Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm so glad you all seemed to like last chapter. People have been asking for more of Anthea's past for a while but I'm always nervous around doing so. Thanks for understanding about the extra day, too. As for this chapter…. It's not my longest, it's not my greatest, but it's a combination of two ideas that needed to happen soon. Please read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Clearly I don't own Sherlock. The show is the baby of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, while Sherlock Holmes itself is the creation of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The First Time They Asked For Tim's Help

"You want me to break client confidentiality for the sake of your boyfriend? Yeah, I don't think so Ali." Tim was looking at Anthea like she was crazy. Even through his glasses Anthea could see the look in his eyes and the way one brow frowned while the other quirked. Anthea shrugged a shoulder at her ex-boyfriend from across his desk.

Tim's office was nice. The walls were a shade of green darker than his forest like eyes. The wall behind him was covered in bookshelves littered with binders, folders, encyclopaedias, and law books. His furniture; his desk, the bookshelves, and the chairs, were wood stained black. There were the occasional brown or gold trim here or there. It all looked clean and a little too new. Obviously Tim had been doing well enough for himself that he'd managed to update his office's décor. It wasn't as nice as his corporate office with the large window up in the sky, but it looked very credible for a single lawyer with his own practice.

"We're not looking to endanger your client, Tim." Anthea smiled at him with her small mysterious smile. Tim sniffed as he closed the binder in front of him.

"Still. I don't think my client would be very happy to know I gave his secrets to the great Mycroft Holmes." Anthea dropped her smile and crossed her legs.

"Better in our hands than in the hands of Magnussen." She answered in a serious tone. Tim's face fell neutral. He ran his hands over the surface of his desk and hummed. Anthea didn't know he did that. Anthea leaned forward. "And you know you can't win this case. We couldn't even win this case." His green eyes fell onto Anthea. He held his hands open.

"You don't think I've told my client that?" The lawyer answered. His tone was indiscernible. There was humour, pride, and annoyance, but also sympathy and an openness he could never shake when they talked to each other. "He says he'd be happy with a dent in that armoury." Anthea pulled her chair forward on Tim's brown carpet.

"Then let us help you." She pleaded. Tim's jaw clenched as he thought, eyes searching Anthea's.

Tim, for someone whose career had been almost destroyed, had done well for himself. He'd earned such a reputation that people were searching him out as a legal counsel. His latest client was a man currently being blackmailed by Charles Augustus Magnussen. That alone was nothing special – half the powerful men and women in the world were being blackmailed by Magnussen. The fact that this man wanted to sue him despite a – according to Mycroft – ninety-five percent chance of losing was nothing new either. What made this case interesting was that the man's legal team couldn't convince him to drop it and just listen to Magnussen. What made it even more interesting was the lawyer was the ex-boyfriend of Mycroft Holmes' girlfriend.

To say Mycroft wasn't bothered by Tim would be an absolute lie. Mycroft had hated Tim long before Tim had done anything remotely wrong to Anthea. Mycroft had been the one to destroy Tim's career almost unprovoked. However, Mycroft knew dangerous people when he saw them. Tim was annoying but harmless, Magnussen was as deadly as a viper. He also could see leverage; like a man who still had feelings for his ex-girlfriend, a man who could use some influence restored to him, a man who had information they might not have. After moping and brooding over the idea for about a week Mycroft finally decided that sending Anthea to talk to Tim was a good idea. After he considered sending James, and then Carol, and then Jamie just to see what would happen. He knew it had to be Anthea who offered the deal. He also trusted Anthea greatly.

It was also probably the reason Mycroft kissed Anthea warmly as she got out of the town car this morning. A little reminder of what she has now compared to what she had back down.

"I don't know." Tim leaned back in his chair. He shrugged his shoulders looking a little defeated. "I don't have anything that good on him, Ali." He pushed his glasses up his nose, catching a single brown lock of his messy hair under the frames. "If I did then I'd be using it already."

"But add what you have to what we already have and we might find something, anything to bring him down." Anthea pushed her curls out of her face. "Magnussen is dangerous, Tim." She spoke in a low tone.

"I know." Tim crossed his arms across his chest, pulling a face. "I knew that the moment I met him."

