Hey Readers! Thanks for the great reviews! Don't kill me, the plot will start soon. Next chapter, I promise. This is just more back ground info. Enjoy and review!

I found myself daydreaming more than usual. I had dropped a tray or two at the Crown and Sceptre, and over the two weeks after my ordeal I realized how utter and completely boring my life was. It was the same routine, over and over and over again... And, being honest, Holmes was always on my mind...

One day, after my shift at the Crown, I went to visit my sister Maryanne. She opened the door and her face lit up when she saw me. Maryanne was beautiful. She had black curls, like me, but her eyes were a dark shade of brown, like our father's. I took after my mother in general. Her hair, her bright green eyes, her heart shaped face and soft features. I also got her tendency to blush...

"Well, Em! Surprise surprise! Come on in! What can I do for you?" she asked. I stepped in her house. She was so lucky. She had inherited our father's artistic ability. She was now a successful oil and watercolour painter, so she got to buy her own house. I got mother's musical side, though a bartender and waitress doesn't get very many chances to sing and play instruments.

"Actually two reasons. One, I need to borrow a dress for church tomorrow," I stated. We normally borrowed each other's clothes when needed. My good green dress was torn by the river, and I needed a nice one for church. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled.

"Oh, Em, I have the perfect one! I was sorting through my closet the other day. Now, let me just go and find it. Make yourself comfortable," she called back to me, pulling her skirts up and running up the stairs to her bedroom. I sat down on a brown, comfy chair in her sitting room. Lovable as she is, she is the most forgetful, ditzy artist I have ever met in my life, I thought with a smile, but she knows I'm not as well off as she is, and she helps me. Maryanne came back in with a cream-coloured dress, with a collar that went around my shoulders, false pearls around the waist, and a gathering of ruffles on the back of the skirt. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh, May! Where did you ever get such a beautiful thing?"

"In Twickenham, just outside of London. There is a beautiful dress shop in the city. I must take you to it sometime," she offered.

"That would be wonderful! But, I have come for another reason as well," I said, in a much more serious tone. The mirth in Maryanne's dark eyes faded quickly.

"What's the matter?"

I recounted my story of my encounter with the drunken man by the Thames. By the end, tears were streaming down her face. She quickly embraced me when I had finished.

"Oh, Emily! Oh, my dear Emily! How could this have happened to you? Out of all the people in London, he had to attempt to violate you? I should have been with you, I should have done something... Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Leave it to Maryanne to blame herself on something she wasn't even there to witness.

"I was still sort of getting over it myself... Anyway, Maryanne, this wasn't your fault! It was my work shift! You wouldn't have been there in the first place. And that wasn't my only point of the story," I said, and then suddenly blushed as I realized I had said too much. Maryanne finished her hug and looked at me strangely, her hands still on my shoulders. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the red spread over my cheeks.

"What happened?"

"Okay, have you ever heard of the detective Sherlock Holmes?" Maryanne snorted.

"Heard of him? He's all over the papers all the time. He's great at his work. Why?"

"Well, he was boxing at the ring I work at, and...well, he sort of...saved me." Maryanne looked at me in surprise and wonder, but said nothing, so I continued.

"He fought off the man, and took me, the sobbing wreck, back to his room. He went to sleep at his friend's house, while I slept there that night. He walked me home the next morning and, well, I can't get him out of my head!" That came out wrong. A sly smile spread over Maryanne's face.

"Hmm, is my little Emily in love with the great detective?" she teased. I shook my head.

"No, no, gosh no! It's just, I felt like there was some sort of connection. Like, something's going to happen to make us meet again. Somewhere, somehow, we're going to meet up again."