Author's Note: Hi guys! Thanks for all the lovely reviews for last chapter. They were so nice. As for this chapter… I have nicknamed this chapter Dialogue: The Chapter. Let it forever be known as so. Let it also be known that I hate Dialogue: The Chapter for how much dialogue it has and so very little description. Dialogue: The Chapter shall haunt me forever. The content is fine, I just think it has too much dialogue. Can you tell? Anyway 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 Someone From Work Knew

"You guys are all smart people who do this way more than I do so I don't need to do the usual briefing. I do have some notes to go over, though." It was the beginning of a very long message from the well-respected lawyer who had been hired to assist Sherlock. His win record was extraordinary despite a few years of very few cases, and he was known for his dedication to his work. He was also known for having gotten on the wrong side of Mycroft Holmes and apparently the right side of Anthea James.

"First of all, Mycroft and I have decided to steer clear of any links of friends and family. If anyone tries to turn the discussion in that direction I want you to shut them down or completely turn it back around. That is a big no no and can only hurt under these circumstances."

"About what to dress. I know, Anthea, but listen anyway." Despite all the work bravado in the lawyer's tone there was a sense of history there. As if he knew much better than to tell Anthea James what to do. "I want you to dress for just another day of work. I want the scary agent and the bored assistant. I want to see two people who are viewed as heartless. I know people like to dress up for court but this is just another day for you guys. You don't really care what happens to my client. We want to play up your reputation so that your suggestions and opinions appear to be based off the benefit of the government and not emotional. James. Okay, James, this is important. You're not Mycroft's friend. Okay? He's not even your boss really. You've only met Sherlock a handful of times. Mention that. I know it's more but most of it was work. Work doesn't count." Only a lawyer would have the courage to speak to an agent like that. "He's just a good detective to you. Anthea, you're Mycroft's assistant and since you deal with his family its okay if you have a bit more of a connection. You see Dr. Watson all the time. You're allowed to show a bit of concern but keep it understated."

"James, Mycroft thinks the best thing from you would be to talk about how Sherlock would benefit that mission they wanted to send him on. He said you have a background in tactical decisions so talk that up when they talk to you. I want you to talk about what happened when he was tracking down Moriarty's people. I looked at those files and… they owe him. Sheesh, Anthea. How do you live with all this all the time?" There it was again, that sense of familiarity. Levity in a serious situation to someone he'd once comfort.

"Anthea. You're you. You do this enough. You know what they'll ask and you know what to say. You know these people better than I do. Hold your friends together for me and you'll do great."

"I'll be there for the first ten minutes but after that I'm not classified enough to sit through any more of it so I can't be there to effect much. I can answer any questions before the meeting, though. Mycroft knows what he's doing and you're both at the top of your fields. If any team was ever going to guarantee a good result it would be you. Well, maybe not a family court case but in this line of work. Whatever happens we will get the best we were ever going to get."

"Long message, I know. Anthea will tell you I always leave these on client's machines so they can listen to them again. I'll see you in a few days. Dress for work – not for court."

Tim Burgess: Lawyer extraordinaire, very thorough, and master at boring people.

They spoke to Mycroft and Tim first. They acted like they were doing Mycroft a favour by letting him in the room during that. They acted like he didn't have power over two thirds of the people in that room. He had every right to be in there and no one would have kicked him out should he have asserted himself in there anyway.

While this was happening Anthea and James waited outside in plush meeting room chairs that had been set up like a weird waiting room. James had acted like it wasn't a problem at all and Anthea hadn't even looked up from her phone once when they were telling her this. She just nodded with a blank expression and kept doing work. Anthea kept the farce of the completely cool and apathetic assistant even when left outside monitored but James let it slip just a little. His leg was constantly tapping, causing their seat to vibrate with every shake.

"Its times like these," James leaned over into Anthea's space so that he could whisper. "That I wonder how I even ended up in this world." Anthea's brow furrowed. She looked up from her phone and met James' expression with a wry smile.

"Times like these?" She repeated. "Not when you're getting shot at?" James shrugged and Anthea sniffed a laugh. It broke the tension and broke James' outwards manifestation of nervousness just a tad.

Then Tim left the meeting, escorted to the exit of the room by one of the less important attendees. The brunette lawyer approached James and Anthea looking as cool as he ever had. His work suited him. He always looked in his element when he was working, like it highlighted all his best features. He held his arms and shrugged his shoulders.

