A/N: Still not mine if it was mine we would be on season 5 by now. Should have said this last time but italic words are thoughts.

I walked at a fast pace not bothering to check to see if Sherlock was still behind me. I knew who he was the moment I heard his name and I wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. I glance at a CCTV camera out of the corner of my eye and was startled by Sherlock walking closer than I thought. His focus was on the sidewalk in front of us. I took a moment to observe him while his laser focus was directed elsewhere.

He was sharply dressed but his clothes hung off of him, his cheekbones stood out starkly of his face and he had dark shadows under his eyes. His eyes themselves were an ever-changing swirl of color, movement, and emotion even when he kept his expression blank.

He isn't like the others I thought as I ducked into a narrow alley between to obviously condemned buildings.

"We are almost there" I informed Sherlock over my shoulder.

"How is it that a twelve-year-old finds herself sharing a flat with a prostitute?" Sherlock queried

I glanced back at him and was amused to see Sherlock's eyes blazing with curiosity out of a blank face.

"Rose saved me when I was sick and alone about two years ago." I answered as I took a couple of running steps up the right wall of the alley and jumped to grab the fire escape of the building on the left side of the alley.

I hung on to the ladder and let gravity pull it and myself down to the pavement. I turned toward Sherlock as I reached the pavement and almost laughed at his expression. It was a mix of curiosity, amazement, and a bit of anger I guessed was left over from his realization that the only help I had two years ago was from a prostitute.

"This is the most direct way to our rooms. The others wouldn't like the fact that I am showing an outsider where we live, despite the fact that you aren't a cop. Most people here are in some form of hiding and don't trust others very easily." I stated as I started up the ladder.

"What are you hiding from?" I hear him ask quietly

I turn to see him still at the bottom of the ladder. Squashing my gut feeling that I could trust him I turned back to climbing and muttered "My past."

I continued up the ladder until I came to the landing outside of the third floor window. I opened the window then turned to Sherlock and ordered him to stay on the landing.

I stepped through the window on to my desk and reached up to disable the trip wire that would release a barbell that would smash right into my chest. I piled the loose string on the top of my bookshelf then stepped back off of my desk and sat on my bed and called to Sherlock.

"All clear"

Sherlock swooped through the window and stood in the middle of the room his eyes darting everywhere.

Our room wasn't that big. My space consisted of the wall with the window in the middle of it. My twin bed was in the corner, then my desk was directly under the window and finally my bookshelf stuffed with bargain books and stolen library books was in the other corner. Rose's space was a bit bigger because she had more things than I did.

She had a double bed that was just an arm length away from my bed. Her dresser was next to her bed and barely fit in the space available between the bed and the door to the hall. The top of the dresser was littered with Rose's cosmetics, and a large jewelry box that Rose told me once belonged to her grandmother. On the opposite wall from her bed by the bathroom door was Rose's favorite possession, a poster on the language of flowers. I found my eyes drawn to the poster with an odd feeling as I remember the nights Rose would sit up with me when I was sick or later when I had a bad dream and point out different flowers and talk about them.

"This poster isn't yours. But your gaze was drawn to it and has been held by it for the past minute and half. What is so important about this poster?" Sherlock's deep voice broke through my quiet thoughts.

I glanced at him and found that his attention was focused on the poster. I unfolded myself from my seated position on my bed and walked over to the poster. I reached over and placed the first two fingers of my right hand over a certain flower.

"I didn't have a name, least not one I liked." I admitted quietly "Rose gave me this name and it's the first one that felt right."

I head Sherlock move and sensed him pulling up directly behind me. After a quiet moment he started to speak quietly.

"Calluna vulgaris also known as Scottish heather or just heather a low-growing perennial shrub found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade. It is the dominant plant in most heathland and moorland in Europe, and in some bog vegetation and acidic pine and oak woodland. Color varies from purple to white and in the language of the flowers means admiration or solitude or protection or wishes come true respectively by color. A popular English name derived from Old English…a very apt name."

I ducked my head and pulled away from the poster and faced my bookshelf keeping Sherlock behind me. I took a breath and let my gaze to run over the worn spines of my books as I tried to calm down. My gaze is on my worn copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when I hear the familiar creak of Rose's jewelry box opening. A few seconds later I hear the rustling sound of rapidly moving paper. I turn around to see that Sherlock has found Rose's stash of favorite 'come away with me' letters. Seeing the letters made me think of the other set of letters; ones that Rose didn't know I had kept. I turned back to my book shelf and scanned the titles for the familiar cursive title.

"Where are the rest of these?" Sherlock demands from behind me.

"Over here. I kept the ones that were more desperate or creepy without telling Rose that I was. I kept them in this book." I answered as I finally saw the familiar title Redeeming Love and pulled it out of the middle pile on the second shelf. I turned and tossed it to Sherlock who caught it and started rifling through the pages and pulling the letters that were folded into them.

A/N: Sorry about the long updates but the more I write the more I change details that make me have to rewrite large sections. The next chapter will be up sooner than this one and definitely before the New Year.