Author's Note: So much fantastic feedback last chapter, guys! I'm so pleased you really enjoyed it, I thought it was fitting for chapter 20 :). The star of the show seemed to be the Van Gogh painting poster. Thank you so much for the fantastic support for this story and I'm so glad you're all still enjoying it as much as I am. Here's a nice long (by my standard) chapter. Please continue to 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.

His First Injury

Anthea jumped, freezing mid text, as the tapping on the rear car window caught her off guard. She'd been sitting in the car for a good half an hour now with only Walter in the front as company and had not expected anyone to disturb a black car with tinted windows. Looking out the window she relaxed at the sight of James, all decked out in his agent gear, hand over his eyes trying to peer in. He must know that only she was in the back, otherwise he wouldn't do something so… unbecoming? Is that the Mycroft-like word she's looking for? Locking her phone and putting it in the breast pocket of her jacket she slowly – as to not knock James onto the floor – opened the car door and letting herself out.

"There she is!" James beamed as Anthea gracefully slid from the car, a kind smile on her face. "I was starting to think they'd let you inside." She was expecting to be pulled into a hug, judging by that cheesy grin, but she supposed the fact that they were both presumably at work as Mycroft's PA and a special operative that it would probably tarnish both of their reputations. She now noticed another agent standing next to James, peering at the building across the street. She was a tall and muscular woman with sharp features that made her seem so terrifying and harsh. Anthea remember her from that failed mission where the defect had blown himself up. She had been very annoyed at the failure but Anthea remembered her being polite, not as scary as she seemed. Mycroft said Anthea should have known that by the care taken into her hair and nails – that showed a gentle undertone apparently.

"No, of course not." Anthea rolled her eyes at James. "Very hush hush all that stuff." Tilting his head towards her and lowering his tone, a mocking smile on his face.

"But you'll hear all about it later."

"Yeah, but they don't need to know that." The lady agent made a low sound in her throat that sounded like a stifled laugh. James flickered his sight onto the other agent, his eyes widening.

"Ah, sorry Carol, you remember…" A pause as James scratched the back of his head. "Ah, what did Mr. Holmes call her in front of you?" Not taking her eyes off the building across the street, Carol smiled gently.

"He called her Amy." James grinned in response.

"Ah, great. Another 'A' name. Makes it easy for me, so far I can just call you 'A' in front of all my colleagues and they'll be none the wiser." Anthea rolled her eyes at James, also turning to look at the building.

"I'm pretty sure Mr. Holmes does that so you don't have to sprain your brain trying to keep track of things." She mumbled, earning a display of fake betrayal and hurt from James. Anthea chuckled. That wasn't true, of course. Anthea usually chose her own names for people but when Mycroft chose a name it usually meant something. He'd chosen Amy for that particular mission of sniffing out the rat. "Hi Carol."

"Good afternoon 'A'." Her tone was professional but she was smiling.

"So why are you guys here?" Anthea asked as she pulled out her phone and resumed her texting from where she left off.

"There's more than one important person in there talking about whatever they're talking about. There's a few of us on each street surrounding the place." As Anthea finished off her text she pursed her lips and shrugged at James.

"I suppose that's important." She sighed, locking her phone once again and putting it away. A silence passed for a good ten minutes as they continued to watch the building.

"So how's the boyfriend?" James lightly asked, kicking the pavement.

"James." Anthea sighed.

"James." Carol warned. James' hands were shoved into his pocket.

"I'm just asking. Making small talk with a friend while we watch the exterior of a building that we had already swept and have fantastic guard on. What's wrong with that?" Carol sighed and shook her head. Apparently the lady couldn't argue. Anthea rolled her eyes. At least it was 'the boyfriend' and not 'the lawyer'.

"He's great, James." She sighed.

"And the husband? As pedantic as ever?" Anthea's chocolate eyes shot up to meet his, her brows frowning. Carol whacked him in the chest.

