There's no internet in my aunt's house in Florida, so, I must go to the local cafe to upload this.

Excuse me if Holmes is a little... OOC at the end of this chapter, it was kind of difficult to write... And I was craving some lovin'. XD

Infinite X's and O's,

Beach Babe Mistro!

(ENJOY YOUR SUMMER EVERYONE!)

~.~.~.~.~.~

"Miss Adkins!" I heard Holmes shout a bit louder than his normal murmur. I couldn't bring myself to turn my head back towards him. I was too busy staring into the face of Jacob Irons. "Renadale," Holmes said a bit softer.

"Renadale Adkins," Jacob said with an approving nod. "I knew our paths would meet again. Perhaps I knew sooner than you did, but on the contrary, I can tell that you are more than surprised to see me down here."

I looked over his dirty face and curly blonde hair. Even his dirty fingernails were all too familiar. It hadn't been long enough for me. At any rate, I didn't want to see anyone down here with the face of a murderer. Whilst looking at Jacob, I had realized that unfortunately, I had. "Jacob Irons?" I muttered, stepping a bit further into Holmes. "It was you? You killed these innocent people?"

He blinked a few times, shocked by my question. "Me? Do I look like someone who could kill by myself? I'm not nearly strong enough. I'm only a botanist. I'm not good with anything else but the technical elements." He glanced over at the man on his right. "It wasn't just me."

"So it was a gang," I whispered, unable to take my eyes off of the three men. "It was the three of you who killed those people?" They all exchanged amused smiles with one another. "There were more of you?"

I felt Holmes's grip on my upper arm tighten when I began to tremble more.

"Holmes!" Someone shouted behind Jacob. "Holmes, it's filthy down here! Where-" Watson paused in his tracks as he saw all of us. As he looked towards the other men, his face grew a bit more white. "I see I've come at a critical time."

"Dr. Watson," Jacob said with an elegant tip of his head.

Watson looked at him for a moment, not seeming to note his presence. It took him a few more seconds to redirect his gaze. "Irons?" He asked with his brows coming together. Bitter truth hit him at that moment and his face fell as he instantly understood. "Aha."

There was a long silence. No one had anything to say. I turned my head away from the men and to the beautiful young girls lying dead before me. I felt a gentle hand turn it back around. "I said don't look," Holmes said softly.

Jacob looked towards us with an expressionless face. "That's very charming, isn't it?" He said. "I always thought you looked extra comfortable around one another, considering Sherlock Holmes isn't nice to anyone. In fact, I always thought you were very lovely myself, Miss Adkins." His voice was flowing and soft. It was a voice that could have put you to sleep. It made me sick to know that it belonged to a killer. "I'm actually quite pleased that you've come to see me." I could have been wrong, but I thought I saw his eyes sparkle. "You know I can't resist a beautiful girl, though my heart was taken by Miss Goodman."

I knew. He was in love with my insane neighbour. That didn't end very well. "If only the world had more beautiful woman," Jacob grunted, looking towards the girls on the floor. "It'd be much better for the rest of us."

As if on cue, Irene and Thompson marched in. Irene's face was flustered as she hiked up her dress from overflowing water. "No wonder this is a perfect hiding spot," she moaned. "It smells awful down here."

Jacob shot her a daring look. "That's because you're in a sewer." I noticed by his face and tone of voice that he was not instantly bemused with Miss Adler. It came as quite a surprise, but her makeup and flamboyant clothing were probably to blame. She wasn't showing her natural beauty, in which Jacob seemed undoubtably charmed with.

She looked at the three men and then turned to see the girls on the floor. "I see," she laughed darkly. "One for each of you?"

"I'd watch what you suggest," Jacob shot back towards her.

She scoffed, obviously offended. "Just who is this man?" Jacob rolled his eyes. I watched the whole thing, trembling a few feet away.

"He's a scientist," Watson mumbled. "He worked with Renadale's father."

Irene's face instantly shot to mine. For once, I didn't find it confusing. For once, I understood her look. Vicious. "You know the murderer?" I didn't nod my head. Technically, I only knew one murderer. "You didn't even bother to inform us that he could have had something to do with this?"

"How was I supposed to know?"

