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John looked at Lyra holding the violin by the window. She posed with it as Sherlock had done before he started playing. In that moment she looked more like Sherlock to him than she could have in any moment. If he had just walked in at that moment he might have mistaken her for him.

With the light from the window, illuminating her face Lyra looked lost in thought.

"I preferred to listen to Sherlock play," she said as she relaxed her posture. If she had been about to play she had changed her mind. "I was more of a bookworm than a musician. Being told to go outside never made me put the book down." She paused for a moment and John could almost imagine a younger Lyra sitting underneath a tree with her noise pressed into a book.

"Sherlock could have been a musician if he had wanted to," she added, eyes still on the violin. "He could have been a lot of things." John didn't know what he had expected her to say next but it wasn't "I know I look like him. Believe me I know."

How many times had she looked in the mirror and seen Sherlock staring back at her? John felt guilty for having not thought about it before. And it wasn't just the features that reminded John of Sherlock. Lyra would turn up the collar on her coat sometimes but it wasn't to look cool (at least John didn't think it was), she could deduce things and spoke bluntly. But they were different as well. Very different and he couldn't forget that.

She set the violin down gently. "It doesn't feel right to take this. I wouldn't do the instrument any justice anyway."

Lyra finally looked at him. "I'm sorry I wasted your time. Its great to see this again. A shame neither of us can do it justice. You don't play right?"

John shook his head. "Don't worry about my time," he said. "He was your brother. Take as much time as you need." And she did, examining the objects that had been important in Sherlock's life. There wasn't much. She hadn't gone into his room, but John had showed her the picture of Sherlock and Mycroft he had found.

"I remember this day," she said. "In fact I took the photo." She scrunched up her face. "God, they look so geeky."

John laughed, not soon after they said their goodbyes with the picture still in Lyra's possession.


I'm not sure if this chapter turned out right.