Author's note: thank you for all the reviews and the continued support!
Chapter 55
Another bite of toast was forced down her throat the next morning. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, not enjoying the taste of the crispy bread and butter. A big gulp of water washed down the food.
"Why do you do it?" Lucy looked up in shock at the question. She saw Mycroft's thoughtful face marred by a slight frown. The teenager knew what he was talking about, but she hadn't expected him to ask so suddenly and out of the blue.
"Umm," she swallowed her toast, meeting his steady gaze. Truthfully, she had absolutely no idea what to say. "That's quite a hard question to answer." She admitted. The older Holmes brother nodded in understanding and gave her time to think. Eventually, Lucy took a deep breath and slowly started: "I guess it calms me." She frowned at her own answer. "It makes the world stop going so fast, it slows my mind from overpowering me. It makes me feel so much better."
"Do you not feel the pain?" His questions were getting harder and more personal. But she knew he just wanted to understand, he wasn't trying to be nosy.
"Of course I do, that's the point." She furrowed her eyebrows. "I need the pain to feel something. I need it to override the sadness or whatever feeling I want to get rid of." Feeling overwhelmed, she rubbed at her forehead. "Sorry Mycroft, questions about self harm are normally pretty hard to answer." A wry smile played on her lips.
"My apologies," he sipped some tea. "I just wished to try and understand." But he smiled at her and changed the topic, not wishing to cause her any discomfort. "Are you looking forward to going back to Baker Street?"
"Definitely," she smiled properly now. "I've missed being with Sherlock, and I'm just glad that we should hopefully have no trouble for a little bit." But she paused, "I will miss you though." There was a pause and Lucy eventually looked up to see Mycroft's extremely surprised face. She laughed at him, at his shock and confusion. "I do like you Mycroft, you idiot."
"Well," his face relaxed, "I'm not often told that by people. Especially after they've spent time with my brother." He smiled, "I will miss you too. But you are of course, welcome here any time. Just text or call me should you need me."
"Thank you Mycroft." Lucy grinned as she went over to hug him, despite him stiffening upon feeling the contact.
Back at Baker Street, Lucy was pleasantly surprised to see John, Mary and Sherlock all sat in the front room in what appeared to be an intense discussion. John and Mary greeted Lucy with happiness and warm hugs. Sherlock awkwardly stood up and Lucy bounded over to wrap him in a tight embrace.
"So what are you guys doing?" Lucy asked.
"Trying to plan the wedding," Mary said with a smirk.
"Have you gotten far?"
"I wish," Mary laughed. She paused, "Can we go to the kitchen?" She asked the teenager, practically dragging her through and closing the door behind them.
"Is everything okay?" Lucy asked, now concerned.
"Of course," Mary bit her lip, practically bouncing with excitement. "Will you be one of my bridesmaids?"
"Oh my gosh!" Lucy screamed, "Are you serious?" Mary nodded and Lucy flung her arms around the blonde haired woman in a hug. "Oh wow, thank you Mary! I can't wait."
Together, the four of them decided on lilac dresses for the bridesmaids as well as potentially having yellow and pink flowers. But of course, Mary and John were still undecided. Sherlock was sat in the kitchen, staring at something under a microscope, clearly fed up with the bickering between everyone deciding on particular colours. After a while, Lucy came and sat next to him.
"I'm surprised you aren't at work." Lucy murmured.
"They don't need me down at the Yard just yet," Sherlock mumbled without looking up at her. "Besides, the case is all wrapped up."
"So quickly?" Lucy frowned. She was sure there was more involved to prosecute a criminal. Sherlock hesitated, and he eventually tore his eyes away from whatever experiment he was now doing to fix his blue-green eyed gaze on the teenager.
"Mycroft has made sure that he is dealt with accordingly. I don't think the world needs to worry about that man anymore. No court case is needed, not when my brother can meddle with it." Sherlock watched Lucy to gauge her reaction. She just frowned slightly and bit her lip.
"That makes… sense." She sighed, "So he really is basically the British Government, he can practically do anything." Sherlock smirked at this and nodded his head in agreement.
"He is a dangerous man when he wants to be," the detective mumbled, "But he is still an annoying big brother." He suddenly sighed dramatically, "Speaking of which, my parents will be round in two days." He wrinkled his nose, clearly not pleased, "They seem eager to see everyone for some reason. Especially you."
"Me?"
"Unfortunately you will be subjected to them. You are now part of the family according to your new last name so you have to suffer with me." Sherlock smirked, Lucy just laughed at him. For a while, Lucy and Sherlock Holmes sat in silence. The teenager watched him with fascination as he experimented on various parts of the human body with all kinds of probably very dangerous chemicals and substances. John and Mary bid them goodbye, leaving to go wedding cake tasting. In the evening, the two flatmates ordered in Chinese food, Lucy didn't stuff her face but she didn't want to worry Sherlock after not seeing him for a while so she ate as much sweet and sour chicken as she could without feeling sick.
That night she slept soundly.
The next day she awoke to hear banging coming from the kitchen. A loud crash startled her out of her sleepy state and she immediately got dressed. Out in the kitchen, Sherlock Holmes was throwing around various dishes and anything he could get his hands on. John was sat on his chair in the living room seemingly ignoring the detective.
"What on earth is going on?" Lucy shouted, laughing.
"I'm bored!" Sherlock yelled back.
