Ugh, I am so sorry this took me so long guys! It's been a lot of work and exam after exam after exam for me lately! I apologize if parts of this chapter don't make sense… I was a bit off when I was writing it. Damn time change…

Anyhow, a HUGE Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I am so sorry that I don't have a chance right now to thank you all individually, but just know I am giving you each a virtual hug!

Anyhow, ENJOY!

Silence.

The table at the pub down the street contained four people sitting around it in pure silence. The same silence they had been sitting in for the last five to ten minutes.

John had practically drained his glass between the awkwardness and the fact that Karen was glowering at him. Sherlock was sighing loudly and staring boredly at his surrounding, while Janine was running her finger around her glass awkwardly.

"So, you solve cases then?" Janine asked Sherlock, obviously trying to make conversation.

"Obviously," Sherlock replied, not looking at her as he looked around.

Janine raised her eyebrows at him and turned back to Karen, who was just fuming even more.

"Sherlock, why don't you tell Janine here about our last case," John told him, "You know, the one where we had to run out and stop a bomb from going off and that's why we were late…?"

Sherlock turned and looked at John in confusion as John looked at him trying to convey his hint to try to have Sherlock back him up that they were actually on a case and not just ditching the women currently sitting at their table.

"Case…" Karen scoffed.

"It was a case Karen!" John said in exasperation.

"If this is just a cover to hide some girlfriend that you have on the side, John Watson…"

"For the last time Karen… I AM NOT CHEATING ON YOU!"

"A bit awkward this," Janine said to Sherlock out of the corner of her mouth.

Sherlock looked at her for a moment, as if he had seen her for the first time before he nodded.

"A bit."

Janine's smirk grew as the other couple bickered in the background. She set her glass down and placed her arms on the table, leaning towards the dark haired detective with a glint in her eye.

Pupils dilated…

She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, Sherlock turned towards a bickering John and Karen.

"We were working a case," he said hurriedly, "Bomb below parliament. You ladies just walked into the room when we had figured out where it was."

Karen stopped and stared at Sherlock for a moment.

"How do I know you aren't covering for him?" Karen asked.

Sherlock sighed loudly, "Do you really not watch the news or read the damned paper?"

Karen raised an eyebrow at him, "What do you think I am incompetent?"

"Yes, that's exactly…" Sherlock began before he stopped himself at John's glare.

He had a choice to make: finish his sentence and find satisfaction with telling off this annoying woman, or get John to help him understand what was going on with Kylie….

"… Opposite of what I meant," Sherlock muttered as he rolled his eyes and took a sip of his drink, trying not to gag at his own words.

John shut his eyes and let out a breath of relief. At least the storm was on its way to calming down now.

"Good, so that's settled," John said trying to recover and change the topic as quickly as he could, "So what about…?" He began before Sherlock quickly leaned forward to talk to John.

"Why is Kylie mad at me?" he asked in a sort of low voice, that was not unheard by both Janine and Karen.

"Kylie?" Janine asked, puzzled.

"Now is not the time Sherlock," John said through gritted teeth.

"Who's Kylie?" Karen said crossing her arms once more.

"A friend," John told her, "My friend who is in Argentina…"

"You've never mentioned her before," Karen responded.

"You promised me you would help me talk to her," Sherlock told him, "How can I do that if she is mad at me, and I don't know why?"

"She's mad at you because you jumped off a building, faked a suicide, lied to all of us about it, and then reappear out of nowhere when she needed you the most," John snapped at Sherlock, before turning to Karen, "And it's a long story. We were mad at each other for a long time."

"You sure she's not the whore you are sleeping with?" Karen asked.

"No, obviously not," John told her in pure agitation, "Since she's JUST a friend, and is currently in Argentina."

"I gave her clues though. Not my fault she didn't figure it out. I practically told her I was alive," Sherlock told John, still on his own individual topic.

"An obscure name and a squash ball do not suffice as you telling her you were alive," John told him angrily.

"It was perfectly clear!"