"This is why I suggested splitting up. This is why I said we shouldn't all do this together. Someone would screw up eventually and I figured it would be you who-"

A gun shot went off. I yelped in surprise, as Jacob held a pistol high above his head. His cold eyes were looking over towards Irene, who looked terrified out of her mind. "Whoever you are, I find you quite bothersome." He looked at one of his men. "Take her somewhere else."

Irene's eyes grew wide. "What?" A larger man came over and took her arm, getting ready to pull her away. "Don't touch me," she snapped, yanking her arm back. "I can walk myself."

Jacob grunted. "Americans."

I would have shouted to try and get her back, but I knew none of us were going anywhere. We were all going to be stuck down there as far as I could see. We might as well have gotten used to it.

Jacob took a step towards Dr. Thompson until he stopped short a few feet and cocked his head. "Thompson." The doctor raised his brow in acknowledgment. "I'm assuming you're the one that took my animal organs?" He nodded bitterly. "That's quite a shame. Now I'll have to replace them with some other ones." His eyes glanced towards the girls. "Or, maybe you'd be willing to give them to me?"

Dr. Thompson laughed. "I'm not a good enough person for you to take them from."

Jacob gave the slightest hint of a smile. "That's true, Dr. Thompson. You are not fit for my collection."

"What makes you do that?" I asked softly, taking him by surprise. He looked at me with his grey eyes shimmering in the tiny bit of light. "What makes you kill good people? Wouldn't it be more convenient for you to kill other murderers... like yourself?"

"I can see where you'd assume that," he sighed. "Your father always said something to me that was both accurate and uplifting. Perhaps you can remember it? 'Whenever a life is treated well...'," He stopped talking, wanting me to finish. I didn't want to finish. I didn't want to remember. "You're not going to finish it, are you?"

"'The heart stays stronger'," Holmes mumbled instead.

Jacob turned to him. "Bravo, detective."

I shot Holmes a bewildered look. "I can understand how Jeremy knew it, but you...?"

"When you were sick your mother told me many stories about you and your father," he explained softly. "She mentioned that quote. I merely remembered it. She said it stuck with you quite a bit."

"It meant a lot to me."

"Yes." Holmes mumbled absentmindedly. "Yes, that's why I remembered it."

I couldn't get a single word out before Jacob stepped forward, his hands harshly finding my back. I yelped at his cold touch. "I'm sorry that I have to interrupt. Truly, I am. However, I have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it." He was mumbling all of this very softly and very quickly, but as he did so he pushed me forwards towards another tunnel. "Do not try and fuss, because then I'll merely shoot you and we have a big enough mess to worry about."

I heard the rest of the men being shuffled out as well. Jacob stopped in the middle tunnel and began to walk me down it. "You'll have to stay with your American friend," he whispered to me as we walked. "I'm sorry about that."

"You should be," I grumbled in agitation. "You're not the one getting shoved down a sewer." Jeremy simply smiled at that as he pushed me down on the cold wet ground next to Irene. She had rope around her feet and hands as well as a gag in her mouth. She shot me a look of warning. "What?" I snapped. "What could I possibly do to you?"

She rolled her eyes away from me, shaking her head. I turned away from her as well as my own limbs were being tied. "I'm sorry about this, Miss Adkins," Jacob muttered as he shoved a gag in my mouth. I winced at the taste of dirt and grimy water. "Your father always told me to treat a lady with respect, but no one got the chance to help Emily. I don't see why any other good woman should get the chance either."

He left us then, cold and miserable in the underground sewage system. As his last words echoed through my ear, it was then that I had realized how un-quitting his love for Emily had been. That, or he was insane. After all, his sister had been mentally unwell. Perhaps a bit of both.

I felt a light nudge on my leg. I looked over see Irene staring back at me. I shrugged as if to ask her what she wanted. She jerked her head backwards as though she wanted me to do something for her. I shrugged again, not following. She rolled her eyes, repeating her movements. I still wasn't getting the gesture. Puffing a breath of hot air from her nose, she turned around so her back was towards me. I noticed a small knife in her collar. Aha! That was what she was talking about. I looked over at the guard who was 'watching' us. He was scuffing the bottom of his shoe on the cobblestones and kicking his other one in a puddle of infected water. I winced in disgust, but quickly snatched the knife from Irene's neckline with my tied hands.