"The eyes?" Anthea asked. Tim looked physically sick as he nodded. Everyone always noticed the eyes first, the cold dead eyes. A moment of quiet reflection passed between the two exes as they both thought about the creepy man known as Magnussen. "Please, Tim." Anthea cocked her head to the side, smiling softly, speaking in a gentle tone. "Mycroft is offering to send some old clients your way. You're never going to get this out of him again." Tim was grinding his teeth in thought, Anthea could tell. "You'll be doing it for me, you'll be doing it for your client, you'd be doing it for your own future, and you'd be doing it to make the world a kinder place." She pleaded gently. Anthea reached forward and placed her hand on top of Tim's. "Can you think of a reason not to do it?" Tim sighed loudly as he looked down at Anthea's manicured hand. He placed his other hand on top of hers.

"Let me think about it, okay?" He breathed. "Maybe talk to my client." He looked behind Anthea at the door and shook his head. "He knows who Mycroft is. If I tell him what you two are trying to do he might outright give me permission to share it." Anthea squeezed Tim's hand.

"I can give you some time." She nodded. "Just some." She leaned back in her chair, taking her hand back. Tim laughed quietly.

"Thanks."

"No, thank you. Really."

The smiled at each other.

The room fell quiet. Anthea watched the lawyer as he stared at his own hands deep in thought. It was a lot of pressure to put on him, but it was important. It was so important.

"So how are you?" Tim broke the silence. He looked strained as he spoke. "With him, I mean." Anthea closed her eyes and rubbed at her forehead.

"Tim." She moaned tiredly.

"No." The lawyer shook his head so lightly that Anthea almost missed it. "I'm not causing trouble, I just want to make sure you're still happy." Anthea took a deep breath. Lawyer or not, she did know when Tim was telling the truth. She nodded silently.

"Good." She finally said. "Very good." She looked down to her lap and licked her lips. "I moved in with him, actually." Anthea knew what was going to happen before she'd even said it. Tim's whole body deflated. His chest fell, his expression fell, and he seemed to go lax in his chair. He opened his mouth to say something before closing it again and shaking his head once more. Anthea felt guilt and sympathy in the pit of her stomach as she watched her ex. He tried again, raising his eyebrows.

"Wow." It was the best thing he could come up with.

"If it makes you feel any better, I freaked out on him at first, too." Anthea scrunched up her nose nervously as she spoke. For a brief ten seconds Tim did nothing. Then his lips pulled to the side into a half smile.

"You know what? It does help to know that." He rolled his green eyes at Anthea. She laughed breathlessly.

"I don't like feeling dependant." She defended herself in good humour. Tim seemed to gain some of his confidence back as he sat tall in his chair once more.

"Ali Clarke, always the loner."

"And you?" Anthea cocked her head to the side. "And luck with girls lately?" Tim bit his bottom lip as he looked down at his desk.

"I am seriously thinking about asking out my dentist." He offered the information up like he was considering buying a car. Anthea's grin grew.

"Yeah?" He nodded again.

"I've thought she was cute for a long time now. I think I might be ready to do something about it."

"Oh, that's great." Anthea sat forward in her chair, perhaps a little too friendly and eager. "Tell me about her." Tim rolled his eyes again.

"She's very sweet but that might be her job. She always wears this red lipstick and she has the greatest set of…" Green eyes sparkled. "Teeth." Anthea chocked on a laugh. She quirked an eyebrow.

"Teeth, huh?" She looked down her nose at her ex. Tim held his hands up in the air.

"I get a good look at them when they're on top of me."

"Boys…"

Anthea jumped into the town car. She offered a hello to Walter and then closed the door behind her. She wasn't surprised to see Walter waiting for her when she left Tim's office. She wasn't even slightly surprised to find Mycroft in the town car staring at his umbrella like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen.

"Well?" Mycroft asked, not taking his eyes off of the black umbrella. Anthea looked at the ornate handle, then at Mycroft's hands holding it carefully, then to his stern face. She took out her phone.

"He said he'd think about it." She answered as she began checking her emails. Mycroft scoffed. Out of the corner of her eye Anthea could see that Mycroft was scowling. "Really think about it, not the way people say it when they really mean no." The scowl mostly disappeared but it did leave a slight downwards pulling frown on Mycroft's face. It seemed that this answer was satisfactory.

"And how was your lawyer?" Anthea smirked down into her phone.

"Good." She nodded. "Wants to ask out his dentist. By the sounds of it she doesn't dress appropriately for work but has good bedside manner." The genius didn't even flinch, bless him.

"Still in love with you, of course." It was as if he wasn't speaking to his girlfriend, he was just talking to his assistant.

"A little." Anthea scrolled through her emails, deleting most party invitations and unimportant business. "Enough that I could use it for our advantage."

"Hmm." Mycroft's hands tightened their grasp on the ornate umbrella handle. Anthea glanced up to the rear-view mirror and shared a glance with Walter. Neither said anything and neither of their expressions changed. Anthea kept clearing her inbox and Walter kept driving.