"Maybe to you it was!" John told him, "You care for her. So you need to buck up, apologize and then…" he trailed off as he eyed his already angry girlfriend and the woman he was supposed to be setting Sherlock up with on the other side of the table, looking at him expectantly.

"Ask her to be my girlfriend?" Sherlock snapped, using a slight disgust with the word girlfriend, "Yes, you keep saying that…"

"You have a girlfriend?" Janine asked, slightly puzzled and hurt at the same time.

"What?!" Karen gaped in fury.

"No, he doesn't have a girlfriend at the current moment," John told the women, trying to brush off exactly what he had hoped to avoid.

"That's what you constantly tell me Kylie is," Sherlock retorted.

"Sherlock, shut up!" John snapped.

"I don't fucking believe it!" Karen said as she stood up in fury, "You were really going to set my friend up on a date with an already taken man?"

"What? No! Karen, he's just confused!" John said as Karen stormed out of the pub, John close behind, leaving Janine and Sherlock watching them leave in complete puzzlement.

"So you don't have a girlfriend then?" Janine asked calmly as she turned back towards Sherlock.

He looked at her oddly as John arguing with Karen outside caught his eye.

"No."

"Hmm," Karen said as she finished her drink, "Still want to hook up then?"

Sherlock turned and stared at her with slight alarm.

"No sex though," Janine told him pointedly, "Not yet at least. I'm not that easy."

"What?" Sherlock said, trying not to stutter.

"Look, I know you are into this Kylie girl, whoever she is. But, as you aren't in a relationship, and I want to get Karen off my back about 'having some fun' with a bloke, we should at least snog. You know help with the sexual tension and all?"

Janine just smiled at him as Sherlock was paling quickly, "That and you aren't bad lookin in the slightest."

Sherlock just stared, completely confused and taken aback by what was going on at the current moment.

"Uh… er… no thank you."

"Not even just a little snog out back?" Janine asked.

"I uh…" Sherlock began looking around the bar, "I would try the man in the green jumper at the counter," he told her, "Been smiling at you since you got here. Banker by the looks of his thumb. Commitment phobe. Been married twice, but I think he may be a suitable choice for the one time 'hook-up' as you call it."

Janine raised and eyebrow and surveyed the man Sherlock had been referring to, looking him up and down.

"You know, you may come in handy," Janine told him with a smile.

Sherlock just looked back down at his drink before he glanced back out at a still arguing John and Karen.

"She's a lucky woman," Janine said suddenly, causing Sherlock to look at her inquiringly, "This Kylie woman. You aren't even together and she's half way across the globe, and you are still faithful to her."

He frowned at her, not understanding what the woman was talking about.

"I mean I have never seen a man look more petrified about a shag," she laughed, smirking.

Sherlock didn't respond, just finished off his pint and stared at the table, trying to wrap his brain around what was going on at the current moment.

"Maybe if this Kylie gal doesn't work out, or in the next lifetime, give me a call," Janine told him as she got up, smiling at him as she walked over and kissed his cheek, "It was lovely to meet you Mr. Sherlock Holmes."

Sherlock glanced up at her as she grinned at him over her shoulder before she sauntered over to the man in the green jumper, flirting with him.

Sherlock fought a smile as he watched Janine talk with the man. There was something about her that intrigued him; yet she was so ordinary.

He analyzed her, his eyes and brain turning on fully as he did so.

He stiffened as he looked at her.

OH… that's why….

&#(* ()#

Kylie unlocked the door of her hotel room as she removed her ear buds from her ears, trying to catch her breath from her run.

It was nearly five in the morning. She couldn't take the truck out to the gravesite until seven thirty, but she had given up on sleeping for the day. Out on her daily run trying to get rid of pent up emotion she had been dealing with since she had left London.

Things had changed though. John was talking to her again and Sherlock… well, he was actually alive.

This was a good thing, but it brought on a whole other set of circumstances in which she wasn't really sure how to deal with.

She was so furious at him for lying to her, faking his death, and then expecting everything to be alright between them. He had been almost cocky when telling her that he had left her clues, not once apologizing to her.

She knew she would forgive him someday, but right now, she just needed to still be furious with him.

What in the hell had he been doing those whole two years?