Unfortunately, since I was the one trying to save the day, something had to go wrong. I dropped it. Of course it made a rather loud clatter against the stone. I grabbed the attention of the guard who looked less than pleased. "What was that?" He snarled, narrowing his bushy brows towards us. "This some kind of a joke?" Irene and I pretended not to have any idea what he was talking about. He glared at us once more before he turned around. "Women..."

Quickly, I snatched up the knife and pressed my back to Irene's as I began to saw off the rope around her wrists. After we got out of those, I wasn't sure what the plan was, but I could feel the flow of blood in my wrists slowing. Things needed to happen quickly. Eventually I could feel the rope break; Irene's hands were finally free. She took the knife from me and began to saw through mine. Just... not quick enough.

Yet again, we were noticed by the guard, whose eyes grew wide at the sight of us. "What on Earth?" Irene quickly stopped what she was doing, pulled the knife out from behind her back and tossed it as hard as she could towards the man. "Oh-"

Square in the chest.

I had to admit that it was an impressive toss. However, neither of us were out of our feet ties, therefore leaving Irene to crawl her way over to the recently deceased guard. She crawled over to his chest, grabbing hold of the knife with both hands and yanking it out with a grunt. She spat out the gag in her mouth and beamed towards me, outstretching her arms. "That felt refreshing, didn't it?"

I sat, silent. Partially because I was surprised at her suddenly bright nature and partially because I had a gag in my mouth.

"Oh, right!" She laughed, crawling back over to me. "You can't speak with that in your mouth!" She quickly sawed off of the rest of my ropes before tossing them aside. Greedily, I yanked the fabric from my mouth as she cut her leg ropes.

"Thank you." I was dizzy as I stood. "I can feel all of the blood rushing back."

Irene laughed. "Yes, that is what happens when people tie ropes around your limbs." She patted me on the back, wiping the bloody knife on her dress. "Alright, let's go get the others." She began to walk away, but I grabbed her dress and pulled her back.

"We need to talk."

Her face was blank. "Now doesn't seem like a good time."

"You know why."

Her eyes flashed. "It doesn't mean that we need to talk about it."

I brought my hand to my hip. This was a move that I might have done once or twice in my life, but it was effective because Irene took a step back in worry. "I want to know if he was against it." She stayed silent. "Will you not admit the truth?"

"He said no." She finally confessed. "He said no, but I wouldn't accept it." Her smile was laced with sadness. "You're not the only one who cares about him, you know." She whispered. "You're not the only one who loves him."

My heart skipped a beat.

Did she say love?

"I do not love anyone," I whispered furiously beneath my breath. "That is illogical."

Irene looked over at me with unbelieving eyes. "You may be hard to read, Renadale, but you're not too hard to figure out on this one. At least not from my perspective." She laughed softly. "To think that you haven't even noticed your own feelings for him..."

"I haven't noticed them because they aren't there." Irene laughed at me once again. "Laugh all you wish. But, I know what my heart feels. And what I feel is not love. Certainly, not. Do I wish it was? Perhaps. Yet, I am a woman who has never known or understood the joys of companionship before and I think I would be able to recognize the feeling of love coming upon me."

Irene winked. "No, Renadale. That's exactly why you wouldn't."

She said no more. She just offered me another sad smile and made her way slowly out of the tunnel. I watched her slim frame disappear from my view, her long dress slinking out from around the tunnel corner. My heart swelled a bit at this scene. She really cared about him, didn't she? Holmes was her weakness. Her one weakness.

I was stealing that away from her, wasn't I?

My mind rambled through the ideas. Holmes could be with me because he missed her. Yes, that was a possibility. Whatever the reason, they had been... interested... in one another before. The only thing I was doing by being in the picture was messing it up.

I nodded my head sternly. I would get the case over with and get out.

~.~.~.~.~

It wasn't a surprise to turn the corner and already find the other two guards dead. Watson, Holmes and Dr. Thompson looked up at Irene and I with amused eyes as we saw the sight before us. "Impressive," Irene mumbled, kicking a dead man's foot.

