustered. "I must say, I didn't expect to run into you so soon. I had expected to find you quickly but I had imagined the circumstances of our encounter to be quite different."

"Crashing a funeral is not very tasteful, Sherlock." Zoey grumbled, crossing her arms.

"To be fair, we didn't 'crash' it. We merely were passing by and happened to cross paths at the same place in time." Sherlock corrected, receiving a rather annoyed look from Zoey.

"You still shouldn't be here." She huffed as she rubbed her wrist. I noticed that is was currently not in the sling but seeing as how her wrist was the location of the injury, as long as she didn't do anything to strain it, it would be fine. She shook her head and turned to me. "Got dragged along, did you, John?"

"Yes, but I suspect it's better than allowing him to run around America unsupervised." I managed to get a smile out of her and turned to her sister. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Ana's eyes welled up once more and nodded. Sherlock, however did not have the tact for this sort of situation.

"I overheard you say that they didn't know what killed her." He said rather matter-of-factly, crossing his arms as Kayden locked himself around his leg once more. Ian looked over at Ana and walked over to her, hugging her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Yeah," Zoey spoke for her as Ana turned to Danni who had come to join her siblings, unknowingly becoming the shoulder to cry on as her elder sister lost it and burst into tears. "It all happened suddenly."

"I was only gone for an hour!" Ana hiccupped as Danni patted her back.

"Interesting. Care to tell me what exactly happened?"

Ana sniffed, trying to calm herself enough to talk. "W-we were going to watch a movie. Like every Tuesday night… It's the only night we usually don't have a lot of homework." Sherlock nodded and waited for her to continue. "We were out of popcorn, so I said I would go get some and pick up a movie if she ordered the pizza. She was fine when I left…."

"What happened when you returned?" I asked before Sherlock could manage. He shot me a rather irritated look but didn't say anything.

"That's just it… Nothing out of the ordinary happened. At least, aside from Rachel… not that I noticed. She was so sick…"

"Had she eaten anything different that day?" Sherlock inquired, making Ana shake her head.

"No. We had eaten the same things all day. We both missed breakfast and went out for lunch at the same place."

"What happened when you got back?" Sherlock asked again, seeming more intrigued now.

"The door was closed and locked. Just the way I had left it. But when I walked in, the room was trashed. The blankets were thrown off the bed and books were off the shelves. Shoes were thrown about the room and Rachel was in the middle of the room." Ana paused, shaking now and growing quiet as she tried not to sob once more. "I could tell she had thrown up and she looked as if she was seizing… I went to call 911 as I ran to help her but…"

"There was nothing you could do." Sherlock finished her thought. He had done so in a tone that sounded as if he were stating the obvious. It seemed rather cold and from Zoey's expression, she felt the same way.

"It was so strange… She just kept looking at me with the blackest eyes I've ever seen. It was as if her whole iris was gone…"

"They were dilated." He said sounding bored, almost embarrassed that she hadn't known that. I saw Zoey's face twist slightly. No doubt she was biting the inside of her cheek to let her sister finish.

"I guess so…" Ana mumbled. "But she managed to talk to me before she…" Ana drifted off and Sherlock pushed her more.

"Go on."

She looked down at her hands as she remembered her friend's last words. "She said… 'The little living plumb, Ana! The plumb!' Strange words to say as you're dying but I expect she was hallucinating…"

"Or somehow she was giving you a clue to her killer." Sherlock said as Mr. McCarron walked over to his children.

"Killer you say?" The tall dark haired man raised a brow at Sherlock. Obviously intrigued and confused my Sherlock's conclusion. "The assumption until now had been some kind of allergic reaction."

"Once the autopsy reports are run, they will confirm my deduction. Somehow," He turned to the three girls watching him intently. Ana's eyes welling over with tears, Danni trying to calm them, and Zoey keeping an eye on him so as not to further upset her sister. "Your friend, Rachel, was somehow poisoned."