The day had gone quickly. After lunch I decided to sit Elena in my bedroom so I could watch her while I unpacked my things and put them away. Originally I had though it would be an easy task, however Elena liked moving quite a bit.

She would roll around on my bed whenever I turned my back, then stare innocently up at me as I turned back around to check on her, but eventually I managed to put all of my clothes in the wardrobe and chest of drawers without her falling onto the floor and cracking her tiny little head open, which was good I suppose.

By the time we were done I needed to change Elena's nappy but I'll spare you the details of that. Then I went downstairs with her and rooted around for a tube of sunscreen which I found with difficulty, then I tried to smear Elena in the stuff which proved to be an equally impossible task, but it was done in the end and I grabbed a book for myself and toys for her and we sat out in the garden under the unreliable shade of a small apple tree, and suddenly, everything seemed good.

But have you ever hear the expression the calm before the storm? Well that's what that was.


I woke up at eight o'clock in the morning to my phone alarm clock beeping at me. my window was open a bit, just enough to let the air get through, but I still felt sweaty and hot.

My hair clung to my shoulders, it still needed washing badly, and I needed a shower, so I decided that I wouldn't put it off any longer. I grabbed some clothes at random from my wardrobe, then I bundled them into my arms and ran to the bathroom as quickly as I could so no one saw me, and by no one I mean Sherlock.

I turned and locked the door then rested against it like I had been running from some gun-wielding maniac who had been chasing me through the house and now, I was safe.

I spent no less than fifteen minutes in the hot shower, thoroughly scrubbing my body down and dragging shampoo that kept seeping into my eyes and making me temporarily blind through my hair, then I stumbled out feeling inexplicably tired and floppy due to the heat outside paired with the boiling water I had just rinsed myself in.

My body dried by itself mainly, but I still needed to smother myself in a towel that smelled like that weird kind of suffocating washing powder everybody uses. I frowned a bit before putting my clothes on.

I looked slightly odd seeing as I had just grabbed some underwear, shorts and a t-shirt at random before racing to the bathroom like I would die if I got caught.

Just on cue the minute I got dressed, Elena started crying. So I grabbed my pajamas, shoved the dirty towel in the laundry basket, dumped my things in the doorway of my room then went to see on her.

She gazed up at me when I went inside and her glassy eyes softened a bit, I picked her up and balanced her on my hip, then I started jigging about gently and she giggled.

"Come on, let's get you changed."

Nappies were the bane of my existence, they always got caught on my skin and I couldn't roll them up properly, never mind put them on. However, I tried my best because practice makes perfect apparently.

Once Elena was changed I tried to find some clothes for her. We both eventually settled for a pair of white shorts and a blue t-shirt with a pink cat on it. Well, I chose it and she just watched from her cot.

Then I carried her downstairs for breakfast and that was when the chaos started.

"Sherlock, are you down here?" I called and received a muttered reply. "Okay, have you eaten? Because I'm about to make something for myself and Elena."

"Coffee please. Black two sugars." he grunted from the living room, but at least he was a bit more polite this time.

So I made Sherlock's coffee and my tea and I opened a can of baby food for Elena. It looked disgusting and not much like porridge and apple, but she seemed to like it. Then I took Sherlock his coffee which he didn't thank me for and I sat back at the table with Elena.

Eventually I heard Sherlock moving.

"I'm going out!" he stated and left before I even had time to understand what he had said. I groaned, resting my head on the table and looking at Elena.

"Do you know why he's so rude?" I asked her. "Unbearable, rude, mean, disrespectful, did I mention rude?" but she just stared at me.


I didn't hear from Sherlock all day, and I felt a bit guilty for trying to work out where he had gone, and when I got to the suggestion of a drugs den I decided to stop myself.

He's just a perfectly normal, if a bit horrible, man. I tried to tell myself. You can't control him, Abigail, he's older than you anyway.

So I tried my best to forget him and spent most of the day watching the tv with Elena, at first I put of Cbeebies which she seemed quite interested in, until In The Night Garden was over at least, then she went on to dragging herself across the floor to play with some toys, so I looked for something else to watch and eventually settled on Adventure Time.

At twelve thirty I got off the sofa and gave Elena some lunch, myself a bag of crisps again, then we sat in the garden like the day before and at three o'clock I got a text from an unknown number.

'I need some help. - SH'