Adele, after actually sleeping properly, decided that it was definitely a good idea to try it more often. How easy that was going to be, she wasn't sure, but it wasn't something she would try to resist in the future. Adele's relatively good mood, however, was ruined by the red light flashing on her phone. Considering that no one ever texted her unless it was Sherlock being stupid or John asking about Sherlock being stupid, it was most likely to be from Hammet. Although Adele would have thought that even an evil git like him might give her a day off. Of course, it might not actually be Hammet, but it was best to assume the worst.

Adele, instead of checking the message, threw the phone at the wall. Avoiding the message gave her more time to… well, to ignore Hammet. But it wasn't easy to ignore, because the alert light on her phone was probably one of the most annoying things of all time. She picked the phone up, but hesitated before checking it. She could just take the battery out, but she'd only have to put it back in later. When she checked the message, however, it wasn't from Hammet. Instead, it was from Eliza;

Reply to this is you're alive. And hope you're okay and stuff.

Adele had actually forgotten about Eliza's existence in the whole Hammet charade. She probably owed it to Eliza to reply, but then she would have to have a conversation, with Eliza. And she'd already had to put up with that. Still. She could just text back, say she wasn't, well, dead, and then ignore anything else. Yes, she would do that.

Alive. And yes.

A.

Adele realised that the back of her phone had come off, probably when it was flying through the air. She spotted it next to her desk, and picked it up. As she was about to put the phone back together, she heard the front door slam. What time was it? She glanced at her watch. Eleven. Well, that was half a day wasted. It was probably John; Sherlock was likely to have sent him to get milk. Adele decided that it might be a good idea to go and see what she'd missed.

'Where've you been?' John asked, as he struggled to carry bags of shopping into the kitchen, where Sherlock had set up another sort of experiment.

'My room. I'll take a wild guess and assume that you've been shopping.'

'Yeah.' John glanced towards Sherlock, who was pretty much oblivious to anything. 'He's been yelling at the TV all morning. I don't mind him correcting the news, but I'd rather he was quiet about it.'

'Get used to it.'

John shrugged and followed Adele into the living room, where the news was still playing. It was only politics, but Adele could see Sherlock frowning as he worked. Adele had never found politics very interesting, so she instead turned to the newspaper. That wasn't any better. If you wanted news these days, the best idea was to just go and talk to Lestrade. Well, if you wanted news on which criminals Scotland Yard was trying and failing to catch.

'Is Hammet taking a day off?' Sherlock called from the kitchen. He looked pretty much furious now.

'Looks like it.'

'Good.' Adele shook her head and went back to her phone. She would go and get her laptop, but it was in her room, and her phone had internet anyway. Even though it was slow and rubbish, most likely from the amount of times it had been thrown around. Maybe she should get a new one. Although chances were that Sherlock wouldn't get her one.

Baker Street was getting increasingly boring. Sherlock looked to be doing his experiment all day, and John was happy sitting around doing nothing. Adele was becoming increasingly restless, and was incredibly bored. London was fairly desolate today, and it might be nice to go outside for once. Adele got up and made it halfway down the stairs before being questioned.

'Where are you going?' Sherlock apparently had eyes everywhere. Adele sighed.

'Out.'

'Where?'

'Anywhere. If I run into Hammet, I'll be sure to inform you.'

Sherlock clearly wasn't happy with that. Still, there wasn't much he could do. He probably knew perfectly well that Adele would just throw a tantrum. And then he would have to deal with it. But he didn't reply, so Adele left, slamming the door purposely behind her.

It was nice to leave the flat. Granted, there wasn't actually much to do, but Adele had money, her oyster card, and several of Lestrade's ID's. Her first thought was Scotland Yard, but she didn't fancy talking to Lestrade or Donovan. Especially Donovan.

Adele's second idea was Bart's. Not the most exciting, and she would have to see Molly, but there would be science and quiet. Okay, maybe that was out too.

There was one other option.

Hammersmith.

Really, Adele should hate the place. Several times she'd almost been killed there. And Hammet might be hanging around. But there might be clues or something. And it would be fun. What was life without a little risk? And…

She could see Eliza. Whatever happened to ignoring her? It was strange, but there was now a part of Adele that wanted a friend. Sherlock was a friend, yes. John was a friend. Even Lestrade and Molly were friends. But none of them were her own age, and none of them actually talked to her like someone her own age. Eliza might have been annoying and slightly naive, but she was okay to talk to, and actually, Adele sort of enjoyed being hero-worshipped. Of course, that might have changed, but still. A friend might be nice. Eliza was the one person Adele could actually show off her intelligence to, considering that John had seen it all before, and Lestrade zoned out every time Adele began correcting him.