"Hang on, the man's not around. No one's getting fired." James spoke defensively.

"His eyes are in the car and his ears are next to us, James. You know him well enough to know everything gets back to him." Oh, so Anthea was getting a reputation, best play up to it in order to keep it. She folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow quite poignantly. James pulled a face at her.

"Hey, I'm not trying to insult the guy, he's alright, I like working with him. Can't I just do some light teasing between friends?"

"Not of Mycroft Holmes to Mycroft Holmes' assistant and in the presence of his driver." Carol sighed.

"And not during work." Anthea added. James slightly fell into himself, hands still in his pockets, shoulders raised almost to his ears.

"I do like him." James spoke quietly.

"I know James. He likes your work ethic." James slightly relaxed.

"I've worked hard to get into his favour, I don't want to ruin it by a joke." Anthea sighed inwardly to herself.

"I know James, that's why he respects your work ethic."

"Well," James kicked the pavement again. "Good." Carol shook her head and Anthea chuckled.

Suddenly a man was jumping out of a second story window and landing in the bushes. Anthea cocked her head to the side with a frown and James stepped forwards.

"Hey Carol, did you see what I just saw?" He asked slowly.

BOOM

Time seemed to fall into slow motion as the ground rumbled and the loud noise came directly from the building they were watching. Anthea could feel her heart beating in her throat as Walter got out from the car, a gun already in his hand. James and Carol hand a hand within the jackets, placed on holsters, as they surveyed the area. The man leapt from the bushes and began sprinting for his life down the street. Walter tapped Carol on the shoulder.

"Let's go." He yelled and the two of them began sprinting in the direction of the fleeing man. If Anthea was thinking clearly she may have or may not have been surprised at Walter's fitness. As it were however, she was staring off after them and didn't even register James talking on a radio transmitter.

That noise, she'd heard it before. It sounded like that one from the failed mission with the copper pipes. If that was the case, then…

"Mr. Holmes." She muttered, blinking a few times as wide chocolate eyes fell onto James' eyes. He was looking at her frantically.

"Alice." He was saying her real name. Anthea had almost forgotten he'd met her before she was Anthea. He must have been trying to get her attention. "Al, the building." Blinking once more Anthea nodded.

"Right." She began sprinting to the building. Though starting a moment later James soon caught up and passed her on the way to the front door, pulling out his weapon.

Once in the entrance to the building both James and Anthea stopped to observe the light layer of dust that had been freshly lain on the wooden floor. James wiped his shoe along the ground lifting the dust up as Anthea looked up at the white ceiling, having a feeling that's where it fell from.

"From the roof?" She asked.

"Very light. Must have been a low grade explosion then." James mumbled. He and Anthea's dark eyes locked.

"Shrapnel?" She asked, her training coming to mind. James' mouth pulled tight and his frown deepened as he began rushing to the stairs up to the second floor. Anthea followed right behind him. Once they reached their destination, as quickly as possibly it might be noted, James cursed at the keypad next to the door.

"I'll have to try and blow off the hinges or maybe we can knock it down." Anthea could hear the footsteps of two other agents coming behind them. They must have been from one of the other streets. Panicking, Anthea stood in front of the door and waved her hands.

"Wait, wait, wait, James! I should know the code to this. If I was brought along that means I know the code to it." As she spoke Anthea tried to calm her voice down, she could hear it shaking slightly. She had always been so good at keeping her calm in tough situations and Mr. Holmes would chastise her for that if he knew how obvious she was being right now about her panic. James shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"What is it then?" Fighting the urge to jump up and down, Anthea waved James off with a frown and turned to face the keypad.

"Just give me a minute, okay?" Her voice steadied as she shook out her hands. Ok, the code, the code. Anthea always had specific names for missions, ones she didn't pick but Mycroft did. She remembered the first time he did it she laughed and quoted Romeo and Juliet.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…" She'd given him a crooked smile as he rolled those vibrant blue eyes.