It didn't matter… what he had been doing didn't matter. It just mattered that she had needed him desperately at a time when he had abandoned her… just like she had done to everyone else in London….

She tossed her iPod on the bed, furious with herself for her past actions.

You had no choice Kylie… you had to run… you know that…

She had done the right thing to protect them from Thomas and her wormhole of a past… at least she hoped she did. This was hers to endure…

She took of her shirt and wiped her face with it, walking into the small bathroom and setting her hands on the sink as she took in her reflection. She didn't look like herself anymore. She had lost weight since she had been in Argentina; less food and a lot of running tended to do that. She still looked athletic as her eyes looked gaunt and her hair had lost its luster. That wasn't what made her stop and stare though; the two ugly scars that now ran diagonally across her ribcage down the top part of her stomach, with a third slashed through the two scars, made her stomach churn. Scars left from her most current attack; it had been Thomas's way of marking her, making her live everyday remembering exactly what he had done to her.

The three scars matched the four jagged lines on her hip hidden beneath her underwear line on the opposite side; both reminders of the damage Thomas had done to her. The two times he had made her just want to die, over and over again.

RING RING RING

Her phone ringing in the other room brought her out of her thoughts.

She frowned and glanced at her phone, wondering who would be calling this early in the morning.

John Watson

She smiled slightly and sat on the bed, picking up her phone.

"Well hello John," Kylie said as she reached for her water bottle, "A bit late in London, isn't it?"

"Well, I think it's a bit early in Argentina now isn't it?"

Kylie laughed at her friend's retort, "Touché Watson. Touché."

"I try."

"What makes you call this early? …. Or late I guess…"

"Ah, multiple things…"

Kylie raised an eyebrow at her friend's tone.

"Like what?"

"Eh, I'll fill you in on most of it later, I'm almost to Baker Street now…"

"Baker Street? I thought you moved out with your girlfriend?"

"I don't know how much longer she'll be my girlfriend," John said bitterly.

"Oh God, what happened?"

"Sherlock, that's what happened."

"I thought she met him when he tried to surprise you?"

"She did… look, what I was calling to tell you is…" John trailed off and sighed, causing Kylie to frown even more, "Look, I forgave Sherlock through a bunch of random unforeseen circumstances and we got to talking…"

"About what?" Kylie laughed slightly, "feelings? And did you braid each other's hair while you were at it?"

Silence.

"Sorry, you were saying…?" Kylie said, slightly ashamed of her quip, yet still laughing about it to herself.

"Look Sherlock… well he really REALLY misses you," John told her as Kylie felt herself stiffen at his words.

"Kylie, I really think he cares about you… a lot… and he just doesn't know how to go about acting like a normal human being about it."

Kylie felt herself stop breathing. Was John telling her what she thought he was telling her?

…Sherlock really, truly still cared about her? The note wasn't a bunch of bull?

Whatever they had had before he had jumped… it had been real?

"He keeps asking about you and why you are mad at him, and how to get you to come back…"

"He just wants me there to help with the cases, John."

She couldn't get her hopes up. This is all that was…

… all it was…

"No, trust me. You think he would have asked me and sat through a humiliating 'date' which he butchered on complete accident just so that I would help him talk to you?"

"He probably butchered it on purpose John, you know him…"

"Kylie, the only reason he butchered it, was because he couldn't stop mentioning you."

Her heart stopped beating in her chest for a moment.

…. Really?...

"Look, I'm standing outside of Baker Street right now. I'm going to go up and have a talk with him, and then I know he's going to want to call you and ask you something…"

"Ask me what?"

"That's for him to ask you. Just all that I ask, is that you actually consider it. Don't let your anger with him at the current moment get in the way of that."

"John, you cant just be cryptic like that!"

"Yeah, I can. Because it's not my place. He'll probably call with the hour, so keep your phone handy."

"John! I have work…."

Kylie stopped as she heard the dial tone, and pulled back looking at her phone in complete confusion.

He just hung up on her….

She sighed and looked at the floor.

Sherlock cared for her?

What in the hell had just happened?

:D

More to come.

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