Valkyrie really hated hospitals. That was her first thought whenever she woke up in one, something that seemed to happen depressingly often, though it was rather unavoidable given her choice of job… and partner. Seriously, if there was one person in the world who hated running from a fight more than she did, it was her friend/ partner, though he had the added benefit of being dead... Still, normally, when she woke up, it was to see her mentor leaning on something, playing with either his gloves, suit or hat (or, more recently, his façade... and wasn't that annoying when you were already massively disorientated by a concussion) ready to make fun of whatever situation she had found herself in the middle of before she lost consciousness. True to form, while she was blinking to clear the fuzziness from her vision, she noticed a tall, thin figure over near the door, his back to her.
She was about to call out to ask what had happened this time, but something stuck the words in her throat, a small voice whispering in the back of her head telling her to be quiet, though she couldn't remember why at the moment. God her head was buzzing, had she gone out drinking with Fletcher again? No, that never ended up with her in a hospital, not unless they really over did it this time.
As though hearing her move, which should not have been possible as she had barely shifted her weight a fraction of a millimetre in the uncomfortably starched sheet, he spun round to face her. Belatedly, she realised that this could not be her partner, seeing as though she had been shunted to a different dimension (why was she only remembering this now?), but then, why was she in a hospital? Surely you don't take someone to the hospital just because they are passed out in the street right? Had she been hit by a bus or something when she arrived in this new world? With her luck, it wasn't completely out of the question, but she felt completely fine so it was unlikely... oh gods, what if she had, but this world had super healing machines or something, that would be so cool!
"Ah, so you're awake now. You've been out for quite some time."
The deep voice of the man standing at the foot of her bed snapped her out of her thoughts as she tried not to go into a panic attack for the second time that day... or she thought it was still the same day as when she had left her home dimension... That was not going to help the situation. Instead, she focused her attention on the guy as he stood by the right beside her now, looking her up and down as though trying to figure out everything about her just by sight. Well, two could play at that game, even if it was just another demented version of 'guess who'.
He was tall, that much she had already noticed, with a mess of dark curls on his head and a pale, pinched face that showed that he remembered to eat about as often as Skull did. From the way that his skin seemed to be stretched, he looked as though he was someone who was used to doing a lot of exercise on very few calories, and the barely there waxy look practically screamed 'ex-addict'. His strangely sharp, blue/green eyes flashed at her from above the dark bags that suggested he was an insomniac, but the intelligence there could not be ignored and could probably be quite dangerous if she wanted to keep her true origins hidden in this world. Realising that he was probably waiting for a response, she sent him her best snarky smile before speaking.
"Do you find it entertaining to point out the obvious, or was that just your way of striking up a conversation? If it was the second one, I guess I don't envy your social skills."
She hadn't exactly meant to be so biting in her response, but sarcasm had always been her first response when she was unsure of the situation, it was something she had been criticised for by many of her co-workers at the Sanctuary, but she never really cared about their remarks. It was better to be on guard straight away than to let something slip beforehand, that was something she had learned from experience pretty quickly. Still, it didn't seem to upset the man any, in fact, when he looked at her again, he was beaming… it was kind of creepy and obviously fake, though there was a faint light of amusement in his eyes now.
"Irish…not all that far from Dublin, but a small town. Not as strong as when you were younger, probably due to extensive travelling abroad, right?"
For the shortest of moment, Valkyrie could only blink at the man who was beginning to seem more and more like a hyperactive puppy, just like Skull when he found a case that was going to be life threatening on more than one occasion. It was a little confusing at first, of course she realised that he was talking about her accent pretty quickly, but wasn't this meant to be a different dimension… did that mean that she hadn't travelled far from where she had been before, or was this just one that was similar to her own world? Not really sure how to respond, she said the first thing that came into her head.
"And you're English… London upper class, though you try to hide your background going by the effort you put into trying to tone down your diction, and from some of the inflections you've spent quite a bit of time with people of really low class, probably homeless people as well... Why are we doing this?"
