"Hey, you can't just do that" Erin yelled as she finally caught up to him.
He turned around and stared at her for a few seconds, she met his eyes. She figured most girls would swoon at his eyes or have some other sort of reaction, but Erin matched his hard gaze.
"Yes I can. I just did." He turned around again, continuing in his path down the crowded hall. She let out a quick breath, she wasn't going to let him dismiss her. Slightly jogging down the hall she managed to keep up with his quick pace. She grabbed his upper arm and spun him round to face her.
"No. You can't," Erin stated stubbornly, "You can't just keep going. You have to do something."
He rolled his eyes, realising that this young woman was relentless, "Like what?" he said exasperated.
Erin was slightly taken aback, she had thought he would just continue again, "Well like, tell me off, say 'I should look where I'm going' or 'go back to your room' or escort me personally to front desk to report me for something or other."
He was quick to reply "Well then 'look where you're going' and you should 'go back to your room' young lady, however, I don't think I need to escort you to front desk- you should know where it is after 9 years" he said mockingly as he 'told her off' and once again walked away.
She stared blankly at him for a few moments, stunned. Looking at the clock she saw she had exactly 1 hour 24 minutes and 33 seconds until a nurse came to check on her. Not wanting to go back to her room she decided her best option was to follow the man with the dark curls.
He had turned left so was probably going to the morgue, he could have been one of the med students there as they left an hour later than everyone else. Sprinting down the halls, banging into people saying "sorry" much too often she finally managed to catch up with him as he opened the doors to lab room 6.
When she too entered the room she walked over to where he was and sat down next to him, although he didn't seem to notice.
"What'cha doing?" She asked casually, swinging on her seat.
He looked up and did a double take as he saw her now familiar face, "Oh, it's you. What do you want this time?"
"How did you know I had been here for so long?" She asked quietly.
"When you were walking. You looked completely comfortable. Sure you could just visit regularly, or be one of the many med students, but you have small plasters on your arm from where you have recently had several drips placed in your arm- so patient. You walked confidently and in place, most people walk like that only in their homes or other places they spend a lot of time, unless you're confident. Which if you don't mind me saying you clearly aren't. This means you have spent a lot of time here, from how comfortable you are I'd say a few years, some of the nurses and doctors we passed acknowledge you- that many professionals on that level means a large number of years which is roughly nine" He said smugly.
It would have been hard for most people to keep up, but Erin talked fast too sometimes without realising it so she managed to keep up with him. By the end of his deduction she was smiling, even if it was a bit intrusive it was phenomenal.
"What else can you tell about me," Erin asked eagerly and leaned in closer to him.
He was clearly taken aback. "What", he choked out. "Tell me more" she said again.
"Oh I'm Erin, by the way" she held out her hand for him to take.
"Sherlock. Sherlock Holmes." he grasped her hand and shook it.
"Well, most patients who undergo treatment as long as you have usually have some form of cancer. When you ran to catch up with me you were slightly out of breath so I'd say lung cancer. Your hair has managed to grow out which means they haven't given you any chemo for at least a few months, but your back here and they haven't restarted treatment which means that you have been diagnosed terminal.
Your parents don't visit that often anymore. If they did they would most likely be here now, its the festive season after all and everybody is on holiday. Instead you are sitting in a lab with me to pass time so they don't visit, but you don't mind because you are an antisocial person. I know because when you ran into me earlier you didn't want to start a conversation.
You don't like being labelled as the sick one so you try to leave your room as much as possible. You want to be ordinary but clearly you aren't. I don't mean because you're sick but because you're still sitting here with a sociopath when most people by now would have walked away or told me to piss off"
Erin began to laugh, "Well, that. Brilliant. Amazing. Jesus." She said still with a smile on her face. "Really?," he asked quieter, not like his usual showy-offy way. All she did was nod aggressively.
"Did I get anything wrong. I always get something wrong" he said shamefully.
"Well, you were right about most things except its been here seven years, not nine. I was twelve when i first came here and I was pretty impressionable, as are all twelve year olds. Also I have a brain tumour," she gestured to the back of her head, "not lung cancer, I do have asthma though so I could understand your confusion. Still, it was amazing."
