From Michael JG Meathook: Glaciarium

"Didn't you say you snuck into that place?"

She shrugged, barely glancing at the fading sign declaring the building the largest "glaciarium." Losing focus would lose her balance. She had to win this.

"Yeah. What of it?"

"What is it?"

"The doctor said it's a place to go skating." A perfectly timed shove used a wall to rebound around a streetlamp. "But they make the ice with a lot of chemicals, and the room is filled with this nasty smoke from a machine in the back. Between that and the dim lighting, I couldn't even see the ice when I went in."

"Hmm." A bump made him wave his hands around to stay on his feet—and pull a face at her when she laughed. "Indoor skating doesn't make much sense, anyway. Why pay for something you can do on any street?"

"Dunno, 'n the doctor didn't either." A smoother patch let her creep into the lead. "A lot of other adults seem to like it, though. They had a long line when I went. It's how I got past the door."

"You need to teach me how to do that."

"Do what? Sneak?" He nodded. "You already know how to sneak, and trying to sneak would have gotten me thrown out. I walked right past the line like a grown-up had already paid for mine. The doorman didn't even ask."

He thought about that. "Wiggins says you can go anywhere if you act like you're supposed to be there."

"He's right. Can't tell you how many times I've ridden the train because the conductor thinks my father is in the next car." A moment's pause avoided a broken cobblestone and noted an approaching hazard. They might have to end this soon. "We're coming up on the hill. You gonna—Hey, no cheating!"

He swiped a long stick from a nearby wall, sticking his tongue out at her chiding. The small branch served as a decent balance aid to let him start gaining on her, but he slid only a few more feet before the wood brushed against brick. Irritation because laughter when he landed on his behind.

"That oughta show you." She pointedly went a full five seconds longer before taking a seat on a low wall. "Good timing. That hill would've been interesting."

"If by 'interesting,'" a familiar voice said behind her, "you mean 'to be avoided,' then I would agree."

"Doctor!" She spun to find Doctor Watson standing on the other side of the wall, a faint smile suggesting he had been watching most of their slide down the sidewalk's ice. "What are you doing out this early? Everyone else is still asleep."

As they should be, she left unsaid. With the sun still below the horizon, she would have much preferred to continue sleeping.

Not that she had any say in that. Doctor Watson more slid than walked close enough to join her brother beside her.

"Hello, Liz. Victor. I take it bored insomnia sent you to play on the ice?"

"Course," she grinned. "Wiggins yelled at us the last time we woke the littles. Last night's storm gave a really good coating, and the empty streets mean we can slide without running into grumpy grown-ups. We probably have another hour before the others start the day."

Or a little more. Someday, she hoped to conquer the inborn default of waking before daybreak. Just because Father had risen so early did not mean they needed to, but everything from counting stars to listening to the littles' murmuring had still found her staring through the ceiling's windows. She had finally given up at false dawn.

A faint chuckle acknowledged her frustration. "Try staying awake longer," he suggested. "They sleep later because they stay up later. If you keep yourself awake and moving until the others are all asleep, you might be able to sleep in with them."

She and Victor exchanged a glance. "Can try it again," she answered with a shrug. "We did that the first week and ended up awake early and tired all day, but maybe doing it for several days would fix that. It does get annoying to have to be quiet all morning."

"The ice is fun, though," Victor added. "You want to join us, Doctor? There's such a thick coat we could probably slide all the way to that pile of snow at the bottom of the hill. If we sit, we won't have to worry about falling."

"Thank you, but no. I will leave the ice skating to the young and the athletically inclined." A smirk acknowledged someone behind them. "You might talk Holmes into joining you."

Liz's glance found a tall, coat-shrouded figure crossing at the next corner. Cautious steps used streetlamps, broken cobblestones, and the clearer spot beside the buildings to stay upright. Dawn's dark shadows meant Liz barely spotted the scowl caused by the last sentence.

"What did you promise them?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Ride the ice with us, Mr. Holmes!" Victor said simultaneously. "It's fun!"

Feigned wariness flickered into faint amusement. "I have already 'ridden' the ice twice this morn," he huffed, a twitched grin ensuring Victor saw the humor beneath. "I see no reason to do so on purpose. Though it is good to know the Irregulars are not confined by a layer of ice."

"Who said anything about the rest of 'em?" Victor retorted quickly. "They're still sleepin'!"

A barked laugh acknowledged the point, but Mr. Holmes made no other reply. That keen gaze scanned both the doctor and the ice covering everything nearby, probably deducing a dozen things in the process. "Do you intend to come home?"

"Eventually," Doctor Watson promised, "but the cabs cannot travel in this, and as Liz and Victor have been enjoying, even walking is a challenge. I considered finding a bookstore for a few hours."

Something more lay in that reply than Liz could catch through words alone. Mr. Holmes' amusement faded beneath a hinted frown, but her own realization bloomed only when she noted the cane Doctor Watson still gripped in one hand. If his leg hated cold anyway, this ice must be torturous to navigate. No wonder he had declined to ride down the hill.

Her insomnia might be useful after all.

"You could lean on us," she suggested. Confusion grew at three questioning looks. "What?" she added. "Victor and I have been balancing on the ice for nearly an hour, and we don't fall as easily as your stick. If we walk four across, chances are at least a couple of us will have our balance if someone slips."

Victor's uncertainty became serious consideration, then acceptance. "Isn't there something about that in the Good Book? Father talked about that all the time. Something about two are better because they can help each other. If two are better than one, four must be better than two."

Doctor Watson chuckled slightly at the logic. "Not always, but you may be right in this case. Holmes?"

Mr. Holmes obviously would have preferred…something else. Perhaps simply anything but his friend stuck on an ice-covered street, but an offered hand wordlessly agreed to try. Liz took the doctor's other side as Victor stayed near Mr. Holmes, and they crept towards Baker Street.

With any luck, such an early morning would not happen again, but helping their adults made the long hours worthwhile.

Hope you enjoyed, and thank you to those who reviewed! :)

cjnwriter: I lol'd at the "weaponized incompetence". That fits Holmes so well! :D

So, for anyone interested: according to the internet, a glaciarium is an old name for an ice skating rink. They used sulphuric acid to cool glycerine with a giant heat exchanger and a series of copper pipes. The "rinks" were large, dimly lit buildings filled with the noxious fumes caused by the glycerine, yet one such establishment (Southport Glaciarium) lasted from 1879 to 1889 before lack of customers closed it. Several smaller establishments came and went between its invention in 1844 to the first "modern" ice rink in the 1930s sometime. Most glaciariums set their admission price to limit their customers to the wealthy.