"A lot of secrets can be hidden in a name, my dear."

Okay, so her name for every mission involving the leaked secrets she had been Amy. Amy dealt with these people and often within the walls of this building. She quickly looked back at James and the two other agents standing behind them, watching them as she thought.

Alright, that's a start, the name is Amy. The 'A' is what is to be subtracted from the other numbers, so minus 1. Got it. 'M' was the thirteenth letter, so 12. 'Y' is the twenty-fifth so 24. Slowly she turned back to the keypad, trying not to let the agents see as she took a deep breath and made sure her hand was steady as she raised it to the keypad.

1224.

Ding.

Thank you!

Apparently this shrapnel bomb had been poorly made in comparison to the previous one. The state of the room was worse for ware, certainly, with a few holes and many scratches in the wall, furniture knocked over and there was certainly a bit of blood on the people that could be seen at the moment but just a glance around the room made it clear that if they weren't right in front of the bomb no one would have died – particularly if they had gotten behind some of the sturdier furniture. This guy was a complete amateur compared to the traitor and this made Anthea relax slightly. As soon as that registered a fire lit behind her dark eyes and she began looking for Mr. Holmes.

"Mr. Holmes?" She called out in the calmest fashion she could manage. She heard James say something to the other agents about leaving Mycroft to her and finding everyone else while he called for medical and back up.

She walked lightly around the room careful not to disturb anything as she looked. It was quiet, someone to the left started coughing, the person next to her moaned but there was no time for them. She didn't work for them. "Mr. Holmes?" She called again. Then she saw him, face first on the ground and she sprinted. "Mycroft!" She called out as she fell to her knees. Trying once again to fight that rising panic she gingerly rolled him onto his back. The blood on his face shocked her more than it should have. She'd seen people bleed more than that before but seeing Mycroft's blood fall from his hairline into his eyebrow freaked her out. She placed her fingers to his neck and counted silently. His pulse was perfectly fine from what she could tell. She let out a heavy yet shaky breath. Carefully Anthea gave Mr. Holmes' shoulders a light shake. "Mr. Holmes? Mycroft? I really need you to open your eyes, Myc. Come on, please." And just light that steel blue eyes shuddered open and Anthea couldn't help but smile and let out a single laugh in relief.

"'nthea?" He mumbled before shutting his eyes tightly and wincing. Hmm, that slurred speech was a little bit of a worry. Anthea frowned but tried to keep the smile.

"Yes, sir, hi." She said lightly. He kept his eyes closed. "Look, Mr. Holmes? I need you to pay attention. Mycroft, look at me." Blue eyes lazily flickered open again.

"Mmm?"

"Listen Mycroft, I need you to sit up so we can make sure you're okay. Alright, sir?" She asked, already placing an arm under his shoulder to help pull him into a seating position. He pulled himself up quickly into a seating position only to almost topple over forward, a hand reaching out onto Anthea's shoulder to steady himself.

"Feeling sick?" She asked, gaining a small head nod in response. That's not good either, the chances of a concussion were adding up. Subconsciously rubbing Mr Holmes on the shoulder in sympathy as he clutched to hers, Anthea looked him over a good five times. There seemed to be blood from nowhere else, that's at least something.

"Does anything else hurt, sir?" A pause. No answer. She tapped his shoulder lightly. "Myc, does anything hurt?" He took a deep breath as he looked up, looking exhausted, and shook his head lightly.

"Don't think so. Just my head." He mumbled. Very gently she pushed his hair out of the way to look for the cut near the hairline. She found the gash probably caused by shrapnel, it would definitely need stitches but if that's all there was it would be fine.

"Yeah I'm not surprised, sir." She sighed, she pulled her hand away and wiped the blood off on her dress. "You'll need some stitches, I think."

"Mmm," He agreed, closing his eyes. "Great." Any other situation Anthea would have sniffed a laugh at that response.