"I've done all I can do." He sounded confident. "Now it's up to you guys." He gestured with a flick of his head to the closed door. "Mostly up to Mycroft." Anthea smiled warmly up at the lawyer from her seated position. If they weren't all working she'd give him an engulfing hug right this instance.

"Thank you, Mr. Burgess." She stayed professional but allowed her tone to convey just how much she appreciated him taking Sherlock's case. Tim shook his head, dismissing it politely.

"I'll call you to talk about it and with my bill."

"Of course, Mr. Burgess."

"Don't flirt with him." James hissed quietly at Anthea. She widened her eyes and nudged him with her elbow.

"I'm not. This is how I talk." James elbowed her back. Tim rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone and switched it back on.

"Talk to you all later."

"Bye."

"Cya."

And then it was just Anthea and James again.

Anthea and James sitting in those seats for eternity. Time passing and staying still at the same time. Like two tramps waiting under a tree. Mycroft was in that meeting alone for the longest time. Anthea had to shift around to sit in a different position multiple times. James' leg twitching increased until he was tapping both legs.

They weren't nervous for their turn to go in, Anthea knew these people and James didn't care. They weren't nervous for what they were going to say. They were nervous for what was happening. They were terrified as to what the people were saying about the whole Magnussen mess. What were they going to do to Sherlock? Was it taking so long because they weren't listening to a word Mycroft was trying to say? Did they have something else in mind? This was never going to be easy but waiting was excruciating. Letting the mind wander is a horrible thing in such scenarios.

"Anthea." Anthea's eyes flickered up from her phone and immediately to the door. Mycroft was standing there by himself, holding it open. He wore a very carefully constructed mask over her face, as did Anthea, so that neither of them even so much as flashed a hint of a smile at each other. Mycroft nodded inside. Anthea and James silently got to their feet. Mycroft held the door open and let them pass him into the meeting room.

The three of them stood in front of the large meeting table. Anthea stood next to Mycroft, pocketing her phone with a bored expression, and James stood next to Anthea with the posture of a perfect soldier. The room was full of men and women that Anthea was aware knew how to smile and laugh but they all wore the same cold expressions. Sombre and quite as they'd ever been. It felt a little like a reading of a will. Gathered for business talk but all in mourning.

"James, for those of you who do not know already, is the talented agent who now is in charge." Mycroft explained in his flat professional tone. James nodded curtly. "And of course, you all know my assistant." Anthea feigned a lazy smile. Some of them made the effort to try and smile back. "To save from any of the confusion that has come with Anthea naming herself after James, today you can call her Anthea instead of Miss James."

"Alright James, you first." Lady Smallwood sounded somewhere between a mother and a strict primary teacher as she spoke. You didn't know whether to be comforted or scared. She placed one of her hands on top of the other on the desk. "Are you willing to use Sherlock Holmes on this mission instead of one of your hand trained agents?" She asked. Judging by the way she spoke the woman held no malice as of right now. That was a good sign. James nodded.

"Yes, ma'am." Like Tim there was always something different about James in work mode. He was focused and calm, not bouncy and busy. "In many areas Sherlock is more skilled than his brother. For a self-trained man that's really impressive." James widened his eyes and tried to fight a smile. It seemed to work in their benefit rather than detriment when one of the older gentlemen seemed to smile at James' reaction alone. "Thanks to the risks involved in this particular case it would take a large burden of my mind and the mind of my second in command to send someone with a success record like Sherlock Holmes rather than one of our agents who we do spend time training and would be wasting." Anthea had to look down at her nails and pick at the polish to stop from wincing. It would be a waste of an agent but it would be a better end for Sherlock. That shouldn't be allowed to settle in.

"Sherlock Holmes is a wild card." One man spoke up. "This event alone proves that he can't be trusted on a mission like the one you want to send him on. Are you willing to make that risk?" James frowned in confusion as he looked at the man.

"No offense, sir, but you don't have much to do with my people, do you?" The tall blonde man suddenly seemed much taller. "A wild card in my line of work means someone that you can't predict their loyalties." James turned to Mycroft and gestured to him. "Mr. Holmes here is a wild card because if he thinks you're in the wrong he'll turn on you. Some of my senior agents used to call him a snake in the grass. Sherlock Holmes has strange methods but you can predict his allegiance without talking to him. It's to his work. If we hire him to do something he'll do it by any means." Lady Smallwood and the man next to her shared a look full of hidden meaning.