"Highly," Holmes sighed. "Now, let's leave before we find out that we cannot." He brushed past all of us, taking the way that we came in. "If my thoughts are lined up correctly, there should be a few more men. Which means another hiding spot. One that is less complex. One out in the English countryside."

I raised my brows. "We're going to the country?"

Holmes trudged on into the dark, his pace quicker than before. "Perhaps. That is where I assume the other hideout will be located."

"Why is that exactly?" Watson asked from the far back of our line.

"Their first victim lived out in the far countryside. It was their first kill, so I assumed that they were planning very carefully. Also, there were no organs stashed down here that belonged to the girls. And Thompson does not have theirs. Therefore, logically, it must be somewhere outside of the city."

"How do you know they're not keeping them somewhere else in the city?" I questioned.

"They're young," Holmes replied quickly. "They don't have a wide range of creativity when it comes to murder."

I scoffed, even if his point did seem correct. "English countryside it is?"

"Indeed. That is, if we make it out of here without your neighbourhood admirer showing back up." In the silence, I could imagine Holmes smiling. "The game is on!"

~.~.~.~

The countryside was much more peaceful than when we had visited it before. We booked a few rooms in a small inn down the road from the first victim's house. I still felt weary. I felt as though Jacob and his pack could be around and watching us.

"Miss Adkins," Holmes said, setting down a sealed envelope on a table in my room. "This is for you. It seemed to have slipped my mind to give it to you." I looked at the back. It said it was from Edward.

"Oh, yes," I growled. "I'm sure you just forgot about it." Holmes looked at me for a brief moment and then left the room without another word. I shut the door behind him, sighing heavily and falling back upon my bed. I wished then that I could have fallen asleep forever. Yet, the letter was taunting me. I scooped it up into my hands, unfolding it delicately in my fingers. The perfectly scrolled hand writing flew itself across the page, as though it were written in a hurry.

My dearest Renadale,

You are asleep next to me right now. I suppose it might be a silly thing to be writing to you when you are beautifully slumbering here beside me, but I wanted to write this to you and tell you what I feel at this moment.

I long to kiss you, Renadale Adkins, though I know it would not be wise. You have known me for such a little while, but I still feel as though you are the one who can make me happy. I enjoy horseback riding and I am not interested in anything too straining, as you may have noticed by my lack of figure. Blue is a lovely colour on you and my favourite drink is red wine. Scandalous, I know.

I wish to speak to you so that you may know more about me. I wish to speak to you so that I may know more about you. Love is a painted picture of nature on a delicate canvas, and by looking at you, I am ready to pick up my brush.

Yours,

Edward Brettingham

I sat with the letter frozen in my hands. I could see them shaking, but I could feel nothing. He felt so deeply about me? And how did I feel? Edward was irresistible. Any woman could see that. I knew so little about him, but what was the pain in learning more? Why would it bother me to learn more about him? To think that he had written this to me and then ran into me on the streets without me reading it. Perhaps he thought I had... perhaps me running off was a rejection.

My eyes grew wide. I had to tell him the truth as soon as possible. I would be in town hopefully in a few days. He would have to wait.

Sweetly, I pressed his note against my heart. Perhaps Edward was the one I was looking for after all. How would I ever know if I never tried? The door suddenly flung open, a ruddy faced Holmes in the doorway. "Did you read it?" He mumbled, his eyes glued to the ground. His nature was almost nervous, if I dare say it. Something was wrong.

"Yes." I spoke my words softly out of a fear that I would startle him.

His eyes frantically shot up to mine. "What did you say? Will you be writing him back?"

I stood up from my bed in shock. "Is that really your place to be asking those kinds of questions?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes, I think so. You work for me. I think I have every right to know if my worker is lagging about and confessing love to someone when she should be working on the task that is at hand-"

"Lagging about?" I gasped, taking a step closer towards him. "You just handed me this letter today! I never even got the chance to write him back because you never gave it to me!" Angrily, I shoved the note into his chest. "You're certainly one to talk about confessing love and fooling around."

"Miss Adkins," he grumbled. "I think you are taking this situation entirely out of hand. We have a case to focus on."

I felt my jaw drop. He turned on his heels and left the room just as randomly as he had entered. Did that all just happen? Had that all happened before my eyes with no illusions whatsoever? Furiously, I slammed my door shut. I was dying for this case to be over.