"No, sir, Mycroft, I need you to look at me." He opened his eyes wide, blinked a few times then looked at Anthea. His pupils were the same size in those slightly dulled eyes, so that was a good sign.

"Sir, can you recall what happened?"

"Why are you here?" He mumbled, looking around the room. "You're supposed to be safe in the car." Anthea took a deep breath in.

"Sir?"

"With Walter." A blink. "Did he let you up here?"

"Mycroft." His gaze fell back onto Anthea. "He's fine, I'm fine. What happened?" A dirtied hand came up to rub his forehead, Anthea carefully pulled it away before he could damage.

"I don't know." He frowned and Anthea could see his mind desperately trying to fight through the fog. "Can't recall, 'm sorry, dear." Yep, definitely a concussion. That meant at the very least he'd need someone to keep an eye on him. Someone when he lived in that big empty house all alone.

"Yeah that's fine. No problem, we'll work it out later, okay sir?" Anthea sighed, placing her hand back on Mycroft's shoulder as he rested his chin on his hand. James had returned to the room. She caught his eye and he gave her a thumbs up. Whether that meant the man had been caught, or medics were on their way, or just everything was fine she didn't know. She kind of hoped it was all of them. "We're just going to stay here, perfectly still until the medics arrive." And then she could call Sherlock.

Mr. Holmes had been swiftly taken to the medics as soon as they arrived with Anthea right on his tail the whole time. He got five stitches in his hairline and it had been confirmed that Mr. Holmes had a concussion. The doctor was certain that Mr. Holmes either had a bruised or a cracked rib but despite anything the doctor or Anthea could say, Mr. Holmes refused to be taken to the safe house for further examination. Even in his foggy state Mr. Holmes had been adamant that there was nothing they could do for such a thing so why should he waste time going to the safe house. All they would do is tell him to take painkillers and he needed to do that anyway. It was with deep reluctance that Anthea had agreed to take Mr. Holmes home on the terms that she could schedule an X-Ray for the following day. The doctor took a little bit of handling to agree to these terms – what with the risk of complications – but eventually he did.

Anthea had called Sherlock once the concussion was confirmed and it was stated that Mr. Holmes would need observation overnight. The younger Holmes had pried for every little detail of what Anthea knew had happened and what the doctors had said. Although it was with an extremely heavy sigh, Sherlock very quickly agreed to meet Anthea and Mycroft at Mycroft's house. Good, that meant someone would be home with him in that place. She wondered how much Mr. Holmes would appreciate Sherlock there, but it was absolutely the best option. At least Sherlock thought very similarly to him, and brothers were allowed to bully each other into things such as resting. Yes, this was a good option.

Anthea looked up from her phone to see Mr. Holmes leaning against the window on his side of the town car with his eyes shut. The panic rose in her throat but she quickly pushed it down. Still…

"Mr. Holmes." She called out. No response. "Mycroft, sir."

"Mmm?" Anthea relaxed slightly. She pocketed her blackberry away and watched her boss carefully.

"Sir, don't fall asleep, please." Mr Holmes sunk down in his chair, raising his eyebrows but not opening his eyes like she'd asked. Openly defiant, Anthea was starting to see what Violet Holmes had meant when she said both boys were a handful.

"You do know that's a myth, my dear." He mumbled. "Really, you only have to check to see if they have slipped into a coma." Anthea snorted, looking out her window with a shake of her head before looking back at her snoozing boss. He was carefully not leaning on those stitches. Anthea felt a pang of something.

"Still, I'd rather you not slip into a coma on my watch, sir. Let Sherlock deal with it." Anthea was rewarded with a snort and Mycroft pulling himself back up slightly in his seat. He winced as he did so, causing Anthea to bite the inside of her lip.

"I might actually do that." He smirked, tired eyes opening and catching hold of Anthea's dark orbs. "Give him a bit of pay back." Anthea quirked and eyebrow as she observed him. She couldn't tell whether he was joking or serious. She shook her head and looked out the front window.