Hammersmith it was. Eliza had, of course, texted her back from earlier;

Good. Because last time, you were a bit half dead.

Another problem with Eliza. Her texts were incredibly unimaginative. Adele could think of much better replies than that. Still.

The tube was empty. Adele still kept thinking she saw the blond girl everywhere. She probably was, but no one was springing up out of nowhere and attacking her, so it was safe to assume that Hammet was taking a day off today. Of course, this being Hammet, there was also a chance that he would spring up out of nowhere at any given moment. Maybe there was a reason for Sherlock's reluctance to allow her out of the flat. But she couldn't stay there forever, not with all the quiet and the news going on and on about something or other that she really didn't care about. It might have sounded insane, but she would actually rather take her chances outside.

Hammersmith still looked bleak and depressing. Of course, so did most places in London, but Hammersmith particularly. Adele's memory was working well today, so finding Eliza's wasn't difficult. She'd walked past several times, and the place didn't really make much of an impression. Eliza was likely to be in; it wasn't as though she did much else with her time, by the looks of things. Adele didn't hesitate to ring the bell. And true to her suspicions, Eliza answered the door.

'You... Adele, I don't mean to be rude, but what the hell are you doing here?'

'Good question. There's nothing to do at the flat. And I don't want to talk to Lestrade.'

'Oh. So...'

'Really, my life isn't that exciting. And I know you're not busy, you answered the door ridiculously quickly.'

Eliza frowned. 'Well. I was sort of doing home-'

Adele pressed her foot against the door as Eliza tried to inch it closed. 'You come out here, or I go into your house. We both know the better option. Don't try to lie to me. It doesn't work.'

Eliza sighed. 'You're lucky there's no one else in.'

'You'd say yes anyway.'

Eliza shrugged as they began to walk down the road. 'I thought you might hate this place after... well, y'know.'

'No. Just that school place.' Eliza was just frowning. Was everyone going to do that? It was getting quite annoying to be around people constantly frowning. She wanted to know stuff. Explanations. Great.

'Why are you here, anyway?' As predicted. Adele didn't really want to explain the riddles and Sherlock being Sherlock. Or John being worried or the blond kids running around the place. In fact, it looked as though Adele would be spending the majority of the day lying. Oh well. Not like she hadn't done it before.

'Bored.' Eliza didn't even seem surprised. 'And I want to know what you said to Sherlock.'

'What?'

'Even the comatose aren't deaf. You said it yourself, as I remember, that you knew that I could hear you.'

'Oh. Well…'

'I'm really trying not to call you a stupid little wishful thinker at the moment.'

Eliza scowled, so Adele continued. 'I can't believe I didn't work it out. Your sister.' Adele added the last sentence when Eliza gave her a blank look.

'Oh. Well, I mean… I think, something you mentioned, about after he-' Adele cut Eliza off with a scowl. Sherlock hadn't actually died, but there was something about it that still freaked her out.

'Anyway, I didn't say much to him. Mostly John. And still not much.' She was telling the truth. Sherlock didn't do much talking at the best of times, so it was incredibly unlikely that he'd done much then. But John did speak, so that was weird. But it didn't matter. There were more important things to focus on.

'Adele…?'

After about two minutes of silence, Adele's head snapped up. The pavement had become rather dull now. 'Yeah?'

'What's the real reason you're here?'

There were several answers to that. To check that Hammet hadn't gone after her again. Because she was bored. Because… well, because for the first time in her life, Adele actually wanted a friend.

'I don't know. To apologise?' This was one she'd only thought up about a second ago.

'For what?'

'Um, Hammet going after you and stuff. I shouldn't try to make friends again.'

'Oh. Well, sorry for telling him where you were. Are you… okay?'

'It's not your fault. No offence or anything, but I would've done the same if he had guns pointed at Sherlock and John.'

Eliza nodded. 'Answer the question.'

'What question?'

'Are you okay?'

Why did Eliza have to ask her questions that Adele simply couldn't answer without saying something she really shouldn't? 'I'm… fine.'

'That's not true.'

'Why did you ask if you knew it wasn't true?'

'So it's not true!'

