Two: Maria Colt (Alexandria P.o.V)

I pushed open the door to my flat, startling the two people snogging on the couch. I looked at the two, sitting on the couch, trying to hide the fact that they had just been kissing, but they knew they'd been caught. I stood there looking at them for a minute before venturing deeper into the flat.

I headed into the kitchen for some tea and when I came back, my glass in hand, I looked down at them. I was upset with them both. I looked at two of the people who were supposed to have been the most important of my life. Now I was just... disappointed.

I'd gotten over it two months ago, so all I needed to do was confront them, and leave. I packed last week, finally thinking I was going to confront them and today had been the only chance with them together in nine days. Now, here they were. Caught. "I've known for a few weeks, now, Maria." I addressed the girl on the couch, who was as far away from my boyfriend as possible, "I'm not stupid, you know. It was easy to deduce."

"I-I know." Maria whispers.

"I am a detective. It's my job to know things other people don't. It's my job to observe and pick things up no one else can see." I said, moving to the middle of the room, "Did you really think you could hide this from me? The smartest person in the Colt family?" I can say that proudly. My family is made up of dropouts and drunks. My sister is the second smartest. At least she has a job. "Now, the longest this could have been going on is about five months. I've known for only about two or three."

"You're smart, Ally. As usual" Nathan, my ex-boyfriend stood, "Three months, Miss Detective."

"Why, Nathan?" I asked, setting my cup on the coffee table.

"Have you ever been with someone, but it just felt... right with someone else and you think you may have never loved the person you were with in the first place?"

"Oh, so you never loved me, so you cheated. How nice."

"Ally, when I met your sister... I just... didn't know what to do."

"I see. You meet my sister, you fall in love with her, you can't break up with me because you do kind of like me, so you go behind my back and ruin my vision of a good big sister, and I lose a boyfriend. We were only five months along. We weren't serious."

"Alexis," my sister stood up, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah. I know." I said, "I can't stay here, Maria. I already have a flat picked out. I'll think about all of this and get back to you." And so, I left.

I sat in my new flat, in front of my laptop, researching a case that I had been working on for about a week. I had solved the case and had begun writing the email report to Detective Inspector Lestrade when I stopped. My hand was hovering over the touch pad, the cursor over the "send" button. I sat my laptop down on the ottoman, pulled it closer, and laid down on the couch.

I looked over the email for typos or other mistakes. I looked over it at least four times. Sherlock could have done this case in two days, max. He was better then me, but I know what I'm doing. I'm a detective. He is, too. We should talk. Although he would just see the condition of my hair and see that I had some dandruff, I had gotten a new part time job at a vet, ate pasta for lunch at an expensive Italian restaurant, seen my father recently, tried on a pair of green socks, fixed a clock, and that my shoes were too tight.

With a sigh, I moved onto my back. I looked up at my yellowing ceiling. It was disgusting here. Two rooms. Main room and a bathroom. I had a pathetic couch with an ottoman, a single, very uncomfortable bed and a side table. It was pathetic.

Well, what can you do? There's not a lot, I'd assume. I have money for a better flat, but I want to solve a few more cases first. Save up a bit.

I hit "send" before I could do anything else to it. About five minutes later, my mobile rang. It was the head of police thanking me. "All in a days work." I said, modestly.

I drifted to sleep, my head filled with the case, and what my next one might be. My dreams were filled with Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, gun fire, car chases and the smell of an explosive chemical. In fact, the smell was so strong, it woke me up from my dream.

My eyes opened. The smell was real. Oh... shit. I jammed my phone in my pocket and my favorite jacket from the couch arm as I ran. I ran out the door, down two flights of stairs. I had barely made it onto the street when the windows shattered and fire blew through them. The explosion was loud and powerful, and my back now hurt, and was probably bleeding.

I started to get up, surrounded by shattered glass and rock. A smaller explosion went off at the top, and rocks fell off the top. Before I can react, I felt a sharp pain in my head, suddenly, and I saw black.