*I do not own Sherlock! I only own Sarafina and Liza Holmes!*
Chapter 5
As we continue down the road, out of the corner of my eye, I can see John looking at me.
"What is it?" I ask.
"So you're Sherlock's niece?"
"Yes."
"I didn't know Sherlock had any siblings." I keep walking.
"So you're his niece… Don't your parents worry about you going off chasing criminals and looking at bodies?"
"My mums dead."
John stops suddenly and I look back. He has his head in his hand.
"Oh. I'm so sorry. If I'd have known…"
"Don't worry about it." I interrupt. "You didn't know. Besides, it was a long time ago. I don't even really remember much about her." I look at John and he has a sort of unsure facial expression. "Seriously. I'm fine." I say.
He nods and we keep walking. After a few moments, he asks,
"So you're… 15? 16?"
"I'm 17."
"Oh, nice."
"Yeah, not really." I mumble
"Why not?"
"I don't really have much freedom. Well, except for the times Uncle Sherlock forgets me somewhere." He chuckles slightly. "I never get to go out. I'm always stuck at the flat, either doing school work or helping Uncle Sherlock with his experiments. I don't even have my license yet."
"Hey, neither do I." I stop and look at John.
"Seriously?"
"Nope."
"Well, why not?"
"Never interested me." I gawk at him.
"Wow… well, I guess everyone's different." I say. He laughs.
"How do you get around then?"
"Cabs. And the occasional hitch-hike." I laugh and he smiles.
As we get closer to the main road, we try to catch different cabs passing by.
"TAXI!" I yell as one passes by.
John tries this time but has the same result. All of the sudden, the payphone inside a fast food restaurant starts to ring. As one of the employees goes to answer it, it stops. As we keep walking, we pass a telephone booth and again, the phone starts to ring. This time, John went in and answered it. I thought it would be really awkward if both of us tried to go in, so I stand outside and wait.
"Can't you ever just leave us alone?" I ask myself.
I watch as John looks around and around at different buildings. Pretty soon, a black car pulls up and a man comes out and opens the door.
"Ugh what do you want now?" I ask myself again.
John steps out of the box and looks at me. I shrug my shoulders and climb into the car. Soon, John follows and we drive off. As we drive, John looks at the woman sitting next to him.
"Hello." She smiles at him and returns to her phone.
"Hi."
"What's your name, then?" He asks. I roll my eyes.
"Er… Anthea."
"Is that your real name?" She smiles again.
"No." John nods his head and turns to look out the back window before turning back again.
"I'm John."
"Yes, I know."
"Any point in asking where we're going?"
"None at all…" She says as she smiles and turns back to her phone. "…John."
"Okay." He accepts.
After a while, we pull into a basically empty warehouse. I see a man standing in the middle of the area, casually leaning on his umbrella. We get out of the car and walk towards him. He gestures with his umbrella to an empty chair.
"Have a seat, John."
"You know, I've got a phone." He says, looking around the warehouse. "I mean, very clever and all that, but er… you could just phone me. On my phone."
"When one is avoiding the attention of Sherlock Holmes, one learns to be discreet, hence this place. The leg must be hurting you. Sit down." He says sternly.
"I don't want to sit down." John says. 'The man' looks curiously at him.
"You don't seem very afraid."
"You don't seem very frightening." 'The man' chuckles.
"Ah, yes. The bravery of the soldier. Bravery is by far the kindest word for stupidity, don't you think?" He looks sternly at John. "What is your connection to Sherlock Holmes?"
"I don't have one. I barely know him. I met him…" He stops and thinks about it for a second. "…yesterday."
"Mmm, and since yesterday you've moved in with him and his niece here and now you're solving crimes together. Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?"
Despite the seriousness of our encounter, I had to crack a smirk at that last comment.
"Who are you?"
"An interested party."
"Interested in Sherlock? Why? I'm guessing you're not friends."
'You've met him. How many 'friends' do you imagine he has? I'm the closest thing to a friend that Sherlock Holmes is capable of having."
"Ahem…?" I cut in. He ignores me and John asks,
"And what's that?"
"An enemy."
"An enemy?" John repeats.
"In his mind, certainly. If you were to ask him, he'd probably say his arch-enemy. He does love to be dramatic."
"Well, thank God you're above all that." John says sarcastically.
'The man' frowns at him and John's phone makes a noise. He looks down and reads the message.
"I hope I'm not distracting you." 'The man' says.
I look over Johns shoulder to read the message. It said,
Baker Street. Come at once if convenient.
SH
"Not distracting me at all." John says casually.
He looks up from his phone and puts it back in his pocket.
"Do you plan to continue your association with Sherlock Holmes?"
"I could be wrong… but I think that's none of your business." John replies.
"It could be." 'The man' says ominously.
"It really couldn't." 'The man' takes out a notebook from his pocket and opens it to look at it.
"If you do move into, um… two hundred and twenty-one B Baker Street, I'd be happy to pay you a meaningful sum of money on a regular basis to ease you're way." He closes the notebook and puts it away.