'I didn't say that.'

When three o'clock came, Adele decided that it would probably be a good idea to go back to the flat. She said goodbye to Eliza, and took the tube back. There was an annoying back road that Adele hated on the way to the flat, but it was much quicker to go through it rather than all the way round. Adele could still see, or at least imagine, what looked to be a blond boy running around the place every so often.

Was it a stupid idea to go down the back road? Yes. Then why was she doing it? It was broad daylight, so there was nothing that could go wrong. Then again, no one really walked down this road, so… This wasn't a good idea.

Adele could hear footsteps now. So there was someone else here. Great. Were they dangerous? They probably would be. Just as she was considering whether to run or turn back, Adele found herself face to face with a blond boy.

He was clearly about her own age; but he was slightly taller, and well built. If it came to a fight, which it probably would, he would win easily. His cheeks were flushed red, probably from running, and he wore football boots. With studs. Shit. The expression on his face was one of both surprise and glee; so he'd been waiting for her. This could, must be one of the kids Hammet was on about. Hansel.

'Well?' Adele was almost whispering. She was scared. He would hit her. And it would hurt. She couldn't exactly fight him, her ribs were still bruised. This was going to hurt.

'I'll kill you, Holmes.'

'Stop stalling and get on with it, then.'

Well that was a stupid thing to say. As soon as she said it, he ran at her. Adele tried to jump out of the way, but he grabbed her ankle, pushing her to the ground. His fist narrowly missed the side of Adele's face. Taking advantage, Adele grabbed his ankle. She succeeded in pulling him down too, but he still managed to hit her only millimetres from the shot wound. Adele cried out in pain, as he slammed his fist against her face repeatedly. He paused for a moment, and Adele grabbed her pen knife from her pocket, flicking out the blade. She pulled herself up, somehow, and held out the blade inches from his face.

'I'm armed.' She choked out. This wasn't going well. The blade didn't seem to scare him, because he held out his fists defiantly.

'Scared?'

Adele couldn't work a knife in these conditions. She dropped it to the floor and kicked it away, ready to fight. She could feel the bruises forming. Instead of swinging a punch, he ran towards where she'd kicked the knife. Furious, Adele stumbled after him, but he was too far ahead, and she'd twisted her ankle when she fell over. He grabbed the blade from the floor, turned around and pointed it at her as Adele backed against the wall. He held it inches from her face.

'Want me to kill you now?'

Every cell of Adele hurt. She whimpered, as he grinned evilly, hitting her once again, this time in the exact place of the wound. She was close to tears now.

'OI!'

The boy spun around, giving Adele a chance to slide to the ground. It now hurt to breathe. Even though Adele's vision was becoming blurred, she could see another kid, a girl. Same blond hair, and colouring, but that was where their similarities ended. She was lithe, graceful, the way she moved… it was as if she was barely there.

'What?' The boy was moaning

'You're not supposed to kill her yet, you idiot!' She seemed to be half whispering, half shouting, like an old television set. She looked over at Adele, her eyes sharp 'That's not the plan.'

'Well what was the plan?' He sounded incredibly irritated.

'Just, hurt her!' She hissed at him. 'Don't you ever listen? More of those tricks tomorrow!'

Tomorrow? Adele knew that she wouldn't be doing much tomorrow, if she even lived to see it.

'Well you try to beat her up, it's easy!' The boy protested 'He said she'd be difficult!'

The girl smiled.

'If she's easy…' She said, walking toward him. In one swift movement, her hand was at his jugular.

'Then go easy on her!' She growled. 'Remember how this falls on me? I know there's less than half a brain in that head, but really!'

'Fine! I'll tell him it was my fault, if it's such a big deal!'

She smiled again, and threw his neck from her grasp.

'Good.' Suddenly, her face was up in front of Adele's.

'If it was up to me?' She said, grinning. 'You wouldn't be here at all. Be thankful, Addie.' She turned to the boy. 'Can I trust you to only knock her out?'

'Yes.'

'Get it over with.'

Adele curled into a ball as he strode over. 'Please…'

'Just doing my job, Holmes.'

Adele shut her eyes. It was bad enough to feel the blow, watching it would make it worse. There was no point even trying to resist as she felt the boys boot collide with her head.

Chapter-ness!

I'm going off on an evil camping thing-y tomorrow, so I won't be doing any writing until Tuesday. But I will write at the speed of light when I get back!

Reviews always appreciated!