Author's Note: Hello all! I couldn't help but notice that my page breaks vanished in the previous chapter, I hope that didn't cause any confusion. I would have put this up yesterday, but a friend of mine was playing a gig that I needed to see, so sorry for the delay.

Godshinin300: Thanks so much :)

DisneyPrincess: I completely agree! I have some serious beef with Eric from The Little Mermaid. Also, thank you. :)

Finally, thanks to those who favourited and got the story alert for this fic. It is very much appreciated.

I don't own the Great Mouse Detective.

"I guess we'll be working together then," the brown mouse said, "I'm sorry I insulted you earlier. My name is Calysta Sinclair." Calysta held out her paw for Basil to shake and put on her best sincere smile.

"Basil of Baker Street," he paused, "Apology accepted." Calysta frowned, lowered her paw clenched it into a fist. Basil sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, I apologize as well." The mice shook paws. Basil smiled.

"I was in need of a new assistant."

Calysta quickly withdrew her paw from Basil's grasp. "Assistant?" She asked, sounding disgusted, "You must be joking."

Basil was taken aback. He was confused; any mouse would be ecstatic to be working as his assistant, what was wrong with this American? Calysta kept talking, "I thought we would be working together. As in, I would be working WITH you, not FOR you." She took a step closer to him, "If you think that you can get me to be your personal assistant, stand on the side-lines and let your do all the detective work... You. Are. Mistaken." The dark brown mouse poked Basil in the chest three times for emphasis.

Basil tried to keep calm, he hated losing his temper, but he couldn't deny that he had never been more afraid of a mouse (a female no less!) in his life. The detective pushed Calysta's pointer finger away from his chest and kept a stoic expression. "If you don't mind, Miss Clarissa, I would like to gather some evidence and start working on the case." He inhaled the scent of Calysta's strawberry fur as he adjusted his hat. He then took a few steps past her and knelt to closer investigate the blood on the carpet. She started to laugh.

"Clarissa? Really? Is that the best you could do?" She laughed harder, "You're really something. Please, for next time, it's Calysta." Basil turned from is spot on the floor to look at her which prompted more laughter from the girl; she had one of her paws covering half of her face as she giggled. For the second time in the span of five minutes, this mouse with a dark brown ponytail had managed to bewilder Basil of Baker Street. It was a strange feeling, he wasn't the type to be confused about anything.

Calysta took a spot on the carpet next to Basil. "You're not a great liar, you know. I could tell you remembered my name, just chose to say Clarissa instead. It was written all over your face." She kept talking as she put one of her plastic gloves onto her paw. "You did a much better job at bothering me when you suggested that I become your assistant.", she said smiling.

Basil had hoped to get under her skin. He muttered, "Whatever." He turned to look at her; Calysta was now staring intently into the beige of the rug, she seemed to be trying to figure something out based on the stains, but he couldn't figure out what that was exactly. Basil returned his attention to the carpet as well; there was no specific shape, no way to identify how exactly the French mouse was killed. He peeked at what Calysta was doing; she was using a pair of tweezers to pick put pieces of dried blood from the carpet and placed the different bits into separate brown paper envelopes.

"Stop staring" She mumbled as she tried to pry another piece from the carpet. Basil turned away, embarrassed. He knew she was looking for different blood samples to see if more than one mouse had bled at the scene; maybe Mr. LePetit had tried to fight back and would have caused his attacker harm. Basil just didn't realize why he hadn't thought of if first.

"Do you think that there was more than one murderer?" Basil asked her.

"Hn." She grunted as she put what seemed to be the last sample in an envelope and sealed it shut. "Do you want to take a quick look around to see if there's anything I missed?" Basil turned to the window; clearly it was the emergency that the killers had taken to escape and leave their victim in the bedroom. He checked the floor, the bed, the dresser but nothing had been left in term of clues.

"I already took the prints from the windowsill." Calysta said as Basil was looking under the bed. He poked his head up from the floor. "Nothing", Basil said solemnly as he went to look at window; the was a fire escape that would have allowed the criminals to make a fast getaway.

Calysta looked at her samples. She knew she needed to test the blood for types and use a microscope to identify the prints from the window but she had been in Mousedom for such a short time, all of her lab equipment was still in labelled boxes scattering her kitchen. She gulped.

"Maybe we could go to your lab and we could use your equipment to see if we can identify if there was more than one killer." Basil raised one of his eyebrows. He hadn't known the mouse for a long time, but he knew that she wasn't the type to ask for help, let alone ask to use his lab. He smirked.

"Actually, I thought we could use your lab," he said smugly as he turned toward her, "As you arrived here fifteen minutes before I did, I suppose you live quite close." Calysta's lips formed a straight line, visibly bothered.

Basil's twisted smile did not leave his face. "You don't have a lab, do you?" He took a step closer to the dark haired mouse. Calysta's annoyed expression did not change. Basil knew he hit a nerve, his smile widened, "Excellent. Great to learn that I am working with such a qualified - detective - without a lab." He stressed the word detective knowing full well that the girl would be angry if Basil doubted her skills.

Calysta lost her patience. In one bound she was standing face to face with Basil, holding his shirt collar with her right paw. She snarled but didn't speak a word. Their faces were mere inches apart as the girl tightened her grip on the fabric around Basil's neck. The pony-tailed mouse stared into the emerald eyes of her British counterpart; neither said anything. Basil blinked and his cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

Calysta loosened her grip and let her paw fall to her side. She bowed her head breaking the gaze and sighed as she turned away from the light brown mouse, "You're right, let's just go." She headed down the stairs, leaving Basil alone in the bedroom.

Authors Note: Thanks for reading, I hope this wasn't too short... I will update soon (by Tuesday, hopefully. Wednesday latest!) Next chapter, back to Baker Street :)