Yoooooo I'm back with another chapter. We finally start to see some action in this one. Sorry for the uber long exposition, I needed to set the stage a bit I guess. I'm also not used to writing long multichapter fics, so I had originally planned on making this a collection of oneshots. So much for that! At this point in the story, Caterine has spent about a month living at Baker Street and working with Molly. Enjoy!


Caterine woke from her nap. After three weeks of working at Bart's and taking human blood from the clean cadavers, this was the first sleep she had after the first day living at 221C. She rose from her bed and padded to the kitchen, opening the fridge with the intention of getting a sip or two of blood. She pushed aside the large intestine and the hand, and the two cartons of milk, and didn't see any blood. She must have consumed the fresh ones. The fridge door closed with a slam and Caterine scowled. She could really use some blood right now; her emotional balance was all out of whack from the sleep. She yanked open the freezer and nearly screamed.

Sat on one of the racks in the freezer was a baking sheet holding two-dozen frozen white mice.

Caterine shut the freezer door with a squeak. Why had he done that?! Didn't he realize that those mice contained blood?! White mouse blood is a vampiric delicacy. She would give anything to have a taste of the sweet blood again...it had been at least two hundred years. But this was Sherlock's experiment. And how could he possibly know about vampiric cuisine? Caterine bit her lip and slowly opened the freezer again. She grabbed a bag of frozen blood and shut it again, leaning against the door. That took more self-control than it should have. All this human blood was giving her bloodlust.

Caterine popped the bag into the microwave for a bit, to thaw and warm up the blood. She squeezed the deliciously warm blood into her favorite teacup and sipped from it as she looked over today's newspaper. And that was how she was when Sherlock walked into her flat. Leaning against the counter in her pajamas, reading a newspaper, lips stained blood-red, and sipping from a lime green teacup. Her thoughts momentarily touched on the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra at the moment, but she countered it with the logic that nobody could tell because she was wearing an oversized hoodie from when she had gone to med school in Sweden.

"Good evening," Caterine said casually, turning the page. "Are you here for the mice?"

"Yes. I know I didn't ask, but I assumed-"

"Never assume things with me, Sherlock. Did you know white mice are a vampiric delicacy? I'm not sure why, but a white mouse just tastes so much better than any other animal, even another mouse. They could even be the same type of mouse, but the white ones, mmmm..."

"You didn't drain them, did you?"

"Now why would I consume anything that you mess with?" Caterine asked, smiling as she smelled the fear toxins releasing in his brain. "You could have poisoned them with laundry detergent for all I know." Caterine took another sip.

Sherlock yanked open her freezer and collected his mice, scowling as he returned to his own flat. Caterine watched as he left, chuckling slightly. She glanced at the oven clock. She had about an hour and a half before she needed to leave for work at 6:30. Her shift started at 7:00.

Caterine tipped her head back and emptied all the blood in her cup into her mouth and set it in the sink. After carefully folding the newspaper and setting it down on her kitchen table, Caterine entered the bathroom and turned on the shower. As the water heated, she brushed her curly hair out, making it all poofy and frizzy. She showered, brushed her teeth, put on makeup, and got dressed in a fitted green graphic t-shirt, dark-wash skinny jeans, and her sneakers. After blow drying her hair she loosely braided it over her shoulder, leaving her bangs to hang in her face.

The night shift went on as usual. Molly and Caterine had fallen into their pattern and would not be breaking the habit. Although, tonight, Molly seemed intent to fill the silence with conversation.

"Cat?"

"Hmm?"

"I really don't know much about you at all."

"And I don't know much about you."

"Let's get to know each other, then," Molly suggested, inspecting the throat of a man who had died of peanut allergies. "Where did you grow up?"

Caterine glanced up quickly and then returned her eyes to the paperwork in front of her. "France, then England. Normal peanut allergy?"

"Yes, nothing unusual. I've been in England all my life. But I wish I could visit France. Is it nice there?"

"That depends on what part of France you plan on visiting," Caterine muttered.

"Sorry?"

"I said some parts of France are nice. The tourist parts are nice. Stay in the tourist parts."