"Well, good, as long as you stay awake for me, sir. Let's talk about something."

"Ugh small talk how derivative." He took a deep breath, leading to another wince, and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, what?" At least he was beginning to talk better, that was something. Anthea shrugged and earned herself a scoff. She bit her lip, suddenly shot for something to talk about. Everything just felt so trivial and unimportant after today.

"I'll tell you one thing, sir." She turned to look at him. "I hate the name Amy and I'm never using again. Not on children, not on pets, nothing." Blinking widely to fight the urge to shut his eyes, Mycroft pursed his lips and hummed.

"What's in a name?" He quoted mockingly. Anthea looked at him fiercely, fire behind her dark eyes.

"Don't start on me, sir." Mycroft chuckled and looked out the window.

"I don't understand but I'll accept it. It doesn't suit you anyway." Silence as he watched the passing trees and Anthea watched him. "The name you chose suits you far better anyway." He yawned. "Anthea means flower like and James as a Christian name means to follow." Anthea couldn't help the tiny smile that pulled on either side of her lips.

"So I'm the flower that follows you?" She asked. She got nothing but a pull of the mouth in response as he shut his eyes again. A moment of silence passed as Anthea pulled out her phone again to send a text.

Hey Tim. Can't catch up tonight, something big happened at work today and I'm really not in the mood to come over. Hope you understand – A.

"Alice means noble." Anthea almost choked on air as she pressed the send button.

"Oh well, that's not me." She laughed.

"And Clarke without your 'e' on the end means clerk or cleric." Anthea laughed louder.

"Like a priest? I'm a noble priest! That's hilarious." She grinned. Her phone pinged.

Yeah that's ok, I'll see you Sunday. Sure you don't want me to come over and talk? I have time x. – Tim.

Anthea bit her lip. No, she really didn't want to talk to him. She'd call Jamie and listen to her talk about complete nonsense, like her last bad date or a fictional character she's recently fallen in love with.

No, I just need to relax. Cya Sunday x. – A.

She put her phone away in her pocket.

"So if I'm a noble priest of a flower that follows, what are you?" Mycroft's eyebrow raised and Anthea guessed that if his eyes were open he would have rolled them.

"Something about a river and a field opening. All very ridiculous stuff, really." He waved her off. Anthea giggled as they pulled up in front of Mr. Holmes' front door.

Anthea got out of the car swiftly in order to rush over to Mycroft's side in case he needed any help. Naturally the man was adamant that he was perfectly fine other than letting Anthea hold his umbrella for him. However once they reached the front door, between Mycroft's haze and Anthea's shock, fumbling around trying to find the right key between the two of them was becoming quiet unsuccessful. Anthea was about to go ask Walter while Mycroft was now trying to locate his phone in order to call security when the front door was snatched open to reveal a bored and fed up looking Sherlock Holmes staring at the two as if they were disturbing his peace. Mycroft smiled at his brother as he smoothed down his suit.

"Ah, brother mine." He sung. "So nice to see you when the shoe is on the other foot for once." Sherlock took a deep breath and looked off into the distance.

"Well, I can't turn down an opportunity to prove I'm not the only one who gets myself in ridiculous situations that can easily be avoided." Bright blue eyes fiercely locked on to steel blue. Once again Anthea felt like the invisible observer. Mycroft faked a mocking smile.

"At least I get paid to get into my situations, unlike you who sometimes pays to get into them." Sherlock rolled his eyes and stepped out of the doorway.

"For God's sake Mycroft, go sit down and shut up before I slip something into your tea." Mycroft laughed lightly as to not cause any pain and walked past Sherlock. Anthea held out the umbrella which Sherlock stared at for a moment before taking.

"Don't drug him too much, I need to get him to a doctor tomorrow."

