Lucy and Xena were lounging on the couch in their pajamas in front of the telly eating ice cream. The door opened and Sherlock marched in.
"Hi, Sherlock." The two girls greeted without looking up.
The silent girl looked to Sherlock for instruction. "I've got someone I want you to meet. She's a witness in a case Lestrade gave me."
"Oh, goody, you've got a case Sherlock!" Xena said.
Lucy looked up. "Oi, who are you?"
The girl scribbled something in her notebook and held it up. Sophy Kratides.
"She'll need fresh clothes and a shower. Would you loan her something, Xena?"
"Sure." Xena sprang to her feet. As a child, Xena remember Sherlock had often brought strange people into the Holmes mansion. At times she'd been afraid of them, but Xena had never seen anyone standing beside her brother who looked so innocent. She motioned for the girl to follow her to the bathroom.
"I'll bring you some clothes, Sophy."
Sophy only nodded. Thirty minutes later, she had showered and was dressed in a Lucy's jeans and her own bra. The bathroom floor felt far too damp under her bare feet. Sophy left the bathroom, only to run into John, who quickly covered his eyes.
"I didn't see anything." He stammered.
"Get over yourself, John. She's wearing a bra." Lucy called.
Sherlock looked up from John's laptop. "Do you always walk around half-dressed?"
Sophy quickly slid her shirt over her head. "Sorry. I'm not used to having guys around. I go to an all-girls school, you know."
"I wasn't complaining." Sherlock deadpanned.
Xena slapped his arm. "Flirting will get you nowhere."
"I wasn't flirting." Sherlock corrected. "Flirting implies that two people like each other enough to want to spend more time in each other's company. I was merely stating a fact."
Sophy only blushed.
"All right, who wants takeaway?" John broke in, to kill the awkward silence before it developed.
"Me." Lucy and Xena chorused.
"I wouldn't mind Chinese myself." Sherlock intoned.
John stared at Sherlock and then glanced towards the window. Now would be a good time for a pig to fly by. He thought.
Xena grinned. "He does eat, John. A person can't get to be Sherlock's height without eating."
John nodded and turned to Sophy. "Would you like something as well?"
She hesitated before nodding.
"You'd prefer Greek, however?" Sherlock questioned.
Sophy turned to him in surprise.
"Wasn't it obvious?" Sherlock asked.
The shocked looks on the faces of the others in the room told him that it was certainly not obvious.
Sherlock sighed. Was it really that difficult for them to notice? "Her name, it's Greek."
Sophy looked pleased and reached for the notebook on the coffee table. She paused and seemed to reconsider. "Oh, damn it all." She muttered. "It's too much effort to write everything down."
"It's perfectly safe to talk here, if you don't say anything about the people who've threatened you." Sherlock assured her.
"Thanks." Sophy said and looked down at her hands. "Until this morning, I went to the school that was bombed." She looked over at John and the two girls, who had set down their tubs of ice cream to listen. "It's an all-girl's school and I was sent there by my Uncle Melas. I think that's about all I can say out loud."
"Are you really Greek?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah." Sophy said. "I'm kind of hungry, can we get some Chinese?"
John dialed the number of the Chinese restaurant they usually ordered takeaway from. The food arrived within ten minutes and everyone had scraped their cartons clean in the same amount of time. Sophy reached out for a fortune cookie.
"Don't open it." Sherlock's tone surprised everyone. "It will only make you stressed, Sophy."
She stared at him. "I have to know." She said simply and tore off the plastic wrapper.
Sherlock grabbed the cookie from her hand and crushed it to powder. He examined the slip of paper inside. It read, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Silently, Sherlock handed the paper to Sophy. She sneered at it. "I'm not afraid of fear, I'm afraid of a name."
"Her name?" Sherlock asked.
Sophy only nodded.