"You're very knowledgeable, thank you." Lady Smallwood dismissed James. The agent pulled a face and rubbed the back of his head.

"If you'll excuse me, I have one more thing." A man looked at Mycroft and Mycroft rolled his eyes dramatically. The same way you'd roll your eyes at your friend if a family member was being annoying. He was playing their side, and it was clever. Of course it was clever, it was Mycroft.

"Sherlock Holmes, when we brought him back after two years of service to us, none of you people assigned him any sort of transitional therapy." James explained. "See, when I spent two months undercover I was given free psych visits. When my wife was held hostage you all bent over backwards to make sure she was okay. Sherlock…" James stopped and exhaled. He looked over at Mycroft with a pained expression. Mycroft quirked an eyebrow and James turned back to the table. "You all threw him back to work. He spent two years finding threats connected to Moriarty and eliminating them and then came right back to London with no transition. So aren't we to blame that he did the same thing here?" James looked around the table. "Sherlock was hired by someone influential to deal with Magnussen. Sherlock saw that the only way to stop Magnussen, fulfil what the client had hired him to do, and protect his friends and family was by eliminating the treat. Exactly what we have had him doing. If sending him on this mission instead of to jail elevates the pain for him just a bit, don't we really owe him that?"

A pause.

One man chuckled.

"Mr. Holmes wasn't lying when he told us you'd grow into that position." James blinked.

"Oh." He blanched. "Thank you, sir." James the agent, so used to Carol and Mycroft that he's put off by compliments. If Anthea could she'd grin at him right now.

"Well, Anthea?" Anthea perked up, pretending to finally be paying attention, at the sound of her name. She found that it was the oldest gentleman towards the back who'd spoken it and she smiled politely at him. "What do you make of all this?" Anthea licked her bottom lip and tucked a stray curl behind her ear.

"Honestly, sir," She sighed. "I'm both disgusted and not at all surprised that even in death Magnussen has us all scurrying like ants. It's like one last power play."

"Don't you have a bias in this situation?" One person asked.

"Working for Mr. Holmes and loathing Charles Augustus Magnussen?" Anthea furrowed her brow and nodded. "Absolutely." She figured honesty on that part was worth it. "I've never pretended to like him and I've spent a lot of time babysitting Sherlock and Doctor Watson."

"Then why should we listen to you?"

"You don't have to." Anthea pouted her lip, keeping the shadowy assistant right at the forefront at all times. "You can disregard anything I say." She sounded light, sarcastic, and a tinge bored. Perfect. "I have an emotional connection to Sherlock but I also have a professional opinion."

"And that would be?" There Lady Smallwood was again, using the stern but caring teacher voice. It would be a terrifying tactic for Carol to learn to use. Anthea chewed on her lip and looked up at the ceiling. She had to put this perfectly. She had to find a way to express this in a way that these people would understand.

"We know people like Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes, James Moriarty, and Charles Magnussen are rare. They don't come around often." She looked around the table. "And to all of us in this room these special people are valuable tools and weapons. We utilise them wherever we can." Anthea clenched her jaw and took a deep breath. "Sherlock is an extremely valuable tool. We should use him at least one more time before we toss him in the bin. We're running out of supercomputers." The words felt wrong and bitter on her tongue. She wanted to scowl and to brush her teeth but she kept that laidback expression plastered on her face. She didn't even think she could bring herself to look at Mycroft right now.

"But Miss," The elder gentleman spoke. "You must admit that your boss, with all due respect, has a good reason to be biased despite what he says?" Anthea looked over at Mycroft, a glimmer of humour in her eyes, and sniffed a laugh for the benefit of the people in the room.

"My boss, sir, once told me that the information on my phone was more valuable than my life." She smiled. "Some of it even more important than his." Part of her loved that no one in the room looked surprised. Another part of her was annoyed that most of these people had known Mycroft longer than Anthea had an none of them seemed to see through the façade or question it slightly.

"I think we've hear enough, now." Lady Smallwood addressed the people in the room. "If you don't mind, I have a few questions I would like to ask Anthea privately before we consider our options." She addressed Mycroft only rather than the whole room with this one. At first he seemed mildly surprised, eyebrows perked and eyes reflecting. Then he pursed his lips and nodded to the Lady. With a flick of the wrist he gestured to the door. The rest of the room's occupants stood up, chairs scraping and shuffling, and made their way to the door. James followed behind them with Mycroft leaving last. He offered a fake smile to both the women in to room and closed the door behind him.

