Chapter 4: Silent Bonding

The subsequent days, Alice spend her days around the hotel, walking around Hyde Park and through the streets of London, for hours on hours on end. Just writing and listening to music. Every evening would be spend, playing the violin, while trying to think of what her father was doing at that moment. She watched the news, saw some crimes, created profiles for all the criminals, to find out she later that was often right.

But she was bored, so bored. She had called her mother, who had told her to come home, but she didn't want to go home. Even though she had nobody to talk to, she liked London more than the place where she had grown up, in the most northern tip of Scotland, Inverness. She liked how quiet it was, no mother who talked to her constantly, because "otherwise she would be lonely". Who would clean up her room because "otherwise it would become a mess". She liked doing her own thing.

The hotelroom was a mess, an organized mess, the maids never came in there, she would leave her dirty towels in the hall, nobody was allowed into her room, nobody. Eight days after her first meeting with her father, she was sitting on her bed, with her book, looking at all the little profiles she had drawn up in it. It always helped her, no two people were exactly the same, but there were similarities, and if she could find the similarities between someone she didn't know and someone in her book, she could more easily predict their actions and find their flaws. While she flicked through the pages, her playlist was playing at the highest volume.

It was the middle of the afternoon and all the people in the rooms around her had gone into the city centre, so she would bother nobody, not that she particularly cared though. Suddenly her phone started buzzing. Surprised, Alice looked up and rose up from her bed, since her phone was on a desk near the window, and not even near her bed. She picked it up and looked at it. Then her eyes grew big.

Come to Russell Square
One hour
Same Place
SH

Alice smiled and in an instant she had grabbed her book, pencil and headphones and put on her coat. She slammed the door shut and walked out, towards the park where she had met her father for the first time. With her eyes fixed on the people around her and her hands firmly placed in her pockets, she took another route to the park, a longer route, straight through the centre of London.

After almost an hour she entered the park and walked towards the same place she had been standing eight days earlier, underneath the large oak tree she had used to hide from the looks of other people. A long time it stayed quiet and lonely, not that Alice cared though, she liked the silence and being alone. The reason she had never liked her home in Scotland though was that it was too quiet, once you were up in the Highlands, there was nothing to be heard, and it scared the hell out of Alice.

She startled up from her thoughts when she heard the ruffling of the leaves and in the corner of her eyes she saw the tall man in the long coat with the black curls appear. Then the silence returned, minutes of it. But neither of them seemed to care. All they did was look around, deducing people in their minds, sometimes accidentally deducing the same people, with the same deductions. Minutes turned into an hour and even longer, then suddenly Sherlock took out a cigarette and a lighter. Neither of them had moved for over an hour and this sudden movement caught Alice's attention. He lit the cigarette and slowly blew the smoke into the air. Alice just looked up, only moving her eyes. Sherlock met her eyes, but didn't change his expression.

Then they both changed their focus again at the exact same moment. After a couple of hours of pure silence, Alice closed her coat, she was cold, it was almost sunset and though time had gone by in mere seconds to her, she knew it was already past 6 o'clock. Sherlock noticed her closing her coat and looked at her, again only moving his eyes.

'You want to leave?'

Alice looked at Sherlock, only with her eyes.

'Why, do you want me to?'

Sherlock continued to look at her, not another muscle was moving.

'Only if you want to.'

Alice turned towards her father, he stared at her for a while, observing her every move.

'Maybe I should, I should be having dinner.'

Sherlock looked back and nodded.

'Understood.'

Alice put her hands in her pockets.

'So...'

Now Sherlock looked up, really facing Alice for the first time in hours.

'Tomorrow, same time, here.'

Alice smiled and nodded, a little smile could be seen on Sherlock's face, but it disappeared again within a second. Then he turned back, to face the same view he had been observing for hours again. Alice didn't turn back, she walked past her father, crossing in front of him. She felt his eyes following her as she walked away, but the feeling was gone soon enough. She walked home, satisfied. She hadn't done that much, but it was enough. She had spend time with her father, doing what they both liked to do most of all, and that was all she ever wanted.

The following days were filled in the exact same way. The two Holmes's. Standing there. Underneath that very same oak tree. Everyday. For hours on end. The longer one would occasionally smoke a cigarette, an action that was preceded by an exchange of looks. When it got darker, the shorter one would leave, passing the longer one in front, with his eyes following her every move. All days were the same, unless Alice got a text in the morning.

Case to solve
Tomorrow will do
SH

Then she went out, alone, not to Russell Square, but to other locations in London. The one she loved in particular was not so far away from her hotel. It was a street, just a regular street, but it was something special to her. The houses were white, with small steps leading up to the doors. It was not far from the underground and from there you could reach any part of London, which she occasionally did when she had no appointment with her father.

She would walk the streets of London, visit the museums, she had been to the Globe Theatre for over 10 times now, and she could still find little corners nobody else saw, exploring it all anew every time. She would walk through Westminster Abbey, though she didn't really like churches. She would watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and notice even the slightest mistakes in the walks of the guards, even the ones that also the guards themselves never noticed. She seemed to be a regular tourist, though she did spend a lot of time in the library, reading.

