Museums were always a place Emily had felt comfortable. She had never been sure why exactly. But she supposed it had something to do with all the history.
With history you were safe. It had already happened; therefore you already knew how something was going to end. There were no sudden surprises that shook you to your very core, leaving you on edge for days afterwards. You could simply take in all the information, learn about it (and in some cases from it) and move forward with your life.
There were also the stories that went with everything. Stories that had been long buried and no one alive knew about. Emily loved to spend her time making up those stories; imagining the beautiful Egyptian women wearing the jewellery that had been discovered in the twenties. Or about the soldier who had worn that particular uniform that was safely locked away behind glass, somehow seeming eerie, watching everyone as they went by without a body, but at the same time a strange comfort to her.
There was also the smell. Emily would never admit this out loud, but the smell of a good museum, was one of her favourites. It was a collection of things that were old, some forgotten or unknown to the generations that visited. She could spend hours inhaling that scent. Yes, there were times when it got too much, but that was only when there were too many people around and she couldn't enjoy the sights she was seeing.
But there current location was the National Antiquities Museum. Emily had, despite a brief appreciation from the other side of the glass, no idea about antiquities. They weren't exactly her most treasured items of history. She was afraid she would stumble and break something, end up paying for it and consequently become broke.
So, instead of standing close to the items on display, she had opted to stand a few feet away from a glass cabinet, hands safely in her pockets, looking at the clay teapots wondering what their story was.
"When was the last time that you saw her?" She was only vaguely aware of Sherlock talking, or rather interviewing, the young man, Andy, as he wondered around somewhere behind her.
"Three days ago, um, here at the museum." She felt the Consulting Detective pause briefly beside her as he too took note of the contents of the glass cabinet. "This morning they told me she'd resigned just like that." His shoulders shrugged slowly "Just left her work unfinished."
Sherlock turned to him before continuing. "What was the last thing that she did on her final afternoon?" Emily finally turned her head to look at the three men, Andy's mouth had opened and closed, making him look a little like a goldfish. He sighed before looking all three of them in the eyes in turn.
"Follow me." With that he turned, Sherlock following quickly behind leaving John and Emily to catch up quickly, John offering Emily his hand which she quickly accepted.
As they entered a door with a sign that read: 'Staff Only' Emily's heart rate seemed to quicken. Alright, so it wasn't a proper history museum they were in, or even the science museum which she enjoyed more for the gadgets than the actual science of things, but she was actually going behind the scenes of a museum. She had often wondered what it had looked like behind these doors.
She chuckled to herself as they descended a set of stairs; she was getting excited about going behind the forbidden doors of a museum. She had just made herself feel about fifty years older.
They finally approached a set of doors that looked important. Even more important than every other door they had just entered. Judging by the amount of stairs they had used, this was apparently the basement.
The lights flickered on as they took a few steps in, Andy continuing as if the conversation hadn't stopped for a few minutes.
"She does this demonstration for the tourists- a-a tea ceremony. So she would have packed up her things and just put them in here." All around them were stacks that looked like a form of cupboards. Andy lead them to an already partially opened stack and began to turn the handle to widen the gap. But Emily wasn't interested in the boy's actions. She was more interested in the way he spoke of the girl they were currently looking for. His tone was soft, his eyes gentle. She suspected this young man had a crush.
John gently released her hand to take a closer look inside, but her gaze became drawn to Sherlock instead. Or more importantly the thing that held Sherlock's full attention.
"John." Her friends gaze turned to her. But he needn't have asked what she wanted.
A life-size sculpture of a nude woman, (Emily would never understand why so many sculptures had to be nude. Probably some perverted artist who just wanted to leer at women while he created) stood before them. But this one was different. This one had bright yellow paint sprayed across the front. A horizontal line across the eyes, what looked like a figure of eight, and above that, an almost horizontal line, just like the ones in the pictures that surrounded the mirror back at Baker Street.
Sherlock never spoke a word as he left the basement. She caught John rolling his eyes before he turned to Andy.
"Thank you for your time. If we need anything else...?"
Andy nodded, not needing to hear the rest of the question. "Come by, any time. Just, please, find her."