"I have an idea, Miss James." Mycroft sounded bored and exasperated. "Why don't we take the rest of the day off and I'll take you out to lunch?" Anthea frowned into her phone.

"We have a meeting in an hour…" She looked over at Mycroft.

"Reschedule it." Mycroft waved her off. Anthea looked up at the rear-view mirror and once again caught Walter's eye. It seemed they both were aware of what was going on here. "I think we've done enough work for the day."

There was a knock at the door. Anthea looked up from her work in time to see a head of scruffy brown hair stick in. Tim smiled nervously as Anthea nodded, allowing him entrance. He entered the space and looked around sheepishly. This was vastly different to the other time the lawyer had entered the government office. He was wearing contacts today and looked like he was dressed for court. In his hands he had a thick manila file and a large paper rolled up and held in an elastic band.

"Hello." Anthea sung.

"Hi." The lawyer nodded. He stopped in front of Anthea's desk. "Are you busy today?" He asked. Anthea pouted and shook her head.

"No more than usual." She answered. "You?"

"Yes, but probably less busy than you." He tried to be funny and he was probably right. Tim nodded to the door leading to Mycroft's office. "Is he in?" He asked. Anthea wet her lips.

"Yes." She nodded.

A beat.

"I have some things for him." Anthea placed her finger on the rarely used telecom.

"Mr. Holmes, Mr. Burgess is here to see you." Tim pulled a face at Anthea's professional manner.

"Come in." As opposed to send him in.

"Yes, sir." Anthea stood up out of her chair and smoothed down her grey skirt. She walked across to the door and pulled it open. She gestured in. "After you Mr. Burgess." She teased.

"Thank you, Miss Clarke." Tim rolled his eyes and Anthea scrunched up her nose.

The exes entered the inner sanctum of Mycroft Holmes. Tim stopped once more in front of the desk. As a little sign of solidarity Anthea chose to continue past the desk and stand next to Mycroft's chair. She even gently patted him on the shoulder knowing he wouldn't shrug her off and would instead feel a little smug about it. Mycroft folded his hands in front of him. He examined Tim for a moment, took him in very carefully. He might have even taken some extra time to let the silence drag and make Tim a little uncomfortable. He was like that.

"Mr. Burgess," Mycroft breathed. "I take your presence here to mean you have come to a decision regarding our deal and not that you're simply here to eye my partner." His voice was venomous. Tim clenched his jaw and took a breath.

"I want guaranteed safety from Magnussen as well." Tim clutched to the file in his hands. "I'm not being freed from the dog cage to be put into the shark tank." One could take the opportunity to make the joke about lawyers being sharks, but Tim was right. Next to Magnussen Tim was no shark. Next to Magnussen Moriarty looked like a dolphin doing tricks for fun.

"If only for Alice." Mycroft agreed. "You have no secrets, Mr. Burgess. There is not much he could do to you that I haven't, but I'll give your record a spring cleaning." Tim looked across from Mycroft to Anthea. Anthea nodded. Tim rolled his eyes to himself, probably in disbelief. He took a firm step forward and dropped the file in the middle of Mycroft's desk.

"My client has given me permission to allow you to look through this information and copy anything you find useful." He explained. Mycroft pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows, nodding once, seemingly pleased. He flicked through a few pages. "You won't find anything that helpful, but this is the best thing I got." Now he placed the rolled up paper on top of the file. Anthea and Mycroft looked at it then back at Tim.

"What is it?" Mycroft asked.

"My client and I paid an investigator to find blueprints of Appledore." Anthea and Mycroft exchanged a glance. Mycroft turned back to Tim and faked a smile.

"And?" He asked.

"Not the official blueprints, those are the actual blueprints of the building." Tim nodded to the paper and Mycroft seemed to tense in his seat. "We were shocked and disappointed to find that there is no basement."

"What?" Mycroft practically spat, his hand was digging into the armrest of his chair. Tim nodded again, looking empathetic.

"There is no such thing as the Appledore Vaults."

Author's Note: And how was that? I've been planning to bring Tim back for AGES now. I've been plotting and planning… and then this idea came up and it seemed perfect. I really hope you like it. Do let me know! Thanks to our guest reviewers; Guesswho, B, Eva's dreaming, Tadaa, Wheezzy8, and Pauline. Pauline I couldn't tell if your review was positive or negative so if you review again I'd love you to elaborate. Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, I love you all so much! I look forward to hearing what you thought of this chapter. I'll see you all next update!