She had never cared for school. She had even dropped out earlier that year, convinced that those teachers could not teach her anything anymore. Her mother had eventually accepted it, knowing that her stubborn daughter would not change her mind. But Alice did care for learning, but only the things she actually found interesting, not all the primary school, general things, those were of no real importance. She would send her mother the occasional elaborate text to make sure she wouldn't get worried, but that was all the contact she had with her old home. Today she would go to Russell Square, meet her father again.

As a church bell in the distance chimed for the ninth time, she would arrive underneath that oak tree and after the exact same amount of time, every time, the leaves would ruffle and Sherlock would appear.. Their day went by in a flash, in silence, with the occasional cigarette and glances. When the sun went down, Alice looked up at her father, who still looked straight ahead. She turned and walked away, in front of Sherlock, like she always did, when she suddenly felt a hand wrap tight around her wrist. Alice looked up and stared straight into her fathers eyes, who was still standing in the same position, with one arm extended so he could reach for Alice's arm. He just looked down on her, staring back at her. After a really long silence, in which they just stared at each other, Sherlock finally opened his mouth.

'You want to have dinner with me?'

Alice looked at him, a little stunned, her father hadn't spoken a word to her for days, and now he suddenly asked her out for dinner. She nodded and smiled, Sherlock saw her reaction and released her hand, slightly smiling as well.

'I know a place, follow me.'

Sherlock started walking and Alice followed him in his tracks, after a walk through the centre of London they ended up in front of a small Italian restaurant. Sherlock opened the door and walked in. Alice followed, pushing the door open again for herself. A man approached Sherlock and smiled widely, he practically embraced him, something Alice was surprised about, but less so when she saw the reluctance in her fathers movements.

'Sherlock, welcome, welcome friend.'

Alice stopped right next to Sherlock, who was now smiling with a little difficulty. But when he saw his daughter, the little smile grew just a tiny bit bigger.

'Angelo.'

Alice looked at the man properly for the first time. Criminal. Minor, but he did time. Out for a little over a year now and it couldn't have been a long sentence. So probably a minor robbery or car jacking. Since Sherlock knew him, this Angelo must have gone to him for advice or something like that and such a warm welcome meant something had gone right. Maybe a higher charge? Something of which he was innocent, Alice wasn't really sure. Angelo's eye fell on Alice, who was still focused on reading him, but suddenly snapped out of it when Angelo started talking and walked towards a table near the window.

'There you go Sherlock, the best table in the house.'

He handed out the menu's to Sherlock and Alice.

'Everything on the menu on the house for you and your friend.'

He looked at Alice again and left, Sherlock opened the menu, glanced at it and then put it down again. Alice opened it a little longer, but then closed it again and put the menu down as well. She just stared at her father again, who was looking out the window. He noticed her looking, but he was to focused on the outside world passing by the window.

'Stop working Sherlock, please. I know you're married to your work, but please, not tonight.'

Sherlock suddenly looked up and at his daughter. He still couldn't grasp the idea that there was someone who thought just like him. But it was what she did, like she was constantly reading his mind. He nodded, a very short nod, but he stopped looking out, which caused Alice to smile a little. Soon enough, Angelo returned.

'You have made your choice?'

Both the Holmes's looked up, and nodded.

'Yes, the Linguini Trenette, with extra Parmesan, please. With a bottle of still water.'

Angelo looked from Sherlock to Alice and back. They looked at each other as well, since they had just ordered the exact same dish at the exact same time. Angelo smiled, just smiled, wrote the order down and looked up again.

'One or two bottles of water?'

Sherlock and Alice looked at each other, then Sherlock looked up.

'One will do for now.'

Alice nodded in agreement and Angelo turned around, clearly astonished by what he had just witnessed. Sherlock looked at Alice again, that was all they did sometimes, look at each other, boring to some, but it told them so much.

'Favourite Italian dish?'

Alice nodded, then opened her mouth for a counter-question.

'Favourite composer?'

Sherlock looked at her, a little startled, but quickly answered.

'My own work, or Bach.'

Alice nodded, also a little surprised.

'Mine too.'

Sherlock continued looking at her. A girl, who by the minute seemed to become more like him, to the point where it actually scared him, no matter how hard he tried to block that emotion, like all emotions, out of his system.

'Final question.'

Sherlock nodded.

'Are you gay?'

Sherlock's eyes grew big when he the words dawned on him.

'Why would you ask that?'

Alice smiled.

'I notice the people you look at, the people you like to deduce.'

Sherlock nodded, Alice noticed how embarrassed he had suddenly become.

'Don't answer me now, you don't have to.'

Sherlock looked at Alice, and now he saw her mother. For the first time he recognised in Alice, that young girl who had just tried to reach him. He had taken advantage of that. The result was sitting in front of him, and he didn't know what he thought of that, not yet.

(A/N: Hello people, I haven't properly introduced myself right? Well I'm SweetLoveWriter and I am a MASSIVE Sherlock (and Harry Potter) fan. I came up with the character of Alice myself and I really would like to see where she goes next and how she ties in with all the adventures and cases of Sherlock and John. I love to get and read comments/reviews. They really help me improve on my writing and they also make me really happy. So even if you have a minor thing to say, just say it, I really don't mind, I even think it's fun! Well, that's it for now, hopefully you enjoy my story. xx SweetLoveWriter)

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11/4/2018: minor changes made to comply to further research