Author's Note: Hello guys! Thanks for understanding about my exams, and thanks for all the great feedback last chapter. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Particularly the phone call :P. This chapter is a decent length but I had to cut it off again due to exams. It's enough to satisfy you all for now though. 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 She Met Wiggins

James and Anthea jumped out of the helicopter and ran to the front door of the Holmes house. A quick twist of the doorknob revealed that the door was not locked so the two let themselves in. Immediately upon sight of the living room they saw Mary and Siger passed out. James rolled his eyes and was probably cursing Sherlock in his head.

Anthea was struck by how heavily pregnant Mary was. How long had it been since she'd seen her? Anthea felt both guilt and anger at the same time. Mary was a good friend and one of the few people Anthea could be both Anthea and Alice around and Mary had utterly ruined that. But how hard would it have been for Anthea to forgive her the way Sherlock had? The way Mycroft had? Unlike John Anthea knew what Mary was capable of and she shouldn't have been surprised that something like this happened. Still, she was more attuned to feelings than the Holmes and she had justification to be hurt and angry. But she wasn't here to deal with Mary, she was here for something else.

"I'll deal with these two." James touched Anthea lightly on the shoulder. "You go find Holmes and his mother." Anthea gave a curt nod. Knowing where the phone call had originated from, Anthea walked into the kitchen. Surely enough, Anthea found Violet in there and Mycroft, passed out face down on the kitchen table. She would have sighed had she not been distracted by the scraggly, skinny, dirty boy sitting on the kitchen counter eating an apple. He to a bite, making a big crunch. He looked like he'd been plucked right off the street. He had to be one of Sherlock's contacts.

"Hello." He spoke with a full mouth. Anthea scowled mildly and looked the boy up and down.

"Who are you?" She spoke with bile. It was in part due to her persona as the shadowy assistant and in part knowing that he had to have something to do with this. She remembered Mycroft mentioning a junkie assistant.

"I'm a welcomed guest." The boy sounded cocky and squared off his shoulders proudly. "Who are you?" That was all the confirmation Anthea needed. She rolled her eyes.

"So you helped Sherlock with this." She nodded towards Mycroft. The boy looked at Mycroft then back to Anthea.

"I might have." Defensive. Why were they always so defensive? Why did no one ever answer questions easily? "What's it to you?" Anthea smirked.

"I'm that man's second in command and his ex-girlfriend." Now the boy had the curtesy to lose some of his cockiness and look a little bashful. One side of Anthea's mouth pulled up as she shook her head. "Don't you have your own family to terrorise on Christmas?" She asked. The boy shrugged.

"Not really." And there was that guilt again. Anthea looked away and sighed heavily.

"Me either." She spoke quietly as she turned back to him. "Which is why, as welcomed guests on holidays, it's our responsibility to be grateful and not drug the people letting us into their homes." She was slightly sarcastic but a little more open to the boy than she had been before. He didn't answer, he just watched her from his position perched on the counter. She gestured to the door. "Go help the scary agent man in there and maybe he won't arrest you." Sure enough that got the boy to jump off the counter and wander out into the family room.

Anthea took a deep breath and shook her head. What was Sherlock doing hanging out with another addict? One that was clearly still using, and trusting them to keep his family alive after the drugged them? It was irresponsible and stupid. Anthea was going to murder him if Mycroft or Mary didn't first. But now was not the time to worry about that, she could kill Sherlock any time. Right now she had to deal with this mess he had made.

She decided to wake Violet up first, hoping for a moment alone with Mycroft afterwards. The older woman's bright blue eyes were hazy and confused as the flickered open.

"Alice?" She asked quietly, voice croaking. Anthea winced and looked around the room to make sure no one who wasn't supposed to hear that heard it. As Violet tried to sit up Anthea took her hand and helped her. "What's going on?" She looked around the kitchen, still dazed. As she recalled what must have happened she rubbed at her forehead. "Sherlock." She huffed. Anthea laughed.

"Who else?" She scoffed. Violet moved her hand to stroke Anthea down the arm.

"What are you doing here, darling?" Anthea smirked and shrugged.

