As usual, Shelby was the first one to wake up. They were alone in a large, damp room. It was dark, night probably had fallen. They could be anywhere really, but since there were metal structures against the wall, it was probably some kind of warehouse. They were probably in the base that Jane's mum had been looking at, which meant that they had probably been taken by the organised crime company she had been investigating...
Wow, I am Sherlock!
When Jane awoke Shelby was pacing around her, staring intently with her green eyes.
"Where are we?" Jane asked, as she reached up to rub her head, only to find her hand tied behind her back. "How'd you get out?"
"I didn't, I wasn't tied up." Shelby looked just as confused as Jane felt.
"Help me get out then!" Shelby tried to untie the rope and Jane wriggled her hand, trying to get loose, but neither attempt seemed to work. "As annoying as this is, I have to give props to the person who tied it" Shelby smiled at the joke, before collapsing onto the floor.
"I think I'm usually asleep by now," She rubbed her eyes and yawned "Oh, and to answer your first question, a warehouse in the Baskerville industrial estate." Jane just nodded.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait."
"For what?"
"For the safe word."
"What safe word?" Shelby looked at her with hard eyes.
"You know what safe word" She was scary the way she looked. She looked so angry that her routine had been changed, but excited at the danger of the situation. Most people who acted like this were psychopaths.
The girls were calmly discussing current politics when the minions came to collect them. They all had black ski masks on but underneath, they were all incredibly shocked at how at ease these two teenage girls were compared to the other people they had kidnapped over the years. They had been ordered to bring to girls into the adjoining hall, but the blue haired one was to remain tied up. Their boss often gave strange orders like this, but they never argued. He was the best there was.
The girls calmly entered the new hall and were seated into two wooden chairs. In front of them were two other people in chairs, but they had bags over their head.
Shelby already knew who they were.
Above them was a kind of make-shift balcony. You could just make out some figures on it, but their faces were shaded from view.
"Ah, we finally found the soldier and the scientist" a voice welcomed them from the balcony. It was cold and sarcastic and was not at all familiar "Or, whatever your names are. Do you like my palace?"
"It would be nicer if we could see our host and the other guests." Shelby replied. Jane watched on, intrigued to see Shelby actually behaving like a normal human being.
"Aha, in time my little china doll." Shelby looked round at her surroundings once more.
"So what exactly will get me out of here quicker?"
"This." One of the henchmen walked forwards and handed Shelby a pistol. She looked down at it in her hands. It felt so cold, but yet so natural, like it was just an extension of her arm. The bags were then removed from the other's heads.
It was Jane's mother and Uncle.
"What? You want me to shoot them or something?"
"That's exactly what I want you to do"
"What!" Jane screamed up at the balcony. Her hands clenched and the ropes snapped open. She ran and snatched the pistol from Shelby's hand and shot up at the balcony with uncanny precision. Her mother started to cry.
"Ah, so you are the soldier! Well, I was starting to wonder. My sources told me the scientist was the mad one and the little china doll here was talking too much for a crazy girl."
The henchmen had wrestled the gun out of Jane's hand and she had been restrained, not that she didn't put up a fight. The gun once again found itself in Shelby's hand.
"Well go on then!" the voice taunted from above. Shelby looked at the two adults in front of her. Sally was crying, never taking her eyes off of her daughter, whereas Anderson had his stare locked on Shelby. They were both covered in cuts and grime.
"And why exactly should I shoot these two innocent people, other than for your enjoyment?" The longer she delayed, the more time her back-up had to get here.
"Oh, you mean you don't know?"
"Know what?" The voice laughed at her.
"Well this fun! I mean how far in the dark have you been? Do you even know what happened to your parents?" Shelby didn't reply. "Well do you?"
"They're away on a mission." She answered flatly. Anderson's gaze flickered.
What's going on?
"Oh, you are fragile, aren't you? Too fragile to even know the truth? Well, let me be the one to tell you: YOU'RE PARENTS WERE MURDERED YEARS AGO!" his laugh came through once more. "The best part is that it was your new friend's parents that killed them. The same parents I want you to kill!" Jane took that moment to finally speak up.
"Ha, don't know where you got your info, sir, but that man is not my father! He's married for crying out loud!" She was shouting. So emotional, even though she wasn't the one being told to commit murder.
"LIES!" the man shouted down at them. For a brief second, Shelby saw part of his face in the light, but it was gone before she could see any details. "How many lies have you two been fed? And here you are thinking I'm the bad guy! I'm the one that's telling you the truth! That man had an affair with your whore of a mother and the filthy product was you!" Jane looked down at Anderson, finally noticing the little things Shelby had noticed when they'd first met. The same jaw line, the same nose, it was all so clear now.
"So little china doll, it's time for you to avenge your parent's deaths. You kill both of them, or I'll kill them and you two as well. Either way is good, but the first will be all the more exciting!" She could hear the creak of the man sitting down on a chair similar to their own
Shelby had expected her back-up to be here by now. Did she take a risk and start the plan now and hope they came before those up above could stop them, or did she try and stall further. Honestly, this was the only thing keeping her mind off the new information she had just acquired.
She finally stood lifting the pistol and pointing it at Sally. Jane was shouting behind her.
"Jane for once in your life, be quiet!" Jane shut up; she stopped struggling as well. Shelby once again turned her attention to Sally. "Well, I never really knew you, but I thought you'd like to know something before we go our separate ways."
"And what's that?" Sally sobbed. The crunch of gravel outside gave Shelby her cue.