Why couldn't I have just been a maid?

I groaned, pulling my face tiredly down with my hands in distress. What was happening to my small world? It was slowly growing larger, allowing more and more confusion to make its way in. Wherever this secret hiding spot was, we needed to find it quickly.

I flung myself across my bed, wishing I could sleep forever. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case at all. The case was that I needed to get up and to go outside of this muggy little inn to find human organs buried somewhere. Brilliant.

I crawled off of the bed and groggily headed downstairs. I was not in the mood to listen to Irene or Holmes's pointless jabbering. The more I thought about it, the more perfect they were for one another. Perhaps they could understand the other without their minds erupting. Watson noticed my distress as we both headed out of the inn. "Are you alright, Rena?" He tossed his bowler hat on. "Your face is awfully flushed."

"I guess there's just a lot on my mind," I muttered through clenched teeth.

"There's no surprise there," Watson said with a smile. "Life's not half as bad as you think it is."

We continued walking, but I stopped speaking to think about what he said. Was he right? Was life not as bad as I thought it was? I glanced down at my shoes. At least I had those. "I know," I muttered finally. Watson simply smiled. "I don't want to offend you, but don't you ever get tired of this?"

He stared back towards me blankly. "You haven't noticed that yet?"

I laughed full heartedly at his response. He had a point. "Why don't you just stop?" I saw his eyes redirect themselves towards his engagement ring. My heart skipped a beat at the romantic gesture. "You really love her."

His eyes caught mine, our lips not moving for what felt like years. Finally, he spread his mouth into a grin. "Words cannot explain what I feel for Mary."

"Then why do you continue on with this nonsense? Why do you stay away from her?"

"We all have a duty to fulfil," he said admirably. "And although I feel as though my heart's duty is to marry my fiancee as soon as possible, I know that there are things that must be accomplished first." He nodded his head towards Holmes, several feet ahead of us. "Yet my brain and my heart tell me not to leave him just yet. Not yet."

I kicked up the dirt on the road as we trudged on silently. I wished somewhere deep inside my heart that one day I could find the courage to decide what was right for my life like John Watson could. Sure, Holmes was a saviour to all of London, but in my heart John Watson was my true hero.

~.~.~.~.~

We stopped at the beginning of a small wooded area just north of the first victim's house. His parents were no where to be seen. I wasn't surprised that they had left. Who in their right mind would stay?

The forest seemed a logical hiding place since it was heavily covered and reasonably dense. None of us looked entirely thrilled to enter it. Irene, who had dressed in casual wear for the occasion, still looked horrified. "I suppose we might as well get it over with," she sighed heavily, hiking up her skirt and making her way inside.

"It's a shame that we have to go in there. With all of the branches we'll be breaking under our feet, they'll be able to hear us." I said.

"If they were wise themselves, they could have evenly distributed them." Holmes spoke as he entered the trees. "Just as I suspected." His eyes scanned the scattered sticks. "All uniformly tossed, but none spread far enough to make a path. Admittedly, it's the most clever thing they have done so far." Sure, maybe these men weren't the best criminals, but the fact that it was taking us more than a couple of days to solve the case made it seem otherwise. I kept my mouth closed, weary of any possible arguments that I might bring up.

Especially since Holmes's mood was a bit more brash than normal.

"I don't like this place," I mumbled as we continued to crouch our way through the forest. The trees were closely planted next to one another and most of them were falling or already tumbling. "I feel like there are eyes everywhere."

"That's because there are," Holmes whispered. "Birds."

I gulped nervously. Birds or not, it bothered me.

"I love how comfortable you're making everyone feel," Dr. Thompson snickered from the back. "Remind me why I'm here again?" No one said anything. We didn't even really know. "Oh, well that's certainly comforting."

We continued on, none of us uttering a word. We were all too scared to speak. If someone were around, most of us had no weapons to protect ourselves. Our only goal was to remain as quiet as possible. Wherever Holmes was going, hopefully we would find it soon.