"I'm to the rescue." She cocked her head to the side and quirked her eyebrows causing Violet to smile warmly. The woman then went back to glancing around the room.

"Where is that trouble maker of mine, anyway?" She clicked her tongue. Anthea shook her head.

"No idea." She answered. "Why don't you go look for him?" Violet looked at Anthea, then to the door, then to Mycroft still passed out on the table and a certain look crossed her eyes.

"Good idea, dear." Violet stroked her arm once more before leaving the room.

Now it was Mycroft's turned. Anthea sat down at the table diagonally from him and looked him over. The Ice man always looked peaceful when he was actually asleep. It often seemed a shame to wake him from whatever peace he got there. He could have some peace in the real world too if he didn't keep pushing everyone away. Anthea took the opportunity to do something she hadn't be able to in a long time but had been desperately wanting to. She placed her hand on the side of his face and caressed his cheek. It had been so long since she got to do this. They had slept in bed together and she had let him hold her but she hadn't got to stroke his face, hadn't got to touch his hair. She hadn't gotten to do all these intimate little touches that she used to show him how much she cared and to feel close to him. She hadn't gotten to playfully push him, or feel his lips against her fingers as he gently kissed her hand. She missed this. She didn't know just how much she missed this.

Her hand lingering for a brief quite moment, Anthea moved it down to his shoulder and lightly shook him. Mycroft's brow furrowed in response. He moved his head so that his forehead was in contact with the table and made a soft noise. His eyes fluttered open and he slowly forced himself into sitting position. His steely eyes were as cloudy as his mother's had been and for a moment he seemed very confused to be looking upon the face of his assistant. Anthea grinned playfully.

"Morning sunshine." She hummed. Mycroft closed his eyes and frowned again. "Oh, but I'm the sunshine, aren't I?" She joked. Mycroft's frown deepened as he groaned.

"Bloody Sherlock." He muttered under his breath with a groggy voice, causing Anthea to chuckle quietly. Steel eyes opened once more and caught Anthea's gaze. They watched each other for a few seconds which felt like minutes. What was he trying to communicate? What was he trying to see in her eyes? Mycroft broke the gaze, standing up and pushing the chair in. Anthea followed suite. A wave of a headache hitting him, Mycroft leaned on the chair to get his footing and bearings. Anthea stopped herself from reaching out to help him, or even stepping towards him. "Thank you for coming." Anthea almost missed it. She shook her head, folding her hands together in front of her.

"I wasn't going to leave you passed out in your kitchen." She answered, humour dancing on her tongue. Mycroft sniffed a single laugh as a light shone behind his eyes.

"I must apologise profusely for that phone call." He didn't look up to her, the genius kept his gaze firmly on the table. "It was entirely out of character." Anthea tucked a curl behind her ear and unconsciously took a step closer to Mycroft's chair.

"Don't worry about it." She laughed breathlessly. "The moment I knew you were drugged I knew you didn't mean any of it." The personal assistant saying what she thought her boss wanted to hear. In a flash steel eyes, still frowning, were fixated on her face.

"No, I meant it." His tone was soft and sincere. "It's the execution I'm not proud of." Anthea felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and her cheeks beginning to feel warm. Mycroft rubbed gently at his forehead. "Those words weren't mine, but the meanings behind them were." She tried her best not to smile as she cocked her head to the side.

"So… You threw a diamond away then?" She took a step forward. Mycroft sniffed in derision as he watched her step closer.

"What even did I mean by that?" The genius seemed a little embarrassed. "You're not a diamond, you're far rarer than that." Anthea's heart bounced around in her chest, missing a few beats.

"I'm the wind at your back?" She whispered. She stepped closer again. Mycroft sneered, his nose crinkling, but there was something close to a smile forming on his lips. Anthea was so close now their noses were almost touching.

"How cliché." He whispered.

"You miss me every day?" Anthea cocked her head to the side.

"Every hour." Mycroft was closing the last of the space between them. Anthea couldn't look into those deeply intelligent eyes anymore. She could only see his lips. All she could smell was his scent.

