Disclaimer: I still don't own Sherlock, in case you're wondering.
John didn't see Sherlock or Watson for most of the day. At second horn she was called up into the meeting room again by an agent called Donovan, and she sat there alone, surrounded by adults. They carried on as normal, and no one drew attention to the two missing people.
By the time 5 o'clock rolled around, they had planned exactly what was going to happen at the inquest, and how John should answer every question they might throw at her. They started to talk about Ms Barker, and what they should do about her, when the horn blew for dinner.
John went downstairs to the 'young people's dining room', as Mrs Hudson put it, and headed for the usual table. A couple of minutes later Sherlock and Watson came in and sat down as if nothing had happened. The girls avoided eye contact, then simultaneously looked at the other and whispered, "I'm sorry." They each raised an eyebrow, and sat there uncertainly until Watson let out a great guffaw of laughter. They looked at him, eyebrows still raised, then started to smirk. By the end of the meal all was forgiven, and the pair were friends again. Cheesy, but true.
o0o0o
Back in the meeting room after dinner, it was decided that John would need to sneak into Ms Barker's office to steal a key, so that Baker Street could copy it and use it to get into her office to try and find intelligence from her. That sorted, all parties went to bed.
John was taken to Sherlock's small bedroom, on the second-to-top floor. It had a small window, a luxury in a top-secret base such as this. They got ready for bed, and lay down, Sherlock in her bed and John in a sleeping bag on the floor.
"There's something wrong with that plan, but I can't think what," Sherlock murmured as she closed her eyes. It wasn't until a few hours later that she shook John awake, who sat up with a start.
"What is it? What's happening? What do we do?"
"I worked out what's wrong with the plan!"
"What plan?" John asked sleepily; she didn't appreciate being woken up so early.
"You can't get into Ms Barker's office to steal her keys, because she wears them around her neck!" Sherlock sat back triumphantly, before realising what that meant. "So we'll have to make a new plan…"
John rolled over and went back to sleep.
o0o0o
"If we can't steal the keys, we'll have to copy them somehow. John, do you think you can get yourself into her office?" Mrs Hudson asked then next day. They were back up in the usual meeting room.
"Easily," she replied confidently.
"Right, so if she gets into the office, how does she copy them from Barker's necklace? Don't you think she'd notice?" Watson spoke sceptically.
"She doesn't wear them all the time, just when she's out of her office. If I can get in there when she's in there, they will be on the desk right in front of me. Easy."
"And how are you going to get in, John?" Lestrade asked slightly anxiously.
"Barker's the DP in charge of discipline, all I need to do is get in trouble. I know people who are always in trouble, how hard can it be?"
Famous last words.
o0o0o
MONDAY
At lunchtime, Bella waited in the corridor, a couple of metres from the door to Ms Barker's office. She had been standing there for at least a quarter of an hour, and kept getting funny looks from people; when she heard the lady inside shut her laptop and get up, her chair squeaking. Bella tensed. There were creaks as she plodded across the floor, then the door opened silently. She started running, and was just in time to bowl Ms Barker over onto the floor, then stand up and run away.
"You! Come here!"
She stopped when she heard the shout from behind her, and turned and walked away, trying to move slowly, unwillingly. "Yes, Ms Barker?"
"Could you please help me up? Some kid ran into me. Did you see who it was?" When Bella didn't answer, she jokingly said, "I don't suppose it was you, was it?"
Bella automatically said, "No, Ms Barker." Barker smiled and walked away. Bella stared after her, mentally kicking herself. How could she be so stupid?
TUESDAY
Bella stood on the ground outside Ms Barker's office, looking up at the window. She held a handful of stones, and looked through them, selecting the largest and heaviest. She hefted it in her palm, raised it, and…
"Everything all right there, Bella? You stretching?" Ms Barker's voice sounded from behind her.
Bella spun around and gaped. "Wha- what?"
Barker smiled. "I said, are you practising stretches? For sport?"
"Um…yes, yeah sure. Yes."
"Good. I'm just popping out for lunch now with Mr Platipos. See you later!" With that she got into her car and drove off, the Greek teacher Mr Platipos in the back seat.
Bella stood and stared at them, then dropped the stone with a sigh. Another opportunity wasted. This really wasn't going to plan.
WEDNESDAY
After unsuccessfully attempting to set off fireworks in the staff room, surprising the wrong teacher by jumping out of a cupboard, and misspelling a rude word on the whiteboard so it wasn't rude, Bella caved in and rang Sherlock on the number she had been given.
"How do people get in trouble so easily? This is ridiculous? I've tried at least five times, and either I muck it up or I don't get blamed!"
Sherlock chuckled on the other end of the line. "It seems to me you need to get her attention, rather than just doing something bad."
"How do I do that?"
"Remember that assembly, when you stood up in front of everybody and spoke about me? That got everybody's attention. No one was expecting you to do that. The first rule, the golden rule of getting someone's attention is to do something shocking, something they're not expecting. Something that comes out of nowhere, something no one would ever dream that sweet Bella Long would ever do. If you do that, then you have her attention. Then you can get in trouble, or get into her office."
"Any ideas?"
"How about you put an explosive in her office?"
"Anything a little less…illegal?"
"Um…maybe you could do something in assembly tomorrow."
"Can't tomorrow."
"Why not?"
Bella rolled her eyes. "The inquest into your death, stupid! Where I have to go up and talk to people about how you died, but you didn't really die, and I don't know if I can do that, act that well, and so I'll just take the train, mother, then walk from there."
Sherlock looked at the phone, confused. "What?"
"I said, I'll take the train, and walk from there, mother," Bella said into the phone, then to someone else, "I'm just calling my mother, checking how I'm going to get home today, Mr Platipos."
A male voice answered. "But you usually walk. Why would you take the train a few blocks away?"
"Uh…because I need to go to piano practice tonight, over the other side of town." A pause, then Bella spoke again. "Sorry about that. What were you saying?"
"I-" she managed to say before there was the sound of a bell ringing at the other end of the line.
"Shoot! I need to get to Spanish!" Bella said. "I'll talk some other time, all right?" With that she hung up.
THURSDAY
Bella finally managed to find a way to get into Ms Barker's office, but it wasn't the way she had been planning. No sir, this was something different indeed.
She was going to be nice.
After grovelling all day, holding doors open, following Barker around, practically licking her boots, she was eventually invited in.
Ms Barker stepped into the room and sat down, motioning for Bella to follow. She lifted the lanyard with her keys from around her neck and placed it on the table between them.
"Well, Bella, what do you want?"
Bella was taken aback slightly. "What do you mean?"
"A girl of your age isn't nice to a teacher all day for no reason. What do you want?" Bella started to speak, but she was interrupted. "Is it your report? I know. You're worried that your report will be bad because you've been sad about your friend. Well, let me take a look."
She turned around and started searching through a filing cabinet behind her. Now was Bella's chance. She carefully reached over and casually placed a hand on the keys, pressing down lightly as she had been told. She counted fifteen seconds, then removed her hand cautiously as Ms Barker span back around in her chair, holding a file.
Bella was spared any more conversation by the perfectly timed ringing of the bell at that exact moment. "I need to go now, Ms Barker, I've got English class to get to."
"Very well, you go then. See you another time, maybe."
Bella smiled and nodded, then practically ran out of the small room. Safely out in the corridor, she glanced down at her hand to see the perfect impression of the key in the wax concealed in her palm. She smiled and went to class.
Ms Barker smiled as she looked up at the blinking red light in the corner of the room, which had recorded Bella's every move.
Both sides were successful that day.
A/N: Reviews are awesome, as are the reviewers!