We could have walked for days and I wouldn't have known the difference. I swear we were walking in circles or the forest never ended. My legs were beginning to feel as though they were going to fall apart and I could feel the cold air from the night breeze sweeping through the trees. "Holmes, wait." I muttered, grabbing at his coat sleeve. He slowly spun around, his eyes just as tired as mine. "Must we keep going? We've been walking for days..."

"That's not true, Miss Adkins. I'm afraid you're delusional."

I felt my eyelids beginning to sag. "I just want to go to sleep," I yawned. I could feel my knees buckling beneath my dress, but I did nothing to stop them.

"Fantastic," Holmes grumbled angrily, snatching me underneath the arms and hauling me back up to my feet. "Miss Adkins, I insist you stop speaking and continue walking. We are not turning back around-"

"We're not?" Irene shouted a bit too loudly for all of sleepy minds. "We've been waking here for hours and we've found nothing! What do you mean we're not going back to the inn?"

"We'll head back. Just not yet." I began to slip again, but Sherlock grabbed my waist and hauled me back up. "Stop doing that, Miss Adkins."

Watson rubbed his neck. "We're lost aren't we, Holmes?"

Everyone grew quiet. I felt my composure return a bit, waiting anxiously to hear the answer to this question. If it was more than two letters, I assumed I would scream. I watched his eyes dart from each one of us to the other, until finally they landed on me. "Yes," he breathed with a sigh of exasperation.

"Oh!" Dr. Thompson cried, grabbing the sides of his head and pathetically sitting himself on the forest floor. "I could have stayed in that prostitute house! I honestly felt much more protected there than I do here!" Irene cringed in disgust.

I felt tears begin to swell in my eyes. Furiously, I snatched the collar on Holmes's coat. He looked towards me in surprise, not expecting the forward gesture. "What do you mean... we're lost?"

"I mean it as simply as I put it."

I pulled him even closer to my face. "What do you mean by that?"

He grabbed my arms, steadying me out once again. "You really ought to get a hold of yourself, Miss Adkins."

I felt tears begin to fall down my face. I couldn't tell you why I was crying. Perhaps because I felt filthy. Perhaps because I was so tired from walking. Perhaps because I wanted to be somewhere with Edward and not there. Or, perhaps the likeliest of options was because I wanted to be somewhere with Sherlock and not there. "Please," I murmured. "Get me out of here."

"Very well!" Holmes nodded. "Tomorrow. For now, I think we should rest here."

"Here?" Watson cried, possibly even louder than Irene. "That will not be happening. No one in their right mind would stay in this forest! It's horribly dirty and horribly unsafe!"

"There are five of us," Holmes muttered, raising his brows. "We can all protect one another."

"And what about animals?"

Holmes blinked in amusement. "Do rabbits frighten you, Watson?"

Angrily, he tossed his bowler hat onto the ground. "They do at night when I am unprotected!" He laid down with a growl and used his hat as a pillow. "If this is how it's going to be, I want to sleep. Someone else can patrol the area, but I've had it. I could be married right now and on a vacation in Venice. Oh, but no..." He angrily turned his back to us. "I'm stuck in a filthy forest with the most insane people I've ever met!"

Irene and Dr. Thompson angrily followed in suite, tossing down their coats and lying down with their backs away from us. Thankfully, neither of them had a long speech like Watson and in their anger they ignored us.

"You infuriate me." I pressed myself away from Holmes. "If I have to sleep another night in these woods, I'll... I'll kill you! Yes. That is what I shall do. I shall kill you." He said nothing in response. After I began to feel bad about what I said, I noticed he was still standing there with his chocolate eyes seeming more tired than before. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "It's not entirely your fault."

"That is where you are incorrect, Miss Adkins. Clearly, everyone here has displayed their anger towards me. I would find it irrational and supposedly unfair if I was not the one to be blamed." He said all of this while staring at the ground.

"No, really," I slowly placed a hand on his shoulder. "I forgive you."

He said nothing, but simply laid his coat out on the floor. "There," he said. "Sleep. You look awfully tired and you have no coat." He stretched himself out on the dirty ground with his back towards me.

I silently sat down on the coat, poking his back until he turned around to face me. "Don't be stupid." I moved over and patted the spot next to me on the coat. "There's enough space for two."

He blinked and did not move.

I patted it once again. "I said I forgave you."

