I was going to save this for chapter ten, but then I realized that

1.) This is pretty much done, while I only have an outline for one conversation next chapter, and 2.) I really just want to publish this XD

Note: this chapter takes place a year after the events described in "Superstitions" (which can be found on bleedingcrimson's account) not after the events in the last chapter. ;D However, you don't need to read it to understand this chapter- in fact, this chapter has spoilers for the other fic, but hopefully y'all don't mind.

As always, I sadly do not own these wonderful characters except Terra Li and Ash. Alin is bleedingcrimson's, and the canon characters are of course ACD's and BBC's.

Chapter Nine: One Year Later

February

"Come in!" John called. Terra Li did as told, supporting a medium-sized package on one hip as she did so. The doctor said from the kitchen,

"Sherlock's somewhere around here, I think, but don't bother on him coming out. He's been working on who knows what and probably won't be around for a while."

"That's fine."

"You ready for the exam?"

"That's what I've come here to find out," Terra Li replied with a warm smile as she set the box on the table. John looked at her in confusion at seeing the parcel.

"I offered to bring this in myself when I realized the delivery man was headed here," she explained. She chuckled good-naturedly, "What did you order? It's heavy!"

"I- I didn't order anything," John replied, still at a loss. He examined the sender's address and felt his heart sink. Terra Li saw his fallen expression and asked worriedly,

"What's wrong?"

Wordlessly the blond took the item in question and walked over to the couch, placing the box next to him. Not sure what else to do, Terra Li followed him. He pulled out a pocketknife and sliced open the tape. A musty, vaguely flowery scent wafted out, making the redhead sneeze. She was seated in John's normal chair with the package in between them; however, she could not see its contents. The soldier sat and simply stared, steeling himself to actually look inside. Terra Li felt as if she should leave but couldn't bring herself to move. It felt as if the whole world had stopped and awaited with bated breath for John to make his decision.

Finally he closed his eyes, sighed, and reached in.

He grasped something soft, and, with a faint smile on his face, pulled it out. A stuffed bunny lay on his palm. It was slightly larger than his hand and rather flat, worn, and faded from years of what Terra Li guessed to be affection and adventures. The animal was off-white with a pink ribbon nose and blue button eyes. It wore pink overalls with a carrot embroidered on the front pocket.

John stared at it for several moments, emotions he had thought long gone welling up in his eyes like tears. Then, as if still in a dream, he gently set it on his lap and began going through the contents of the box. A stack of colorful, sparkly art pieces done by a child's hand. Some origami cranes. A sheaf of crumpled papers with half-legible scrawls covering each page. A few sketchbooks with edges ragged with use. And finally a scrapbook album with a sepia photo inserted in the cover.

The blond carefully set all the items except the bunny and the photo album back in the box. Acknowledging his guest's presence for the first time, he apologized,

"Sorry, Tilly. I didn't mean to space out on you. It's just..." He heaved another sigh. "I haven't seen this stuff in a while, and... I..."

"I can leave if you like," Terra Li offered, but the doctor shook his head.

"No, please, stay. I think you might enjoy them. At least, more than Sherlock will. Here," he said, patting the space next to him. She moved to the couch and looked on curiously.

Now that she could see it better, she realized there were three children on the cover. On the right stood a girl with short, blonde hair and looked to be seventeen. The middle figure, who was probably fourteen, also had short blond hair as well as a puppy dog smile. John, Terra Li realized. The girl on the left was brunette and younger than the other two by several years. She had her arms wrapped around John's neck and grinned happily at the camera.

"Yes, that squirt in the middle is me," John admitted with a chuckle. Pointing first to the other blonde, then brunette, he said, "That's my sister Harry, and that... that's my god-sister Ash."

His voice caught as he said the name. Terra Li knew the sound, and her heart broke for John. Hoping she wasn't being too callous, she asked,

"When did she...?"

"Last February." He glanced at the calendar and drew a hand over his face when he spied today's date circled in black like a mourning wreath around a headstone. "God, has it really been a year already?"

He stared ahead for several more moments before coming back to reality once more. Trying to wave it off, he chuckled,

"Sorry about that."

"John, it's fine. Do you want to keep going?"

"I will, but let me make a call first. There's someone else who needs to see this."

Watson walked into the other room, and fifteen minutes passed before he came back in. Taking his seat next to her, he said,

"You're free to stay however long you want. If you decide to remain here, however, let me get you up to speed." He took a breath to steady himself.

"As I told you earlier, Ash is -was- my god-sister. My family adopted her because her mother had mental problems, and her father couldn't care for both of them. Ash, too, had her difficulties, but they were more along the lines of Asberger's, and as a result she bonded to me and almost no one else until I had to leave for Afghanistan.

"Fast forward some years... Ash and her flatmate, Alin, insisted on helping Sherlock and me during what was technically my second case with him, the write-up of which I never published and is generally unspoken of. It was a grisly series of crimes, resulting in the Ash and Alin's house being burnt down and several women murdered... Ash was the last of them. Even though I was there, I wasn't able to save her. The one person I strove all my life to protect died right in front of me, and there wasn't a single damned thing I could do to stop it!"

John banged his fist on the side of the couch, releasing pent-up anger he hadn't even realized was there. He breathed slowly, trying to calm himself. This wasn't the time to throw a fit. That could wait until he was alone. Right now he had a guest, a young lady at that. It would be rude to lose control like that in front of her.

Terra Li laid what she hoped was a comforting hand on his shoulder and willed him to feel... Well, she honestly didn't know what. Something that would ease his pain, she supposed.

