Chapter three – One black eye

Clarissa managed to avoid questions the next day on the rather dark black eye that she was attempting to hide behind her hair. The bruise had formed over the night. A circular are around the left eye was dark purple with lighter shades around the outside. Her actual eye was swollen slightly causing it to shut slightly.

When she walked into Doctor Watson and Mr Holmes office for her detention she lifted her head and smiled at them politely. Instead of being met with equally friendly smile she was met with their shocked faces. Her hair had fallen from in front of her eye when she lifted her head and smiled, showing the black eye in its full glory.

"What happened to your eye?" John asked curiously while Sherlock just stared at her.

"Got into a fight" she lied. Well it wasn't really a lie, she had gotten into a fight, a one way fight with her father and his fists.

"With a grown man?" John asked, he wasn't stupid. He could tell that the wound was inflicted by a grown man.

She just shrugged her shoulders at him "Guess I'm just looking for trouble" she teased with a quick glance at Sherlock.

John placed his hand on the desk calmly although even she could see that he was not buying the story and was pissed off with her lying about it. "Let's get this straight, you got a black eye from a grown man because…" he trailed off allowing her to finish.

"Because" she repeated ready to begin lying out of her teeth "I got in the way of his fist when he tried to hit a guy that I was out with, totally ruined the date but it's alright because he was way too immature anyway. As much as I would love to continue talking about my sex life, shall we look at my coursework?" she asked, knowing full well the adding of 'sex life' would make him drop the subject immediately.

"Er-yeah sure" John managed as both men blushed.

Olivia had to fight off the laugh by biting down hard on her lip as she sat down on the leather sofa that they had in the office while John looked over her coursework. She took out a compact mirror and inspected the damage. Her eye did look bad but it would go down in a few days and be barely recognisable. She sighed at the sight before slamming the mirror shut and stuffing it back into her bag. Sherlock was watching her intently. He was angry. Angry that she had a black eye but angrier because her father had done this to her yet she was still covering for him. Sherlock Holmes was angry, but the question was why? Why was he angry over something that was happening to one of his students? It was understandable to be angry with the situation but he was furious like his own sister or daughter was hurt. But then he didn't look at her like a sister or daughter, she was a student but there was something more than that. Even if he couldn't admit it to himself, because that would be far too dangerous for his career.

"Do you want some ice for that?" Sherlock asked in the calmest way possible.

"I don't want to trouble you, it will be fine without it." She touched the side of her face hesitantly.

Sherlock ignored her and pulled out an ice pack from the fridge/freezer that they had in the corner of the office. He sat down beside her, body turned towards her. He widened his eyes seeking confirmation to touch her, she nodded and he brought the ice pack to the left side of the face gently. She winced at the initial contact but relaxed into the coolness pretty quickly as she allowed it to sooth the warm bruise. A long finger brushed against her cheek so gently that she thought that she was imagining it but one look in Sherlock's eyes told her that she wasn't imagining it at all. Her mouth turned up into a slight smile as she pushed her face against the ice pack to get more contact between the coldness and her bruised eye and side.

"Thank you" she said in a hushed tone.

Sherlock lowered his head slightly and spoke quietly "This isn't going to just go away, if you want help you have to ask for it."

"I know" she admitted. "Until that day I'm fine."

"Clarissa" John spoke up catching both of their attentions. Clarissa couldn't help but blush before taking the ice pack from Sherlock and making her way over to John's desk to talk over coursework. They spent the next half hour going over coursework before calling the detention to an end.

Clarissa was walking down the street not ten minutes later with her phone in hand trying desperately to forget about what had just happened. She may have a crush on her teacher but that didn't mean he felt the same way and it defiantly didn't mean they would initiate a relationship even if they could because it was impossible and not to mention illegal, most likely. She groaned in frustration. The whole situation was ridiculous but she couldn't help the small amount of hope that seemed to be growing in the pit of her stomach. Of course all that hope would disappear as soon as she got home to her father.

It was a welcome surprise that her father was not only in a good mood when he arrived home but also sober. He questioned her on her day, she lied and they talked before having dinner. Nothing seemed to dampen his good mood and for that she was grateful. Somehow things seemed to be looking up when she went to be without a new injury, she smiled and thought of Mr Sherlock Holmes before drifting into her dreams.