The Man With The Umbrella

- 15 -

Amelia appeared before Mycroft, dressed in a jumper and trousers that the hospital graciously provided due to her own clothes having very little use and resolving to have been throw away. She harboured a limp which was closely followed by a single crutch as she shuffled out of the room.

Inspector Lestrade stood with Mycroft at the far end of the corridor, his expression was slightly miffed. Neither of the men noticed Amelia, as of yet, but Amelia did catch a glimpse of the cold indifference that Mycroft had towards the Inspector. She began to understand why people feared the man who obtained an minor position in government. He seemed entirely inhuman.

The Nurse who saw the girl out patted her arm softly before whispering a chaste, "Good luck." And taking her leave. Amelia threw a smile her way. A smile which looked more of a grimace if anything.

"Silence is a virtue, remember, Inspector?" Mycroft looked to Amelia as he heard her shuffle forward. "Hello, Inspector." She greeted with a twitch of her upper lip. He looked to her with pity in his eyes. Amelia laughed a little which was alarming the the both of them considering that it was a cold one. "Lestrade, please, don't pity me. I can't be arsed with it." She stated whilst glancing around the hallway.

Amelia appeared vivacious, in the wrong way. She wanted to shower away the memories temporarily and to pick at the blood and dirt ridden under her chipped fingernails. She wanted to crawl up the bed in the guest bedroom and to have Viola, possibly snuggled and tucked away within her arms.

Lestrade smiled tightly, his eyes were friendly but his frame and how he conducted himself, was as stiff as a board. "Miss Watson." He greeted in a strong broad London accent. "You look in better condition, I must say. I'm glad you're being able to leave here so quickly."

"Please, just call me Amelia... Most of Scotland Yard has seen me in my bra. No need for formalities. It's like Harvard all over again." She begun to correct whilst sliding in the joke and rolling her eyes to put the Inspector at ease. She didn't like being called her maiden name unless it was from the robot of a man who stood beside her. Speaking of which, she felt his eyes burn through her skull at her joke. Calm down, snowman, she thought loudly to herself. "Thank you, by the way. For... Well, the obvious... It seems to be the right thing to say." She spoke whilst thinning her gaze to the floor ahead.

"Just doing my job." He smiled. "I, uh..." He trailed off. Amelia looked to Mycroft then, unsurely. Mycroft looked towards the ceiling with eyes rolling to the back of his skull. "Oh, for God's sake, Inspector. Despite my distaste of the situation wholly, do get on with it." He snapped. Amelia was tempted to smack his arm and tut disapprovingly but she kept it to herself. Lestrade breathed in sharply through his nose. "Yes, Thank you, Mister Holmes."

Amelia took her chance to eye-roll this time, in exhaustion. Yielding a yawn in, with the back of her hand, she spoke: "Boys, please..." She warned in a light manners. "You want to take me to the station, correct? For a statement?" She asked Lestrade, who dumbly nodded at apparent loss. "Right, and afterwards I can leave?"

"Of course, Amelia." He nodded in sympathy. "I may as well do this now whilst I'm still in working order. I make no promises for tears though, Mycroft." She smiled thinly before limping between the pair towards the exit.

***

Lestrade, Mycroft and Amelia sat in a small box room. Lestrade was at one end of the metal table. Mycroft and Amelia were sat on the other end. Both men were patiently waiting for the Watson woman to begin.

Sitting forward, she clasped both her hands together on the table, sniffed once and was overly dependable on the morphine in her system to even speak of the incident. "I got to the front of my flat... Registered that I had forgotten my keys and decided then, to throw a rock... Smashing my window and screaming for him to get down to where I was." Amelia casted her eyes towards the wall just behind the Inspector. "He was, however, behind me and I believe, he drugged me with chloroform after I broke his nose."