"They're gone." Mary entered the room with James only a step behind her. Anthea immediately pulled away from Mycroft and Mycroft turned back to the table. Mary was looking between Anthea and Mycroft now.

"They are." James nodded, further explaining. "Sherlock and Doctor Watson are gone with no sign of where."

"Mycroft," Mary was looking at the tall genius as his eyes busily looked over the table. "You don't think they-"

"Where's my laptop?" Mycroft cut Mary off, desperation in his voice. His steel eyes were looking all over the table, and he even looked on the seats and the floor. "Anthea, was my laptop in here?" Worried, Anthea held her arms out in an empty notion.

"I never saw it."

"Mummy!" Mycroft called out. He walked through the kitchen into the family room with everyone, starting with Anthea, following behind him. His parents were sitting on the couch, their hands intertwined. "Did you move my laptop?" Violet rose an eyebrows, clearly not happy with her eldest son's tone.

"You mean your very important laptop?" The way she said that with some parental style mocking suggested something happened earlier. Mycroft clicked his tongue.

"Yes, that one." Always the sarcastic teenager around his parents. "Did you move it?" Violet freed her hands from Siger's and folded them across her chest.

"Mycroft, I woke up moments before you. Last I saw it was in front of you at the table. Why would I choose to move it now?" James, Mary, and Anthea all turned to look at Mycroft as he grit his teeth.

"Mycroft," Mary spoke with panic. "They're going to Magnussen." The same wave of dread must have hit Anthea and James at the same time as both their moods dropped at the same time.

"Of course they have!" Mycroft scoffed as he walked back into the kitchen, this time everyone following behind him. "No doubt the idiots have waltzed into Appledore thinking they have the upper hand, expecting to find a vault." He was pulling out his phone.

"Sherlock can't be that stupid." James laughed breathlessly.

"I think he might be in this case." Mary muttered. Anthea widened her eyes at Mary, silently agreeing with her. Anthea stepped closer to Mycroft so she was right at his side.

"If you're planning to go after him, sir, call Carol. We have her on standby and Walter is outside." He looked up from his phone to look at Anthea. He wasn't just looking at her, and he wasn't just deducing her, he was looking at her like she was important. Like she was a life saver. It was captivating and very new to her. Something close to a smile almost crossed his lips but soon disappeared.

"Not for the first time today are you the unsung hero, Miss James." He muttered quietly as he entered a number into his phone and walking out the back door to make the call in privacy. James wandered into the living room to make some of his own calls. Violet, noticing that boy wasn't in the room decided to go look for him with Siger following behind her. That left Anthea and Mary in the kitchen together.

Mary looked at Anthea and gave her a measured smile. Anthea tried to smile back as she looked down at the table and began tracing the wooden groove with her fingertip. Mary waved between Anthea and the back door with her finger.

"Did we," She asked in tones as measured as her smile. "Interrupt something before?" Anthea scrunched up her nose and shook her head, curls dancing around her face.

"No." She managed to eventually say. Mary's eyebrow quirked faintly as she looked Anthea up and down.

"Really?" She asked, pursing her lips. "Because it looked like you –"

"It's not important." Anthea interrupted with a heavy sigh. She forced a bigger smile. Mary frowned, cocking her head to the side. She closed the gap between her and Anthea by a step.

"Of course it's important."

"Well, this is more important, isn't it?" Anthea looked deeply into the other woman's eyes. She ran her fingers through her curls and wanted so eagerly to step away around the table but she held her ground. "Stopping Magnussen has been a goal for so long now. And Sherlock and John are mixed up in this, thanks to you and Mycroft," Mary swallowed nothing as Anthea continued "And for everyone's sake this is what is important."

"Anthea," Mary spoken gently. "I'm so sorry." One look into her eyes would normally tell Anthea that the woman was telling the truth but really, how much should she trust her? This woman so like herself? She wanted to trust her, though. Anthea shrugged.