Sherlock smiled, nobody had ever complimented him on his deductions before apart from his mother, "So you're only nineteen?" he asked after a moment.
"Yup what about you?" she replied, "twenty" he said as he looked back under the microscope.
"So are you one of the med students?" she asked leaning over and picked up the paper she had been reading before.
"No" he said slowly, hoping she wouldn't kick him out considering he technically wasn't allowed to be here.
"Oh then what are you doing here?" she didn't seem to mind that he wasn't a med student, maybe she hadn't realised he wasn't allowed her yet. "Working", he said vaguely.
Erin looked down to the report on the drugs, a person had been killed and dropped in an alleyway when they hadn't payed the money. Not anything that interesting, but some of the suspects had no involvement with drugs.
"I believe the drug dealer may have been framed by the victims parents." he said after he noticed Erin reading the sheet, he looked down and continued to work in silence. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, well it was for Erin at least, she decided to speak.
"What're you doing" she nodded to the screen which began beeping
"Looking at some bacteria that was left on the victims shoes, if it isn't a common bacteria then it rules out half of the murder suspects. The victims family owned a detergent factory, specializing in developing new bacteria for a stronger clean- if it isn't a common bacteria it will be his family's doing, if not it was the drug dealer." he didn't look up just swapped his petri dish and the beeping stopped.
"So you're a police officer then" Erin guessed, why else would he be doing this.
"No" Sherlock said slowly, wanting to avoid the question.
"Then what do you do?" He must do something with crimes, maybe its a CIA thing, she thought.
"I'm a… private detective" He said after a few moments of thought.
"Oh that makes sense" She turned to look back at the screen, there was a lot of different images of bacteria and science stuff on it, she didn't know what it meant but she was still intrigued.
"It does?" he said confused and turned to look at her, most people would think he had just escaped from the psychiatry ward.
"Yeah. you seem like the type, you're all interesting and clever," she nodded to the work he was doing, "plus you could tell all those things about me with a look" Erin insisted.
"Well I'm not private I also do work for Scotland Yard when they listen to me" He said quickly, looking back to the microscope so he didn't have to look at her when she started yelling at him for lying or something.
"Ah, so you're a consulting detective, cool" she picked up another sheet and began reading it.
"Consulting Detective?" he looked up again.
"I dunno, I just gave it an easy name rather than just the long description you gave me, plus the police do go to private detectives, so then everyone consults you- consulting detective. It sounded interesting when I thought of it, and I thought it suited you, hope you don't mind" she said bashfully.
"No, I like it" he said assuredly, smiling slightly.
Erin looked at the clock hanging opposite them, she had to leave now if she wanted to make it back before the nurse. She wanted to talk to Sherlock again.
"I've gotta go now if I wanna make it back before the nurse." She stood up and turned back to face him at the door, "You should come up room 45, ward G, floor 3."
Sherlock watched as her hair swayed slightly as she walked down the hall, she had been the most interesting person he'd met in a while. He smiled and quickly stood up, the bacteria was uncommon, it was the victims parents. He packed up and raced through the halls on his way to tell the idiots at Scotland Yard his findings, if they would listen to him.
Erin smirked as she saw Sherlock race past her a few minutes later, she chuckled as she heard some yelling and the word 'incompetent' from around the corner he had turned down. She got in the lift, which smelt of pee as usual, and walked quickly back to her room just before the nurse came in. She was only here for three more days, she willed time to go faster.
A/N- hope you like this chapter, it was kinda hard to write Sherlock- particularly because he acts slightly different when he's younger and stuff. Tell me what you think. Thanks to everyone who has already followed and favourite this story it means a lot and a special thanks to 'maraudersliveon412' for reviewing, I'll try to update as much as possible. Like, Follow and Review.
DISCLAIMER: I only own Erin and any other OC's that might come up, everything else belongs to the BBC and ACD. As far as I'm aware I came up with the plot, if it looks familiar to you please just tell me and don't sue. :)
Also, the picture in the cover isn't Erin, I couldn't find a picture that I thought looked like Erin so I just used a picture of the wonderful Carrie Fletcher, I don't own the picture.