"We'll do our best." Emily assured him, placing a gentle hand on the boys arm. He nodded to the pair of them, turning away so he could close the gap John had been about to enter. Emily desperately wanted to say something, anything to him. But she could think of nothing.
Instead, John took her elbow and guided her away, taking her back up the way they had come. She was a little disheartened. She hadn't exactly had the time to look around properly. She would just have to do it another time.
"Tired?" John asked her as she yawned.
"Running around London after Sherlock Holmes isn't exactly the most relaxing thing in the world." She answered as she linked her arm through his.
He chuckled and smiled down at her. "No. But would you have it any other way?"
She looked up at him now, an eyebrow raised in question. "What do you mean?" He held the door open for her and she thanked him quietly.
"Well, would you rather him be complaining that he's bored? You know what he's like when he's bored." Emily shook her head at the memories. And she had thought she was insufferable when she was in that mood. "Or, you could not have met us at all. Would you prefer that?" She caught the teasing tome in his voice, and she bumped her shoulder into his.
"You know the answer to both those questions John."
"Yes. Yes, I do."
"So, when you start yawning and complaining, does that mean I can give you this little speech?" She questioned cheekily. His only reply was to bump her shoulder as he chuckled again.
By now, darkness had fallen and the only illumination came from the artificial lights in front of the pillars. Sherlock was standing waiting for them, staring off into space as if he were ignoring pieces of information about everything around him. He didn't even look up as John and Emily approached him; simply fell into step beside them as they began to descend the stairs.
"We have to get to Soo Lin Yao." Sherlock informed them.
"If she's still alive."
"You can't talk like that John."
"Why not?" Both men looked down at her.
"Because..." She wasn't exactly sure why she said it, but the face of Andy had popped into her thoughts at John's words, and of how upset he would be if his ex-co-worker were no longer alive. One thing was for sure, if that was the case, she would not be the one to tell him. She doubted she could watch his heart break. "...I don't know." She shrugged and tucked some lose strands of hair behind her ear. "You just have to think positive. That's what my brother always used to say."
"Sherlock!" Three heads turned in the direction the voice was coming from.
"Oh, look who it is." John's words caused Emily to smirk as Raz came to a stop beside her.
"Well, if it isn't the pretty Miss Emily Cooper." Her smirk turned into a full blown grin at his words. Yes, she had been called pretty before, though she never understood why, but there was something about Raz that made her smile. She just couldn't but her finger on it.
"Raz." She nodded her head to him.
"You know it's dangerous for such beautiful ladies to walk the streets of London at night without protection."
"She has protection." Sherlock mumbled to himself, but John had heard him.
"And I suppose you're suggesting you would be the perfect person to protect me now?" Was she flirting back? She could never remember a time when she had ever actually flirted back. Was it even flirting? Even if it wasn't, she needed to stop, immediately.
"Well, actually I was suggesting I could take you back to my place, that way you're not out in the cold unsafe streets." He winked to her. "Or I could-
"What do you want Raz?" Sherlock interrupted angrily. The new comer sent her a flirty smile before turning to face Sherlock.
"Found something you'll like." With one last look to Emily, he lead them down the stairs, Sherlock following within seconds, John a little more slowly. Emily couldn't control the giggle that escaped her lips at the bothered face of John Watson. His distaste for the young man was clear. But then it was the young man's fault that John was getting an ASBO. She walked quickly to catch up to him, linking her arm through his again, and smiled cheekily at him, squeezing the arm she was holding closer to her in a strange one way hug. He didn't smile down at her, but she saw it as soon as he was facing forwards again.
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Emily was certain the tip of her nose was bright red. The cold was getting to her and she wondered how Raz could walk around in jeans and a hoodie. It was making her even colder just looking at him.
As they crossed the bridge to wherever it was they were going, she looked across John from her place between him and Raz, and eyed the water with curiosity. Even water had a story. And judging by how dirty the Thames was, it was quite a story. Who knew the amount of body parts there were, sat waiting at the bottom to be discovered. Oh God. She thought. Now I'm beginning to sound like Sherlock.