"Good morning Lucy," John said calmly as he stood up and smiled at her. "I would make you tea but… well the kettle is somewhere on the floor." She just laughed at him.
"Where's Mary?" The teenager asked.
"Out shopping for wedding stuff with her friends." John smiled, "I'm taking a break from it all." Suddenly, a pot came flying past John's face to crash just behind him. "For goodness sake Sherlock bloody Holmes would you stop it!" He roared at his friend. Sherlock stopped his actions, looking at John like a kicked puppy. He jutted his bottom lip out and sat on the floor, sulking.
"What is with him?" Lucy went closer to John to whisper to him.
"Lestrade hasn't given him any cases to do." John muttered. "Which is good because it means there's no ridiculously gruesome murder happening. But it's bad for us because of this grumpy git going off the rails."
"I'm bored." Sherlock grumbled from the kitchen, sighing dramatically.
"Tell you what Sherlock, why don't you make yourself useful and clean all this up. Me and Lucy will go out shopping because there's nothing to eat or drink in here, so this place better look perfect by the time we get back." John said pointedly.
Lucy and John went shopping to the local convenience store, having discovered that all of the milk and bread was extremely out of date. They picked up all the basic groceries as well as some pasta and easy to cook food. They'd stayed out to have a sandwich and a coffee, not wanting to return to the bomb site that was their flat just yet. The teenager enjoyed it, it had been a while since her and John had had a catch up. They mostly discussed the wedding and how Sherlock's parents were coming down, both laughing at what Mr and Mrs Holmes may be like and if they'd be worse than Sherlock. Eventually, they made their way back to 221B Baker Street.
The flat was deadly silent for a change. But as soon as they had ascended the stairs, they found out why. Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes were sat facing each other, apparently having a stare off.
"Hi guys," Lucy greeted cheerfully as John went into the surprisingly clean kitchen to unload the shopping.
"I'm impressed Sherlock," John called out.
"Lovely to see you again Lucy," Mycroft smiled at her, breaking eye contact with his sibling who refused to stop glaring at him.
"Any reason you're round?" She asked him as she plopped down onto the sofa.
"Trying to convince my dear brother to engage socially with our parents." Mycroft sighed, "It seems as though Sherlock does not wish to go see Les Miserables with them though. They will be terribly disappointed."
"Tough." Sherlock snapped, still not blinking.
"Oh brother dear do stop these childish games," Mycroft rolled his eyes. "I've already booked four tickets for us all to go and see it."
"What a shame." Sherlock finally leaned back in his seat, narrowing his eyes at his older brother.
"You will have to see our parents."
"I wish I didn't." The detective huffed. "If you're that worried about the other ticket, just sell it or something."
"For goodness sake Sherlock," Mycroft sighed, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. Instead, he turned to the teenager. "Lucy, how would you like to go to see Les Miserables with us?"
"I'd be delighted." Lucy grinned, having wanted to see the show for a while. Mycroft smiled happily at her, but raised an eyebrow pointedly at his brother.
"At least there is a grown up in this flat." He smirked. "Mummy and daddy will be most pleased that you will come." Mycroft said to Lucy. "We have the best seats in the theatre."
"Of course." Sherlock rolled his eyes and mumbled sarcastically.
"Well I best be off then," Mycroft stood up, grabbing his umbrella.
"Oh good," Sherlock finally smiled. Mycroft bid everyone goodbye before taking his leave. As soon as the door shut, Sherlock's whole posture relaxed.
"I know you love him really," Lucy laughed at Sherlock.
"Shut up." Sherlock glared at her but gave her a warm smile.
"They both act like children," John muttered as he took his normal seat, "Mycroft just tries to act a bit posher."
The next day passed relatively quickly. Sherlock had just been solving cold cases for Lestrade, moaning that they were too easy. But he let Lucy try a few of the cases and much to his surprise, she was pretty good at some of them. The teenager hadn't eaten much the past few days. She felt quite weak to tell the truth. Anything she had eaten was in meagre amounts to keep Sherlock and John happy, because she knew they would still be checking up on her. The hunger pains in her stomach had kept her thoughts off of self harm for a while. She hadn't cut in a couple of days, much to her own surprise. But the unrelenting hunger kept her sane for a while.
On the day that Sherlock's parents were coming down, she went out shopping in London. Sherlock had let her out on her own, albeit reluctantly, but they both knew that Mycroft's people would be keeping an eye on her. She was after some nice clothes to wear to the theatre the next night. Sherlock's parents were coming down late afternoon and so they would all have dinner out together, then the next day they would be going to a matinee of Les Miserables. So Lucy wanted to look presentable for the theatre, rather than just go in skinny jeans and a band top.
It had been a little while since she had been in a busy shopping centre on her own. So many people were swarming around her, bustling past her, bumping into her body as the moved from shop to shop. She couldn't remember being on her own shopping so scary. The teenager was constantly feeling on edge. It felt like someone was waiting to harm her, to beat her, like before. She didn't feel safe on her own. And that was a first for her. After all those months she had spent on the street, all those days when she would run off just for some time around London on her own, she did not expect to be feeling unsafe and terrified. She knew it was irrational. But there was panic in the pit of her stomach. The teenager was stood still in the middle of the street, feeling the anxiety and panic well up inside her. It was started to overwhelm her body.
She was scared.