Chapter 7: Moving

A few months later. Alice and Sherlock sat next to each other in Hyde Park. They weren't talking, though they had been talking, even if it was a little. Alice had noticed that she too was becoming more quiet and detached from the world. After not being in Hyde Park for that long, Sherlock rose from the bench. Alice followed suit and both of them exited the park. They walked towards Montague Street. Though Sherlock never told her where they were going, Alice knew the route by heart now. With their hands buried deep in their pockets, they walked through London. They entered Montague Street 29 and Sherlock headed upstairs, throwing his coat on the couch. He walked towards his desk, which was more empty than Alice remembered it. She looked around for a while, but before she coule ask about the boxes scattered across the room, Sherlocks answered her question.

'I'm going to move.'

Alice looked at her father, who grabbed a pile of papers and threw it into a box. Then he looked at Alice, who was still standing in the doorway, but by seeing her father watch her, she regained her composure. He saw the questioned look in her eyes and said:

'Some disagreement with the landlord. Something about him not agreeing with my scientific experiments and it not being allowed in the building due to the fire hazard.'

Alice stifled a laugh, stupid man to think that Sherlock would stop doing his experiments due to some fire hazard. Besides, he even seemed happy that he finally had a reason to get away from this house, which was too small for all the things he owned. Sherlock continued to clean up. Alice in the mean time walked towards his laboratory, which was still chaotic. He wouldn't say goodbye to his experiments until he really had to, keep them going for as long as he could, and maybe even to taunt his ex-landlord.

'Where are you going?'

Sherlock looked up and saw Alice busy with his microscope. A few months ago he would have had to fight the urge to stop her, like he did with all the others who even tried to touch his stuff. But he didn't need to anymore. He knew he could trust Alice with his experiments, unlike Mycroft, who somehow always succeed in destroying his hard work when he bursted into the place without a genuine reason. He picked up another pile of things and threw it into another box. It seemed a big mess, but it wasn't. There was a system in those papers.

'Not far.'

Alice just turned her eyes to Sherlock to indicate she was listening, but then she turned back to the bacteria that were multiplying underneath the lens of the microscope.

'Where?'

Now Sherlock stood up straight, perfectly straight, as always. Alice again just looked up with her eyes, and then back to the microscope.

'If I can ever find a flatmate, I am going to get the now vacant 221B Baker Street.'

Alice's face shot up within a second. Baker Street? She knew the couple who had been living in 221B Baker Street had moved out to start a bigger family, but the fact that her father wanted to live in that apartment that was so close to her, was a surprise to her.

'Baker Street? Really?'

Sherlock smiled.

'I would like to keep it quiet for a while, but yes.'

He approached Alice, slowly, but continued to talk in the meantime.

'But I don't want to live there alone, Alice. You made me see that having a companion around can be... fun sometimes.'

Alice read her fathers eyes and smiled.

'But you don't want it to be someone like you and me. You need a normal person to assist you.'

Sherlock nodded.

'Hope you don't mind.'

Alice shook her head and smiled.

'I am happy when you're happy.'

Sherlock didn't reply, aside from curling up the corners of his mouth just a little bit. He wasn't sure yet whether having a so-called normal person be his flatmate was a good idea, but if he changed his mind, he would always have Alice close. The girl picked up a pile of newspapers, one of which caught her eye. She put the rest down and folded it open, it was the newspaper from a couple of months ago, November 27th to be exact, and the one article that had caught Alice's eye was the main article on the front page: Boy, 18, kills himself inside sports centre.

'What do you think about this then?'

Sherlock looked up as Alice threw him the newspaper. He caught it and looked at it.

'Yes, the suspicious suicides, this was the second one. The first one should be out there somewhere. Something was off about them.'

He threw it back to Alice, who looked at the article again. She also notices picture of a man, who was called detective inspector Lestrade, according to the text underneath the picture. Sherlock looked at Alice, who continued to look at the newspaper.

'What do you think?'

Alice looked up.