If anything, his smile grew even wider, and he seemed to be on the verge of saying something else when the door he had previously been leaning on opened to reveal two more men, the introduction of new 'unknowns' making her tense slightly, though she had a feeling that this action had been caught by the sharp eyes man beside her. One of them was short and stocky with blond hair and a slight limp in his right leg that seemed to vanish the moment he stopped walking, so she immediately classified it as a psychosomatic injury... probably an ex soldier then. The other was a greying man with the gruff look of an experienced police officer. Both of them were carrying plastic cups that came from hot drink vending machines and seemed to be in the middle of a heated discussion, but when they caught sight of her sat up in bed, the froze immediately, yay question time... she always loved questioning people, though being on the opposite side of an impending interrogation was not fun...
Sighing, she rolled her eyes at their reactions, or lack of seeing as how they were still frozen in the door way, not liking the way that they seemed to be watching her, like she was some animal in a zoo that they had no idea what to do with, or maybe they were waiting for her to do a trick... if so, they were going to be stood there for a long time, maybe she should put them out of their misery before it began to get annoying for her.
"Yes, I know, I'm awake, its a miracle. I don't need to be told that again thank you very much. Repetition has the annoying habit of being incredibly irritating and completely useless in terms of getting things done."
To her immense pleasure, the surprised looks on the men's faces only grew more pronounced at her words and she had to fight the urge to flip her hair and roll her eyes like she always did when people looked down on her in cases. It was amazing how often people underestimated someone based on their appearance, especially when they looked like an 18 year old girl... well, right up until you flipped the guy who was getting a little grabby over your shoulder and out of a third story window... that was a sure fire way to get respect. When no one seemed inclined to break the silence, the first man looking as though he was fighting to keep a smile off of his face and the other two doing pretty accurate gold fish impressions, she sighed again.
"Yes, I talk too, isn't that simply amazing?"
That seemed to be too much for the tall man by her bed as, after taking one look at the other two's faces, he began to chuckle slightly, the deep sound of it seeming to snap the others out of their daze as they began moving again, hurrying to her bedside without managing to spill a drop of the liquid from their cups. Why couldn't she do that? It would prevent a lot of embarrassing moments when Skull suddenly dragged her out of a room on a case.
"It's nice to see you awake miss…?"
Valkyrie had to fight the urge to roll her eyes at the patronising tone the old man was using with her (what was she, 5?), but she couldn't help answering, her response automatic after the number of times she had been asked before... asked, demanded, threatened... same thing really.
"Cain."
Well, she hadn't intended to tell the truth here, not yet anyway, but the ringing in her head was getting worse with the sudden increase of noise in the room and it was beginning to get a little hard to think. Not that it mattered really, seeing as though it was her taken name and one that couldn't be traced back to anyone, but it was still irritating to slip up like that. She wasn't a wet behind the ears newbie after all.
"Well then, Miss Cain, I know you just woke up, but do you mind telling us what you remember about what happened before you passed out in that alley way where we found you?"
Oh yes, she could remember exactly what had happened, she had been shunted across dimensions by some guy who could really hold a grudge... not that she was going to tell them, no need to be put in a psychiatric ward for believing in magic, especially when she had no idea about the world she was in now, for all she knew, they still believed that lobotomy was a valid cure for mental illness. Instead, she decided to delay to see what information she could get before having to make any definite statements.
"Yeah sure, but isn't it polite to introduce yourself? I have no idea who you three are, I'm not too clear on where I am, and I'm not sure if I should trust you."
Her request was reasonable, she decided, especially as they must have seen the stab wound on her stomach that was beginning to flare up again now that the pain meds were wearing off, obviously she hadn't healed it properly before, though she had never claimed to be an adept at healing magic, something always went wrong, in this case, the trip must have ripped it open once again. For a second, it seemed as though they weren't going to answer, though they should have been expecting her rudeness by now, after all, hadn't she been sarcastic from the second they came into the room? Still after a short pause, he older man smiled and offered her his hand, obviously deciding that she had a valid point, or thinking that it was probably better to go with it if he wanted any information.