"I'm not mad anymore." She breathed. The blonde assassin eyed her. "I'm really not." Anthea reassured her. "I haven't been mad for a while, just very disappointed with everyone." She paused and ran her tongue over her teeth, still feeling all of that to some degree. "Sherlock for getting himself in trouble, you for doing what you did, Mycroft for flipping out, and myself for not being on top of everything." She paused and looked at Mary. "And John too, really. He's supposed to be the sain one that holds us all together." Mary laughed and Anthea smiled naturally. "But I think I'm done being disappointed. I think I just want to go back to mildly amused by everyone's antics again."

"Good." Mary answered. "That's really good to hear. If that's the case, before the baby is born do you want to go get lu-?"

"Tried to organise some agents together." James interrupted as he wondered blindly back into the room, looking down at his phone. "Carol has already done it all." Mary smiled cheekily at Anthea.

"That Carol has always been a world class agent."

"Yeah… Hey!" James eyes were glued to the other blonde in the room with a deep fierceness. "You've never gone toe to toe with me." Mary laughed.

"I've heard of your reputation." She gave him a look of pity. "You're good, but you're no Mycroft Holmes." The side of James' mouth pulled up into a smirk.

"Careful, Watson." He nodded towards her. "You never know who you'll need a reference from in the future." A look of respect and amusement passed between the two blondes. It was frightfully interesting to see the hidden personalities behind both these warm people come out and being able to interact without hiding behind shadows. It was satisfying. A reminder that everyone had their secrets.

Mycroft walked into the room, shoving his phone angrily into his trouser pocket. He went over to the chair and picked up his suit jacket and put it in on with all his practiced ease.

"I'm going ahead with Walter." Mycroft explained as he neatened his jacket, smoothing over any possible crinkle with extra attention. "Carol is bringing reinforcements but I want James as her co-pilot. We all know the two of you work better together." James nodded like the soldier his family thought he was. "And Anthea, I want you with them running reconnaissance in the back and to be my voice to the agents if I am otherwise occupied." Anthea stood tall, much like James, but scraped at her nail polish on her left hand with her thumb. This was not ideal. She never liked to be the outsider with James and Carol, and she certainly wanted to be in the front.

"I could do that from the back of Walter's helicopter, sir." She tried.

"And have all the people who work for me directly in one unit?" He looked through her with calculation and tactics in his head. A pull of his lips into a bit of a smirk and he cocked his head to the side. "That won't do. That gives the agents far more room to disobey orders. If we're separate and they feel both of us watching they'll be more accountable." James pouted and Anthea smirked.

"Yes, sir." The personal assistant nodded.

"What about me?" Mary asked. Anthea looked at her blankly.

"What about you?" He asked. She folded her arms across her chest.

"I'm pregnant but I'm not useless." She tried to argue, her face stern. All three looked her up and down and at how heavily pregnant she was. They all wore a face of differing levels of disbelieve.

"Stay here. Wait to see if your husband calls you, and if he does use my parent's landline to call me while you're on the phone." Mycroft still spoke like it was an order but one look at Mary's face and anyone could see she wasn't believing a word of it. "And for God's sake, make sure that Wiggins boy doesn't steal anything."

It is impossible to ever truly get used to the incredible loudness of being in a helicopter. It was like having your ear pressed up to an industrial sized fan, just listening to the thump, thump, thump until your ears burst or your head decided you couldn't stand it anymore and gave you a mammoth size headache. The headgear wasn't protection. Sure, it dulled the noise so you could no longer feel it reverberating in your skull but its major function was to allow communication to the other members of the copter without having to scream. In this case it also allowed cross communication between the helicopters and the units on the ground. If James wanted to reach an agent all he had to do was hit a switch and talk.

Anthea sat in the back of the helicopter with her phone in her hand and a laptop balancing on her lap. She watched through radar as the copters approached Appledore and communicated with air control and James was giving out orders – and warnings – about what to do when they landed, while Carol piloted the giant metal bird. Everyone was busy, everyone was focused. This was the hardest they'd worked in weeks and it was Christmas day.

"There it is." Carol's voice came through the headset sounding tiny and ethereal compared to the earthy sound it usually had. Anthea didn't glance up from her work.

"Wow." James responded in awe. No doubt the expansive white mansion of Appledore coming up on the horizon. "Quite a sight, hey?"

"How much do you think it cost?" Carol asked.

