Thank you so, so much for all the great reviews!! Questions and suggestions are great, thank you, please don't be afraid to ask. The chapters are a bit short, I'm sorry, but I'll try to make them longer.
Please read my bio if you want to know why it took me so long to update - don't want to up the word count too much.
Lots of stories are still in progress (hint/hint - read my other stuff too!). Got a livejournal – yay!
Disclaimers as in chapter 1 still apply.
Story and plot copyright to me.
Chapter 3:
As Watson got his instruments together, Holmes had Mrs. Hudson bring some boiled water. She was quite curious as to what was happening at such a late hour, but Holmes skilfully assured her that everything was fine and that it had to do with one of their cases.
When Holmes returned to the sitting room, he saw that Watson had turned up the gaslights on the walls some more and lit some candles.
He and Holmes put some linen on the table and then carefully carried the girl onto the plat surface.
"She's very light" remarked Holmes.
Watson carefully cut the girl's strange clothes away from the wound and Holmes withdrew to another side of the room.
"Oh dear", said Watson, after a few moments.
"What is it?"
"The bullet is still inside. This wound looks at least a few days old, but I don't know how to explain this..."
"What", asked Holmes, walking closer and then changing his mind.
"Look", said Watson, holding up a tweezer for Holmes to see.
"Here's the bullet…"
"Well, that's good, isn't it?"
"That is good", confirmed Watson, "the strange thing is that there is almost no bullet hole left. Look at this bullet. It's deformed in such a way to suggest that it must have hit a bone on it's way in, but now there's just this flesh wound left, barely half a centimetre deep. Everything inside is completely healed."
"It was bleeding because the bullet was being pushed out?" asked Holmes after a moment's thought.
"That's what I think. The strange thing is that it healed so quickly and in such a strange way."
He cleaned and dressed the wound.
Watson looked at the serene face of the sleeping girl. "I wonder who you are."
Watson, as a doctor, took it upon himself to bathe the girl since she was absolutely filthy. They had no idea how to remove the clothes she was wearing ("see, no buttons anywhere"), so he had to resort to cutting it away. Holmes examined it. It had a strange rubbery, silky feel to it. It was quite waterproof and fireproof and no amount of tugging could tear it. Only Watson's sharp scalpel could cut through the thin material.
After the girl was put in the guestroom's bed, Holmes examined one of her hands.
"It looks like she was born this way. Thumb, forefinger, middle finger and ring finger. There are no scars or even space on her hand for the last one."
"And they are very long too, see", Watson put his hand on top of hers, showing Holmes that, even though his hand was much larger than hers, her fingers were almost a centimetre longer.
"Look, her toes are the same."
The mystery was becoming stranger every moment.
The next evening found the two men in the sitting room, each holding a snifter of brandy. It had been a hectic day for them - they had solved a case where a man tried to murder his son and his grandchild. To make it even worse was that he only did it so that he could have a clear way to his son's wife. It wasn't often that Watson saw his friend sink into the darkness of absolute fury, but in this case he didn't blame him at all. Holmes completely crushed the man's chances with the law with a few softly spoken words to the local police.
Now they were contemplating the world, or rather Watson was, he had no idea what Holmes was doing. He was still very quiet and his eyes were a bit frightening to see – pure ice they were. But at least he accepted company and didn't lock himself away, as he was wont to do sometimes. Presently, Mrs. Hudson brought in a simple supper of beef stew with fresh bread and red wine.
She woke up without pain, warm and comfortable. It stirred memories of kind faces and a place where she was happy once. All too soon the outside world made itself known: something smelt very good. Slowly she sat up and poked at the bandage on her shoulder. It didn't hurt anymore. She took off the bandage and walked to the door, beyond which she heard voices. Peering through the slightly open door, she saw two familiar men but was more interested in the food on the table. Carefully she went into the room.
"Well, well, look who's awake..."
AN: I know, only 2 pages, but the meeting, I think, should have a chapter of its own. Thanks for the reviews!
AN2: For one of my reviewers – I have no idea what elfquest is, this was all my idea: most of my characters have some physical difference from the others in the story and this is just one of the easiest to do.