Kate Cordova stood in the doorway of her new place of residence, her suitcase and a few boxes of belongings beside her feet. She hadn't arrived in London with much, just what she had with her now. The flat itself was on the fifth, and top floor, of an old apartment complex, the inside of which had been recently renovated to give the interior a more "modern" look. The week prior to her moving in Kate had brought furniture to decorate her new flat, so it wasn't completely empty, though it was still sparse. She picked up her suitcase and stepped inside, kicking her trainers off at the door. She padded across the floor and headed down a small hallway, her socks sliding on the polished wooden flooring and found her bedroom. After heaving the suitcase on to the bed, she went to collect the rest of her belongings in the boxes. She smiled fondly at the items she unpacked and placed around her new home, she'd only brought the important stuff with her. Other than grooming and cleaning essentials, everything else was books, clothes, photos, her camera and art supplies and other assorted bits and bobs she'd found herself sentimentally attached to. Soon her flat was starting to look like hers, and it became warmer and more homely the more stuff she put in it. In the bottom of her last box was a photo frame containing a picture she'd almost forgotten about. It was a large group of people, Kate was easily distinguished by her unruly curly blonde hair and beside her stood DI Greg Lestrade. That man had been a close friend of hers for almost six years, and he'd seen her through her police training and he'd been the one to buy her a beer when she'd got her detective badge. A smile found its way to her lips but quickly faded. She hadn't seen him for almost two years now, and she'd given up police work after a case turned horrendously sour and Kate couldn't bring herself to go back. Now, she'd returned to London. Scotland Yard had offered her her job back. Some higher power had decided she was mentally stable enough to handle killers again, though she had yet to decide if that higher power was right.
Sherlock Holmes stood in DI Greg Lestrade's office, the salt and pepper haired man leaning back casually in his chair.
"We can't just lock up the cleaner without any proper evidence!" Lestrade cried in anguish.
"We do have proper evidence! His laundry record should be enough, though I'm hardly surprised you didn't see it. Scotland Yard misses almost everything." Holmes retorted with a roll of his eyes. "Come on Lestrade, you've arrested someone before with less evidence than that. I have conclusive proof. I'm sure if you take a drive round to Mandy's Launderette just off the corner of Norwich Street. He'll be in there now. You've only got fifteen minutes until the spin ends though." Reluctantly Lestrade sent a group out to arrest said cleaner on charges of theft and fraud, bringing yet another case to a close. Sherlock stood proud, a smug grin on his face. Beside him, John Watson sipped quietly on his coffee, ignoring his companion's blatant cockiness. One thing Lestrade had learnt in his years working with Sherlock Holmes was that the man was never wrong. It always pained him to admit that, but sometimes the truth can't be ignored. "So," Sherlock smiled and clapped his hands in front of him. "What have you got for me next, detective?"
Before Lestrade could answer, Donovan's head appeared round the doorway, a smile on her face. "You've got a visitor,sir." Sherlock turned and frowned. Lestrade didn't have visitors. Did he? No, surely not. He couldn't have the time for friends... well, Sherlock thought, he could considering his complete and utter incompetence in the police force. What Sherlock didn't expect to see was a women. Lestrade certainly didn't have women friends (Donovan hardly counted, though maybe Anderson did) and not pretty woman friends either. Sherlock was not a man who gave into such primitive urges, but he would not deny his brain the chance to look at something aesthetically pleasing. So, as the young woman entered Lestrade's office, Sherlock allowed himself to look.
"My God!" Lestrade beamed, pulling himself out of his chair. "If it isn't bloody Blondie!" He pushed past Sherlock and wrapped the young woman in a tight hug. "How long has it been? Two, three years? I heard about your sudden return, but I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon!"
She was short, shorter than John, probably 5'4" give or take a few centimetres. Her skin was tanned, though it was a natural colour and pigmentation, not some synthetic sun-bed tone. She looked foreign, her parentage was certainly not English, but her ridiculous mess of blonde hair said otherwise. It was incredibly rare that blonde hair occur naturally in someone of Spanish or Italian decent, but Sherlock spied no trace of hair dye or colouring. She was pretty, but not the kind of pretty that made you stop a stare. It was more subtle than that, the kind of pretty you could only appreciate if you looked at her for a while. Sherlock didn't need a while though, he'd appreciated and moved on. Regardless of her nice hair and face, she wasn't the sort of woman a man would choose to copulate with in the hopes of producing offspring. Her breasts were too small (C Cup at a push) and her hips too narrow. Not the kind of things one would want in a potential breeding partner. Not to mention the odd genetics in regards to skin colour and hair.