'That this Lestrade is competent, since he knows that the suicides are suspicious, but that the entire Scotland Yard is a big bunch of idiots who just don't care about solving crimes quickly and properly. If they would just investigate a little better and observe a scene, they could actually solve something by themselves... But since they can only see and not observe, they should come in quickly and give you the satisfaction and the fun you deserve.'

Sherlock smirked when he heard his daughters' speech. This was one of the things he liked about her. She could speak his mind, in a way that it would actually sound normal.

'And come on, maybe Christmas could come early this year and give you the serial you have been waiting for for so long.'

Sherlock's eyes started to sparkle, making her smile even wider, suddenly Sherlock came towards her and grabbed her upper arms, their smiling faces only inches apart.

'If that is true Alice, my year couldn't get any better.'

Alice smiled widely.

'And the year has only just begun.'

She looked at the calendar, which showed the 26th of January. Sherlock looked at the calendar with her, but apparently couldn't care less. Then he released her and turned to his packing again.

'When do you want to move in?'

Sherlock looked up.

'As quickly as possible.'

Alice looked at the clock, then back at the back of her father.

'You could move in today, I can help.'

Sherlock looked over his shoulder and smiled.

'Yes, we could do that.'

Alice smiled as well, and they both continued doing what they were doing, cleaning up the room in Montague Street, getting everything ready for the big move. After a couple of hours of pure silence, Alice was packing the final things. The entire laboratory desk was empty by now and all was stored in cardboard and cooling boxes. When Alice packed the final books and pulled the knife out of the sill to put it in a box as well, she suddenly heard soft violin music, coming from somewhere not far from her. She looked up and saw her father, facing the window, his eyes closed, playing a soft tune on the violin. Not something she knew, so it must have been improvised. She turned around and without saying another word, she sat down on the couch, facing her fathers' back, the books and the knife in her hands. A long while, all the sound heard in the room was the playing of Sherlock, with Alice listening breathlessly. Then suddenly, it stopped and only moments later, the door downstairs opened. Sherlock's eyes opened and he saw Alice sitting on the chair, a quick smile crossed his face, before he put the violin in its case and closed it. Alice also got up, the moment was suddenly gone, and she packed the knife and books, then grabbing the papers, that had been stabbed by the knife, and the skull, which was standing on the sill as well, and put it all in a box. She closed it and just when she did that, the door opens and Mycroft Holmes appeared in the doorway. Sherlock stopped in his tracks, Alice noticed the atmosphere in the room going cold and she looked up. She looked up and saw the stern man she had met on the stairs of this very same building months earlier. Mycroft looked around, first noticing his brother, then the amount of packed boxes and then the girl. His face went back to Sherlock. Stern at all times. Now Alice knew where Sherlock got his sternness from, he just copied his older brother, 7 years his senior, judging by his appearance, Alice estimated, now she could take a better look at him.

'Sherlock? what is going on?'

Sherlock stood up straighter than ever.

'I'm moving Mycroft.'

Mycroft scoffed, but when he saw his brother was being serious, his grin disappeared and the sternness returned.

'What did you do?'

He looked at Alice, who was looking straight at him.

'And who is she?'

Sherlock looked at Alice, and she could easily see that this couldn't be a truthful talk. Her father was going to do the talking, create a big lie, so big and well thought out that Mycroft "the clever one" Holmes would buy it. All that was created and understood in one second.

'She is a detective and profiler in training, she is trying to become better than Scotland Yards regular profilers by studying me. And she may be young, that is because she is actually a little more clever than normal people, who bore me to hell. That is the only reason.'

Mycroft scoffed again.

'And you make her pack your stuff so she can study you. Brother mine, that is low, even by your standards.'

Sherlock stood up and stepped closer to his brother.

'No brother mine, she's helping me pack so she can observe me in a place where I can really do whatever I want without an intrusive and boring landlord breathing down my neck. And maybe even without a brother who constantly comes in unannounced without a genuine reason for ruining my privacy.'

Sherlock looked at Alice and nodded, Alice nodded back and picked up a box. She was already walking towards the door, when Mycroft stopped her.

'And does this young... lady have a name?'

Alice looked Mycroft up and down, she has to suppress the urge to give him a complete deduction on his personality, but one look from Sherlock stopped her from doing that.

