NOTE: Here comes chapter 7! Mostly Gemma´s POV now. Hope you still enjoy!

PS: For the timeline, it is Thursday when they arrive.

Chapter 7: Adjusting

After unpacking most of their stuff Gemma sat down on the couch throwing her body against the cushions closing her eyes for a moment. Sherlock was still shuffling through the room while she started to have serious doubts about where this was heading. Sometimes she hated her crude decisions but now they were here. Sherlock cleared his throat and Gemma´s eyes flew open again, blinking at him.

"Okay this is really awkward." Gemma stated lamely.

"Do you think?" Sarcasm in every word, Sherlock sat down in the armchair opposite to the couch stapling his long fingers under his chin a small smile on his lips and in his eyes.

They both knew that they were always kind of stiff around people, lacking a certain kind of social skills their personalities didn´t allow them to acquire.

"Does that amuse you, Mr. Holmes?"

"A little bit." His smile still on his lips.

"I took you for a more interesting companion." Gemma mused leaning forward on the couch resting her arms on her legs her hands entwined. "But I like you, anyway."

"You like me?" Sherlock emphasized the word raising his eyebrows.

"Yah, but don´t make too much of it you´re just the most interesting person I met in ages." Gemma made a small face and gave him one of her crooked smiles. "But that´s not so hard when everyone else is just so dull." She made a dramatic gesture and slumped back in the cushions. "So how did you manage to escape your little pet and that grumpy brother of yours?"

Sherlock narrowed his eyebrows and leaned back in the armchair. "That´s not so hard considering I know his surveillance better than he does." Now it was his time to give her a awry smile.

Gemma chuckled and her brown eyes twinkled. "I met him recently. Not a very nice encounter but if you leave out the abduction nevertheless interesting."

Sherlock raised his eyebrows cocking his head slightly.

"Abduction? He kidnapped you?" Then he laughed. "How did he manage to do that?"

"He didn´t actually. I let him. Was kinda interested in what he wanted."

"What did he want?" Sherlock seemed curious.

"Not gonna spoil it for you, honey!" She winked and Sherlock snorted.

"What do you wanne do? I suggest dinner for the evening but now?"

Sherlock didn´t get the chance to answer when a siren broke the silence a second later. It was close and Gemma got up and peeked through the window down the street. Sherlock followed her lead and stood close behind her small form easily watching the scene outside over her shoulder. Gemma disliked her feeling to the sudden closeness while a shiver ran down her spine. She turned her head slowly and looked up in Sherlock´s blue eyes.

"Guess I know what we could do! Playing a little detective." She grinned and turned around fully. She could hear the sharp intake of breath from Sherlock when she moved a bit closer only to pass him. "Are you coming? Always wanted to know how it is to play on the other side." She was genuinely excited and grabbed her coat.

"If I knew I would work on my holiday I could have stayed at home." Sherlock stated dryly but nevertheless followed her and grabbed his coat and scarf from the bed where he had left them.

They were downstairs and out of the door in no time walking over to the little park a little down the street where a crowd of onlookers had already gathered. The police was busy securing the crime scene while Gemma and Sherlock right behind her making their way around the people to get a better look. The victim was a woman about thirty lying in a pool of blood coming from a step wound in her breast. She died between some bushes that shielded the scene to the street. "What do you see?" Sherlock asked her curious all of sudden. Gemma gave him a look and snorted.

"I´m not your pupil you know?" But she lent closer over the yellow barrier tape and narrowed her eyebrows. It took her about 60 seconds to take in the scene, the victim, the surrounding and the police. She wanted to get closer to make sure her suggestion but she obviously couldn´t until she got an idea and turned around for a second. Sherlock observed the scene but turned his attention to Gemma´s strange behavior and he was more than surprised when she suddenly crossed the barrier tape and went straight to a policeman who hold his arms up as he saw her crossing walking over to stop her. Realization hit him when he saw her crying face. She was good, he had to give her that.

Gemma stood by the policeman holding on to his arms crying heavily and gesturing over to the victim holding her hand up to her mouth. She locked her watery eyes into his and whispered sobbing: "I am so sorry but I think this is my cousin! Can I have a look please? I just came into town to visit her!" She started sobbing again leaning against the chest of the poor police man who tried to comfort her. And he actually led her over to the victim where she fell to her knees violently sobbing. She took 20 seconds to look at the body and around before she saw the murder weapon in a bush close by reflecting a ray of sunlight and something else in the grass a bit further that told her pretty much the whole story. She smiled to herself before she took her charade back up turning to the policeman grabbing his arm with one hand slowly nodding and begging him to bring her back behind the tape.

She thanked him and told him she had to call her family before she left still crying until she stood next to Sherlock again gave him a short look to follow her and off she was.

"Got everything." She told him when they reached a part of the park away from the crime scene while she pulled out a handkerchief to dry her face. She smirked up at him. Sherlock gave her a look, but was impressed.

"That was quite impressive." He stated. Now she returned the look as if to tell him that was nothing and sat down on a bench.

"The woman about thirty-two was stabbed in the chest with a hunting knife that hit the aorta. The knife lay abandoned in a bush nearby and there was something else a ring lay in the grass a bit down the path the murderer must have taken because of the way the grass was down and some branches of the bushes were cracked. The ring was small and the woman had a white line on her left ring finger so it was hers. There were no wounds on her hands so no attack she knew the guy. The wound was created by a knife coming from above her obviously a bigger attacker than her. All in all I guess we can say a left husband who liked to hunt in his free time stabbed his wife and ran away dropping the knife immediately because of the shock of what he´d done." When Gemma finished Sherlock looked down on her still standing in front of the bench his hands behind his back.

"Well done." He told her smugly and she rolled her eyes.

"Still not your pupil!" Sherlock laughed and reached out his hand which she took hesitantly and letting herself be pulled up.

They walked through the park to avoid getting too close to the crime scene again and heading back to the hotel.