A soft knock alerted them that their visitor had arrived. John slowly got up -he looks like he's aged ten years- and answered the door. He and his visitor, a tall, dark-haired woman that she recognized as owning Belladonna's Brews, walked toward the kitchen. While they were out of sight, Terra Li made a few quick texts. In little over half an hour, another rap sounded from the door. Perplexed, John went to the entrance again and opened it to see Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson. The former held a few bags of Chinese takeaway, and latter carried a few trays of goodies. Flabbergasted, the blond cried,

"What are you doing here?"

"We heard you were a bit down, dear," Mrs. Hudson said, handing the tray to John and patting his cheek affectionately. "Not surprising, considering what day it is. You poor, poor thing. Such a shame- she was a sweet girl... Tilly suggested we have a little party to remember all the great times we had with her. No one should mourn alone. She wouldn't have liked that anyway, now would she? No, Deary, she would've wanted us all here together."

"You're right," John conceded. Then it hit him. "Wait- did you say Tilly planned this?"

"Sorry, John. I should've asked first, but I chickened out."

"No, it's... fine."

"You sure?" Lestrade asked, studying John with concern. The soldier gave him a sad smile.

"Mrs. Hudson's right. Ash wouldn't have wanted me moping around alone. That was her thing, not mine. No, she'd want a big sap-fest full of nostalgia and sentiment. She was rather fond of those despite her protests."

Alin nodded her agreement, a wan, nostalgic smile on her face. She wasn't fond of such things herself, but John had called her over, and she suspected it was at least partly because he couldn't bear to go through that photo album without at least one other person who knew Ash, and no one else besides John had known Ash as well as Alin had. The dark-haired woman mentally prepared herself for the emotional strain as she arranged the food and drinks on a fold up table (most of which Lestrade had fetched from Mrs. Hudson's flat, the rest of which Sherlock of all people had brought home after his trips to who-knows where and were left generally untouched).

Now that everything had been prepared, they gathered around John as he took up the scrapbook again. Alin recognized the photo on the cover- it was among the possessions they had lost when their house burned down. She smiled as the blond flipped through the album. Ash didn't keep many remnants from her childhood; while she had many fond memories of growing up, she had preferred not to dwell on that time if she could help it.

John, too, smiled as he reminisced. Photos of the countryside, wide and free. The lake where they used to race each other. The grassy hills they used to roll down. Then came the adoption. Ash and John decorating her new bedroom. Ash and John building forts on the stairs. Ash and John making shadow puppets. Ash and John at the museum- and the park, and school, and just about everywhere else.

It was if he was seeing her grow up right before his eyes all over again. A sob caught in his throat as he saw a photo of her riding on his back, one arm looped around his chest, one raised in the air in exultation. Just a few days after it had been taken, his parents had died.

As John flipped through the pages, he and Alin shared stories about living with Ash. Alin told them about the first time Ash had helped in Belladonna's Brews. She had misread the recipe and put in 2 cups of salt instead of 2 teaspoons of flour. She had not been allowed into the kitchen since.

Watson recounted about how one time, a bully from Ash's school had slipped on the ice while skating and split his chin open. She had bent over and looked in the gaping, bloody mess and shouted enthusiastically, "Look! His Adam's apple's moving!" The story had seemed to faintly amuse Sherlock, but he quickly covered any signs of such interest and went back to his "research."

As he watched and listened, Lestrade felt as if everything he had ever thought he knew about dependable, stalwart Watson had been dashed to pieces, revealing not a completely a different man but a more tender, human one- one who wasn't always as strong as he looked or seemed. The DI empathized as he compared the youthfulness in his comrade's face back then with older, more careworn and tired one of today. Life had not always been kind to the army doctor, but there was even now a spark of life in his eyes as John Watson remembered days gone by. Lestrade had thought he would never see the expression on him again after John's beloved god-sister had been murdered. After seeing how vivacious, innocent, and vulnerable Ash was, Lestrade realized with a familiar pang how painful it must have been for Watson to watch the life flow out of her after all he had sacrificed to protect her. He had felt the same way watching Jenny slowly die in his arms. Lestrade renewed his vow to stand by the Army doctor no matter what life, criminals, or even Sherlock threw at them. He was more than just an acquaintance or work partner- Watson was his friend, his comrade in arms. Lestrade hoped that it would remain that way for a long time.


Later on, after everything was cleaned up, Lestrade and Terra Li bade their goodbyes and exited the flat. The D.I. wasn't going to let her walk home in the dark. Not after all that had happened. Terra Li didn't mind, though. She always enjoyed talking with Lestrade. He was always a great conversationalist. Suddenly a familiar voice called out.

"Tilly! Just a second!"

The pair stopped and turned around. John soon caught up with her and pressed something soft into the redhead's hand. She looked down to see Ash's stuffed bunny. Smiling, John said quietly,

"I want you to have this."

"But- but John!"

"Believe me, Tilly; your baby is going to enjoy having this more than I will. If Ash where here, I know she would have given this to you in a heartbeat..."

Terra Li nodded and smiled in thanks. John smiled, too, then turned away, the weight of his sorrow pressing down on him once more. The girl reached out toward him and opened her mouth, but she couldn't find it within herself to stop him. She knew she could do nothing more for the moment. Only time could heal his wounds now.

Lestrade laid a hand on her shoulder, and together they left.

)o0o(

Any questions, suggestions, comments? I have a rough idea of where I want to go with this story, but I'm afraid that I'll end up writing myself into a corner, so the next chapters may seem… odd. XD I'm sorry if that does. If you have any ideas or things you're curious about, please let me know. I'd love to hear some feedback about where you think this story will/should go (or if you think this is horrible and to just abandon it, though hopefully no one says that XD).

Thanks, everyone! :D