"Um, alright then... Oh, this man is perfectly normal for a peanut allergy death. Let's just move on." Molly took the paperwork from Caterine and found the next file, found the cadaver, and set her on the table. Caterine stood and took her place beside the metal table. "Tuberculosis. Have you traveled anywhere else, Cat?"

"I've been loads of places...Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Scandinavia area, Italy, America..." Caterine began inspecting the woman for the physical signs of tuberculosis. "I went to med school in Sweden, actually. There are loads of nice people there." She picked up a knife. "Should I take a look at her lungs?"

"You might as well," Molly replied. "What's your favorite thing to eat?"

Caterine paused before making a clean slice through the dead woman's flesh. Her favorite food. She hadn't eaten anything in a very, very long time. But...she had loved duck. "If I had to choose something, regardless of cost or where we are, duck. What about you?"

"I think my favorite thing to eat is apple pie. Why don't you ask a question?"

"Favorite book?" Caterine carefully slid her gloved fingers into the cavity and felt around the rib cage for where she could easily break through.

"I don't know. There are too many good ones; I can't choose one."

"Mine is Les Misérables." Caterine managed to detach the lung and carefully held it while she scooted the cadaver over with her elbow to make room for the organ. "Favorite movie?"

"I can't decide, again. I do like the Wizard of Oz, though."

"Really? Well I'm fond of Les Mis. Again."

"Do you know any of the songs?"

"I know most of them by heart." Caterine glanced up from the lung. This shift was never going to end. "Perfectly normal infections. Let's move on."

"Okay." Molly handed the next folder to Caterine.

After Caterine located the body, she plopped down in the chair with a huff. "This one's interesting. Snapped his neck while having a seizure. Apparently he's never had a seizure before, his family has no cancer history, and he was x-rayed but there were no signs of brain tumors."

Molly began working, and Caterine filled out the forms according to everything Molly found. When it was decided that there was nothing to be found that would have caused the seizure without running tests, Caterine volunteered to run blood tests. Along with the normal sample size, she also took a small blood bag and put it in her pocket to bring home.

She entered the lab, and found Sherlock sitting at a microscope. Why did he always end up in this lab? Oh well. As she ran the tests, she heard Sherlock get up and come stand behind her. She didn't mind. As the results came in, Caterine's eyebrows furrowed. These weren't the readings she expected at all. Then again, what had she expected, exactly?

"Problem?"

"This man. Snapped his neck while having a seizure, but he's never had seizures before. His family has no cancer history, and there's no evidence of brain tumors. I bet Molly's cracked his head open to look by now."

"Could I see these?" Sherlock asked, indicating the results from the blood tests.

"Be my guest," Caterine allowed. She stepped to the side and the consulting detective quickly took her place.

"Poison would be my guess. Don't have any on his blood."

"But what kind of poison?" Caterine pressed.

"Not any that I know of, from what I can see."

"Describe what it would have to have been. I've been around much longer than you. Maybe I'll think of something."

"I don't have enough to go on to say much. It doesn't seem to be fast-acting...could I have the blood bag in your pocket to experiment on? I'm between cases at the moment, and this should prevent me from boredom, at least for a few hours."

Caterine sighed and held out the crimson-filled bag. Sherlock snatched it away and returned to his previous seat. The blonde picked up the sheet of paper with her findings and walked back to the morgue at a brisk pace. The door banged open, a sign of Caterine's frustration.

"Oh! Cat, you're back!" Molly exclaimed, startled.

"Inconclusive," Caterine announced. "Sherlock was there, said he'd have a-..." Caterine stared at the partially dissected brain in front of Molly. Her eyes flitted to the cadaver's open skull. "Any tumors the x-ray missed?"

"Hm? Oh, no. Unless they were liquidized as well."

"What?"

"Come look." Molly indicated the section of brain where she had cut away parts. "The inside is like brain soup. If anything wasn't sealed on the bottom, I'm sure it would have come gushing out the moment I picked it up."


The plot thickens! I'm so excited to actually develop a functioning plot for a story; I've never successfully done this before (see the Inheritance Cycle thing I abandoned because I ran out of ideas for plot continuation). I hope this one goes well... Anyway, leave a review if you like, favorite or follow if you really want to, I guess. Thanks for reading!