"Your salary, plus my salary, for like a few years, plus Mycroft's salary and freelance income, plus any money we could make from selling tours of Baker Street." James listed making his partner laugh.

"We should look into it." The female agent chuckled. Anthea looked up to glance at the back of their heads. It was strange how well Carol suddenly got along with James while working. Like all those years of having the puppy by her side and she'd trained him and learnt that he needed to be petted from time to time. They were as much partners as she and Mycroft were, as much as John and Sherlock were. Anthea smirked to herself and got back to monitoring. They had only just received permission to be in this airspace. Good thing they hadn't said no with them already there.

They flew above Appledore in no time after that. Though Anthea could not see she could hear Mycroft's voice blasting over the loud speaker as he spoke to Sherlock, John, and Magnussen. Anthea presumed they were outside. James and Carol were deathly silent, much like Anthea herself, as Mycroft spoke. Other agents had landed elsewhere and were approaching towards the house. All the agents were like attack dogs waiting for the order to pounce. Everyone wanted Magnussen taken down. Everyone. Judging by what happened with Richter the agents probably willingly came to this mission. The agents were a close group trained in secrecy and deep bonds. Manipulating one of their members and using them against them was not something they could forgive. That was like asking a Holmes not to hold a grudge.

Bang!

Anthea perked up in the back of the helicopter. She sat, back straight, face pouted, trying to listen against the air whipping around. It was faint but that sounded like a gunshot. Carol gasped – a very bad sign. Anthea closed her laptop.

"Don't fire!" It was Mycroft over the loud speaker and the panic in his voice was so real it almost gave Anthea a heart attack right then and there. The Ice Man didn't panic. The Ice Man rarely lost his cool. "Do not fire on Sherlock Holmes! Do not fire!" She dropped her phone and it clanged against the metallic floor. Anthea's mind began going a mile a minute and her body began to tighten and constrict on itself.

"You heard him!" James yelled fiercely down the headset. "Don't you dare shoot! Don't anyone shoot! This is a direct order; do not even think about shooting!" Anthea jumped out of her seat, stumbling a little from hovering in the air, and ran to the front of the helicopter. She shoved James to the side so she could look out.

Magnussen was dead.

Magnussen's body lay dead on the floor with dark thick blood pooling around it. John Watson was freaking out and Sherlock held his hands up in surrender as agents surrounded them.

Anthea felt sick. She felt like the contents of her stomach along with the organ itself would could spilling out at any moment. She felt like she wanted to tear her stomach out by hand. She'd seen a dead body before. She'd seen horrible things. She'd seen mutilation beyond belief. She'd be a close companion of death for a long time. But this was the worst thing she had ever seen. Not for the gore, not for the impact, but for what it meant.

Sherlock had just shot a man in front of so many people.

Sherlock couldn't be saved by big brother for shooting a man in cold blood.

Sherlock was going to be punished for this and there was nothing that could be done about that.

There are consequences to acts like this.

"Oh no." Anthea felt the water pooling in her eyes. "Oh, no, no, no, no!"

"A." It was Carol. James was working hard, Carol was the one who was watching Anthea out of the corner of her eye as she kept the helicopter afloat. Anthea didn't acknowledge her. She couldn't even hear the loud thumping of the helicopter in her ears anymore. All her sense were fixated on focusing on the sight in front of her. Sherlock Holmes surrendering to a group of agents with a dead body at his feet. Anthea pursed her lips and tried to not let the tears fall from her eyes.

"Oh, Sherlock." She croaked, trying to hold it together. "Oh, Mycroft."

Charles Augustus Magnussen had finally been taken down.

Unfortunately he might have succeeded in taking Mycroft Holmes down with him.

Author's Note: So? What did you think? Was it okay? I'm sorry for the cruel cliff hanger but I don't have time for any more. I hope you enjoyed it though! I think there's some good interactions here. Next chapter will take six or seven days again thanks to this being the last exam week. I hope you understand. Thanks to our guest reviewers; Guests x2, Christie, enola, Francesca Abott, Pink Friday, and Eva's dreaming. Thanks to all my lovely readers – I love you all so much! See you in six to seven days!