"Oh Greg, it has been some time hasn't it?" She smiled and pulled away from him. "I moved in yesterday, got myself a nice apartment near St Barts." Her brown eyes trailed from Lestrade over to Sherlock and John, clearly she had only just noticed them standing there. She showed no obvious signs to having vision impairment, so maybe she was just ridiculously ignorant to her surroundings...
"This is Kate Cordova," Lestrade informed the two men. "She used to work here, but left a couple of years ago. Kate, this is Dr John Watson and Sherlock Holmes." Kate held her hand out to John, who shook it whilst uttering a polite greeting. Cordova- definitely of Spanish decent then. But Kate? Kate? Such a ridiculously English name for a clearly non-English person. It could only be short for something. It had to be short for something.
"Katerina or Katalina?" He asked as she held her hand out to him. Sherlock looked at it for a moment but didn't take it.
"Pardon?" She asked, a frown creasing her forehead. No accent laced her words. She must of grown up in England then.
"Katerina or Katalina?" He asked again. "All the evidence points to you being of Spanish decent, except of course your hair and first name. Meaning Kate is short for something and seeing as Katerina and Katalina are two of the most popular Hispanic names beginning with K-A-T the likelihood of it being one of them is far greater than Kate being short for Alejandra. Unless of course it is, then that's a big miscalculation on my part and I'm afraid I'll have to start over again which would be a shame seeing as I was just reaching the traumatic event that rendered you useless and forced you to take a break from detective work at such a tender age of twenty-seven, just in the beginning of your career. You must be incredibly good at what you do or else Scotland Yard wouldn't have brought you back." He ended with a smug little nod. "Go on, ask me how I knew." He prompted, but Kate stayed silent for a moment before taking a step back.
"No," She said slowly, her frown disappearing as the corners of her mouth twitched. "I don't want to know how. It'll take away from the brilliance." She turned to John, though she gestured towards Sherlock. "Does he always do that?"
"Unfortunately, yes." John's eyes widened in emphasis.
"That's quite a talent you've got there Mr Holmes." The fact she seemed so unnervingly calm both frustrated and intrigued Sherlock. People usually freaked out when they realised he knew all there was to know about them from just a few glances.
"Well I'm glad you're impressed, such invasion of privacy sometimes doesn't go down well with most." He shrugged, remembering when he first deduced all there was to deduce about Mrs Hudson. She was far from happy and had called him a series of words a sailor would be proud of. "Now, Lestrade do you have a case for me or not?"
Lestrade shook his head. "No, no more cases at the moment. None that require your assistance anyway Sherlock." Sherlock scowled the the detective, but remained silent. Then without another word, the tall and fine featured man exited Lestrade's office and disappeared around the corridor. John said the briefest of goodbyes and followed after his friend. Kate stood in a shocked silence for a minute, unsure of what to say.
"What the hell just happened Greg?" She turned to face her friend and future employer.
"That, Kate, was Sherlock Holmes. Collar-popping, self-righteous bastard. You'll be seeing a lot of him now you're back on the job. Speaking of which, we should catch up over a coffee sometime." Lestrade moved back round to his desk where he began to rummage through his arduous amounts of paperwork. Kate paid no attention to his last comment, her eyes still fixed on the door that Sherlock Holmes had previously flounced out of.
"And why will I be seeing a lot of him?"
"He calls himself a consulting detective, the only one in the world. Invented the job apparently. Though it pains us all to admit it, we do need him. He's a right arrogant sod, but he's good at what he does and he gets the job done ten times faster than we could."
"Consulting detective,eh?" Kate grinned. "That is a new one."
So,this is my first Sherlock fanfiction! I'm having fun with it so far, and have a crap load of ideas. I'd like you all to note now though, that Sherlock won't have fallen head over heels in love by chapter 5. I want to be realistic and write his character to the best of my abilities, and it'd be out of character for him. I'm also not an expert on London and don't know if there is in fact a Mandy's Laundrette down Norwich Street, nor do I know what the most popular Spanish girl's name is! Anyway, hope you enjoyed this first chapter. What's Kate's mysterious traumatic event? Well, you'll just have to wait and see!
Please read and review!