'Alice... Alice Reynolds.'

She looked Mycroft in the eye, responding his cold look with an equally as cold a look. Then she looked at Sherlock, her cold look was replaced by a smile again.

'If you could follow me quickly Mr. Holmes, we can start moving all your things.'

Sherlock nodded and Alice walked downstairs, holding one of the boxes. She made sure she could hold it in one hand and opened the door, where a driver was just about to ring the bell. Behind him there was a moving van. Alice smiled, her father had already planned to move today, she hadn't persuaded him at all. It didn't make her angry, it was just funny.

'Hello'

The driver smiled at her, Alice just looked at him and gave him the box she was holding, which he gladly took from her.

'If you don't mind, I'm going to get a couple more boxes upstairs. There is a lot that has to be moved.'

The driver nodded and smiled widely.

'That is fine by me, if you have some large things you have to move, just give me a sign, I'll gladly help.'

Alice gave him one more look and then turned around, ran up the stairs and entered the room again. Sherlock and Mycroft were involved in a heated discussion. They quieted down as Alice entered the room, which caused her to stop in the doorway.

'Oh, you don't have to stop arguing, I could hear you clearly outside. But if you don't mind, I'd rather move this stuff now. The quicker we get these things away, the quicker we can get to unpacking it all again.'

She looked at Sherlock and he nodded, understanding her. He grabbed a box and passed his brother again, who tried to stop him.

'Brother mine.'

Sherlock stopped in his tracks.

'Don't brother mine me Mycroft, I'm moving out, you can tell mummy that, she will not be mad at me. I'm a grown man and I can make my own decision, no matter how much you disagree.'

He walked towards the door, Alice had entered the room again and picked up another box, Mycroft followed Sherlock with his eyes.

'The East Wind will come Sherlock, and pick you up, you know it will.'

Sherlock stopped again and Alice also looked up, she knew what this phrase meaned to her father, that it could really make him angry. But this time, he shook it off and walked downstairs, sternly greeting the driver downstairs and then coming up again. He stopped right in front of his brother.

'It's not coming for me Mycroft, not now, not today.'

He passed his brother again, grabbed another box and wanted to stop in front of him again, but Alice, who had just come up again after bringing down another box stopped him with her voice.

'Mr. Holmes, please, don't put any energy in this man, he is not worth it.'

Mycroft's head turned around quickly, his eyes cold as ice.

'Who are you to talk about me like that?'

Alice wanted to approach Mycroft as well, but Sherlock stopped her now.

'Don't pay any attention to my brother, he doesn't know what he's saying.'

Mycroft's head shot back.

'May I remind you that I am, and always will be, the smartest one of us?'

Sherlock turned up his nose, something he hadn't done in a while. He grabbed another box and went out, leaving Alice and Mycroft together in a room. Alice grabbed a few papers she saw lying on the floor and put them in a box. There were three more boxes and then all the cool boxes and the couch had to be brought down. Suddenly, Mycroft started to talk.

'My brother is not a normal person, but he is not someone you can profile without my permission.'

Alice looked up, her eyes as cold as Mycrofts.

'Really? Is he a child? He doesn't seem to be a child?'

Her talking with such confidence startled Mycroft, who was quiet for a while, but then he regained his composure.

'He is not a child, but he needs special observations and special people around him to function.'

Alice grinned, she closed the box and picked it up.

'Don't worry Mr. Holmes, he will be taken care of. And I don't need an umbrella to protect him.'

Mycroft's eyes grew big and Alice started to smile, then she passed him and walked downstairs. Sherlock was still down there, waiting for Alice to come down.

'I'm sorry about Mycroft, he is always like this.'

Alice shook her head.

'Don't worry about it Sherlock, I don't mind.'

She got closer to him, so she could whisper:

'I think he is more concerned about who I am than I am worried about him.'

Sherlock smiled.

'Good, then let us go get those final boxes.'

Alice smiled widely and turned around. Her father did the same.

'You can't wait to get away from this place, can you?'

Sherlock smiled.

'You know me too well Alice, you know me to well.'