"Tuesday morning, all you've gotta do is turn up and say the bag was yours." John broke her from her thoughts.
"Forget about your court date." Sherlock spoke straight away. But Emily knew that John would not let this go so easily.
"Where are you taking us?" She asked Raz as not one of them broke rank. She smiled briefly when she imagined what they all looked like now. If only she could watch them in slow motion, they would probably look like they were getting ready for a serious fight in an action movie.
"You'll see." He winked down at her.
Not one minute later, they had apparently arrived. A skate park, every inch covered in graffiti, that currently contained a few groups of people the same age as Raz busy skating or using their bikes.
"Dude that was rad!" One girl shouted to her friend that had just done some form of stunt on his bike.
"If you want to hide a tree, then a forest is the best place to do it, wouldn't you say?" They descended even more stairs. "People would just walk straight past, not knowing, unable to decipher the message." Sherlock spoke.
"There." Raz pointed to a spot just ahead of them. "I spotted it earlier."
Underneath a silver lightning bolt, she could make out slashes of yellow, what she presumed to be Chinese symbols.
"They have been in here." Sherlock appeared almost excited, almost. He turned to Raz now. "And that's the exact same paint?"
"Yeah." Emily looked around her at all the artwork, Pinks and greens and purples. It really was an explosion of colour. And if it wasn't for the fact that they had work to do, she would more than likely be looking at all of it.
"John, Emily," Oh he was talking to her. It was just a shame he wasn't looking at her. "If we're going to decipher this code, we're gonna need to look for more evidence." Emily felt something being slipped into the back pocket of her jeans, but the only evidence she showed of it was turning her head a fraction to look at Raz standing next to her. He shot her another wink before he looked back at the wall before them. "John, you take her and keep your eyes open." He'd gone back to calling her 'her'. The man was insufferable. But she kept her mouth shut as he began to walk away, not bothering to look over his shoulder to see if they were doing what they'd been told.
"Come on Em." John started walking away, but she felt as if someone should thank the younger man.
"Thanks Raz." She shouted to him as she began to walk backwards.
"Anyfin for a pretty lady!" He called back to smile only grewas she turned and sped up to catch up with John.
"Were you flirting?" John questioned as soon as she had reached his side. She could practically hear the smirk on his lips. She could certainly hear the disbelieving tone he spoke with.
"I don't know." She answered honestly. "Was I flirting?"
"It sounded like it." He replied as the two walked through an underpass. Emily moved that little bit closer to her friend, she had never felt particularly safe in them. She was just thankful that Sherlock hadn't sent her off on her own. Perhaps John wouldn't have let him. "Sherlock certainly thought you were." He mumbled more to the graffiti on the walls than to her.
"Why does it matter what Sherlock thought?" John came to a halt and looked at the girl beside him curiously. He thought about telling her the truth, but quickly remembered that they were on a case.
"Never mind." He answered before swiftly continuing, Emily had to run to catch up with him before he left her alone completely.
"No. You have to tell me know." The pair was coming to a set of railway lines and John fished in his pocket for his flashlight.
"There are more important things to worry about right now Em." He was gently dismissing the subject, but for the moment Emily let it pass. He was right after all. They had Soo Lin Yaoto find.
"I'm not letting this drop." She informed him as they walked, the stones crunching beneath their shoes.
"Didn't think you would." She smiled to herself at his words.
She returned her gaze to the tracks before them, wondering what the hell John had been talking about. The light from the flashlight illuminated the sleepers and it took Emily a moment to register what it was she was seeing. "John." She stopped and focused all her attention to the splashes of yellow paint. She bent down to wipe her finger across one, leaving the tip of her index finger with a slight yellow tint. The pair followed the spots with their gazes. It lead them closer to the rails and a few feet away from them. The beam of light lifted onto a brick wall that neither of them had noticed before. But it wasn't that that shocked them. It was the fact that it was covered with large yellow symbols. Or to be more specific, large yellow Chinese symbols.
"Woah." Emily spoke more for the both of them than just herself.
John was the first to snap out of their trance. "Call Sherlock."