Silence.

Anthea took a sharp inhale.

The woman had a curt smile plastered on her lips. She tapped lightly on the chair next to her, asking or commanding Anthea to sit. Like the good assistant to Mycroft Holmes she was, Anthea did just that. She sat down, hands folded together in her lap. The room seemed smaller now than it had before.

"You're very good at your job, Miss James." Anthea pushed the hair out of her face.

"Thank you, Lady Smallwood." A trained response coming promptly out of her mouth.

"Naturally then, you understand that everyone here knows how good at deception you are." She said it like a compliment, so Anthea took it as one. She looked to the side of the room and tilted her head, communicating that she thought she was okay at it. "And you have more than one reason to lie for Mycroft's sake, don't you?" Anthea turned straight back to meet Lady Smallwood in the eyes. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up like a warning.

"Other than him being my boss and Sherlock being almost a friend?" Anthea asked, playing as dumbfounded as she could. Lady Smallwood looked past Anthea, a hint of tiredness and annoyance on her features.

"More than that." She continued to use that teacher voice. Anthea chewed on her bottom lip as she pretend to be confused and thinking.

"We are friends. I've known him such a long time now I think we'd be lying if we said we weren't friends." Anthea scratched at the bridge of her nose. The look of being tired with the scenario increased on Lady Smallwood's face.

"Please don't play dumb, Miss Clarke." She sighed. Anthea visibly flinched. "You're a very intelligent girl and stupid isn't a good colour on you." Anthea felt herself straighten in her seat.

"I'm sorry, Lady Smallwood," She spoke quietly. "I have no idea what you are talking about." The tired look was replaced with something kinder as she tilted her head.

"Miss Clarke, I've known Mycroft since he started his career. The changes in him since you've been around, and definitely in the last few years, are obvious to anyone willing to look." Anthea's fingernails began to dig into the palm of her hand. She held her ground.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Much like how you know who hired Sherlock to look into Magnussen, I know why Mycroft has changed." Anthea didn't look down. She wanted to but she held Lady Smallwood's eye. She looked like she was being kind by these people were deceitful.

"Sherlock Holmes once told me that correlation doesn't mean causation so if you're trying to imply something without proof you could be wrong." Her words were calm and steady and didn't at all reflect the beat of her heart at that precise moment. Lady Smallwood smiled as she pulled her chair closer to Anthea.

"Miss Clarke, I'm in many of the same circles as Mycroft." Anthea watched her carefully. "I hope you don't misunderstand me. You are both very professional people and Mycroft deserves stability so I, and everyone who knows or thinks they know, have no intentions of implying some wrong doing is being done. I just need to question your credibility here." Finally Anthea looked away. She let her head drop forward so that her curls could fall in front of her face. She took a deep and prepared herself for the best way to tackle this new direction. This wasn't about her.

"Look, okay." Anthea sighed looking back up. A natural pout was on her lips as she let her concern show. "I won't lie to you, I worry about what this is doing to Mycroft, but I know no matter what he'll get through it. You don't know how stubborn he is until you've tried to get him to take something for his migraine." She earned herself a light chuckle from the Lady. "All personal beliefs and values aside, I believe that London is a far better place with Sherlock Holmes in it." Anthea said with all the passion she had. "Him and Doctor Watson, they…" Anthea trailed off. She shook her head, unable to put her words together in just the right way. "I don't want to live in a world where people like you and mean have no one to turn to when people like Magnussen threaten them and the people they love."

Lady Smallwood looked down at the table, hiding her face from Anthea's view. Anthea watched silently, perfectly still. She had no idea whether this was a good reaction or a bad reaction as far as she was concerned. She only knew better than to push it any further.

"Thank you, Miss Clarke." Lady Smallwood looked back at and dismissed Anthea with her polite teacher-mother tone. "Please send my colleagues back in. That includes our Mr. Holmes."

"Right away."

Author's Note: How was it? I hope you enjoyed Dialogue: The Chapter. Despite there being a lot of dialogue, each line was chosen very carefully. Let me know what you think! Thanks to our guest reviewers: Christie, Guest, B, and Guesswho. Thanks to all my reviewers. You know how much I love you all. See you in five days with another update that WILL NOT be a sequel to the one-hit wonder: Dialogue: The Chapter. Yes, I do plan to run that into the ground. It's funny and appropriately shares my disdain. Also Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.