Ever so carefully, as if he were handing the last china doll on Earth, he crawled over next to me and filled up the extra space on the coat. My stomach was swirling with nerves at having him next to me again, but I pushed them aside. I had already decided to be with Edward. I had already decided that Holmes would be with Irene. I was simply sharing his coat. That was all. I turned around so that my back was towards him and tightly shut my eyes. Sweet dreams, hurry up and find me, I wished.

I felt something soft run it's way along my neck, my body tensing up a bit by the cool touch. I didn't turn around to have to know what it was. I felt his fingers sweep the hair away until he was simply stroking my bare skin. Along with the cold of the night air, I began to shiver at his touch. I felt him burry his face a bit into my neck, his breath tickling my throat. "What did the letter say?" He whispered so softly that I could barely hear him.

I reached my hand up to his face, my fingers brushing his cheek lighter than I had ever touched anything. "It doesn't matter right now," I whispered with my eyes still closed.

"You forgive me," he muttered, his voice beginning to fade into sleep.

"I'll forgive you..." My fingers slowly traced his lips. "If you tell me how you feel about me."

There was nothing for a long while. I thought perhaps he had fallen asleep as my fingers still continued to trace the features on his face. "I cannot tell you how I feel about you," he whispered suddenly, taking me a bit by surprise.

My heart broke a little at hearing this. I was right about him and Irene. They were good for one another. Perhaps this would be the last time I touched him. If it was, I didn't mind. Lying closely under the trees didn't seem like a bad way to end things. I felt his arm slink it's way across my waist, his fingers spreading themselves out over my stomach. I felt my face grow hot. He noticed, because he muttered something in the darkness. "I won't hurt you, Renadale."

I could feel my head getting lighter at the sound of my name, but I nearly lost my control when I felt his hand slink it's way further up my torso. I wanted to turn around to smack him, but I had to regain my control. I had wanted this once and as I felt his soft touch against my body, I couldn't help to think that it was still what I wanted. I just couldn't let myself have it.

"Holmes..." I mumbled, stroking his face a bit harder now, about to loose all of my control. "You should probably stop touching me."

I prayed Irene had fallen asleep or could not hear us.

He said nothing. He just pressed his face further into my palm. It showed me that everything I felt for him wasn't just so that we could be intimate, but it was real. I just hoped I could feel that way with Edward when I returned to London. After all, I would have to be leaving Holmes when that happened.

"Tell me how you feel about me," I urged. He simply stared. "Why can't you tell me?"

"Because, I cannot find the words."

"You can solve all the murders in the world, but you cannot tell a woman how you feel?"

"You are an entirely different case, Miss Adkins."

"Tell me how."

He blinked a few times in the darkness, his large brown eyes never failing to impress me. He said nothing.

"That is why I must leave you," I choked, suddenly announcing my plan even though I was not quite set on declaring it.

He sat up a bit, his eyes scanning my body over with worry. It was as though he was searching for a sign of untruthfulness. He could find none. "What exactly do you mean? Do you mean at this instant? Leave this area?"

I shook my head, biting my bottom lip. Even though I had just announced it, I found myself not wanting to talk about it.

"Miss Adkins." He stopped speaking. He laid himself back down to look at the tops of the trees. Though his eyes were not set on me, I could not seem to pull mine away from him. Carefully, I scooted a bit closer to him, enough for me to kiss his cheek gently. He closed his eyes with a dissatisfied look on his face.

"When I saw you in the ring," I whispered. "Sometimes I imagined that you were fighting for me." I could hear my voice about to break with my confession. He was all that I wanted. "It's all rather silly, but I wouldn't lie to you and tell you that it was not true."

His eyes cracked open again, the night breeze brushing his long hair away from his face. I smiled at the sight of him. He was truly beautiful. Perfect for Ir-

"I was fighting for you," he said suddenly. "I will always fight for you, Renadale."

That was all I could take. If I were to listen to him anymore, I would have changed my mind. "Good night, detective," I mumbled, turning my back to him again and tightly shutting my eyes. I did not sleep. How could I? If I were to sleep, all of my dreams would be of him. For now, I couldn't have anyone in particular on my mind.

Goodnight, my someone.

~.~.~.~

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