"Vatican Cameos!" the place went into chaos: A SWAT Team Invaded the warehouse: Jane used various martial arts moves to shake off the minions that were restraining her; Shelby began shooting up at the balcony, aiming at the shadowy figure that only she could make out. The man had disappeared off somewhere, but his security was easy targets and because she wasn't shooting to kill, she managed to injure some so they would be able to get away. It was only when she heard Sally's cry, that Shelby turned her attention back to the ground level. A minion had overpowered Jane and was currently strangling her. Shelby aimed the pistol and shot, but the man shifted meaning the bullet instead embedded itself in Jane's left calf. She cried out in pain and the man was taken out by a SWAT sniper.
Before they knew it, the battle was over, but not before Sally and Anderson had been killed by the voice's last remaining security.
Jane still has nightmares about that night to this very day.
Mycroft sat with Shelby while Jane gave a statement and once more refused therapy.
"How long have you known?" She asked so quietly he could hardly hear her over the police sirens. He looked down at her. She forever been his little sister, it had been his job to care for her for the last twelve years and if he didn't say the thing now, he could lose her in a heartbeat. But he owed her the truth.
"A month after they left." And with that a single tear slid down her face. He hadn't seen her cry since they'd left all those years ago and it broke his heart. "Do you remember when they left?"
"I remember everything, Mycroft. I notice everything; that is my curse." Her hand wiped her eyes clear.
"Then you remember how scared they were to leave. They knew they were in trouble and so they left so we wouldn't get hurt. They knew what was coming and they knew they deserved it." He was starting to cry now, that's what these memories did to him.
"What could they possibly have done to deserve it" She shouted at him. He wasn't taken aback by her sudden mood swing, but right now, she was allowed to be like this.
"We all do things we regret Shelby, and in the end we all have to pay for them. That was just their payment" He put a hand on her shoulder and he could feel her relax. He knew another outburst would be unlikely.
"You didn't answer my question."
"Let's just say they had some very big debts to some very dangerous people that they couldn't pay in an entire lifetime. The details are, and I'm truly sorry for pulling this card, classified information." Shelby looked up at her brother. The man that had raised her despite being so young at the time. Just out of school, a promising future, but he had to put all of that to one side because there was no one else left in the world that could love her.
Mycroft was scared when Shelby hugged him round his waist. She's never hugged him before, but he was never one to let an occasion slide, and so he hugged her back.
That was how Jane found them and the thoughts of how she didn't have any family left, none that she was close with anyway. Who would take her in? Who would be her family now?
Over Shelby's shoulder Mycroft noticed Jane standing there watching them. He broke apart the embrace and the two of them turned to face her.
"Just the girl I wanted to see!" He smiled. Jane returned the smile, but with a little less enthusiasm.
"Yeah, sorry, just had to do some official stuff."
"Well, I was talking to a friend of mine who handles social service stuff and I told him that I would take you in, that is if you wanted to! I mean you hardly know us, but well it felt rude not to ask and well-"
"I like to" and then it was Jane's turn to receive a Shelby hug.
Huh! This is what it must be like to have a sister!
The sun was rising by the time everyone was ready to move to the station, why they couldn't spare any time with Jane, they said that Shelby could go get some sleep and give her statement later. Mycroft had to go with Jane and since they really weren't that far away, she was allowed to walk back to the apartment.
It was quite warm in her blanket, which the paramedics had given her. She walked along the empty pavements thinking how it was that weird moment in the morning when you knew people were awake, but were still in the houses and were not really thinking about what it was like outside.
She took the quiet atmosphere to practice her ballet. Mycroft had never known about Mrs. Hudson giving her lessons; they would practice whenever Shelby decided she was bore, which was often. She knew the basic feet and arm positions and had a pretty decent turn-out, but the amazing thing was the ease at which she could leap and turn. It was at these moments that she felt weightless, like she could take off and fly. She stepped and twirled along the pavement in pirouettes, rising in arabesque and attitude and soaring into pas de chats. She managed to continue forward with her eyes closed, taking in to feeling that ballet gave her.
She didn't see the black car as she turned the corner.
As she passed, something grasped her by the waist and for the second time in twenty-four hours a white handkerchief was placed over her mouth and she once again passed out. She was lifted easily up and placed in the lap of the passenger. The driver returned to his position in the front.
The passenger looked down at Shelby. He brushed the hair out of her face and took in everything about it: the freckles; the paleness; the sharpness of all her feature. He looked down at her with his brilliant green eyes.
"No disrespect or anything Boss, but why's this girl so important?" The driver asked. The passenger didn't look up at the driver.
"She's a debt that was never paid to me. A debt I waited seventeen years for." He lifted her slender form gently so only her head remained cradled in her lap. His hand began stroking her dark hair, like he was comforting a child.
"You want me to take you to the mansion?"
"No," He looked down at the girl, thinking about how he only had to wait a few more months before this debt could be paid "Take us to 221 Banker Street. My little china doll needs to sleep."
Shelby awoke a few hours later in her bed with no memory of how she'd got there, but the emptiness she had felt at finding out her parents were dead, was gone.
I guess that's what brothers and sisters are for.
At this point, the future was unclear for the girls. After the Christmas holidays, Jane was due to start at the local comprehensive school. She'd decided that it would be good to meet other people and finally have the opportunity to lay some roots before she started University the following year.
Shelby continued with her lessons with Mrs. Hudson. While there was a little awkwardness between her and Mycroft, after a while they once again fell into their usual ways.
Everything was going so well, but one thing kept bugging Shelby.
What had the man meant when he called them the soldier and the scientist?