Chapter Sixteen
The Narrative of Dr. John Watson

It had been five days since the sudden and mysterious disappearance of Holmes and Aurora. Among my correspondence was a terse note from Mycroft Holmes, informing me that his search for his brother still bore no fruit. Though I was sure that Holmes and Aurora could make themselves vanish from the face of the earth if they wished to, it was disturbing to think that they actually had.

I began to take rather large detours past Baker Street, peering at the windows as the cab drove past, searching for any sign of life. Still, I was surprised when after a late-night call to a patient, as I drove past Baker Street, to see light streaming out of the one remaining window on the upper story.

I quickly ordered the driver to pull over and tossed him a coin. It must have been a large one because I heard his exclamation of surprise as I hurried up the stairs. I let myself in silently. I distinctly heard familiar voices coming from the upstairs sitting room.

My first impulse was to dash up the stairs, but another thought arrested me. Miss Aurora Harland was extremely circumspect about where she was and what she did during the months at a time she would disappear. I clearly saw that she had taken Holmes into her confidence, since he did not express the slightest worry. Now was my chance to gather some clues to finally solve this mystery behind this woman who had appeared so mysteriously some months ago. It seemed from their conversation that they had just arrived.

"Wow, this place looks marginally less like a disaster area than usual."

"No doubt Mrs. Hudson took it upon herself to tidy things up when she was clearing away the remnants of the window."

"Ah good, my bag's still here. I was thinking that someone might have gotten curious and taken a peek inside. A CD player would have been difficult to explain away."

"One of those music devices?"

"Yeah. I wanted your opinion on this band called Voltaire, but the batteries fried going through the machine."

I had slowly been making my way up the stairs, careful not to make the least sound, but as I put my foot on a step, it creaked under my weight. Fortunately, Holmes coughed at nearly the same time, and the conversation continued as if they had heard nothing.

"Will you stay the night?"

"Nah, I'm headed back to the future and my quiet little pub." I noted heavy sarcasm in Aurora's words. But what did she mean by 'future?'

"That is unfortunate, because Watson is on the stairs and I am sure he would like to know where we have been all this week."

My cover blown, as the Americans say, I stepped into the sitting room. Aurora was glaring furiously at Holmes, who was unperturbed. I noticed also that Aurora was wearing one of her unique outfits, black trousers and a grey pea coat.

"You two had the rest of us in quite a stir," I said, a bit coldly, I admit, "disappearing after an assassination attempt and leaving traces of blood behind. Which one of you was injured?"

"It was just a scratch," said Aurora, but I noted a slight stiffness to her movements when she waved aside the question. "We needed to regroup. Figure out who it was and what they were after."

"The men in question were arrested after their cab overturned trying to take the corner at the end of the street too fast. They were relatives of Dunlan, the pilot of the steamer Friesland." I added to Holmes. He merely grunted in acknowledgement.

Aurora glanced to Holmes, whose eyes were fixed on the ceiling and gave no indication of his thoughts. She shrugged and said, as if to herself, "Fine, but I hate being backed into a corner like this."

"Dr. Watson, is it your professional opinion that I am crazy?" Startled, I replied no. "It will be in a minute." Aurora assured me. She pulled something from her pocket and rolled it around in her hand as she spoke.

"I'll tell you what I told him. My name is Aurora Harland, I was born in 1978 and I am twenty seven years old. I was a professional thief, and a good one at that, under the name Onyx until just a year ago when a job gave me enough capital to purchase a small pub near the Thames. Now I'm just the pub owner, and I do a bit of consulting work of my own. So, am I crazy?"

I was too stunned to think. I had thought perhaps that Miss Aurora was running from her past, a jealous lover or something of the like, but instead she was running from the future.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now, here's my proof." Aurora tossed me the object in her hands; I caught it automatically. It was a simple shilling coin but very different from the ones I knew. Instead of Victoria Regina, the coin was graced by the portrait of another woman, Elizabeth II. The date on the coin was 1984.

"This could be a forgery." I said.

"True nuff." Aurora said, pulling a wallet from her pocket. She searched through it, pausing once to mutter "So that's where that went," over a slip of paper. Finally she pulled out a thin card, made of some hard yet flexible material. On it was printed a tiny portrait of Aurora, along with her address and some dates that were a hundred years into the future. The former could be forged; this was so far beyond our technology that it made my head spin.

"So this is your secret; a visitor from the future. I feel as if I have been dropped into an H.G. Wells novel."

"You and me both. Happy now?" She addressed this last to Holmes.

"Yes, infinitely so. I hope you will forgive me my absence without leave, my dear Watson, but I could not return any earlier. And you Miss Harland, I must apologize for 'backing you into a corner' but you are very close with your secrets."

"Yeah," she shrugged, "well, it's kinda hard to explain. How do you open up that conversation? 'I think you should know that I am a visitor from the future.' That sort of thing gets you sent to the nuthouse."

The hall clock struck eleven. Aurora glanced at her watch, then stood. "Sorry to cut and run, but I'm going to cut and run. The meter is about up."

"My regards to your brother."

"I'm sure he'll be glad to hear them."

Aurora turned to leave, but she paused in the door. "You might like to know, Doctor, that I have read your work. Your talent with the written word is quite excellent."

I was both surprised and pleased at this unexpected declaration.

After Aurora had left, I turned to Holmes and demanded a narrative of the past week. "It sounds as if you found a case in Miss Aurora's time." I said.

"It was more a case of the case finding us, but yes, there was a small matter." He held up a hand to forestall my next question. "I will tell you all, my friend, but first you must promise me that none of this will end up in your annals."

The promise was easily extracted, and so dear reader, I must close here. These notes will find their way to the bottom of my small dispatch box at Charing Cross, and perhaps in another century the tale will be found and published. It would certainly be a fitting fate for such a singular manuscript to bridge the gap of the centuries.

Questions, comments, critisicms, complaints? You know what to do.

Fin! After nearly a year of work I present to you the completed Aurora Harland/Sherlock Holmes trilogy! (Available in a collectable box set)

Thank you again to all my lovely reviewers, and virtual cookies to all. I will now attempt to list you all, in no particular order. Gracias a snowwolf , Hank Riddle, HouAreYouToday, Suzuka Blade, Sigerson, Jilla de la Rio, Nikena, Nightbreeze, tracy, coolpuella, Lady Arianna, MM, Kenta Divina, Lady Riahanna Dragoneye, Fox-In-Shadows, Estriel, Inu Lover, Leper Messiah and Blue Crayon, Silent Beatnik, Maria, teddy, Your Worshipfulness, mariteri, No, Wood is not a stick, u-chan, Kittenchatter, Lady Russell Holmes, Lady Cinnibar, shadowfeysun, Silcatra, Finley, Pinkpanther, rhodesia1, Hermione Holmes, Polgara la Fae, NescienX, S, Lydiby, LA , and Stormyrose. You like me! You really like me! wipes tear from eye

Hopefully there will be more Aurora-Holmes fun in the future, but it's been hard finding time to write recently, what with two jobs and all. (Paying for college is hard! My advice to you is be rich.)

In response to Lady Riahanna's question of long ago, (which I'm not sure if I answered) my pen name is from the Valdemar series of novels, written by Mercedes Lackey. It's a fantasy genre and Kerown is a bad-ass character in several of her novels.


And so, for now, I take my final bow.

.•´¨•»¦«•Kerowyn•»¦«•´¨•.