"Why?" John asks.
"Because you're not a wealthy man."
"In exchange for what?"
"Information. Nothing indiscreet. Nothing you'd feel… uncomfortable with. Just tell me what he's up to."
"Why?"
"I worry about him. Constantly."
"That's nice of you." John replies, insincerely.
"But I would prefer for various reasons that my concern go unmentioned. We have what you might call a… difficult relationship."
John's phone makes a noise again. This time, the text read,
If inconvenient, come anyway.
Bring Liza.
SH
"No." John says to 'the man'.
"But I haven't mentioned a figure." 'The man' says.
"Don't bother." 'The man' laughs.
"You're very loyal, very quickly."
"No, I'm not. I'm just not interested."
'The man' looks closely at John and takes out the notebook again.
""Trust issues," it says here." John looks slightly unnerved.
"What's that?" He asks.
"Could it be that you've decided to trust Sherlock Holmes of all people?"
"Who says I trust him?"
"You don't seem the kind to make friends easily."
"Are we done?" 'The man' looks up and stares at John.
"You tell me."
John looks at him and turns to walk away. I follow him and as we walk away, 'The man' starts to talk again.
"I imagine people have already warned you to stay away from him, but I can see from your left hand that's not going to happen."
John stops suddenly and his shoulders tense. He drops his shoulders and angrily shakes his head. He turns around to face him.
"My wot?" John says through bared teeth. Even I was a little scared. I thought he was going to, at one point, let the fists fly.
"Show me." 'The man' says calmly.
He nods to John's left hand and leans casually on his umbrella. John holds up his left hand like, 'You want to look at it, you're going to have to come to me'. 'The man' walks towards John. Apparently, John didn't think he'd actually come to him because as 'The man' walks forward, John pulls his hand back a little.
"Don't." John says tensely.
'The man' lowers his head and raises his eyebrows as to say, 'Really?' At that, John lowers his hand back down. 'The man' takes his hand and looks closely at it.
"Remarkable." John snatches his hand away.
"What is?"
'The man' turns and walks a few steps away and says,
"Most people blunder round this city, and all they see are streets and shops and cars. When you walk with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield." He turns towards John. "You've seen it already, haven't you?"
"What's wrong with my hand?"
"You have an intermittent tremor in your left hand. Your therapist thinks its post-traumatic stress disorder. She thinks you're haunted by memories of your military service."
John practically flinches during his deduction. "Who the hell are you? How do you know that?"
"Fire her. She's got it the wrong way round. You're under stress right now and your hand is perfectly steady." John's eyes flicker to his hand before looking back up. It was almost as if he was trying to hold himself back from killing the man. Fact is, he wasn't the only one. "You're not haunted by the war, Doctor Watson… you miss it." 'The man' leans forward and whispers to John, "Welcome back." He turns and walks away as John's phone makes a noise again. "Time to choose a side, Doctor Watson.
John stares at the man as he walks away. Behind us, 'Anthea' gets out of the car and walks towards us, still attached to her blackberry. I almost just want to smack it out of her hands.
"I'm to take you home."
John turns to her halfway and looks at me. He then takes his phone out of his pocket and reads the message. I look at his phone.
Could be dangerous
SH
He puts his phone back in his pocket and studies his hand. No tremor. He smiles to himself.
"Address?" 'Anthea' asks.
John turns and walks towards her and says,
"Er, Baker Street. Two two one B Baker Street. But I need to stop off somewhere first."
We walk to the car and I get in and John follows. As we drive off, I turn to him.
"You okay?"
"Hm? Oh, yes. I'm fine. 'Bout you? Scared?" I laugh.
"Scared? Of him? Nah. Sherlock's scarier than him." John laughs.
He leans over to the driver and tells him an address. He says it kind of faintly so I couldn't quite catch it.
"Where are we going?" I ask John.
"Gotta stop somewhere a minute. Sort of personal."
"Oh okay. Gotcha…" I say back.
We stop in front of a building and he opens the door to get out.
"Right back."
I nod my head and watch as he walks into the building. After a few moments, he returns. He gets back into the car and it drives off. Pretty soon, the car stops in front of 221B and John looks at 'Anthea'.
"Listen, your boss – any chance you could not tell him this is where I went?"
"Sure." She says nonchalantly.
"You've told him already, haven't you?" She smiles briefly at him.
"Yeah."
John nods and turns to get out of the car. He stops suddenly and turns back to her.
"Hey, um… do you ever get any free time?" She chuckles.
"Oh, yeah. Lots." She says sarcastically. John waits, as if he's expecting her to say something. She looks up at him. "'Bye."
"Okay." John says as he closes the door.
I laugh and get out of the car and we watch as it pulls away. I look at him.
"Smooth…" I say smiling. He looks at me.
"Shut up." He turns and walks to the door and knocks on it.
Sorry that update took so long. School sucks... Anyways, hope you liked it! Some people seemed really excited for the update so I tried to get it to you as fast as possible. Also, so far, i've gotten over 300 views since this story was posted! Thank you! You guys rock!
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