"Ah yes. I am Detective inspector Lestrade from New Scotland Yard, and these are my associates, Dr John Watson and Sherlock Holmes."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
After waking up, the girl seemed perfectly composed and on guard, something that secretly annoyed Sherlock. He didn't want to see her projected persona, he wanted to see who she really was and normally, when someone woke up in a foreign place, it took a while for them to settle back into their 'characters', though it was obvious that she was intelligent from her quips, and from picking up on his past through his speech. That was interesting, he had never seen anyone outside of his family do that before, even if she had treated it more like a joke than a valid (completely accurate) deduction.
The only cracks in her mask came when she introduced herself, giving the name Cain straight away out of habit, and obviously regretting it the second after. Judging from her expression, it was her real name, and she hadn't wanted them to know it… interesting seeing as though she had no idea who they were. Or did she? When Lestrade introduced them, or, more specifically him, the girlfroze like someone had shocked her, though she tried to cover that up quickly by smiling sweetly at the police officer.
Had she recognised his name then? She shouldn't have, he wasn't all that well known, unless you count in criminal circles, so did that mean she was part of London's underworld? No, she was Irish, definitely Irish, and had seemed surprised when she placed his accent in England. It was as though she hadn't been expecting it, though in the middle of London, it was more common than anything. Did she even know she was in London?
Interrupting whatever inane question Lestrade was about to ask, Sherlock jumped straight to the chase, not wanting to waste time with meaningless niceties, though he had noticed that straight out questioning about the wound was not going to work. She had avoided the question the first time, no doubt she would do so again.
"Miss Cain, would you mind telling me where we are?"
Vaguely, he noted that John and Lestrade were sending him questioning looks, but his main focus was on the girl who was staring at the floor in panic. Well, that answered that question. But why would she be unaware of their location? This girl just got more and more interesting. After a second, her confused expression turned to that of frustration.
"I don't know, my head is buzzing too much… I CANT THINK!"
The last bit was a little louder than necessary and made the other two jump, but Sherlock had been expecting it, after all, he knew what he was like to have too much pushing itself around your head that it is impossible to focus on one at a time. It was not a pleasant feeling. Noticing the panicked look that gripped her features, he stepped forwards, grabbing her cold hand and forcing her to look at him.
"First, calm down, take a deep breath and try not to focus on one thought in particular."
She froze when he first took her hand, and he heard the surprised gasp from the men behind him, but he ignored them. He had feigned nice enough times in front of them before, what did it matter that she reminded him of how he was at that age?
Slowly, she took a deep breath and nodded, the panicked light in her eyes drifting away slightly and her gaze regained some of that sharp, crystal clarity that it had held when she stared him down before. Dropping her hand, he took a step away before speaking once again.
"Now, close your eyes."
He waited a second for her to comply, imagining what would help him in that situation. He first thought that she could be faking this, but the panic in her eyes was far too clear to be put on. He didn't remember her chart saying that she had a head injury, but she hadn't been breathing when they found her, could that have something to do with this? Moving that to the side for the present moment, he focused back on the girl, trying to get the information he needed out of her.
"What do you see? What is the last thing you remember before waking up here?"
After this, the girl was still and silent for a long time, her eyes flickering under her eyelids as she flicked through her thoughts clearly. Over to his side, Sherlock noticed Lestrade open his mouth as though he was going to ask something, but with a quick shake of his head, Sherlock signalled for him to be quiet. After a few more seconds anyway, the girl's eyes snapped open again and her face went chalk white, fear clear as day behind her chocolate irises.
"I don't remember anything!"
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter, don't be afraid to drop me a review! And, if anyone feels like Beta-ing, my normal beta decided to give this one a miss, so, any volunteers? Please?
