Dedicated to DiscordantPrincess and richardchibbard for helping me with this story. Yes, I have intentionally had Basil suffer a meltdown in this story and his friends yelling at him loud enough to knock some sense into him, since they are sick of hearing him complaining. Then a heartbroken Basil accepts his guilt and leaves them, giving them time to cool off until he hears a cry out for help and redeems himself and apologizes to his friends to save his friends from the criminals. Kudos to richardchibbard for roleplaying this with me via DA note.

Basil, Dawson, Fidget, Olivia, and her father, Mr. Flaversham had decided to make a picnic inside Sherlock Holmes' house since Sherlock and Watson were already in bed.

"What if we make a mess?" Fidget asked.

"Try not to make a big one, Fidget," Basil said.

"Fidget, we have napkins," Dawson reminded Fidget as he handed him a napkin.

"Thanks, Dawson," Fidget said, grabbing a napkin and wiped his face with it.

"Quite a slob," Basil remarked.

"Basil, manners," Dawson warned sternly.

Basil growled and rolled his eyes. "Alright."

Olivia giggled. "Silly bat."

All of a sudden, a suspicious sound occurred.

Basil packed up the picnic basket. "Hurry, let's head somewhere safe!" His friends followed him and they headed for a room, where it'll be safe. It was dark, but luckily, Dawson brought a lantern, which was already on to begin with. Basil closed the door behind him. Finally safe, they continued to eat their supper.

…

"Dawson. Fidget. Olivia. Mr. Flaversham," Basil said with a sigh, "I feel guilty about something."

"About what?" Olivia asked.

"About putting you in here," Basil replied, "I guess it's not safe."

"But you're keeping us, safe, Basil," Fidget assured him, "I'm sure of it. We could've been hurt or worse, killed."

"He has a point on that one, Basil," Dawson said. "And you do a brilliant job at keeping us safe and protected."

"Fidget and Dawson are right, Basil," Olivia said.

Fidget and Olivia hugged Basil to get their point across, but Basil pushed them away. Poor Olivia and Fidget did not like getting the cold shoulder. "I'm sorry, but I should have known this isn't the best night when criminals are at large."

"But you had no other choice!" Fidget tried to tell him. "You did the right thing. Nothing else to it."

"I should have been on guard either way!" Basil wailed. "I'm a failure and I hate myself for it!"

Fidget was beginning to lose it. "KNOCK IT OFF!" Fidget yelled, his anger flaring up, but thankfully none of the criminals heard his outburst and stopped to take a breath before continuing. "Listen here, Basil!" Fidget told him off, "It's no one's fault that the criminals are here and I may not know much about detective stuff like you do, but you're not helping yourself or us by sitting here, complaining. We just thought you'd feel better, but no! You're not being the Basil we know! Instead, you're just something else!"

"And I told you that last time, Basil," Dawson recalled. "Besides, you can't always stop bad things from happening."

"Feeling sorry for yourself never does you any good," Olivia pointed out, just as annoyed as Dawson. "And Dawson was making sense: You can't always stop bad things from happening and no matter what, we'll always make it out safe."

"Olivia's right," Mr. Flaversham agreed, "Don't be so sorry for yourself."

"If it makes you feel any better giving up, then fine!" Fidget yelled.

"If you want, you can take it as your last case!" Dawson agreed.

"Unless you pull yourself together!" Fidget added and everyone started turning their backs on the detective.

With a heavy heart, Basil opened the door and walked off in silence, not knowing what to do anymore. Suddenly, he heard a cry of distress. It came from his friends! He never should have left him alone! What they've said made perfect sense. He was going to go after the people who were about to hurt his friends.

"Hey, leave them alone!" Basil yelled.

Ratigan and his gang turned threateningly to face him.

"Basil!" Olivia, Mr. Flaversham, Dawson and Fidget cried happily.

"I'm sorry I left you all alone," Basil apologized to his friends.

"Tell us that later!"

"Toby!" Basil shouted and whistled for his dog.

Toby proudly obeyed his master and as such, he was going to please him. He lowered his head for Basil to hop on and Basil grabbed each of his friends by the hand. Once everyone was on board, Toby rose his head and glared and growled at their foes, making his friends appear bigger than Ratigan had given them credit for.

Ratigan gasped in shock, but what surprised him the most was that Fidget joined the heroes.

Satisfied by Ratigan's surrender, he had Dawson help him arrest Ratigan and his gang.

Upon Basil's and Dawson's return, the Flavershams and Fidget cheered and that night everything was back to normal!