"I can't make any promises." The door shut in her face. Anthea didn't know whether to sigh or to laugh as she shrugged and shook her head. He turned around and walked back to the town car, sliding into the back. She shut the door, put on her seatbelt and rested her head in a similar fashion to what Mr. Holmes had done before, feeling suddenly utterly exhausted.

"To the office or to your home, Miss James?" Walter asked. Anthea pulled herself up and looked through the rear view mirror to look at Walter's warm eyes.

"My car's at the office." She sighed, trying to fake a smile at the driver. "And I need to do a few things first."

"Sure thing, Miss James." Anthea pulled out her phone to look at tomorrow's schedule in order to start mentally rearranging it. With a frown on her face, she regarded Walter in the rear view mirror once more.

"You weren't kidding when you said you had training like I had to do." Anthea's voice was filled with suspicious. Walter gave a gentle chuckle.

"I told you about the upstart kid the bigwigs had called a genius and claimed he didn't need a hard copy of anything once it had been told to him." Walter's eyes were briefly taken off the road to look at Anthea in the mirror. "Do you think they were going to let just anyone drive him around?" Raising her eyebrows and sighing, Anthea went back to her phone.

"No, I suppose not."

Mr. Holmes froze by the coat rack, umbrella still tightly in hand, when he saw Anthea at her desk the next morning. She flashed him a smile as she typed on her computer.

"Good morning, sir." She said in the same tone she would if it were any normal day and she were entering his office with a cup of tea. The wound on his head still looked painful but he'd still done his hair neatly back.

"What are you doing here before me?" His tone was careful as he spoke, frown still on his long features. Anthea tucked a curl behind her hair.

"I had a lot of work to do this morning sir." She pulled up the schedule on the computer and swivelled in her chair to be facing Mycroft. "I have cancelled or rescheduled many of today's meetings until tomorrow or later in the week. We only have two still standing, both over by lunch. I have filled in and filed all the paper work needed right now regarding yesterday but the agents will need to speak to you by Friday. Oh, and we have an X-ray scheduled at two pm and then you can go home for the day, sir. The doctor said to take it easy, after all." She folded her fingers together, placing her hands on the desk and smiled politely as Mycroft regarded her carefully. She could not read the perplexed look on his face. She frowned and leant forward. "Sir, are you alright?" She asked. A pause before Mycroft turned to the coat rack, placed the umbrella down and took off his coat. Anthea could see him fighting the need to wince in pain as he took off his coat. She hoped he was taking decent pain killers.

"There are multiple responses I could have to your initiative, Miss James. In my not completely clear mind I am having trouble choosing the appropriate response." Anthea relaxed in her chair.

"What are they, sir?"

"For one, I could commend you for your efforts and thank you." Anthea smiled as blue eyes watched her. "Another option is to remind you that I do not like to have important decisions made without my consent unless infeasible." She could argue that he wasn't one hundred percent and that's why she took away his input but he probably already knew that. "The final one is," He gestured to himself up and down with his left hand. "Anthea, I am still in once piece." Taken aback, Anthea cleared her throat and nodded. She looked down, untucked the hair behind her ear and turned back to her computer.

"Yes, I know, sir. I just want to make sure you stay that way. Sorry."

"You did nothing wrong, my dear." He said as he began walking to his office. "It's merely that creatures like me, we can smell fear." Anthea laughed.

Yes, and she probably still stunk of it.

Author's Note: So, what did you think? It was certainly a pleasure to write for you so I hope you enjoyed it. Once again I shall take the time to thank the guest reviewers. Thank you to Corrine, Guest, Wink, Wheezzy8, and since you didn't log in and I couldn't thank you there thanks to bunnyrabbit100 also. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!

PS: I've been wanting to create a character 'ask' blog on Tumblr for ages now and since I've kind of gained an affinity with Anthea I started one for her based on her personality here. If you're interested and want to ask her anything past of future, feel free to find the link on my profile, if not ignore and continue to enjoy the fic as it is priority number one and that's only a little bit of fun :).